In my previous InsideGMT post, I compared the expansion Labyrinth II: The Awakening, 2010 – ? with Twilight Struggle, and gave some examples of play to shed light on the similarities between both games.

In this post, I will describe some of the challenges in designing a simulation on a very recent and still evolving topic, and give additional examples of play based on ongoing events.

I first discussed the idea of designing an Arab Spring simulation based on his Labyrinth game to Volko Ruhnke at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse (Hanford CA), 16 – 19 October 2014.  We agreed that it made sense to have the starting point (the first book end) of the Labyrinth II expansion commence with the beginning of the Arab Spring in late 2010, as this was also roughly the same point that the events in Labyrinth tailed off from the historical record.  I actually do have a few pre-Arab Spring events in the expansion deck that cover the gap from where Labyrinth officially ends and Labyrinth II officially begins, most notably the Maersk Alabama affair, as shown so well in the Tom Hanks “Captain Phillips” movie, and the popular reaction to the Iranian Elections of 2009, which some actually consider as the popular movement that inspired the Arab Spring that followed in the other countries.

I have had a much more difficult time deciding where to end the game expansion.  The Arab Spring officially began on December 17, 2010, when Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi committed an act of self-immolation to protest harsh treatment by local authorities.  His sacrifice brought down the Tunisian government a month later and sparked a popular movement to be known as the Arab Spring (or Awakening) that spread across the Muslim world, toppling 6 governments and igniting 4 Civil Wars…and establishing a democratic government in Tunisia.  The popular street protests of the Arab Spring had run their course by June 2012, or about 19 total months, and this would be a logical second book end for the expansion, except that the street protests in some cases evolved into more violent forms of political expression and seamlessly transitioned into Civil Wars in Libya, Syria and elsewhere.  In this broader sense, the events that naturally flowed from the Arab Spring protests have not run their course and will likely not do so for several more years, perhaps decades.

A few early version Sample Playtest Cards for Labyrinth II. Development and editing continues.

In other forums, I described how I was able to create rules to simulate these Arab Spring Civil Wars through the use of Cubes to represent Local Security Forces and rules for them to interact with Cells in a Civil War like setting.  I began designing the cards for the Labyrinth II expansion in October 2014.  The key events from the beginning of the Arab Spring through to the summer 2014 declaration of a Caliphate by ISIL leadership all came together pretty easily.  As Joel Toppen and I continued development of the game into the winter of 2014, and as I continued Alpha Testing with my local group of gamers in SoCal, a number of world events happened that seemingly “demanded” representation in the simulation.

I have mentioned before that I consider Twilight Struggle, Labyrinth, and Labyrinth II to be “headline games”, meaning that they are designed to portray in broad brush strokes the key global events or pivot points occurring in the time period and within the context of the political conflict being represented in the simulation.  One does not necessarily need to be an expert in any of the topics of these games to readily recognize the events being portrayed; many of which we have occurred in our lifetimes.  Labyrinth II takes us to the cutting edge of current events, which causes dilemmas in deciding which to include in the game and also when to cut-off representation from a historical event perspective (deciding on the second book end).   As a case in point, in rough chronological order below is a brief summary of the major Labyrinth II relevant global news events that have occurred since October 2014, when I started designing the expansion:

• Taliban “Thanksgiving” Surge in Afghanistan
• Peshawar Military School Massacre in Pakistan
• Boko Haram “Pre-Election” Offensive in Nigeria
• Charlie Hebdo Attacks in Paris and subsequent fall-out across Europe
• Failed Prisoner Exchange between ISIL, Japan and Jordan
• Houthi led Coup in Yemen and the Resulting Civil War
• Renewal of the 5+1 Discussions with Iran on Nuclear Energy/Weapons
• Retaking of Tikrit and the roll-back of the ISIL Caliphate in Central Iraq
• Operation Decisive Storm, the Saudi Arabian led, 9 member Muslim nation Coalition intervention in Yemen
• al-Shabaab attack on Garissa University College in Kenya

My rubric in deciding if an event should be placed in the expansion is simple and utilizes the following three questions.

1. Was the event related to the current Arab Spring, the resulting Civil Wars or the ongoing GWOT?
2. Did it have global ramifications that are demonstrable in this simulation?
3. Could it be represented by normal game operations or does it require special treatment?

By applying this decision tree it became easier to decide what events should be included.  No doubt I have missed some and there are others based on minor excursions from the historical record that should be included as well.  I will not have room in the 120 card deck to include all events that could be represented, and there are already several cards lying on the cutting room floor.  Play-testers have expressed concern that some of the better of these discarded events might not see the light of day, but we have to cut off somewhere. We’ll leave discussion of possible future updates for later.

I will now show, using game examples, how two of the recent events are simulated in the expansion:  the declaration of a Caliphate, and a Muslim country led intervention in a Civil War.

The Caliph was the recognized successor to Muhammad.  The Sunni and Shia split in Islam is largely the result of differing views in how the Caliph should be chosen.  The Ottoman Caliphate (1362-1924), the last widely recognized as such, was disestablished shortly after WWI by the first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal, as part of his secular reforms.  Other attempts at creating a Caliph since then have not been widely supported and short-lived.  On June 29, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ended this void and proclaimed a worldwide caliphate based on an Islamic State carved out of swaths of Iraq and Syria, with its capital city in Ar-Raqqah, Syria.  Although this declaration has largely not been recognized by the majority of Muslim nations, nearly all major jihadist movements have declared allegiance to the new Caliph (al-Qaida excepted) and a number of Muslims, both young and old, have left their home nations to immigrate to Syria to live within the borders of the new Caliphate.

This Caliphate declaration has had an impact upon global affairs that are demonstrable in the Labyrinth II simulation.  In the latest version of the play-test package, I have added rules to allow the Jihadist player to declare a Caliphate, with its commensurate risks and benefits.  In short, a Caliphate can only be declared in a Muslim country which has large regions of instability, such as being in a state of Civil War or Regime Change, or which is currently under Islamist Rule.  The Jihadist player can then declare the Caliphate by playing any event card which will place 3 or more Cells in that country.  This has the immediate effect of increasing the total number of Resources under Islamist Rule by 1 and blocking the play of a handful of US associated events within the countries that comprise the Caliphate, most notably UN Ceasefire, Status Quo, and Backlash.  The Caliphate is comprised of the country containing the Capital marker and all adjacent countries daisy chaining back to the Capital which are in a similar state of instability.  Cells within the boundaries of the Caliphate are always Active, and there is an escalating Funding hit / Prestige gain if the Capital marker is displaced to another country or removed entirely.

The Jihadist player has played the events ISIL and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi back-to-back to place both Syria and Iraq into Civil War and then to place 3 Cells in Syria and declare a Caliphate with its Capital in Syria. Note that Iraq is also part of the Caliphate since it is adjacent to the Capital marker and is in a state of Civil War, and thus a Crescent Moon and Star marker is placed there to signify this.

DESIGN NOTE:  The Caliphate Capital’s 1 Resource value represents the drawing of resources from across the globe as individuals and organizations pledge their support for the new Caliph and travel to settle in the new Caliphate.  The Capital Marker represents specific territory that must now be held against conventionally armed opponents; the Jihadist movement has transitioned from insurgency to managing a state-like structure with commensurate benefits and risks.  The inclusions of adjacent countries in the Caliphate based on their level of turmoil is recognition that the Caliphate is not impeded by unstable borders, will attempt to expand as far as its power will allow, and inspires or demands followership by people in near-by locations.

One of the unique developments we have seen in 2015 is the formation of a regional coalition, based on Suadi Arabian leadership, to combat the unrest going on in Yemen.  This US style, 9-member nation coalition has directly intervened with both air and naval support, and as of this writing, there are reports of special forces supporting the former government against the Houthi led rebellion.  Ground Troops from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Sudan are postioned along the border and portions of the security fence have been removed, presumbly to allow the movement of these troops across the border.  This development presents a challange in the game in that there are no game Operations to allow Muslim nations to directly intervene in their neighbor’s affairs.  I have expanded the capabilities of the Gulf Union event to allow for this capability, in sort of a Regime Change style move but without the ligering commitment.

The Jihadist player has played the Coup event to place Yemen in Civil War. The US player then played the Gulf Union event to intervene in that country with 4 Local Security Forces (these are not US Troops). The Civil War will be resolved via standard operations, new rules in the expansion, and additional event card play.

There are other event cards that allow the deployment of Local Security Forces and Cells in and around certain countries facilitatring greater options for regional level intervention.

So above are a couple examples of how Labyrinth II has expanded the original game to recreate events that have occurred within very recent time.  I still struggle with where to place the last book end on this expansion and cut-off the historical record and would invit your comments on this topic.  Currently the logical locations in the time line for the final book end would include:

• July 2014, with the creation of the ISIL led Caliphate in Syria and Iraq
• December 2014, the end of the calendar year
• January 2015, after the Paris attacks
• April 2015, after the start of the Saudi led effort in Yemen and the other events listed above
• ??, Some future point yet to be defined

Regardless of what point we end the historical record, by the nature of the design of Labyrinth II: The Awakening, 2010 – ?, with a question mark at the end of the title, game play is considered  to occur beyond the end of historical events and into the future, especially if playing a multi deck scenario.

As an update on the development of Labyrinth II, we are nearly complete with the second round of blind play-tests, and will shortly be scrubbing all of the cards for ease of understanding.  Play-balance continues to look strong, and the development of the US Bot by Adam Zahm is ahead of schedule, with a major revamp of the original Jihadist Bot on deck.  We are now above 825 pre-orders and hope to be knocking on the door of 1,000 within the next month or so.  Also, I will be demonstrating Labyrinth and Labyrinth II side-by-side at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse April 23-26.  Please come by to take a look and discuss the design or feel free to sit down and learn the game!

P500 Pre-order link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-528-labyrinth-ii-the-awakening-2010-.aspx

Author: Trevor Bender