We have worked with V.P.J. Arponen over the past several years with his fantastic entry into the COIN Series covering the Finnish Civil War called All Bridges Burning: Red Revolt and White Guard in Finland, 1917-18. We posted an...
We have worked with V.P.J. Arponen over the past several years with his fantastic entry into the COIN Series covering the Finnish Civil War called All Bridges Burning: Red Revolt and White Guard in Finland, 1917-18. We posted an interview for that game as well as about a dozen Event Card spoilers from that same title. More recently, his new design called Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order was announced by GMT Games and we are again honored to work with him to bring an inside look at the game to the faithful readers of the blog with a series of Event Card Spoilers. Please keep in mind that the artwork and layout of these cards is not yet finalized and is only for playtest purposes at this point. Also, as the game is still in development, card details may still change prior to publication.
If you are interested in Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order, you can pre-order a copy for $55.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1027-order-opportunity.aspx
#15 – Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
Historical Background
Prompted by the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, the 9/11 Commission was set up to study the intelligence failures that the attack brought to light. In a 500 page report published in 2004, the Commission recommended the creation of a new layer of management of intelligence gathering and use that would have the ability to combine domestic and international intelligence to prevent terror attacks that involved both dimensions at once. There needed to be a “unity of effort across the foreign-domestic divide”, the report argued. A range of institutional and legal changes, such as the Intelligence Reform Act as well as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, go back to the commission report.
Game Effects and Uses
A number of aspects about this card are worth highlighting.
As an expression of the game’s core argument and dilemma, while the US-led West won the Cold War between Communism and Democracy, in the post-Cold War period the unipolar order and unilateral super power politics have faced a backlash, among others in the form of increasing terror threats. Reflecting that thematic background, these threats accumulate as a result of players’ own actions.
Terror threats resolve in one of two ways: either the player must face a Terror Threat Check occurring at random during play and possibly resulting in the loss of a victory point, or they use a card like the Intelligence Reform Act to lower the threat level before it is too late.
Terror threats have a turn side. Successful anti-terror operations — modified die rolls of 5 or 6, as detailed in the card text — can generate momentum in the form of giving the player what the game calls an “additional command”, that is, the chance to play more cards during their turn. Finally, looking at the star and small S icons in the top right corner of the card, these indicate that the card begins the full scenario, not in the US player’s draw deck, but outside of it in the so-called Planning pile. During a special segment of the player’s turn, the card can be acquired and made part of the player’s draw deck. This illustrates the light “deck building” aspect contained in Order & Opportunity. The catch is, during each Planning segment only one card may be acquired, so the player faces the question which of the up to ten cards in the Planning pile should get priority during any given Planning segment.
Thanks to Vez for his work on designing this very interesting looking Card Driven Game but also for his willingness to prepare and allow us to host this series of Event Card Spoilers. This is the fourth entry in the series and there will be more in the near future.
If you missed the previous entries in the series, you can catch up on the posts to date by following the below links:
#12 War on Terror/Operation Enduring Freedom
#43 Belt & Road Initiative/Dependencies Created
You can also check out the interview with VPJ Arponen on the design on the blog at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/08/21/interview-with-v-p-j-arponen-designer-of-order-opportunity-from-gmt-games/
If you are interested in Order & Opportunity: Making of the Post-Cold War World Order, you can pre-order a copy for $55.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1027-order-opportunity.aspx
The next card in the series will be #WE5 Osama Bin Laden.
-Grant
