by Cordo
Sorry, I was unclear. what I meant to say was that the FARC can rally right after the sweep to get those guerillas underground and then rally to fill the open base space to prevent the government from getting a base down.Then the government is hard pressed to get any police in there to get the civic action done.
Yes, but even then, that's two Rally Ops reacting to one Gov't sweep. One to move troops underground and one to build a base. Gov't should be able to train a base down in most cases before a second Rally can happen to prevent this from happening.
Another way to turn a department to the Government's side is wait until the propaganda phase to do the civic action switching support. That can save you a step, and let you concentrate your efforts elsewhere.
1) Sweep into the department with troops
2) Train in the department to place a base, while making sure you will have more cubes than Guerrillas left afterwards (to maintain Gov't control of the department), airlifting or even sweeping again if necessary
3) Train police if they're not already in the Department
4) Wait for propaganda then civic action up to Active Support in the propaganda phase
5) Sweep any remaining Guerrillas at the beginning of the next phase to prevent two terrors in a row
- - -
It does take a while but I've been on the receiving end of this as FARC. It feels kind of like a slow, inexorable tide that is difficult to hold back.
Some other thoughts on how to fight this as Gov't:
1) If Santander and Cali can be switched to Active Support, Gov't doesn't need that many additional Departments at Active Support to achieve victory, so they can pick and choose where to concentrate on and play more defensively elsewhere.
2) FARC can't be everywhere, so it's always possible to strike at areas they are weak or that are completely unclaimed in the early game. Airlift can be helpful to quickly strike where they don't expect it.
3) Work with other factions as noted above, or when you see AUC terror/assassinate, softening up FARC's position, that's a good time to move in.
4) There are several cards and abilities which allow you to move police into departments or place bases directly into departments. Use those cards or make deals with AUC/Cartels to execute these events for you. This can be easier if FARC is in a strong position. If you can sneak police into a department, it's a much easier Sweep (if troops aren't already there) and then train (even without a base) with civic action.
5) If you have enough resources, you can try to threaten multiple Departments to make defending more expensive, not to mention the difficulty in defending two spaces with limited actions.
6) FARC is also trying to win, so spending all of their actions to defend a single department often isn't in their long term interest, or they will have more urgent needs elsewhere in Colombia to attend to.
7) If FARC/Gov't are acting on the same card, it's possible for either faction to get two actions in a row. Gov't can seize these moments of initiative to get a head start. Or you can even anticipate these moments if you see a card event you know FARC is going to want to take. This will mean they lose initiative on the board.
8) Even if Gov't and FARC aren't on the same card, there will be times when FARC only gets a limited op when the Gov't isn't limited.
9) Gov't often plays a longer term game and later in the game they will likely have abilities that will help a lot in accomplishing this. It may be hard for Gov't to push for an early victory. So change your focus to surviving in the first two or three campaigns, keeping the other factions from winning while building Gov't capabilities and hopefully building Aid for the late game. If you're sitting on a mountain of resources, able to sweep anywhere for 1 resource with Ospina & Mora, things look a lot different.