Experience the Beginning of the Vietnam War, Explore British Counterinsurgency, and Shape Urban Life in the South Bronx

Building off of Mark Herman and Volko Runke’s legendary game Fire in the Lake, the Sovereign of Discord expansion provides a prequel to the events depicted in the base game, covering the years 1961-1963. The expansion allows players to see how the war escalated from an insurgency between ARVN and Viet Cong, assisted by the US and North Vietnam, to the eventual conventional interventions by North Vietnam and the United States at the start of the base game. New scenarios allow players to extend the game backward to 1961 right after the formation of the Viet Cong, or to 1963 during the tumultuous last year of the Diem regime. Players owning both expansions, Sovereign of Discord and Fall of Saigon, will be able to experience the full Indochina War from 1961 to 1975. This allows players to see how the war evolved from the lower intensity insurgency of the Diem period all the way to the massive conventional offensives of the last years of the war. A copy of Fire in the Lake will be necessary to play the Sovereign of Discord expansion.


New mechanics are introduced to reflect the war prior to escalation by the US and North Vietnam and the unique aspects of the Diem Regime:
---• 1961 and 1963 Scenarios with a Fall of Diem Sequence allow players to continue play into the Fire in the Lake Campaign Scenario (1964-1972), or even through to Fall of Saigon (1973-1975) if players also possess the sequel expansion.
---• New ARVN Strategic Hamlet pieces and mechanics reflect the Diem regime’s strategy of relocating the population into fortified villages.
---• Hanoi and Washington Tracks control the number of available pieces and some abilities of the Viet Cong and ARVN factions. In addition, rather than possessing Troops, the US and NVA each use Advisor pieces, which allow them to enhance and control the units of their South Vietnamese allies.
---• A Regime Stability Track affects the cost of ARVN Operations to model the rising urban instability and coup plotting against the Ngo Dinh Diem regime.
---• A head-to-head 2 player scenario uses the Initiative system from Brian Train’s Colonial Twilight for players wanting to focus on the internal clash between the Viet Cong and ARVN, and might also be suitable as an introductory scenario for players new to Fire in the Lake.
---• 72 new Events cover the 1961-1963 period, and four new Pivotal Events represent debates in Washington and Hanoi over their level of aid, the Strategic Hamlet Program by the Diem regime, and the major summer offensive by the Viet Cong. In addition, a new ARVN leader Card, Ngo Dinh Diem, is in play throughout the early 1960s scenarios and new Coup! Events reflect threats to Diem’s hold on power.
---• A solitaire system using the card-based Non-player system, similar to those provided with the Tr’ung Bot Update Pack and Fall of Saigon.

Fire in the Lake Bonus Content
In addition to extending Fire in the Lake back to the early 1960s, Sovereign of Discord also includes additional bonus content for the base game:
---• 40 new Events (8 new 1964 Events, 16 new 1965 Events, 16 new 1968 Events) covering themes such as women’s role in the war, civilian victimization, the effect of the war on South Vietnamese society, North Vietnamese strategies, and the 1964 escalation debate. Among the new Events is also one new Capability Event for each faction.
---• Two new short scenarios:
Turning Point (1967 to 1969), covering the period of fiercest offensives by both communist and allied forces to win control of the countryside.
Long 1964 (Mid 1963 to Early 1965), covering the period that historian Frederick Logevall refers to as the “long 1964,” representing the crucial escalation debates in North Vietnam and the United States.

The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire is the first of several COIN multipacks, containing four separate games exploring a series of thematically related insurgencies. Between 1945 and 1960, the British fought four major “emergencies”, as they referred to their counterinsurgency campaigns, each trying to manage their retreat from empire.


The four games in this pack focus on exploring British counterinsurgent responses to a variety of different opponents, including communist insurgents in Malaya, militant nationalists in Kenya, and smaller and more clandestine terrorist organizations in Palestine and Cyprus. The games adjust the core COIN mechanics to provide a compelling new way of handling two-player conflicts, while also streamlining several mechanics to quicken gameplay. The British Way offers an approachable introduction to the COIN series for new players, while presenting experienced players with four mechanically distinct games to explore and compare.

Cross Bronx Expressway is the third game in the Irregular Conflicts Series. It simulates the socio-economic processes of urban development, and the human costs that result, as a competitive city-builder with collective loss conditions. Players control one of three asymmetric factions working in the South Bronx between 1940 and 2000, pursuing their own goals while cooperating to keep the borough viable. Through a card driven sequence of play, they will work to solve the economic challenges facing the area by building infrastructure and organizations, forming coalitions, mitigating the multitude of issues facing the vulnerable population, and managing resources to stay out of debt.

Cross Bronx Expressway offers an engaging way to learn about the recent history of American cities, as exemplified by Jane Jacobs’ pivotal work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, simulated through the case study of the South Bronx. Players will experience the conflicting incentives and complex factors shaping urban life, and together determine the fate of the Bronx.


The gameplay is driven by a deck of event cards which determines turn order, and then players spend resources to take actions on map spaces. The game ends after the event deck is exhausted, or earlier if certain conditions are met. Players score victory points at regular periods during the game, and the player with the most points at the end of the game wins (unless an auto-loss condition for all players is met).