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The full rules are located Here! They're not so scary, I promise, especially since you can ignore everything after page 11 (page 12 and on deal with automating players in a game with less than 4 human participants)
A condensed version of the rules is as follows:
FACTIONS
Cuba Libre is a game themed around Castro's attempt to overthrow the Cuban government, and the resulting power struggles. There are four factions in Cuba Libre, each with their own specific actions and victory objectives.
GOVERNMENT
The government of Cuba. Represents Batista, the army, police force, etc.
Advantages: Most money, most troops, strongest at fight, etc etc
Disadvantages: Must first take Sweep action to uncover enemy units. Must make tradeoffs between progress and US Alliance, lest actions get too expensive to do. Troops cannot stay for long in rural areas without government bases.
Victory condition: All cities are at Active Support, and total Support exceeds 18
26July
Communist revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro, et al.
Advantages: Can rally huge numbers of powerful guerrillas to their side. Can flip government units over to the cause. Can steal money from Government or Syndicate.
Disadvantages: Starts with very little presence on the board. Piss-poor base income, combined with needing money to build opposition for victory.
Victory condition: (Total Opposition) + (Number of 26July Bases) exceeds to 15.
Directorio
Ostensibly liberal-democratic student revolution.
Advantages: Better income than 26July, both base and through actions, and occasional free troops. Absurdly powerful Assassination special action unique to them. Don't have to worry about Support/Opposition either way.
Disadvantages: Cannot mass troops nearly as fast as 26July. Starts with even less than 26July on the board.
Victory conditions: (Total population number in regions under Directorio control) + (Number of Directorio bases) exceeds 9.
Syndicate
Gangsters, mobsters, casino owners, et al,. Interested in profit, not politics.
Advantages:
Casinos churn out tons of money, and can produce Cash which, if protected, turns into More Casinos or More Money. Government troops protect casinos, and can be ordered around by syndicate with Muscle action. Powerful (but expensive!) bribe action can do basically anything you want. Don't have to give a single shit about the political situation (aside from preventing someone from winning before you, of course.)
Disadvantages: Have to hoard some of the money for victory condition instead of spending it all. Syndicate Guerillas CANNOT ATTACK, only defend. Cash sometimes hard to protect and can be stolen. Vulnerable to having resources stolen by 26July kidnaps.
Victory condition: Syndicate controls more than 7 open casinos and has more than 30 resources.
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There are three types of spaces on the board:
Both Cities (ex. Havana, Camaguey) and Provinces (ex. Mantanzas, Oriente, etc.) work much the same way. They have a Population value - usually either 1 or 2, but in Havana's case a whopping 6!. They also have a space that indicates whether they are in Active Support (adds 2 times the population value to the "Support" value), Passive Support (1x Support), Neutral, Passive Opposition (1x Opposition), or Active Opposition (2x Opposition).
The other type of space is an "EC" - the unnamed spaces with a picture of a factory or sugarcane or whatever. These normally add to the government's Resources, but can be sabotaged by the insurgent factions, or even stolen by the Syndicate. They do not have a population value.
You "control" a space if you have more pieces there than all other factions, combined.
The 3 insurgent factions have "Insurgents" (the hexagonal cylinders) as their troops. Insurgents can either be "underground" (logo hidden) or "active" (logo visible). Underground guerrillas are generally safe from government Assault - the government must either Sweep to reveal guerrillas, or they can occasionally become active through other means.
The government troops are two kinds of cubes. The dark blue cubes are troops, which are easier to get out into provinces without doing work. Light blue are Police - generally harder to move out into the provinces, but also are able to stay out there longer, and are needed for Civic Actions to give you support.
The flat circular pieces are Bases - expensive, but very important for every faction. There is a limit of two bases TOTAL - for all factions combined - in a single space. They also have other effects - letting insurgents build more guerrillas, and letting the government train and keep pieces in the provinces. Bases cannot be targeted before ALL of a faction's units in the province are eliminated first - and if the guerrillas are underground and not attackable by the government, well, then they're (probably) safe.
The Syndicate has a special kind of base called a Casino. Casinos do not count for stacking - you can have 2 bases and 2 casinos in the same province. Government Troops and Police also protect Casinos - they must all be removed before a Casino can be attacked. Casinos can either be Closed or Open: they need to be Open to recieve most of their benefits. An attack that would destroy an open Casino instead closes it. An attack that would destroy a closed Casino has no effect.
Actually Playing The Game
On every turn, a new card is drawn. That "card" is one "turn." Here's an example!
The first part of a card is the icons on top. These determine turn order. For instance, if this turn's card is Herbert Matthews, The turn order is: Syndicate, Government, then (maybe) 26July then Directorio.
If you're going first this turn, you have four options:
1. Play the card for the event. Choose one of the two sides of the event (or just the event, if there aren't two sides) and do the effect. Simple! If you do this, though, your opponent may take an operation with a special event.
2. Take an Operation with a Special Activity. The list of Operations and Special Activities you have can be found on your player aid card! If you do this, though, your opponent may either activate the event, or choose a "limited operation" - an operation with no special event in 1 province only.
3. Take an Op WITHOUT special activity. This option is weaker than op+special activity, but it means that the player(s) after you may not activate the event. They may only perform a limited operation.
4. You may always Pass instead of taking an action! Passing gets you 1 resource as an insurgent, or 3 as the government.
Now, if you take one of these first three actions, you become "ineligible" for the next card - unable to play. If you pass, you remain eligible! Yay!
This is relevant because not only will you be able to see the current turn's car, but the /next/ turn's card will also always be visible. So you can plan ahead and know which cards you really need to be eligible on and so on and such.
PROPAGANDA
There is a special kind of card called a "Propaganda" card. A propaganda card triggers a Propaganda Phase - basically, a status check - instead of a normal turn. Propaganda Phases proceed as follows:
- Victory: Check to see if any faction wins (Victory is not checked outside of Propaganda).
- Resources: Everyone gets base income.
- First, sabotage all ECs where non-syndicate guerillas outnumber cubes.
- Then, government gets income equal to The value of unsabotaged ECs plus the Aid value.
- 26July gains income equal to the number of its Bases.
- Directorio gains income to the number of spaces in which it has any pieces.
- Syndicate earns income equal to the population/econ of any City/Unsabotaged EC where Syndicate Guerillas outnumber Police.
- Syndicate earns income equal to 2 times the number of Open Casinos.
- For any space with an open casino, Syndicate gives two Resources to the owner of the space. (no transfer if uncontrolled or syndicate controlled)
- All Cash is traded for either a base (or Open Casino) in that Cash's space, or 6 resources for the owning faction.
- This is followed by the support phase
- If support is 18 or less, the US Alliance box is lowered by 1 (making Government actions more expensive) and Reduce Aid by 10 (government earns less money).
- If the government controls a space and has both troops and police in it, it may perform "Civic Action" in it. Pay 4 resources to either remove 1 Terror marker or, if no terror marker, shift a space one level towards Support.
- Then, 26July may perform Agitation in spaces it controls. Pay 1 resource to either remove a terror marker or, if no terror, shift space one towards Opposition.
- Then, the Directorio may do a rally action for free.
- Then the government redeploys forces.
- Police MAY move to any EC or government controlled space.
- Troops MUST move to any government controlled space that is either a city or contains a government base (or, if none, then Havana).
- Then, the reset phase.
- All factions become eligible.
- Remove all Terror and Sabotage.
- All Government Momentum events are discarded.
- All Guerillas go underground.
- All Casinos open.
Then a new turn begins!
When the fourth Propaganda card is revealed, the Final Turn begins. All operations on the Final Turn must be Limited with no special actions. (The event can be activated as normal.) After the fourth propaganda phase, the game will end after the Directorio gets its free rally but before the government redeploys. Whoever is farthest over their victory objective (or whoever is closest to it, if nobody achieves it) is the winner.
Player Aids: (Government|July 26|Directorio|Syndicate) | Rules | Active Momentum/Capabilities