GJK and I had planned to play this a few months ago but it never came to fruition. Now Barthheart and I are going to give it a whirl. We're going to play a VASSAL PBEM game of the "Let's Roll" scenario from GMT's Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001 -?.
Barth will be taking on the role of the US while I play as the Jihadis.
We'll be playing the standard game which lasts for one run through of the card deck or ends early should one side achieve their victory conditions.
Scenario description: It is September 12, 2001. Al-Qaeda has just pulled off a devastating "martyrdom operation" in the United States that it hopes will light the fires of Islamist revolution. the US - caught off guard - has awoken and is about to respond.
The Jihadis win if they can achieve one of the following conditions.
1) Set up an Islamic Caliphate by converting at least 2 adjacent countries to Islamic rule and having control of 6 resources.
2) Lower U.S. prestige to 1 and have at least 15 countries under Islamic rule or suffering from poor governance.
3) Setting off a WMD on U.S. soil.
The U.S. wins if they can achieve one of the following:
1) Have at least 15 countries with fair or good governance.
2) Have at least 12 resources under good governance.
3) Eliminate all terrorist cells from play.
Afghanistan starts under Islamist rule with 4 sleeper terrorist cells in play. The U.S. government starts out with a hard stance on terror which matches global sentiment (thanks to Israel). If the global stance on the war on terror ever becomes at odds with the US stance, the US suffers penalties to operations they try to undertake around the globe. The US starts with a prestige of 7 which is "high", giving them a bonus to attempts influence nations via "the war of ideas". They have troops stationed in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf States.
Each side starts with a hand of 9 cards which can be played for events listed on them or for operations. The cards have a value of 1-3 points and they can be US associated, Jihadist associated, or neutral.
If a side plays a card associated with the opposing player, the opposing player gets to conduct the event listed on the card. Jihadis can use the operations points to recruit new terror cells, move cells from country to country (and convert them from active to sleeper), launch major or minor jihads, or launch a terror plot.
The US can use points to influence governments through the "War of Ideas", deploy troops to a country, withdraw troops from a country, institute regime change, reassess US policy, disrupt terror cells, or go on alert for suspected terror plots.
The Jihadis have the initiative and can play two cards in a row, followed by the US reacting and playing two cards in a row. This back and forth continues until the each player's hand of cards is depleted. Once hands are depleted (the US can hold on to one card for future turns), hands are re-drawn (hand size can vary depending on game conditions) and adjustments are made to terrorist funding levels and US prestige. Then play continues on as before until the deck runs out or one side fulfills a victory condition.
The Jihadis go first. After drawing my nine cards, I decide to try and set world opinion against the U.S.
Chirac and Shroeder are elected in France and Germany and, unlike the US, oppose direct military intervention in the war on terror. Their posture is set to soft, world opinion switches from hard -1 to soft -1 and the US loses prestige.
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Next, Osama starts putting out videos decrying US imperialism and pointing out their impotence in the Muslim world (because Afghanistan is under Islamist rule, the US loses 4 prestige).
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That's the end of my first two actions. I've managed to greatly decrease US prestige and set them at odds with world opinion which will mean Barth will have a much tougher time of it should he decide to use his cards to try to influence governments via "the war of ideas". This is the main way in which the US can improve relations and help bring about stable governments to Muslim countries.
The US responds with a full fledged invasion of Afghanistan. They oust the ruling Islamic theocracy, quickly set up a puppet government and begin conducting offensive operations against the Jihadists. All four of my cells there go from sleeper to active and Barth's forces hunt down and kill two of them.
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In response, I recruit three more sleeper cells in Afghanistan and then send the two exposed cells over the border into Pakistan where they blend in with the populace and become sleepers again.
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The US continued to focus on exposing terror cells in Afghanistan and flipped two of my units there to active (which makes them easier to kill). They then sent a drone strike over the border into Pakistan and took out one of my units hiding there.
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US prestige is on the rise thanks to all the casualties they're inflicting but it's still in the toilet.
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I responded by recruiting another three cells in Afghanistan and then unleashing some radicalized Kurdish elements in Iraq.
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Barth goes on a diplomatic offensive and tried to strong arm Germany's Schroeder into publicly supporting the US led war on terror. His efforts fail and Germany's position stays the same.
In northwestern China, elements of the Uygar population become radicalized. China cracks down in response and supports the US's hard stance on Islamic terror. (China's stance becomes hard, shifting the world's overall stance to neutral and removing one of the penalties imposed on any War of Ideas attempts made by the US). Uygar extremists cross the border from China to Kyrgyzstan and set up training camps there. (I gain one cell in Central Asia).
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With a lull in fighting in Afghanistan (Barth used his two ops turns to try and flip Germany's stance), I decide to send three cells across the border into Pakistan and launch a Jihad to try and destabilize the corrupt regime there. Guess I underestimated the skill of the Pakistani ISI. All three of my cells are wiped out while achieving nothing but martyrdom. (I needed to roll a 1 or a 2 on a d6. Had 3 chances to do so and ended up rolling three 3s. #:-) )
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The US continues to grind up jihadis in Afghanistan (Barth kills off another this turn) which seems to be playing well in the US Heartland. The hawks hold on to the House and Senate during the mid-term elections and US posture remains hard.
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European opinion is not on board however as France remains opposed to direct action despite coaxing from the Americans.
The Jihadis decide to show their displeasure with the election results by targeting US troops in Afghanistan. We attempt to hatch a plot there but it comes to nothing.
Not willing to expose our last sleeper cell in the 'Stan, we decide to try to demonstrate our strength by hitting Saddam in Iraq with another plot. This one has better success and is now in motion. Will Barth be able to prevent it? Tune in to our next installment.
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Its odd how this all didn't quite play out in reality ( with three or four-way wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen where the US is aligned with the Shia mostly though still shooting Tomahawks at Houthi radar sites occasionally). You would need a whole Labyrinthine game just to represent Yemen these days.
That's in the expansion, Labyrinth: The Awakening 2010- ?. It adds all the colour revolutions, Arab Spring, and collapse into civil wars.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on January 31, 2017, 01:45:26 PM
That's in the expansion, Labyrinth: The Awakening 2010- ?. It adds all the colour revolutions, Arab Spring, and collapse into civil wars.
Good to know!
Subbbbbscribe! :bd:
US intelligence services are caught unawares by the plot. Massive casualties occur in Iraq from the terrorist attack. It is roundly condemned in the West and the hoped for increase in funding for the Jihadis never materializes (my funding was already maxed out.)
The US once again tries to win over Germany in light of the attacks but Schroeder's government remains staunchly opposed to US interventionism. (Barth once again tries to switch Germany from soft to hard but the dice seem to have different ideas.)
Al-Shabaab becomes active in Somalia and the ruling government teeters on the brink of collapse. (I gain a terror cell there and roll to determine the level of government. It comes out as poor and the regime is besieged meaning it will be easier than normal for me to overthrow it via Jihad should I be able to amass at least 5 cells there).
That ends the first turn. The Jihadis lose one level of funding bringing it from 9 to 8 (it drops by one each turn. The funding level determines how many cards I get at the beginning of a new turn as well as the max number of terrorist cells I can have on the map). Other than that, nothing changes
At the start of the second turn, I draw a new hand. I still have enough funding to draw 9 cards. I use my two card plays to recruit more cells. I place two in Afghanistan (automatic success due to the war there) and I try to recruit 3 more in Somalia. I have to roll equal to or less than the governance score on a d6 to succeed. Because Somalia's government is poor, I need a 3 or less. I roll one 3 and two 4s, gaining me one new cell there.
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The meat grinder continues in Afghanistan.
The US sends special forces across the border into Waziristan and they knock out the last remaining cell in Pakistan. Shia militants controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr launch a series of rash attacks against US forces in retaliation and are quickly wiped out.
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With my cells in Pakistan gone and only two left in Afghanistan, I need to do some recruiting or else Barth will be able to wind up operations in Iraq and free up his troops currently bogged down there.
Pakistan seems like a lost cause. Benazir Bhutto returns from exile and rallies the more secular elements of society there. (I use the points from the card to recruit two cells in Afghanistan and try to get a third in Somalia but fail.)
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The government in Somalia teeters ever closer to collapse. (I manage to recruit two more cells there, bringing my total to 4.)
US pressure on the United Nations Security Council to support their military action in Afghanistan pays off. With US efforts gaining further legitimacy from the UN resolutions, other NATO member nations agreed to send troops and aid to the region. (Barth gains an additional two NATO troops in Afghanistan, the Afghan government improves from poor to fair, and also gains two aid markers that will make it easier for Barth to further improve government stability in the future).
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Fundamentalist forces in Somalia storm government buildings in Mogadishu and overthrow the beleaguered government. Somalia falls under Islamist rule. (had to burn a card which would have made it easier for me to do the same in Yemen but both Yemen and Somalia are resource poor, so one's as good as the other for my purposes.)
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US and NATO forces go on a tear in Afghanistan and blow the hell out of the Jihadists there. Collateral damage upsets the neighbouring 'Stans and relations between the Central Asian countries and the US worsen. I decide it's time to cut my losses in Afghanistan and fan out with the surviving cells. I move cells into Central Asia and Iran.
In doing so, I manage to cut myself off from the Philippines as the Moro separatists decide that they're better off going it alone rather than working with Abu Sayyaf.
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Rather anti-climatic end of the turn. Barth tries to influence the Gulf States and France and fails on both attempts.
I try to launch a terror attack on US troops in Afghanistan with my one remaining cell of true believers there. They fail.
At the start of the new turn, I pull them out of Afghanistan and move them to Pakistan along with another cell that had been hiding in Iran.
US prestige is getting a little too high so I send out Zawahiri to muddy the waters a little. This drops US prestige back into negative territory.
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Do y'all plan to flip over to the Awakening expansion if you go far enough?
I don't own the expansion so not sure.
Not this time. We're just playing a single deck session. The expansion adds some new countries and new variables that affect jihad and War of Ideas rolls (awakening, reactionism, polarization, convergence) as well as rules for civil wars (and a new "militia" faction that can be controlled by either player depending on circumstances). These new systems would have had to have been added from the beginning of the game were we to transition from the original game into the expansion.
Back at it.
With the collapse of insurgent resistance in Afghanistan, US lead coalition troops quickly establish order and begin their pull out. NATO forces remain behind to act as peacekeepers.
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Flush with their success in Afghanistan, the US launches an invasion of Somalia. They send the nascent ruling Islamist government running and set up a provisional government. World opinion is decidedly against more of this type of interventionism and the reputation of the US goes down the toilet.
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Malaysia becomes a hotbed of recruitment and new cells spring up. While this is happening, Al-Shabaab militants plan a series of attacks against US forces in Somalia...
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Beginning to feel like a really expensive game of Whack-a-Mole. :P :knuppel2:
First-person shooter enemies keep respawning. TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT! :D
US intel detects the plot to blow up a Marine barracks in Mogadishu and thwarts it. (Damn you Barth, being all clever and holding on to 3 point cards til the end of the round). The US then proceeds to lay the hammer down and take out all cells exposed by the failed plot. (I lose two cells in Somalia).
Jihadist response to the failure was quite anemic. One of the remaining plotters goes to ground and some new wannabes join the cause. (I play two lame 1 point cards. 1 to flip an active cell back to sleeper status and 1 to recruit a new cell in Somalia.)
The US military goes into full swing and takes out each new cell as soon as they pop up. Pressed into a corner, the last few insurgents strap on suicide vests and decide to go out as martyrs. (Barth played a card which allowed me to replace a single terrorist cell with two terror plots. I sacrifice my last remaining cell in Somalia and exchange it for two plots there.)
Wow -- if that plot fails, Barth won, right? -- if no more cells remain on the board, that's a US win condition?
Nah, he's got a crap tonne of cells in Indonesia still and a few others spread around, Iraq, Central Asia...
Both plots succeed and we blow up a bus full of nuns, orphans, and kittens or something. End result is a big boost in funding to the Jihadis and a loss of prestige for the Americans.
The terrorist attacks against US forces in Somalia leads to increased funding for the extremists. This is put to good use in SE Asia as fundamentalists stage a successful coup in Malaysia and replace the ruling government with theocratic rule.
More cells spring up in Somalia...
The success of the terror attacks against US forces in Somalia leads to major fallout in the States. The government is forced to abandon its stance of direct action and instead shifts to a policy of offering material aid and support to local forces battling Islamic extremism. (Barth spends two 3-point cards to shift US policy on the GWOT from hard to soft.)
The Jihadis use the pause to spread out from their new centre of operations in Malaysia. Two cells return to the Middle East and attempt to set up operations in Iraq. One cell is caught and its members executed, but the other manages to infiltrate and start recruiting.
Another cell makes its way to the Philippines.
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As part of its new policy, the US engages in diplomatic offensives in the Middle East. They are successful in their efforts to sway Saddam's regime in Iraq and relations begin to thaw. (US/Iraq relations improve from adversarial to neutral). Fundamentalists in the region see this rapprochement as proof that the ruling elites are willing to bend the knee to the Great Satan and rise up. The government of Iraq is ousted and the country falls to Islamist rule. (I moved cells from Malaysia to Iraq and spent a card that allowed me to launch a major jihad in Iraq but doing so cost me in Somalia. Needed to get Iraq to fall before Barth could dump more aid in there next turn).
As a consequence, the newly installed Secularist government in Somalia increases the pace of reforms. (Their governance improves from poor to fair).
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The US soft power push continues. They manage to win over Pakistan who becomes a US ally in the war on terror (no Pakistani nukes for me this game, it seems).
Jihadi cells cross the Iraq border into Jordan.
Overconfidence in the Jihadi ranks dooms their efforts in Jordan to failure. Despite adherents flooding into the region from as far afield as Kazakhstan, efforts to topple the Jordanian government are farcically inept. Insurgent forces are decimated and the Jordanian government allies itself with the West.
(I attempted a major Jihad in Jordan and failed to roll a single success on 3 dice. When this happens, it pushes the government one notch closer to the US but also places a besieged regime marker in the country making it easier for the Islamists to stage a revolution there in the future.)
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The US responds to warming relations with Jordan by sending aid and advisors. Funding for the Jihadis takes a hit and the ruling government regains popular support (I lose two funding and the besieged regime is removed from Jordan.)
Realizing that Jordan's going to be a tough nut to crack for very little payoff, the surviving revolutionaries go to ground and flee to Saudi Arabia.
(The map's looking rather bare all of a sudden. Need to get more cells out there.)
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The US continues to push hard on the War of Ideas with mixed results. Their behind the scenes machinations in Indonesia pay dividends. They manage to penetrate the local terror network there and, using the intel obtained, are able to sweep up key players currently holed up in Pakistan.
Tony Blair goes in front of the EU to give a speech promoting unity in the face of extremism. It doesn't go over well and Italy, the Benelux countries, and the Scandinavians come out firmly against portions of Blair's speech.
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The Jihadists continue to recruit new members in Iraq and, in an effort to broaden their appeal beyond the Middle East, attacks are planned in the Philippines and Chechnya.
Not much happened this phase.
The US detects and thwarts the planned terrorist attack in the Philippines. Two more terror cells cross the border from Iraq into Saudi Arabia. A new cell emerges in Gaza.
There were a few more turns of the Jihadis building up cells and launching terror attacks throughout the Middle East. They were able to overwhelm US intelligence services and achieve critical mass in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Royal family fled into exile and the country fell under Islamist control. A new caliphate was established in the region. The will of Allah prevailed (with the help of copious amounts of suicide vests).
Jihadi victory was achieved on the first phase of the fifth turn of the game.
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I managed to draw a devastating hand on the fourth turn. I was able to force Barth to discard three of his eight cards (and I was allowed to use two of them against him), therefore he simply wasn't able to stop the flow of cells into Saudi Arabia and I could just steam roller my way in.
I've got 5-6 games of Labyrinth under my belt now and it seems like the Jihadis have the easier time of it. They have the initiative (which makes sense given the theme) and have more opportunity to dictate when and where flashpoints occur. The US has a hard time doing much more than reacting and the prestige track can really kill their chances if the Jihadis can knock it down to "low". I also think that the US chances are a little too reliant on dice rolling rather than skillful play. In order for the US to take action in a country with a "poor" government rating, they have to spend a 3-point card to act and then only get one die roll (and most only succeed on a 5-6). The Jihadis can always act and get a number of dice rolls equal to the value of the card they play so odds of success greatly favour the Jihadis. I'm going to have to read some forum posts to see what strategies are effective for the US.
Thanks for the game, Barth!
Great game SDR! I agree with your analysis of the game. I never seemed to get the initiative... whether through bad card play, probably, or through bad card deals, my excuse.
I'm going to have to read some more to see what I was doing wrong.
I think the dice had a lot to do with it as well. You had a string of bad luck with all those posture rolls in Europe going against you whereas I seem to have had much better luck than normal and all my jihad attempts succeeded except for one. Finally, that hand of cards I drew at the beginning of the 4th turn was ridiculous. 6 of the 8 were for my faction, 1 was neutral, and only 1 was a US card and that one was a single point value. Being able to drop your hand from 8 to 5 and being able to use 2 of those cards against you essentially gave me two actions to your one.
https://theplayersaid.com/2017/03/08/strategy-advice-on-playing-as-the-us-in-labyrinth-the-war-on-terror-2001-by-gmt-games/ (https://theplayersaid.com/2017/03/08/strategy-advice-on-playing-as-the-us-in-labyrinth-the-war-on-terror-2001-by-gmt-games/)
Good article.... I think I tried to do all those things but like you said your 4th round hand was just too much. It took away my ability to stop the conversion of Saudi... :pullhair:
If only there was a game where four players could team up to oppose everyone else in fighting the War on Terror, so that card draws though random would be more balanced in their effects.....
....
.... :-"
... and if we could get four players together for that game, no matter how distant from each other...
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....where could four players for such a game be found....!? If it plainly existed. Hm.... :coolsmiley:
Don't own Distant Plain... have no idea how to play it...
I've only played two COIN games, Fire in the Lake and Andean Abyss. I found it somewhat frustrating because I really wanted to like the games but I found that the 4 player experience was lacking in flow and theme. The game play just didn't gel together and everyone's actions came across as very gamey and disassociated from everyone else's. The theme of the games just didn't come through at all which was a disappointment. At no time did I feel like I was playing a game about the Vietnam War. Instead it seemed like everyone knew what their victory conditions were and just went for it.
The consensus from our group is that the games play much better with two players than with four, especially for Fire in the Lake. The Cards are used for events more than ops and the experience is more thematic (which is the main reason I play historical games). I'd like to give the 2-player experience a whirl.
SDR, ADPlain somewhat reduces the chaos of four factions competing against each other (while two sets cooperate with each other, which I found nicely evocative in FITL assuming you accept the theory that the NVA didn't want a powerful VC cadre in South Nam after winning), by requiring the teams to help each other more for the individual win. The Coalition and the AfGov can't both win but both have to be 'winning' for one of them to win, for example. The Coalition can't simply screw over the AfGov to keep them down like the other two players for the win.
Barth, there's a VASSAL module; and I'm entirely certain there's a TTS module -- since there are no secret cards or things like that in this game system, I could gamemaster it on TTS showing positions and options for each player, like I did with AzTank.
While the implementation of the rules is of course somewhat different, if you read my AAR vs AzTank (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=18567.0) you can see how the system is generally played.