What would an American Civil War look like in the modern age? That’s what this board game from publisher Compass Games aims to show, using cards and dice to simulate how a rebellion against the US government might play out in real life.
Created last year, 2040: An American Insurgency raised more than $11,000 on Kickstarter – not bad for a game with such old school vibes. It’s a typical COIN (COunterINsurgency) style game, characterized by asymmetrical factions, cardplay, and an aesthetic that… well let’s just say it favors function over form a lot more than the famous names in our best board games list.
In An American Insurgency, one player takes on the role of the Federals, backing the government, while the other leads an insurgency of Rebels. Though the game’s designer, economist and media professor Edward Castronova has said its creation was inspired by unrest leading up to and during Trump’s first presidential term, the final product focuses on “the mechanics of conflict only”
Just as the recent Alex Garland film, Civil War, shows the horrors of conflict without allowing people to pick sides (by putting California and Texas on the same team) this board game avoids the particulars of current tensions in American politics. As the Kickstarter campaign explains, the game was designed to be an accurate model “not to make political statements of one kind or another”.
That said, two scenarios are offered up in the rulebook. In one, rebellion emerges from rural areas in the South and Midwest US, while in the other it comes from coastal urban centers.
The game also exists in two forms, a pared down version intended as a 30-minute classroom exercise, and the more detailed game which is commercially available and takes 1.5 – 3 hours to play. The latter has more complicated systems, involving social media and modern cyberwarfare.
According to Castronova’s website, in which he describes 2040: An American Insurgency as “a game design/research project”, the “basic findings” are that “a civil war in this country and at this time would not be swift or tidy. It would be awful: A guerilla-style conflict that lasts for decades.” Presumably then this is not a fun family board game, or light, beer-and–pretzels affair.
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Source: Wargamer
