The first expansion of the Labyrinth series of games covers the five years from 2010 roughly through 2014, with the main events simulated being the Arab Spring and the period of Civil Wars that followed.  It introduces new concepts and game play, each of which is covered below. 

Labyrinth: The Awakening Strategy

The expansion of rules in The Awakening give both players many more long-term options and make the strategic calculations immensely more complex. The major differences are the introduction of awakening/reactions and civil wars. The game has so many options, there is no coherent way to discuss them all.  Instead, I will explain a few key concepts, and discuss a full game replay.

Awakenings and Reactions

In the full 120 card deck, there are 13 neutral cards, 9 pro-US cards, and 6 pro-Jihadist cards that add or remove awakenings or reactions. If all the pro-US and pro-Jihadist events were played, you would see an advantage of 17 awakenings from the US cards, and about 11 reactions from Jihadist cards. If you play through an entire deck, one would expect that the US has a long-term advantage in this theater of about 6 awakenings per deck played (if no events were avoided). Much of this comes from the two US “Facebook” events that each place three awakenings. These can only be used if one of 3 Smartphones is in play, and the Jihadist event Censorship has not canceled the Smartphone event. The Jihadist player can minimize the awakening advantage by declining to play smartphones as an event. This is especially so if neither Facebook has been played, or the Censorship event is gone.

A single well-placed awakening, when unopposed, can stymie the best laid Jihadist plans. With a single awakening, the US player gets +1 bonus on all War of Ideas (WOI) rolls, and the Jihadist receives a penalty of 1 on all Jihad rolls. Consider a poor country with 5 cells. If the Jihadist attempts a major Jihad, he must roll a 2 or less on at least 2 of the 3 dice to succeed. A Jihadist can expect this to succeed 26% of the time. If it fails, the country shifts one towards US alliance (to alliance if neutral, or to neutral if adversary), but also receives a besieged regime marker. The prospect of the target becoming a US ally, and the typical 2 cells lost in the attempt makes this scenario unappealing to the Jihadist player. If the Jihadist is building forces in a poor country or about to Jihad, placing a single awakening in it is a strong play.

Similarly, the Jihadist can very effectively slow down US nation building with reactions. Consider a US WOI on fair country while his prestige is 7. The prestige of 7-9 gives he US player a +1 bonus, while trying to WOI a fair country to improve to good gives a penalty of 1. With no awakenings or reactions, the US player must roll a 5-6 to succeed (or a 4-6 with a prior aid result). The US player could expect to try about 2 2/3 times or spend 6 or less ops to improve the governance to good. With a reaction, success only occurs with a 6 (and aid with a 5). Now he needs a typical 4 ½ attempts, taking nearly twice as many actions and ops.

If both examples, the awakening or reaction was used defensively to slow down the opponent. In defensive uses (meaning the placing player does not WOI or Jihad), the marker remains in play after your opponent suffers from it until the country becomes good or Islamic State. Consider a failed Jihad, shifting from adversary to neutral. The awakening gives the US player +1 on WOI to shift to from neutral to ally, and if he chooses, another +1 until the country is improved to Fair.

Contrast this to the offensive use. An awakening is placed in a poor country and disappears once the a WOI improves it to Fair. Similarly, a reaction could immediately disappear following a successful Jihad, degrading the country to Islamic State. In general, they payoff for offensive use is less than defensive use. There is one situation where an offensive use is usually warranted: flipping one nation to make your anchor. If the Jihadist player has no Islamist State, the US does not lose a prestige point each turn, and absent a regime change, civil war or Training Grounds, there is no place to automatically recruit. The payoff for getting your first Islamist State country is higher than others (unless you can win immediately with another Islamist State country). Similarly, getting a single allied country to Good governance provides adjacent countries with a +1 bonus on WOI rolls. The first good country can start the domino-effect on WOI, and is more valuable than others (again, unless you are approaching 12 resource points for the win).

Occasionally, a player may have two awakening or reactions in a single country. This begins the slow process of alternating between adding a third marker in one turn, followed by shifting the country (and removing the market if its governance changed—meaning the shift was more than between ally and adversary). If you are hoping that markers and patience will convert that country, you are overly optimistic. Consider a poor ally with 2 awakening markers. It will take a full 4 turns for that nation shift to good, and only then if there is no reaction, removal of awakening, or more likely, the game ends. In most cases, getting two markers is non-optimal if the second marker can go somewhere else useful. Two awakenings in a country also makes the Jihadist event Censorship more valuable, as it can remove both.

There are two situations where a second marker has a more immediate payoff. If there are two unopposed reaction markers in a country, a third will appear at the end of the turn. With a -3 modifier, Jihads succeed on a 1-6. If you place a second reaction marker on a fair country, 5 cells succeed automatically! Plan to have your cells ready at the start of the next turn.

One spot that is very good for a second awakening is in a poor adversary. The US player cannot WOI a country that is adversary. A poor adversary with two awakenings will get a third awakening at the end of turn, and shift to neutral after another turn. During the US phase, he can WOI with a +3 modifier for the awakenings to make it allied. More often, you will wait one more turn for it to shift to poor ally with 3 markers. At that point, it is easy to WOI it up to Fair, lose a marker, and WOI it up to good.

---