Striking Flint Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Components
• Card Overview
  • Event Cards
  • Map Cards
• Set-Up
• Flow of Play
  • Whose Turn Is It?
  • Turn Sequence
• Player Actions
  • Factory Action Results
  • Breaking Ties When Targeting Workers
  • Strikebreakers
• Event Completion
• Ending the Game
• Solo and 2P
• Difficulty

Introduction

It's 1936 in Flint, Michigan, and your newly formed union has been ignored by General Motors, the city's largest employer. As a final effort to gain leverage, you and your fellow union members shut the factory down with a sit-down strike.

GM has considerable resources at their disposal, including city authorities, finances, and hired thugs. But if you can withstand their efforts to take the factory back, you can force them to make a deal.

This is a cooperative game. The players must work together to occupy factories in the plant complex without getting too exhausted, getting too overwhelmed by strikebreakers, or getting evicted from the factory.

The game is played with a countersheet, two sizes of cards, some wooden pieces, and a six-sided die.

The countersheet comprises some tokens, along with a double-sided Calendar.

Components

• 15 Strikebreaker Tokens – 5 each (Authority, Scab, Money)
• 5 Committee Tokens
• 20 Workers – 4 per Committee
• 30 Exhaustion Cubes
• 1 Concessions Token
• 5 Committee Cards
• 6 Map Cards
• 33 Event Cards
• Calendar (Easy side / Hard side)

Card Overview

There are five cooperating committees within the union. Each is represented by a Committee card. It describes the actions that can be taken on the committee's turn as well as how many Exhaustion cubes it collects after performing that action on their own Workers.

• Congress of Industrial Organizations: The CIO is a large industrial labor organization that helped the Flint strikers coordinate strategy.
• Rank and File: The everyday workers of the factories. They're willing to stand up for their jobs and better conditions, but had no unique skills.
• Socialists: A major radicalizing force within the Union. While others are willing to accept small improvements, the Socialists push for major changes.
• United War Veterans of Flint: Veterans of the Great War, unwilling to watch the freedoms they fought for be co-opted by a corporate machine.
• Women's Emergency Brigade: Comprised mostly of the wives and siblings of factory workers; they were crucial in rallying support and humanizing the striking workers to the public.

(Example Committee card actions: Occupy – Place a Worker on a Station (gray space); Picket – Place a Worker on a Corner (white space); Resist – Remove one Strikebreaker within one space of one of your Workers; Rest – Return all your Exhaustion to the supply; plus the Committee's unique action, e.g. the Veterans' Gambit.)

Event Cards

Events represent challenges the Union faces during the strike. Each Event card has three main parts.

• Headline: Each is an actual headline appearing in The Flint Journal. Articles in this local newspaper were heavily slanted against the Union. The date the article was printed is also presented.
• Effect: The effect of the Event for as long as it remains in play.
• Removal: The condition that must be met in order to remove this Event from play, ending its Effect.
• Description: A brief description of the historical Event that this card represents.

(Example: "Women Outside Use Clubs to Break Windows" — The Flint Journal, February 1, 1937 Extra Edition. Effect: Workers in Factories may not use Resist. The card's Removal condition is shown on the card.)

Map Cards

Each Map Card consists of two Stations (Blueprint spaces) and three Corners. These cards will be placed together to form the play area. A Factory consists of one or more orthogonally adjacent Stations. The Street refers to all Corners on the map.

Each Station and Corner contains a die result and an icon. These indicate what happens if the Station or Corner is empty when each die result is rolled.

Set-Up

This set-up information is for 3-5 players. If playing with fewer, see Solo & 2P later in these rules for modifications.

Choose either the Easy or Hard Calendar. On the 40 space, place the Concessions Marker.

Each player chooses a Committee, taking its workers and card, along with one Exhaustion cube.

Randomize the Time Trackers for each chosen Committee and place them on the 1 space. From top to bottom, this is the initial turn order.

Form a supply of tokens, and of Exhaustion Cubes (5 cubes per player).

Draw Map Cards equal to the number of players, arranging them into as close to a square as possible. Ensure your map consists of at least three separate Factories. Then, for each Map Card, roll the die once:

• 1 or 2: Place an Authority Strikebreaker.
• 3 or 4: Place a Money Strikebreaker.
• 5 or 6: Place a Scab Strikebreaker.

Each Strikebreaker is placed in the Map Card space with its icon.

Now, in reverse order (bottom to top), committees each place one Worker on any space.

• At least one committee must place a Worker in a Station.
• More than one Worker may be placed in the same space.

Shuffle the Events into a face-down deck. Flip over the top card to be the starting Event. If the Removal condition for this Event is already complete, put it on the bottom of the deck and reveal the next Event, continuing to put "already complete" Events on the bottom of the deck until one that is not complete is drawn. You are now ready to begin play.

Flow of Play

Whose Turn Is It?

Find the earliest Calendar space with a time tracker on it; it is that Committee's turn. If multiple Committees are on the earliest space, the one on top of the stack takes its turn first. It is possible during the course of play for a Committee to take more than one consecutive turn.

Turn Sequence

During your turn, perform the following steps in order.

1. Remove Workers: Return each of your Workers in the same Station or Corner as a Strikebreaker to your supply.

2. Take an Action: Perform one Action on your Committee card. You can use the Action on any Committee's Workers, but using another Committee's gives you one extra Exhaustion.

3. Gain Exhaustion: After you take an action, gain the indicated Exhaustion cubes (plus one if you used another's Workers).

4. Time Passes: Advance your time tracker a number of spaces equal to your Exhaustion cubes (including those just gained). If you have no Exhaustion, advance one space. If your final space is occupied by another time tracker, place yours on top of theirs.

   Factory Actions: If your time tracker passes through or lands on a space bearing your Committee's icon, you immediately resolve a Factory Action before continuing movement. First, perform the Factory Action on the current Event card. Then, roll a die. Each Station or Corner with a die icon matching the result activates... unless that space is occupied by a Worker and does not contain a Strikebreaker. Such spaces do not activate.

5. Concessions: At the end of your turn, if two or more Factories have at least one Worker and no Strikebreakers, move the Concessions token to an "earlier" space – away from the "40".

Example: The earliest space is the "2", and the Socialists' time tracker is atop the Rank and File. It's the Socialists' turn. After performing their action, they have two Exhaustion, moving them to the "4". They place their time tracker on top of the United War Veterans, and resolve the triggered Factory Action.

Reverse Worker Placement: Where most worker placement systems give you a resource or other benefit when you place a worker, Striking Flint instead operates within the narrative of a sit-down strike – your worker occupies the position, and the benefit you gain from that placement is that the space's Factory Action doesn't take place. Instead of working within the game's system, workers in Striking Flint stop the game's system from working.

Player Actions

There are four basic Actions available to each Committee (though the Exhaustion they gain varies). Additionally, each Committee has a unique Action described in detail on their card. The basic Actions are:

• Occupy: Place a Worker on a Station. This can be a Station that contains Strikebreakers or other Workers.
• Picket: Place a Worker on a Corner. As with Occupy, this Corner can contain Strikebreakers or other Workers.
• Resist: Remove a Strikebreaker located within one space of a Worker, returning the token to the supply.
• Rest: Return all your Exhaustion to the supply. You may not use this Action on another Committee.

Factory Action Results

When a Factory Action die roll activates a Station or Corner, what happens depends on what it is in the space.

• Worker But No Strikebreaker: Nothing! Good job!
• Authority Strikebreaker: Move this Strikebreaker one space closer to the nearest Worker.
• Money Strikebreaker: Move the nearest Worker one space closer to this Strikebreaker.
• Scab Strikebreaker: Move the nearest Worker one space away from this Strikebreaker.
• Unoccupied: Perform the action printed on the space:
  • A. Place a Strikebreaker of this type in the space.
  • B. The acting Committee gains one Exhaustion.
  • C. Remove the nearest Worker, returning them to their Committee.

Breaking Ties When Targeting Workers

When a Factory Action targets "the nearest Worker", and there are multiple Workers that qualify, resolve it according to these priorities:

1. Choose Workers in Stations over Corners.
2. Choose Workers whose Committee will next have a turn soonest.
3. If a tie persists, acting player chooses.

Strikebreakers

The three different types of Strikebreakers in the game represent the efforts of General Motors to dissolve the Union.

• Authority: Police officers, the fire department, and the legal system, all of which are predisposed to favor GM due to its economic and social influence in the city.
• Scab: Labor organizations and workers opposed to the UAW and the strike. They often intimidated or harmed the strikers and their allies.
• Money: Direct financial and economic incentives offered by GM to workers who turn their backs on the union.

Event Completion

When an Event's Removal condition is completed, perform the following three steps in order:

1. Place the Event card at the bottom of the deck.
2. Move the Concessions token one space earlier.
3. Reveal the top Event card from the deck. If its Removal condition is already satisfied, repeat this process.

Ending the Game

Your group wins the game if at the end of a turn, all time trackers have reached or passed the Concessions token. You cannot win in the middle of a turn (i.e., before Factory Actions are resolved).

The game ends in defeat if any of the following happens:

1. You are required to add a Strikebreaker but none of its type remains in the supply.
2. You are required to gain Exhaustion but no cubes remain in the supply.
3. There are no Workers in any Factories.

Solo and 2P

When playing with two, each player chooses two Committees to control. Set up and play as for a four-player game.

When playing alone, choose three, four, or five Committees. Set-up and play as for a three, four, or five-player game.

Difficulty

If the game is too challenging, start with the Concessions marker on the 35 or 30 space.

If you want an additional challenge after mastering the Hard version of the Calendar, add an extra Map Card at set-up.

You could also play with two or three Event cards in play at a time instead of one.

First printing errata: The "Gambit" ability for the Veterans should read "Move each Strikebreaker within one space of one of your workers one space, then move that worker one space."