COALITION: The Gulf War, 1990–91 — Print & Play

Designer Note:
I am working on this game being a physically printed boardgame. I have sent my first draft to the printer.

I am adding this here as a print n play with a view to get some feedback on playtesting.

Happy for any feedback.

thanks!

The war was never going to be lost on the battlefield. It could still be lost.

August 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. As Coalition air power masses across the Gulf, Baghdad's Scud batteries and chemical stockpiles turn the political battle — and a strike on RAF Akrotiri shows the missiles reach farther than anyone expected. Command the Coalition's five-pillar cohesion, or hold Iraq together under fire, across Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Sabre.

COALITION is a 2-player campaign game where combat exists to create pressure on politics, not the other way around. The Coalition player must build and defend five fragile pillars — the Arab Bloc, European Allies, US Domestic Support, Gulf Host basing, UN/Soviet legitimacy — while Iraq attacks the alliance itself: Scuds on Tel Aviv, body bags on the evening news, and one extended-range missile nobody saw coming.

• Full-color point-to-point campaign map of the 1990–91 Gulf theater, with all tracks on the board

• 48 fully illustrated cards — political pillars, signature historical events, Scud & Chemical Threat, combat modifiers

• Double-sided unit counters (Full/Reduced) for all 18 Coalition and 8 Iraqi formations, plus 11 tracker markers

• Five-pillar Coalition Cohesion track drives victory and defeat

• Combat Results Table built for fast, decisive campaign turns

• 2 players · 90–150 minutes · Ages 14+

A companion to the novel Strange Bedfellows: An Alternate History of the Gulf War Coalition. Every card and mechanic is grounded in the historical record — with exactly one deliberate exception, and the whole campaign turns on it.

More from Emperormarkus Games The full catalogue: https://stronma.itch.io Books, history articles & game hubs: https://emperormarkus.com The Sharp End — the Falklands/Cold War/Gulf deck-builder (digital + print & play) 1982: South Atlantic — the Falklands card game this design's victory system grew out of