Red Dust Rebellion

When the group arrived at the familiar choice of “since you’re vetoing the trains, we’ll play COIN,” Red Dust Rebellion was the heavy and rather unhealthy option for the table. Still, I wanted to play it calmly and with a clear head: it feels like one of the most complex entries in the series, perhaps alongside Pendragon, and possibly one of the most balanced as well. After all, with no historical basis to constrain it, it can—obviously—do its own thing.

The game rests on a particularly odd distribution of roles and alliances. The economic faction is symbiotically bound to the government faction, in a way reminiscent of Distant Plain; opposing them is a FARC-like rebel side alongside the local reactionaries. And then there is the completely unhinged, fully asymmetric faction, clearly built to evoke Dune’s Fremen and spread havoc.

The interaction comes precisely from that asymmetry: the powers do not simply move in opposing directions, but depend on one another in strange ways and pressure the same system from different sides. On paper, this looks like a recipe for failure. In play, almost miraculously, it all meshes extremely well. The difficulty remains high, with the corporate faction in particular demanding serious familiarity before it starts working properly.

It may be the best COIN I have played so far—I think China is the only one I am still missing. At the same time, it is also the hardest, so this is not something I would casually put on the table. Even so, it was an amazing experience, and we will play it again soon, before we need to refresh the rules all over again.