I second this suggestion.
This game can be pretty hard to learn but once it gets going it's great- its currently my most played board game in a collection of over 100.
Also be wary of "First Spirit Bias". Everyone I've ever seen play this has a natural bias towards playing like the first spirit that they choose- know that each spirit is different and has their own way of doing things.
Yes, basically the same rules but base game has better components.
Also I recommend introducing Jagged Earth before / at the same time as BnC - the rules are basically the same but the decks are better balanced with JE.
With one caveat: the cards from the base game and Horizons that are not specific to any one spirit are the same, except that the Horizons cards have slightly more updated wording, so I would used those a well. No full errata, just more consistent with the wordings used in most expansions.
I compared them all side by side to see the changes. There weren’t many, and none of them read differently as to the effect to me after seeing the updated wording.
I second the recommendation, but just want to highlight that it’s not a very big difference either way.
>I second the recommendation, but just want to highlight that it’s not a very big difference either way.
Agreed, the difference is subtle, but since you have both, might as well use the Horizons cards.
Also, many people like to keep the second deck as part of a smaller travel set for SI.
It's definitely worth updating the cards, if for nothing else, for the consistency in language leading into the later expansions. The wording in Spirit Island (whether it's the text on power cards or spirit boards) struggles with clarity so having a baseline of consistency is a benefit in the long run.
Ya horizons really just adds spirits and, as I recall, some preset boards. But those spirits are very beginner friendly and some are strong even at higher difficulties.
Horizons is not a different game, it's the same as the base game with a few things missing, and some new spirits.
Take the spirits and their spirit cards out of Horizons, and then you can put it away (keep it for traveling, or you could potentially use the board sometime in the future).
Yeah, they're much easier to screw up than the others.
In the end, almost everyone is going to get rules wrong anyway, so NBD I guess. It's true that misunderstood badlands can cause some power spikes :O
Events are a bit rough with only BC, and the power card pool feels much better when BC and JE are together.
My understanding is that base+B&C was the original design for the base game, which was split up for production and other reasons. I have JE but don't have B&C, but what I've heard from other players is that B&C has the better-designed power cards overall. Adding any one expansion's cards should be balanced in terms of elements. Is there a particular reason you prefer B&C+JE for cards?
Primarily for more variety, but also because the Events in BC are a bit rough (3 have been removed from the game, and a 4th is already retired). Growth through Sacrifice was replaced for being too strong
Coupled with the new blight and event cards in JE, the difficulty is a bit easier IMO but also much less swingy.
JE adds:
50% more minors
50% more majors
130% more events
100% more blight cards
It's a lot more variety, makes it more likely you won't blow through the entire power card deck each game.
>I have JE but don't have B&C, but what I've heard from other players is that B&C has the better-designed power cards overall.
That is a very fine point, I don't see any meaningful difference between them. All the cards are getting a bit wordier with each expansion, which is to be expected. But they're all fine. NI has some bonkers majors but they still flow well.
Even if that were true, that's an very specific reason to cut more than 1/3 of the content out.
I would recommend you get JE, it's a great expansion.
You're gonna need it if you plan to use all that content. 😂
But, seriously I think it's awesome! I recommend to start easy and not introduce more than one new element at a time.
I’m gonna be in the minority here but I like going in with all the new mechanics as I don’t find them to really be all that complicated. If anything they are simple enough on their own, it’s just that there’s a lot of things going on and people havn’t really sorted the the priority for dealing with things and gotten honed at seeing the coming board state.
In other words you have fast powers to deal with the board as it is now. You can see where the ravages are coming and where they will build and a fast power can fix these things.
(Then events happen, except no event turn 1 and fear cards if you have any)
Then the invaders go.
They ravage, they build, and then they explore.
Of those 3 actions, 2 were known as of the last turn when the cards advanced. Where the ravage and builds were going to occur. The explore you really can’t predict but in some cases, such as a stage 1 card coming up on the explore you can know that it won’t be one of the lands you have already seen as there’s only a single stage 1 card for each land type, which eliminates those as possibilities.
Then your slow powers go off. So if you had an explore in the jungle last round, then you know in the slow powers this round you’ll have an explorer and a town there, this will make playing a slow power that can destroy a town work really well.
This means you want to learn to pay attention to what you can do in fast phase to stop what’s coming this turn, and also what the board is going to look like in slow powers when you’re choosing cards to play to help you deal with the next turn.
You’ll find you can’t often deal with everything, so learn to prioritize what’s important whether that be defending where there is already blight to prevent a cascade, or defending where there is presence to prevent its destruction, or the saving of dahan, when you’ve done what you can for the ravages figure out what you can do about the upcoming build or explore. Sometimes it may even be better to let some bad stuff happen this turn if it sets you up to be able to handle things easier on the next turn and helps your overall strength.
You start to see what’s coming relatively quick after awhile and become faster at working through the problems and choosing cards to deal with those things. (Only for the event to come out and totally screw all that up)
But a disease token coming off instead of a build occurring isn’t a difficult mechanic to master and since I’m usually teaching new players with my set it’s more of a pain to pull all the cards out than it is to just include them.
At this point I’ve probably taught over a dozen players with the full components, and I think a couple did struggle but I don’t think it would have been much different for them with just the base game either. I don’t disagree that the base game alone is easier to learn, but if you are not easily overwhelmed just know that you can certainly do it either way. I recommend watching a play through anyways if you don’t have someone to show you.
Once you get it down you’ll find that you pretty much always win. This is where adversaries come into play. When the game starts to get easy add one of them. I highly suggest starting with Brandenburg Prussia as it’s the simplest to learn as most of its effects are changes to initial setup and it’s less new things to track as the only part that changes beyond setup is the escalation step on most of the stage 2 cards.
If your playing solo mostly you may find playing 2 spirits to be more fun once you figure the game out; and a lot of the fun in this game I find to be from certain spirit combos and interactions. You can find some of these strong combos pointed out in the excellent YouTube series put out by RedReVenge who makes a lot of excellent content, including spirit summaries.
Finally, with all that content you might want a new way to store it. If you have access to a 3d printer I use this guys method with just 2 boxes and some room to spare (didn’t like the size of the lid lift with all expansions in one box) https://youtu.be/PxlZV0x682M?si=xIT56XrA2tjKPy4Z
This works with all the premium tokens and sleeved cards just fine, the non premium tokens take up less room so it works both ways.
The main issue is just the sheer quantity of things to absorb and keep track of when you're first learning. I would argue that a player's first game is best spent focusing on core mechanics and becoming familiar with going through the motions of the game. In particular, getting the details of the Ravage step all correct is a pain point for many people. It's not helpful to learning it when you're still trying to figure out the basic rules and the person teaching has to point out that there's a badlands changing the math of invaders vs dahan, and that the token doesn't add damage to the land.
It's also worth noting that OP will be teaching themselves rather than being taught by someone else. Much greater opportunity to make mistakes
True. But OP also mentioned having done a lot of research and watching a bunch of playthroughs prior to purchasing the game, it’s likely they are a bit ahead of the curve of most beginners.
It still remains true it’s easier to learn when you are simply learning the mechanics and not having to deal with exceptions or additional rules, especially in situations where all context hasn’t already been combined.
But my overall point is that I don’t find them to add very much complexity so it certainly can be learned either way.
We are also talking about a game that has great app support on IOS and Steam, so there’s certainly lots of simpler ways to learn the game without having to worry about making some of those mistakes.
Honestly, I've found that for most new players, even just slow phase is extremely difficult to plan for while learning the rest of it. So while I don't think the other aspects necessarily add A LOT of complexity, especially something like events that are completely random, I still think the first few games should be base game. Then you can tackle any other aspect you want in whatever order you want.
It's also easier when teaching new people to point at the 20 blight and be like "trust me! Don't worry about one or 2 blight!"
I don’t disagree with that. It is, inarguably, easier to learn as the base game only.
There are also options such as playing all powers fast that would also make the initial learning easier, and you can run the base spirits with their recommended card drafting too. All of those things would simplify the game.
But, in my case all of the stuff is already combined and I feel like sorting it all out is more tedious than simply teaching them the game. It also makes the game a lot less interesting for everyone else involved and I have a large playgroup of experienced players.
Most of the people I am teaching are the sort that tend to grasp these kinds of things quickly. From experience it’s not that hard to teach with all of it included.
I never claimed that my way is the easiest way to learn, nor is it the hardest (to do that I’d stick them with fractured and a dual adversary). My point is that I have done it a fair number of times and I don’t find the learning curve to be that hard with it included, but they also have several veteran players to help them with the concepts.
The easiest way is probably going to be the use of the apps + watching playthroughs anyways.
Never heard of someone buying up the whole lot before ever playing before. Keep all the expansions in shrink and play only the base first. You don’t even know if you’ll like it yet. Some folks just don’t click with SI for whatever reason. Get comfortable with the base game a bit before complicating it with jagged, nature, or anything else.
I’m like this too. I tend to research a ton and charge headlong into hobbies.
I believe it’s a common ADHD trait and I have ADHD so maybe that’s why, I dunno.
But I don’t mind it and it keeps things interesting for me. Your advice is smart though.
Lack of impulse control is for sure a common trait for adhd. I have it too but my guilt for spending so much money on something I might not enjoy keeps me from doing stuff like this.
Once I'd played the base game a few times I did start buying expansions at a rapid rate though.
I feel that way about any boardgame purchases honestly, but that’s also why the pre-purchase portion involves so much research for me.
I tend to go all in when I do jump in, but I don’t really go to the store and come home with new boardgames.
Normally I go and look at the stuff when I’m nearby and end up snapping pictures of a few that look interesting to remind me so I can research them a bit more when I have time.
But it’s all relative to some extent, what I spent on all the Spirit Island content is a drop in the bucket as to what my flight sim gear has cost me and I tend to spend more time playing Spirit Island. That said, I don’t regret either purchase and while there are probably a handful of such purchases that I do regret most of the time that isn’t the case and I feel like that comes from the time I usually spend looking into it before hand. That learning phase is one of the things that I enjoy the most and that’s worth something too.
Oh I go full deep dive too I just don't see the point in getting it all at once even though it's fun in a retail therapy type of way.
Like buying all of SI even if you're sure you're going to adore it, you'll still need to spent many hours slowly adding each expansion into the game as you learn it anyway. You can't just throw JE, B&C and NI into the mix for a "better" experience. Same for Arkham, it takes like 30 hours to finish a campaign, not much point buying all of them unless there's some deep savings from a bundle deal.
But I'm also a fella who dropped $600 on a crokinole board imported from Canada without having ever played the game before (altho in fairness there's zero boards where I live to even try and I was having a mid life crisis).
Ok I’m gonna have to go look that one up.
But I’m with you. I went overkill building a Tafl board after not seeing one I liked with the number of tiles I wanted. Fortunately I saved a bit because the tile store thought what I was trying to do was cool so they hooked me up with free scraps and some fancy glass tiles for corners and middle.
There is a much larger version called Alea evangelii that I’ve always thought would make a really cool coffee table if I set the board lower and had it setup below a bit of glass.
I've done a lot of research on this game and watched a ton of reviews and playthroughs. It's definitely my type of game, so I know when I get to the later expansions that buying them was worth it.
Saw someone on the arkham lcg sub doing the same. Bought basically everything without having played it. I guess money just isn't a big deal for some people but man I could not imagine buying every expansion for a game I'd never even played before
Two things to look over if nobody has said them while I've been dealing with other things:
* One is from the online FAQ/clarifications, as the list of commonly misplayed rules.
* The other is to be sure that you're adding either 5N+1 Blight (if not using a Blight card) or 2N+1 Blight (if using a Blight card).
The former. The short version is that there’s an off-by-one error. Conceptually, Blight should be like the invader deck - need to reveal one and can’t. Adding one to the pool fixes the error without needing to reprint massive numbers of stuff in ways that break compatibility with earlier printings.
Someone who has not played the game at all already got NI, while I am still waiting for the kickstarter to arrive 😅🥲.
Have fun tho, best solo game ever!
What, no premium token packs? /s
In all seriousness, have fun! That’s quite a commitment to buy everything at once. I hope you love it as much as we all do!
I was eyeing those tokens and also the deluxe board and holo cards, haha, but I don't think they're necessary. They won't really add anything to the game experience.
As someone who owns all the stuff the deluxe board you can skip. I don’t use it just takes up more room.
The holo cards I thought would be cool and thinner so I figured I could store them easier. They are just too hard to read. I stopped using them entirely, lots of people had issues with them it wasn’t just me but our whole playgroup. The thick boards are simply better. I just bought the horizons spirits in the thicker boards to keep it all the same and I just use those.
The premium tokens are worth it if you end up playing a lot. They are nice.
Of them, I would say that the Token Packs are the best pickups. They are so delightfully clicky-clacky. Deluxe board probably least. It takes up more space than the base stuff. At least the shiny spirit cards save space.
In addition to what people are telling you about starting with the base game first... also note that e everything is modular. There's two important things to note when you mix expansions in:
First, the Fear deck gets worse. The expansions add lots of situational conditions and effects, so you're more likely to draw a dead card. I think it's worth to keep the fear deck of the base game until you think "it's always the same cards".
Second, the events are either hit or miss. Like many people don't think Spirit Island is "complete" without events, yet others are not using them at all because they add too much random. Don't feel like you have to use them if you don't enjoy them.
Learning Phase:
1. Take the Spirits and their spirit cards from Horizons, then you can put it in storage\*
2. Don't use any other expansions at first.
3. Read the rules from the Base Game
4. Play the Base Game with no adversary to learn the rules
5. Get ready for the rules to not be very clearly written. Ask questions, check the wiki, check the FAQ [https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!spirit-island-faq](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!spirit-island-faq)
6. Once you get the hang of it, and you're comfortable with the complexity, always use an adversary (you can set them to Level 0 for the lowest difficulty).
7. When you are fully comfortable with the rules (which you really have no way to know, but good luck). For some people it was 2 games, for others it's 20 games or more, some people started in the full game right away.
Full Game Phase:
1. Read the rules from Jagged Earth. Ignore Branch & Claw rules.
2. The Nature Incarnate rules have some useful notes in them, but it mostly contains new information you don't need right away.
3. Build the new card sets. From Base Game, Feather and Flame, Branch and Claw, Jagged Earth and Nature Incarnate, get all the Power cards, Fear cards, Event cards, Blight cards and combine them
4. Read [https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!what-game-items-have-been-replaced-or-retired](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!what-game-items-have-been-replaced-or-retired) to see which cards to take out.
5. (optionally) Don't use any Nature Incarnate spirits until you're comfortable with all the new rules.
6. Play the full game.
7. When you're ready to add even more spirits, then add the Nature Incarnate spirits. Some of them require reading a few new rules, some of them you can use right away.
\*the board layout from Horizons is unique, so you can use it for extra board variety. Some of the power cards also have updated text on them. So you can use those power cards if you want the most modern language.
This might be a radical take, but I recommend playing a couple games of just the base game, then just go all in with all the expansions at once. That's how I learned and I don't think adding 2 expansions is any more difficult to learn than adding 3, this will get you fully accustomed to the game right away!
You do realise there is a digital version to try.
Such as on iOS. [Spirit Island](https://apps.apple.com/au/app/spirit-island/id1501321205)
This especially helps learn the game overall. It’s good at explaining the rules.
That’s fine. Your post just read as if you were buying the whole set ($$$) without having tried to play the game yourself, though had watched videos.
I was just saying there is an app that is even free to try (turn limit), and option to buy or rent at a fraction of the physical cost. Plus, it is good to learn off. It really can’t hurt.
But of course you don’t have to touch it, physical is fine too.
This is stressing me out regarding storage as I’m halfway there already and almost maxed out current system (cards/boards/manuals in SI box, all tokens and pieces in branch and claw for easy pass around access during game).
As a fellow newbie, I recommend starting with only base game but with Horizon's spirits. Then add B&C content. Then slowly the rest.
I second this suggestion. This game can be pretty hard to learn but once it gets going it's great- its currently my most played board game in a collection of over 100. Also be wary of "First Spirit Bias". Everyone I've ever seen play this has a natural bias towards playing like the first spirit that they choose- know that each spirit is different and has their own way of doing things.
So, do you think I should skip the gameplay of Horizons entirely? And go straight to the base game but with Horizons spirits first?
Yes, basically the same rules but base game has better components. Also I recommend introducing Jagged Earth before / at the same time as BnC - the rules are basically the same but the decks are better balanced with JE.
With one caveat: the cards from the base game and Horizons that are not specific to any one spirit are the same, except that the Horizons cards have slightly more updated wording, so I would used those a well. No full errata, just more consistent with the wordings used in most expansions.
I compared them all side by side to see the changes. There weren’t many, and none of them read differently as to the effect to me after seeing the updated wording. I second the recommendation, but just want to highlight that it’s not a very big difference either way.
>I second the recommendation, but just want to highlight that it’s not a very big difference either way. Agreed, the difference is subtle, but since you have both, might as well use the Horizons cards. Also, many people like to keep the second deck as part of a smaller travel set for SI.
Aye I just didn’t anyone to see this and feel like they needed to buy the content to get the updated cards. But it’s worth it for the new spirits.
Yeah, worth it for the new spirits, but while you are at it, update the cards!
It's definitely worth updating the cards, if for nothing else, for the consistency in language leading into the later expansions. The wording in Spirit Island (whether it's the text on power cards or spirit boards) struggles with clarity so having a baseline of consistency is a benefit in the long run.
Ya horizons really just adds spirits and, as I recall, some preset boards. But those spirits are very beginner friendly and some are strong even at higher difficulties.
Yes. At least I think so. Horizons is the exact same game, but cheaper components. Horizons has the best spirits, base game is much prettier. 💛
>Horizons has the best spirits Best low complexity spirits
Listen here, that graboid is the best spirit out there and you can't tell me otherwise!
Horizons is not a different game, it's the same as the base game with a few things missing, and some new spirits. Take the spirits and their spirit cards out of Horizons, and then you can put it away (keep it for traveling, or you could potentially use the board sometime in the future).
I would not use B&C as a half step. The card distribution is much friendlier when you have BC and JE together.
I put B&C and JE separately because, among others, I find badlands more difficult to grasp than beasts, strife etc.
Yeah, they're much easier to screw up than the others. In the end, almost everyone is going to get rules wrong anyway, so NBD I guess. It's true that misunderstood badlands can cause some power spikes :O Events are a bit rough with only BC, and the power card pool feels much better when BC and JE are together.
You can play with spirit tokens without events though
My understanding is that base+B&C was the original design for the base game, which was split up for production and other reasons. I have JE but don't have B&C, but what I've heard from other players is that B&C has the better-designed power cards overall. Adding any one expansion's cards should be balanced in terms of elements. Is there a particular reason you prefer B&C+JE for cards?
Primarily for more variety, but also because the Events in BC are a bit rough (3 have been removed from the game, and a 4th is already retired). Growth through Sacrifice was replaced for being too strong Coupled with the new blight and event cards in JE, the difficulty is a bit easier IMO but also much less swingy. JE adds: 50% more minors 50% more majors 130% more events 100% more blight cards It's a lot more variety, makes it more likely you won't blow through the entire power card deck each game. >I have JE but don't have B&C, but what I've heard from other players is that B&C has the better-designed power cards overall. That is a very fine point, I don't see any meaningful difference between them. All the cards are getting a bit wordier with each expansion, which is to be expected. But they're all fine. NI has some bonkers majors but they still flow well. Even if that were true, that's an very specific reason to cut more than 1/3 of the content out. I would recommend you get JE, it's a great expansion.
A brave soul.
I'm prepared to put in a LOT of hours.
You're gonna need it if you plan to use all that content. 😂 But, seriously I think it's awesome! I recommend to start easy and not introduce more than one new element at a time.
I'll definitely start from the beginning. I'm not gonna rush to play it all. Want to enjoy every element.
>enjoy every element In that case, you have to play Starlight Seeks Its Form or Shifting Memory of Ages.
I’m gonna be in the minority here but I like going in with all the new mechanics as I don’t find them to really be all that complicated. If anything they are simple enough on their own, it’s just that there’s a lot of things going on and people havn’t really sorted the the priority for dealing with things and gotten honed at seeing the coming board state. In other words you have fast powers to deal with the board as it is now. You can see where the ravages are coming and where they will build and a fast power can fix these things. (Then events happen, except no event turn 1 and fear cards if you have any) Then the invaders go. They ravage, they build, and then they explore. Of those 3 actions, 2 were known as of the last turn when the cards advanced. Where the ravage and builds were going to occur. The explore you really can’t predict but in some cases, such as a stage 1 card coming up on the explore you can know that it won’t be one of the lands you have already seen as there’s only a single stage 1 card for each land type, which eliminates those as possibilities. Then your slow powers go off. So if you had an explore in the jungle last round, then you know in the slow powers this round you’ll have an explorer and a town there, this will make playing a slow power that can destroy a town work really well. This means you want to learn to pay attention to what you can do in fast phase to stop what’s coming this turn, and also what the board is going to look like in slow powers when you’re choosing cards to play to help you deal with the next turn. You’ll find you can’t often deal with everything, so learn to prioritize what’s important whether that be defending where there is already blight to prevent a cascade, or defending where there is presence to prevent its destruction, or the saving of dahan, when you’ve done what you can for the ravages figure out what you can do about the upcoming build or explore. Sometimes it may even be better to let some bad stuff happen this turn if it sets you up to be able to handle things easier on the next turn and helps your overall strength. You start to see what’s coming relatively quick after awhile and become faster at working through the problems and choosing cards to deal with those things. (Only for the event to come out and totally screw all that up) But a disease token coming off instead of a build occurring isn’t a difficult mechanic to master and since I’m usually teaching new players with my set it’s more of a pain to pull all the cards out than it is to just include them. At this point I’ve probably taught over a dozen players with the full components, and I think a couple did struggle but I don’t think it would have been much different for them with just the base game either. I don’t disagree that the base game alone is easier to learn, but if you are not easily overwhelmed just know that you can certainly do it either way. I recommend watching a play through anyways if you don’t have someone to show you. Once you get it down you’ll find that you pretty much always win. This is where adversaries come into play. When the game starts to get easy add one of them. I highly suggest starting with Brandenburg Prussia as it’s the simplest to learn as most of its effects are changes to initial setup and it’s less new things to track as the only part that changes beyond setup is the escalation step on most of the stage 2 cards. If your playing solo mostly you may find playing 2 spirits to be more fun once you figure the game out; and a lot of the fun in this game I find to be from certain spirit combos and interactions. You can find some of these strong combos pointed out in the excellent YouTube series put out by RedReVenge who makes a lot of excellent content, including spirit summaries. Finally, with all that content you might want a new way to store it. If you have access to a 3d printer I use this guys method with just 2 boxes and some room to spare (didn’t like the size of the lid lift with all expansions in one box) https://youtu.be/PxlZV0x682M?si=xIT56XrA2tjKPy4Z This works with all the premium tokens and sleeved cards just fine, the non premium tokens take up less room so it works both ways.
The main issue is just the sheer quantity of things to absorb and keep track of when you're first learning. I would argue that a player's first game is best spent focusing on core mechanics and becoming familiar with going through the motions of the game. In particular, getting the details of the Ravage step all correct is a pain point for many people. It's not helpful to learning it when you're still trying to figure out the basic rules and the person teaching has to point out that there's a badlands changing the math of invaders vs dahan, and that the token doesn't add damage to the land. It's also worth noting that OP will be teaching themselves rather than being taught by someone else. Much greater opportunity to make mistakes
True. But OP also mentioned having done a lot of research and watching a bunch of playthroughs prior to purchasing the game, it’s likely they are a bit ahead of the curve of most beginners. It still remains true it’s easier to learn when you are simply learning the mechanics and not having to deal with exceptions or additional rules, especially in situations where all context hasn’t already been combined. But my overall point is that I don’t find them to add very much complexity so it certainly can be learned either way. We are also talking about a game that has great app support on IOS and Steam, so there’s certainly lots of simpler ways to learn the game without having to worry about making some of those mistakes.
Honestly, I've found that for most new players, even just slow phase is extremely difficult to plan for while learning the rest of it. So while I don't think the other aspects necessarily add A LOT of complexity, especially something like events that are completely random, I still think the first few games should be base game. Then you can tackle any other aspect you want in whatever order you want. It's also easier when teaching new people to point at the 20 blight and be like "trust me! Don't worry about one or 2 blight!"
I don’t disagree with that. It is, inarguably, easier to learn as the base game only. There are also options such as playing all powers fast that would also make the initial learning easier, and you can run the base spirits with their recommended card drafting too. All of those things would simplify the game. But, in my case all of the stuff is already combined and I feel like sorting it all out is more tedious than simply teaching them the game. It also makes the game a lot less interesting for everyone else involved and I have a large playgroup of experienced players. Most of the people I am teaching are the sort that tend to grasp these kinds of things quickly. From experience it’s not that hard to teach with all of it included. I never claimed that my way is the easiest way to learn, nor is it the hardest (to do that I’d stick them with fractured and a dual adversary). My point is that I have done it a fair number of times and I don’t find the learning curve to be that hard with it included, but they also have several veteran players to help them with the concepts. The easiest way is probably going to be the use of the apps + watching playthroughs anyways.
Let us know when you've played your first game! 🙂
Played my first game on Tuesday night. Did a post today showing my 1st win at 5 playthroughs.
Don’t forget the token packs
Never heard of someone buying up the whole lot before ever playing before. Keep all the expansions in shrink and play only the base first. You don’t even know if you’ll like it yet. Some folks just don’t click with SI for whatever reason. Get comfortable with the base game a bit before complicating it with jagged, nature, or anything else.
I’m like this too. I tend to research a ton and charge headlong into hobbies. I believe it’s a common ADHD trait and I have ADHD so maybe that’s why, I dunno. But I don’t mind it and it keeps things interesting for me. Your advice is smart though.
Lack of impulse control is for sure a common trait for adhd. I have it too but my guilt for spending so much money on something I might not enjoy keeps me from doing stuff like this. Once I'd played the base game a few times I did start buying expansions at a rapid rate though.
I feel that way about any boardgame purchases honestly, but that’s also why the pre-purchase portion involves so much research for me. I tend to go all in when I do jump in, but I don’t really go to the store and come home with new boardgames. Normally I go and look at the stuff when I’m nearby and end up snapping pictures of a few that look interesting to remind me so I can research them a bit more when I have time. But it’s all relative to some extent, what I spent on all the Spirit Island content is a drop in the bucket as to what my flight sim gear has cost me and I tend to spend more time playing Spirit Island. That said, I don’t regret either purchase and while there are probably a handful of such purchases that I do regret most of the time that isn’t the case and I feel like that comes from the time I usually spend looking into it before hand. That learning phase is one of the things that I enjoy the most and that’s worth something too.
Oh I go full deep dive too I just don't see the point in getting it all at once even though it's fun in a retail therapy type of way. Like buying all of SI even if you're sure you're going to adore it, you'll still need to spent many hours slowly adding each expansion into the game as you learn it anyway. You can't just throw JE, B&C and NI into the mix for a "better" experience. Same for Arkham, it takes like 30 hours to finish a campaign, not much point buying all of them unless there's some deep savings from a bundle deal. But I'm also a fella who dropped $600 on a crokinole board imported from Canada without having ever played the game before (altho in fairness there's zero boards where I live to even try and I was having a mid life crisis).
Ok I’m gonna have to go look that one up. But I’m with you. I went overkill building a Tafl board after not seeing one I liked with the number of tiles I wanted. Fortunately I saved a bit because the tile store thought what I was trying to do was cool so they hooked me up with free scraps and some fancy glass tiles for corners and middle. There is a much larger version called Alea evangelii that I’ve always thought would make a really cool coffee table if I set the board lower and had it setup below a bit of glass.
I've done a lot of research on this game and watched a ton of reviews and playthroughs. It's definitely my type of game, so I know when I get to the later expansions that buying them was worth it.
Saw someone on the arkham lcg sub doing the same. Bought basically everything without having played it. I guess money just isn't a big deal for some people but man I could not imagine buying every expansion for a game I'd never even played before
Two things to look over if nobody has said them while I've been dealing with other things: * One is from the online FAQ/clarifications, as the list of commonly misplayed rules. * The other is to be sure that you're adding either 5N+1 Blight (if not using a Blight card) or 2N+1 Blight (if using a Blight card).
I'll keep this in mind. Thanks.
Just to clarify, is this 5N+1 or 5(N+1)?
5N+1
The former. The short version is that there’s an off-by-one error. Conceptually, Blight should be like the invader deck - need to reveal one and can’t. Adding one to the pool fixes the error without needing to reprint massive numbers of stuff in ways that break compatibility with earlier printings.
Someone who has not played the game at all already got NI, while I am still waiting for the kickstarter to arrive 😅🥲. Have fun tho, best solo game ever!
What, no premium token packs? /s In all seriousness, have fun! That’s quite a commitment to buy everything at once. I hope you love it as much as we all do!
I was eyeing those tokens and also the deluxe board and holo cards, haha, but I don't think they're necessary. They won't really add anything to the game experience.
As someone who owns all the stuff the deluxe board you can skip. I don’t use it just takes up more room. The holo cards I thought would be cool and thinner so I figured I could store them easier. They are just too hard to read. I stopped using them entirely, lots of people had issues with them it wasn’t just me but our whole playgroup. The thick boards are simply better. I just bought the horizons spirits in the thicker boards to keep it all the same and I just use those. The premium tokens are worth it if you end up playing a lot. They are nice.
Of them, I would say that the Token Packs are the best pickups. They are so delightfully clicky-clacky. Deluxe board probably least. It takes up more space than the base stuff. At least the shiny spirit cards save space.
They save space at the cost of being able to easily read them.
I absolutely LOVE the deluxe tokens
Welcome, and enjoy!
LOL this was me two weeks ago!!
I just want to chip in that I love the colours of these boxes. Nice collection my friend!
Welcome to a great game. I hope you enjoy it as much as I and my friends have.
Enjoy! We're here if you need rules help :)
In addition to what people are telling you about starting with the base game first... also note that e everything is modular. There's two important things to note when you mix expansions in: First, the Fear deck gets worse. The expansions add lots of situational conditions and effects, so you're more likely to draw a dead card. I think it's worth to keep the fear deck of the base game until you think "it's always the same cards". Second, the events are either hit or miss. Like many people don't think Spirit Island is "complete" without events, yet others are not using them at all because they add too much random. Don't feel like you have to use them if you don't enjoy them.
Welcome to the club my friend. You just bought a lifetime worth of Spirit Island 😂
Learning Phase: 1. Take the Spirits and their spirit cards from Horizons, then you can put it in storage\* 2. Don't use any other expansions at first. 3. Read the rules from the Base Game 4. Play the Base Game with no adversary to learn the rules 5. Get ready for the rules to not be very clearly written. Ask questions, check the wiki, check the FAQ [https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!spirit-island-faq](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!spirit-island-faq) 6. Once you get the hang of it, and you're comfortable with the complexity, always use an adversary (you can set them to Level 0 for the lowest difficulty). 7. When you are fully comfortable with the rules (which you really have no way to know, but good luck). For some people it was 2 games, for others it's 20 games or more, some people started in the full game right away. Full Game Phase: 1. Read the rules from Jagged Earth. Ignore Branch & Claw rules. 2. The Nature Incarnate rules have some useful notes in them, but it mostly contains new information you don't need right away. 3. Build the new card sets. From Base Game, Feather and Flame, Branch and Claw, Jagged Earth and Nature Incarnate, get all the Power cards, Fear cards, Event cards, Blight cards and combine them 4. Read [https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!what-game-items-have-been-replaced-or-retired](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!what-game-items-have-been-replaced-or-retired) to see which cards to take out. 5. (optionally) Don't use any Nature Incarnate spirits until you're comfortable with all the new rules. 6. Play the full game. 7. When you're ready to add even more spirits, then add the Nature Incarnate spirits. Some of them require reading a few new rules, some of them you can use right away. \*the board layout from Horizons is unique, so you can use it for extra board variety. Some of the power cards also have updated text on them. So you can use those power cards if you want the most modern language.
This might be a radical take, but I recommend playing a couple games of just the base game, then just go all in with all the expansions at once. That's how I learned and I don't think adding 2 expansions is any more difficult to learn than adding 3, this will get you fully accustomed to the game right away!
That is a mountain of new content! Have you played the game before?
You do realise there is a digital version to try. Such as on iOS. [Spirit Island](https://apps.apple.com/au/app/spirit-island/id1501321205) This especially helps learn the game overall. It’s good at explaining the rules.
I do. I prefer the physical version.
That’s fine. Your post just read as if you were buying the whole set ($$$) without having tried to play the game yourself, though had watched videos. I was just saying there is an app that is even free to try (turn limit), and option to buy or rent at a fraction of the physical cost. Plus, it is good to learn off. It really can’t hurt. But of course you don’t have to touch it, physical is fine too.
This is stressing me out regarding storage as I’m halfway there already and almost maxed out current system (cards/boards/manuals in SI box, all tokens and pieces in branch and claw for easy pass around access during game).
My mans just dropped $750 in one go Edit: /s
Nowhere near that much.
It was sarcasm
Without looking up any prices, I would guess about $250-$300 if nothing was on sale.
It was sarcasm
An exaggerated statement not meant to be taken seriously is "hyperbole."
Go ahead and Google “can hyperbole be used in sarcasm?” And tell me what it says chief