Re-Route: The Marching Season Game

Re-Route: The Marching Season Game covers 10 weeks during the 12th July Orange Marches in Northern Ireland when passions and sectarianism are inflamed. The game is set in a typical year during the wost disturbances sparked by the annual Drumcree Orange Parade along the Garvaghy Road (1995-2000).

The game requires 3 players: The Loyalist player represents certain members of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, such as the Orange Order, and various paramilitaries (e.g. UVF, LVF, UFF, RHC). The Republican player represents certain members of the Catholic community in the Occupied Six Counties, such as Residents' Groups, and various paramilitaries (e.g. pIRA, cIRA, rIRA, INLA). The final player represents the Royal Ulster Constabulary police force (RUC). The Republican and Loyalist players use cards to influence regions on a map of Northern Ireland, reacting to one another and actions of the RUC player whose objective, in this game, is to reduce the influence of both the Loyalists and the Republicans.

The crux of the game is in judicious playing of the cards: The Loyalists play a March card in Armagh - will you, as the RUC player, allow it to go ahead and risk a Republican Riot; or do you Re-Route that March and risk a Loyalist reaction that may itself provoke a worse Republican reaction? Should have kept that Tear-Gas card...