Labyrinth

The War on Terror 2001-?

The American Century has closed with a single Cold-War superpower left standing, and a pause in conflict that some dubbed the The End of History. It wasn’t. In the Middle East and South Asia, an Islamic revival was underway, while resentment spread, due in part to US support for the regions’ anti-Soviet tyrannies. Thus erupted a new struggle against the West. Wealthy Saudi fanatic Usama bin Laden declared holy war against America in 1996 and struck with spectacular terrorist attacks on US targets in East Africa in 1998 and Arabia in 2000.

Bin Ladin’s al-Qaeda organization was recruited and trained under the protection of an Afghan fundamentalism born out of the anti-Soviet Bear Trap of the 1980s. By 2001, al-Qaeda had set in motion even more devastating strikes – this time within the US Homeland – in hopes of igniting a global Muslim uprising. Uprising or not, the West’s response to those September 11th attacks would reshape international affairs from London to Jakarta, and from Moscow to Dar es Salaam.

Labyrinth takes 1 or 2 players inside the Islamist jihad and the global war on terror. With broad scope, ease of play, and a never-ending variety of card combinations similar to GMT Games’ Twilight Struggle, Labyrinth portrays both the effort to counter extremist terrorism and the wider ideological struggle – guerilla warfare, regime change, democratisation, and more. From the designer of the award winning Wilderness War, Labyrinth combines an emphasis on card-driven game play with multifaceted simulation.

In the 2-player game, one player takes the role of jihadists seeking to exploit world events and Islamic donations to spread fundamentalism. The other, as the United States, must neutralise terrorist cells while encouraging Muslim reform to cut off extremism at its roots.

Labyrinth features asymmetrical game play and a maze of political, religious, military, and economic events. In the parallel wars of bombs and ideas, international coordination is key – but terrorist opportunities to disrupt Western unity are many. The Towers have fallen, but the global struggle has just begun.

COMPONENTS:
One 22×34” Mounted Map
156 counters
120 playing cards
15 tan wooden cubes
15 black wooden cylinders
Rules Booklet
Play Booklet
Two Player Aid cards
Four six-sided dice