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Phelddagrif posted: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. Thank you! Not drawing on the first round sounds like a big change. Glad to know about it! I'm all about more interesting tokens and events. Fear cards and their unpredictable effects on the board are always a fun shakeup. Pulling Scapegoats at the right time is just amazing.
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Jan 20, 2023 20:38
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It's worth hunting down the "promo packs", each of which contains two additional spirits. The first one contains my absolute favorite for its fast and dynamic playstyle: Heart of the Wildfire.
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Jan 20, 2023 22:09
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1secondpersecond posted:It's worth hunting down the "promo packs", each of which contains two additional spirits. The first one contains my absolute favorite for its fast and dynamic playstyle: Heart of the Wildfire. Aren’t those covered by the Feather and Flame box? Heart of the wildfire is definitely in that one.
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Jan 20, 2023 22:25
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ConfusedUs posted:Aren’t those covered by the Feather and Flame box? Heart of the wildfire is definitely in that one. Whaddya know, they are. I picked them up back in the "wait for an email that GTG had printed 5 more copies, first come first served" era. Nice that they made them more available.
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Jan 20, 2023 22:51
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Slumbering Serpent is the best so I highly recommend the promo pack, the other spirits are very cool too
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Jan 20, 2023 23:19
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I love the pathfinder. Are there any like, plastic carry boxes for this or anything? We're just using the original boxes but it's a bit of a faff to pick up and carry around everywhere.
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Jan 21, 2023 17:46
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I’m currently looking for a good tackle box to put this poo poo in myself. That’s what I usually do for big board games
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Jan 21, 2023 18:59
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A friend has Spirit Island and it's a blast up to like six or seven players. The different flavours of invaders are bastards and can really ratchet up the complexity and difficulty of the game. Personal favs are Sharp Fangs Behind Leaves, Shroud of Silent Mist and a special mention to Heart of the Wildfire. Fangs I love for a strong opening strength and lots of explorer shoving potential. Having my beasts eat invaders and drive them off their building lands allows unprecedented control in the early game. Fangs might not be a late powerhouse, but doesn't have to be if you get on top of your board early. Shroud is such an interesting prospect, keeping invaders wounded and generating buckets of free fear while doing so. The shrine movement/reach ability is unique and golly do not play this spirit over beers but being able to drag your shrines around is powerful. Generating 5 fear for free per turn and clogging your whole board with a quieting, choking mist is thematic and fun when you then wipe all the cities off in a single turn for big fear turns. Heart of the Wildfire has a special mention because with that spirit we've technically succeeded in driving the invaders off, but I'd blighted the land so badly we had negative points. Fear victories from Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares is gratifying if you have a fast spirit helper, and I have had a loving terrible game as Oceans Hungry Grasp. So bad I'll never try it again, but love it when someone else plays it. Spirit Island is a good game.
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Jan 21, 2023 19:55
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The Lord of Hats posted: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. Point of order: that's part of the whole game, by deliberate design - the idea is that the spirits HAVE to change during the game, and ever card you draft is the Spirits making a conscious decisions to change their nature to something better able to drive off the invaders. I think it's the second expansion that has, as an 'alternate rule,' the game phase "sit around after the game and think of new thematic names for your spirits based on the cards you have"
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Jan 21, 2023 21:35
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ConfusedUs posted:I’m currently looking for a good tackle box to put this poo poo in myself. That’s what I usually do for big board games I just gave in and bought another Plano 1374. They’re pricey but they’re my go-to for large games. I have room to add Horizons and another expansion or two if I want.
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Jan 22, 2023 01:29
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I bought a $25 modular box from Lowe's and it works great and has extra room. For Shadows Flicker like Flame, I would honestly just grab an aspect and forget the base spirit forever. It's not like you even need to own an aspect card, you can just pick one up front and tell people you're using it. All of them are better than the default. Reach is great for beginners. Personally I've got a soft spot for Amorphous, which feels like Shroud-lite in a good way.
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Jan 22, 2023 02:48
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For my next game, I want to play either Volcano Looming High or Shroud of Silent Mist. My partner will probably play Stone's Unyielding Defiance. Which of those two works better with Stone? And any tips for playing any of those three?
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Jan 24, 2023 17:11
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Shadows Flicker would be fine if its starter cards had more elements. As is, you are highly constrained in your opening rounds if you want to trigger your innate and you are entirely reliant on good drafts to ever trigger its higher tiers. Two more elements spread between its starter cards would make it a lot more varied, fun, and powerful.
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Jan 24, 2023 18:32
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ConfusedUs posted:For my next game, I want to play either Volcano Looming High or Shroud of Silent Mist. My partner will probably play Stone's Unyielding Defiance. I've played quite a bit of Volcano Looming High and although I love it, it's quite tricky to play it right, and certain combinations of blight will absolutely wreck you, especially any blight events/cards that force you to remove presence from the board. You absolutely cannot afford to lose any presence as VLH because the build-up is so important to your overall plan. Your build-up can be quite slow, so you absolutely need a fellow spirit that is strong from the start and that can keep blight under check before you are able to blow your top. I haven't tried VLH in combination with SUD but I think it would work relatively well in a combo. One thing to keep in mind about VLH is that it's sometimes better to do several smaller explosion that one big one.
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Jan 24, 2023 19:22
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Oh man, Stone and Volcano were a super combo. There was a mountain dead center in the board that let me affect all but a few lands. Stone went about, using its specials to draw blight from the box instead of the blight card while I simply murdered everything in sight. It was easily our fastest win, in the fast power phase of turn 5.
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Jan 25, 2023 15:54
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Volcano is one of my top favorite spirits. Using their innate at high power is such a blast (heh), and combos really well with Defiance.
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Jan 25, 2023 16:10
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Volcano tip: the third growth ability is fantastic. I'm sure there's a good strategy that involves repeating growth 2 until you can wipe the whole island clean in one shot, possibly with two or more players, but I've never found it. I've had much more luck keeping it to occasional controlled eruptions of 2 pieces with maybe a 4-shot to end the game. It's the best way to take advantage of that sweet, sweet G3. Stone is great. It's like Earth, except gently caress you.
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Jan 25, 2023 16:20
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Ragnar34 posted:Volcano tip: the third growth ability is fantastic. I'm sure there's a good strategy that involves repeating growth 2 until you can wipe the whole island clean in one shot, possibly with two or more players, but I've never found it. I've had much more luck keeping it to occasional controlled eruptions of 2 pieces with maybe a 4-shot to end the game. It's the best way to take advantage of that sweet, sweet G3. I did Growth 2 on turn one and, uh, four? The rest were Growth 3 with one reclaim somewhere in there. Growth 3 is awesome. Explode 2 all day every day.
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Jan 25, 2023 17:52
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Growth 2 for life. I rarely take growth 3 unless I'm eager to move around the island.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:11
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I loving love Spirit Island, it's one of two games that are defaults for my group. I've got both current expansions, Horizons, and the promos so far but I'm probably going to hold off on the new one until it's released. I'm also considering the foil spirit cards just to save box space (and so that all my spirit cards match) but what I'm hearing about them is that they curl pretty badly.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:27
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One of my favourite spirits is Keeper of the Forbidden Wild. The gimmick with this spirit is that your innates allow you to spread Wild, which prevents exploration, or if they do manage to infiltrate somehow, get rid of them from area with Wild tokens. The idea is that you build a wall of impenetrable green that is impossible for the invaders to encroach apon. This lead to my favourite solo game of Spirit Island ever, which ended with the following board state:  That is a lot of wild and sacred sites, even for Keeper. But I did get the following set of powers:  Combination of these three, my innates and my starting powers absolutely obliterated the invader, which had at one point 7 towns in the number 7 wetland (I was playing Habsburg), before my wall of green wiped them off the map.
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Jan 25, 2023 18:39
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Thickets Erupt is an obscenely good major with Keeper, I love it.
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Jan 25, 2023 22:04
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Yeah, combination of that and Unrelenting Growth just turbo-charged my offense.
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Jan 25, 2023 22:07
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  Tekopo posted:One of my favourite spirits is Keeper of the Forbidden Wild. The gimmick with this spirit is that your innates allow you to spread Wild, which prevents exploration, or if they do manage to infiltrate somehow, get rid of them from area with Wild tokens. The idea is that you build a wall of impenetrable green that is impossible for the invaders to encroach apon. Keeper was my favorite spirit for years and this run looks beautiful. If this happened to me irl I'd be tempted to return every deck to its exact previous state and then play it over again with difficulty a couple steps higher. Habsburg is an interesting invader thematically and mechanically. I'll need to see how Keeper feels against them I think.
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Jan 26, 2023 05:25
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I've completely changed my tune on the flat cardstock spirit boards. I really wish the non horizons ones weren't foiled, but the space savings alone is incredible
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Feb 15, 2023 20:50
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At this point my pro strat for Lightning's Swift Strike is to use the Immense aspect exclusively. The base and every other aspect feel awful to me, especially in solo where the speed boost doesn't matter as much and all you're left with is a spirit with more plays than it'll ever need. Yes, you're supposed to save up your cards for megaturns and/or do some G1, G2, G1, G2 weirdness, but you only get about 8-9 turns anyway, so every setup round feels like a significant sacrifice even when it's worth it. Hey, but you know what spirit I don't hear enough about? Spreading Rot Renews the Earth. Yeah, I know it's just an apocrypha spirit and Reuss says it's not as polished or as tested as other spirits, but it works just fine, I still think it's cool, and it does a lot of things I've been wanting. Just remember to round both rot loss and energy gain DOWN, not up like it says on the sheet.
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Feb 16, 2023 07:16
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Pandemonium is one of the strongest spirits in solo since the massive amount of fear it generates lets you speedrun through the fear deck. I know the megaturn strategy is what's recommended, and I guess that's how the spirit was designed, but I have better results with chain reclaims. G2 -> top, top -> play nothing G2 -> bottom, bottom -> play everything but raging storm G1 -> play everything but raging storm + hopefully the 0 cost with fire you just drafted. If you didn't find any, use another 0 cost. Just play 3 cards if you didn't get any 0 cost. The odds of finding what you need in your next turns are pretty good. Repeat G1 until turn 5 or so, then do whatever you prefer. You only have one setup turn in your entire game that way, just like most spirits.
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Feb 16, 2023 10:22
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Here is how I play Ligtning, which is whenever my brain fog is really bad but I still want to win while playing with friends. Turn 1 Growth 2, Energy No Powers 2 energy / turn Turn 2 Growth 2, Plays Lightning’s Boon, Shatter Homesteads, Harbingers of the Lightning, Thundering Destruction Make Shatter Homesteads and Thundering Destruction fast to set up Dahan 2 energy / turn, 1 energy reserved Turn 3 Growth 1, Minor Power Lightning’s Boon, Shatter Homesteads, Harbingers of the Lightning, Thundering Destruction, Minor Power (optional, but only if they are 0 cost or trigger a higher threshold) Turn 4+ Reclaim Growth 1, Minor Power Lightning’s Boon, Shatter Homesteads, Harbingers of the Lightning, Thundering Destruction, Minor Powers (optional, but only if they are 0 cost or trigger a higher threshold) Turn 4+ Downtime Growth 2, Energy to 3, Energy 4/Plays 5, Energy 5 Minor Powers Don’t do this unless you have a relatively safe turn or useful minor powers. Minor Power Drafting Unless you have energy support from other spirits zero cost cards are almost always the best option. Try to get an elemental replacement for Lightning’s Boon if other spirits don’t need speed. Powers with new elements you don’t need can provide protection from negative events. Note: This opening beat level 5 England on its first try solo. Wasn’t even particularly challenging.
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Feb 16, 2023 10:33
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Those both look solid! Yeah, pandemonium is what I use when I feel like going back to the Lightning puzzle. I like defensive fear spirits, and fire+air has a lot of interesting minor cards imo.
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Feb 16, 2023 10:52
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I got my first ever 10-presence eruption as Volcano last night. It was a three player game, and I was struggling with a particular corner of my board. My teammates, Trickster and Ocean, couldn't easily reach that section either. It was very far from Trickster's spawn and too far inland for Ocean. I kept digging for powers that let me reach it, but I was mostly unsuccessful. I quickly realized the only thing I could do was explode about it. So I started building presence. That was one hell of a turn. I got off every level of both innate powers and five card plays. End result: 12 dead explorers 8 destroyed towns 3 destroyed cities at least 17 fear And all but one blight Only one city and three explorers were left on the entire island, and we finished off the city in the Fast phase next turn to win. It's the most destruction I've ever caused in one turn, including when I triggered the threshold on Cast Down Into the Briny Deep.
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Feb 16, 2023 17:31
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Does everyone play with the "Eurogame" side of the board? We exclusively play on the "realistic" looking side. To us it's a lot more interesting, thematic, and provides more varied challenge. It also just looks cool. I also like how it starts with diseases and animals in certain places, etc. It seems like everyone is doing the opposite, though.
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Feb 17, 2023 09:16
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The realistic side of the board is cool and slightly harder but I have a harder time reading it. I think that's the most common complaint
Impermanent fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 10:48
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I can't read it very well either. The eurogame side ends up feeling more thematic to me just because I can grok what's happening at a glance, so I can more quickly and easily turn it into a narrative in my head. And my experience with the thematic board is that I abstractualize it all in my head most of the time regardless, at which point it all just looks muddy to me.
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Feb 17, 2023 14:42
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Yeah, my groups have always had too hard a time reading the thematic side to deal with it on top of managing everything else.
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Feb 17, 2023 17:50
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We always use the "eurogame" side too. Nothing else in the game looks realistic and we're playing as magic spirits who care about clearly delineated borders in the 16th century, I don't feel like we need an aerial photograph.
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Feb 17, 2023 19:58
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Mr. Grapes! posted:Does everyone play with the "Eurogame" side of the board? We exclusively play on the "realistic" looking side. I play on the thematic map occasionally for a bit of variety (11/59 games I have recorded, apparently). I feel like the scenarios probably do a better job of mixing things up, if that's what you're after. Wallet fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Feb 17, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2023 20:28
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Yeah the thematic map is a really cool idea, and the devs have put a lot of thought into the "canonical" history of the island, focus points of the spirits, etc....but from a Game perspective the obviously board game side of the map with its bright colors and such rule I honestly even prefer the Horizons board for having the big ocean background even if I have to remind myself and other players only specific areas count as "coastal"
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Feb 18, 2023 00:16
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i long for a big floppy water playmat to put the boards on for this reason
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Feb 18, 2023 07:03
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well..got my folded space inserts today - assembly went well but yeah...I don't think a bespoke in-box solution is gonna be it for this game. Might just go back to mountains of baggies
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Feb 28, 2023 03:22
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What difficulty do folks play at, or what general setup variations do you do to keep the game spicy? I’ve been doing 2p games for a few months as me and a friend wanted to play through all the Jagged Earth content and we were bumping it as we went and we settled on 7 as a nice level to have to think a fair bit, but still typically eke out a victory (maybe win 80%?). We’re looking to bump up further now, but some of the higher level adversaries just look crazy, so we were going to try an additional board first. The scenarios all look a little eh or need to be tuned to certain spirits, we have started just RNG’ing our compositions since neither of us care which we play. We played blitz last night because we were short on time and it was a hilarious game (Volcano + SUD) but I don’t know if I’d call it spirit island without slow powers.
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Mar 24, 2023 21:08
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