Deluxe Edition Empire cards now included + rulesheet! (Thanks to Sarcasm_Duelist for making it possible) 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. 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.

CDR Michael Posey is an active-duty Navy officer. Col Steven Tofte is an active-duty Air Force officer. Mr. Joseph Wheaton is an Army civilian. All three currently teach in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations for the resident education program at the School of Strategic Landpower at the U.S. Army War College. 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. 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. 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 reimagines war games and sees you, the player, take on the role of a secretive society intent on changing the course of history by influencing 5 warring factions. Gameplay consists of turns, with each turn consisting of four phases. The board will direct the players to which phase they will complete. The players will complete the following phases: Deploy Agents Phase, Empire Turns Phase, Cleanup Phase, and Swap Phase. They will complete these four different phases completely before the next round begins. There are 4 rounds in War of Whispers, and each round has 4 phases. In phase 1, players will place their agents on the empire’s council positions. In phase 2, players will execute their council position actions for each faction. In phase 3, players will move the turn marker and discard down to 5 cards. In phase 4, players can opt to switch loyalties between 2 of their face-down tokens, switching them and placing them face-up for all to see.

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)!*** 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 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. A War of Whispers allows you to play out an accurate representation of Game of Thrones, where spies hold the key to success and actually hold most power in this jostle for control. Be sure to manage your influence wisely and befriend the factions that will yield you most points. 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.

Mark the Turn

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.