Whispering Woods

2024 · Territory Building

Whispering Woods

Players cultivate a magical forest by placing landscape tiles to create interconnected trails for spirit animals. On a turn, a player either draws two landscape tiles to expand their forest or takes a quest tile that specifies a path to score later. Completing sequences of connected trails with animals triggers scoring and unlocks career goals that grant additional points. The game rewards careful planning to link multiple trails in succession, while missteps can block scoring opportunities. A solo mode is included.

Players
1–4 best 2
Playing time
25–40 min
Age
8+
Complexity
2.1 / 5
8.3 on Ludoyafrom $26.99AnimalsPuzzleSolo / Solitaire GameTile PlacementChaining

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya
126
Plays logged
106
Players
28m 2s
Average play
36
In collections
12
On wishlists

8.3/10

from 9 Ludoya reviews

  • Fun10.0
  • Interaction6.0
  • Replayability10.0
  • Uniqueness8.0
  • Looks10.0
  • Accessibility6.0
Read the reviews and rate it

Rules questions

Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.

Can I take a mission tile if I don't have any animal pieces left?

No — when you choose the option to take a mission tile you must also place an animal on it, so you cannot take a mission tile if you have no animals available; in practice this means you can take mission tiles at most three times in the game (page 6).

When and how can I renew the market by turning over mission tiles, and is there a cost?

At the start of your turn you may once per turn turn over a completed mission tile to renew the market (replace the six available tiles with six new woods tiles and return the discarded six to the bag); each mission tile used this way still gives its normal victory points but costs you −1 VP at final scoring (page 5).

Do I refill the market on the very first turn of the game?

No — you skip the market refill step on the first turn of the first player, but thereafter the market must have six tiles at the start of each turn (page 5).

Can I complete a mission if removing that mission tile would split my woods into separate sections?

No — you are not allowed to complete a mission if removing that mission tile would cause your woods to split into two or more separate sections (page 7).

What happens if I earn a combo but the combo card for that level is already gone?

If the exact combo card you earned is no longer available you must take the next lowest available combo card instead (page 8; example on page 9).

What triggers the last round and how are ties broken at game end?

The last round triggers when a player reaches the mission-tile threshold (2 players 10, 3 players 9, 4 players 8) or when there aren’t enough tiles left to fill the market; after the final round add mission tile points and combo cards and subtract −1 per tile used to renew the market, and ties are broken by the player with fewer total tiles in their woods (if still tied the players share the win) (page 10).

Opens Ludoya's rules assistant, which reads this game's rulebook.

Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.