Played this again and recorded it this time - I really like how this one has a lot of challenging decisions, the consequences of which you have to balance against each other. Choosing to keep support up by spending intelligence is a hard decision, and I like that there's a constant threat, and a limited ability to defend against it once the USSR falls. Watching a "U" change to a "S" has never felt so heavy! I also really enjoyed looking up all the terms, and that the game is teaching me about the relationships between all the different interests, which is what gameplay does best. It's fun untangling what you're communicating about the different groups given their response to events that occur. Big lesson this go around: If you don't have activist support, you simply can't even think about entering into formal negotiations, domestic support alone won't cut it... This is definitely one of my favorites of these card-like games.
My pleasure! I know it can be useful to see how people play the game in practice.. Oh and regarding Operation Savanah - it occurs to me that another way to address this is by giving the SADF one more square as their homebase which is not controllable by the player (like the last square in the new Ukraine / Russia game), so they could never be completely extinguished. With that kind of a change, then those Operation Savanah cards would remain relevant, and there would continue to be a need for weapons later on in the game.. Of course it's possible that might be out of alignment with the meta-narrative here.. Was it possible for the ANC to conquer the SADF once and for all? Or did it remain a persistent threat up until end?
Well, it was really the Cubans who defeated the SADF in Angola with the help of US oil companies. Cuban and Angolan forces defeated the SADF at the battle of Quito Cuanavale, which is also called the Stalingrad of Africa. The Angolan Civil War deserves its own game. Anyway, this was in 1988 and secret talks between the ANC and the South African government were fairly far along. The arms embargo was also starting to hurt the SADF's combat effectiveness, especially in the air where the South African Airforce had lost air superiority to Cuban MiG 21s. Strikes and civil unrest back in South Africa also tied down South African troops that could have intervened in various border conflicts. Basically, the SADF ran out of money, men, and equipment. After Quito Cuanavale, South Africa's government decided to start pulling out of Angola and Namibia.
Could the SADF have invaded neighboring countries after this point? In theory, yes. The SADF remained a highly effective and professional force. However, South African society was tired of decades of war by this point.
At the end of the day, Mandela pulled off nifty trick: in ending Apartheid and the border wars, he made South Africa the economic capital of Southern Africa. South African businessmen ranged across the continent setting up mining ventures just in time to sell minerals to an emerging China. South Africa also became an important force in ending devastating conflicts such as the two Congolese civil wars. A desegregated SANDF often forms the backbone of peace keeping missions across the continent (civil war is bad for business). Today, south African troops can be found as far afield as Sudan.
Cuba won the battle, South Africa won the future.
Yup. By the end of the 1980s, the SADF's intervention in the Angolan civil war was becoming a major drain on the South African economy. It was becoming difficult for SA to fight a conventional war far from its borders and maintain control at home. The game attempts to show how this hybrid conflict really helped end Apartheid. At the same time, the fact that the ANC was effectively at war with South Africa, and aligned with communists, probably hurt the ANC's ability to win over moderates in South Africa. You have to strike a balance.