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 For each icon present across all regions controlled by this empire, add 1 banner to any region(s) controlled by this empire. 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. During the first round of War of Whispers, the students were focused on understanding the rules and mechanics of the game instead of applying the information lessons and concepts. However, after a complete run-through of the game, the students understood the game mechanics, and we started a second round. The next play-through was noticeably different. Being more comfortable with gameplay, the students were more engaged and focused on what they were doing and what others were scheming. Students began to leverage deceptive tactics, form alliances among warring parties, and “talk trash” across the table, attempting to influence their opponents to act or not act in specific ways. We could debate the efficacy of actual students’ subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) table talk, but we saw the students demonstrating the art of influence as they played War of Whispers. For each icon present across all regions controlled by this empire, add 2 banners to any region(s) controlled by this empire.

Finally there are actions that allow you to draw cards. Each Empire has unique cards that you can play before or after any action that your agent controls. These cards have a variety of rule breaking effects that allow for some dynamic plays, repositioning, extra actions, or even just straight removal of enemy banners from the map. These cards have an inventive play system that adds to the tactical subterfuge of A War of Whispers. It’s All About Who You Know As soon as the game starts, you can almost hear the collective cogs turning in brains around the table, as they form their diabolical machinations. You’ll find your first instinct is to play it cool. Don’t make it obvious you really want yellow to win, for example. The trouble is, the rest of the table is doing the same thing. So then you might think “Okay, let’s get clever. I’m going to go all-in on my preferred colour, and let them think I secretly want another.” And as sure as day follows night, that double bluff turns into a triple bluff, and then a quadruple. In one game I played, I’d convinced myself I wanted to red to win, and ended up bluffing myself out until it was too late to do anything about it. High IQ play, I’m sure you’ll agree. It makes me feel like Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of The Rings. “Rumour has it, that the yellow empire punches puppies for fun, my Lord”Identifying potential risks and opportunities – Wargaming allows individuals and organizations to explore challenging scenarios and identify potential risks and opportunities. By simulating different situations, wargaming can reveal unexpected outcomes and highlight areas of weakness in strategic plans.

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED… A GAME OF THRONES: THE BOARD GAME Those who enjoy the scheming and the switching allegiances of A Game of Thrones: The Board Game, but don’t want to spend the whole day playing one game, will find what they are looking for in A War of Whispers. For those seeking an immersive and strategic gaming experience in the “human dimension” of the information environment, War of Whispers offers a unique opportunity to test your skills in a world of political intrigue. Playing the game can hone one’s strategic decision-making, adaptability, critical thinking abilities, and understanding of the complexity involved in influence. Further, it allows students to practice deception in an experimental environment and better understand broad concepts in the art of persuasion. As such, it offers an opportunity for educators who want to teach information advantage experientially. So whether you are a trailblazer in gaming or just looking to create a memorable experience for your students regarding the nature of information advantage, consider using COTS wargames to teach. Our team took a chance on War of Whispers and found the payoff high for the required effort. Using War of Whispers helped our elective students (all senior joint warfighters) comprehend and apply critical concepts when navigating the information environment. Then you will move around the edge of the board activating the Empires one at a time. This means that the blue ‘flappy wing’ Empire will always act first and the brown ‘donks’ always last. Herein lies my potential worry about long term gameplay – it seems to me that browns always have the advantage. I have played the game around 8 times now and although I’m still not 100% I always think my job easier if Brown is my best scoring Empire. Now, this problem can be easily sourced and fixed. I found a solution for 12 dollars on Etsy which makes the game great but I will note that without some form of marker, the table presence and actual functionality of the game is slightly diminished. I would have loved for those items to be included. Truth be told though, that is it for my critiques. That speaks volumes about how much I enjoyed this title if a big concern is just about some aesthetics. The map on the game board is broken down into different colored regions which are further broken down into empires. If any region on the map contains a small banner image, it indicates that a banner of the color matching this empire should be placed there G (example: a yellow region with two yellow banners receives two yellow Lion empire banners). First PlayerDetermine which player will go first by any means. That player takes the first player marker J. The first player marker will change hands throughout the game, and the player who holds it will be referred to as the first player. Loyalty This is how a war in the shadows evolves. When your agents are deployed to one of the 20 action spaces in the 5 different courts at the start of each round, we can proceed. Moving around the board you take actions based on your agent’s position in each court. Any spaces unoccupied before your agent are also yours for the taking, giving you multiple actions with one agent.

UPDATE 2: New game board uploaded! Minor but important changes to setup. Apparently, the original board I had uploaded was not the final print version. That has been rectified. Empire turns phase: Each council position on each empire council will take an action. If a player has acquired cards, they may play them during this phase.A War of Whispers has done a great job balancing the Empires. Since Bear always goes first and has the smallest number of regions on the board, they are prone to constant aggression and pushing up against the other Empires. Horse, on the other hand, starts with no banners on the board but has the most land to spread across. This asymmetry in the Empires and their playstyles was really engaging and a lot of fun to watch unfold from the sidelines. A War of Whispers feels big and grandiose even though the footprint of the game is moderate and the rules are simple to learn. My experiences were always positive and different players found new and unique ways to surprise me. This came in large part to some combos from the Empire cards that allow you to “break the game” in some really exciting ways.

This is NOT an official mod. I am not the owner/creator of this game or any of its components. I simply modded the game into TTS because I enjoy it immensely and more people should know about it! If you like the game, please support the real creator(s)!*** As the rounds progress, players will add more agents to the council positions, which is a nice progressive mechanic that makes things feel tighter as decisions start to matter more. Because council positions can get overcrowded, with players increasingly unlikely to benefit from 2 or more actions from each agent, the option to switch allegiances is an excellent self-balancer. Maybe you were supposed to help the eagle empire spread its territorial wings, but other players took those council positions so you ended up controlling most of the bear empire’s council. You can switch those 2 on your board so you have more of a fighting chance. Sure, other players will know where your loyalties lie, but it’s better than guaranteeing yourself a loss. Empire turns phase: Each council position on each empire council will take an action. If a player has acquired cards, they may play them during this phase. I can't remember the exact moment, but I think in season 2 he just really lets his anger get the best of him, beating people up on the sidewalk for the most trivial stuff. Just his explosive temper,... From 2015 to 2021, we did not teach an Information Operations elective at the U.S. Army War College. After this seven-year hiatus, an instructor cadre of information warfare professionals at the Army War College took a dated syllabus from the “ Information Operations 101” course, updated it with new doctrine, terms, ideas, and concepts, and rebranded it as JWIE. The JWIE course now focuses on how information enables and supports military commanders to understand situations and control their forces. Further, the course delves into how senior military leaders can leverage information to inform audiences and influence foreign actors in competition and armed conflict. Wanting to provide students with an experiential learning opportunity that used information and the tools of influence as its focus, we looked to the wargame War of Whispers as a teaching aid.

A War of Whispers is a competitive board game for 2 to 4 players. Five mighty empires are at war for the world, but you are no mighty ruler. Instead, you play a secret society that is betting on the results of this war while pulling strings to rig the results and ensure their bets pay off. A War of Whispers is a game of deep strategy, hidden agendas, and shifting loyalties. For each icon present across all regions controlled by this empire, add 1 banner to any region(s) controlled by this empire. Steward By Posey, Tofte, and Wheaton Joint warfighters can leverage wargaming to practice the art of influence Of course your interpretation of these factions may differ to mine. It is this sort of emergent narrative that I absolutely love in games. A core set of easy to understand mechanisms, allowing for a story to emerge of what every player is doing each turn. Twists are a common feature of a lot of stories, and War of Whispers narrative is no different. The last step is the Cleanup phase where players make sure they do not have more than 5 cards in their hand. Each player then removes 1 agent they control from any one council space.