Alan Snider  - Jan 28, 2007 10:10 pm (#16904 Total: 17114)  
SPI's Dixie has just gotten a bad rap. It's a good little game.
 	 
GAMENIGHT, Jan 27-28/2007: Clayton Baisch, Terence Co, and I sat down to
try SPI's "Minuteman: The Second American Revolution". Terence directed
the government, while Clayton and I split the 'rebel' forces (minutemen
and militia groups and their insurgent networks). 

The first part of the game involves the networks being randomly placed
in city centres, and the subsequent raising of militia units and
minutemen. The minutemen act as leaders for the militia groups and can
boost their combat effectiveness by 50%. The government player also
hopes to recruit informants and build their military forces and knock
down the militia forces which are not hiding underground. There is some
cat and mouse as the 'rebels' try to find the optimum moment to declare
the revolution, in order to maximize their starting forces (and minimize
the government building of same). 

The part that is the challange for the rebel player is the fact that
only the government miltary units exert ZoCs and therefore have the
ability to eliminate non-underground rebel networks/militias and
minutemen through combat using retreat into enemy ZoCs. The 'rebel'
player(s) must hope they can push the government player out of the
population centres with Dr results and moving into the population hexes
for better defence. This is all done with an eye on the best opportunity
considering all of the above; and THEN declaring the revolution. 

Once the revolution is declared, the 'rebel' militia units now exert
ZoCs and they can also eliminate the government forces easier. Rolls are
also done by the Government player to determine the final boost of
armies they will receive for the balance of the game... 

In the game we played, the initial action was in the Dallas/Ft. Worth
area, as both government military units and rebel militia units took
huge losses. As the city centres began to move into unrest and riot
situations (happens during the build phase via dierolls), this gave the
government a better chance to recruit informants and react by forming
new miltary units to put down the unrest/riots. 

The first significant riot situations emerged in Tampa Bay and Seattle,
making them instant rebel strongpoints. The Revolution was declared in
the winter of the 1st year (of 5), and was likely a little late as we
fumbled through the sequence of play a few times before catching on to
what conditions were optimum for the rebels to declare the revolution. 

On the first turn after the declaration, rebels decimated government
troops in vancouver, canada and cleared the entire state of Florida of
government forces. The government struck back by wiping out rebels and
their network in St Louis and nearly killing all rebels in the Dallas/Ft
Worth area. 

In Los Angeles, as see-saw bloodbath, left meagre government presence in
the area, and tons of rebel dead. That was simply wild! 

We did not have enough time to finish the game, but enjoyed a great
learning session. This game has many new mechanics and concepts not
found in other SPI games, so we struggled a bit to link together
mechanics to build a winning strategy. The game went over really well
with all 3 players, and it is a guarantee we will see this played at
Clayton's place (aka Camp SPI) again real soon... The government player
seems to have the more difficult task, but we figure there is a way to
have the government in a better position later into the game (the gov't
looked to be on the ropes in our game). I recommend this game very
highly...