Shadow Network

About this board game

Shadow Network is a Cold War worker-placement game for 1–5 players, with sessions lasting about 90 minutes. Set in 1960, it casts players as agencies competing to build the most effective intelligence network.

Deploy agents around the globe to collect fragments of intel connected to financial institutions, political figures, military installations, and top-secret technology advancements. These fragments can be promoted to an actionable state, allowing agencies to use them against high-profile targets and earn influence, the game’s central currency.

Information never stays perfectly contained. When players gather intel from a city, some of it leaks to other cities, potentially helping rival agencies advance their own plans. This shared flow of information creates opportunities as well as complications, since one agency’s operation may give another the fragments it needs.

• Worker placement: Send agents to locations around the world to gather intelligence.
• Leaking intel: Intel collected in one city spills into others, creating unexpected connections.
• Handlers: Use handlers to assist with exchanging intel and gain an advantage.
• Influence: Convert actionable intelligence and target dealings into the currency needed to win.

Additional agents can be deployed, but expanding your operation comes at a cost. Handlers can help exchange intel, giving an agency a valuable edge as the network develops.

After four rounds, agencies bribe their high-profile targets for more influence. In Shadow Network, success depends on gathering the right intelligence, managing its costs, and turning a tangled web of global information into the most influential operation.