From designer Jeremy Stoltzfus and Starling Games, A War of Whispers is one of those games that many people may have missed out on, but it’s one of the highlights from a publisher that I’m very fond of. Starling Games is behind fantastic games like Everdell (maybe my favorite tableau-builder), Black Orchestra (one of my top thematic games), and Flourish (my favorite game that reminds me of the 1993 movie The Secret Garden).

Originally released in 2019, the game has undergone some changes with second editions of both the standard and collector’s versions. A War of Whispers is a competitive strategy game in which 2-4 players fight for ultimate influence over the five warring empires on the map. Each player has varying degrees of loyalty to the empires, from fanatical alliances to distinct opposition. Players act as the unseen hands of secret societies, pulling strings from the shadows and hoping that the empires’ territories align with their ordered loyalties by the end of the game.

It’s sleek and it now looks better than ever, which is one of the few criticisms I had the first time around. With improved visuals and upgraded components, let’s see how A War of Whispers fares in 2021.

What It Does

In A War of Whispers, players try to keep their agendas and their ambition veiled, hidden from opponents so that their plans are not thwarted. The strategy lies in figuring out how to advance the progression of the empires you care about (and damaging the growth of the ones you’re opposed to) without the others recognizing what you’re doing. And if they do happen to discover your machinations for the warring factions, then hope their own plans are nearly in line with your own to avoid a war of attrition.

Thankfully, you can switch loyalties if the outcome looks hopeless, but keep in mind that such an action will reveal part of your overall strategy to the other players. It can be a game-saving maneuver, but it comes at a cost.

Each empire possesses similar actions that players will claim over the course of the game, but unique Empire decks incentivize players to visit certain parts of the world. The powers of each empire can be combined to create larger disruptions of the conflict.

Here are things I like that the game does well:

1. Strategy matters from the beginning; your commitment to empires cements over time and you have to figure out the right movement for your agents.

2. The game plays fast while scratching the itch for a larger strategy game.

3. Player interaction is constant while abstaining from direct gain/loss that creates an uncomfortable gaming environment.

How It Does It

The biggest part of the mechanics is hidden information. You don’t know the weight of other players’ allegiances to the warring factions. Do they want the Eagle empire to succeed? Or come crashing down. Those tokens remain facedown unless a player chooses two loyalties to swap in between rounds. Those two then remain face up for the rest of the game and can’t be moved again.

That uncertainty bleeds into every decision in A War of Whispers as you try to determine if a move will help you more than it will help an opponent. And if you’re effectively neutralizing a faction that they want to advance or if you’re playing into their hand.

Area control is the next big factor. Cities are what score multipliers at the end of the game. Have a lot in one faction? That could either really boost your total, affect in a minor way, or take away much-needed points. So figuring out which factions to send into what territories is important. And unexpected movement or attacks can occur with the assistance from Empire cards, so nothing is truly safe. Every advantage on the battlefield can be overturned with the right play.

The interplay between the hidden information and the area control is where A War of Whispers shines. You want to suss out what other players are going for because when more than one player begins to push for the growth of one empire, it’s hard to fight against. Not impossible. But hard. So helping another player boost an empire that scores well (not high, but well) might be more advantageous in the moment than fighting back-and-forth with another player with more volatile empires.

And the rondel-style progression through the different empires makes for some crucial decisions. Avoiding certain empires with your agent placement means that entire phases of the game can pass without your influence. That’s dangerous, especially when activating empires that you don’t want to succeed can still be valuable. Don’t like the northern empire descending down into a faction you support? Hijack their actions and squander their potential. Acting within an empire can just as easily cause strife and backward movement rather than progress and expansion.

Finally, the cards are the final cherry on top. Typical actions are quick to resolve and not very weighty. It’s usually a slow build to a larger movement of troops and territorial conflict. Cards, however, can greatly impact the efficacy of a turn by enabling massive maneuvers and otherwise impossible attacks or actions. Using one is nice. Using two in combination can create devastating actions. And using the Conquest or Dark Alliance cards also influences gameplay in special ways.

So, the mechanical design sets up A War of Whispers for success from the perspective of how it encourages players to interact with each other and develop a strategy. But the cards also give the variability and ingenuity that players will appreciate when they discover all of the ways to affect the course of the war.

Why You Might Like It

Why You Might Not

Final Thoughts

Have you played A War of Whispers before? If you haven’t, but you like area control and hidden information games, then this might be something you should look into.

Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.