Cuba Libre - Tutorial & History Lesson

[Music] foreign [Music] my name is Joe and thank you for tuning in to what does that piece do this is a video series where I explore history through analog games and today I'm going to take you through Cuba Libra so this is game number two in the coin series there's designed by Jeff Grossman and volca runke released on GMT games in 2013. the coin series is counter Insurgency game so conflict simulators where you've got multiple factions all vying for different ideas of Victory here so it's a really great system to learn and this is a great entry way into it so there's about 10 different games and Counting as of this recording right now so learning this game is a really great way for you to learn an entire system that unlocks other games for you to play down the road too my goal today is to teach you this game as quickly and efficiently as possible and also teach some history along the way and I've got a little segment called this piece changes history where I focus on a very particular piece of the game now I know there's quite a few other videos out there about this game but some of them can be pretty long some of them are entire playthroughs are like hours long I've got my teach down to about 45 minutes so if you did want to jump to that right away you just came to learn the game or someone sent you this video say hey you should check this out because I want to play this with you you got the time stamps below you can get right to it because I'm going to touch on a little bit of History first but some of those other videos are really great to watch if you've got the time namely the watch it played how to play guys Rodney and Matthew they go through the entire Playbook here which basically it's a step-by-step guide that takes you through a quarter of the game if you have the right people around you if you had three others that wanted to really learn this game this is a great way to learn you know I'd really recommend doing it but otherwise if you want something quick and efficient that's what I set to do today by the way um I want to give a shout out right now to Rodney from how to play Team um he lives in a part of Canada that was just hit really hard by Hurricane Fiona recovering from that it's okay but I guess he's lost power for now so he's kind of out of loop for a little bit meanwhile the island of Cuba itself is recovering from uh hurricane Ian so and that also hits some of the southern states so either in the entire um island of Cuba so without power for a bit as of right now I think they're still recovering from that so really thinking about all those folks you guys are in my thoughts right now I hope you can all recover and get back to a normal life sometime soon so I'm thinking about you hang in there so let's set the contacts here for the Cuban Revolution in 1950s Cuba it wasn't really a great place for well Cubans uh in fact as much as 75 of the land at this point is being owned by Foreign interests uh Havana the capital it pretty much become a playground for Rich foreigners it was a major tourist destination with casinos primarily run by the American Mafia which was making big cash but meanwhile regular Cubans were fighting for scraps some locals were getting work in casinos but those jobs are few and far between and it would potentially get you mixed up with organized crime more on that in a little bit though there was overall a big American presence in Cuba at this point uh one that had been established as far back as the 1800s when the first Cuban Revolution took place when the island shed the chains of Spanish colonial rule with a marginal amount of help from the Americans at the time if anything the American presence you know it hindered some of the local Rebels efforts at the time but that didn't really stop the American Military back then for claiming some undue credit and establishing today what is Guantanamo Bay where there are still U.S military bases anyway back to the 50s you've essentially got a military dictator in charge by the name of fujencio Batista he said as president back in the 40s he went to live in the U.S for a while and invest in real estate even for a bit but he came back and his regime took Power by a coup in the early 50s this was supposed to be you know a man of a people he grew up poor before joining the Army and rising to the ranks uh to the top spot in power but he was essentially in the pocket of the American mafioso mainly Meyer Lansky the man that basically built the casino and tourism scene in Cuba all of this was about to change though student uprisings were taking place across the country this was in response to Batista's disruption of you know legitimate elections that had taken place before he had seized power so there's the Centrist movement which would become known as the directorio it really lacked and he solved leadership that would uh you know give their specific movement the strength and the momentum to upset Batista meanwhile an upstart revolutionary by the name of Fidel Castro begin kicking up a fuss in opposition to the military dictatorship as well in summer 53 Fidel along with his brother Raul they attempted to take over the moncada army barracks near Santiago de Cuba but that was thwarted Fidel was arrested but then he was later released by Batista when he was exiled to Mexico where he met another up-and-coming revolutionary a pharmacist by the name of sheegivera together they'd lead the Socialist July 26 movement they are named after the date of the moncada attacks and they'd rally guerrillas across the country with their bases mainly in the Sierra Madre Mountains in the east of the island by late 50s the Cuban government the July 26 movement their directorio and even the mafia Syndicate in Cuba they had lots to gain or lose in the Restless Nation what was going to take place over the next couple of years so Cuba Libra is a battle between these four factions right you've got the government representing Batista's ruling party also known as the counter-insurgency faction you've got the July 26th movement that represents Castro and his gorillas the directorio which is the moderate faction trying to wrestle power from Bautista but not letting Castro and his movement take over both of those factions are known as the insurgents to factions and finally we have The Syndicate which represents the mafia that controls the casinos and makes fat stacks of cash from all forms of Tourism the government is going to be trying to maintain power their Victory is tied to the total support across the whole map July 26th is trying to destabilize the government so their Victory comes from opposition which as you can imagine is the polar opposite to support plus the number of their bases that are actually on the map directorio is aiming for just overall presence which is uh enough control over enough map spaces as well as their established bases on the map and The Syndicate can win from having enough open casinos and cash overall so now you've got the background so let's hit the board let's hit those cards let's go or as they say in Cuba vamanos [Music] each faction has a unique set of actions they can perform or they may choose to activate an event from the events cards in the deck that controls the flow of the game players don't take these cards into their hand they're always exposed and they drive the game there are some cards that the government player may take for a few rounds but those are always faced up for all to see more on that later the cards also tells us who gets to play First on each card there are a total of four propaganda cards spread throughout the deck which will cause the game to pause check and see if any player has met their Victory conditions and if not then every faction can Shore up resources and potentially take a few actions before a reset takes place and then you proceed with play drawing more events cards until the next propaganda card comes up I'll get into events and propaganda cards in a bit I just mentioned this here to point out that the game isn't over as soon as a player meets the threshold for their specific Victory condition the game can only possibly end when a propaganda card is revealed and a player has reached that Victory condition you'll see shortly how support opposition control and established spaces and open casinos are represented and affected on the map of Cuba Libra but for now know that all four of those things are tracked along the top of the board among other things like the number of resources each faction has with these round cylinders note also that the factions are aiming for different quantitative levels of their specific Victory condition so government is aiming for a support level of 19 and for all cities to be at active support July 26th needs opposition plus the number of their bases on the map to Total 16 or more to win directorio needs the population of their controlled spaces plus the number of their bases on the map to be 10 or more and Syndicate needs to have at least eight open casinos plus their resources need to exceed 30. each faction has a certain number and type of pieces that are placed to move around on the map that will help them achieve their Victory conditions and thwart the other players from reaching theirs government has cubes which represent troops and police and these discs are government bases that's just two of those these pieces all serve different roles to maintain order police will mostly stick to the cities and by the bases and troops are effective in exposing and removing the Insurgent gorillas in the provinces and bases help keep these troops embedded in the countryside July 26 in directorio have the gorillas which are these hex cylinders and a bunch of bases you knowledge the gorillas have a blank side which is the underground side thus they're hidden to government troops and the active side has a respective symbols which means they're exposed to troops activities gorillas become active throat play and in some cases these factions will need underground gorillas to even execute certain actions The Syndicate has just a handful of gorillas as well with both underground and active sides but in certain situations they'll be able to make use of the government cubes including moving them around on the map most of the Syndicate pieces are the casinos and unlike the other faction spaces they're two-sided with a blank side which represents closed in the symbol side means an open Casino all of these wooden bits are pieces which is important to call out is some of the events and actions that can be taken by the players may make reference to Pieces which includes the bits representing people and bases and casinos but otherwise the instructions should specify to say cubes meaning any government piece if not specifically naming police or troops or gorillas meaning any type of gorilla from the various factions as mentioned all pieces are meant to be placed on the map and if they're not on the map then they're in the respective players available boxes the map of Cuba has specific areas for cities and provinces provinces have different train types that may affect how some actions play out cities and provinces have boxes where overall support opposition and control is marked as it shifts back and forth and these three spaces which are economic centers they're specifically for the government players that gather more resources during the propaganda rounds that you'll learn more about soon all cities and provinces have a population number those are multipliers for control support and opposition that contribute to the faction's victory conditions economic centers often refer to ECS in the game have an econ value let's first talk about control certain actions and directorials overall Victory condition are determined by individual controls of the cities and provinces on the map control is determined by the faction that has the most pieces total in the space that's greater than the combined other pieces from the other factions in that same space an empty space is therefore uncontrolled but let's say this loan July 26 gorilla moved into kamagoy Province now it's under July 26 control if a single directorial gorilla moved into that space it would be uncontrolled again because the two cancel each other out but if two directorials came in then the directorial would have control but if there was a July 26 base already there before those directorials came in then that's two for both sides so again uncontrolled now let's say five government troops come flying in and now the space is under government control because that five is more than the four already there from the other two factions all pieces in bases included count for control The Only Exception is the syndicates casinos those need to be opened to count for control so here's a lone Syndicate gorilla a close casino and a lone directorial gorilla the space is uncontrolled since it's one for one but if that casino opens then now it's under Syndicate control as mentioned certain actions may require control of the space which is just simply is it controlled or not but directorial scores overall points for the total population controlled by that faction across the entire map along with a number of their bases on the map the they start the game with one gorilla and cowboy and no other pieces so they have control of that space and only that space at the start so their score to start things off is one if directorio takes control of another space with population 1 their Victory marker goes up one space if it's a population two then it'll go up two spaces likewise it'll move down if control is taken away either neutralized to the uncontrolled or another faction moves in enough pieces in or eliminates the directorial pieces for that faction to then take control it's really important to do this as you go Mark things along the top track but at any point you just might want to stop and tally up and verify the control spaces on the map to make sure that the track is accurate note that all cities and provinces have the same stacking limit which is a maximum of two non-casino bases in a space as well as a maximum of two casinos however there is just one event that allows to break that rule and it says ignore stacking limit right on it so control is pretty straightforward let's talk about support and opposition the box next to the indicator that shows control of the region tells us the support or opposition level in that Province or City both of which can be passive or active remember government wants support but the July 26 movement wants opposition so say and La Vie with a population of two that was set to passive support well that counts as a total of two support which favors the government if it's moved up to active support by government action or some sort of event then that's a total of four support from that Province alone tracked with a marker along the track July 26 is going to try to shift that in the other direction towards opposition each shift counts as one step from active support to passive support to neutral so no points for either the government or July 26th then to passive opposition so now it's starting to count two opposition total for July 26th and then act of opposition in this case the two population times two so four opposition points total for the July 26 Victory condition those two poisoning factions Count Their points from overall support or control across the entire map all cities and provinces tallied together and using the population as a multiplier basically anytime support or opposition shifts up or down even to neutral either government or the July 26th player score will change each faction will need to spend these generic resources to conduct most of their actions July 26 in directorio's actions all cost one resource per space wherever the action takes place so they can spend multiple resources in one turn most of the syndic kits cost one resource as well but there's some more expensive actions like building and opening casinos that costs five and the bribing special activity costs three Syndicate is the only faction that has their Victory conditions tied to how many resources they have when there's a victory check essentially representing cash for that faction the government's action costs are variable is either two three or four per action per space and that's determined by the US Aid marker this starts the game at two so actions start cheaper for the government but as you'll see that age starts to fall off and things get more expensive for the government all factions have actions that allow them to recoup and collect resources and more can be collected based on the board State during the propaganda rounds and players can even pass when it's their turn they'll gain three resources when the government player passes or one resource for any other player faction that passes on their turn okay so now we've figured out what these pieces do and what support control is on the board but now what do you do with that information well every faction is going to have an opportunity to perform operations and special activities they're all outlined in this special player Aid which shows all the different factions all the things that they can do everyone gets a copy of one of these what you have here is the operations that you're going to be able to take more often than not sometimes we'll be paired with special activities now when you're selecting an operation you're only doing one type of operation and you could be doing it in multiple spaces but only once per space on that turn like I say sometimes you could pair it with the special activities there's certain conditions of what can happen where how much it costs what the outcome is depending upon the scenario or even the terrain so just read that uh fine print here very carefully I'm going to cover these pretty quickly just so you know what they do and kind of what you're going to be doing on the board but again you're always going to have this by your side when you're playing the game and you'll have a copy that has every players every factions operations and special activities even along with the victory conditions so you can keep track of who's doing what so you know what may be coming next let's take a look at those now the first operation you'll notice is Rally this is how the insurgents get more of their pieces on the board the game starts with some out there but players will want to start dumping gorillas onto the island of Cuba to get the job done so the cost of one resource per space July 26th can select any spaces without support so they can either be at neutral or any level of opposition likewise directorio can select spaces that are neutral or either passive support or opposition remember they're more Centrist they can't go into the extreme territories that are at active support or act of opposition either side May Place one gorilla or replace two Gorillas with a base moving those replaced gorillas back into their available forces pool or if there's already a base there July 26 can place twice the population plus twice the number of bases whereas directorial can place gorillas equal to the population plus the number of bases in that space another option if there is a base either side could flip any active Grille as they have there to underground thus hiding them from government forces or getting them ready for another action you'll learn about shortly just remember you can only do one of these things once in any given space on a turn there's no adding gorillas and if you have the resources removing those gorillas to place a base in that same space I'll pause here to mention that any gorillas and any pieces at all need to come from the player's available pool first if all the pieces of that type are already deployed they may treat any pieces on the board as available thus moving them from one map space to another the next operation to highlight for the insurgents is March which allows the insurgents to move guerrillas from one space to an adjacent space each destination space will cost one resource except these economic centers which don't cost anything however if either July 26 or directorio moves spaces into a space with any level of support or if its spaces and economic Center and the total gorilla is moving plus a number of cubes in that space already if that number exceeds three then all the gorillas are activated basically you're rolling in deep in the collective presence of Cubes police and troops in that space means your gorillas are spotted so let's take a look at these options July 26 can March these two gorillas into Las Villa from matanzas with three troops but there's no support so they're okay but if it was two troops and pass the support there those gorillas are exposed because that's exceeding the three pieces they could instead March two gorillas into La Habana Province and bring in these other two from Havana City without flipping active and there's no cubes there it would only cost one resource because that's just one destination okay here's where things get ugly at some point the insurgents are going to want to start removing the other factions pieces to gain control of the space or just get them out of the mix July 26 in directorio can attack any other faction including each other for one resource per location in that location or locations all the gorillas are set to their active side if they're not already that doesn't mean there needs to be any underground gorillas present at the space to begin with they're just all going to be active at the end of this turn the player rules their single colored die and if the rule is equal to or less than the number of gorilla pieces they remove two of the targeted factions pieces but it's always cubes and gorillas before the bases the government cubes will protect any casinos so if the player rules a one they'll get to place when their gorillas in that space as well oh and if one of the targeted pieces has cash the attackers can take that those will be explained with the syndicates operations in a little bit and now things get uglier is the insurgents start to sow Terror across Cuba again one resource for each space unless it's an economic Center then no cost but it will require at least one underground gorilla that gorilla gets flipped to active a terror marker gets placed in the city or Province and then July 26 can shift the support opposition one level towards active opposition directorial when taking the operation will shift once towards neutral again this is their way of controlling the game and taking away support from the gov or opposition from the July 26th movement without pushing it into the other direction Terror happens in an economic Center than a sabotage marker is placed there you'll see why that's important shortly so those are the two factions operations and sometimes they'll even be able to pair one operation which may take place in multiple spaces with one special activity in just one space note that only certain pairings can happen for July 26th they can match Rally or march with infiltrate which allows them to swap out a government cube with one of their own attack can be paired with Ambush which guarantees success in the attack location without having to even roll the die that will only activate one underground gorilla and they'll be able to place another gorilla along with removing two of the target pieces and Terror can be combined with kidnap which allows a transfer of a die roll and resources from The Syndicate if it's a space with a casino or from the government if it's a city but gorillas have to exceed police in that space to get away with that directorial May pair rally in March with subvert which is a way of collecting resources equal to the population of the province where the special activity takes place and also we get to set the province's space to neutral attack like July 26 can be paired with Ambush to ensure the victory without even rolling the die and with Terror they can assassinate to remove one more enemy piece I covered all those pretty quickly so just be sure to check the location conditions and what can be paired with what in the action menu so that's the chaos that the insurgents can cause let's take a look at those counterinsurgent operations that the government can execute like the rally function for the insurgents train is how to get more government cubes on the board for the costs as determined by U.S Aid level the gov can place up to four police or troops in any cities or in provinces that have a government base you can do it in as many spaces as you can afford and then replace two cubes with a base in any one space or if a space has police troops and government control they can buy a Civic action that would shift one step towards actual support in the space or if there's a tear marker it would remove the terror so think of Terror as a shield against shifting support or opposition basically the people in this region have the fear in them and they aren't going to change their minds about who they support without a little extra help there's no reason there should be that much Terror on anyone's based on the board at any given time if you have that much terror you're doing it wrong it's too much tear and it's not called out on the action menu it's mentioned in the rule book as part of the propaganda round but Civic action always costs four resources for the government Garrison is an operation that will help the government re-secure those economic centers per U.S Alliance pay the cost to move any cubes to any economic centers or cities and for each Cube moving into that space that will activate one gorilla that's already in that space on top of that the government will be allowed to conduct one assault in an economic Center which is removing one active Guerrilla for every troop now in the space remember the government's going to want to start getting gorillas out of there they don't want to be outnumbered when the propaganda round comes around sweep is the operation that will expose the gorillas for each space pay the cost as per us Alliance then the government can bring in troops from adjacent spaces than for every cube in that space activate one gorilla unless it's a force then activate one for every two cubes bringing in troops from an adjacent space isn't necessary to execute the operation but you can do that if you need to otherwise just sweep in place grilles that are activated can now be from any faction you can even activate a mix of gorillas they're now going to be exposed and subject to the final operation which is assault once again paying the cost per the U.S Alliance government can assault which removes one active gorilla for every troop Cube present in the provinces and even bases if all those factions gorillas are now being removed if it's a mountain Province then it's one gorilla being removed for every two troops or in a city or economic center it's one for every Cube so this time including police like the insurgents the government may now have the opportunity to pair an operation with a special activity those include transport which is moving three troops from a city or a base to any one space that's the only special activity that can be paired with just train all our other operations can be paired with any special activity airstrike will take out an active gorilla or a base if there's no gorillas left in that Province or economic Center this activity is not available if the U.S alliances on the bottom space and finally reprisal will allow a government to shift a government-controlled space towards neutral but not towards support and relocate a gorilla from that space to an adjacent space but it'll add a terror marker to that space that was another Whirlwind tour of special activities so make sure you read the fine print in the actions menu looking at Syndicate now they're technically insurgents as well and share some similarities with July 26 and directorio there's a big departure in some of the operations because well they're all about the money in opening those money machines the casinos Syndicate can rally similar to the others but there's no basis to multiply the number of gorillas place there's only six gorillas total for this faction in the whole game but rally can happen anywhere for Syndicate no restrictions on support or oppositions levels and open casinos do allow to flip gorillas underground rather than placing new ones March is also similar right down to flipping the grill is active if the space is they're moving into has cubes and a total number of marching gorillas plus cubes exceeds three in that destination space construct is an operation that is unique to The Syndicate it's the only one that costs five resources to either place a closed Casino or open a closed one since you can only do this once in any space on any given turn you'll be placing a closed one on one turn and then potentially opening it on a lighter turn once on the map closed casinos cannot be removed by an attack or an assault but open ones can be closed and remember the stacking rule at most two casinos can be placed in any one Province or city with the only one exception from a specific event card and terror is once again similar to the other insurgents factions most in common with the directorio doing so and paying one resource per space adds a Terra marker and shifts opposition or support one step towards neutral like the directorial they're trying to stop the gov or July 26 from getting too close to Victory or again if they're in an economic Center then that place gets a sabotage The Syndicate special activities are quite unique to this faction as well profit is how these cash tokens interplay in up to two spaces with open casinos Syndicate can place one of these with their gorilla or with a government Cube these are good for a single limited operation so that's an op in just one space during a player's turn where they're only executing operations and not special activities or if held into the propaganda phase that piece can be used to place a base a casino depending upon who's holding it or open a closed Casino or be traded for six extra resources the other option with profit is to close an open casino and trade in any cash in that space for three resources muscle is the special activity that can be used to move troops or police to open casinos to provide protection or to even move troops to economic centers finally bribe is the syndicate's way to pay other factions to just well go away pay three resources and remove government cubes remove or flip gorillas or even remove another factions base now that we understand the pieces the map what the pieces can do on the map let's see how the game is played first set up the pieces on the board as indicated by the board there's these handy symbols showing exactly what goes where as far as pieces and also the control support and opposition levels in each space this is also in the rule book along with the starting resources and victory condition levels for each faction but take a minute to read the board when all the pieces are in place make sure you understand why each space has control Mark the way it is and to add up the support opposition control bases and casinos to see how they add up to those Victory tokens on the track does the math all make sense to you if not maybe you better jump back a few minutes in the video to make sure you understand or dive into rulebook for clarity but otherwise if you're good let's proceed place the US Alliance level at two in this special Aid marker on the victory resource track at 15. this affects the government player and will make more sense in the propaganda round place all the player Pawns in the eligible side of the sequence of playbox and now set up the events deck shuffle all the event cards together then break them into four separate piles with equal numbers of cards place a propaganda card in each Shuffle each then stack them to make your events deck the idea here is to evenly spread the propaganda cards throughout the four different piles of the deck well at least that's what the rulebook says to do I actually prefer to make eight equal piles and put the propaganda in every second deck this just ensures there's a bunch of event cards to play between each propaganda round there's a bit of debate on this in the coin circles some folks love the chaos of prop cards coming up within a few cards of each other but having played a game where the final indecisive propaganda card came up within two cards of the last one I found it to be a bit of a downer either way now you have your events deck set up so reveal the top card and place it next to the event deck and then reveal the next card and just place it on top of the events draw pile you'll be looking at the first card that's off the deck but all players will know what's coming next which is part of the thrill of the game across the top of the event card are symbols that show the sequence of who gets to play first follow that from left to right on the event itself is text that can be executed by the faction that's taking the event unshaded text tends to favor the Insurgent factions but the Shaded text tends to favor the government but to understand who gets to take advantage of that event we need to understand the sequence of play box this sequence of playbox dictates the flow and who gets to do what as all factions begin as eligible the first player of the game is a faction noted in the top left of the event card so that player gets to take any of the boxes just to the right of the eligible box that says first faction on them so those options are operation only so the faction can execute any of those operations on the left side of the player Aid they can execute in as many spaces as they're eligible to perform that operation and that they can afford but they won't be doing any special activities that means the second faction that follows them will only be able to do a limited operation which is just one operation in only one space no matter how they can afford no special activities the first faction May opt to do an operation in multiple spaces with a special activity if they do so the second faction that acts can do a limited operation again just in one space no special activity or they can trigger the event and the final box at the bottom means the first faction will be the one to trigger the event but if they do that means the second faction will tax will get to perform an operation in multiple spaces if possible and a special activity to go with it the final option is simply to pass and collect the resources so that'll be three for the government player one for all other factions so let's look at an example here in this case government is the first eligible player as per the card they don't have much use for the event but they also don't want July 26 to take advantage of the event so the government likes to do operations only so that July 26th is stuck with just a single limited operation in just one space but now because the government player did that July 26 decided they'd wait for the next card since they're the first eligible on that card so July 26 passes for one resource Syndicate will then be eligible so they figure why not let's just do a simple limited operation and probably place a casino to get the ball rolling because that second space is filled that card is done and we move on to the next card slide government in Syndicate pawns over to the ineligible space since they got to execute operations take the revealed card off the top of the deck slide it over to the active event pile and reveal the next card on top of the event draw deck and now July 26 is eligible again since they passed and directorial we'll have the opportunity to follow July 26th on this next card July 26th we'll take the event thus leaving directorio the opportunity to execute some of their operations in as many spaces as they can and also execute a special activity they can of course pass for one resource but it's good to take the operation special activity combo when possible especially if you have the resources if they both take a spot on the sequence of play rather than passing then they'll both be ineligible for the next card and government and Syndicate will then be shifted over to eligible some event cards will say government momentum on them if the government player is able to trigger these events they don't do anything right away but will offer some bonus capabilities when executing operations until the next propaganda card they claim those cards and keep by their play area but not until at the end of the turn when the use of that card is done just to keep track of the turn order there's also these capability cards for any Insurgent factions if those are triggered by the corresponding faction they get those capabilities for the rest of the game there's tokens to indicate that those capabilities are active and they describe the capability as best as they can on such a small space but if you need to hold on to the card to remind you of their unique power feel free to do so again after play on that card is done play continues on this way until a propaganda card becomes the active event so that propaganda card may be revealed on the top of the deck so players know it's coming but only eligible factions for the current card will be able to take advantage make any final moves in Jockey for position as they head into the propaganda round when the propaganda card becomes the active event just keep it on the top of the deck while you resolve the round no one gets to see the next event card coming in order to affect some decisions that may be made during this round now go through these phases there's actually a little marker to keep track of which steps you're at but there's a lot to remember so you'll want to reference the rule book or one of these other handy player AIDS along the way anyway here are the steps check for victory did any of the players reach their Victory conditions if so the game over and congrats the winner if not proceed to the next phase which is the resources phase first off any economic centers that have July 26 or directorial gorillas that outnumber government cubes place this sabotage marker that might just take one grill for that to happen any ECS that are already sabotaged leave them there and now the government player will collect resources equal to the number of unsabotaged economic centers plus the usaid which is the marker on the track which if you recall the beginning of the game starts at 15. the July 26th gets resources equal to the number of bases they have on the map directorial gets resources equal to the number of spaces where they have pieces on the map and Syndicate gets resources equal to the population of each City in econ value of each EC whereas guerrilla's outnumber the police plus they'll get twice the number of open casinos and resources but then the skim happens so for each space with an open Casino that's controlled by another faction The Syndicate has to Fork over two resources to that controlling faction there's an event a Syndicate capability that blocks Us by the way but that's another way that some of these other factions can collect resources beyond the base way that they collect resources now any factions that's controlling any cash that token is stored under one of their pieces on the board they can trade that in for a base or open a casino for The Syndicate or trade that in for six more resources great now everyone is short up on resources next is the support face check to see that the government's total support if it's at 18 or less the U.S Alliance shifts down one box and Aid thus drops by 10 on the track so if it was firm or operations for the government cost only two resources now it's that reluctant and operations will cost three resources if it gets embargoed operations will cost four and they'll no longer have access to the air strike special activity is total support of 18 is nearly the victory condition for lagov you can imagine we'll have a pretty hard time keeping the alliance and Aid up but there's some events to help the government in this respect if they can take advantage of them and now the government gets to perform one of those Civic actions that we mentioned as the potential thing that they can do during the train operation well now they can do as many as they want for four resources in government-controlled cities and provinces that have both police and troops they can remove Terror and once there's no Terror shift one space towards active support in that space so say there's a space at passive opposition with one Terror that would then cost four resources to remove the terror four to shift towards neutral four more to shift to passive support then four more to shift to active support total of 16 resources to do that once the government is done taking advantage of Civic action then the July 26th may do agitation which is basically the opposite of Civic action only costing one resource for July 26 in a space they control they can first remove Terror then shift towards active opposition spending as many resources as they want to do so in as many spaces as they want note that Terror doesn't need to exist in spaces to do Civic actions or agitation it's just an extra layer before support opposition starts to shift then once all the agitation is done directorial gets expat backing which is a free rally action in one space that has neither active support or active opposition so it can be passive or neutral and that no other faction controls it can be a space that is uncontrolled at this point if this was the final propaganda card then that would be the game end but otherwise proceed with the last two phases redeploy is for the government player to do they can first move police to any economic centers or government-controlled spaces then they must move any troops on ECS or in provinces that don't have bases to government-controlled spaces that are either cities or provinces that have bases once that's done they can shift troops around on the map between government-controlled spaces or bases basically by the end of that maneuvering there should only be police and economic centers or government-controlled spaces and troops only in government controlled spaces that have bases or our cities and finally the reset phase all factions become eligible regardless of where they were on the last event card played before the prop card remove any Terror or sabotage markers still on the map government player discards the momentum cards all gorillas are flipped underground and all casinos are open discard that propaganda card keeping it aside so you know how many have come up so far then draw the next card which becomes the active event and reveal the next card on top of the deck to see what's coming up proceed with play thus the game can only end on a propaganda card and it officially ends if and when that fourth and final propaganda card comes up and a note on the final propaganda card when it comes up any players are still eligible on the car before it may only perform a limited operation if they're performing any operations at all if they're triggering the final event they execute that fully but if they're stuck with Lim op and have a cash token available they can execute one more operation if they cash that in when Victory checks happen check everyone's Victory conditions if one player meets that condition they're the winner if multiple players meet the condition whoever most exceeds theirs wins if no one reaches their Victory condition then whoever is closest to theirs on the track wins at the end of the game if there's a tie first that goes to non-players if you're using the non-player flow charts then to Syndicate then to direct Oreo then to July 26th and that focuses how you play Cuba Libra the flow is pretty straightforward you know you reveal an event card and up to two factions are going to be able to take some activities either by doing their operations and potentially special activities or triggering the event and then you just keep refreshing cards until you get to the propaganda round which is probably the hardest wrap your head around the first few plays but just as long as you know what your faction is aiming for when propaganda comes around so that you can maximize on gaining resources and taking an extra action or two you know just focus on that make sure you're in a good position when you think that card is going to be coming up if this is your first time playing Cupid Libra you might want to play as either the July 26th movement or the directorials are both very similar uh Syndicate is a lot of fun but might take a few plays for you to really understand what their you know path to Victory is government is by far the hardest so if you are the one teaching other people how to play and they're playing for the first time you're probably going to be the one sitting in as Government because there's a lot going on there and they're all going to be at your throats for the first little while I kind of like to think of it as the coin Master role you know it's it's a great seat to be in if you're teaching and helping people get accustomed to this game this Revolution was very pivotal in the 20th century laying the groundwork for other events that grip the world years later mainly the Cuban Missile Crisis depending on your view it was either a necessary step for this island nation or yet another Tyrant was swept into power or the Ripple effects of it further destabilize democracy in the Western World regardless Cuba in the early 50s was a powder keg waiting to blow thanks to no small part to outside meddlers mainly the U.S and mostly the mafia which is why I chose to focus on The Syndicate Mastermind himself Meyer Linsky in this installment of this Beast changes history [Music] Meyer Lansky was born in what is now Belarus to polish Jewish parents at a young age he and his family looking to escape the anti-Semitism in what was the Russian Empire at the time immigrated to the United States and took up residence in the Lower East Side of Manhattan growing up poor and in a rough neighborhood he had many encounters with gangs and organized crime one such encounter was with a man by the name of Charles Lucky Luciano when lucky tried to shake the younger Lansky down he was met with Fierce resistance which lucky admired and became friends with Lansky by this point Lansky was already involved with other mobsters and was bootlegging during the prohibition era although Lansky was an Italian his smarts and financial know-how earned him a spot of the table is the mafia's presence grew in 1936 when Luciano got busted for running a prostitution ring Lansky made a deal with the feds to help bust up Nazi gangs in the ports of Manhattan where the mafia had a strong presence thus Luciano was released but on the condition he be deported to Italy now Luciano eventually found his way from Europe to Cuba where he met up with Lansky who by now is making inroads to the gambling business on the island together the two called on prominent gangsters from the U.S to meet up in Havana where agreements were laid out that would cement the mafia's presence in Cuba for the next decade eventually Luciano got busted again and chased back to Italy but Meyer Lansky kept things running in Cuba although only meeting with Batista briefly on a few occasions the military leader was firmly in Lansky's back pocket as long as money flowed in the right direction the Cuban government would let the Casino cash flow and even use their own troops and police to protect casinos from undesirable interference tries he might keep Batista in power when Fidel marched into Havana in January 1959 it was lights out for Lansky's Casino operations in Cuba he still had his Vegas operations to keep him going along with many other real estate dealings in the U.S but when the casino business in Cuba was nationalized in October 1960 it was estimated that Lansky lost 7 million dollars U.S in assets which in today's dollars would be nearly 50 million although he had his run-ins with the law and even briefly served time during the Heyday of Cuban gambling Linsky always kept low profile and didn't attract nearly as much attention as Luciano and others within the mafia this Jewish American linchpin of the U.S Italian mob would amass personal fortune and lived to a ripe old age of 80. he died of lung cancer in 1983 in Miami Beach Florida you know it's pretty wild to think that at one point Cuba was effectively being run by two men that had risen from poverty both Batista and Lasky just to have it ripped away by a socialist to actually grew up wealthier than them so for what it's worth though even though this is a game about the Cuban Revolution you can't deny the impact that the U.S mob had on the country No gambling Empire means less support and funding for the Batista government potentially fair in Democratic elections could have taken place over the years and the fuel would have been taken out of Castro's fire are really out of any revolutionary Spire for that matter when I reached out to the designers to ask you know who or what should I highlight in this piece changes history Jeff Grossman said E.T Smith who was the U.S ambassador to Cuba at the time volkarunka said echeveria who was the leader leader of the directory at the time before he was assassinated both of those figures could have made a bigger impact what happened in Cuba in the 50s Smith could have gotten the CIA involved before it all hit the fan eschevaria it may have been a more inspiring leader before he was killed by police in 1957. I admit for this segment to talk about uh characters that did influence the course of history so it was interesting to get their interpretation just you know I call the piece this piece changes history on that alone they assume that to mean like hey this could have changed the historical outcome so that's what I really like about coin games and card driven games in general they really do alter the timeline giving you these events as cards I used to think you know doesn't it make sense to seed certain cards in the events deck like say Batista flees because that happened towards the end of the Revolution should not come later and the events deck but actually that's kind of the point you know the events are really opportunities where you got to be in the right place right time the right board state for your faction and really take advantage of it right so even the act of Batista fleeing uh from Cuba itself was kind of premature in history like he left when there wasn't that much of a credible threat from the Castro and his gorillas you know Castro's really good at you know making his numbers look bigger than they were so really Batista could have stuck around and things could have been quite a bit different so there's lots of great books and documentaries uh out there if you want to learn more about the Cuban Revolution uh the designers themselves cite inside the Cuban Revolution by Julia swigg is a great uh insight to the Insurgent side of the story there's also many published books by Fidel Castro and Shay Guevara themselves and I actually found the Netflix series of the same name Cuba Libra to be very informative very kind of high level overview of the events that led up to and transpired during the Cuban Revolution so definitely check that out if you get the time and right now I'm enjoying uh TJ english's Havana Nocturne it's how the mob owned Cuba and then lost it all to the revolution really interesting is where I got a lot of the insight about uh Meyer Lansky um and for the record that Lansky movie on Netflix I didn't quite like it as much I didn't think it was that great just not enough Cuba in it for my liking Cuba holds a special place in my heart you know of the three games that I've covered so far this is the first one about a place that I've actually been to I've had the pleasure to visit as a Canadian I'm able to travel there as a tourist so yeah I've spent time on Resorts and they're over my adult life never been to a casino though they're still running today I've been fortunate enough though to also visit and spend time with some of the locals on their land been invited to farms for pig roasts and amazing meals I was able to bike over 40 kilometers to the countryside to get there really amazing experience if you ever get to do something like that the country is beautiful the people I've met are warm welcoming and resilient I wish they didn't have to be so resilient I wish I didn't have to use that word is on average they live with much less amenities and Comforts that we do in other parts of the developed world so whether you agree with Castro's methods and his ruling overall or even the need for him starting such a revolution the factor means that most of the developed world has heavily embargoed Cuba for decades now namely the us and that hasn't really helped the standard of living there for the people but they do have one of the best life expectancies in all of Latin American countries uh which is even better than the us right now from what I hear the Gus Stellar Health Care System traditionally under the Castro regime they did not have a great human rights record especially around lgbtqa plus rates but that has recently changed with the family code of 2022 it's given a lot of rights back to all walks of life through Cuba and this was voted on by the people so you're starting to see some democracy in action and well the music the food the rum you know love it all right so I like to imagine a world where Cuba is embraced more by the International Community with more access to trade more so than it is right now because I cannot but think it would only help their citizens overall so I hope you found this enjoyable informative not just to learn the game but to learn a little bit about the history if you get a chance to play sound off in the comments let me know what you think of the game uh let me know what other coin games that you might want to be interested in exploring on maybe there might be a video in the future for those as well there's a lot more titles to cover and more coming along the way so and I've got more videos coming so please do like and subscribe because I wouldn't want you to miss a thing but that's all for now have a great time with this game I hope to see you at the table one day adios [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: What Does That Piece Do?

Views: 6,786

Keywords: cuba, cuban revolution, cuba libre, gmt games, castro, mob history, cold war, meyer lanksy

Id: Y0usd4t9afg

Length: 58min 42sec (3522 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2022