by Marc M, 2 March 2025
Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001 – ?, from Volko Ruhnke and GMT games, is a card-driven strategy game depicting the United States war on terrorism. The US tries to stabilize Muslim governments to resist Jihadist extremism. Both sides play cards to trigger Events and conduct Operations to achieve their goals. You can get more detail on the game in my New Player’s First Impressions piece.
Labyrinth includes a solo system, and since I play solo a lot, I’m interested to see how it works. I’m playing as the US, and the Jihadist “bot” is playing through decision trees. The Jihadist side plays its cards in a specific order. I get to play mine as I see fit. This is my first play through without the tutorial holding my hand. I made mistakes and probably interpreted some rules incorrectly, but I’m learning, and this presents a good idea of how the game and the solo system work.
click images to enlarge
The scenario is Let’s Roll!, representing the US response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
- US Prestige is relatively high, which makes it a bit easier to operate.
- The US posture of Hard mirrors that of the world, eliminating die-roll penalties for the moment.
- Saudi Arabia and the Gulf State are US allies, and each has US troops.
- Afghanistan is under Islamist Rule and has four sleeper cells.
- US troop intensity is low, and Jihadist funding is high, so each side gets a full hand of nine cards.
Each hand of cards allows several turns. Each turn usually consists of three to five phases where each side plays two cards, and the Jihadists resolve any active plots.
Jihadist Card 1
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of Labyrinth from GMT Games; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article, with new installments each Sunday
Drawing off the top of the jihadist hand reveals Ansar al-Islam. The card is an unassociated event so, following the Jihadist flowchart, the card event occurs and places a cell in Iraq or Iran. A die roll determines Iran as the destination.
Following the flow chart after the event, Major Jihad and Minor Jihad aren’t possible. Jihad requires cells in a country and isn’t allowed in Iran. Afghanistan is the only other country with cells, and since it’s already under Jihadist rule it’s not a valid target.
Instead, a Recruit operation occurs. Iran is the only available location. A roll of two succeeds and, with ideology at Potent, Iran gets two more cells.
Jihadist Card 2
The second Jihadist card is Axis of Evil. This is another unassociated card, so it plays for the event. The US hand has no cards to be discarded. US posture is already hard, so there’s no change there. The prestige roll results in a +1 to prestige, raising it to 8. By the flowchart, a Jihad check is next. Both Afghanistan and Iran have cells, but, again, Afghanistan is already under Islamist Rule and Jihads can’t occur in Iran. There’s another Recruit operation.
Recruit succeeds in Afghanistan and Iran. The final Ops point goes to Radicalization. Typically, a new cell requires a recruit or another cell to be in the country, but Radicalization allows placement of a cell without a recruit. A die roll selects Yemen for the Radicalization cell. Since Yemen’s governance isn’t indicated, it has to be tested with a die roll. Yemen tests as Poor and receives the cell.
US Card 1
I play Saddam for the three Ops points. This is a Jihadist-associated card so the event triggers. However, Jihadist funding is already maxed, so I can get the Ops points with no harm done. The three points are necessary to target Pakistan for a War of Ideas operation. I’d like to make it as difficult as possible for the Jihadists to gain access to Pakistan’s weapons of mass destruction. The closer I bring Pakistan to ally status and good governance, the harder Jihadist operations are there. The die roll for War of Ideas succeeds, shifting Pakistan from Poor Neutral to Poor Ally. As an ally, I can improve governance.
US Card 2
I want to have some options in Yemen, to either improve governance or to start removing the Jihadists cells. I play Leak for three Ops points and a War of Ideas operation to shifts Yemen to ally. Leak is another Jihadist-associated card, but the conditions for the event aren’t met, so the event won’t trigger. The roll succeeds and Yemen becomes a Poor Ally.
There aren’t any plots to resolve, so the first phase ends and play goes back to the Jihadists.
Jihadist Card 1
For Phase Two, the next Jihadist card is Backlash. It’s a US event but not playable. Following the flow chart again, we check for Major and Minor Jihad, but no countries are yet eligible for a Jihad attempt. The Ops point goes to a Recruit attempt. With Poor governance, a Recruit attempt in Yemen has the best chance of success, so the attempt occurs there. The die roll succeeds and under Potent ideology, Recruit operations place two cells, so Yemen now has three sleeper cells.
Jihadist Card 2
Sanctions is another non-playable US event and again, a Recruit attempt occurs. Yemen still has the best chance of success. The attempt succeeds and Yemen now has five cells.
US Card 1
I decide to continue the War of Ideas operation in Yemen to improve governance. Yemen has poor governance now, and poor countries require three Ops points for actions. I don’t have any three-point cards, but I can use Reserves to combine points from two card plays. I play the Hamas Elected Ops point for Reserves. It’s unassociated, so the event doesn’t occur.
US Card 2
I need two Ops points to add to my Reserve point and carry out a War of Ideas operation. Schengen Visas isn’t awesome since it’s a Jihadist event, but I need to play it sometime. I play it for Ops points, triggering the event. Two cells travel to Schengen countries. Die rolls select France and Scandinavia as the destination and Afghanistan as the source.
The two Ops points and one Reserve allow a War of Ideas operation in Yemen. The die roll succeeds and Governance in Yemen goes from Poor to Fair, making Jihadist actions more difficult and US actions easier.
There are no plots to resolve, so card play goes back to the Jihadists.
Jihadist Card 1
The first card of Phase 3 is Clean Operatives. It’s a Jihadist-associated event, so the event occurs, and two cells attempt to travel. By the flowchart both cells attempt to travel to the US. A roll of one is needed for success, but both attempts fail, and both cells return to the funding track.
Jihadist Card 2
Covert Actions is a playable US event. By solo rules the US event translates to a Plot. Two points is two plot attempts, but by the flow chart there are no eligible countries, so Radicalization occurs instead.
A random roll gives Syria a cell for the first Ops point. The second Ops point Travels a cell from Iran to the Gulf States.
US Card 1
I select Intel Community for two Ops points to attempt another War of Ideas in Yemen, but the die roll for the attempt fails.
US Card 2
I use the two Ops points from Wiretapping to Disrupt a cell in Yemen. Since they’re all sleeper cells, Disrupt turns one active. Another Disrupt will remove it.
Since the plot attempts from the second Jihadist card failed, there are no plots, and the game enters Phase 4.
Jihadist Card 1
The Jihadist hand reveals Wahhabism as the first card of Phase 4. The event is Jihadist and playable but adding to Funding does nothing since it’s already at maximum. This is an unassociated event, so if I’m interpreting the chart correctly, nothing else happens. This is the last card in the Jihadist hand.
US Card 1
I have one remaining card: Opium, but it is a jihadist event and playing it for the two OPS points would trigger three more cells being added to Afghanistan. I discard and play nothing.
There are no plots to resolve, and both sides are out of cards, so play ends for the first turn.
End of Turn 1
During the Expenditures & Diplomacy end-of-turn activities, Jihadist funding drops by one to eight, so they’ll get eight cards next hand. US prestige drops one point to six. Turn one was pretty successful for the Jihadists and the US has a lot of work to do. Cells have spread throughout the Middle East and even into Europe. It feels like the Jihadists took the turn, with the US making only modest gains. But there are more turns to come and I’m getting a good sense of how to play.
Labyrinth AAR – Let’s Roll
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4 ~ PART 5 ~ PART 6
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