The Game
The Coorg War is an asymmetrical wargame that examines a very brief colonial campaign against the southern Indian Kingdom of Coorg, or Kodagu. The goal of the campaign, conducted in April of 1834, was to depose the Raja of Coorg, Chikka Vira Rajendra Wodeyar of the Haleri dynasty. This may sound like just the usual dull colonial annexation campaign, but things were not that simple. For one thing, the Honourable East India Company, which executed it, was no longer a trading concern but an organ of the British Crown operating under the aegis of the Mughal Empire to maintain peace and order throughout the Subcontinent. The reason for removing the Raja was not economic exploitation, which could have been had for much less effort, but something far worse: Progress and Westernization. The men responsible were not greedy merchants, they were cabinet ministers, senior administrators, and soldiers belonging to the generation that cast down the Corsican Ogre, Napoleon. Coorg was invaded in response to the percetion that its Raja was a tyrant. Whether that judgement was fair or not has been hotly debated, but the game is not concerned with justice, only with the events. After three days of fighting the Raja threw in the towel, but the Company was only too happy to come to terms. Coorg was home to the fiercest guerrilla fighters in Southern India, men who could give the Sikhs, Marathas, and Gurkhas a run for their money. The Company allowed them to continue ruling themselves, just without the Raja, and considered itself lucky.
As the Company's Expedition you will send your Columns of troops deep into the jungles of mountainous Coorg on a hunt for the Raja, trying to avoid becoming so Fatigued that you have to Retreat (which will boost the Raja's Morale). The Columns contain Indian sepoys and detachments of British regulars (rented from the Crown), rifle-armed skirmishers, sappers and pioneers, and what the Coorgs dread most — cannon, howitzers, and mortars. Given time, your men can bull their way through any obstacle, but time is what you do not have. The paths are hard, the Coorgs are everywhere, and there are a number of incipient revolts to deal with elsewhere.
As the Coorgs you will allocate your War Bands against your opponent’s Columns, seeking to ambush them, resisting them at your stockades, or conducting night attacks so they cannot recover from Fatigue; if you can just hold long enough your enemy will run out of time. Your tribesmen know the country. They can swiftly redeploy to meet a threat, or rush to batten on a stricken Column like vultures. In the end, while your men probably have no chance against the full might of the Sirkar — the Supreme Authority — they can exact a high price for victory; the higher the price the better the deal.
Will Coorg become a vacation spot for Company executives, will the Raja’s rule be secure until Partition in 1947, or will a compromise be struck?
Number of Players: 1 or 2. The game lends itself to solo play but there are enough tense decision points to make a two-player contest enjoyable.
Format
The game board consists of two parts: a map, and a display for The Expedition’s forces (plus various record tracks and play aids). The display shows the historical order of battle as a tableau of playing cards, printed on the board, but real cards are also provided so you can experiment in a Free Form game. 3D-printed colour-coded flagpoles (or cardboard standees) mark the progress of the Columns as they move, using a point-to-point system, across the map. The Coorg side uses wooden cubes to represent its forces. These are deployed in various holding boxes. Warbands can be Active or Spent, or they can become Dispersed; cycling through these three states efficiently will determine whether you will be successful or not. Combat uses a simple dice system, rolling for ‘hits’, which either change the state of the targeted Warbands or inflict Fatigue on the Units in the Columns. The goal for The Expedition is to bring the Raja’s Morale to zero by capturing vital spots on the board. The Coorg side must prevent this.
Playing time averages 90-120 minutes. Thoughtful players may take longer; solo play is likely to be shorter.
Components
1) Rulebook, 2 identical Player Aid cards, Historical Commentary
2) 22”x34” paper map representing the Kingdom of Coorg, with the addition of a display for The Expedition's forces.
3) A deck of 40 'mini-poker' size cards that represent The Expedition's troops.
4) 70x wooden cubes (40x unpainted, 20x black, 10x white).
5) 2x pawns (1 white, 1 black).
6) 5x standees (1 each of red, blue, yellow, black, white). The initial print run includes bonus 3D-printed coloured flagpoles.
7) 6x 6-sided dice
Print & Play Requirements
If you buy the Print & Play version you will need to obtain a number of additional components on your own:
1) The Coorg War requires a special deck of CARDS, available at DriveThru Cards™. You have the option of ordering the physical deck from them or downloading free PDFs. Go to DriveThru Cards and search for Red Sash Games or The Coorg War.
2) Another thing you will need are sets of wooden (or plastic) CUBES. You will need 20 black cubes, 10 white cubes, and 40 unpainted cubes. Also, you will need a white and a black pawn. 100-piece bags of cubes and smaller sets of pawns can be found at a number of online game supply stores. The average North American price appears to be $8.00 per bag.
3) Finally, you will need 5 STANDEES to represent the British troop columns. These can be of any form (mini-figs, wooden cylinders, etc.) but should be coloured black, white, yellow, red, and blue (or at least have those colours prominently displayed on them). For the initial print run RSG sourced sets of 3D-printed coloured flagpoles; if you wish a set of these please contact RSG at administrator@redsashgames.com. (Note: they are NOT available from our manufacturer, Blue Panther Games LLC.) Production cost is minimal but shipping may be expensive.
