There's a board game called A Distant Plain which simulates the current Afghan conflict:
There are American soldiers dying in this arena. Does that make it taboo subject matter for a boardgame? Should it??This volume in Volko Ruhnke's COIN Series takes 1 to 4 players into the Afghan conflict of today’s headlines, this time in a unique collaboration between two top designers of boardgames on modern irregular warfare. A Distant Plain teams Volko Ruhnke, the award-winning designer of Labyrinth: The War on Terror, with Brian Train, a designer with 20 years' experience creating influential simulations such as Algeria, Somalia Interventions, Shining Path: The Struggle for Peru, and many others.
A Distant Plain features the same accessible game system as GMT's recent Andean Abyss and upcoming Cuba Libre but with new factions, capabilities, events, and objectives. For the first time in the Series, two counterinsurgent (COIN) factions must reconcile competing visions for Afghanistan in order to coordinate a campaign against a dangerous twin insurgency.
A Distant Plain adapts familiar Andean Abyss mechanics to the conditions of Afghanistan without adding rules complexity. A snap for GMT COIN Series players to learn, A Distant Plain will transport them to a different place and time. New features include:
Coalition-Government joint operations.
Volatile Pakistani posture toward the conflict.
Evolution of both COIN and insurgent tactics and technology.
Government graft and desertion.
Coalition casualties.
Returning Afghan refugees.
Pashtun ethnic terrain.
Multiple scenarios.
A deck of 72 fresh events.
... and more.
As with each COIN Series volume, players of A Distant Plain will face difficult strategic decisions with each card. The innovative game system smoothly integrates political, cultural, and economic affairs with military and other violent and non-violent operations and capabilities. Flow charts are at hand to run the three Afghan factions, so that any number of players—from solitaire to 4—can experience the internecine brawl that is today's Afghanistan.
ETA: For context, here is the plot of Battlefield 3, one of the best selling console games of all time:
Plot
On 15 March, Sgt. Blackburn's squad, Misfit 1-3, attempted to find and safely return a US squad investigating an improvised explosive device in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, whose last known position was in territory controlled by the PLR (People's Liberation & Resistance), an Iranian paramilitary insurgent group.[30][31][32] They find the missing squad, which had been ambushed by the PLR; but before they can escape the city, a massive earthquake wrecks the city. Blackburn, fellow squadmate Montes, and other survivors fight their way out of the ruins of the city.[33] On the same day, the PLR stage a coup d'état in Iran, and the US subsequently invades.[28][33] Lt. Hawkins takes part in a raid on enemy fighters over Iran and an air strike over Mehrabad Airport. In the aftermath of the air strikes, Misfit 1 was sent into Tehran to perform battle damage assessment and apprehend the leader of the PLR, Faruk Al-Bashir.[28] While investigating an underground bank vault in the target's suspected location, Blackburn and his team learn that the PLR have acquired Russian suitcase nukes, with two of the three devices missing.[34] Being overrun, Misfit requests backup from an M1 Abrams column "Anvil 3", including Sergeant Miller. Miller facilitates Misfit 1's helicopter extraction, but is captured when waiting for the arrival of the Quick Reaction Force. Miller is promptly executed by Solomon and Al-Bashir, with the event being filmed and posted on the Internet.[35]
Later, Misfit 1-3 manages to capture Al-Bashir, who becomes fatally wounded when they cause his escape vehicle to crash. Realizing that he had been betrayed and used, Al-Bashir reveals some of Solomon's plan—to detonate the nukes in Paris and New York City—before succumbing to his wounds.[36][37] Misfit 1 gets a lead on arms dealer Amir Kaffarov, who was working with Solomon and Al-Bashir.[38] They attempt to capture Kaffarov from his villa on the Caspian Sea coast, near the Azerbaijani border. However, they run into a Russian paratrooper battalion, also after Kaffarov, who engage them with airdropped BMP-2s, with Su-25s providing close air support.[39] In the ensuing chaos, Blackburn's squadmates, Campo and Matkovic, are killed in an enemy airstrike.[35][40] Meanwhile, a Spetsnaz team led by Dima assaults Kaffarov's villa. Kaffarov tries to bribe his way out, but Dima interrogates him nonetheless.[35][41] Blackburn arrives at the villa and finds Dima and an unconscious Kaffarov. Dima reveals Solomon's plot to Blackburn, and requests his cooperation to prevent "a war between [their] nations". Meanwhile, Misfit 1's commanding officer Cole arrives, and Blackburn is forced to shoot his superior before he can kill Dima.[42] Blackburn's shooting of his commanding officer results in his eight-hour interrogation by the C.I.A. at Hunters Point, Queens.
During Blackburn's captivity, Dima's Spetsnaz squad attempts to stop the attack in Paris. Dima is unsuccessful; Vladimir dies, while he and Kiril suffer the effects of the nuclear detonation. Meanwhile, the CIA agents do not believe Blackburn's story, since Solomon is a CIA informant, and there is no concrete proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. They instead believe that Russia is responsible for the attacks, and that Dima has tricked Blackburn.[43]
With no other options, Blackburn and surviving squad member Montes break out of captivity to stop the attack in New York. Evading police, Blackburn manages to break into a hijacked subway train, full of Solomon's men and explosive charges. He works his way to the front car, where he is ambushed by Solomon. When ambushed by Solomon, Blackburn gains the upper hand by obtaining and activating the detonator, causing the train to crash. Blackburn pursues Solomon through the sewers and up to street level. Montes, having obtained a police car, picks up Blackburn and engages Solomon and the PLR in a brief vehicular chase, which ends with both cars crashing in Times Square. As a bewildered crowd watches on, Solomon shoots Montes, but Blackburn manages to kill Solomon by bludgeoning him to death with a brick in the ensuing brawl and recovers the nuclear bomb.[44]
In the epilogue, the player learns that Dima had survived the Paris detonation, albeit suffering radiation poisoning from the blast. He writes about the efforts of both himself and Blackburn to stop Solomon's plan "to set fire to the world". As he finishes, he examines a pistol, and seems to point it towards his head. A knock comes from his door, the screen cuts to black, and the last sound is that of the pistol being loaded.[45]
