Fitna: The Global War in the Middle East

About this board game

Fitna: The Global War in the Middle East is a 2–6-player grand strategic card-driven wargame with an approximately 240-minute playing time, covering military confrontations in the Middle East from 2012 into the near future.

Across 10 historical and hypothetical scenarios, players can explore the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish Rebellion, Sunni–Shia confrontation, and Russian, Turkish, Israeli, and Western intervention. The game presents the goals of local protagonists while examining the wider military and political complexity of the region.

• Each turn represents two months of real time.
• ISIS troops are activated through Event cards.
• Players manage four cards in hand, using them for events, operational points, or battle support.
• Units, mostly brigades and divisions, can be reinforced, supplied, moved, and committed to offensives.

Turns proceed through several phases. Players may play events, receive reinforcements, check supply, spend operational points, move units, and launch offensives. Careful timing matters, since every card can serve more than one purpose and must be used thoughtfully.

Fitna is designed to provide a clearer view of the region’s local objectives and the forces shaping its conflicts. Its prospective scenarios have also been used by experts and analysts of the French Ministry of Defence to test possible futures, in a role compared with the use of Gulf Strike by US experts when planning the Gulf War.

Released in 2020, this detailed simulation combines scenario variety, operational decision-making, and card-driven uncertainty for groups seeking a substantial strategic study of the modern Middle East.