What Spirit Islands are you comboing?

The reason why is because it’s set in an alternate universe with an unusually rich and detailed history, one where different nations rose to colonial power than in our timeline. It’s quite interesting how even tiny details are kept in theme with the backstory and how resolute the designer is to keep everything in line with that lore. If you’re interested then it’s worth reading the many designer diaries and Kickstarter updates that Eric has posted.

I had no idea. I played someone else's copy so didn't even know there was the thinnest patina of a story. Not sure if that's my fault or the game's, but it does seem odd to leave off the worst perpetrators of colonial violence bar none even if it is an alternative fantasy.

I forgot who's in the next expansion (the KS one) but I'd be floored if it wasn't P or S.

Russia and Hapsburg are the two new ones.

The decision on the colonial powers was also driven by mechanical representation in the game. Historical nations might not appear because Eric couldn’t find a way to represent them in the game that would make thematic sense without breaking the flow of gameplay.

I found the original thread, I think that it’s worth a read as it’s interesting to see the depth of research behind the process and he explains why you won’t see Spain in the game. It’s better than I could ever paraphrase:

boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/46346/spirit-...gn-diary-adversaries

Thanks for the link!

So I've been deep in a Spirit Island hole so read up on the old KS updates describing new spirits (I was trying to go in blind) and BOY HOWDY am I fucking pumped for this expansion next spring. Can't wait to get my hands on this rock spirit (I know I could just proxy and play right now, I'm just not that sort of player):

www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/spi...-earth/posts/2407880

Two player Bringer and Fangs against lv4 Brandenburg-Prussia and we were completely hosed by the invaders.

Bringer did its thing and shoved them around for a bit but the additional land coverage and early stage three escalation made the invaders impossible to contain. The island blighted a mere four turns in and we were hit with losing three presence each, which pretty much put as back to the beginning except surrounded almost everywhere. We soldiered on for a bit but it only took a couple of rounds for the inevitable collapse to happen.

Things learnt: Bringer finds it tough to play against higher level Brandenburg-Prussia at a low player count. It needs either the Dahan or other spirits to keep the invaders in check and rapid expansion is tough when it has fully half the board to look after. It’s not a good spirit for firefighting as it works best when taking a focussed approach, e.g. scaring towns into a defended land with Dahan that is under ravage which can take two or three powers to accomplish.

I will also postulate that it is unwise to fully activate Bringer’s starting power that gains you a major power too early in the game as it locks you into a particular play style too early. I did this on the first turn to see what would happen and regretted it several times as I lost a cheap way to activate my innates as well as losing additional card draw opportunities.

Great thread!

Without looking at specific combos yet and just making a spirit tier list I'd have to say SRG and River are top tier with Ocean, Keeper, and Serpent somewhere close. Ocean can be a powerhouse for sure and I think its ability to drown other's pushes classifies him as a hybrid support/latecarry type spirit like Serpent. Support type spirits are awesome in this coop game.

In no particular order, here are my favorite combos:
SRG + Wildfire/Keeper
SRG + Serpent/Earth
BoDaN + Serpent
BoDaN + Ocean
River + Ocean
River + Speaker
River + Thunder

Ocean + River + Speaker has been my go to 3 handed but I mostly like to play solo 2handed

I'm going to try a 3handed River (Aspect - Bounty) + Wildfire + Plague later on TTS. River is a top tier spirit when triggering T3 Massive Flooding every turn, so I'm really interested in trying out the only variant River aspect that has potential for it's blight removal properties

Welcome to the forum, I hope to hear more of your thoughts on why you like these particular combinations.

River tends to be such an able assist power because they really help almost every other power do whatever they want to do---push into the ocean, move from lands so they can spread easier, push toward lands with beasts, etc.

Snipped from the gaming mega-thread:

Gary Sax wrote: What difficulty do you guys play at? I play at 6 when we want to win and 7 if we want to get pushed... not sure how much higher we'll go than that, though it could happen.

Yeah, probably about the same. We prefer it when we get a chance to unleash some higher level powers and do some interesting combos but don't want to feel like the game is beating up on us just to create a challenge. Much of the time we just use a scenario along with Brandenburg Prussia level 3 as the fast start for the invaders makes them more of a threat in the early game, this works for us as we'll usually stop them in late Stage II or early Stage III so makes for a more interesting game. We tend to win almost every game as a result but I have to say that also feels right as the story of the game is one where the island quashes the invaders, and not one where everybody dies in miserable slavery on a plantation.

One of us usually double-hands with two spirits as well because we find a three-spirit game to be the most interesting format - each spirit can easily reach into all the other player's boards, creating a safe zone is a realistic option you can work toward, and there are greater possibilities for interesting ways to stack multiple power effects.

Higher levels feel like the same game only far more intense, it's not something we're into as piling on more pressure turns it into work, dilutes the fun for us, and isn't what we're there for. Lots of needle-threading going on - you put a defence on there, I'll push these invaders then you use a gather power, I'll then blow most of them up so they're no longer a threat, then you trigger your innate in the slow phase to finish them off and I'll sweep up this other blight, then another push to get them out of the next build, and so on etc. Some of the combo chains get ridiculously long when you have three spirits playing a dozen cards and half as many innates operating. I love that the game has these scalable options though so it's possible to find your comfortable place to play at.

Back in the saddle, this game never disappoints. First game of anything I've played in more than a month and boy did I miss it.



Keeper's mana flow if you get a good major is just flat out fun. Keeper is probably a tad too powerful.

Side note, I am on play 45 and I think my cards are wearing out since I don't sleeve. I'll either have to rebuy or see if I can buy replacement cards (doubt it). Those cards have seen a lot of agonizing over. In the meantime, I might buy tiny sleeves for the invader cards since it matters if they're marked. Anyone know if those are like a common ffg size or something?

Still thinking about the game last night this morning. You know we still don't use event cards...

FFG mini Euro does the job, or so I hear.

You can get replacement cards in the shop on greaterthangames.com but they’re something like 50c each so only worth it if you have some particularly damaged ones.

I watched the recent update where they talked about Vital Strength of Earth and then unveiled his alternate form. Which, in itself, is interesting:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/spi...-earth/posts/2674187

Then I started thinking about Vital Strength. It's probably my favorite spirit but I suck ass with it. So I strolled over and read a strategy guide for it and it blew my mind. Take a major power turn two? Start with an energy expand? Have no more than 4-5 cards well into midgame? Redraw card growth every round or every other round? Earth's smallest power card being one of its best???

I immediately want to play a bunch of games of Spirit Island trying different stuff with it. Seeing other people give advice on play made me realize how deep in my own meta I am---mainly card play track, minor power increases, innate powers in every game.

This game rules.

Spirit Island is all set up and I'm going in with a Vital Strength major power build. Playing way against my natural inclinations to not pump to 2 cards asap...