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What Spirit Islands are you comboing?
In Spirit Island, powerful spirits have existed on this isolated Island for time immemorial. They are both part of the natural world and - at the same time - something beyond nature. Native Islanders, known as the dahan, have learned how to co-exist with the spirits, but with a healthy dose of fear and reverence. However, now, the Island has been "discovered" by invaders from a far-off land. These would-be colonists are taking over the land and upsetting the natural balance, destroying the presence of spirits as they go. As spirits, you must grow in power and work together to drive the invaders from your Island before it's too late!
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So any of you who have spent some time with this one, any good card combo or spirit combos you really like? The spirits seem *vastly* different which is pretty awesome.
I got the expansion at the same time since it was in stock, fwiw.
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Pairing Spread of Rampant Green with pretty much any other spirit is a good way to learn about their capabilities as it allows you to spam their presence discs and level up quickly. If you have the Serpent promo then it works really well as that one gets really fun at the higher levels and you don’t suffer from it having to consume other spirits presence.
Elemental Boon (minor power) is a great one to take when it comes up as you can get innate powers working at high levels, another great way to learn capabilities (so much so that i’d suggest seeding it in the top dozen or so cards in your first few full games without power progression)
I’ll think some more on this. One thing I’ve started experimenting with is non standard setups like using two adversaries or two scenarios and there are some interesting if untested combos.
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As stated Spread of Rampant Green pairs well with everybody but I think really plays great with Heart of the Wildfire. Wildfires power to grant an extra point of damage on each damaging power is gold with Spread's innate and Spreads ability to have other spirits play presence is even better because of Heart's damage when playing presence.
Spread of Rampant Green also pairs well with Shadows and Lightning because he gets them through really awkward periods of their presence track that limit their ability to use growth how they want. As stated above, extra presence placement is great for everybody but these two are extremely constrained by it at the start of the game.
Serpent combos great with almost anyone as Serpent is all about making their partner really amazing in early game. A simple example is duoing with River you can get the second tier innate off on turn one for river. That's a pretty huge jump early game.
One of the most silly but potent combos is Shadows and Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares. This duo can easily push 8 fear a turn. Bringer is a great partner for most spirits. One symbol repeated can be enough to trigger higher tier inmates much of the time and looking at Fear cards removes a little hidden info and allows the players to make really huge impactful turns that may have just been win more or wasted without the prior knowledge. It turns Fear cards into almost like another power card.
As a side note, I hate the pre planed progression powers. I know why they are there, the game can overwhelm at the start, and I generally try and grab cards with my spirits symbols in mind, but being locked into the progression actively makes the game harder. There are not a lot of defense cards in the progression paths and even one of those can be such a game changer. If you know how the game works I would not ever use those again, on this your mileage may be different.
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- GorillaGrody
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Your progression card advice is really interesting, my first reaction was that the progression tracks were a godsend from a learning perspective... but you're right, I only pulled one defense card in my last game w/the river preplan.
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I played a 4 player game of this at Trashfest north last year and I was not quite ready for how nuts 4 player was, most of my games are with 2, but I had played a few 3 prior. I know Jay was playing and Dan, but we jumped whole hog into the game with the expansion and had really one learning turn.
I find the progression cards bad for a few reasons. When learning powers you are generally weighing a few things. Does this have my symbols. The progression cards do for sure. Next how does it help right this second. This is where it fails really hard. Sometimes you strike gold, bust mostly not. For a lot of spirits its totally ok to grab a total right this second card that you will dump for a major in a turn or 2. When you are fist leaning the game though it is really all about right this second effects. Last you look at how this card plays into whet you want to be doing. There are a lot of other little factors to look at as well. What zones the power targets or restrictions it has. If it needs a sacred site or not. These all don't get considered with the progression.
One other thing, I know Lightning's Swift Strike is a low complexity spirit, but I feel its a really bad spirit to learn to play on. The make a slow power fast special power as well as the minor power it has are a really bad crutch that teach you to play poorly. It removes the importance of learning how the turn flows. I think its a fine sprit and I have a blast playing it, but I think its bad for beginners as it teaches the wrong things.
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I'm not seeing something, I need to watch a let's play by a decent player or something, any recommendations?
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A few things come to mind on this matter:
First of all, have you double checked that you have the rules correct. A very common mistake is for people to 'Pandemic' the blight cascades instead of just one extra token, and another is to 'spend' their elements rather than have them activate on everything. On a similar note, I've also seen people forget that they play all their activated innates, not just the final one.
- Try not to focus on killing the invaders outright - you actually want some of them to stay around so that they can build up and you get can get big fear-inducing kills later on. Focus instead on the most urgent challenges, e.g. areas where there is going to be a blight cascade or you are at risk of losing presence due to blight placement. Use defence if you've got it.
- Focus on fear. Earning fear cards can be a huge help as they will often let you nip off that one annoying explorer, taking minor powers that generate fear directly can be a good idea.
- When taking power cards always go for a few minor powers first. As basic advice you then need to either focus on increasing your card plays and taking more minor powers (which can combo together in enjoyable ways) or increase your energy income and start taking major powers. Remember that you don't have to take a major power if you don't like what you've drawn, or can replace an existing major with another major. In a similar vein you can also replace your 'exhausted' cards with new ones going straight into your hand so in some circumstances you can keep chaining major powers without having to retrieve cards.
- Try aligning on when each spirit is going to slow down their growth (i.e. retrieve cards) so that you don't have one terrible round where everything falls apart.
- Don't be afraid of having a couple of lands blight, it's totally manageable. Building your capability instead of stretching yourself to stop a ravage is often a better play. I like to focus on preventing builds in awkward places rather than worrying about ravages.
- Try using movement powers to push explorers around, especially if you have defensive powers. You could try grouping the invaders into 'super-cities' and letting them ravage and blight while keeping the rest of the island clear.
- Try a different map layout, there are some that make the game easier (e.g. in a two player you can place the lands so that the coasts are at either end of a long island, this makes it easier to create a safe zone in the middle). This is actually now part of the official rules that are in the new expansion, there's a download link on the kickstarter for this particular part of it but I'm sure the full rules will be released soon.
- You can also do some other stuff like not placing the initial blight (which interestingly wasn't actually in the original design), taking a free minor power card in hand before the game starts, adding an extra stage one invader card to the deck, and so on. Making the game a little easier will give you breathing space to figure out good ways to play.
- Get Rampant Green out and just concentrate on spamming presence as much as possible in the first couple of rounds while using it's special power to stop ravages in Jungles and Wetland.
- Lastly, I know that Bernie is not a fan of Power Progression but I would advise at least looking at the cards that are suggested as a way to understand what sort of things your spirit is tuned to be good at. If in doubt, always take power cards that have elements matching your innate. And I'll mention again that seeding elemental boon near the top of the deck can be good when learning; it isn't overpowered or anything, just super helpful in getting your innates online and stimulating co-operation between the spirits so can help the game click into place.
- Oh also, a late entry: get the Dahan to do your dirty work for you, particularly if you have some defensive powers to protect them. You might lose a couple of them as casualties and have to endure some blight but they will blow up towns in revenge which will slow invader growth and earn you fear.
If there's anything in particular that is a challenge then let us know and I'll think about some more specific strategic help!
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As mentioned, let the dahan kill after you defend. You can let some blight land, just try and keep the dahan around.
Bringer of dreams and nightmares despite being a very complex spirit may be a good solo board learning spirit because it forces you to move things around and not kill them. The narrowing of options may help. The spirit has a great suite of starting powers with push, dahan movement, defense and the fear or power play / gain.
The old Rhado runs videos have a pretty decent commentary if I recall. I would try for no more than 2 player videos though, as I (who has a lot of games under my belt) have trouble following everything on them.
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It was quite fun to cut out the more complicated parts of the expansion and get back to just the base game, and it’s happily pretty easy to annotate one of these games. As it turns out we covered quite a lot of the things in the game that were discussed above: movement control (push/gather), defensive powers, innates and elemental power-ups, and guiding the Dahan to stand against the invaders themselves. I’m pretty sure that we played with a straight bat but I haven’t re-run through this myself; we do occasionally make an error so apologies if we screwed something up at some point. It’s not a video but hopefully you can set up and follow through without issue to see how we played this one out and I hope that it gives you some inspiration for how to play more effectively.
Setup
Land ‘A’ to the right with coast at the top. Green sets up with one presence in each of A5(W) and A8(J)
Invaders explore into Wetlands B1, B6, A2, A5
No Blight Card selected (it doesn't matter, we don't get anywhere near blighting)
Standard Fear deck of 3/3/3
Round 1
Earth gains Minor Power “Enticing Splendor”, plays Presence from Card Track to B8(J)
Earth gains +2 Energy = 2 Energy.
Earth plays “Enticing splendour” (0)
Green plays Presence from Power Track to A2(W).
Green plays Presence from Card Track to A5(W) and gains +1 Card Play for this round.
Green gains +1 Energy = 1 Energy
Green plays “Gift of proliferation” (1) and “Stem the flow of fresh water” (0)
Green activates innate level 1 “Creepers tear into mortar”
FAST POWERS
Earth uses “Enticing Splendour” to gather a Town from B1(W) to B5(S)
Green uses “Gift of proliferation” to target Earth who adds a Presence from Power Track to B6(W)
FEAR CARDS
n/a
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (none): n/a
Build (W): adds Town to B1, B6, A2, A5
Explore (M): B2, B7, A1, A6
SLOW POWERS
Green uses “Stem the flow of fresh water” to cause 1 damage to the Town in A5(W)
Green uses “Creepers tear into mortar” to cause 1 damage to the Town in A5(W), destroys 1xTown, +1 FEAR
Round 2
Earth gains Minor Power “Dark and tangled woods”, plays Presence from Card Track to B6(W)
Earth gains +3 Energy = 5 Energy.
Earth plays “Rituals of Destruction” (3) and “Draw of the fruitful earth” (1)
Earth activates Special Ability to defend 3 in B6(W)
Earth activates innate level 1 “Gift of strength”
Green plays Presence from Power Track to B4(J)
Green plays Presence from Power Track to A2(W) and gains +1 Card Play for this round.
Green gains +2 Energy = 2 Energy
Green plays “Overgrow in a night” (2) and “Fields choked with growth” (0)
Green activates innate level 1 “All-enveloping green”
FAST POWERS
Earth uses “Gift of strength” to target Earth who repeats “Draw of the fruitful earth” (1)
Green uses “Overgrow in a night” to add Presence from Card Track to B4(J)
Green uses “All-enveloping green” to add +2 Defence to B1(W)
FEAR CARDS
n/a
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (W): B1 = Defend 2, 1 damage to Dahan, Dahan destroys 1xTown, +1 FEAR
B6 = Defend 3, no damage
A2 = Green interrupts with Special Ability and destroys 1 Presence to prevent ravage
A5 = 1 damage
Build (M): adds Town to B2, B7, A1, A6
Explore (S): B3, B5, A4, A7
SLOW POWERS
Earth uses “Draw of the fruitful earth” on B2(M) to gather 2 Dahan from B3(S)
Earth uses “Draw of the fruitful earth” on B2(M) to gather 1 Dahan from B1(W)
Earth uses “Rituals of destruction” on B2(M) and achieves power-up, +2 FEAR, 5 damage, destroys 1xTown, destroys 1xCity, +3 FEAR
Green uses “Fields choked with growth” to push a Town from A1(M) to A2(W)
Round 3
Earth plays Presence from Power Track to A3(J), gains +2 Energy
Earth gains +4 Energy = 7 Energy.
Earth plays “A year of perfect stillness” (3) and “Dark and tangled woods” (1)
Earth activates Special Ability to defend 3 in B7(M)
Green plays Presence from Power Track to A2(W)
Green reclaims cards and gains Minor Power “Veil the nights hunt”.
Green gains +2 Energy = 2 Energy
Green plays “Gift of proliferation” (1) and “Stem the flow of fresh water” (0)
Green activates innate level 1 “All-enveloping green”
Green activates innate level 1 “Creepers tear into mortar”
FAST POWERS
Earth uses “Dark and tangled woods” to gain +2 FEAR
FEAR CARD earned
Earth uses “A year of perfect stillness” on A4(S)
Green uses “Gift of proliferation” on Earth who plays Presence from Power Track to B3(S)
Green uses “All-enveloping green” on A6(M)
FEAR CARDS
Emigration Accelerates level 1, target B1(W) and A1(M)
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (M): B2 = 1 damage to Dahan, Dahan destroy 1xExplorer
B7 = Defend 3, no damage, Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR
A1 = n/a
A6 = Defend 2, 1 damage to Dahan, Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR
Build (S): adds City to B5, adds Town to B3, A7, skips A4
Explore (J): B8, B4, A3, A8
SLOW POWERS
Green uses “Fields choked with growth” to push a Town from A1(M) to A2(W)
Green uses “Creepers tear into mortar” on A8(J), 1 damage to a Town
Green uses “Stem the flow of fresh water” on A8(J), 1 damage to a Town, 1xTown destroyed, +1 FEAR
Round 4
Earth gains Major Power “The trees speak of stones and war” and replaces Minor Power “Enticing splendour”, plays Presence from Card Track to B3(S)
Earth gains +6 Energy = 9 Energy.
Earth plays “Guard the healing land” (3) and “The trees speak of stones and war” (2)
Earth activates Special Ability to defend 3 in B3(S)
Earth activates innate level 1 “Gift of strength”
Green plays Presence from Power Track to B6(W)
Green gains Major Power “Accelerated rot” and replaces Starting Power “Gift of proliferation”, gains +3 Energy
Green gains +2 Energy = 6 Energy
Green plays “Overgrow in a night” (2) and “Veil the nights hunt” (1)
Green activates innate level 2 “Creepers tear into mortar”
FAST POWERS
Earth uses “Guard the healing land” on A4(S), removes BLIGHT
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on A7(S), Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR
Earth uses “Gift of strength” on Green who repeats “Veil the nights hunt” (1)
Green uses “Overgrow in a night” on A2(W) to generate fear, +3 FEAR
FEAR CARD earned
Green uses “Veil the nights hunt” on A3(J), destroys 1xExplorer
Green uses “Veil the nights hunt” on A8(J), destroys 1xExplorer
FEAR CARDS
Dahan Raid level 1, targets B7(M), destroy 1xExplorer, targets A6(M), destroy 1xExplorer
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (S): B3 = Defend 3, no damage
B5 = 6 damage, adds BLIGHT
A4 = 1 damage
A7 = Defend 4, no damage, Dahan destroy 1xExplorer
Build (J): adds Town to B4, A8, skips B8, A3
Explore (M): B2, B7, A1, A6
SLOW POWERS
Green uses “Creepers tear into mortar” on A8(J), destroys 1xTown, +1 FEAR
Round 5
Earth reclaims cards, plays Presence from Card Track to A6(M)
Earth gains +6 Energy = 10 Energy.
Earth plays “Rituals of destruction” (3), “The trees speak of stones and war” (2), and “Draw of the fruitful earth” (1)
Earth activates innate level 2 “Gift of strength”
Green plays Presence from Card Track to B6(W)
Green gains Minor Power “Song of sanctity”, gains +3 Energy
Green gains +2 Energy = 8 Energy
Green plays “Song of sanctity” (1) and “Fields choked with growth” (0)
Green activates innate level 2 “All enveloping green”
FAST POWERS
Green uses “All-enveloping green” on B4(J), +4 Defence
Earth uses “Gift of strength” on Earth who repeats “The trees speak of stones and war” (2)
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on B2(M) and achieves power-up, Dahan destroy 1xExplorer, x2 Dahan push to B4(J)
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on B4(J) and achieves power-up, Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR, x2 Dahan push to B5(S)
FEAR CARDS
n/a
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (J): B4 = Defend 4, no damage
B8 = n/a
A3 = n/a
A8 = 1 damage
Build (M): adds Town to B7, A1, A6, skips B2
Explore (S): B3, B5, A4, A7
SLOW POWERS
Earth uses “Draw of the fruitful earth” on B5(S), gather 1xExplorer from B4(J), gather Dahan from B7(M)
Earth uses “Rituals of destruction” on B5(S) and achieves power-up, +2 FEAR, destroys 1xCity, destroys 1xTown, +3 FEAR
Green uses “Fields choked with growth” on A1(M), push Town to A2(W)
Green uses “Song of sanctity” on A1(M), push Explorer to A2(W)
Round 6
Earth reclaims cards, plays Presence from Card Track to A3(J)
Earth gains +6 Energy = 10 Energy.
Earth plays “Rituals of destruction” (3), “The trees speak of stones and war” (2), and “Dark and tangled woods” (1)
Earth activates innate level 2 “Gift of strength”
Earth activates special ability to defend 3 in B7(M)
Green plays Presence from Card Track to A8(J)
Green reclaims cards, gains Minor Power “Call to tend”
Green gains +2 Energy = 9 Energy
Green plays “Accelerated Rot” (4), “Fields choked with growth” (0), and “Song of sanctity” (1)
FAST POWERS
Earth uses “Gift of strength” on Earth who repeats “Rituals of destruction” (3)
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on A7(S) and achieves power-up, Dahan destroy 1xExplorer, x2 Dahan push to B3(S)
Earth uses “Dark and tangled woods” on A6(M), +3 Defence, +2 FEAR
FEAR CARD earned
TERROR LEVEL 2 achieved
FEAR CARDS
Trade Suffers level 2, target A2(W), Town replaced with Explorer, target B3(S), Town replaced with Explorer
INVADER PHASE
Ravage (M): B2 = n/a
B7 = Defend 3, no damage
A1 = n/a
A6 = Defend 4, no damage, Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR
Build (J): adds Town to B3, B4, A5, skips A7
Explore (W): B1, B6, A2, A5
SLOW POWERS
Green plays “Fields choked with growth” on A4(S) to push Town to A2(W)
Green plays “Song of sanctity” on B7(M) to push Explorer to B5(S)
Round 7
Earth reclaims cards, plays Presence from Power Track to A6(M)
Earth gains +7 Energy = 11 Energy.
Earth plays “The trees speak of stones and war” (2), “Dark and tangled woods” (1), “Guard the healing land” (3), and “Year of perfect stillness” (3)
Earth activates innate level 2 “Gift of strength”
Green plays Presence from Power Track to B1(W)
Green gains Minor Power “Entrancing apparitions”, gains +3 Energy
Green gains +3 Energy = 10 Energy
Green plays “Overgrow in a night” (2), “Veil the nights hunt” (1), and “Entrancing apparitions” (1)
FAST POWERS
Green uses “Veil the nights hunt” on B5(S), push x3 Dahan to B7(M)
Green uses “Overgrow in a night” to add FEAR, +3 FEAR
Green uses “Entrancing Apparitions” on A3(J), gathers x2Explorers from A4(S)
Earth uses “Gift of strength” on Earth who repeats “The trees speak of stones and war” (2)
Earth uses “Dark and tangled woods” on B7(M), +3 Defence, +2 FEAR
Earth uses “Guard the healing land” on B5(S), removes 1 BLIGHT
Earth uses “Year of perfect stillness” on B1(W)
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on B7(M) and achieves power-up, Dahan destroy 1xTown, +1 FEAR, x2 Dahan push to B6(W)
Earth uses “The trees speak of stones and war” on B6(W) and achieves power-up, Dahan destroy 1xTown, the game interrupts with an end condition!
There are no more Cities or Towns left on the board during Terror Level 2. The Spirits win!
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