Stripped Down for Parts: Somalia: Interventions

  

Somalia: Interventions (Schutze Games, 1998) marks a couple of firsts for me. It’s my first game from Australian publisher Schutze Games, and it’s my first printed by on-demand manufacturer (and game publisher in their own right), Blue Panther. This is also my first print-on-demand (POD) wargame; I’ve bought and seen lots of POD RPG books over the years and seen the quality of the finished product increase exponentially. At first blush, Somalia Interventions feels like an early production game. There’s nothing drastically wrong with the game (okay, one thing, not too drastic, that I’ll discuss when I get to it); it just feels a little homespun. I feel like I can say this because I’m just embarking on my own print-and-play journey, but that’s another story.

There aren’t too many games dealing with the collapse of Somalia as a nation in the early 1990s, though, to be fair, there are a few dealing with the US-lead intervention at a tactical level, notably last year’s The MOG: Mogadishu 1993 (White Dog Games, 2023), also printed by Blue Panther. State collapse isn’t a new phenomenon, but it does seem to be more prevalent that it was fifty or sixty years ago, or maybe its just that with modern communications and news broadcasters’ insatiable hunger for new content, we just here about them more often and more emphatically.

Before we continue, I should note that copy I’m looking at is second-hand. It’s seen better days, with some chips to the box, covers and a little compression damage, and the contents had obviously been reviewed, but the counters were unpunched (mostly) and the rules un-besmirched. Personally, I’ve never been too bothered if a game’s box is a little roughed-up; if the contents are still in good order, the cover has done its job.

The game at hand was designed by Brian Train. Mr Train is no stranger to modern conflicts (just check out his game output), so that was recommendation enough to drop some hard-earned cash on this game.

The Cover illustration represents the belligerents, UN forces on the top-half, and Somali “bandits” below, with the game title separating them. As a rule, I don’t like mixing fonts in title pieces, but in this case, it works quite well.

The description on he back of the box states clearly what t expect, “a high-level simulation of several key periods in the recent history of Somalia.  The back also offers some sample counter-art (but no map samples). It offers an accurate list of the components. And advises that the game’s complexity is low-to-medium, solitaire suitability is average, the game can take from two to twenty hours to complete, the map scale is regional (strictly speaking, point-to-point movement) unit sizes are irregular (this is addressed more clearly in the rules), and the turn duration is in terms of months (again irregular).

The box itself is solidly constructed and one-inch deep. It does what it sets out to do. The lid is also printed on all side facings, which I understand isn’t a given from all Blue Panther-produced games (I’m thinking here of the Hollandspiele games I’ve seen with just a front and back cover label pasted to a plain black box).

The Rules: Clear and concise.

The rules are printed on double-letter sized sheets of paper and centre-stapled, which is perfectly fine for an eight-page rulebook (though it's worth noting the actual rules only cover abut five pages). Like a lot of Mr Train’s games, the rules are quite light and well-conveyed. From what I’ve read, I’d peg the game as closer to Easy than Moderate, though there are some concepts and assumptions that may be new to traditional hex-and-counter gamers. But don’t let the brief rules quotient fool you; this promises to be deeply challenging game for both sides, as asymmetric situations often are, and difficult strategic nut to crack.

The Rulebook in this edition of the game is marked version 1.7, with a 2010 copyright date. It includes the foundation scenario sketched out in the rules as well s two historical scenarios prepared by Peter Schutz, covering the rise of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006 and its challenge to the standing government, and the subsequent civil war in the country.

"Operation: Sword of Dubya" additional scenario (practically another game altogether).

While the game was originally published in 1998, Mr Train revisited Somalia: Interventions in the early 2002 with the inclusion of new four-page folio called Sword of Dubya. He explains in the Introduction that at the beginning of the War on Terror, it was generally believed that Al-Queda had deep connections in Somalia and that the country would be an early target of US intervention.

The scenario changes the time scale from a month in the regular game down to a few days to a week (reflecting the faster and more focussed nature of anti-terrorist activities – humanitarian operations giving way to on-the-ground intelligence and surgical strikes – and uses only the pre-existing components, with only the US forces and bandit groups being used.

Player Aid Card.

One copy of the Player’s Aid Card is included in the game. If I had to pick a favourite component, this would be it. It’s useful, attractive (simple illustrations but quite evocative), with a muted colour palette, and it provides all the tables you’ll need that aren’t already on the board. The PAC is single sided, and offers the crucial Random Events Table, Development Mission Table, a detailed Flush Procedure (for weeding out pesky bandits), and a Victory Points Table to assist in the running tablature of VPs for both sides. The PAC is printed on a slightly light cardstock but it perfectly serviceable, with a nice low-satin finish that dispenses with any issues of glare.

Map of Somalia, It took e a little while to get used to the fancy lettering on the location
names, but it's quite evocative and adds to the versimilitude of the game.

The map is an 11” by 17” rendering of Somalia, marked out with access roads to the country’s major population centres, and delineated by a Famine Line separating the northern-most part of the country, from the northwestern-most extents of the nation to the Horn of Africa. The map sheet also incorporates a Negotiation Track for each bandit factions‘ posture, a Raid/Ambush/Flush Table, a combined VP and Turn Record track (with the Seasonal Interphase turns helpfully marked) and holding boxes for unallocated units of both sides.

The map is printed on a slightly heavier cardstock than the PAC. It has a light centre score mark to facilitate folding to fix in the box, but it’s actually been gently rolled as to not crease the map unduly (this is probably a good thing, because the crease runs exactly through the first line of the Raid/Ambush/Flush Table). The result is a nicer looking map, but I’ll have to play with it under plexi to flatten the bowing in the centre. Not a really an issue, but it was worth noting.

The counter-sheet (with escapee counters contained).

The counters themselves are fairly simple (reminiscent of the old SPI counters), they still look quite good and they do the job, conveying clearly everything you need to know in game terms, and the sheet is single-sided (no need to flip counters in this game, just placement and removal), the counter registration is off by about 2mm; the print doesn’t quite match the die-cut to the tune of about 2mm. This is my one criticism of the whole game. I may be wrong, but it appears the printed sheet may have been placed in the die-cutter upside down, looking at the slight differentiation in the widths of the sprue-sides. The game isn’t left unplayable – I’m quite looking froward to trying this one out – but it is unfortunate.

The actual die-cutting is very good, square to the frame and with no visible differentiation in the size of the cut counters. When I received the game, four of the Bases counters had already freed themselves from the confines of the sprue and were nestled in a Ziploc baggie (as noted in the picture), while others were obviously attempting to escape. The counters are mounted on a light brown-core card (reminiscent of the Decision Games Thirty Years’ War Quad (Decision Games, 1995) that I bought at the same time as Somalia: Interventions), that clips up quite nicely.

Normally this is where I’d show a picture of the interior box and dice, as well as any sundry items like baggies. I’ve forgone this because Schutze Games don’t seem to do dice. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to expect a gamer to be able to provide their own dice, but a photo of an empty box tray would be taking thoroughness a step too far, even for OCD me.

So, that’s Somalia: Interventions, a deceptively simple-looking game covering a confounding geopolitical problem that still bedevils the broader international community. As a rule, I prefer to play older historical situations – did I mention I bought the classic Thirty Years’ War Quad? – but Somalia is a subject of enduring interest. To be honest, I don’t know when I’ll get to playing this (maybe off the back of another Brian Train game), but I’m glad I grabbed it when the opportunity arose.