Lastly at the end of every round bar the last, you may swap your loyalty between two Empires – but only if you now have those tokens face up. This gives your opponents a lot of information with which to deduce which Empires are move valuable to you. A Game of Two Halves Before I launch into game issues, the physical issues with this game. I get the thematic choice to not use bright colors, I really do, they wanted to slap the Game of Thrones name on this. In practice this just massively hinders the colorblind, or people with poorer vision in general. One of the people in my group is in his fifties, already had poorer eyesight and is colorblind to boot. The farms, forts and a lot of the territory lines just blended in to the board for him. Hell, some of the forts blended in for myself and I'm sitting at 20/20 with no other issues. Also, the little agent figurines while cool in concept (again), he could not distinguish between the purple and grey ones. Again - I get that thematically Game of Thrones wasn't bright and cheerful, but you need to take all players into account. My girlfriend offered to outline things on the board in glitter pen and we all laughed...but then really considered it. Deluxe Edition Empire cards now included + rulesheet! (Thanks to Sarcasm_Duelist for making it possible) Executing council positions is how the empires move. As players take their agents’ council actions, empires will grow in power, invade other empires, and generally move around the board like a Risk game in fast-forward. It can be a lot of fun trying to deduce what empires your opponents are loyal to based on their actions. Some choose the blunt approach by filling their favored empire’s council positions and conquering cities left and right, while others prefer the more discrete approach, seemingly supporting an empire while working slowly to increase another’s territory. War of Whispers is a tabletop game created by Jeremy Stolzfus and published by Starling Games in 2019. The game’s players use deception, concealment, influence, information, misinformation, and traditional warfare to gain and maintain control of power over five different empires. The winner is the player who can manipulate and orchestrate the rise and fall of the empires to that player’s advantage. War of Whispers stands out for its blend of strategic decision-making, hidden information, and thematic storytelling. It rewards cunning tactics, careful planning, and adaptability to the ever-changing landscape of the game. With its immersive gameplay and intricate mechanics, War of Whispers offers an engaging learning experience for even the most seasoned military student.

Although impossible to know, it is logical to hypothesize that Hitler believed an Allied invasion would launch across the Strait of Dover because Hitler planned to launch an assault against the UK across the channel’s narrowest point during his abandoned Operation Sea Lion. In this manner, the Allies leveraged Macgruder’s Principle. Magruder’s Principle is the first doctrinal MILDEC maxim for a reason. This MILDEC maxim states that it is far easier to deceive an enemy using pre-existing biases than to change his mind. During Desert Storm, Coalition planners leveraged Magruder’s Principle to mislead Saddam Hussein into believing that the main assault would come from a USMC amphibious assault, not from the West via the now-famous “Left Hook.” Saddam and his commanders believed the Coalition invasion would come from Kuwait’s south or the sea. Likewise, during our brief wargame, the students who did succeed in deceiving their opponents admitted that they played on others’ hopes for “wishful thinking” or thoughts of a potential partnership. For each icon present across all regions controlled by this empire, add 1 banner to any region(s) controlled by this empire. Steward

Mark the Turn

Area control board games are nothing new. Families have been falling out over Risk for decades, while modern interpretations like Root rule the roost now. Most games of this ilk are pretty up-front about what’s going on. You can see who is trying to control what, and try to make sure your tiny empire reigns supreme at the end of the game. A War Of Whispers turns this on its head, with a game full of subterfuge, misdirection, and cunning. Look at that board – pretty! The turn limit of four rounds is way too short as well. With four rounds, each GoT Reference has a really easily determined "best" route to take. Again, there's no reason to not just snowball the hell out of the Not-Dothraki and swap your loyalties. The wooden cubes themselves are fine and likely better suited to the constant moving about than the upgraded plastic flags. But the punch board is average and not cut neatly, the player boards are flimsy and there is not actually much in the box. In fact your first thought upon ripping off the shrink will probably be ‘I paid how much for this?’ Despite this, and some up coming gameplay worries, I still love it. A Gaggle(?) of Whispers

Each Empires have slightly different actions, leaning towards fights or deployment more. Also Blues have only one city in their home region but start with the most cubes on the board. Browns however have four cities but no cubes. A Whisper of Wars During setup, you and your opponents will each need to place your initial loyalty bets on the five Empires. To do so, shuffle your five loyalty tokens and randomly place them face-down on the five indicated loyalty slots on your player board. I feel that A War of Whispers has a really tight niche that taps into my desire to be a conspirator and control the world from the shadows. The unique way that players interact with the board is a really fun “third party” connection to victory or failure and that is fresh, new, and enjoyable. There is enough asymmetry in the Empires for them to feel different and alive without needing to grab a rulebook to reference things throughout the game. A War of Whispers is easy to teach, easy to play, and satisfying to master. If you are looking for a unique (I know I have said that adjective a lot) take on area control and hidden objectives, A War of Whispers is sure to be a hit with your gaming group.Despite this I find myself entranced by the game. The interplay of trying to work out what your opponents are doing works so well. The game plays in under an hour and every choice feels important. Obviously you need to bluff your opponents so they don't torpedo your favourite empires, but unless you grab an advisor in those colours early there is no guarantee you will get one at all. There’s so much subtle stuff going on in the game which rewards repeated play. The way the various empires seem the same, but knowing that differences in the map mean you have to approach the game slightly differently, is subtle, but clever. The card-play doesn’t feel that important at first, but rewards experimentation.