No, I haven’t played “War on Terror” the board game. But now that it’s been confiscated by the British police I kind of feel an obligation to play it—like reading a banned book. The game’s site appears to be down, but the Google cache is still accessible and here’s BoardGameGeek’s take on it.

Here’s what the Cambridge News Online had to say about the confiscation incident:

Each player starts as an empire filled with good intentions and a determination to liberate the world from terrorists and from each other.

Then the reality of world politics kicks and terrorist states emerge.

[...]

In their cardboard version of realpolitik George Bush’s “Axis of Evil” is reduced to a spinner in the middle of the board, which determines which player is designated a terrorist state.

That person then has to wear a balaclava (included in the box set) with the word “Evil” stitched on to it.

Kent police said they had confiscated the game because the balaclava “could be used to conceal someone’s identity or could be used in the course of a criminal act”.

I don’t know, that’s a little bit like confiscating Monopoly for counterfeiting. What’s the the next target, those dangerous skiers? Here’s a picture of the dastardly clothing article in question. It’s pretty clearly evil, right?

Frankly, I’ve heard a lot of stupid things, but this one takes the stupid cake. Admittedly, the game was swept up in a raid against climate protesters near a British power station, and I’m guessing the authorities didn’t think too closely about what they were doing.

But I totally want that balaclava now. I mean, it’s kind of like the head garb equivalent of an ironic t-shirt. Plus, it gets cool up here in the liberal northeast come winter.