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Had a hilarious duo game against Sweden 6 + Varied Terrains last night. Played Starlight Seeks its Form and my partner tried Regrowth Rampant Green for the first time. It turns out that Regrowth starting with a pool of 13 destroyed presence made for a ridiculous combo when I yolo'd a major first turn and got Solidify Echoes of Majesty Past, giving us an absurd number of skips across the entire board and even more proliferation from the extra card plays given by the threshold effect. Then Green pulled Transformative Sacrifice, dumping extra destroyed presence fuel into the combo. Solidify Echoes also has a great combo with Starlight, you can activate the bonus effects on your uniques at the cost of forgetting them and then just keep playing them again anyways. Amazingly dumb game, very fun.
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Jan 21, 2024 21:51
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 06:24 |
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Same, Wildfire feels absolutely miserable to me against any serious challenge. I keep trying to make it work but it just feels bad against every level 6 adversary. You have to flood the board with blight but you get inordinately punished if the blight card flips to any presence removal effect. You place presence, blight, lose presence, and then can't move back in without cascading. Your blight removal is range zero so it can only remove blight where you already are, it can't help you move in somewhere you need to be. If other spirits support you to bail you out that support feels like wasted card plays that could have been better used elsewhere because the payoff is that you'll be in the exact same bad spot again next turn. It absolutely needs something more to manipulate or move blight like Wounded Waters' blight gathering. Having to dig through the power deck to fix your problems feels bad because most of those powers don't have elements you need. Maybe these problems are exacerbated for me because I mostly play duo games, it doesn't feel quite as punishing in a 4 player match with a bigger blight pool but anyone who takes Wildfire still feels like a liability. The only time Wildfire's mechanics feel good are when you have no real opposition, as soon as something goes wrong you just don't have the tools for making a comeback. The best I ever did against a level 6 I lost against England to timeout because I spent half my card plays fixing problems I'd caused myself instead of actually advancing a win condition. And that was my best game.
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Jan 30, 2024 22:49
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Give yourself a 4 hour window for a 6 person game to be sure. It's not guaranteed to go that long but it's likely enough, especially if your group likes table chatter. Better to give everyone enough space to enjoy it without stressing for time.
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Feb 14, 2024 03:42
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Got horribly owned by Russia 6 last night trying Enticing Bodan for the first time because I passed on Jungle Hungers turn one and instantly regretted it for the entire game. Enticing is really fun to combo with Breath of Darkness releasing all their abductions into your designated "no one does any damage here" dump land but boy howdy would that have been better if I'd been dream killing that giant stack of a dozen+ towns every turn.
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Mar 2, 2024 20:59
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Elysium posted:I played my first game of Starlight, which was pretty interesting and different. I’m pretty sure I did everything correctly except for one thing, which was pretty much the crux of the entire game. So for quite a while I basically didn’t really DO anything, except gain cards and energy and occasionally defend. Then I unlocked the track which was play an extra card and use one card fast. So I played 3 cards, all of which were natively fast, Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power, Powerstorm, and some minor. So with thresholded gates I gained a slow major, with elements that thresholded powerstorm. I then powerstorm Gates, gain another slow major. After paying for both majors I was out of energy, but my question is, can I play one of those majors that I just gained fast, per my track, and if I were to powerstorm that major, would it be fast again? That's a badass combo and I'm pretty sure the ruling is that yes, if you repeat a slow card that has been made fast the repeat is also fast, and if you haven't used your one fast power from the track you can use it for that.
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Mar 10, 2024 19:57
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I have foils because when my partner ordered the game it was paradoxically cheaper to buy them as an addon and get to a better threshold for shipping costs. They look good, some more than others (Wounded Waters and Wandering Voice look incredible, whereas Towering Roots' earthtones don't really translate to shininess well.) I think if you are obsessed with the game and have a specific spirit you really like it could be worth having them around as a display piece? But they don't feel as nice to play with because they don't have the solidity of the normal boards. Imagine if instead of placing your tokens on a nicely textured solid board you were trying to keep them from moving around on an oversized foil MtG card... It's just not practical.
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Mar 13, 2024 21:27
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jivjov posted:I love the foils for the space savings...but I wish they'd let me buy a non-foil option (i.e. like the ones in Horizons). For my collection, just letting me condense all the spirit boards to one box would make the game portable again We made this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6129527 organizer and it's great. It's heavy and the lid lift is like halfway up but absolutely everything is in ONE BOX. Setup and takedown is much faster which is nice when a big game takes 3 hours and you play often. Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I've only played a couple in-person games of this but the turtle spirit was extremely fun. I assume he is not quite as strong at higher difficulties when two damage doesn't just solve a freshly built or explored region but I'll take victory where I can get it. The stomping turtle can scale decently! Just won a duo game against russia 6 where my partner was using him and it was fine at matching the game tempo. You can potentially spread a LOT of badlands around which will make you friends against matchups that are usually tough for damage spirits, like England.
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Mar 14, 2024 06:20
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Elysium posted:Continuing my first time solo playthrough of all the Spirits up through JE, I played Fractured and Shifting Memory the other day. This inspired me to try solo Finder. It wasn't that bad! Won a Terror 1 victory against Sweden 6 on turn 9. Only took one ravage for 2 blight. I was so unused to the idea of a terror level one win that I started packing up with explorers still on the board before realizing I had to deal with them too... Only made 8 fear the entire game, most of that was from random events, which treated me pretty well. Got Call to Guard early which was a godsend, then had a few unusable drafts of majors before finding what I wanted. Just gradually corralled up the invaders into two lands, isolated constantly, eventually drew Vanish Softly which I used twice to remove all the remaining towns/cities I couldn't get through dahan counterattacks, then pulled Fragments of Yesteryear to remove the one giant stack of corralled explorers I had left. GG. Probably could have won faster if I hadn't rejected damage majors but I wanted to respect Responsibilities to the Dead and do a true pacifist run. Growth track order was Earth > +1 Card Play > 1e/Moon > 2e/Water > 2nd +1 Card Play. Took the power card G3 whenever possible except for the last turn when I took G4 for energy to afford Fragments.
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Mar 17, 2024 07:01
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Elysium posted:I love the scenarios. Well, some are more fun than others. I don’t really care for adversaries actually. I get that they are needed to increase difficulty, but I wish they were more like scenarios with the way they fundamentally change the game rather than just like “well now 3 towns fly out of their rear end” at THIS level. Adversaries do fundamentally change the game though, you just need to think of them as a complete package at level 5/6. The towns fly out their rear end rules levels are there to empower their unique mechanics. Habsburg Livestock 2 and 5 exist to enable the absolutely wild migratory herders mechanics that totally change how you need to think about the game, not just because "more towns is more harder" but because they give the adversary something to migrate with in those early turns and it prevents them from being completely shut down by lucky land draws making huge isolation pockets. England's extra starting buildings enable their explorerless build cheating and High Immigration puts pressure on the loss condition. Habsburg Mining shoots a billion explorers at you specifically to turn your brain inside out thinking about Mining Lands and those drat salt mines, etc. I mostly don't use Scenarios because on their own they aren't hard enough for my table which usually plays level 6 adversaries, and combining scenarios with adversaries tends to make for weird unpredictable difficulty shifts. I'm aware of the difficulty randomizer and I'd love to use it but we like to pick our spirits based on the adversary/scenario and as far as I can tell it doesn't really support that? The Great River is a gloriously chaotic clusterfuck though, I like that one a lot!
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Mar 27, 2024 18:29
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How do folks strategize for top track/majors builds? I gravitate towards bottom track play and spirits but for some matchups it's definitely ideal to grab majors early, examining my games I always find that even when I planned to grab majors I still should have gone for the first one 1-2 turns sooner than I did. Pretty much the only time I'm confident with early majors is slamming a first turn pick on Starlight or BODAN. I just find it too punishing to grab a major draft and find crap I have no chance of thresholding, whereas even a weak minor can always be used as chaff for events or major drafts.
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Apr 2, 2024 23:10
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Pandemonium is excellent but I also like Wind, it's a tasty smidge of extra team support and things to do on your turn on a spirit that otherwise quickly feels "solved" and boring after a couple plays. Those explorer pushes can do a lot of heavy lifting vs Russia or HME even into the late game! Sunshine is an impossibly awful mistake that they probably shouldn't even bother coding. The others are too basic to really have a strong opinion about.
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Apr 3, 2024 21:41
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You could just straight up redact any one part of Stone's kit (the blight negation, the retaliations, the "top track is also bottom track oh and also you get free minors because idk") and it would still be very strong. I don't think it's unfun or that its existence ruins the game or anything but for me I think it's the most egregious offender for "this spirit is obviously too strong," way more than all the fingers that get pointed at Rampant Green and company (not saying Green's proliferation isn't a problem ofc.) Dances Up Earthquakes for example, can be played totally busted, but you *can* play normally to the game tempo instead of building up for that silly turn 4/5 megaquake and of course it'll be less strong but it's still a cool spirit with a fun playstyle. Fractured Days may be capable of insane game warping combo play but you've gotta really burn brainpower to work it. Whereas Stone is just... Stone.
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Apr 4, 2024 02:45
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Fellis posted:I’m fine with there being OP spirits, it’s a co-op game and what spirits you take is part of tailoring the difficulty and experience. Sometimes you just want to stomp the AI or try a difficulty out of your comfort zone with some support. Now if you had a friend who only wanted to play Stone’s Unyielding Defiance every time because it’s the strongest… that’s an annoying issue but more of a social one. Agreed, the game gives you a great toolkit of different factors to make it as hard as you want with enough complexity and variance that you're never *exactly* sure how hard a matchup is going to be. It's so good! Balance is only a problem if it becomes a matter of the power difference being unfun. A lot of people really like playing Shroud of Silent Mist even though they know it's on the weaker side, they still enjoy the theme and gameplay puzzle the spirit gives you. Whereas with base Shadows Flicker... I do not see people saying that lol. It's weak in a way that isn't fun.
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Apr 4, 2024 19:26
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1secondpersecond posted:Has anybody else tried the Mentor aspect of Shifting Memory? I played it with a buddy who kept gifting me card draw and ended up with a discard pile of about 20 cards despite using the mentor ability to gift from discard as often as possible. I only used the Reclaim growth option once, and when I did I had my next 3 turns on lock because I was spoiled for card choice and element matches. I like Mentor, granting that extra card play can be incredible at accelerating the game if you can give the right elements at the right time, but the limited draft pool when you gain powers can really burn you. Going for a major and seeing something useless like Transform To A Murderous Darkness and Vengeance of the Dead as your two cards feels really bad! A very powerful and cool effect in exchange for having some murky RNG. With the limited card selection and importance of giving away useful picks to your teammates constantly, you can easily wind up playing with a janky hand of unwanted chaff yourself. The rest of your table needs to be on board with lending you support in exchange for the boosts. On the whole I hate the mental tax of tracking Observe the Ever Changing World so replacing that innate with absolutely anything makes the aspect a success for me. For bonus points get Boon of Reimagining from Starlight to draw 4 gain 3.
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Apr 14, 2024 21:18
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I think opinions on Wounded Waters will depend on how you think about the game. Turn to turn on a tactical level, wounded waters can be really fun because you have to negotiate these really tight weak turns early on and then you get a big chain reaction engine going with really fun lategame turns where you totally dominate with big splashy turns that have a lot going on. Strategically if you think of the game as a long term big picture, you either get bad luck edge cased by situations you can't do anything about and buried in the first 4 turns or you're absolutely guaranteed to dominate and win once you wait out your weak period, which some people find really boring.
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Apr 14, 2024 23:20
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Love to look at the pointlessly big numbers on my growth track after stalling all game and then reach for the instant win nuke button on my right innate only to realize the game is already over and I never got to blow my load.
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Apr 15, 2024 00:58
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I chose not to read or look at the tier list post
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Apr 15, 2024 04:05
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Played Wildfire a bunch and I retract my previous complaining, it's a good spirit and fun to play, really benefits from support. Even a single granted extra energy or card reclaim all game can go a long way to making it flow way better. I know you can say that about anyone but it's truer for some than others. Still don't think I'll ever play it solo again though, the event/blight card variance still feels too punishing for that. Compared to more consistent spirits you absolutely need someone else around to bail you out if your plans get derailed and you wind up with a really weak turn.
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Apr 26, 2024 18:53
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Fellis posted:Oh no I played Starlight Seeks Its Form and I might have a new favorite spirit. The two games I played were a bit outlier so I need more play with it, but I find it makes the drafts incredibly interesting and you get to do them a lot and cheat your reclaims and oh my gosh i thought i would be challenging myself not finding that the stars are right Starlight is an incredibly cool spirit with a lot of fun viable build paths but I am completely addicted to grabbing a major turn one every time and can't bring myself to play it any other way. Planning out which major you can reliably threshold turn 2/3 for maximum carnage is my favorite optimization puzzle in the game.
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Apr 26, 2024 21:15
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Ragnar34 posted:I tried that weird downpour opening where you use g2 for four or five turns and then burst your way to the win with a repeated major. I heard it only works up to a certain difficulty, so I brought out Scotland 3. Final review: I went from spamming g2 to spamming g3, digging desperately for a major to flog. I saw like 40 percent of the deck and played 8 different majors to keep that final blight on the blighted island card, even weaved together the fabric of space to dodge Scotland's loss condition, and finally won on turn 11 with fear. It's a hilarious meme opening but I'm pretty sure it's just objectively bad play outside of some real long odds lucky drafts and I've absolutely stunk up any game I've tried it in (only 3 times is a small sample size but it was disappointing enough that I'm not going to waste my time again.) On 10+ difficulty games the amount of momentum you lose isn't worth one single turn where you spam one unthresholded major 4 times and then afterwards you've blown your load of stockpiled energy and have basically the same ability to impact the board as you would have if you hadn't spent the first half of the game doing nothing, possibly less.
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May 7, 2024 02:45
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We use a 3d printed organizer (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6129527) that fits everything in the game plus our play journal into one box neatly, if you can accept lid lift halfway up the box. It sets up and packs back up really fast once you're used to the very specific tetris necessary. Because of 3d printer variances and imperfections the fit is slightly too tight if you print absolutely everything, I strongly recommend skipping the boxes for presence tokens and reminder icons (the colored shield tokens that go with your presence color) and keeping those in their own individual baggies, it helps everything fit better and it's better in play for everyone to just hold their own baggy anyways. e: you may also need to put some overflow tokens like fear etc away into a spares bag if you have too many to fit neatly because the assembly requires everything sit flat, in practice this will never matter because there's absolutely no way to run out unless you have 6 players against England 6 and get the more fear tokens in the pool event on terror level 3. Very unlikely, that. Lambo Trillrissian fucked around with this message at 20:00 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 19:55
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 06:24 |
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We know a guy with a 3d printer in his shop who owed us a favor, had ours made for free 
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May 9, 2024 01:31
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