What Spirit Islands are you comboing?

Yeah. I'm hoping to get more games in so that people can be prepared to jump right in with the spirit they're playing and even target particular minor power cards for acquisition. Do you think adding the power cards from Branch and Claw affect the mix too much for newer players?

And speaking of expansions, I went looking to preorder Jagged Earth and Kickstarter got stuck in a loop when I tried to put all the payment options in. Is it because it's already funded and you can't get involved anymore? I've only done one Kickstarter in my life and I got in while funding was still happening, as opposed to this one where I'm months behind.

Not really. Branch and Claw requires you to explain a couple of token types but they're pretty simple. The mix remains pretty similar. Your call whether that's too much for your current players. I'd probably hold off for a few more plays.

re: Kickstarter, the Kickstarter is over so you can't still pay through Kickstarter. That said, I think their backerkit is up so you can get in late? Somebody who is a more experienced Kickstarter than I am can chime in.

You’ll be able to make a late pledge through backerkit, the web portal that manages things after the Kickstarter ends. If that doesn’t work then a friend can definitely add another pledge, and you’ve got up until February 2020 so no rush. I think they only partially opened the backerkit at the moment but i’ll take a look when I have time and give you the necessary link.

Would also be interested in the expansion coming up. I think the Kickstarter ended before I got into the game

Good to hear you had a fun game.
You had a good team of spirits for sure. As stated in the past Green combos well with everyone. All spirits love extra presence. The two you had more so than most. The both have some awkward turns with growth. I might make the case thunderspeaker likes energy more than growth, but its not by much. Lots of dahan movement to make huge power plays both for thunderspeaker and shadows.

I would hold off on the expansion for now, try and get the game a little more fluid for you. It makes the game better, but also harder to read at a glance.

Played a game of spirit island last night. I used the lightning dude, she was Thunderspeaker. Sweden level 3. We won, though there were some challenges, so it was satisfying.

I will say that once you climb the difficulty curve and play higher level enemies the game becomes a lot thinkier. More cooperation is required and longer term thinking comes into play. That's not bad, per se, but it means we shouldn't pull it out in the evening when the two of us are tired.

Re: preorders

It seems that they are just having some teething issues with backerkit. There’s plenty of time left so I’d suggest just giving it a few weeks or even months unless you are desperate to give some money away. The pre-order link is on the KS but here it is direct:

spirit-island-jagged-earth.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/info

Got 3 games in today after not playing for a while. I have some of the test spirits from the yet to be released expansion and played all 3 games as Many minds move as One. Really neat spirit. Spent two games teamed with the River (Kim's favorite spirit) and the last with Green.

I sorta forgot what it is like to play a spirit for the first time. I really had to think hard. I have internalized all the spirits from core and Branch and claw, which helps tons with speed of play. I felt really ponderous, which was pretty awesome. Really had to parse lines of play.Many Minds plays a lot like Green in some ways, and totally different in others. Just a well done Spirit. I like the integration of the beast tokens better with Many Minds, Sharp Fangs just does not click for me.

Not sure yet, but this may be the only spirit I try from the expansion pre release, I have 3 others printed out. They all seem pretty great. I don't want to diminish the excitement for the new expansion, its still a ways off though.

So played 2 more games as Many Minds. Its a real weird spirit, it sorta feels as powerful on turn 1 as it does a few turns later. It starts with 5 cards and a scaling innate defense. Also only learns cards on reclaim. Lots of beast growth and movement, little actual damage. All its movement powers are fast though, so you are guessing if you are being proactive, which feels weird. Fun and solid spirit, it just has really good tools and forces you to use them.

Ok, 3 more games in as Many Minds. This time paired with Sharp Fangs. This duo is a blast to play. Lots of great synergy between the beast spirits as it should be. You will not find more mobile presence than this pair, the stuff you can pull of is silly. With one gather beast power you can move a sacred site of Many Minds (they count as a beast when the spirit wants them to) which then lets you drag a Sharp Fangs. Sharp Fang's innate deal 1 damage per beast can get pretty silly as its real easy to make a land with six beasts for Many Minds. This is just the tip of the iceberg for these 2.

Haven't gotten to game at all, I've been commuting since the semester started (god, fucking kill me). But we got a chance to get Spirit Island out today and man, it always delivers. We just have to remember to get it out early enough that we both have brain cycles left, otherwise it's a bit brainy for the evening now that we play on higher levels.

We beat Brandenburg-Prussia lvl 3 with Wild and River. Very satisfying because we literally wiped out every single explorer on the isle on our last move (flood technique).

Obviously, it's contextual, but I think River strategy is basically take one energy (to get to 2) and one card first turn and then take card plays from there on out as often as you can get away with until you get to 4-5. In this game I was lucky bc my spouse had a way to goose my energy output so I'm sure that also played a role in pumping all the way to 5 cards before I took another energy track presence.

OK. I think I've gotten the hang of it. I played a solo game with River to see if I understood the spirit, since I was pretty sure we just misplayed him in our first couple games. I was right about that. As long as you can keep using Massive Flooding, you can totally control the board. I won the game in six turns. I only took one Presence from the top track and that was near the end to make sure I had enough Energy to play everything that I wanted. Otherwise, I went exclusively on the bottom track, getting up to the Reclaim One space and ended up with a surplus of Energy (and Dahan) because of River's Bounty. I picked up Song of Sanctity, Gnawing Rootbiters, and Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth for minor powers; aiming largely to enable the second level of Massive Flooding on every turn. Wiping out towns (and one city) got me to my first Fear card on turn 4 which did nothing (Isolation; no Explorers or Towns were solo) and I lost one Presence to Blight from a ravage where the city was (which was subsequently wiped out by the Dahan that I'd gathered there with River's Bounty.) I really like River. There's a good mix of short- and long-term planning and he seems very flexible to me.

My experience with river is the same as yours: your energy track is pretty shitty so you're just trying to hit those innate powers. You push and push until you can build those elements. I get why that's labelled as a "simple" spirit, but I think I found that very confusing on earlier plays because I don't think its obvious that when you have this hand of four cards the real central power of your spirit is sitting on your cardboard spirit display.

You want some fun, try River with Ocean.

Yep. After seeing what you've been writing here, I've told my girlfriend we should try the River/Ocean combo next.

You are correct on the river I think. Got a few games in recently, Earth, Bringer, Thunderspeaker, Shadows and Lightning, of all of them innate's are really important, more so than some minors you play except for Earth. I want to like Earth but I just can't find my rhythm with him. Unless I get lucky cards I totally write his innate off, which is a shame cause it is awesome. I find myself just forgetting his starting cards for new Majors. They cost close to the same and have much larger results and for less restriction in the case of Rituals of Destruction. Playing moat of the others before playing Thunderspeaker again reminded my how well that spirit flows for me and how powerful you feel playing it. After so many games as Many Minds which is very much like Bringer in that it is really about not letting the game get too out of hand before you smash things it was refreshing to just smash things.

Anyway, Ocean River is a riot on the table, but the Ocean plays really different from every other spirit. You may get stomped hard game 1 or 2. My advice to the River player is get to the other board soonest as you need to clear the inland lands.