Game Overview

In September 1925, the United States was shaken by two devastating military failures. First, a botched mission in which three Navy seaplanes never made it from the West Coast to Hawaii. Then, the catastrophic loss of the Navy’s prized helium-filled airship, the USS Shenandoah, along with 14 crew members, during a poorly conceived public relations tour over the Midwest.

Were these tragic events mere accidents? Or were they the result of incompetence and “almost treasonable negligence of our national defense by the Navy and the War Departments?”

Prophet Without Honor, is a courtroom showdown between an officer with a radical idea and the entrenched military establishment keen to remind the world a prophet is without honor in his own land.

This 2-player card-and-dice strategy game places you in the role of either prosecution or defense. Your task: persuade a 13-member tribunal that Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell—America’s fiery advocate for airpower—is guilty…or innocent.

The game begins in the courtroom where Colonel Mitchell of the Army Air Service is being tried for his alleged violation of the 96th Article of War, a catchall provision of military law that would decide if his incendiary, public remarks brought discredit upon the military service.

Players draft and deploy cards to sway jurors, recruit allies, and uncover evidence that either condemns or exonerates the accused.

Set against the backdrop of the longest and most sensational court-martial of the 20th century (October 28–December 17, 1925), the game asks: will the visionary of airpower be vindicated? Or will the nation ignore his warnings—only to see them fulfilled in the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, 17 years later?