Starling Games - A War of Whispers (2nd Edition) - Board Game, HPSSTG1804EN

Product Information

The war is the same every time. The board set in stone for the conflict to come. Our circular board tells us everything you need to know about the positions of the factions, but also how each turn will go. For each icon present across all regions controlled by this empire, add 2 banners to any region(s) controlled by this empire. 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. 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 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.

All Forts, Farms, Cities are multi-state to make switching colors easier. Thanks goes to tracerterent for the suggestion. Determine 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 Your primary goal is to ensure that when the game ends, the empires you are most loyal to control the most cities across the globe. Pre-pub link is up, and the game is getting great numbers to start. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1083-wings-for-the-baron-deluxe-gmt-edition.aspx 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”

You will start the game with 5 loyalty tokens, each corresponding to one of the 5 different empires, bet randomly on a loyalty value.

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. The nations are crazy unbalanced. We've played about ten games so far, and every single time the Totally-Not-The-Dothraki (Horses) have held the most cities in the end. Meanwhile, the Totally-Not-The-Lannisters have been nearly wiped out. Totally-Not-The-Starks along with the Totally-Not-The...Eagles? (I don't actually like GoT that much...I know it has a faction tied to it) did mostly nothing. We forgot the Elephants existed for a few games they were so meaningless. I get that "Well you control what they do!" but the cards (oh I'll get to these) also have a huge impact and there's never a reason not to let the Totally-Not-The-Dothraki snowball and just swap your loyalties. 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!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. 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.