Junta: First Rebel's briefing on Junta troops

First Rebel’s Briefing On Junta Troops

Palace Guard: Four armed units that are always loyal and always available. With two shots each while in the Presidential Palace they can usually hold off a whole Army brigade, especially because it takes four coup phases for a brigade to reach the palace.

Police: Four armed units. These are inherently available to the Minister of Internal Security. These are subject to bribery, so they are occasionally co-opted. While deployed at the individual police stations they are dispersed but only two moves each from key locations. The difficulty is concentrating adequate force. On the other hand, if the Minister has seized the Chamber of Deputies then they are concentrated in one of the five key locations. They can also be deployed against Red units at the beginning of the coup. This is useful for blunting a coup’s starting forces or, if the Minister decides to support the coup, can create a police-led rabble that’s as strong as an army brigade. The Minister, therefore, is a useful recruit for the rebels or a dangerous and difficult to neutralize enemy.

Paratroops/air strikes: One armed unit and three one-shot air strikes. This is the air marshal’s inherent force. This is a very flexible force, although ill-suited to be the main rebel force. Instead it’s a strong supporting force. The three 6-die air strikes can decimate enemy forces anywhere on the map. The paratroops can swoop in on top of an undefended or lightly defended objective at the last minute, which can easily sway the overall result of the coup. As the paratroops aren’t subject to bribery this makes the air marshal useful to either side.

Army brigades: Six armed units inherent to each general. These are the main striking forces. No coup is likely to succeed without the support of at least one brigade. While powerful, the army brigades also have some key limitations. They can be bribed, so they are not entirely reliable. There are two event cards that can be played with the proper influence to neutralize one army brigade as long as they are played before the coup starts. Their other limitation is that they’re far from the key locations, using at least half the coup just to arrive at one of the key locations, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to seize them for the rebels.

Marines/gunboat: One armed unit and a gunboat. The weakest of the seven inherent forces. The admiral’s gunboat is a useful supporting unit for either side because it can fire anywhere, but unless it shoots every single coup phase its overall firepower during the coup is less than any other leader’s. The marines are much less useful than the paratroops because they have to land far from the action and still spend at least half the coup getting to an objective. Definitely just a supporting player no matter which side the admiral joins.

Helicopter Gunship: One armed unit. Probably the single most useful reinforcement, the helicopter is always loyal, only needs one card to play and provides a very flexible unit that can move twice a turn. The only real drawback it that it’s just a single unit and therefore vulnerable to loss unless teamed up with less-valuable friendly units. No blue units can be bribed, which makes them among the more reliable troops, if you can get the cards needed to bring them into play.

Christian Militia: Two armed units. These are very useful reinforcements to either side in a coup. They appear in a middle class neighborhood, placing the adjacent to most objectives and they’re not too hard to get in play as they have two prerequisite influence cards to chose from.

Home Defense League: Two armed units. While also providing two armed units, these are less useful than the militia because there’s only one available prerequisite card (so a specific pair of cards is required to bring these into play). They have to start in the suburbs, which puts them a little further from the action than the other blue units. If you have the cards, they can be useful to either side in support.

Bank Guard: Two armed units. The good news is that these two units start at the bank, which is one of the objectives, The bad news is that they can’t leave the bank, so they’re not a very flexible addition to the cause. Like most of the other blue units, these are difficult to bring into play because it requires the play of two specific cards – and influence followed by an event.

Student Mob: Three or four unarmed units. These appear in University City, which is in the heart of the action, next to no less than three objectives. As unarmed units, the mob is most useful when backing up armed units where they can soak up the losses. A farm strike can arm the mob, making them fully equal to other units in combat, but they are also subject to being bought off with the “Rabble” bride card. They can be summoned both with a general strike (one card play) or a student protest combined with either students, faculty or radicals influence (pairs), so they’re relatively easy to mobilize.

Rioters: Three to five unarmed units. These appear in one of the slums, which is less flexible than the students but still pretty close to at least one objective. They can also be mobilized with the general strike or with by the slum riot card combined with Radicals, Socialists, Peasants or Students, which is the largest array of card combos in the game. They can also be armed and/or bribed.

Strikers: Three to five unarmed units. These can only appear at the dockyards, which limits their flexibility considerably. As with the other red units, they can be bribed and/or armed. The general strike card brings them into play, as will a dock strike combined with labor union, radicals or socialists.

Demonstrators: Three to five unarmed units. These appear at one of the embassies, where no fighting can occur, but is, in each case, adjacent to an objective, Like other red units they can be bribed and/or armed, but unlike the other red units they are NOT summoned by the general strike. The only way to get them is by playing the demonstrators card with the radicals, conservatives or church influence card, so these are the least likely to appear.