Long live the SoS system
After the demise of Victory Point Games, the rights to the games owned by the company returned to their original designers. One of those designs was The First Jihad. A solitaire game about the rise of the Umayyad Caliphate between 632 and 750 AD. Now in the hands of White Dog Games, it is scheduled to go to the printer this February.
The First Jihad is a twist on the States of Siege system: instead of the player being situated at the center of the map and fighting off invaders from different sides, now the enemy is at the center, in Mecca, and the player has to defend different regions at the periphery. The Caliphate will be attempting to spread to Byzantium, Armenia, Persia, India, China, North Africa, Spain, and France. These player-controlled spaces actually represent religions, not territories: they are colour-coded according to their faith. When a battle occurs, religious affiliation makes local populations either friendly or hostile to your plans of 'liberation'.
When the Arabs progress, you take a number of hits depending on the event card and regional situations. Even minor powers like Tibet or the Bulgars may become a problem, because if you don't appease them with money, they will side with the Arabs.
The game comes with 50 event cards with historical notes and a lot of counters.
