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KASHMIR CRISIS1 September 20191.0 INTRODUCTIONKashmir Crisis is a simple card game that allows two players (one representing the government of India, the other the government of Pakistan) to explore some of the military and political issues in play during and after the Pulwama suicide attack in February 2019 that brought these two countries to the brink of war.1.1 General Course of PlayThere are two players, the Indian and Pakistani. Play of the game is divided into a variable number of Game Turns, during which both players will make decisions and resolve small conflicts. Each Game Turn is divided into several Phases, which are further divided into Segments. See 4.0 for the Sequence of Play. During each game turn, players will begin by revealing the Event Card that will be in effect during that turn. Then, both players will receive a number of cards from a deck of ordinary playing cards, and place them onto Diplomatic, Information or Military Fronts (or keep them in a Reserve, for a later turn). After this, players will compare the totals of cards played to see if one player will score Victory Points on a given Front, and whether one or both players will lose cards and Victory Points.The game will end in the Final Phase of the game turn when the Joker is revealed for the second time (see 9.0).2.0 GAME COMPONENTS AND CONCEPTS2.1 ComponentsEach game consists of: these rules; a Player Aid Card with reminders of rules points for players, a Victory Point display, and 3 Progress Tracks for an optional rule; and a mat for players to place cards on. Players must supply one deck of ordinary playing cards (with one Joker) and markers to track Victory Points and Progress on the player aid card. Note: an Ace is always worth one (1) when counting card values.2.2 Concepts and DefinitionsFronts: Placing cards representing resources on different Fronts during play abstractly shows the scale of effort a country is investing in obtaining a favourable result in that sphere of activity. For example, the Diplomatic Front concerns a country’s efforts to get international support and assistance for its viewpoint or to condemn its adversary’s, or to pursue legal and economic threats and harassment against the enemy. “Information” is perhaps a somewhat more nebulous concept, relating to message dominance and ability to control the narrative on the conflict. Finally, the “Military” Front is a more straightforward application of covert and overt military forces and assistance to pursue insurgent/counterinsurgent warfare, or to prepare for large-scale conventional conflict.Scale: The game has an abstract scale in all respects. There is no fixed ratio of Resources to any physical commodity or quantity, or interval of time to any turn (though some turns represent a much shorter period of time than others).Victory: At the end of the game (triggered by the Joker showing up for the second time) players total up their Victory Points (VP), which they have collected for scoring on various Fronts during the game. Players gain VP by having certain Fronts scored in the Final Phase (see 8.1) or through some Event Cards. Players can also lose VP by having other Fronts resolved in the Final Phase (see 8.2), but a player may not have less than zero (0) VP. See 9.0.3.0 SETTING UP THE GAMERemove the face cards from the deck of playing cards. Shuffle the remaining cards, including one Joker, to make the Resource Deck. Shuffle the face cards to make the Event Deck. Place the decks in the indicated spots on the play mat, face down.Each player places a marker on the Victory Point Display to show the number of VP they currently have (this will be zero, unless players have agreed to “spot” one player some VP to give them an advantage).If using the Sudden Death optional rule (10.12), place a marker in the “start” space of each Progress Track.4.0 SEQUENCE OF PLAYEach game-turn the players go through the following phases in order:Event Card Draw PhaseResource Card Draw PhaseCard Play PhaseFinal Phase5.0 EVENT CARD DRAW PHASEReveal the top card of the Event Deck. Consult the Event Card Chart to see what effects this card will have on card play and scoring during this game turn. 6.0 RESOURCE CARD DRAW PHASEOne player (it doesn’t matter who) will draw EIGHT cards from the top of the Resource Deck. The Indian player is given the BLACK cards. The Pakistani player is given the RED cards. If the Joker was revealed in the card draw, lay it aside as a reminder to conduct a special action in the Final Phase (see 8.3) and draw another card. Players examine their hands of cards and frown while planning what they will do during the following Phase. (It is possible that one player will get all eight cards and the other player none. Reflect that this is an unusual statistical event, that everyone has a bad day sometimes and that this event is equally probable for either player, so it could have just as easily been you. In fact, the odds of you getting all eight on a future turn have just risen. Meanwhile, you will still play whatever cards remain in your Reserve.)7.0 CARD PLAY PHASE7.1 Placing cards. Each player will select THREE cards of their choice from among the cards they just received and any cards in their Reserve, and place one or two cards in each of the four areas of the play mat (Military, Diplomatic, and Information fronts, and their Reserve).Cards are normally placed face down, but some Event Cards may require one or both players to play some cards face up, on one or more Fronts. In cases where one player must place their cards face up, they must place their cards first. In cases where both players must place their cards face up, the player with more Victory Points goes first (Indian player first if there is a tie). To build suspense, or if players don’t trust one another, they may place cards one by one.A player must play at least one card on each of the Diplomatic, Information and Military Fronts before either adding a second card to any Front or a card to the Reserve. A player must use any cards remaining in their Reserve if they received fewer than 3 usable cards in the Card Draw Phase. If a player does not have enough cards in their Reserve to cover this requirement, then they play what cards they can, and leave one or more Fronts empty.All cards received by a player in the Card Draw Phase must be placed in a Front or the Reserve. No more than TWO cards may be placed on any given Front. Any number of cards may be in the Reserve.8.0 FINAL PHASEBoth players turn the cards they placed in each Front face up. If the total value of all cards placed by all players on all Fronts is 40 or more, then one of the three Fronts will be scored for Victory Points (which one is indicated by the rank of the Event Card in effect for this turn, see 8.1) and the other two Fronts will be resolved for possible card losses (see 8.2). If the total value of all cards placed is 39 or less, then skip the Scoring Segment; all three Fronts are resolved for possible card losses (see 8.2).8.1 Scoring SegmentPlayers compare the values of cards played in the Front indicated for scoring by the current Event Card. The player with a higher total value of cards on the Front gains VP equal to the difference in the two totals. A tie means no VP for anyone.8.2 Resolution SegmentPlayers compare the values of cards played in the two (or three) Fronts not indicated for scoring. If a player has a total value of cards on a Front that is more than the other player’s, the player with the lower total removes their played cards from the game (put the cards in the Dead Pile) and loses one VP (however, a player may not have less than zero VP). A tie has no effect. A player who was not able to play a card on a Front still loses one VP for that Front.8.3 Housekeeping SegmentAll Resource cards that were played on Fronts and not placed in the Dead Pile in 8.2 are now placed in the Discard Pile. The current Event Card is placed in the Dead Pile. 8.31 Joker Revealed. If the Joker was revealed in the Card Draw Phase for the first time, take all the cards in the Discard Pile and shuffle them (and the Joker) in with the as yet unplayed Resource cards to make a refreshed Resource Deck. If the Joker was revealed in the Card Draw Phase for the second time, then the game is now over. See 9.0. LONG-WINDED EXAMPLE OF PLAYThis example of play will cover one turn in a game between Narendra (Indian player) and Imran (Pakistani player). Narendra will do all the card handling because he’s a bit bossy.Event Card Draw PhaseNarendra reveals the top card on the Event Deck. It is the Jack of Spades, “Blood and Water Cannot Flow Together”. The immediate effect gives Narendra a choice of +1 Indian VP or a -2 value modifier to the Pakistani player’s total on the Diplomatic Front; Narendra takes the VP award. Because the card drawn was a Jack, in the Final Phase the Diplomatic Front will be scored for Victory Points if players play a high enough total of cards.Resource Card Draw PhaseNarendra draws eight cards from the Resource Deck. One of them is the Joker, revealed for the first time in the game, so this signals that there will be a reshuffle in the Final Phase. Narendra lays the Joker aside and draws one more card. Narendra gets five black cards, of values 2, 4, 5, 7, and 7. Imran gets three red cards, of values 5, 6, and 8.Card Play PhaseBoth players simultaneously lay their cards face down on the three Fronts and Reserve. Narendra plays his two highest value cards (both 7s) on the Diplomatic Front, since it will be scored for VP if cards with high enough value are played. He plays the 4 on the Information Front and the 5 on the Military Front. He puts the 2 in his Reserve, for addition to a middle-weight card in a later turn.Imran places a 6 and a 4 (from his Reserve) on the Diplomatic Front, an 8 on Information and a 5 on Military. Final PhaseBoth players flip their cards face up and compare totals. The total value of all cards played on all Fronts is (7+7+4+5+6+4+8+5=) 46, so the Diplomatic Front will be scored.Diplomatic Front: Narendra’s total value is 14 to Imran’s 10. Narendra adds 4 Victory Points to his rmation Front: Narendra has 4 while Imran has 8. This is more than the other player’s value, so Narendra puts the 4 in the Dead Pile and subtracts 1 VP.Military Front: Narendra has 5 and Imran has 5. No cards or VP are lost.Narendra takes all cards played on Fronts this turn (less the card Narendra had to put in the Dead Pile) and adds them to the Discard Pile. Because the Joker was revealed in the Card Draw Phase for the first time, Narendra now takes all the cards in the Discard Pile, plus the Joker, and shuffles them in with the unplayed cards in the Resource Deck. The next time the Joker is revealed it will signal the end of the game. Finally, the Event Card is put in the Dead Pile. Ready for the next turn.9.0 GAME END AND HOW TO WINThe game ends after the end of the Final Phase of the turn in which the Joker is revealed for the second time in the Card Draw Phase. Players compare VP totals and discuss the magnitude of their victories and losses over drinks.9.1 Levels of VictoryThe player who ends the game with more Victory Points than the other player wins some variety of victory, see the table below. A tie is possible but truly, an exercise in futility.Difference in pointsType of victory1-10Draw?The crisis has stabilized for now, possibly in some form of temporary ceasefire, though the basic issues are still not resolved. The advantage will be to the country with more VP should it resume.11-25?Tactical Victory?Pakistan (or India), with the firm support of (the Western nations, or Russia, or China or international organizations), has successfully stood off the other country’s aggressive moves in Kashmir for now. The opposing country’s international standing has been damaged.26+?Smashing Victory?India (or Pakistan) now politically and economically, if not militarily, dominates the situation and cements its claim to Kashmir, while evading damaging diplomatic and economic repercussions. The Prime Minister of the other country, smarting from this defeat, is undeterred and resolves to use it as an example of insult and conspiracy, to stoke further nationalist feeling at home.10.0 OPTIONAL RULES10.1 Sudden Death 10.11 Sudden Death One. If you don’t care for “last-turn madness”, if the Joker is revealed for the second time during the Card Draw Phase, then the game immediately ends in that Phase and players compare VP totals.10.12 Sudden Death Two. There are three Progress Tracks on the Player Aid Card, one for each Front. At the beginning of the game, place a marker in the “start” space on each Track. In the Resolution Segment of each turn, the player with the higher total on each Front that is not indicated for scoring moves the marker one box towards “their” end of the Track (IN = India, PK = Pakistan). The losing player still loses 1 Victory Point, and no change if there is a tie. If a player has all three markers in the box marked with “victory” for their country at the end of the Final Phase of any turn, they win a Smashing Victory regardless of the relative levels of Victory Points. (This represents some kind of “breakthrough” from the sum of smaller actions that defuses the crisis in the player’s favour.)10.2 What kind of victory? Players may wish to note on scrap paper what Fronts they scored VP on, and how many, during play to help them construct a narrative of the nature of their victory. Was it a mostly diplomatic match won handily, or did kinetic military action carry the day? 10.3 The Red and the BlackWhen making up the Resource Deck, divide the A-10 cards into red and black decks and give one to each player (black Indian, red Pakistani). Each turn in the Resource Card Draw Phase, each player will draw 4 cards from their respective deck.Put the Joker in the Event Deck; the first time it is revealed, lay it aside and draw the next Event Card. In the Housekeeping Segment, shuffle it into the as yet unplayed Event Cards, then players shuffle their discarded cards into their Resource Decks as in 8.31. End the game on the turn the Joker is revealed for the second time. This is a less exciting way to play since each player always knows they will get 4 usable cards each turn, and without giving or getting any signal as to what cards the other player may have drawn – but it might give them a feeling of greater control over events. 10.4 DIYThis game is simple and free-form enough that players should be able to make the game more or less difficult for either player, or to better reflect their view of how the crisis played out in real life or could have done. This can be done by altering such game parameters as fiddling with the overall numbers of cards in the Resource Deck, rewriting or substituting the effects of the Event Cards, granting some VP to one player or the other at start, and so on. 11.0 DESIGNER’S NOTESNathaniel Brunt emailed me out of the blue one day, in response to a presentation I gave in 2018 on “Game Design as Journalism” (). He suggested that perhaps we could collaborate on a game on the Kashmiri insurgency, as another practical exercise on the topic. For the sake of coming up with a quick, simple game, we decided to focus on the February 2019 Pulwama Attack.Nathaniel has years of experience in travelling, researching, writing and photographing the Kashmir region, so he supplied the content. I got the notion of using a deck of ordinary playing cards as a development from two other games I had designed on border crises, Ukrainian Crisis (2014) and The Little War (2017). The result is this fast little game that we hope will give you some exposure and insight into some of the tensions at work in Kashmir.12.0 HISTORICAL BACKGROUNDThe following is an excerpt from a brief essay by Nathaniel Brunt that gives context to the nature and development of the Pulwama Attack:"In February 2019, the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley was once again at the forefront of international news headlines after a suicide bomb was detonated beside a convoy of Indian security forces, killing over 40 soldiers. The driver of the car in which the bomb was mounted was a 20-year-old Kashmiri named Adil Dar, part of the Deobandi Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Dar’s attack was the worst single incident of militant violence in the region in the last 30 years. Soon after the bombing, India blamed Pakistan for supporting it, and in the following weeks launched an aerial bombing attack on alleged JeM training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in which a Indian Air Force jet was destroyed and its pilot captured by the Pakistan military. The bombings were the first Indian air force incursion into Pakistani airspace since 1971 and were a drastic escalation of military tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries, bringing them to the brink of war. But there were also broader political forces operating behind the events. In Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was elected in 2018, was eager to appear in control even with while facing massive economic problems at home. In India, Khan’s counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, faced coming elections and used the bombing, and revenge for it, to shore up political support amid public outrage over the attack. War was averted after the return of the captured Indian pilot and calls for restraint from Pakistan’s close allies, China and the United States. Under the Trump administration, US foreign policy has increasingly shifted away from Pakistan to India as a means to contain growing Chinese influence in Asia. The incident revealed the fragility of bilateral relations between the two countries and the impact of domestic events in Kashmir on broader regional and international relations. Simultaneously, the attack revealed a broader trend in the Kashmir Valley, a steadily growing number of disillusioned local youth who have turned to extreme ideological factions within the militancy."DESIGN CREDITSGame Design: Brian TrainResearch and Development: Nathaniel BruntCover image: ??Nathaniel Brunt, 2014. "The view towards the India/Pakistan border from the?Sadhna?Pass, Kupwara. The border between the two countries, known as the ‘Line of Control’, is one of the most militarized regions in the world." ................
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