Brotherhood and Unity Review (Tomislav Čipčić & Compass Games)

  Brotherhood and Unity

Designer: Tomislav Čipčić

Editor: Compass Games (🇺🇸) 

Topic and setting: The game covers the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, part of former Yugoslavia

Scale: strategic. Counters depict brigades (+/-2.000 men) 

System: card driven mechanic, adapted and streamlined from Paths of Glory by Ted S. Raicer and GMT (🇺🇸). 

Map: Point-to-point mounted map depicting all Bosnia-Herzegovina and a blown-up view of Sarajevo.

Players: 1-3. Ideally for 3 players, works very well solitaire by playing each faction (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) to the best of one's capabilities (some fog of war is lost, but perfectly doable).

Complexity: moderate. 30-page rulebook

Footprint: all components fit a 120cmx60cm table (47.2"x27.6")

Production quality: outstanding (map, counters, cards, rulebook)

Fitting sleeves for cards: Standard Card Size (Magic): 63.5mmx88mm

MyScore: 9/10

Unstructured, high level review:

This is a game I am enjoying a lot but it is also an unsettling experience. The Bosnia and Herzegovina war took place when I was in my early 20s, just a few hours away by plane from my home. Many atrocities were committed and shown on TV. For many of us Europeans, it was a war that the EU was shamefully unable or unwilling to stop. It may be just me, but I don't feel the same level of engagement when playing games set in WWII. A few pictures may illustrate what I mean:

Sarajevo is under siege by yellow Serb forces, Bosniaks hold the city. Combats rage in the Old Town, snipers feast and, somewhere in a basement, Inela Nogić becomes 1993 Miss Sarajevo.

 

The Croats try to take East Mostar from the Bosniaks. The famous medieval bridge is blown to pieces. Serbs calmly watch from a safe distance.

 

The Bosniak enclave of Srebrenica falls to the Serbs; mass killings of Muslim men ensue. The EU mildly protests and a -1 point change in the foreign attitude display occurs. The Serbs are underwhelmed by the embargoes.

 

The foreign attitude display for the 3 factions at war: Serbs just got into embargo-level response from the international community.

 

The game consists of only four turns, one per each year of the war (1992-1995). At each turn, actions allowed by the cards are taken consecutively by each of the three factions. The maximum number of actions that can be taken is asymmetric: the first 2 years the Serbs have more cards -and actions- whereas the last two years the Bosniaks take the initiative and have more cards to play. The decks of cards are rebuilt at turn 3 with the addition of late war cards and the removal of the early war ones. Both the number and nature of cards available for each player at the different games turns reflect what happened in reality in terms of initiative and equipment available. As in other card driven games, cards can be played for the operation points, for the event, as replacements for damaged brigades, as strategic redeployment of troops across long distances, or as diplomatic efforts to appease the international community.

Three cards from the late war period. All can be played for their operation points (4, 3, 2) or for their events. 

 

The game is not complicated to learn: the set of rules is not overly complex, and the 30-page rulebook is well presented and written. It becomes even easier if you’ve played Paths of Glory or Crusade and Revolution, games that use a similar system. What is really complicated is to play it well since the objectives for the three factions are very different reflecting the intricate ethnic composition of each region of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The regions of interest to each player differ but overlap and isolated or nearly isolated enclaves exist throughout the map for the different factions. Various foreign troops are available for the different factions. I am just beginning to grasp some of the strategic complexity.

The foreign attitude display plays a big role in the game, acting as a buffer that will penalize factions that are too successful in conquering key areas of the map. Military victories will earn the faction "strategic will" points but will also trigger ethnic cleansing campaigns, mass raping and other war crimes that will unsettle the public opinion and bring the NATO's intervention a step closer. Once NATO steps in against a faction, that faction loses the game.

 

All and all, a great game with, I suspect, lots of replay value, that works well played solitaire. Also, a great way of learning about the recent -and darkest- past of Europe.