User:EnderAWiggin/sandbox

Andean Abyss is a card-driven strategy game that can be played solitaire or with up to four players. Andean Abyss depicts the counter insurgent Colombian Conflict in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. It is the first game in the COIN (COunter INsurgent) series by Volko Ruhnke and GMT Games.

Gameplay
Andean Abyss must be played with all four factions, but has a system in the rules for running non-player factions, enabling Solitaire, two player or three player games as well. Players may also take over the missing faction and run two factions instead of leaving it to the artificial intelligence. The Government faction must always be player controlled. In the four player game each player controls one of four factions: Government, FARC, AUC or Cartels. The game is played on a board which depicts Colombia and the surrounding regions and splits the country into segments for which players compete to control. Players use wooden cubes and cylinders to represent their various forces and bases. The game is card driven, but players do not have hands of cards. Instead cards are flipped one at a time from a deck ad those cards regulate turn order, events, victory checks and other actions. Depending on which option players pick they may play the event on the card, choosing from a list of faction specific actions or do a combination of both. In the three player game the Cartels are run by the rules. However, players may also choose to have the FARC or AUC as a non-player faction. In the two player game the player play as the Government and the FARC. The AUC and Cartels are run by the rules. In the solitaire version the player plays as the Government against all three non-player factions.

Victory
Each faction has unique victory conditions which are tracked throughout the game on a numbered track which is located on the borders of the game board. Victory is checked at the beginning of each propaganda round. Propaganda rounds occur whenever a propaganda card is flipped. Victory Conditions are as follows: Government: Total Support exceeds 60 FARC: Total Opposition plus number of FARC bases exceeds 25 AUC: AUC has more bases than FARC Cartels: Cartels have in excess of 10 bases and 40 resources

History
Andean Abyss is a game about a portion of the Colombian Conflict from 1990 to the early 2000s. This Conflict is mainly between the Government of Columbia and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia), however Andean Abyss represents the pro-government paramilitary organization called the AUC (United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) and the various Drug cartels as active players in the conflict as well. The origins of the conflict date back to 1964 and the conflict continues today.

The COIN Series
Andean Abyss is the first game in the COIN (COunter INsurgent) series by Volko Ruhnke and GMT Games. All of the games in the series use a similar rules system. A Distant Plane (2013) and Cuba Libre (2013) are the other two games in the series published so far. Each game in the series has four independent Political factions which all compete against each other. Future COIN games include Fire on the Lake (Vietnam) and games about Ireland and Angola.

Awards
2012 Charles S. Roberts Best Post WWII Era Board Game Nominee 2012 Charles S. Roberts Best Post WWII Era Board Game Winner 2012 Golden Geek Best Wargame Nominee 2012 Meeples’ Choice Nominee 2013 Origins Awards Best Historical Board Game Nominee