A Distant Plain

A Distant Plain is the Afghanistan volume of Volko Ruhnke's COIN Series, designed together with Brian Train. It uses the same accessible system as Andean Abyss and Cuba Libre, but with new factions, capabilities, events and objectives. For the first time in the series, two counterinsurgent factions must reconcile competing visions for Afghanistan while coordinating a campaign against a dangerous twin insurgency. One to four players maneuver forces, win influence and use event cards whose order they cannot fully control, with dice resolving the messy parts. It is a long, serious modern-conflict wargame, about five hours at full tilt, that rewards players who like asymmetric factions and uneasy alliances.