From: Randy Moorehead Subject: Review: Land of the Free Land of the Free Designed by Brian Train Reviewed by Randy Moorehead (A longer version of this may appear in an upcoming issue of Line of Departure). This is a cool game. Since I am the designer/publisher of several microgames myself, I am always interested in what other people are doing. The advent of the affordable home computers has opened the way for gamers to make those home brew designs of theirs look presentable in a way that was prohibitively expensive even a few years ago. Kerry Anderson has started what he describes as the Microgame Coop, dedicated to publishing small, playable, and low cost games on a variety of offbeat topics. For your $8, postage-paid, you get a mailing envelope with an 11 x 17 inch color map, a sheet of color counters printed on adhesive backing, a four-page rules book, a chart set, and two sheets of play money. The counters must be mounted onto cardstock and cut apart, and the sheets of play money must also be cut apart. All together, assembly of the game took about 25 minutes. The game is about political struggle in 1930's America, and can be played between 2 or 3 players. The three political factions are Populists, Fascists, and Communists, with the government forces (FBI, etc.) represented by the game system itself. The players struggle to build political infrastructure, raise money, and win control of regions through legitimate elections, infiltration, and/or outright violence. The ultimate goal is to gain control of the federal government. I have never seen this topic covered in a game before, and it works well, both as a political game and as a slice of "what-if" history. Each player begins with 15 build points of units. Available units include cadres, committees, fronts, and militias. Leaders appear by way of the random events table, and must be protected from assassination (My God! They've shot Huey Long!) Leaders can stir up mobs (place a Mob counter) and modify die rolls and combat. Other counters, like Okies, Newspaper smear campaigns, and hired assassins appear from the randomizer cup. The map of the US is divided into regions. Some represent states, some are collections of states - California is California, while the Dustbowl is Oklahoma and Kansas, and Alorgia is Alabama, Florida, and Georgia grouped together. Each region has a Bureaucracy box and a Police box (the counters currently controlling the region are placed there) and a population number (for elections). Players use their units to build other units (recruiting), raise money, or attempt to infiltrate and control a region's bureaucracy or police. Winning an election in a region also gives your faction control of the bureaucracy and police. Control of bureaucracy gains money and political power, while control of the state police can be used to restrict the movement of another faction's counters. Leaders incite mobs, which can attack other faction's counters. Armed militias serve the same purpose, and can be sent on missions across state lines ("The Commies are moving into California - take some party regulars and crush them!"). Our group has enjoyed the several games of this that we have played. Each of the three factions is balanced (equal forces and leaders), so game-play is entirely up to the players (no pre-set or historical handicaps). Our games have seen a little of everything: Populists having a stronghold in New York, but able to win a crucial election-year fight in Texas; Huey Long being gunned down in Michigan; Communists able to control California and most of the western US before Fascist militias and mobs trashed their weakened committees. I think it will be a few more games before any of us finds an optimum setup or strategy. Pretty good for a three-player game! The game is available from the Microgame Coop: Kerry Anderson 10179 90 Street Edmonton, Alberta Canada T5H 1R8. web page at: http://www.ocii.com/~kanderso/coop.html Of additional interest: Mark Johnson maintains a cool microgame page at: http://www.ccnet.com/~johnson/microgame.html