Below you will find the first in a four part article series from Elihu Feustel featuring a Labyrinth: The Awakening turn-by-turn playthrough. Enjoy!

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Setup

Jihadist hand: The jihadist draws 8 cards, as his funding is at 5.

The Jihadist starts with three US events. Factional infighting is bad for the Jihadist; it tends to shut down his efforts completely in one nation, as well as hurt funding. Sharia will allow the US player to place an awakening anywhere, as there are no besieged regimes. If the US withdraws from Afghanistan, that regime will become besieged. If this event played early, it at least will not remove a besieged marker. FMS is probably the least dangerous of the US events. IF played now, the US player would likely place the militia in Afghanistan or Iraq, making a later major Jihad more difficult (the Jihadist must have at least 5 more cells than troops + militia in the country. A country with 3 militia, while a country with 6 troops and 3 cells would require a nearly impossible 14 cells).

Offensively the Jihadist has US Consulate Attacked, which is a devastating first round play. Discarding a card and lowering prestige makes it very difficult for the US to accomplish anything in the first turn.

US Hand: The US also draws 8 cards as it is at War troop deployment.

The US has one very bad event: Muslim Brotherhood. Placing 3 reaction markers is so devastating, the US player is likely to hold the card, and possibly discard it. Delta/Seals is very strong early, netting a card and costing the Jihadist a card. The hand has many options for militia, but most of these are not playable events until a civil war breaks out.

Turn 1

Jihadist Actions 1-2:

The Jihadist opens with US Consulate Attacked. Cyber Warfare is selected and discarded from the US hand, and the US Prestige drops from 5 to 3. The Consulate Attacked card is marked with a Lapsing marker to remind you the card is still in play. He then plays Sharia for two ops, and recruits two cells in Afghanistan automatically, as it is a regime change country.

The Jihadist player will usually want at least 5 cells in play. The US options are deadlier in Labyrinth: Awakening than the original game. If the Jihadist has fewer than 5 cells, (especially spread in only two countries) the US player could potentially eliminate them all and win the game immediately.

As there is no besieged marker in play, the US can place an Awakening in any country. One possibility is Algeria. If placed there, two awakenings would place a third at the end of the turn, and eventually start pushing Algeria towards good governance.

The US player opts for a different tactic: awakening in Pakistan. A good governed country here would help fight the war in Afghanistan due to the +1 modifier for War of Ideas (WOI). It also makes Pakistan’s nukes more difficult to obtain and could begin the domino effect working of good governance creation towards Gulf States.

US Actions 1-2:

The US opens with Delta/Seals for the event and takes a random card from the Jihadist hand. Pirates, a Jihadist Event is selected. It is currently harmless as Yemen and Somalia are out of play, and not adversary. 

With a Prestige of 3, and the World’s posture at Hard 2 (vs US Soft), the US will be impotent. War of Idea rolls will be at -1 for prestige, and another -2 due to the Global War on Terror (GWOT) relations difference. To remedy this, the US does play Cross Border Support for 1 Op and attempts a WOI on France. Rolling a 2, France switches to Soft, the US prestige increases from 3 to 4, and the US GWOT relations is now 0 (+2 hard for United Kingdom and Israel, and +2 soft for France and Benelux). In the base scenario, the US will almost always attempt one or more WOI rolls on hard countries to improve prestige and align the world before attempting WOI on Muslim countries.

Jihadist Actions 3-4:

The jihadist plays Sectarian Violence for the event and removes the awakening from Pakistan. He then plays Factional Infighting as his first plot to avoid the US event. With a funding of only 5, The Jihadist would like to get at least 3 plots resolved to maximize funding. The best targets for this are Iraq and Afghanistan, whose poor governance make success the most likely. The downside of these targets is that US troops can disrupt and eliminate any exposed cells. Pakistan is also a good target. Its fair governance makes success less likely, but there is no risk of a single disrupt killing a cell.

The Jihadist opts for 1 attempt in Afghanistan and 1 attempt in Pakistan. 1 cell in each country is turned face up. A 1 is rolled in Afghanistan, succeeding. A 6 fails in Pakistan. The Jihadist selects a plot 2, and places it in Afghanistan (he could have chosen a 1 also, but a 2 is more effective if the US player succeeds in a WOI Afghanistan attempt).

US Actions 3-4:

The US must make a strategic choice: does he stay in Afghanistan, or withdraw? If there were more plots, the choice would be easy. With only 1 plot active, the US player opts to stay the course, and disarm the plot. He first plays Maersk Alabama for the event, adding 1 reserve and 1 prestige to 5. He then plays Pirates for two ops, and with his reserve, spends 3 ops to disarm the plot.

Jihadist Actions 5-6:

Desperate for funding, the Jihadist plays FMS for 2 ops, and attempts to plots in Afghanistan. With a 1 and a 5, 1 plot is placed (a plot 2). This activates a second cell in Afghanistan.

The event triggers, allowing the US to place 3 militia in an allied country. He places the militia in Afghanistan, making the country less fragile if he pulls out.

The Jihadist plays Quds force for his second action, attempting another plot in Afghanistan. With a 1, he succeeds and places a Plot 1 (he cannot place a stronger plot since he spent only 1 op).

US Actions 5-6:

The Jihadist funding is at 5. If the plots are ignored, the funding will go up to 7, then drop to 6 at the end of the turn. The Jihadist has one more action and might get another plot off. If one plot is disarmed, the Jihadist cannot hit 7 funding next turn, and can draw only 8 cards.

The US player plays Qadhafi for 3 ops and disarms a plot. A plot 2 is randomly selected.

The US player has 3 cards, and he would like to discard or hold Muslim Brotherhood. With 2 2-op actions, he could attempt WOI on Pakistan or Gulf States. Or, he could attempt more WOI on hard countries. If he gets the GWOT up to 3, he will gain prestige each turn.

The US player plays Siege of “Kobanigrad” for 2 ops and attempts a WOI on Germany. He rolls a 5, and Germany comes into play Hard (shifting World GWOT to Hard 1).

After both US cards are played, there is an unresolved plot. It resolves, increasing the Jihadist funding by 1 to 6, and the US prestige drops 1 to 4. Afghanistan is already poor, so the plot cannot degrade the governance further.

Jihadist Action 7

With the Jihadist’s last card, he could either play two Ops and plot, or use the event. He opts to play Trade Embargo for the event. The US prestige lowers 1 to 3, and the Jihadist places a reaction in Pakistan.

US Action 7:

He plays Russian Aid for 2 ops and tries a WOI on Germany again. A 6 fails again.

With 1 card left, the US may choose to play it, discard it, or hold it until next turn. The US player discards it.

At the end of the turn, the Jihadist funding drops from 6 to 5. The lapsing Consulate Attacked is discarded.

Here is the board after the first turn:

In Two Weeks: Labyrinth: The Awakening Playthrough — Turn 2

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Previous Articles from Elihu Feustel:

Labyrinth: The Awakening – An Introduction (Part 1 of 2)

Labyrinth: The Awakening – An Introduction (Part 2 of 2)