Has anybody tried to "not-wagame" Protest Marches, Riots etc.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have been watching the news with interest. I am still not sure whether this is going to be better as a boardgame or a wargame. I haven't bought anything or built anything yet.

Today, Extinction Rebellion protesters are blocking major intersections and bridges in London, Amsterdam, Sydney and many other cities around the world. They are pre prepared with vehicles (one case a hearse and in another case a van with a horse box) that they stop at a junction and then jump out and chain themselves to it. London protests are quite polite (posh even) but the police are gentle but firm and are arresting them and moving them away. This feels like it would work as a boardgame with lots of incident cards (like Chance in Monopoly).

Hong Kong is quite different. There are two levels - in the daytime you have peaceful marches, and then in the evening the militant young adults fight the police. The Police are much more brutal with tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and even real firearms. The tougher the government and police are, the tougher the reaction from the protesters. The protesters are using clubs, throwing bricks and Molotov cocktails and setting up barricades. The protesters are also doing significant damage to property. As somebody commented earlier in the thread, this could almost be done as a dark age's wargame.

[Dr. Zombie]

A few years back someone did a German beer riot game at Tactica. Based on an actual riot over the prices of beer. The goal was to reach the brewery with your mob at the correct level of "drunkenness" To sober and they would loose their will to riot and to drunk they lost their ability to riot.

It was great fun.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have decided to go ahead with this in N Gauge - which is 1:150 so should be the same as Pendraken figures.

I have just bought 50 cars, 2 juggernauts, 6 single decker buses, 200 civilians and 56 police from Chinese traders on Ebay for £27 including P&P.
I expect they will take about 4 weeks to arrive in the post.

These will be the basis for the crowd, police units, police vehicles, civilian vehicles, a water cannon truck and burnt out wrecks.
I already have some Pendraken SF Marine figures to make riot police and survivors to represent militant protesters.

I will start to develop my thoughts into an actual game.

[robh]

You are going to need plenty of parks and plazas to battle over otherwise city streets with tall buildings on each side will make player access difficult in that small scale.
Or use an indicative "tall" building of only a few storeys.

Will be interested to see how your set develops.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

For the start, I will draw a map of central London on a tablecloth. I plan to squeeze the horizontal scale down so that I have Buckingham Palace (West edge) to Trafalgar Square (North edge) to Parliament (South edge) and Westminster Bridge (East edge). This gives a lot of famous places to protest in front of.

I think this will fit onto 180cm x 120cm and allow the roads to be 25mm wide per traffic lane - so that the Mall is 150m wide, major roads are 100m wide and minor roads 50mm wide. This should work with 1:150 scale N Gauge vehicles and figures.

The crowd will be on 50mm square bases with possibly 15 figures per base. Some bases will have banners and placards.

I will probably not have buildings for home use, but I am sure it could make a spectacular convention game.

[robh]

Sounds like a good solution.

Have you got one of these for clearing the crusties from the streets?
http://spur-n.com/fahrzeug31/tomyteccvc01g.jpg

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I have just started to draw this to scale in Excel. I realised that this is actually quite a huge project so I will start with a small part (Parliament to Trafalgar Square) to do the testing.

I have also found some kits to make the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace.

Here is one of the Parliament kits
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kurio-16971-0-Londons-Parliament-Monument/dp/B01J5NIQBM/ref=pd_sbs_21_10?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01J5NIQBM&pd_rd_r=1d285aee-9365-4903-b8ad-926f9125167c&pd_rd_w=NVa56&pd_rd_wg=sKBx2&pf_rd_p=cc188cba-1892-42b3-956f-6c67d0ab7a00&pf_rd_r=DVHJWK1Q95MFG0M5N6KY&psc=1&refRID=DVHJWK1Q95MFG0M5N6KY

Here is Buckingham Palace
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CubicFun-Buckingham-Palace-London-Puzzle/dp/B00D2PXJYY/ref=pd_bxgy_21_3/259-3564165-0232309?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00D2PXJYY&pd_rd_r=7700542c-eb20-4997-a2c5-4ab19b544254&pd_rd_w=jvgeT&pd_rd_wg=HqTwu&pf_rd_p=31fcc995-2418-43ae-a37c-f1ef453a46b3&pf_rd_r=JHA6A4P6MYTE9WQ19VJP&psc=1&refRID=JHA6A4P6MYTE9WQ19VJP

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Economist article about the organisational structure of Extinction Rebellion.

https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/10/10/how-the-anarchists-of-extinction-rebellion-got-so-well-organised?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/powerandprotesthowtheanarchistsofextinctionrebelliongotsowellorganisedbritain&fbclid=IwAR073jmqC1ux_H5iLXqgqqHuFOELwhFBqf5EO2WqtrSmBh1mC5yoOU_aegI

[monkeylite]

I can recall Civil Disorder, which covered more or less the kind of encounters you talked about.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66654/civil-disorder

Thanks, I might give this a go.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Interesting article on BBC news

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-50123743

[monkeylite]

Thanks, I might give this a go.

So I did give this a go, and have made a report about it below. I am now looking forward to running it properly over xmas.









https://tewblogger.blogspot.com/2019/11/civil-disorder-trial-1.html
https://tewblogger.blogspot.com/2019/11/civil-disorder-trial-2.html

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

@Monkeylite

That looks amazing - well done

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Idea to game civil protests. N gauge model railway vehicles and figures. 20p to show how small this is.



These ready painted vehicles and figures come from China and cost peanuts.
The crowd bases are 40mm x 40mm. The figures will be repainted at some point.

However, the figures have small feet so they have very little strength when glued on a base.
In the foreground on the right are some Pendraken space marines who are metal gaming figures and much more robust.

[monkeylite]

They look cool. What rules did you decide to use?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I am trying to develop my own rules but without much success.