Ghost Stories

In all co-op games I have played, the typical path is the game initially seems hard, then you begin to see what you need to do to win and you improve.
That's not happening with Ghost Stories. Several games on and we aren't progressing at all. We are not just losing, but losing so hopelessly that we really, really can't see how this game can be won. In fact I'm finding it so hard I'm convinced we must have some rules wrong.

Note: I'm only playing 4 player, no expansions.

There is a ghost appearing every turn (unless the board is chockers - which is bad) so it logically follows you pretty much need to kill a ghost every turn. But that's impossible - how the hell can you keep up?
I get the basic strategies - put weaker ghosts in corners so you can kill 2 at once, don't attack things if you need to roll more than one color to beat it etc but we are just getting thumped. The 3 and 4 color ghosts are a nightmare to kill without tokens, but you never have time to gather those. Almost every weaker monster spawns more monsters when revealed, so instead of being a relief they end up just causeing you to get swamped. And once your swamped your done for, as killing 2 ghosts in 1 turn is very, very hard.

So how the hell do you win?

Mr Skeletor wrote:

So how the hell do you win?

Put it away and play a good game.

You don't. hehe

We haven't won either but manage to get our collective asses handed to us quite regularly. The game is plain brutal and for some reason I like it more than the other coop euros out there so far.

Health is an important resource - use it to auto kill ghosts using the -1Qi for Dead Ghost tile power. Also placing the Buddhas and then using the Mistress of Winds power to nuke tough ghosts is often good.

Also make sure you are using the ability to share Tao tokens with people on your space to increase your attack odds. If you are using the Wind Mistress then you can also set up the next player's turn by moving a Tao-heavy player in position in addition to Buddha nuking.

Finally, if you're likely to kill something that can give you back your Yin Yang as a reward on this turn, be sure you are first spending your Yin Yang before killing it (often to insta-kill another ghost by losing a Qi or collecting more tokens).

Octavian wrote:

Health is an important resource - use it to auto kill ghosts using the -1Qi for Dead Ghost tile power. Also placing the Buddhas and then using the Mistress of Winds power to nuke tough ghosts is often good.

Also make sure you are using the ability to share Tao tokens with people on your space to increase your attack odds. If you are using the Wind Mistress then you can also set up the next player's turn by moving a Tao-heavy player in position in addition to Buddha nuking.

Finally, if you're likely to kill something that can give you back your Yin Yang as a reward on this turn, be sure you are first spending your Yin Yang before killing it (often to insta-kill another ghost by losing a Qi or collecting more tokens).

That's all great advice there... Also, be aware of the different abilities of your characters and the times when they can interact... there are some useful 1-2 punches, where for example, the yellow Taoist uses the enfeeblement token at the right time to set up blue to use his double shot ability to knock out a nasty ghost or two. And look for opportunities for one Taoist to work ahead to help out another's board. Early on I had the tendency to have blue focusing on blue's board, etc., but it often works better to look around and think ahead a bit.

A lot of the game comes down to the timing of what you do, and there's very little wiggle room, but you can accomplish what you need to with some effort. It's a lot like Pandemic in the sense of requiring some direct interaction between the roles' abilities and the timing of what you do. And for me it was a lot like Pandemic in that I lost and lost and lost for quite a while before getting to the point of winning with some regularity. So hang in there... it's cool to discover some of the tricks as you play, especially when you can finally beat the thing.