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Ragnar34 posted:semi-official difficulty chart ConfusedUs posted:Hey, OP, have you seen the fan-made Legacy system for Spirit Island? Can these be added to the OP? 
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Mar 31, 2023 17:12
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 22:58 |
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Cheers, much obliged. Just beat my first Difficulty 1 game! I've worked up from a bunch of Horizons (no blighted island cards, no adversaries, no scenarios; everything else is the same in terms of difficulty) games, to a bunch of difficulty zero games, to finally difficulty one. Went with Thunderspeaker against England. Thunderspeaker I've always found the easiest to pilot because her first innate power is so abusable. The unique power card she has, Sudden Ambush, that gathers a Dahan and destroys an invader is nutty too. I actually played three times before winning but I made a bunch of upkeep/ordering mistakes in those games (playing physical) so I'm not counting them. Also one of those games I was playing Difficulty 3 by accident (by including England Level 1), lol. Ended up winning handily by drawing out one important minor, Gift of Living Energy, which opened up the whole game. I grabbed Pillars of Living Flame at the same time and held it until I was able to obliterate a wetlands with the kicker (having placed presence to reveal the 4th Fire same turn 😎), letting me remove two towns and two cities in one fell swoop and win the game. Considering I won with five presence left on tracks and no blighted island I can probably move on to difficulty two. On the other hand every game where blighted island card has flipped on me has been pretty much an insta-lose (only have the two from the base game). They do seem a bit too punishing...?
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Apr 1, 2023 03:11
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Ragnar34 posted:Those two blighted island cards are easier to handle than they look, although I guess it depends how many presence and/or power cards you can actually spare, I guess. Sacrificing presence isn't that big a deal for Thunderspeaker so long as you've still got two or three to keep your central army up and running. Losing cards isn't usually too bad either so long as you've got a core combo or two that you can ride to victory. I say add them with a spoiler tag. For some spirits like River the openings are basically non-negotiable.
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Apr 1, 2023 07:18
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Another difficulty one under the belt. Prussia vs Rampant Green. Comboing an upcosted Tsunami with a The Jungle Hungers - LMAO - was some of the most fun I've had in a game. Won on the next turn after that bomb. Definitely gotta ratchet up difficulty, was just checking; didn't add a single blight ahah. Gotta be the easiest spirit I've piloted so far though. The remove presence to block ravage/block is stupid good, especially with the free growth and two unique power cards that add presence. Something I quickly learned and I'll note it for new players is that complexity generally means just that - complexity. The spirit has less buttons and levers. It doesn't mean that the spirit is easier to win with! Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 04:17
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That's smart, I'm gonna do that too. Now to convince someone to learn the game... ahaha. (Kidding, I taught one person, they're coming over tomorrow). Just wrapped up a difficulty 2 as Fathomless Mud who has a similar emphasis on the strength of presence and holy sites. Actually flipped the island card this time but I won literally immediately after flipping it due to the final city being taken out during the same ravage. I'm happy with my progress, I was really struggling strategy wise at first but the last few games have been solid - haven't seen a level 3 invader card, little to no blight, etc. The Rampant Green game was my first ever with RG but I've felt really comfortable with Mud and Speaker since the first game I played them. Excited to play tomorrow! Last time we played was November (  ) and we had a blast with him on Ocean's and me on BoDaN. Immediately obviously it was an S tier combo but we didn't know that before selecting, haha.
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Apr 2, 2023 05:33
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Ragnar34 posted:two blight per player on the boards (six for three players for example) Revisited page one and spotted this - it would actually be seven for three players after errata. 2 per player +1 https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!one-more-blight-errata And another link that's good for the OP: Rules semi-commonly misplayed. Helped me early on. Entire FAQ is fantastic, actually. It's my go-to at the table over the rules sheet, it has tons of niche explanations and rulings. Today it wasn't clear to us if Ocean's generates fear immediately after Drowning or only after converting the invader to energy and it took about thirty seconds to look up (Ocean's generates fear immediately when Drowning invaders, exactly as if they were Destroyed). Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 01:39
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What's the best fear spirit in everyone's opinion? Particularly for solo play. Played a couple games last night, Eyes Watch vs Prussia 1 (Difficulty 2) then Shadows Flicker (Amorphous) vs England 1 (Difficulty 3). Bottom track Many Eyes, don't think I revealed even one off the top track. Mostly bottom track Shadows, pulled one from top track. Won both games handily. For the Shadows game because I won so quickly and, to me, suddenly, I threw the England Level 2 on there to just keep playing (Wetlands had never been drawn anyway), which I did get destroyed on (obviously the game would've played differently if I started at Level 2, just for kicks here). I'm more interested in additional spirits (I play a different one every game, I just like variety) than anything else - what should I buy next? (Own Horizons + Base). Edit: I wrote Many Eyes, I meant Eyes Watch not Many Minds. Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Apr 4, 2023 |
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Apr 4, 2023 15:53
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Do I need B&C or can I grab JE first? I'm more interested in the JE spirits than anything else.
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Apr 5, 2023 19:57
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Mr. Grapes! posted:I guess it adds +3 difficulty? You throw newbies into a Difficulty 8/9 game? 
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Apr 6, 2023 15:06
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Just won a game (England 2) (Difficulty 4)(Sun Bright) on the back of an edge case that I thought worth mentioning. If fear cards cause you to earn a fear card, the newly earned fear card resolves during the same invader phase, at the bottom of the stack. I triggered Level 4 innate alongside Tempest of Leaves and Branches to kill off two of the four remaining cities, knowing four lands were about to ravage with one blight left on the card. Terror Level 3 so I figured, get rid of as many cities as possible and hope against hope Fear could handle the rest. Drew Scapegoats first which earned the next fear card. Isolation took care of a city. And Fear of the Unseen, just earned, took care of the final city. Skin of my teeth to say the drat least. What a game. I went full bottom track Sun Bright, taking one top track early on for Tempest. One thing you should definitely not do is ignore the special rule, like I did, for the entire game. Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Apr 7, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 22:44
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Played my first game with B&C (ended up grabbing it over JE for now, $25 from Amazon (I know) with free shipping is as good a price as I'll find for it anytime soon) and yeah people weren't lying when they said "core game is amazing but get an expansion ASAP"! It seriously adds so much dynamism and breathes so much life into the island. I can definitely see how B&C was always intended (though I like that it was split off). Strife especially altered the way I approached the game, at least on this play-through. Took Sharp Fangs and my brother grabbed Ocean's, for the third time in a row. It's funny how he's been OTP and I basically refuse to play a spirit twice in a row. I've definitely never finished a game with that much presence on my tracks! I really like the stalking, hiding, ambushing feel of the spirit - I think they nailed it. Initially I was looking to play Keeper but, sheesh, just reading the spirit you're like okay this is... overtuned. I didn't want to be so powerful in a low difficulty (2) game. I'm pumping our next game up to a 4 minimum, he's a natural and there's no need for training wheels at all anymore. This game was a stress free Terror 3 victory affair. Boy lit up like a Christmas tree when he had had the elements for a kicked Cast Down into the Briny Deep, practically jumping up and down after wiping his board lmao. Dahan fight back against a strifed city and a strifed town to destroy final city on next Ravage.  Fun!
Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Apr 10, 2023 |
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Apr 10, 2023 00:55
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Oh we played with the Events deck right away! I think beast only attacked, with it mattering, once. But that was really on me, as I should've had much more beast tokens down by then. I know I played Fangs very suboptimally, I've been turning it over in my mind strategically for next play through. I feel if you don't use your first innate power every turn (and I didn't) then you're almost certainly playing suboptimally.
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Apr 10, 2023 15:15
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Rules question: so JE adds a rule to discard the top event in the first invader phase, without resolving the event. I don't think this rule is in B&C. I was skipping the event but not discarding the top card, just a preference. But it actually makes a difference for France Level 2 with the Event card setup... is France balanced around discarding the top event card or not?
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Apr 10, 2023 19:59
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I get that, it's just unclear whether JE is adding something that mitigates this change because it's also JE that adds the rule. That is, is it balanced with just B&C - is it errata or expansion-specific? The B&C rulebook also doesn’t say to skip events on the first invader phase, but it feels like errata so I went with it. Skipping versus discarding changes things for France but, should I be doing neither? Both? If I'm only playing with B&C? Just demolished France Level 2 with Keeper (on second try, to be fair) (and everything going in my favor... lol) so maybe I should favor just sticking to the vanilla B&C rules and not skip first invader event at all? Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 10, 2023 |
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Apr 10, 2023 21:04
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Exactly the replies I was looking for, thanks so much!
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Apr 10, 2023 21:18
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I play a ton solo, physical version. I taught it to exactly one other person who comes over and plays every once in a while. I also go to a FLGS BGN weekly (today!) and about half of them have heard of and enjoy Spirit Island. I've never played it there though cause I'd rather try out something new, but I could. TTS goon games sound fun though! Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Apr 11, 2023 |
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Apr 11, 2023 15:29
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Good lord I forgot about adjacency rules for Explore  I've been exploring into every land no matter what for the last I don't know two months. Oh noooooEdit: it was Distant Exploration that alerted me to the rule, which I remembered back in my first few games and quickly forgot about, playing it wrong ever since. Excited to play the correct way LMAO Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Apr 11, 2023 |
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Apr 11, 2023 22:44
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I wonder what the difficulty modifier is for playing Mud against England Gotta be minimally -3, lmao Never won a game more comfortably. No city ever built, not one blight, both tracks fully revealed by end of game (T2 Win). Against Level 3 England. In fairness the game was made even easier just by the order of invader cards - first Explore into Wetlands (where I have a starting shrine) (on board B so G2 takes care of the adjacent Wetlands build), second Explore into Jungle. Third explore (Level 3 invader card) goes to Jungle/Wetland. Hilarious
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Apr 14, 2023 15:20
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KPC_Mammon posted:One you get good at the game up through 4 of any adversary should be beatable 100% of the time. Not if I'm stubborn enough! Kept faceplanting as Sharp Fangs against France and Prussia because I wanted so badly to make bottom track work out. I also did only just learn that I was misplaying his first innate, thinking I had to meet the second level threshold before activating the level 3, so it was a smidge harder than necessary. Playing that correctly I think will mitigate bottom track problems a bit, but still I think full top track is always gonna be the star. I'm also very bad with Vital Strength at any difficulty. Gotta figure him out. I could go up in difficulty for like Ocean's, Thunderspeaker, Rampant Green, Keeper whenever I play them next though. Probably BoDaN as well, who's produced a clean sweep victory for me every time so far.
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Apr 14, 2023 18:31
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Just took my most brutal loss yet. Playing Keeper against Sweden 4. I set everything up such that two lands would blight during the next ravage, each adding just one blight. Dahan were set up to clean up after the ravages (two towns and a city) in two lands, one blighting and one not blighting. Then I drew the Event card. Stage 2, Increasing Aggression. Invaders do +1 damage per land when Ravaging. See I had set up every single land with zero margin. The land that was gonna blight and then have a city get destroyed? It was going to do 5 damage, not six. One extra blight there. The other land that I was letting blight was also ravaging for 5 damage, until the event. Another extra blight there. But wait, there's more. The land I was defending (6) in wasn't going to blight or take out a dahan, but it went from seven damage to eight! So it did add a blight and it took out one of the Dahans. Two blight turned into five off one event. Four fear turned into three. The game ended before the next invader phase when I realized I had no way of stopping the fat land that was ravaging next - which I also was fine letting ravage on that turn because, again, four is a lot less than seven!! I actually became emotional about this and couldn't start another game. Extremely not cool. I did almost immediately discard the event and just play the next one. But I didn't want to meta it like that, on the one hand, and there was a chance that the Fear (T1) card could fix at least one land. Any explorer push card would have spared me one of the three blights and not immediately ended the game. Yeah I drew Plan for Departure, gather a town into a coastal land... the lands they were ravaging in!! Edit: worth mentioning that the Coastal Lands card was the last of the stage 2 cards. Lol. Lmao Perry Mason Jar fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Apr 16, 2023 |
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Apr 16, 2023 04:02
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Board B Keeper also meant my only sacred site was on the furthest inland land. I could only manage anything at all because of Winds of Rust and Atrophy's nutty range, haha.
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Apr 16, 2023 14:36
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Pent-Up Calamity should be an insta-win with Fangs if you grab it early. Same with Panthers Prowl. Such fun majors on Fangs, and he's really wanting for good majors (B&C). I really enjoy him, playing only base + B&C, but falling behind on blight can be such a big black eye that some games are a huge tightrope act.
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Apr 21, 2023 20:15
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Anyone playing with the naming rule? Optional "rule" that says to rename the Spirit in accordance with how they grew over the course of the (winning) game. I usually just focus on impactful majors, then powers, and name around that. Here's a few: Type Changes: Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares turned into Dread of the Crashing Waves. (Tsunami) Ocean's Hungry Grasp became Receding Tide Cracks the Lands. (Winds of Rust and Atrophy) Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds into Twisted Incarnation of the Murmuring Flowers. (Manifest Incarnation, Flowers Murmur) Same Type, Level Up: Sun-bright Whirlwind became Violent Cloud Windstorm. (Talons of Lightning) Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves evolved into Prowling Panthers Stalk the Brush. (Prowling Panthers)
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Apr 24, 2023 04:31
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Alright I've beat all the adversaries through Level 4 with the exception of France (an oversight, just noticed, it's France time later today...)  I officially know how to play the game.England 4 gave me a good struggle before getting a win out. The Build tile combo with the build rule is just so difficult to "solve" lands around. I'd clear one, or two!, lands and they'd Build a town anyway from adjacency! Grabbed the win last night with Eyes Watch. Just such a good strong spirit (but I didn't pick him specifically for the match-up either). Drew out the whole Fear deck. A couple notes on Eyes: 1. Entered a Reclaim loop to finish the game. Very poor energy generation, two growths that gain a power card, and a high elemental count for innate highest threshold feels like you will always enter one. I'm not a big fan of Reclaim loops, generally would prefer if they never happen. River handles them best probably. Lightning worst (haven't tried Aspects). Entered one in a 2p game with Devouring Teeth recently too, which I also didn't love (Teeth, though, has access to tons of energy so you don't need to fully commit to the loop as such). 2. Event cards that delete Dahan feel not great on every defensive spirit, at least in solo. Balanced well enough, I think?, though - just Feels Bad. I think every win I've gotten with Eyes Watch has been a straight Fear deck victory with tons of turtling. Makes Eyes a little boring in that sense, nothing really flashy, but he's a lot more interesting in the early game before settling in. Grabbing defensive minors and spamming your Special Rule is a must but not a given.
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May 8, 2023 14:23
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Who's everyone favorite spirit? Turned out to be Sharp Fangs for me so far. Love being able to play a mix of minors and majors, top and bottom tracks!
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Jun 1, 2023 00:57
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ConfusedUs posted:Add Ocean to this and you've got my list of favorite spirits. Pull Reaching Grasp
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Jun 1, 2023 17:29
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The mobile app is free to download. It's very barebones without MTX but if you want some rules help it's got a free tutorial. Reading this page helped me a ton early on: https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Rules-semi-commonly-misplayed
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Jun 2, 2023 16:17
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There's a fair amount of spirits that enter a reclaim loop or are strongest with a reclaim loop. River and Lightning are strongest with early loops. Eyes Watch and Devouring Teeth seem to always enter one. Bunch of others. I agree that it is an issue though. Some people don't mind. I think it's very difficult to avoid within the design space: you need four good starting cards to not get overwhelmed early on, and both power decks are random (drawing four does help a lot). There's plenty of spirits which do do well without ever needing to enter a reclaim loop... but the ones that do use loops are going to end up in the higher "tiers" because you just can't beat consistency.
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Jun 3, 2023 06:10
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SettingSun posted:I’ve played this game an uncountable amount of times and I have never set up a scenario. I just never felt a need to shake the game up. Same. Though, not uncountable. Dozens though. Everybody Hates BoDaN! I still like him. Stop bully him
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Jun 5, 2023 16:40
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There's at least two BoDaN aspects coming in Nature Incarnate!
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Jun 5, 2023 17:13
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Introduced two people to SI over the past two nights. Not as painful as expected for the teach but base + B&C is plenty enough rules, can't blame them feeling a bit overwhelmed. I included everything except an Adversary. I'm happy I played sooo many games before attempting a proper teach. Never needing to reference the rulebook while answering questions, not second-guessing... that's the good stuff. Kept the game moving and considering the the 4p game went for like 3 hours that was pretty critical. One player played Vital Strength over two games, one played BoDaN in her first ever game, and my brother spammed Ocean's. BoDaN wasn't too overwhelming but I had to gently remind about the Special Rule a handful of times. I also missed that Ocean's energy changes with player count and so did my brother, so he was stupid fat for no good reason. Doesn't really matter, it shouldn't be possible to lose a Difficulty 0 at all. The new players really, really liked the particular spirits they chose so they were having a blast. My worries that the game would be too weighty were founded... but that that would turn people off entirely were not. Good success. Sounds like they're going to buy it for themselves to play with their own friends back home! 
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Jun 13, 2023 17:48
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You reminded me that ravaging has been consistently the hardest thing for new players to grok in my game. They expect that: Dahan provide defense to the land, Dahan attack is simultaneous to invader attack. This is reasonable and I had the same type of issue. Strongly recommend - what I figured out I needed to do - not fast-forwarding through removing Dahan/invader pieces and taking it step by step. "Invaders attack land -> Invaders attack Dahan -> Dahan fight back" Call out each step and assign damage as you're meant to (flip Dahan, invaders; specifically call out that invaders distribute damage as efficiently as possible) so that it sticks.
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Jun 13, 2023 18:47
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I'd like to note that I intentionally avoided playing Lightning, Rampant, and Wilds. I don't think those should be in games with new players! (Unless they want to play one of those, in which case you should absolutely let them)
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Jun 13, 2023 20:20
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I'm just over the moon with how well this game has gone over with the family. We're vacationing together and the game is at the table for the fourth night in a row. Looks like I'm picking up JE in time for the next family gathering cause I'm stuck not playing tonight's game after dad decided he wants in and I can't bring myself to bump out any of the other new players (they're so excited!), haha. Dad is playing his first game as Keeper. Goonspeed (I will be there to help)
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Jun 15, 2023 02:45
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Oh poo poo yeah I gotta look up those juicy aspects. BoDaN particularly...
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Jun 23, 2023 23:22
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[Cautiously] well at least you didn't pay extra for a thin sheen of shiny
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Jul 1, 2023 14:16
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Mud and Eyes are the two best Horizons spirits 
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Jul 6, 2023 20:25
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Wallet posted:As far as I know the Errata is 2 per player +1, not 3 per player. It's in the Nature Incarnate rulebook, as well as newer printings of the base game. Correct. And I'll add that it's only for the starting blight - when the island card flips it's [x] per player and no additional
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Jul 14, 2023 21:38
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Checked my win sheet and looks like I've only got a Sweden Level 1 (Difficulty 2) BoDaN victory logged on there. And that was some time ago. I'll run a game soon and see how it goes and what strategies I end up going with. For a solo game you'll be locked into teching for majors, I have no doubt. RedRevenge is, as far as I know, the best and most thorough Spirit Island creator in terms of in-depth strategic analyses. He's got a number of play-throughs for BoDaN against high-level adversaries as well as normal strategy guides.
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Aug 9, 2023 19:11
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 22:58 |
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I've had more success with him after adding B&C, too. You're right that he has no outs if he just gets screwed on majors draws I don't have JE or NI, so can't speak on those
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Aug 10, 2023 00:28
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