Below you will find the fourth and final part in an article series from Elihu Feustel featuring a Labyrinth: The Awakening turn-by-turn playthrough. If you would like to read the first three parts in the series, those can be found here. Enjoy!

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Turn 4

Jihadist Hand: at 7 funding, 9 cards are drawn.

The Jihadist hand is strong with many options. With the US prestige at 3, hitting prestige will set the US back several cycles (until it can be regained through WOI against non-Muslim countries or disruptions. )His flexible reactions might allow an escalation in either Pakistan or Afghanistan.

His Oil Spike could allow him to get Martyrdom Operations from the discard. If he has a cell in the US, he could place 2 WMDs, and possibly win.

US hand: At low intensity, 9 cards are drawn.

The US hand has 3 bad events. Boko Haram is so dangerous, it will usually be held or discarded. Note that one of Al-Shabaab’s possible effects (also in the US hand) is to return Boko Haram to the Jihadist player’s hand. Gaza Rockets is only minimally bad.

Jihadist actions 1-2

He opens with Snowden. The US prestige drops to 1, Germany shifts to Hard, and Russia enters play Hard. This sets the US GWOT to hard 2. This shuts down any US nation building for several cycles.

The Jihadist then plays Theft of State in Afghanistan, changing the Awakening marker to a second Reaction marker. In 4 turs, Afghanistan will shift to an Islamic State if nothing else changes there.

US Actions 1-2

The US plays Intel Community. After inspecting the Jihadist hand, it removes a Cadre from Philippines, and gets 1 Op which it uses to WOI Germany. With a 2, Germany goes soft, the US GWOT shifts to 0, and his prestige increases 1 to 2. He could play an additional card now (for 3 this cycle), but he chooses not to.

With his second action, he plays Erdogan Effect to WOI Russia. He rolls a 6, and there is no change.

Jihadist Actions 3-4

If the Jihadist can flip Turkey, he wins. He plays Flypaper for 2 Ops and moves 2 cells from Syria to Turkey.  His second action is using Smartphones in Turkey. This makes it more difficult for the US player to Ally and defend Turkey, but it allows the US to play Facebook if he has it.

US Actions 3-4

The US has raging fires in Afghanistan and Turkey. He needs a prestige of at least 4 to be effective in nation and alliance building.

He opens with Gaza Rockets. The hostile event places two plot 1s in Israel and lowers the Jihadist funding from 7 to 6. With 2 Ops, he does WOI on Russia. A 5 fails. He then plays Benghazi Falls for 2 ops, and attempts a WOI on Russia again.  He succeeds with a 4. His prestige increases from 2 to 3, and the US GWOT shifts to Soft 2. Two plots detonate in Israel, and the Jihadist funding increases to 8.

Jihadist Actions 5-6

He plays Mosul Central bank for 2 Ops. A cell moves from Syria to Turkey, and Turkey to Serbia. Serbia tests Hard with a 5 and shifts the US GWOT to Soft 1. Osama Bin Laden is played for 3 Ops, and 3 cells move from Syria to Turkey. 5 are there, enough for a major Jihad.

US Actions 5-6

It is unusual for cells to visit Europe when the US is soft. Two-thirds of the  time when a non-Muslim nation is tested, the world moves towards soft. Two possible Jihadist cards would play well with this approach: Hagel, shifting the US to Hard, or Martyrdom Operations which is already in the discard. But Oil Spike has not been played. If the Jihadist has Oil Spike, he will have to use one of his two actions to play it. The Jihadist cannot move to the US, Oil Spike, and play Martyrdom Operations in a single cycle. If he sees this developing, he can blow two Ops to disrupt the cell in the Schengen Country (or the US if parked there).

The US plays Int’l Banking Regime for 2 ops and does WOI against Nigeria. A 3 flips it to Soft, makes the US GWOT Soft 3, and increases US prestige to 4. He plays Al-Shabaab for 2 ops and attempts a WOI in Iraq. He needs a 5-6 (+1 for Gulf States Alliance; -1 for trying to improve governance to Good). He rolls a 5 and succeeds. When a country becomes good, he selects a random Muslim Country on chart 11.3.9 to receive an awakening. A 6, 4 places the awakening in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia tests fair with a 6.

Jihadist actions 7-8

The Jihadist sets up for the kill. He plays Oil Spike to retrieve Martyrdom Operations. He plays 2 Cups of Tea for 2 Ops, and moves a cell from Turkey to France, and from Serbia to the US.

US Actions 7-8

The US must play two cards and will have only one left after this action cycle. If two WMDs appear in the US, he has no way to stop it.

He plays Revolution and Critical middle to disrupt the cell in the US twice. It is destroyed and replaced with a Cadre.

Jihadist Actions 7-8

The Jihadist plays Abu Ghraib Jail Break for 2 ops.  He moves a cell from France to the US, and Syria to Turkey. He plays Martyrdom Operations, sacrifices the cell in the US with 2 plots, both WMDs acquired form Syria.  Note that the number of Martyrdom Operations Cards has been reduced from 3 in Labyrinth to 1 in both Awakening and the second expansion Forever War, making this path to victory a little more challenging for the Jihadist player to orchestrate.

US Action 9

The US player concedes, knowing he has no way to stop 2 WMD attacks. At the end of the game, board is shown below.

WMDs are powerful and versatile. 1 or more WMDs paired with Martyrdom Operations is a deadly pairing for the Jihadist to play.

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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)

“No Plan Survives Contact”: Playing Labyrinth: The Awakening (Part 1)

“No Plan Survives Contact”: Playing Labyrinth: The Awakening (Part 2)

“No Plan Survives Contact”: Playing Labyrinth: The Awakening (Part 3)