Bay 12 Games Forum

Yes that's right, there was a Coup d’état (I hate the pronunciation of that word so much) in Mali yesterday, today being March 22 obviously. So apparently for a while some nomads have been rebelling in the north of Mali, and the army has been fighting them. The army asked the government for more weapons so they could go kill some more angry nomads, and the government was like no. So then the army began protesting, because the soldiers felt the government wasn't supporting them. Then some Malian government guy tried to diffuse the protest yesterday, when the soldiers were all like the equivalent of "fuck no" In bambara, 'cause that’s the lingua franca in Mali, which is ironic because French is the official language, people also speak 40 other African languages in Mali, and began to throw stones at him and bow him. He got out ok but later that day some other guys in the capital also decided they’d had enough and stormed the presidential palace, only to find out the president had left.

Here I was thinking West Africa couldn't get any worse, but then some guys in Mali decided to prove me wrong.

* Link to good summery of Malian situation provided by Servent Corps  http://sahelblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/on-the-apparent-coup-in-mali/ . Will add highlights of article to main body of info when I have more time
*  Link likelihood of coups provided by Servent Corps  http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/22/coups_making_a_comeback , same as above.
*links to Mali: For Mali: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Joins-Condemnation-of-Mali-Coup--143839706.html

Meanwhile, the coup in Mali is still ongoing, and may still fail. There is opposition from within and without Mali to the coup plotters, and there are rumors that the leader of the coup is now dead.

What's worse than a coup is a coup that doesn't quite conclude. The rebels are certainly going to take advantage of this instability in the mean time.

The capital of Mali is calm today, so it seems that if there was a counter-coup, it must have been crushed. There is still opposition however, as arrested ministers begin a hunger strike and lawmakers condemn the coup.

At least the coup plotters are finally dealing with the insurgency by, uh...talking to them outside of a strategic city the rebels want to conquer?

Something's not right. Something's dreadfully not right. I suppose one may think "something's not right" when a coup occurred mere days before an election, but it could be that the coup plotters disliked the politicians of Mali and believed no change would occur after elections. But when you're outright negotiating with the rebels you said you were going to crush mere days ago...

I'm not sure whats happening, but I don't think there is a single representative...

The article says it all, the former soldiers are not getting the stuff they need to fight the rebels.  Not exactly a great booster for morale... and doing the coup probably did not remedy that particular problem.  So yea, may as well get out while the getting is good.

Negotiating an out for those who don't wish to join the rebellion shows that they are looking out for their own.  A good thing in my opinion, it shows that there is overall less malicious intent behind the coup nor a generalissimo deciding that he'd be a better leader.
Its something more along the lines of being backed in the corner/fed up by whatever mismanagement/logistical problems that have plagued these soldiers.

I can't say much about the rebels or anything of Mali.  No clue of the place there, but that is what I got out of the above talking to rebels article.

That's probably true. Since the rebels are well-armed and had experience fighting in Libya, I can see some military units decided to overthrow the democratic government to seize the government just for sue for peace.

The United States has cut military aid to Mali, but have not yet decided whether Mali suffered a coup or not. Officially, it's a mutiny.

EDIT: There's a news article giving us more detail on the rebels; I find this interesting.

Ecowas has announced that it had put regional troops on standby in case military intervention becomes necessary.

(cross-posted from Mongoose Publishing Forums and Paranoia-Live so that you don't have to go there to see this post)

Alright then, I hope what I am doing is allowed and tolerated, because I'm still a little hesitant.

There has been hints of other Alpha Complexes existing outside of the Alpha Complex the players are in. This serves as a useful mission hook for players, as well as the basis for the mysterious "Spy for another Alpha Complex" society. The problem is that these hints are...usually just that. There has not been, to my knowledge, a supplement made about these other Alpha Complexes. There is, of course, Brave New Complex which may be eventually published in the future, but that seems to be focused on providing new settings for people to play PARANOIA in, as opposed to adding new background for a pre-existing PARANOIA campaign.

This made me realize that despite the fact that there was no actual supplement about other Alpha Complexes, alternate Complexes were in fact made. The published mission "Sweep of Unhistory" had a couple of these complexes for instance. So did fan-made missions like Alphacology. Or even Flashback's Alpha Complexities. They just had to be...complied into one resource for easy access.

Which is why I made this website called "Alternate Alpha Complexes" so that other people can know about these complexes and use them in their own PARANOIA setting. When 'extracting' complexes from published Mongoose books, I try to scrub out any information that is unique to the book/mission (to encourage people to buy said book/mission) while still retaining the inherent idea of the complex. I probably went overboard in citation, in the sense that if the book had an idea that I then converted into a complex, I cited that book as being its originator even if the complex itself was not present or named in said book. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Again, still not sure if it is such a great idea, and I am afraid of stepping on Mongoose's toes, but I felt such a resource is necessary to make alternate Alpha Complexes more likely to be used and that if I do not do it, then nobody else will.

The website:
https://sites.google.com/site/alternatealphacomplex/

EDIT: I should also point out that I plan on updating this site when I find more Alpha Complexes online or are able to extract more Complexes from PARANOIA missions/supplements made by Famous Game Designers.

TAVKA-OKH is quite unlike any other wargame, in fact I’m not even sure it is a wargame. STAVKA-OKH is a game that is partly about strategy, partly about percentages, but really about decision making, player identity and the verdicts of history.

You can play a game in a matter of minutes, so I recommend you do so before you finish reading this post. It’s free. Read the rules carefully, since it’s an odd game.

First, you are a senior general in one of the totalitarian armies on the Eastern Front; the game chooses for you when you start up. You don’t assign the forces that are given to you – you only choose between three possible plans of attack. Each of these plans has a strength or a weakness strategically depending on the enemy plan, and each has different odds of being overruled entirely by the dictator.

So, the only real choice you make that can decide the outcome of the war can be regularly invalidated by your political master. Any decisions you make are contingent.

Success earns you glory, failure costs glory – unless the dictator has overridden your plan. If it’s his bright idea, then he reaps the rewards or penalties. If you think the Germans are going to steamroll you anyway, pick a plan you know Stalin will hate and let him look like a loser. And then you turn the war around with your genius. Right?

This is where the game gets even messier. If you take the role of your general seriously, there are two other variables to consider. First, do you support the party or not – doing so will add to your glory, failing to do so will subtract but each of these will also have an impact on the other variable, the verdict of history which is laid out at the bottom of the screen in each turn. If you take your “character” seriously, winning the war might not be enough or even what you want to happen. Because the war carries on around you.

Failing to win the war could lead to an honorable retirement. Or you could be hanged for war crimes. If you win the war, your politics might lead to you getting purged or exiled. Or maybe you become the heir to a brutal dictatorship responsible for genocide – the game never fails to remind you that Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars and millions of Jews and Poles and other Slavs are being killed. There are tallies for civilian casualties as well as military ones. A quick victory is in everyone’s interest, of course, but a gamble that fails will probably lead to your own head on the block.

Rod is one of those guys who loves the question of ethics in wargames. Be clear – there are no ethical choices to make here. If you try to waffle and try to avoid calling attention to yourself, you will avoid the hangman’s noose and the sword of Damocles, but you will also prolong the war leading to tens of millions of more deaths. If you fight well, but lose, you might be seen as a Rommel, I suppose – a general who avoided politics, but then Rommel didn’t survive the war, did he?

So we play a general, who ultimately has only the power of suggestion, being judged on the success or failure of plans he did not choose to begin with or approve in the end. And all around him is murder and savagery and criminality. But the war must be fought and the war must be won, or at least lost with energy.

STAVKA-OKH is not a game that I will come back to a lot. It’s an interesting experiment, and it’s cool to see the optional futures change as I gamble with my full throated support for the madman in power. And, like a lot of wargamers, I like to see how quickly I can get to Berlin or Moscow. It’s not a difficult game to win, and I think it’s easier to win if you just keep supporting the party, but that may just be my own luck.

But I felt a little dirty when Hitler said I could take over when he was gone.