The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire is the first of COIN (COunter INsurgency) multipacks, containing four separate wargames exploring a series of thematically related insurgencies. Between 1945 and 1960, the British fought four major “emergencies”, as they referred to their counterinsurgency campaigns, each trying to manage their retreat from empire: Kenya, Malaya, Cyprus and Palestine.
The game presents all those conflicts and does it in two-player mode (novelty in COIN). We have separate deck for each of the mini-games and can connect them in longer campaign. Today we will show the game components but also discuss some of its mechanics. Enjoy!
PS. Have a look also at my other materials regarding COIN games!
Cuba Libre:
- How to play? Rules explained
- Strategies for Government
- Strategies for 26th of July
- Strategies for Directorio
- Strategies for Syndicate
Falling Sky:
- How to play? Rules explained
- Strategies for Rome
- Strategies for Arverni
- Strategies for Aedui
- Strategies for Belgae
- Scenarios analysis
Gandhi – The Decolonization of British India:
People’s Power:
Enjoy!
The Boardgames Chronicle 
I’ve played three out of four games in the pack and while they were good, they’ve left me with doubts. Now I’m new to the COIN series, so this definitely is a factor, but I found Operations in tBW pretty convoluted and the biggest barrier to entry. Recently I’ve tried All Bridges Burning, a bigger game in the series, and I found Commands (Operations) there more intuitive and the whole game just barely harder to wrap my head around. Overall, I felt that both tBW and ABB are games that need several plays of investment to fully appreciate. Which leads me to my doubts:
I considered tBW to be the entry-level COIN game(s), something to ease me into this style of play and prepare for bigger games in the series. But if the “introduction to COIN” demands a noticeable time investment to enjoy, I might as well skip tBW and put that effort into ABB in the first place. The British Way felt like a 45-minute trailer to a 2-hour movie – it has its uses, but for me it looks like it failed my expecations.
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The British Way has its flavors for sure (already some sessions after me); I find it rather as “fast” instead of only “light / entry” title. And also one important thing – you play 4 different games in TBW. I tried to do it in one session and it is really hard t wrap your head around the differences; this is something which we often do not take into account – ABB is fine good game – still it is only one; TBW are four 🙂
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