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I loving love Spirit Island. Here’s a thread about it, damned if I know why it didn’t exist already. For people who aren’t familiar: ----- Have you ever played a European colonization game and thought, “I wish I could play as the island,” but somehow haven’t heard of Spirit Island? Then I have amazing news.  The mechanics, visuals and sheer tactility are next to perfect. The difficulty scaling and game modes are both as wide as the sky, so you can get a good game out of it no matter how deep you want to go. BGG calls it a complex game but the individual systems are each very simple, so overall, I find The Teach™ to be much easier than I first expected. But if you’re worried about that, you can always go to Target and buy the Horizons of Spirit Island standalone, which strips out a bit of the crunch to be more newby-friendly, a lot like Jaws of the Lion if you’ve tried that. You can also port those spirits over to the base game if you want. There's also a video game adaptation, if you want to try out the full game for $10. Each player chooses a spirit to play as. There are eight in the basic game box, another two in the first small box expansion Branch and Claw that you’re really going to want, and then like 30+ more in the other boxes you can buy (the expansions are all fantastic and there’s another one coming with, what, 20 more?). Here are a few. River Surges in Sunlight, who forms a winding river across the board while creating wetlands to expand its options  Ocean's Hungry Grasp, who operates exclusively in the sea and at the shore, eating settlers and later spending them to fund its powers  Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares, who does exactly what its name says it does, seen here playing a solo game  Different spirits come with different strategies for killing or otherwise managing settlers. You can chase them around the island or lure them into killzones, cordon off zones of the island they can’t enter, blast their poo poo apart with lightning, drive them into the sea, build Silent Hill for conquistadors, turn every bird and bug on the island into their enemy, be a volcano—whatever you want, there’s probably a spirit for it. And all these different spirits are palpably, mechanically different but work together well enough that it still feels like you’re playing the same game, though you can do multiplayer solitaire too if you really want. You can also play solo. There are lots of ways to play solo. gently caress I love this game. You can also choose your opponent, like England, Brandenburg-Prussia, Sweden, France and Russia and others in the expansion, various options that all work a little differently, moreso as you raise the difficulty. Ragnar34 posted:There's a sort of semi-official difficulty chart of all adversaries, adjusted for de facto difficulty in a couple cases as Isaac and the community decided this or that enemy is under- or overtuned. ----- There’s a new expansion on Kickstarter right now. It introduces new aspects and cards for every deck, but most notably the incarna mechanic, where certain new spirits exist in physical form on the island in ways past spirits didn’t. Play as the Ember-Eyed Behemoth if you want to stomp around like Godzilla, play a giant tree that finally uses the vitality tokens that have been teased for years, a portal to a pocket dimension of pure darkness, just various things. Play a dog. It’s right here, and buy into it fast if you want it on launch, because it ends this Thursday. e: And I didn't know anything about this before just now, but it looks like this exists and people like it! ConfusedUs posted:Hey, OP, have you seen the fan-made Legacy system for Spirit Island? Ragnar34 fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Apr 1, 2023 |
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Nov 14, 2022 01:03
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I played and really enjoyed Horizons of Spirit Island. How much more complicated is the full game?
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Nov 14, 2022 02:53
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LaSquida posted:I played and really enjoyed Horizons of Spirit Island. How much more complicated is the full game? As much as you want to make it, really. With how much you can dial the difficulty options and scenarios around, and the depth that some of the spirits can get to it can get pretty nuts.
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Nov 14, 2022 03:12
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Never played Horizons, honestly, but from what I've read it looks like most of the base experience is there. The core game has optional adversaries that introduce new rules and more involved scaling difficulty. There's also something called a blight card, where after you've placed two blight per player on the boards (six for three players for example) you flip the blight card from the "healthy island" side to the "blighted island" side, which represents a turning point in the fight and has a random ongoing effect. There are two blight cards in the base game and both of them are bad for you. There are eight spirits you haven't played, four of which are more complicated than any of the five Horizons spirits. One important thing you can do with the base game is get expansions. The Branch and Claw expansion in particular is where the game feels complete for me personally, with a more dynamic and changeable board, more cards for every deck especially the blight cards, and other things. At this point you're spending a fair amount of money, though. Wait, has anyone tried using Branch and Claw with just Horizons? I don't think it's supposed to be possible but maybe you can make it work.
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Nov 14, 2022 03:13
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Thanks for reminding me about the new expansion, almost missed the chance to back it.
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Nov 14, 2022 03:41
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 Spirit Island is great.
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Nov 14, 2022 04:10
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Ragnar34 posted:Never played Horizons, honestly, but from what I've read it looks like most of the base experience is there. The core game has optional adversaries that introduce new rules and more involved scaling difficulty. There's also something called a blight card, where after you've placed two blight per player on the boards (six for three players for example) you flip the blight card from the "healthy island" side to the "blighted island" side, which represents a turning point in the fight and has a random ongoing effect. There are two blight cards in the base game and both of them are bad for you. There are eight spirits you haven't played, four of which are more complicated than any of the five Horizons spirits. What makes Branch and Claw so important to you?
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Nov 14, 2022 05:16
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LaSquida posted:What makes Branch and Claw so important to you? Dynamism and variance. The event deck moves dahan around the island, as well as wildlife in the form of "beasts" tokens that interact with the new cards for every other deck, so the place feels more alive and the game less deterministic. When you get good enough at the base game, nothing ever really feels out of your control and your strategies can calcify until you're just going through the motions. Branch and Claw doesn't allow that. e: Just remembered Tabletop Simulator. It has the whole game and every expansion. I like the physical stuff because I've only had to buy stuff every couple years and I even got the base game when it was $20 cheaper, but TTS is a whole lot cheaper. Ragnar34 fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Nov 14, 2022 |
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Nov 14, 2022 06:26
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Spirit Island rules. I do think the 'Eurogame' style map is ugly and the thematic board is a lot more fun. Makes things less 'gamey' too in that the island seems like it could actually exist without just terrain features distributed perfectly evenly. Gives the game more of a 'feel' when the wetlands are kickin off full of Frenchmen. This game is also very weird. It's an anti-colonial game so they have such vast colonial empires to face like AUSTRIA, PRUSSIA, and RUSSIA. Yet there is no SPAIN.
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Nov 14, 2022 14:08
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That's really funny; we assumed the colonizers and explorers in Horizons were Spanish!
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Nov 14, 2022 19:11
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gently caress yeah, Spirit Island! It’s one of the go-tos for my weekly group, and I’m looking forward to the next expansion Let’s get some discussion going, spirit-by-spirit, in a terrible reverse order. First up, today’s reveal:  Obviously there’s more we don’t know about Wounded Waters at this point than most spirits, because there’s the healing cards that we haven’t seen, but I’m having a hard time imagining what the water power could be that would have me picking it over doing a damage whenever I place a beast somewhere—and *per beast* at that. I also really like the flavor they’ve captured here. It’s been established that spirits can change over time, but while Starlight shows that for new spirits, this is the first time we really get to see it with an established one, and they really nailed it. The Lord of Hats fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Jan 11, 2023 |
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Nov 16, 2022 18:43
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I think the player board offers pretty compelling reasons to use healing cards already, with the growth option and the fact that you're losing 1 influence or power card on any turn you don't use a heal. e: mixed up healing and water cards somehow, though I'd bet the water based healing cards are better at not losing/regaining what you lose from the spirit's effect. sirtommygunn fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Nov 16, 2022 |
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Nov 16, 2022 18:55
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My favourite spirit is Rampant Green, because I like winning.
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Nov 17, 2022 01:06
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Any spirits you guys would veto in a teaching game? I'd say spirits that boost others too much like Rampant Green, or mess with core mechanics like fast/slow like Lightning's Swift Strike should probably be avoided. Another issue I have with teaching is that I have the base + branch and claw + jagged earth all bundled together in one box. That's a lot of mechanics to frontload on newbies in a session :/ Also is there a storage solution out there for Everything (the three above + horizons of spirit island and the new expansion)? mila kunis fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Nov 17, 2022 |
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Nov 17, 2022 01:11
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I wouldn't completely take away any of the options but I would warn new players about any of the high complexity spirits and politely ask the players not to pick them.
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Nov 17, 2022 01:19
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mila kunis posted:Any spirits you guys would veto in a teaching game? I'd say spirits that boost others too much like Rampant Green, or mess with core mechanics like fast/slow like Lightning's Swift Strike should probably be avoided. Lightning is probably the only one I would recommend against for exactly the reasons you state. Others I'd just explain the complexity involved or impact they have on the game state and let players decide if that's what they want. Also, how do I beat England 6 solo. I wanted to beat every adversary solo at L6 and I've managed all of them except England which consistently kicks my rear end.
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Nov 17, 2022 01:51
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Kerro posted:Lightning is probably the only one I would recommend against for exactly the reasons you state. Others I'd just explain the complexity involved or impact they have on the game state and let players decide if that's what they want. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1r-1OBBKus
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Nov 17, 2022 02:21
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I actually watched that video after getting fairly frustrated and still couldn't pull off a win with TS. I dunno whether he just got more lucky with events and power draws or I got unlucky, but I could not make it work.
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Nov 17, 2022 06:07
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sirtommygunn posted:I think the player board offers pretty compelling reasons to use healing cards already, with the growth option and the fact that you're losing 1 influence or power card on any turn you don't use a heal. It isn't super obvious how the healing mechanic works, so I'll try to clarify. Every round, you'll add either a water token or animal token to your board. These aren't element markers that power your innates, they're just tracking what cards you're playing more of, water or animals. You'll also have to destroy a presence every round (or forget a card), but you're adding a new one each round and you start with 4, so it's not as bad as it sounds. On round 3, you'll unlock your first healing card, which gives you a new special rule. There are two abilities you can gain, and which one you get depends on which token you've collected more of. This special rule doesn't replace your existing one, so you'll still need to sacrifice a presence each round. Finally on round 5 you'll get your second healing card. Again there are two cards, one for water and one for animals. Each option will replace one of your innate powers with a new one, and more importantly will get rid of your starting special rule. At this point, Wounded Waters has defined its new nature and is no longer fading. So it seems there are a few ways you can grow the spirit by drafting powers (lots of water, lots of animals, and a mix of each) based on your teammates and your adversary.
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Nov 17, 2022 07:47
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mila kunis posted:Any spirits you guys would veto in a teaching game? I'd say spirits that boost others too much like Rampant Green, or mess with core mechanics like fast/slow like Lightning's Swift Strike should probably be avoided. I've never had an issue with using them in a teaching game. I feel like early on, it's more useful for people to see the overall gameplay loop of 'start->invaders blossom out of control-> spirits push back and get them under control->spirits win' than it is to have them flailing with no strategy and getting their teeth kicked in, and having spirits that help them win faster makes it easier for them to see without taxing their attention span too much. Plus, more people are hooked by a training game that goes great over one that went horribly. Once people grasp the basics of 'here is how you win', then they can move on to 'here is how you win with the training wheels off'.
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Nov 17, 2022 07:51
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I've tried "Choose one of these three starting spirits, I'll play this other extremely straightforward spirit so you'll understand what I'm doing, and we'll play a quick game where everything is basic and nothing strange happens." It works out fine, assuming they like one of the three. I don't think this works as well if they don't like any of the beginners, though. One guy latched onto BODAN and I let him roll with that. He always played either that or Ocean, didn't have trouble, and had a great time. So I figure the best way is to just tailor it to the players. I know someone who just grabbed Thunderspeaker, didn't see or care about any of the other spirits, and loved it. I know another guy who just really liked Stone. My girlfriend looked at River on her first game and, after picking up the rules in a few intro turns followed by a full game, basically showed ME how to play the spirit properly. Take one off energy and then blitz the plays track? That works?! Hell yeah it works, you don't even need that energy track disc, welcome to one of the strongest spirits in the core game. Thanks, girlfriend. The Lord of Hats posted:gently caress yeah, Spirit Island! It’s one of the go-tos for my weekly group, and I’m looking forward to [url= https://www.backerkit.com/c/greater-than-games/spirit-island-nature-incarnate]the next expansion[/url] tbh my takeaway is that this art is beautiful and the idea is cool. Mechanically I'll have to see it in practice a few times, but I'm sold.
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Nov 17, 2022 11:39
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I ask people not to play shattered days, finder, or spread of rampant green when there's a new player. Those are the only real hard limits. I tend to know the style of anyone I introduce spirit island to so I give suggestions of what they might like or don't push it.
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Jan 11, 2023 09:55
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I've been playing this game for months now, it's really addictive and it hasn't felt stale yet.
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Jan 14, 2023 01:06
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I should probably find Branch and Claw somewhere, but I've also only actually played twice.
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Jan 14, 2023 06:44
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Got my premium tokens in from the backerkit for nature incarnate today. These things are nice!
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Jan 14, 2023 08:18
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I just discovered this game last weekend, and I'm hooked. The art, the evocative writing, the theme...all of it hits that special part of my brain. It's been a long time since a game hooked me this hard out the gate. The last one was X-Wing miniatures. I've played three or four games so far, and my girlfriend is hooked too. Date nights have been game nights ever since. I've bought everything except Horizons at this point. I opened Jagged Earth last night and the Trickster god is calling my name. "Overenthusiastic Arson" may be the best name for an ability I've seen in years.
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Jan 18, 2023 16:56
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I've played Spirit Island only a couple of times and feel like I'm going to be swallowed up each time. I've yet to graduate to specific invaders or beyond the prescribed newbie decks. How do I get gud?
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Jan 18, 2023 20:10
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'Grow to play more cards rather than getting more energy' was the tip that took me from being bad at the game to being kind of decent.
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Jan 18, 2023 20:31
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It's fine to let a land go early on if it lets you grow in power/solve other pressing issues. For example, taking a blight to remove all explorers from lands that are building this turn (thus stopping the builds, then the ravages) will give you a lot of breathing room, which in turn can be turned into greedier growths.
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Jan 18, 2023 20:44
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Triskelli posted:I've played Spirit Island only a couple of times and feel like I'm going to be swallowed up each time. I've yet to graduate to specific invaders or beyond the prescribed newbie decks. How do I get gud? at its most basic spirit island is about efficiently solving problems. a lot of players get caught up in overextending and trying to use Defends on lands that will blight, playing reactively to whatever the Invaders are about to do damage in. But for most spirits in the game (notably not the big defensive earth spirits), what you want to do is target where invaders are going to build and prevent them from creating a town on those spots. Because of this, slow powers that affect explorers some of the best powers you can have. If you play them in one of the first few turns of the game and then move one or more explorers out of places where they will build in the following turn, you've solved several problems ahead of schedule. "grow to play more cards" is also a generally good idea, although many spirits have equally strong strategies based around gettting a lot of energy quickly and grabbing a ton of majors powers. In general, you want to grab majors once you're noticing problem lands aren't able to be handled by either by one of your powers and a card or just by a card itself. Try to grab majors that play to your elements, but don't feel tethered to them. Sometimes you just want Indomitable Claim even though you'll never threshold it. Finally, cards that benefit other spirits are usually far stronger than other cards. A turn where you and a buddy both use a boon or a gift on each other is almost always better for your long term growth than a turn where neither of you helps the other. edit: also most spirits want to try to hit at least one level of their innate every turn. Some of the starting beginner spirits in the base game aren't so good at that and unfortunately train players against this - but do try. it's like playing a free extra card.
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Jan 18, 2023 20:56
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Triskelli posted:I've played Spirit Island only a couple of times and feel like I'm going to be swallowed up each time. I've yet to graduate to specific invaders or beyond the prescribed newbie decks. How do I get gud? Also, don't use the "newbie decks" after your first game. A large part of the game is choosing which minor or major power to gain. Oftentimes the choice will be whichever card has elements that match your innate, but sometimes you really need a defend card, or something that moves Dahan. On that note, the Dahan are a valuable resource and can be extremely powerful once you're practiced with using them. Move them into the right place, give them a defend power, and you've got free damage.
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Jan 18, 2023 23:36
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Triskelli posted:I've played Spirit Island only a couple of times and feel like I'm going to be swallowed up each time. I've yet to graduate to specific invaders or beyond the prescribed newbie decks. How do I get gud? think of slow powers as super-fast powers for the next round
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Jan 18, 2023 23:48
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Folks saying not to play LIghtning Swift Strike on first play...and that's the only spirit I've played as at an actual table. Love that big fast lightning bird I took the company's advice and sought out all the expansions and stuff separately, rather than doing an all-in pledge on Incarna, and its nice having the entire rest of the game in-hand already. Need to start working on some manner of storage solution though...having so many little boxes floating around is very annoying. I know there's more expansions on the horizion for as long as these things keep making money so god knows how i'm going to future proof it, but I need to do /something/ edit: re: storage I like the look of Folded Space's insert, getting two of them, one for base box and one for Jagged Earth -- supposedly storing it that way leaves a bunch of space in the JE box, so I wonder if Incarna and Horizons would fit in there too jivjov fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Jan 19, 2023 |
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Jan 19, 2023 10:24
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I got a bunch of stacking screw-together jewelry containers, they work great for the small parts and setup is easy since you just detach the stack and spread them out. The only problem is that with jagged earth the box is full to bursting. I didn't back the new expansion but I'll probably pick it up at some point, gonna have to get a bigger box.
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Jan 19, 2023 10:43
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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Lightning is totally fine for your first play; it's Shadows Flicker that I thought was generally considered the weakest of the basic 4. Lightning is a bit weird in that its "optimal" strategy is to play no cards at all on the first turn, saving up energy and throwing out a bunch of presence in order to play 3 cards on the second round, devastating the invaders. That really only matters when you start going up against adversaries; for the basic setup you can play it however you want and it's fine. Phelddagrif fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Jan 20, 2023 |
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Jan 20, 2023 01:48
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You can play lightning however you want basically up to most rank 5/6 adversaries, especially if you have a support spirit backing you up and feeding you energy. It's just really addictive to have all fast powers and getting everyone else hooked on your go fast juice with lightning's boon.
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Jan 20, 2023 02:01
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Storage chat My storage method for Spirit Island+expansions came from Lowe's, and I don't have it with me right now so I can't check the exact brand, but it looks sort of like this except yellow and I think the removable cups might be slightly different. Less than $30 USD. I don't know if it can fit the Horizons board in there too, but there's room in mine for new cards and pieces for when I can finally afford Nature Incarnate, so I'm not worried about that at least. The rule books don't fit, not that that matters, I have a phone and so do you.
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Jan 20, 2023 02:21
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Phelddagrif posted:Lightning is totally fine for your first play; it's Shadows Flicker that I thought was generally considered the weakest of the basic 4. Shadows Flicker is just kinda garbage. It has so much difficulty activating its board power, especially at the upper levels--you have to do it all via cards, you're growing kinda slowly, and... it just isn't an especially flavorful spirit, given how simple it is. There isn't really anything to recommend it.
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Jan 20, 2023 16:17
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I've played five games in the base set now. I was lucky enough to have someone point out some of the most common mistakes and strategy rules for the base set. Should I add just Branch & Claw or go all in with both it and Jagged Earth? I own them both already, and I've noticed that Jagged Earth contains all the rules for B&C. Also, any advice for common mistakes and strategy with the expansions?
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Jan 20, 2023 16:49
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ConfusedUs posted:I've played five games in the base set now. I was lucky enough to have someone point out some of the most common mistakes and strategy rules for the base set. I would include both; Branch and Claw is kind of a mini-expansion, with only two new spirits. Jagged Earth gives you a lot more options. The biggest change the expansions add is events, which add a level of uncertainty. Sometimes you think you have just enough defend, only for the invaders to deal +1 damage this turn. On the flip side, sometimes the Dahan give you extra defense, saving a land you thought was lost. Events are kind of complicated and take some getting used to. If you start with just B&C, be aware there's a rule change in Jagged Earth. Normally you draw and resolve an event at the start of each invader phase, but you skip that in the first round, to keep things from getting out of hand before you have a real chance to get settled. The other big addition in the expansions is tokens, which are placed in lands and help the spirits in various ways. Preventing explores and builds, cancelling damage from ravaging, that sort of thing. Several of the new spirits interact with these tokens directly.
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Jan 20, 2023 17:48
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