Below you will find the second in a two part article series from Elihu Feustel discussing Labyrinth: The Awakening strategy. If you would like to read part one, that can be found here. Enjoy!

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Civil Wars

The introduction of civil wars creates another conflict zone that is favorable to the Jihadist player. The automatic recruiting makes a contested civil war (where the US commits troops to disrupt) similar to a regime change conflict. If the country is poor, the conflict favors a long war of attrition in favor of the Jihadist via repeated plots and recruiting. In a civil war in a fair country, the US is at an advantage once an alliance is established. A Jihadist player will usually seek to quickly recruit and Jihad in a civil war country. If there are no militia or troops, he simply needs to spend 5 ops to recruit, and 3 more ops to attempt a Jihad if the country is poor. If the country is fair, a series of plots and minor Jihads are necessary to degrade the country to poor first.

There are six cards that can start a civil war. For the Jihadist player, the most flexible are Coup (targeting any 1-resource country with at least 2 cells) and Houthi Rebels targeting Yemen. These are Jihadist events and can be played even if the country is Good. ISIL is a Jihadist event starting civil wars in both Syria and Iraq, unless the country is Good or Islamist Rule, or defended by more troops and militia than cells.

The US player has one civil war card as well: Benghazi Falls, which puts Libya in civil war (with 2 Militia) if it or an adjacent country have an awakening. This can trigger, even if Libya as at good governance.

There are three other unaligned cards that start civil wars. Free Syrian Army puts Syria into civil war if it has been tested and gives a one-unit advantage to the player placing it (so if the Jihadist played it, he would also place two cells and one militia). Revolution starts a civil war in a poor country with both awakenings and reactions. Finally, Operation Serval allows the Jihadist to start a civil war and places a cell in any poor 1 or 2 resource African Country.

The US has several ways to oppose civil wars. It can always try to forge an alliance to send troops to disrupt and make Jihad more difficult. There are also 9 US events that favorably affect civil wars (and 7 neutral events, as well as 2 Jihadist events). Many of these events place Militia in a civil war country. For the Jihadist to conduct a major Jihad, he must have 5 cells more than the troops and militia. Placing 2 or 3 militia greatly increases the commitment to attack that country. Militia are most effective before the Jihadist has sent cells. With 3 militia, the Jihadist will have to recruit at least 3 times before attempting a major Jihad. This may give you an extra action phase to react to the civil war if you wish to ally and send troops.

A poor use of militia is to place them where the Jihadist is already strong. If the jihadist already has 4 or 5 cells, placing 2 militia will not even delay the major Jihad one action phase.

US commitment to civil wars with militia (and alliances) is more valuable when the Jihadist funding is not high. If you manage to keep funding low, even a single militia will prevent a major Jihad, since the Jihadist player cannot place 6 cells anywhere. With low funding, the US player can win those wars through attrition if nation building is not an option.

At medium funding and a 10-cell limit, militia narrow what other branches the Jihadist can pursue. If he commits 8 cells to attempt a major Jihad, he has only two to spare. A single cell often parks in Syria or Iran looking for WMDs. A single cell is often well-committed to the US, waiting for WMDs and Martyrdom Operations. Even at medium funding, several militia can constrain his options and allow you to focus on nation building.

When the US player fights in a civil war country, he has two options that he lacks in a Regime Change country. First, he can use WOI to improve governance regardless of how many cells are present. In a Regime Change country, he needs an advantage of 5 troops or Militia to attempt WOI. Second, he can avoid plots by deploying troops to the troop box, out of the civil war country, for 1 op. In Regime Change countries, he can only do this with a “Withdraw” action, and often suffers a prestige hit.

Discard Recursion

There are seven cards that allow a player to retrieve a discard (or even a removed card in one case) into his hand: two US, three neutral, and 2 Jihadist events. One of the strongest is Oil Spike, which lets you fetch any card in the discard pile. There is only one Oil Spike in the expansion game (compared to two in the Original).

Playing a card to retrieve a card (and similarly, forcing a discard against your opponent) is most effective when there is no crisis. In addition to selecting a powerful option from the discard pile, you are giving initiative to your opponent. If neither side is close to flipping a country or doing something decisive, that is frequently a good time to play a discard recursion card. In effect, you are delaying an action half an action cycle. With equal hands, the US player may have the chance to take several unopposed actions near the end of the turn. Similarly, the Jihadist player will force the US player to make a difficult decision of when to play his last card if he is facing several Jihadist actions in a row.

If much of the deck has been played, there are powerful combinations involving playing more than one card. For example, with an Oil Spike, the US player might retrieve Obama Doctrine, which is played to retrieve another useful discard. This delays the US tempo a full two actions. Similarly, the Jihadist player can Oil Spike for Al-Shabaab and do even nastier things (retrieving Boko-Haram plus another utility action).

The Nigerian Heartland

In many instances, the Jihadist player will have difficulty having two adjacent territories as Islamist States. Despite having 6 or more resources under his control, victory can be denied with careful blocking plays (e.g., getting a country adjacent to an Islamist State to fair ally, where a conflict is unfavorable).

Nigeria often comes into play because it is adjacent to three other African Countries. In the original game, it was very difficult for the Jihadist to win without getting at least one 3-resource country in the Mid-East. In the expansion, it is much more common for the US player to remove the Jihadist completely from the Mid-East.

At the start of the base scenario, Nigeria is not “in play”. It is a poor country and comes into play as a poor neutral Muslim-Mix country when a plot resolves. It is taken out of play if the US succeeds it making it an ally.

As recent history shows, Boko Haram is a recurring threat in this area. In the scope of the game, the Boko Haram Islamist event can either place 3 cells in Nigeria or place a level 2 or 3 plot there. The Jihadist can immediately return it to his hand by discarding a different non-US 3-op card. Al-Shabaab (and Oil Spike) can also retrieve Boko Haram from the discard pile.

The US player will eventually be drawn into Nigeria. If he can develop a good ally adjacent to Nigeria, neutralizing the Jihadist threat there will be much easier. Unfortunately, both Mali and Sudan are one resource countries, and are susceptible to the Coup event.

Training Camps

Many Islamist victories occur shortly after playing the Training Camps event in a non-good Muslim country. The event immediately places 2 cells in the target country and allows automatic recruiting there. Playing of the event allows the Jihadist to rapidly destabilize whatever country he selects. Typically, it would take about 10 ops to place 5 cells in a poor country (either by recruiting there, or automatically recruiting elsewhere and moving there). Training Grounds accelerates the attack on that country, allowing a buildup and Jihad in two action phases. Counting the 3 additional ops for a Major Jihad, this would otherwise take most of a turn to accomplish the same thing.

If this card is in the discard pile, it can be retrieved by either Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (a neutral 2 op event), or by Oil Spike. The US player will usually see this in a one-deck game, and almost certainly face it in a two-deck game.

Training Camps is so deadly, a US player is often best off holding it in his hand through the end of the turn – doing that repeatedly is the only way to ensure it does not come into play.

At this point, we will observe a full play-through, and discuss different ways the players could have made decisions.

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In Two Weeks: Part One of the Labyrinth: The Awakening Playthrough