Consider a wilderness, lightly populated by natives. They have pagan sites dedicated to local nature gods. They worship a river or mountain or clouds or nighttime or something. Some sort of quaint animism. Now here come European explorers from across the sea. They set up small towns. The towns coalesce into entrenched cities. Culture spreads. The holy sites are abandoned and the natives are assimilated. The wilderness is now tamed. Settled. European. Probably Christian.
This sounds amazing! Your description of how evocative the various God powers are reminds me of Puzzle Quest. I always thought it was so cool how a power that would lift you into the air turned a bunch of gems yellow or a massive fireball would turn green gems to red.
I also dig the puzzle-like aspect of thinking ahead to how the board will look in a turn or two, though I’m notoriously bad at envisioning future turns.
What I want is a game where the land is empty and those original “natives” show up and have to fight nature itself. Why do the “natives” get to stay on the island?
Well Bruce, if you had studied your Spirit Island history, you’d know that there has indeed been conflicts between the native Dahan (rhymes with Cataan) and the spirits. Two conflicts, to be precise.
The first one convinced the spirits that they should stay, and the second created a kind of detente wherein the Dahan and spirit relationship became one of rough equals and mutual respect rather than one of worship.
Spirit Island certainly doesn’t exist in a historical vacuum! :)
Edit: oh, and some invaders CAN stay! There are powers that facilitate this.
So glad to see this review, and that you feel so positively about the game. This is absolutely one of my favorite designs in recent memory. Been playing it obsessively since I first got it and can’t get over how well tuned it is. Absolutely agree about the expansion content - I was disconcerted with the additional randomness at first, but the tokens/events/additional powers really flesh out the narrative and make each game feel quite different (strategically, and story-wise). Love this game!
Ha, of course the guy who made Clockwork Wars would love this game! A lot of what I like about Spirit Island is what I like about Clockwork Wars. Specifically, the modularity, and how different components – “techs” in the case of Clockwork Wars and gods in the case of Spirit Island – determine the fundamentals of the gameplay. Both designs wring an incredible amount of variety and longevity out of all the possible ways those components can combine. Playing Spirit Island made me sad that there’s not a solitaire version of Clockwork Wars. I’d love to use that pattern of three techs, three magics, and three religions in a solitaire context.
Also, they both get a ton of thematic mileage out of relatively simple gameplay mechanics. All the imaginative theming of Ameritrash, but all the elegance of a Euro! Also, the lack of chance in both games. Since Clockwork Wars is played against another person instead of a system, it’s more about psychology and bluffing, but it’s the same kind of analysis. You don’t have to account for die rolls or card draws. You just have to imagine the future setup of the board and react accordingly.
Yes, and like you, I prefer them. It’s easier for me to weave a story about what’s happening - plus, they’re harder! I just wish the graphic design made it a little easier to tell terrain types apart.
Two questions:
Do you think this is a better solitaire design than co-op design? I ask because I agree with you that a great joy in this game is slowly sussing out your moves - and working through synergies between spirits - and I just can’t see that working as smoothly with more than just myself!
#1. I’m the wrong person to ask that. I don’t believe in cooperative boardgaming. :) When I’ve got friends over for boardgames, I don’t care how good a game design is, I’m going to play something that I can only play when they’re there rather than waste all our time by playing something I can play when they’re not there. Plus, I think most cooperative designs are bunk.
I have played Spirit Island cooperatively, but not at any meaningful difficulty level. My experience is that everyone puts his nose into his own board, and eventually we win. I imagine with players who have gotten past the learning curve, it might be more interactive.
#2. Gah, I don’t think I can answer that. The one I have to resist always choosing is Lighting Strikes Swiftly. He undermines the turn structure so well that he’ll teach you bad habits! So I guess my favorite is the one who breaks the game most?
So I think this is one of those games that would make for a terrible playthrough, because I would spend a lot of time sitting and thinking. But I like it enough I’m tempted to do a “how to play” video. I think I could help people over the learning curve.
I’m really digging the spirits that are indirectly aggressive: Thunderspeaker for its ability to incite Drahan, and Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves for its ability to incite Beasts. But they’re all amazing.
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Maybe not a full playthrough, but go through some turns and break down the decision making, then look at how the turn evolves, what you could have done differently and what the consequences are?
A Spread of Rampant Green is still my favorite. She lacks the power of other spirits, but her natural ability to shut down Builds and Rampages, along with her endless Growth, makes her really fun to play. The decision of where to place influence becomes doubly important!
She has other subtle advantages, too- her regeneration makes her more resistant than others to the “remove influence” consequences on event and blight cards, and her starting card’s ability to straight up allow a spirit to place an influence for one measly power is huge: so many spirits are greatly slowed due to their methods of influence placement, it can make a real difference in unshackling their potential.
Actually it’s attack, then build, then explore, right? Either that or I’m reading the rules wrong.
Picked this game up about a week ago and immediately fell in love with it, even though I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. Replayability just seems off the charts - if I had only one game I could take to a desert island, this might be it.
I’m a solo gamer, and the fact that I don’t even know when I’ll want to get the new Nemo’s War to the table now over this one is really high praise.
One question - is it possible to play the expansion without using the event cards?
