Ici, c'est la France! The Algerian War of Independence 1954-62 (2009)

This game covers the French insurgency war against FLN in Algeria during 1954-62. It is a conflict of great drama. It cost the lives of at least half a million Algerians, it brought the tumultuous exodus of one million French settlers from Algeria and it brought France itself to the brink of civil war. But to be portrayed as a game has its difficulties, though. How do you recreate the fact that the side which lost militarily won the war? How do you make it interesting to play when FLN never succeeded in creating an army, like the Viet Minh did in the Indochina war, and therefore was never able to rival the French?

To address this, the game contains “three games” within the game: A political, an insurgency and a military game. Politics are driven by chits which alter four parameters: FLN structure; Algerian population; Pied noir feelings (the French settlers in Algeria) and French public/government. Each one will affect the play, in different ways, when it changes. What eventually ends the game is when the French public reaches 0 and calls for a referendum. Then you check each region whether they will vote to stay with France or become independent. If a majority votes pro-France, the French player win and vice versa. It is through different insurgency or counterinsurgency actions that you will make a region pro-FLN or pro-France. Finally, the military part will allow you to contest or control regions. This will affect your ability to mobilize, tax and conduct insurgency/counterinsurgency actions.

In other words, you will have to fight to control, conduct insurgency/counterinsurgency actions in order to win the hearts and minds of the population and, through politics, see to it that the public in France either supports you or gets fed up with the war. Some things might help you in one way but at the same time give disadvantages in other aspects. Nothing in war is purely a good decision. There is always a cost.

Each year has four gameturns. You start the game with eight random political chits of 28 possible ones. Each chit may only be played during a certain time span and after you play a chit you will draw a new one.

The “operation points” are the main engine in the game. You will receive a certain number of points and with these points you will pay for everything you do, like recruiting or bringing in reinforcements, certain movement, fighting and conducting insurgency/counterinsurgency actions.

FLN recruitment will depend on how pro-FLN the Algerian population is and how efficient the FLN structure is. It will also depend on population density and whether they control a region or not. The French can bring in new units and replacements, but it will cost operation points and put pressure on the French public. So the reason to attack is to control/contest as much as possible and to force the opponent to spend operation points to replenish his force.

The counters have no movement points. With a gameturn of three months there is no lack of time to position units anywhere on the map. You follow the road network (as French) but it will cost you operation points when you pass regions which are controlled by the enemy. FLN moves off-road and will have some limitations to whether they may leave a region or not. The numbers represent strength and quality.

Fighting will include combat chits which in certain combination will affect the combat. My first ambition is to minimize the amount of tables in order to make the game faster to play. You roll a number of dice corresponding with your strength and modify your roll with the difference in quality. You get a hit when you roll 5-6. The complexity and difficulties lies more in what to decide and when to do it.

Best regards
Kim Kanger

The production of the game has started and I believe the game will hit the market in June. The parts are turning out beautifully, so I can really recommend this game to anyone who is interested in insurgency wars! (www.legionwargames.com/legion_pre-order.php)

This was said by Randy Lein from Legion Wargames:

"Guys,

Well Kim and I have finished up the first year, 1955, of Ici c'est la France! so I thought I would give you my impressions of the game so far. In two words, frustratingly brilliant.

Kim has managed to capture the insurgent nature of this conflict in an extremely well thought out, historical, and yet playable game. He was able to weave together the military, (French & FLN), political, French public, and local population, aspects in an interconnected web where every thing you do affects another aspect, either positively or negatively, thus making each decision more that just one dimensional. And while it only took me a few turns to get the basic mechanics of the game down, it is those interconnections that make each turn of the game a mental excercise more akin to chess. Not only does each player have multiple actions to use to achieve his objective, but the equation is further complicated because each side is limited by the number of Operation Points available that turn. Add that on top of the action/reaction nature of the game where achieving your goals in one region of the country means neglecting another region and thus allowing the enemy influences to grow, and the fact that just because you pacify a region does not mean it will stay that way, and what you have is a great game that not only captures the essence of the war but is also fun and challenging to play.

As for the game itself, once both players learn the basic mechanics and begin to see the connectivity of the individual game tracks in such a way as to plan your strategy, the individual turns will go quite quickly. The replay value of this game is a 10. There are so many variables involved, to include the chits you have available to play in any one given turn, to the number of reinforcements/operation points you will receive each turn, to the very fluid nature of the game, that I don't think any two game will ever be the same.

As we are playing the game, Kim and I are eliminating any discrepancies in the rules/charts, and fine tuning the rules themselves. And I must say that here too Kim did a bang up job and while my first read through did produce some questions, all of the answers were there once I looked more closely. And since he is not only kind enough, but also talented enough (have you seen those icons?) to do it, the graphics for this game are all but finalized (can we lose the purple water). So that being the case, and since it has as many pledges as the rest of the games in Final Development, I see no reason to not put this game into production as soon as I can wrap up A Splendid Little War.

So for anyone who is interested in this conflict, or who would like to know the frustrations, and mental strain of fighting an insurgency war, this game is a must have. Ici c'est la France! will definitely be on the short list for a CSR award in the Post WWII category, I will be very surprised it it does not win.

Randy Lein -- LWG"