How to Play A War of Whispers: Expansion of Influence

Objective of the Game

In A War of Whispers: Expansion of Influence, a new threat emerges from the sea: the Orca Clan, a nation of raiders. Players will navigate the cunning and unpredictability of this new faction, along with the strategic opportunities provided by the Guilds and the addition of a fifth player, the Sparrow Underground. The game challenges players to influence empires and disrupt opponents' plans, with the ultimate goal of having their chosen empires dominate the map as the sun sets over the water.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Place the game board on the table with the cities and other icons showing face up. Note that the locations of some Banners, Cities, Farms, and Forts have changed for rebalancing. If you prefer the original layout, flip the game board over and refer to the Scenarios section.
2. Add all normal pieces to the board as described in the original rules, including the Orca Clan.
3. Place a Bounty Token on each Orca Clan region.
4. Place the three Raid Tokens as pictured in the manual.
5. Place the Peace Token, 5 Port Tokens, and 6 Bounty Tokens on the appropriate sections of the Guild area. Place the 4 Upgrade Tokens in the order shown, with x4 on top.

Draft Setup (Alternate)

Before placing anything on the board, each player assigns loyalties using the Loyalty cards.

Place all starting components listed below near each empire, around the edge of the board:

• Bear: 1 City, 4 Forts, 2 Farms, 9 Banners (in 3 groups of 3)
• Eagle: 2 Cities, 2 Forts, 4 Farms, 6 Banners (in 3 groups of 2)
• Elephant: 2 Cities, 3 Forts, 2 Farms, 4 Banners (in 2 groups of 2)
• Lion: 3 Cities, 2 Forts, 3 Farms, 6 Banners (in 3 groups of 2)
• Horse: 4 Cities, 2 Forts, 2 Farms, 0 Banners
• Orca (if used): 0 Cities, 2 Forts, 2 Farms, 6 Banners (in 3 groups of 2), 3 Raid Tokens

Starting with the first player and going around the table clockwise once, each player selects 2 elements (a group of Banners counts as one element) and places them on the board within the home regions of their respective empires. The two elements selected may be of the same or different empires, but you cannot place 2 elements in the same region on the same turn. You also may not place more than 2 elements (except for Banner groups) on the same region during the whole process. Banners placed must follow the Supply rules (Maximum of 4 Banners per region, or 6 if a Farm is present).

Then repeat this process but in reverse order (starting with the last player, then going counterclockwise back to the first player).

Continue this process of alternating forward and reverse drafts until all elements have been placed.

From this new starting board state, begin initial agent placement and continue play as normal.

Speed Drafting (Alternate)

For a faster setup, instead of 2 elements, place 1 element for each empire each turn. Some empires will be done before others.

Fluxo do Jogo

The game introduces new elements that integrate into the existing game flow. The Guilds activate at the beginning of a round, before the Bear empire. The Orca Clan activates at the end of a round, after the Horse empire, and before checking to discard cards.

Starting Loyalties

Loyalty cards contain predefined loyalties for each player. There are 5 loyalty cards, one for each player, each with 10 possible initial loyalty configurations (labeled Set 1 through Set 10). Before assigning loyalties, decide which listed loyalty set to use. Shuffle all loyalty cards together and deal 1 face down to each player. Return any remainder to the box without revealing them. Each player then secretly arranges their loyalties as defined by their card. After loyalties are placed, all cards are returned to the box without revealing them.

More Agents

When using the Orca Clan and The Guilds, each player places 3 agents in the Deploy Agents phase of Round 1, regardless of player count. Placement during the Deploy Agents phase in subsequent rounds will match the rules of the base game.

Ações e Como Jogar

The game introduces the Orca Clan as a sixth faction and The Guilds, offering new actions and agent placement options.

Orca Clan

The Orca Clan is a unique faction on an island off the main map. No players have loyalty to this faction, and any Cities they hold at the end of the game score no points for any players. The Orca Clan is used to foil opponents' plans. They are just like any other empire on the board, and any rules that apply to those empires apply to the Orca Clan as well.

Raid Tokens

Unique to the Orca Clan is their ability to attack from any region, but only into regions containing a Raid marker. This includes their 4 home regions, plus the 3 regions marked with Raid Tokens, which move around the board. Attacks must still be conducted with a single army per attack. The Orca home regions may only be attacked by other empires by using ports or certain card abilities. Once an occupying army controls a region, they can attack adjacent regions as normal. Due to the Raid markers, the Orca Clan can always attack back into their home territory. Ports and Raid Tokens can be placed on any region, even if it appears land-locked.

Orca Council Actions

• Attack Action: This action allows you to make an attack with the Orca Clan. After your attack, if the Orca Clan conquers and now controls the attacked region, you must move that Raid Token to a new region. It does not have to be adjacent and may be anywhere on the map except their home region, a region with another Raid Token, or the region just conquered.
• Move Raid Token & Place Banners Action: These actions allow you to do two things: First, you'll move any Raid Token on the board to a new region (as described above), and then you'll place Banners, following standard rules for Banner placement.
• Draw Card Action: Draw 1 card from any faction deck.

The Guilds

The Guilds provide 6 new actions that can be performed using your agents, offering more spaces for agent placement and new ways to manipulate the game. The Guild area of the board contains 6 "guild seats". When placing an agent, a player may choose to place it on a guild seat instead of a council position. This grants access to the action listed for the chosen guild seat when gameplay reaches that point. Unlike a faction council position, if no agents are present on a guild seat, its control is not delegated; instead, that guild seat is skipped this game round. These spaces are not considered faction council positions and cannot be targeted by cards that reference positions.

Guild Promotions

The Bounty Hunters Guild and the Scholars Guild have increased effects if your agent remains in those locations. After one of these guild seats activates, place or flip the Promotion Token to the next tier. If an agent vacates one of these Guild seats, remove the Promotion Token from the board.

Guild Actions

• Ambassadors Guild: When activated, the controlling player places the Peace Token on any region. If the Peace Token is already on the board, it is moved to the newly selected region. While a region contains the Peace Token, it cannot be the target of attacks.
• Seafarers Guild: When activated, the controlling player places 1 Port in any region. If there are no Ports currently present on the board, the controller may instead place 1 Port in each of any 2 regions. When making an attack, all regions containing a Port are considered to be connected.
• Commanders Guild: When activated, the controlling player places the next available Action Upgrade Token below the existing actions of any council position. This adds an additional action for that council position holder to choose from. A council position may contain only 1 Action Upgrade Token.
  • Action Upgrade Tokens:
    • Add 4 Banners.
    • Add 5 Banners.
    • Make 2 consecutive attack actions. These attack actions can be made with different armies and target different regions. Orca Clan does not get to move a Raid Token.
    • Draw 2 cards. Has no effect in Orca Clan.
• Bounty Hunters Guild: When activated, the controlling player places a Bounty Token on any region. A region can never contain more than 1 Bounty Token.
  • Tier 1: Place 1 Bounty Token in any region without a bounty.
  • Tier 2: Place 1 Bounty Token in any region without a bounty. You may also move 1 Bounty Token already on the board to any other region without a bounty.
  • Tier 3: Place 1 Bounty Token in each of any 2 regions without bounties.
• Bureaucrats Guild: When activated, the controlling player removes their agent currently holding the Bureaucrats Guild Seat from the game, and then removes any enemy agent from the game. The removed enemy agent is placed in the illustrated section of the Guild Board to show that player has already been targeted. Each player may only be targeted once per game, though any player may do the targeting more than once, losing an agent each time themselves.
• Scholars Guild:
  • Tier 1: Move 1 of your other agents on the board to an empty council position.
  • Tier 2: Swap 2 agents on the board. They can belong to you or an enemy. You may not swap into or out of the Guilds; you may swap two Guild agents, or two Council agents, but you may not swap a guild and a council agent.
  • Tier 3: Swap this agent with any enemy agent. This does not vacate the position, which means that the enemy agent you are swapping with will start fully promoted.

Bounty Tokens

When you execute a successful attack (one that causes control to change) into a region containing a Bounty Token, you take the Bounty Token and place it on your Player Board. It is worth 1 additional point at the end of the game. Each Orca Clan region contains a Bounty Token. The Bounty Hunters Guild allows you to place Bounty Tokens on regions.

Updated Attack Icon

The attack icon no longer shows the banner icon next to it, for better visual clarity of which actions add Banners or not. Attacks still must be made with the active nation.

Fim de Jogo e Pontuação

Consulte o manual para detalhes sobre esta seção.

Exposed Loyalty Penalty

During final scoring, each player deducts 1 point for each loyalty revealed during loyalty swaps. For instance, if a player swapped loyalties once during the game, they'll receive -2 points to their end game score since a swap requires you to reveal 2 loyalties.

Dicas para Vencer

• Utilize the Orca Clan as a tool to disrupt your opponents' strategies, rather than trying to score points directly from them, as their cities yield no points.
• Strategically place Bounty Tokens using the Bounty Hunters Guild to create scoring opportunities for yourself or to incentivize other players to make attacks that benefit your plans.
• Consider using the Guilds to gain additional agent placement options and unique actions, especially if playing with the Orca Clan and a fifth player (Sparrow Underground) to ensure enough agent placement choices.