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G ME PROFILEI RITIQUE

C N DI N CIVIL W R. . Writing from the Country in Questionby Norman

S.Howe

eew is on e o l lhe m ost u nu s ua l games SP I h aseve r wr o ugh l in lerms of sub jec t , sys te m , andphysica l design. Mosl US game rs sa id Canad ianWhat? and many Canad ian game rs said Typi calUS brass_ Th e game does deserve serious atlent ion (wh ic h it h as gotten in Ca n ada if for no otherreason t h a n its innova t ive system , Mr. Howeoffers so me co mme nt on the acc u r acy of the s imula t ion as wel l as a conso ling word o r two t o u s we llmeaning A m e rica n s ad rift in o ur i gno rance of therea Canada - R S

Canadian Civil War" is a multi -playersimulat ion of political conflict in modernCanada . The game s sub ject matter has givenrise to a very abstract treatment, comparedto the more conventional simulations published by SPI. In terms of the concepts andinterac tions encountered in p lay, the game isvery realistic indeed. This article examinesthe concepts represented in Canadian "CivilWar and interprets them as they apply toreal poli tics.

The Movement System is perhaps themos t abstract aspect of the game. As theplaying area represen ts degrees of politicalcontro l, rather than geography, it is difficultto understand why counters are given movement allowances : What exactly is moving,and where is it going? If one considers themovement points as representing rates ofchange of political opinion . or the speed atwhich a given type reacts to a situation, themeanings of the numbers become clear .Higher movement allowances representgre ater flexibility and faster reaction time.T he Civ il Servan t pieces, representing en tirebureaucratic ne tworks, are the slowest to re

act to change, while the Interes t Groups arepositively flighty.The Contest Strengths represen t relative

po liti cal effect iveness. Stronges t is the P rimeMinister piece, which represents the entireFederal Government, while the Constituencies, representi ng unorganized voting blocks,are the weakes t.

The Political Viewpoints of the variousplayers represent the platforms of Canadianpolitical parties, though the party lines donot correspond exactly with the game sPlayers. The Federalist (Red) player is bes tidentified as the Liberal Party, which favorsa more centralized government. At least, it

does now. The Provincial Moderates(Orange) are the Conservative Party, whichfavors the status quo; not wishing to changethe relationsh ips between Federal and Pr o -

vincial power. The Provincial Autonomists(Green) represent various small parties , eachconcerned wi th improving the lot of individua l provinces, The Green player shouldconsider the Fede ral governmen t a servant ofthe provinces. On ly in recent year s has theSeparatist (Blue) player been directlyrepresen led in Canadia n politics, through thePartie Quebecois. Blue represen ts tha t portion of the Canadian population which holdsno confidence in the domi nion as it presentlyexists . This group contains no t only the most

alienate d French-Canadians, but also otherminorities, such as the Indians and Inuit,which consider themselves better off outs ideCanada t han within it.

T he Victory Conditions are stated interms of Issues controlled by each player .Th ere are 25 Issue counters, in 10 different

categories. These represent matters of concern to the Canadian public. The LanguageIssue, for example, may represent a proposedCommisssion on Bilingualism and Biculturalism; Transport may mean changes in subsidies to rai lways; and Foreign Affairs maymean Canada's contribution to NATO speacekeeping forces. As the game progresses, Issues will change hands often; eachtime this occurs, the Issue may be co nsideredto have a new meaning. I t may actually bepossib le to examine Canadian history and

assign Issue designations to important billsa nd laws, for demons tr ation purposes.The Political Opportunity cards repre

sent events which the players can use to further t heir ow n aims, or to confound their opponen ts Crisis Cards are used to draw Issuesinto the Conflict Zone on the playing area.

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This represents the introduction of a new billto the House of Commons, or an injudiciousstatement made by a Cabinet member, or a

leak to the media. As there are only asmany Crisis cards as there are Issues, a playermay withhold certain cards to keep them ou tof the hands of his opponents. This is similarto a cover-up. Election Cards inducechanges in the political alignments of Constituencies. Thes e must be used with caution , asa player may actually lose more constituencies than he gains by playing such cards.Even t Cards cause drastic alterations in theallegiances of Interest Groups and Civil Servants, as well as having short-term effects onthe Contest Strengths of certain units. Thesecards are the easiest to use, as they have nohidden side-effects.

Each player has a full set of 68 ActivePieces, including 39 Constituencies, 1 Provincial Premiers , 6 Civil Servants; 12 InterestGroups, and the Prime Minister. Only onecomplete set is in action at any time in thegame, though it may be composed of piecescontrolled by each of the players in the game.

the Constituencies represent the voters ofCanada. E ach of the 1 provinces is assignedconstituencies in proportion to their populations; thus Ontario has 14 Constitutencies,Quebec 10, and so on. As there are about 264constituencies which elect Members ofCanada's parliament, each Constituencycounte r in the game may be considered to affect 7 MPs. When Contes t ing for Issues, atleast one Constituency must participat e inth e contest; and only Constituencies maycontrol Issues for movement purposes. Asthe number of Constituencies controlled isalso important in deciding National Debates,the Consti tuency is easily the most importantpiece in the game.

The Premiers and the Prime Ministerrepresent the Provincial and Federal governments of Canada. These pieces change color(allegiance) only during Elections,. thus making them more secure than the other piecesin the game, b ut they may only be used inContesting for Issues. This is quite realistic: aparliamentary body's powers are limited bylaw; the only way they can attract supportersto thei_ cause is through lawmaking, which iscovered in the Issues.

The Civil Servants represent Government Bur eaucracies, including the Federa lCabinet M ins ite rs. These are extremel y slowmoving, and are most useful in defensivepositions where they cannot escape on changing allegiance (which can happen throughEven t Cards or contesting). As the Civil Servants are Federally appointed, they may bearbitrarily reappointed by th e Player controlling the most Constituencies during a National Elec tion.

The Interest Groups represent the bestorganized non-political pressure groups inCanada. Issue-oriented groups such asGreenpeace would be represented by a Constituency stac ked with an Issue; the InterestGroup cou n ters are more commercialized.As they are not pa r ticular ly loyal to any party, they ar e susceptible to allegiance changesthrough several different Event Cards. Their

high movement allowances ensure that theycan reach the Home Areas of their new colorswith ease.

Victory in Canadian Civil War is difficult to achieve . There is constant competition for control of Issues; only the Orangeand Blue players can achieve their objectiveswithout interfering with each othe r. A playermust hold as few unwanted Issues as possible, to preven t other players from declaringNational Emergencies and ending the game.A careful balanc e must be maintained at alltimes, often through overt collaborationwith other players. For example, one playermay cede an issue to anothe r, in exchange forthe play of a particular Political Opportunitycard at the right time. In the case of the National Election, players must co-operate orend the game.

The political dealings which occur within the game framework provide the most reaUstic factor in Canadian Civil War : compromise. In politics, one cannot be unyielding; this is a means of ensuring defeat in are a l election. The opinions of each player

must be conside re d , in order to find a solution wherein at least one player can win.

This brings me to the least realistic facetof the game: the Na t ional Emergency. Aplayer may call a National Emergenc y if hecontrols thr ee or fewer issues, and all otherplayers have the same number or more.Whether or not the player is suc cess ful increating the Emergency, th e Political gameends. Nothing in Canadian history has everoccurred which resembles the NationalEme rgency. T he only example I can think ofis the Ame rican C ivil War. On the two occasions I have seen the National Emergency

played, it appears to be a full-scale insurrection of the g e n ~ r lpopulace. The way theru les are organized, I cannot conceive of asituation in which the Federal forces couldwin , save that the Rebel only had 2 or 3 consti tuencies to start with. I must conclude thatthe Natio na l Eme rgency rule is not intendedfor use but is a sp o ile r ru le, like the Nuclear Holocaust ru les in World War 3 . Theintent of the National Emergency rule is tosay, don ' t pick on one player too much;he ll pack up his ma rb les and go home. tforces each p layer to be careful not to alienate the other players: even if one player co uldcreate an E mergency, he could be persuadedto stay in the game by bribery.

Canadian Civil War is an interestingpolitical game, but it somewhat exaggeratesthe power of the minor parties in Canadianpolitics. Parliament is normally controlledby a clear majority of one party, i.e., 20 Constituencies controlled; coalition governmentsare very rare. However, this would proverathe r uninteresting as a multi-player game,as the Green an d Blue players would onlyhave about five pieces between them. A twoplayer scen ario could be constructed whereBlue and Green are non-players; Red andOrange controlling all the pieces at t he startof t he game. One interesting rule changewou ld be to make the color-changes transit ive ; i.e ., a piec could change di rec tly fromRed to Blue, or Blue to Red. Blue and Green

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pieces could not contest or vote (except toVeto), but would only attempt to movetowards their own Grassroots areas. Victoryconditions would be for Red or Orange tocontrol at least 3 5 of the Issues, or 15 of certain types.

T he Military rules for the NationalEmergency are too vague. In order to clarifycertain problems, I offer the following extrarules governing Combat:

Retreats: Whenever a counter is forced toretreat, leaving an empty space, one of the attacking units may advance into the square .This only applies to Dr results , not Ar.

Crisis Zone: Any units left in the Crisis Zoneat the end of the first Emergency tum areeliminated. Any counters remaining overstacked at the end of the first Emergencytum are completely eliminated (i.e., thewhole stack).

Militia: When raising militia, the FederalPlayer should not be plagued by Militia unjtsjoining th e Rebels. If a Constituency proves

Disloyal10

the Federal Player, he receives nomilitia from that Constituency. This rule replaces rule 10.23, wherein Militia from a Disloyal Constituency join the Rebels; neithersid e will receive the militia unit. This rule isintended to make it possible for the Federalplayer to win in a National Emergencysituation.

Militia Deployment Schedule: There is anerror in the listing for Ontario in Table 10.84 .There are only 27 Ontario Militia counters ;the table should read: 2( - 1), not

2 ( 1). The counter mix is correct; thi sjust happens to be the number of Militiaunits in the province, and the designer didn'twant to write 1( 13) because one playerwill almost never con trol the en tire province.

Historically, many other scenarios arepossible. As the unit distributions are ratheresoteric, and the historical ba ckgrou nd of interest only to C anadian s, I will not attempt todetail them he re, except to list the dates atwhich various Provinces entered Confederation.

Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, andNew Brunswick entered Confederation in1867. NvS and Nbr should be gi ven 2 Constituencie s each until 1874. Manitoba entered in1870, British Columbia in \871, and Pr ince

Edw ard Is land in 1873. Alberta and Saskatchewan entered in 1905, and Newfoundland in 1949. Quebec and the Western Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta,and British Columbia) tend to elect more experimental governments (Blue and Green)than do the other provinces, but not morethan half the total constituencies from theseareas sho uld be assigned those colors.

From my Canadian viewpoint, Cana-dian Civil War is an extremely interestinggame, though one with a very limitedpopular appeal. Unless one is able to identi fywith the issues involved, the game is essentially meaningless. I suspec t that manyAmerican gamers would be bored to tearswithout the historical article accompanyingthe rule book.