0:13

Hello, and welcome.

0:15

I'm Rachel.

0:16

I'm Jake. And we're so

0:16

board,

0:19

the Podcast where each episode,

0:19

we take a close look at a

0:22

tabletop game to discuss our

0:22

personal experiences with set

0:25

game to help answer the

0:25

question, Will this cure

0:28

boredom? That's right, we look at the

0:29

mechanics complexity and

0:31

replayability in a game to

0:31

determine if it's the perfect

0:34

alternative to let's say being

0:34

at work and getting yelled at by

0:38

patients because they haven't

0:38

gotten their echo done yet. But

0:41

it's only been ordered for five

0:41

hours, and then having to

0:44

explain to the patient, that you

0:44

have other patients that have

0:47

had their echos ordered for

0:47

three days and still haven't

0:50

been done yet. And you're the

0:50

only tech in the hospital today.

0:53

So you'll get to it if you can.

0:53

Yep. And then later, having the

0:59

charge nurse call you and say,

0:59

oh, I need this echo done. And

1:03

it's also only been ordered for

1:03

five hours and explaining to the

1:06

charge nurse that I don't know

1:06

if it's gonna get done today.

1:09

Because it's four o'clock I

1:09

leave at six. And I still have

1:13

stuff from yesterday that hasn't

1:13

been done.

1:16

Isn't it great that we

1:16

treat like hospitals and like

1:19

patient care as a customer

1:19

service industry?

1:22

In case you can't tell I'm

1:22

a little irritated at it.

1:26

Anyways, before we get started,

1:26

we do stream on Twitch once a

1:31

week. Wednesday nights. and we

1:31

start about 530 to 7 pacific

1:37

time depending on the day

1:37

honestly depending if i'm

1:39

working that day. But we play

1:39

all sorts of cool board games

1:43

and you can come check us out we're at twitch.tv/soboardpodcast.

1:51

And a couple weeks ago

1:51

we did play this game that we're

1:55

reviewing today on stream. But

1:55

we did it real bad. we did it

1:59

wrong.

2:01

We didn't do it bad we

2:01

just didn't set it up correctly

2:06

We didn't do it right.

2:08

But we didn't do it bad,

2:08

like bad to me is disobeying

2:12

rules blatantly. Like I don't want to do that. So

2:15

we're not going to do that.

2:17

That's bad. We just didn't fully

2:17

understand what we were doing

2:21

here. Okay. I am also streaming

2:21

on Twitch. It's been touching go

2:27

because my internet has been

2:27

kind of crappy lately. So

2:30

hopefully I'm getting that fixed

2:30

soon. But I'm going to be doing

2:33

a bunch of retro games on stream

2:33

and I'm at twitch.tv/naughty Doc

2:38

541. That's NAU gh t YDOC 541.

2:38

So come check us out. Rachel,

2:44

what game are we doing today?

2:47

yatse

2:47

abomination.

2:50

Crisis crisis. We're

2:50

doing crisis today.

2:54

No. Crisis is that elusive game

2:54

that will always talk about but

2:58

never actually do a review.

3:00

We are going to do an

3:00

episode on crisis at some point

3:03

soon. That being said, we I

3:03

think we did play it on stream

3:07

recently. So yeah, we did do it

3:07

either last week or the week

3:12

before or maybe possibly the

3:12

week before that. I don't know.

3:15

We're recording this in advance.

3:15

So suffice it to say we did do

3:20

it. But today we are talking

3:20

about spirit Island, which I'm

3:25

very excited for this game

3:25

because this is one of the very

3:28

few cooperative games that

3:28

Rachel says that is acceptable.

3:34

And not only acceptable, but

3:34

good. So that that tells you

3:38

something right there. This game

3:38

was designed by R Eric rousse

3:42

and published by greater than

3:42

games in 2017. This is a

3:46

cooperative game about defending

3:46

your island home as Island

3:51

spirits or loa. I mean, they

3:51

call them spirits in the game,

3:55

but I really do think Loa is a

3:55

more appropriate term for them.

4:00

That feels right. Yeah,

4:00

the goal of the game is to

4:04

defend your island like Jake

4:04

said from invading colonist you

4:09

win when the invaders are

4:09

sufficiently scared off.

4:13

Yes. And depending on how

4:13

far you progress in a fear

4:18

tracker, basically, that will

4:18

determine what your win

4:22

condition is. So the win

4:22

condition actually changes

4:24

throughout the game as you

4:24

progress. It gets easier and

4:27

easier, which is pretty cool,

4:27

actually. So let's first start

4:31

talking about the board.

4:33

Yeah, okay. So there's

4:33

not much of a board, I would say

4:38

I guess like an unfold double

4:38

board. It's something that you

4:41

kind of put together. Well, I

4:41

guess there's two pieces to it.

4:44

So you've got the map, which is

4:44

something that you put together

4:47

with these different tiles, but

4:47

it's not tiles like in Catan,

4:52

where each tile represents like

4:52

a different type of land. They

4:56

are bigger pieces that contain

4:56

smaller subsections have

5:01

different types of land within

5:01

them. So each of these tiles has

5:05

a coast on one side, and then

5:05

these multiple other types of

5:08

lands, you will select the

5:08

number of tiles based on the

5:12

number of players that you have.

5:12

And they kind of fit together

5:15

and become, you know, your

5:15

island, essentially, that you

5:20

are defending. There are icons

5:20

on each of the different lands,

5:26

indicating some setup stuff. So

5:26

these are starting explorers,

5:32

towns and cities that all

5:32

represents the invaders of

5:36

blight, which represents damage

5:36

done to the land by the

5:40

invaders, and daHan, which are

5:40

the locals who live peacefully

5:45

on the island.

5:46

Okay, so I have to say

5:46

this right away, because I'll

5:50

forget about it. There's this

5:50

Japanese candy that is like a

5:55

cookie bottom, with a chocolate

5:55

top in the shape of a mushroom.

6:00

And that's what the dahan and

6:00

remind me of even though there's

6:03

no dark chocolate like color.

6:03

That's what they remind me, I

6:07

think I know exactly what you're

6:07

talking about. And I can totally

6:10

see that. They're delicious. I

6:10

love them. But anyway.

6:15

So that's what the Dahan

6:15

are. They're delicious cookies.

6:18

Yes, they're delicious

6:18

cookies in the shape of

6:20

mushrooms, but not really.

6:23

So that's your map. And

6:23

then you have the invader board,

6:26

which is a pretty small little

6:26

board that you kind of set off

6:29

to the side or above or you

6:29

know, somewhere near the map is

6:32

contains a couple different

6:32

sections. So you've got your

6:35

fear deck, which are beneficial

6:35

cards that trigger after a fear

6:40

has been generated through your

6:40

spirit abilities. And going

6:45

through in gaining these fear

6:45

cards is what increases the

6:49

terror level, which is what

6:49

makes the win conditions easier

6:53

as you play the game. So

6:53

essentially, the more fear that

6:56

you generate, the more

6:56

terrifying that you are, the

6:59

easier it is to get rid of these

6:59

invaders. Fear cards are earned

7:04

by spirits when you have

7:04

collectively caused for fear per

7:09

player. Yes, and fear is caused

7:09

by certain low up powers and

7:15

destroying towns and cities.

7:15

Those will all cause fear. Yep.

7:20

So then next to that you have

7:20

fear pool, which is just kind of

7:24

where you're collecting the fear

7:24

that you have generated until

7:27

you get to that point where you

7:27

have earned a fear card. And so

7:31

next to that kind of up at the

7:31

upper part of this board is your

7:35

current terror level. And when

7:35

conditions so you start at

7:39

terror level one, which

7:39

basically says that you need to

7:41

clear the entire map of all

7:41

invaders in order to win. But

7:46

after you earn three

7:46

approximately fear cards, you

7:51

will unlock terror level two,

7:51

which says okay, now you need to

7:55

clear the board of what like

7:55

towns and cities, I think, yes.

8:02

And you can have just explorers

8:02

on the map. And so you win at

8:05

that point. And then terror

8:05

level three says you just need

8:08

to clear the board of cities,

8:08

making it a little easier. Okay,

8:13

so kind of underneath that

8:13

terror level, you have the

8:16

island health, this is a card

8:16

that you will randomly select.

8:21

They all say the same thing on

8:21

the front, it says healthy

8:24

Island. And it tells you to

8:24

collect a certain number of

8:27

blight tokens on top of this

8:27

card. And those blight tokens

8:31

are like that's your pool that

8:31

you pull from when the invaders

8:36

do damage to the land. And then

8:36

once your pool is empty from on

8:41

top of that card, you will flip

8:41

it over and it'll say blighted

8:44

Island. And that will give you

8:44

extra things extra bad things

8:49

that happen as a result of the

8:49

island becoming sicker. And then

8:54

towards the bottom of the board,

8:54

you have the Explorer deck. And

8:57

so these are cards that just

8:57

contain different land types,

9:01

and basically describe where the

9:01

invaders are exploring building

9:06

and ravaging the land and it

9:06

moves from right to left. And so

9:11

basically, you'll flip over a

9:11

card and that'll be where they

9:15

explore this turn. And then at

9:15

the end, it gets moved down. So

9:19

that'll be where they build next

9:19

turn. And then that'll be where

9:22

they ravaged the following turn.

9:24

So next we have the

9:24

adversary or scenarios. These

9:29

are optional. Well, the

9:29

adversaries are optional, and

9:34

scenarios are optional, kind of.

9:34

At the back of the rulebook,

9:37

there is a chart that describes

9:37

the different difficulties of

9:41

the game. And I believe it's a

9:41

zero through 10. And depending

9:45

on how difficult you want the

9:45

game to be, it will tell you

9:48

what adversary to play and what

9:48

scenario to play. The

9:51

adversaries are specific

9:51

countries that are invading your

9:55

island. And then the scenarios

9:55

are also specific For lack of a

10:00

better term events that happened

10:00

during the game, that may or may

10:05

not make things more difficult.

10:05

So next we're going to talk a

10:09

little bit about the spirits or

10:09

our LOA. This is honestly one of

10:14

the most difficult parts about

10:14

this game is deciding which one

10:17

to play. That's how I feel

10:17

personally, I'm like, they're

10:21

all so good. Anyways, these are

10:21

the players of the game. And

10:27

these are all going to be

10:27

working together to fight these

10:30

colonists off of your island. It

10:30

is a natural force that exists

10:35

on the island to serve and

10:35

protected. Each of the spirits

10:38

has its own unique setup,

10:38

starting abilities, innate

10:41

abilities, and can get new

10:41

powers throughout the game. The

10:46

back of each of the spirit board

10:46

describes the difficulty and the

10:49

style of play. And it kind of

10:49

gives you a easy, medium complex

10:56

or very complex rating on these.

10:56

But it also shows you what kind

11:01

of abilities these spirits have.

11:01

So if you're more of a an area

11:06

control, or if you are moving

11:06

enemies around, or if you are

11:11

just dealing raw damage, or if

11:11

you're a utility based

11:15

character, it gives you this

11:15

chart, which is pretty cool.

11:18

That shows you the playstyle of

11:18

the Spirit. So the spirit

11:23

presence is indicated in the

11:23

lands by colored discs that are

11:26

placed on the board. So they're

11:26

just these small wooden disks,

11:30

and you will place them where

11:30

you are at the beginning of the

11:33

game. Each spirit has specific

11:33

locations that you are going to

11:37

be placing these discs detailed

11:37

on the back of your board. This

11:41

will also often determine where

11:41

you can use your abilities.

11:45

Because your abilities are often

11:45

based on a range from your

11:50

presence to disk of the same

11:50

color on the same land indicate

11:54

a sacred site, which can also be

11:54

required for some of the

11:58

abilities. And you can use your

11:58

growth abilities which we'll

12:02

talk about in just a minute to

12:02

actually spread your presence.

12:07

And your presence is a limited

12:07

pool that you have available to

12:11

you. And it's kept on two

12:11

separate tracks on your spirit

12:15

board, you have energy per turn,

12:15

and the number of cards you can

12:18

play per turn. As you put more

12:18

presence out, you'll be getting

12:22

more and more energy per turn by

12:22

uncovering these and more and

12:26

more cards per turn as you

12:26

uncover these as well. So the

12:29

energy is used to cast

12:29

abilities. Every power card has

12:34

a specific energy cost up in the

12:34

top left corner that must be

12:39

spent in order to use that

12:39

ability. And you gain energy

12:45

every turn dependent on how much

12:45

presence you have spread off of

12:49

that energy track. Growth is the

12:49

first phase of the player

12:53

actions. And these are different

12:53

for each spirit. And sometimes,

13:00

depending on the Spirit, you

13:00

will either choose 123 Or all of

13:03

them just depending on what your

13:03

board says to do. And they are

13:08

different actions that you can

13:08

take to spread presence, pull

13:11

cards from your discard pile, or

13:11

gain new abilities, and

13:15

sometimes gain energy as well.

13:15

So gaining powers is one of the

13:20

ones that you're going to be

13:20

using a lot in this game. When

13:23

you gain powers you can choose

13:23

between major or minor powers.

13:26

And the difference between these

13:26

powers is the minor powers

13:31

typically cost less and are good

13:31

or beneficial. But the major

13:37

powers are typically more

13:37

expensive and do more damage do

13:41

more fear do more destruction,

13:41

for lack of a better word. When

13:46

you choose this action to gain

13:46

powers, you pull four from the

13:50

chosen deck, and you choose to

13:50

keep one and gain a major power.

13:55

When you do this requires that

13:55

you forget and permanently lose

13:59

an existing power card. For

13:59

example, if you pull for minor

14:03

powers that you just don't like

14:03

at all, on your next turn when

14:06

you go to gain powers, you can

14:06

choose a major power and just

14:10

toss the one that you got

14:10

previously. But you do have to

14:14

each time again a major power

14:14

lose one. So innate abilities

14:19

are powers that don't cost

14:19

energy, but cost elements gained

14:22

from other ability cards or the

14:22

presence tracks. As you spread

14:27

your presence. A lot of times

14:27

you will get elements based on

14:31

your lower just depending on

14:31

what you have available to you.

14:36

These don't count against you

14:36

for the number of cards you can

14:38

play per turn. Some of them are

14:38

fast actions and some of them

14:42

are slow actions. And it's

14:42

important to keep that in mind

14:44

because that dictates when those

14:44

things are cast.

14:48

And then we have the

14:48

powers these are the cards that

14:51

you can choose to gain. Well

14:51

these are either your four

14:54

starting cards or powers that

14:54

you can choose to gain as you

14:58

play the game. This is kind of

14:58

The breakdown of what those

15:02

cards look like. So up in the

15:02

upper left corner, you will have

15:08

an energy cost, this will be

15:08

surrounded by a colored border

15:12

indicating whether it's a slow

15:12

or a fast action. The elements

15:17

that you gain from the card are

15:17

kind of a long the left side,

15:22

the left border. And that's

15:22

just, there's a bunch of

15:25

different ones, there's like,

15:25

you know, claws for animals, or

15:28

leaves or sun, there's a bunch

15:28

of them. And so it kind of

15:31

highlights a couple different

15:31

ones that are associated with

15:33

this specific power. Then you

15:33

have like, in the middle,

15:39

underneath the picture, there's

15:39

like a little bar that contains

15:42

information about the speed, the

15:42

range and the target. So your

15:46

speed is depicted on the left

15:46

side of that little middle bar.

15:51

This is what determines if it's

15:51

a faster or slow action. So fast

15:55

actions are depicted by a red

15:55

bird. And these actions take

16:00

place before the invader phase.

16:00

And then slow actions are

16:04

depicted by a blue turtle. These

16:04

take effect after the invader

16:09

phase. So it's really important

16:09

to remember and like include

16:13

that in part of your planning

16:13

that okay, this is going to

16:17

take, you know effect after

16:17

they've already kind of explored

16:21

and spread and you can start to

16:21

try to plan that out. But this

16:25

is one of the really, like

16:25

complicated parts I feel of the

16:30

game is like appropriately

16:30

planning these actions to take

16:35

place, I keep running into

16:35

things where it's like, I'm

16:39

making plans based on what the

16:39

board looks like right now. But

16:42

it's a slow action, I need to be

16:42

making plans based on what it's

16:45

going to look like after they

16:45

take their turn.

16:48

And this is kind of what I

16:48

wanted to talk about the

16:51

different invader cards between

16:51

the Explorer build and ravage.

16:55

My problem with this game is I

16:55

like to plan like three turns in

16:59

advance when we're talking about

16:59

it. And I know you've said this

17:03

to me before, it doesn't matter.

17:03

We're working on what's right

17:07

now. And I'm like, No, it does

17:07

matter, because we have to plan

17:10

for three turns in advance. And

17:10

we can do that by seeing what's

17:14

coming up.

17:15

I mean, kinda

17:18

I like to do that. And I

17:18

liked the planning phase of this

17:21

game. We'll talk more about that

17:21

later. But I feel like that's

17:25

something that they did really

17:25

well in this game is the

17:28

requiring you to cooperate

17:28

together. But anyways, I

17:32

digress.

17:34

Alright so, next to the

17:34

speed in that middle bar, so in

17:37

the middle, you will have the

17:37

range. This describes how many

17:43

lands away from your prescence

17:43

you can cast this power. So a

17:48

range 0 means it has to be in a

17:48

land with your presence. it may

17:53

also describe a distance from

17:53

your sacred site so it's not a

17:56

place with your presence but

17:56

specifically a sacred site. And

18:00

then next to that is the target.

18:00

this is describing the land

18:04

where the power is cast. it may

18:04

describe it can only be cast in

18:10

mountains or jungles or it can

18:10

say any. but you need to make

18:13

sure you're looking at both of

18:13

these things because this needs

18:18

to be within one land of my

18:18

presence that is in a jungle and

18:24

needs to be cast in a mountain.

18:24

it can get really complex in all

18:31

of that. it's like oh shoot i

18:31

forgot that like it needs to be

18:35

a presence that's in a jungle

18:35

not just any presence.

18:39

Yes They get pretty

18:39

indepth on what you can and

18:43

cannot target based on your

18:43

powers.

20:43

And this is really where I

20:43

start, like I was saying

20:46

earlier, get distracted by

20:46

what's happening in the future

20:50

as opposed to what's happening,

20:50

right. Yeah, because, well, the

20:55

thing that I want to prevent the

20:55

most is actually the build.

20:59

Yeah. Because if they can't

20:59

build, they can't damage and if

21:03

they can't damage, they can't

21:03

play.

21:06

So the individual

21:06

explores do damage, but not

21:10

enough to blight. Not if they're

21:10

alone, not if they're alone,

21:14

which blight is what we're going

21:14

to talk about next. Yes. So

21:18

blight represents the damage

21:18

that the invaders are doing to

21:21

the land, this happens during

21:21

the ravage step. And if the

21:26

invaders, deal, two or more

21:26

damage to that land, you're

21:29

going to add a blight. If there

21:29

is already a blight, placed in a

21:34

place where you would add

21:34

another blades, you add that

21:37

second blight, but also it

21:37

cascades into an adjacent land.

21:41

And so it can get out of

21:41

control, and cause you to run

21:44

out of that blight pool really

21:44

quickly and flip your card over

21:48

to blighted Island really

21:48

quickly if you don't stay on top

21:52

of that.

21:53

Yes. And that's a problem.

21:57

Yeah, that's a quick way

21:57

to lose. So blight can be healed

22:00

by certain spirit abilities.

22:00

Some of them are like natural or

22:03

good at healing blight. And some

22:03

of them it's like, well, you

22:06

have to get lucky and hope that

22:06

you gain new powers that will

22:10

allow you to do that.

22:12

And some spirits abilities

22:12

actually cause blight or are

22:16

affected by blight. That's true.

22:16

Some of them are actually more

22:20

effective if there is blight.

22:20

But that's like a really risky

22:24

game to play. Because now you

22:24

have to have blight out. And

22:28

yeah, no, it's not.

22:29

I've been too scared to

22:29

play one of those kinds of

22:32

spirits, because it's like, oh,

22:32

gosh, like I don't,

22:35

I don't want to do it. I'm scared.

22:37

I don't know how to deal

22:37

with this. All right. And then

22:41

so we've already kind of talked

22:41

about them a little bit. But the

22:43

dahan, these are the locals that

22:43

live peacefully on the island,

22:47

they have to health and deal to

22:47

damage each, they will attack

22:51

the invaders if they are

22:51

attacked during the ravage step,

22:55

but they don't automatically

22:55

attack anywhere that they're

22:58

just in the same place as like

22:58

explorers are towns that are

23:02

being built. And there are some

23:02

spirits that use the Dahan

23:07

pretty significantly to do extra

23:07

damage or you know, to deal

23:11

damage in other ways using their

23:11

spirit powers. But just kind of

23:15

naturally, the way that the game

23:15

is played, they will attack

23:19

automatically if they are

23:19

attacked,

23:22

which is nice, because you

23:22

can't be everywhere at once,

23:25

especially depending on the

23:25

spirit you choose. So that's a

23:28

nice added bonus. The sequence

23:28

of play kind of looks like this.

23:33

As I mentioned earlier, it

23:33

starts with the spirit phase,

23:36

which is your growth ability,

23:36

you must do everything described

23:40

in the ones you choose. But you

23:40

can choose to do them in any

23:44

order. So you also then gain

23:44

energy based on how much you

23:49

have revealed on the energy

23:49

track. And you decide your

23:53

powers that you are going to

23:53

play both fast and slow, and pay

23:57

for those power cards. And this

23:57

is where the game kind of takes

24:01

time. Because this can take a

24:01

lot of time planning and

24:04

collaborating to make

24:04

everybody's powers work

24:07

effectively. And we have to pay

24:07

attention, as we said earlier to

24:11

whether or not these powers are

24:11

fast or slow, because fast

24:15

abilities will take place right

24:15

now. Well, it'll take place

24:19

right after the planning phase.

24:19

And then the slope actions or

24:22

slow powers actually take place

24:22

after the invader phase, which

24:26

we'll talk about in a moment. So

24:26

also you aren't supposed to

24:30

resolve the effects yet until

24:30

until that faster, slow. And

24:35

okay, I have a little bit of an

24:35

issue with this and hear me out.

24:38

This is my logic. It's a fast

24:38

power. I'm doing it right away.

24:43

And literally that's the next

24:43

thing you do is the fast power

24:47

right after the planning. So why

24:47

not just do it

24:51

no the different phases

24:51

like it's really important. So

24:57

the other day we were playing

24:57

and Jake had a fast power that

25:01

was gonna give him more energy.

25:01

And he wanted to do that now so

25:05

that you can spend that energy

25:05

on playing more cards, or

25:09

playing for new, you know,

25:09

abilities and powers. It's like,

25:13

No, you can't do that those are

25:13

two different phases, you don't

25:16

do the card effect yet, you will

25:16

gain that energy for next turn.

25:21

I still don't like it. Yeah,

25:21

that's just one thing that we're

25:24

kind of constantly having to

25:24

watch and monitors like, no, no,

25:28

no, no, no, that's not happening

25:28

yet. Jake's real bad at that.

25:32

Okay, we're gonna need to

25:32

talk about that. Because there

25:37

is a fast power that lets people

25:37

play an additional card. So how

25:44

can you do that

25:46

that would get resolved

25:46

during the fast power phase.

25:49

That's what I'm saying is

25:49

if they get to play an

25:52

additional card during this

25:52

game, or this round, how would

25:56

they then be able to do that if

25:56

they didn't choose that card and

25:59

pay for it? You see what I'm

25:59

saying?

26:02

I feel like it's a subtle difference. But it's like, I'm going to plan on using

26:04

this card. And then we get to

26:08

the next phase. Okay, now I'm

26:08

using that card. Because like,

26:12

obviously, that's something

26:12

that's outside of the normal

26:15

rules of the game.

26:16

So if you can only play

26:16

two cards, and you have chosen

26:19

two cards, and I give you a

26:19

third card, you cannot use that

26:23

third card and pay for that

26:23

third card until the fast power

26:27

phase, right? So then you would

26:27

not be able to do Do you see, do

26:30

you see my my confusion here?

26:32

Kind of, but like, I

26:32

feel like this is emphasized or

26:36

like this is made more difficult

26:36

to understand just because of

26:40

the complexity of the game. Yes,

26:40

there are other games where it's

26:45

an easy concept to understand

26:45

that like, hey, this card that

26:49

you just played, or this thing

26:49

that just happened breaks the

26:52

normal rules of the game. And

26:52

that's just kind of accepted. A

26:56

lot of times in games, you know,

26:56

you follow the rules until you

26:59

receive an event or you know,

26:59

something that causes it to

27:03

break the rules, and then you

27:03

follow the rules set by that

27:06

event. Does that make sense?

27:06

This is one of those kinds of

27:11

things. It's like, normally, you

27:11

wouldn't do that. But this card

27:15

is breaking that rule and

27:15

allowing you to play an

27:19

additional card during the fast

27:19

power phase.

27:22

I disagree. But

27:24

you disagree. Like what

27:24

is there to disagree.

27:27

We'll continue.

27:28

Okay.

27:30

So the fast powers phase,

27:30

you resolve both innate

27:34

abilities and power cards that

27:34

are fast during this phase. And

27:38

these can all be done

27:38

simultaneously or resolved in

27:41

whichever order the players

27:41

choose, which is very important

27:45

because some things will build

27:45

on other things, as we kind of

27:48

just mentioned a moment ago. You

27:48

cannot delay your fast abilities

27:53

to be slow abilities. However,

27:53

you must resolve them in the

27:57

phase that they are labeled.

27:57

Unless you're a specific spirit

28:02

that allows you with elements to

28:02

treat a slow power as a fast

28:06

power. There is one specific

28:06

spirit that allows you to do

28:09

that. Next is the invader phase.

28:09

So blighted Island, we follow

28:15

the instructions on the island

28:15

health card. If it's been

28:17

flipped over, then we do any

28:17

fear resolve any fear cards that

28:22

have been earned by the spirits.

28:22

And remember that fear is for

28:25

per player. If you have enough,

28:25

then you will slip the fear card

28:29

and follow those actions.

28:30

So just to kind of

28:30

clarify on that you may gain the

28:34

fear card at any point in time,

28:34

like, you know, maybe you cause

28:37

enough fear during the slow

28:37

actions. But you don't actually

28:40

get to look at the card and

28:40

resolve it until this step. Yes.

28:45

Well, once again, unless

28:45

you are a specific spirit, you

28:49

may be able to look at the top

28:49

two and decide what yeah, there

28:54

is one specific spirit that will

28:54

allow you to do that. Yes. Next

28:58

is the invader actions. First,

28:58

they will ravage invaders damage

29:03

the land and dahan for all the

29:03

land types depicted on the

29:06

Explore a deck by the ravage

29:06

space. So if that is a desert

29:10

card, any desert that they have

29:10

presents in, they will ravage.

29:15

However, if there is a desert

29:15

without any invaders in it,

29:18

nothing happens there. And the

29:18

ravage actually does not happen

29:22

for the first turn as the

29:22

Explorer cards move from from

29:25

the Explorer, the build to the

29:25

ravage slot, so there's nothing

29:30

in the ravage, they're just

29:30

going to explore first, then

29:33

they'll build, then they'll

29:33

ravage. Next is the build

29:37

invaders, build towns or cities

29:37

in all land types depicted on

29:40

the Explore deck on the build

29:40

space. So if we move that desert

29:44

into the next turn, now we're

29:44

going to build in the desert so

29:47

they have presence. If there are

29:47

no invaders there, then nothing

29:52

gets built, and explorers.

29:52

Explorers move into lands

29:56

adjacent to the coast and other

29:56

lands with invaders as described

29:59

inThe explore space. After we do

29:59

all those actions, we advanced

30:04

those cards. And we will see

30:04

what's going to happen on the

30:07

next turn. Next is the slow

30:07

power phase, we get to resolve

30:12

all the slow powers that were

30:12

cast during the spirit phase.

30:15

And the players once again get

30:15

to choose what order these

30:18

happen in, depending on what is

30:18

going to be most beneficial or,

30:23

or however, they would like to

30:23

do this. And that includes not

30:26

only power cards, but also

30:26

innate powers. After that, time

30:32

passes, and this is your reset

30:32

phase, you discard power cards

30:36

that were used this turn, all

30:36

daHan towns and cities that were

30:39

damaged but not destroyed, are

30:39

healed. And then it's the start

30:45

of the next round.

30:46

Do it all over again.

30:46

Yep. And the game continues like

30:50

that until you either lose, or

30:50

meet your win condition. And

30:56

losing I guess we didn't really

30:56

talk about what losing looks

30:59

like but that's like, you know,

30:59

you have no presence left on the

31:03

board. If your presence is like

31:03

completely destroyed. Does that

31:07

actually kick you out of the game?

31:08

No, that makes everyone

31:08

lose?

31:11

Yeah, okay. Well, it's

31:11

thinking like, if there's like

31:14

four people, you know, one

31:14

person loses all their presence,

31:17

like they can still get their

31:17

presence back. But you only have

31:20

so much like when your presence

31:20

is destroyed, it doesn't go back

31:24

to your board as something that

31:24

you can use. It's like removed.

31:28

And there are very limited

31:28

abilities that have, you know,

31:32

that capability to bring back

31:32

destroyed presence. And so you

31:36

have a limited amount and can

31:36

you know, get overwhelmed and

31:40

taken over and essentially,

31:40

removed from the game in that

31:43

way? Yes. That was the game. That's the

31:46

game. Is that a long enough rule

31:49

section for everyone?

31:50

It's surprisingly not that

31:50

long. Yeah,

31:53

I guess. All right. So

31:53

let's talk about our experiences

31:57

playing this game. So we've been

31:57

doing it wrong. We already kind

32:02

of talked about, we haven't been

32:02

setting up like the towns and

32:07

cities and settlers and

32:07

everything according to the map.

32:10

Like when you do the initial

32:10

setup, which makes a big

32:14

difference. It doesn't make a

32:14

ton of sense to me, actually,

32:18

with the way that the Explorer

32:18

deck starts out the fact that

32:22

you don't have ravage the first

32:22

turn. It doesn't make sense to

32:26

me that, like you've got all

32:26

these towns and cities and

32:30

everything built, but they're

32:30

just not. They're not damaging

32:32

the island yet. Like the way we

32:32

were playing it is basically

32:37

like the island is good and

32:37

fine. And then the initial

32:41

people start coming in and

32:41

exploring from the coast. And so

32:44

it kind of creates this idea or

32:44

you know, this image of, Okay,

32:49

we're good, we're moving along.

32:49

This is our island, everything's

32:52

happy. Oh, all of a sudden,

32:52

these people are arriving from

32:55

the coasts and like exploring

32:55

our lands, what are they doing,

32:58

and then they start building and

32:58

then they start ravaging. And it

33:01

kind of created this whole idea

33:01

of, you know, this is the

33:05

beginning of their invasion. The

33:05

thing about that, though, is

33:09

that you can get lucky and win

33:09

in the first couple of turns by

33:14

eliminating everybody off the

33:14

board if you don't start with

33:18

all that stuff. And so the game

33:18

is not meant to be that easy.

33:23

No, it's not. That being

33:23

said, it still could be possible

33:28

if you were playing a four

33:28

player game, right? And you all

33:33

chose spirits that just do

33:33

massive amounts of damage. Like

33:38

that's what they're designed to

33:38

do. You could in theory, destroy

33:42

everything from the island pretty quickly.

33:44

Yeah, potentially.

33:45

If you focused on, like,

33:45

just raw destruction, you could,

33:50

I think, but we've already kind

33:50

of talked about our experiences

33:54

with this game. And I don't know

33:54

if you can tell this, but I love

33:58

this game. If you know anything

33:58

about me, I love cooperative

34:01

games. And I love complicated

34:01

games. And this is for sure. A

34:07

complicated cooperative game.

34:10

Yeah, I think that might

34:10

be why I actually like it to,

34:14

like, the level of cooperation

34:14

required in this game is above

34:19

and beyond what I have seen in

34:19

any other cooperative game, it

34:23

really requires that the players

34:23

are all kind of communicating

34:26

with each other on what they're

34:26

planning on doing, what areas

34:30

they're planning on targeting,

34:30

so that you don't have people

34:32

who are like, targeting the same

34:32

thing or attempting to do the

34:35

same thing. Like it's more

34:35

effective to okay, you do this,

34:40

I'll go over here and do that.

34:40

And, you know, and like it

34:44

requires a really high level of

34:44

cooperation, which I really

34:49

like, you know, you see in other

34:49

games that are cooperative or

34:52

semi cooperative. Like there's a

34:52

little bit of that, you know,

34:56

let's talk about dead of winter.

34:56

For example, a Okay, so I'm

35:01

gonna go to the police station,

35:01

and I'm going to look for stuff

35:03

there, because I know that we

35:03

need weapons or whatever, you

35:07

know, there's a little bit of

35:07

that talking and saying, Okay,

35:09

this is what I'm gonna do. But

35:09

like what I do is not so heavily

35:13

dependent on what you do. And

35:13

like our success is not so

35:19

heavily dependent on our ability

35:19

to communicate and work

35:23

together.

35:24

Yeah. And speaking of dead

35:24

of winter, you know, you have

35:27

these board objectives each

35:27

round or their, I believe it's

35:30

called the crisis. So like, oh,

35:30

we need extra food, and we need

35:33

to donate it to this crisis,

35:33

this turn, or we need fuel or

35:37

tools or whatever. If you don't

35:37

do that bad things happen to

35:40

everyone. But it doesn't

35:40

necessarily mean the game is

35:43

over. Right? It's just there.

35:43

There are consequences.

35:47

Yeah, I mean, it reduces

35:47

your morale, which can end the

35:50

game pretty quickly if you keep doing that.

35:52

Right. But you can also

35:52

depending on the scenario, you

35:56

do, one or two people can carry

35:56

the game.

35:58

Yeah. And maybe dead of

35:58

winter is a bad example. Because

36:02

that is also designed to be played with a hidden trader. What's another game that's like,

36:03

purely cooperative, like either fields? Oh, yeah. So we haven't

36:04

done an episode on either fields yet. But that's a cooperative

36:06

campaign game. And, again, like,

36:17

it's important for us to work

36:17

together and figure out what

36:20

we're doing. But it's also not

36:20

terribly detrimental,

36:24

necessarily, if someone kind of

36:24

goes off and does their own

36:27

thing. You know, like, Oh, I

36:27

really want to go over here and

36:31

get this one specific thing

36:31

done. That's not going to cause

36:35

us to just kind of cascade into

36:35

destruction and lose, you know,

36:41

there's a little bit of

36:41

allowance for that, and just

36:44

doesn't require that same level

36:44

of teamwork. If it wasn't such a

36:48

complex game, I would say that

36:48

this is a really good game for

36:51

like team building exercises,

36:51

like, Oh, hey, like you've got a

36:54

small group of people at work or

36:54

something. Let's get together

36:58

and play this and see how we can

36:58

improve our communication and

37:02

build on our team. But it's way

37:02

too complex for that. There's no

37:06

way unless you've got a team

37:06

full of super nerds, there's no

37:09

way everyone's going to be

37:09

interested in playing this.

37:12

I mean, actually, you and

37:12

I are work, both of them are

37:15

probably filled with super nerds.

37:17

Um, I don't know if there's people that are interested in this level of

37:19

complexity.

37:22

Yay, maybe not. Yeah. But

37:22

yes, my work is full of nerds.

37:27

And I'm glad. Yeah, I do love

37:27

this game, I think they have

37:31

done such a good job designing

37:31

it. And the expansions that

37:34

we're going to talk about in

37:34

just a minute add so much

37:38

replayability to this game, it's

37:38

almost ridiculous. But before we

37:45

get to that, I kind of wanted to

37:45

mention a few other things. One

37:48

of my favorite loas, and the

37:48

game is I forget what it's

37:51

called, but it's the ocean, the

37:51

ocean is on the back of the

37:56

board, it's described as a, it's

37:56

either complex, or very complex

38:00

playstyle. And the way that it

38:00

works is your presence, you can

38:04

only have presence in the ocean

38:04

and on coastal tiles, but you

38:09

are like waves bringing that

38:09

presence in to the coast areas

38:14

and then bringing them back out

38:14

to the ocean, bringing them back

38:17

into the coast, bringing them

38:17

back out into the ocean. Which

38:20

is pretty interesting, actually.

38:20

Because one of the things that

38:24

you can do in this game is there

38:24

are loa that are really good at

38:30

moving enemies around. So you

38:30

can push like cities, towns,

38:33

explorers, and if you have the

38:33

ocean in play, anything that

38:39

gets pushed into the ocean, dies

38:39

immediately. And then becomes

38:45

energy for you to use at any

38:45

time. Which is pretty cool,

38:49

actually.

38:51

Yeah, this is like one

38:51

of the most amazing strategies I

38:53

think we've ever come up with is

38:53

like you get somebody to play,

38:57

you know, the spirit that has a

38:57

lot of that push and pull

39:01

ability to move things around.

39:01

And you just push towards the

39:04

coast push towards the coast.

39:04

And that's all you do. And then

39:07

you let the ocean come in and

39:07

wash everything away. It feels

39:12

so good. I love that strategy.

39:15

It does actually, I do

39:15

love the ocean. And if we play

39:19

this later today, I'm gonna play

39:19

the ocean.

39:22

So the only problem with

39:22

that is like, I guess one thing

39:25

we didn't really talk about is

39:25

that I personally feel like this

39:28

game really is best played out

39:28

to me three people, Max.

39:33

I think three is the best.

39:33

Two is good. Two is very good.

39:38

But I think three is the best

39:38

because then you can have like a

39:41

control spirit, a damaged spirit

39:41

and then a utility spirit.

39:44

Yeah, I mean, from a

39:44

mechanics perspective, I agree

39:49

with you. But the planning phase

39:49

becomes so much more

39:54

complicated. The more people

39:54

that you have because you're

39:57

trying to work with everybody

39:57

and make sure that everybody is

40:00

is being effective. And you can

40:00

get stuck in that planning phase

40:03

for a really long time. If

40:03

you've got too many people that

40:06

are trying to plan and figure out what they're doing.

40:09

I mean, that's very true.

40:09

We have definitely played games

40:12

of this that go for four hours

40:12

because of that planning thing.

40:15

Yes. So what I was gonna

40:15

say is, the thing about playing

40:20

like at two people is okay, if

40:20

Jake really wants to play the

40:23

ocean, I'm kind of forced to

40:23

pick someone that is like that

40:28

kind of area controller like

40:28

that ability to push and pull,

40:31

I'm kind of forced to play a

40:31

specific type of spirit. And

40:34

that limits my options. Whereas

40:34

if you play with more people,

40:38

Jake really wants to play the

40:38

ocean, okay, somebody should

40:41

play one of those kinds of

40:41

spirits. But it doesn't

40:44

necessarily have to be me as the

40:44

only other player in the game,

40:48

right? Or you don't have

40:48

to choose somebody who has all

40:51

utility or all control, then you

40:51

can have just somebody who has

40:55

some and then another player who

40:55

has some as well, or they could

40:58

focus on whatever they want.

40:59

Yeah. So it's kind of a

40:59

balance, you really do need to

41:03

pick spirits that complement

41:03

each other. Otherwise, you're

41:06

just not going to be effective.

41:06

The ocean is not effective if

41:09

you don't have people who can

41:09

push.

41:12

Yeah, because you can't

41:12

get presents anywhere else

41:15

except for the coastal tiles in the ocean.

41:17

Yeah. So like, you just

41:17

okay, I guess I get lucky. And

41:21

they're building here. And like,

41:21

that's the only way I can be

41:23

effective. And it just, it

41:23

doesn't feel as good. If you

41:28

know, you're not cooperating and

41:28

picking complementary spirits in

41:32

that way. Yeah,

41:34

bringer of dreams and

41:34

nightmares is the one that I

41:36

really also, like, it's also a

41:36

high complexity play. It does,

41:41

like the damage on it is

41:41

basically non existent, you

41:44

almost can't destroy anything.

41:44

Because actually, one of its

41:49

ability says anytime you would

41:49

deal damage due to fear instead.

41:54

So this character is about

41:54

pushing people around and

41:58

causing massive amounts of fear.

41:58

And fear is how you change that

42:02

win condition to make it easier.

42:02

So the more fear you cause, the

42:06

easier it is to win. And I do

42:06

like that. But once again, that

42:11

in a two player game, that's not

42:11

a great one to play unless

42:15

somebody else is going to be

42:15

doing damage. And so we have

42:19

three expansions currently

42:19

available for this game. And

42:24

these add so much replayability.

42:24

It is, like I said, ridiculous.

42:29

We have the branch and claw

42:29

expansion, this is was released

42:32

in 2017. It adds two new loa,

42:32

it's sharp fangs behind the

42:38

leaves and keeper of the

42:38

Forbidden wilds, it also adds an

42:41

Event deck that has an event

42:41

that will happen each round. So

42:45

something will change. Sometimes

42:45

it's beneficial, sometimes it's

42:48

detrimental, all depends on the

42:48

card that is drawn.

42:52

That really reduces the

42:52

predictability of the invaders.

42:56

Because without that, it's like,

42:56

oh, we can see exactly where

43:00

they're going to ravage, where

43:00

they're going to build where

43:02

they're going to explore blah,

43:02

blah. And like, it's very

43:05

predictable. And you can plan

43:05

based on that the Event deck

43:08

really mixes that up and makes

43:08

it so like, Oh, oops, they're

43:13

doing something different this

43:13

time.

43:16

Right. Which I really,

43:16

really like actually. And it

43:21

also adds beasts, disease, wilds

43:21

and strife, which these are all

43:28

different tokens that are placed

43:28

on the board. And they act as

43:31

specific deterrence for the

43:31

settlers. Some of them prevent

43:35

buildings, some of them prevent

43:35

ravaging, some of them prevent

43:39

exploration. This also adds a

43:39

new scenario, a new adversary,

43:44

and a bunch of new power cards,

43:44

both major and minor for the

43:47

lower.

43:48

It also added a ton of

43:48

new island health cards, because

43:53

the base game comes with only

43:53

two of those. So not much

43:57

variability, but now we've got a

43:57

bunch of them that like

44:01

different things can happen when

44:01

you get a blighted Island.

44:04

Yes, yes, it does. So the

44:04

next expansion is jagged Earth

44:09

expansion from 2020. This adds

44:09

four new Loa, three new

44:13

scenarios, two new adversaries,

44:13

and a bunch of power cards, both

44:19

major and minor. This also adds

44:19

aspects and new fear cards and

44:24

new event cards. So aspects are

44:24

different variations of your

44:29

innate powers. This also adds

44:29

two more map tiles, which makes

44:36

us now a six player game, which

44:36

sounds kind of like a nightmare.

44:40

Too much like I don't

44:40

recommend playing this was six

44:43

people.

44:45

I mean, I kind of want to

44:45

try it, but at the same time it

44:47

sounds like a nightmare. Yeah.

44:47

The last expansion is the

44:52

feather and flame expansion.

44:52

This was released this year.

44:55

That's 2022 It adds four new

44:55

Lola a new scenario And a bunch

45:00

of power cards as well, as well

45:00

as a new adversary. So as you

45:05

can see, like, there's 10

45:05

additional LOA that have been

45:09

added. And I think there are

45:09

eight in the base game. Yeah,

45:12

that sounds right. Yes. So like,

45:12

there's a ton of different

45:15

combinations that you can play.

45:15

Yeah. It's pretty amazing.

45:19

Actually. Let's go ahead and

45:19

talk about the ratings on all

45:23

these though.

45:25

Yeah, so the base game

45:25

is rated at 8.4. With 38,000

45:31

reviews, it is currently number

45:31

eight on the hotness list and

45:35

ranks 10 overall on

45:35

BoardGameGeek, which is, that's

45:40

pretty crazy, considering that

45:40

this is, what a five year old

45:43

game. Yeah, this is a five year

45:43

old game. So that's crazy. But

45:49

that just goes to show like it's

45:49

really well designed. And it's

45:53

very replayable people are

45:53

continuing to play it this many

45:57

years later. And you know, the

45:57

expansions also add quite a lot,

46:02

which you can see branch and

46:02

claw has 8.9 and 8.9 rating out

46:07

of four and a half 1000 reviews,

46:07

and jagged Earth is a 9.4 only

46:14

2.9k reviews, and feather and

46:14

flame has a 9.0 out of only 100

46:19

reviews. But that's a new

46:19

expansion that just came out

46:23

this year. Also, I don't think

46:23

we normally talk about the

46:27

weight that people give the

46:27

board games on Board Game Geek,

46:32

that weight is kind of a

46:32

combination of our easy versus

46:36

difficult and simple versus

46:36

complex ratings, but kind of

46:40

describes like the overall

46:40

complexity of the game. So the

46:44

base game is rated at a 4.05.

46:44

And that's out of five being the

46:48

most complex game ever. So it's

46:48

pretty heavy. And then the

46:54

branch and claw expansion is

46:54

weighted at 4.21, jagged Earth

46:58

at 4.54 and feather in flame at

46:58

4.75. And that's really just

47:05

describing like the different

47:05

spirits that you get in these

47:08

expansions and the amount of

47:08

complexity that that adds,

47:11

yes, the feather and flame

47:11

spirits, all four of them that

47:15

are added are very complex or

47:15

very high difficulty to play.

47:21

Hmm. And then real

47:21

quick. So the base game is $63

47:27

currently on Amazon, which I

47:27

feel like that's on discount,

47:30

because we were looking at this

47:30

for a long time. And it was like

47:33

$90.

47:34

It is $90 on the greater

47:34

than games website, but Amazon

47:38

has it for a little bit cheaper.

47:40

So I mean, that's a good deal, I would definitely recommend picking it up. You

47:41

know, we were looking at this

47:44

for a really long time and

47:44

feeling like $90 That's, you

47:48

know, that's an expensive game.

47:48

I don't know if it's worth it,

47:50

but 63 like I would definitely

47:50

say is worth it.

47:54

Yeah, and honestly, we

47:54

were looking at this in the

47:57

sense that $90 For a cooperative

47:57

game that Rachel is sure that

48:01

she's gonna like at all. That's

48:01

true. I was all for it.

48:06

Initially, I was like, Yes, this

48:06

game sounds incredible. Now,

48:10

the branch and claw

48:10

expansion is $30 on Amazon,

48:15

jagged Earth is $55. on Amazon,

48:15

I think that's a little more

48:18

expensive, because it comes in a

48:18

bigger box with like more map

48:21

tiles and stuff. And then

48:21

feather in flame is currently

48:25

out of stock. They don't even

48:25

actually sell it on Amazon yet.

48:27

It's on the greater ban games

48:27

website out of stock, but

48:31

normally goes for $35.

48:33

And actually heads up. I'm

48:33

not sure why this is but

48:37

basically all the prices we just

48:37

listed, excluding the feather

48:41

and flame, of course, because

48:41

it's not on Amazon. Everything

48:44

is actually more expensive on

48:44

the greater than games website.

48:48

Which I don't understand why.

48:50

I don't know. Yeah, if

48:50

you can get it from Amazon.

48:53

That's where I would recommend doing it.

48:55

All right. So let's let's

48:55

talk about our ratings.

48:59

First, we have easy

48:59

versus difficult. You know, this

49:02

is basically how often do you

49:02

have to go back to the rulebook?

49:05

How easy is the rulebook to

49:05

read? How often do you have to

49:08

look up things? How often are

49:08

there questions? What did you

49:12

think?

49:12

I don't think it's all

49:12

that bad. I feel like the rules

49:16

are pretty well written. There's

49:16

a lot to remember. But once you

49:20

understand it, there's not a

49:20

whole lot that you have to go

49:22

back and check. We do have the

49:22

disagreement about the fast

49:26

phase actions. We do have that.

49:26

However, that being said, I

49:32

think the rules themselves I

49:32

would only give it probably a

49:35

five. Okay, that seems fair. So what I

49:36

was gonna say is the rulebook.

49:41

It's not written in an order

49:41

that makes a ton of sense to me.

49:45

So the way we explained the

49:45

rules, I actually changed around

49:48

a little bit from the rulebook

49:48

because I feel like it's more

49:51

important to understand like the

49:51

concepts of what's being talked

49:54

about what is blight? What are

49:54

the invaders, you know, what are

49:58

your powers, et cetera, is more

49:58

important to understand those

50:01

concepts before you talk about

50:01

like the sequence of play. So I

50:06

just kind of flipped those

50:06

around. But yeah, I think you're

50:09

right, like it is written pretty

50:09

clearly. My other kind of gripe

50:14

or concern about the way the

50:14

rulebook is written is there are

50:18

some things that it seems

50:18

randomly decided that this isn't

50:23

going to be written in like the

50:23

normal way that the rest of the

50:27

rules are written with a header

50:27

and like, it's under a specific

50:30

section, it's kind of a note off

50:30

to the side in a box. And

50:36

typically what I've seen in the

50:36

past with like, notes off to the

50:40

side in the box, that's normally

50:40

an example of something that was

50:43

just described in the main

50:43

section of the rulebook. These

50:46

are like new and separate rules

50:46

that are only described off in

50:50

this little section in a

50:50

separate box. And so when you're

50:53

going back and trying to look

50:53

something up, you're like, Okay,

50:57

you know, I'm in this section

50:57

about the, you know, the

51:01

invaders or whatever, I can't

51:01

find the details on how you set

51:04

up like the Explorer deck. Where

51:04

is that? Like, it's not here in

51:08

the regular setup? Oh, it's

51:08

often this box to the side for

51:12

some reason it does. I don't

51:12

know why, like, I don't know why

51:16

it makes sense to have that

51:16

separated. And so that does make

51:21

it a little bit more difficult.

51:21

If you are trying to go back and

51:24

look something up. It makes it a

51:24

little bit more difficult to do

51:27

that. So that and just the fact

51:27

that there are so many rules, I

51:32

think I'm gonna give this a

51:32

SEVEN actually, really, okay,

51:37

yeah. Well, next we have simple versus

51:38

complex. The difference between

51:44

easy versus difficult and simple

51:44

versus complex is the amount of

51:47

strategy simple versus complex

51:47

is really analyzing how to use

51:51

the mechanics to win. Are there

51:51

a variety of viable strategies

51:55

to use? How much strategy is

51:55

involved in this game? This is

52:00

actually a very easy rating for

52:00

me, I'm gonna give it a 10. Me

52:03

too. This is the most

52:03

complicated game I've ever

52:06

played.

52:06

Agreed. And like, the

52:06

number of strategies that you

52:10

can bring to it, like with the

52:10

different combinations of

52:13

spirits is infinite, it seems

52:13

the different ways to go about

52:19

playing the game the different,

52:19

like, once you add some of those

52:23

expansions 1,000%. This is a 10

52:27

Oh, yeah, the base game

52:27

itself, I think I'd probably

52:30

give it an eight or nine, but

52:30

with just the branch and clocks

52:34

page and makes it the 10.

52:34

Easily.

52:36

Yeah, I would say a nine

52:36

for the base game, a 10. If you

52:41

add branch and claw. This is the

52:41

first time that we've given 10s

52:45

on the show. So take that into

52:45

consideration, I guess in

52:49

comparison to the other games

52:49

that we have rated. But if

52:52

you're looking for something

52:52

heavy, and very team oriented,

52:57

like this is a fantastic game.

53:00

Oh, yeah. I honestly would

53:00

recommend this to I won't say

53:05

everyone and anyone. Definitely

53:05

people who are okay with complex

53:11

games and heavy games like this

53:11

is one of my favorite games I've

53:15

ever played. Yeah, I agree. And

53:15

lastly, we have the wrote versus

53:20

random rating. What game

53:20

mechanics change each play to

53:24

make a unique experience? Do we

53:24

have dice rolling randomized

53:27

cards chances to figure

53:27

different scenarios, personally,

53:31

because there's so much there's

53:31

so many things that you can

53:36

change with different powers and

53:36

different LOA and different

53:39

scenarios and different, like

53:39

this is not a road game at all.

53:44

Agreed. The objective is the

53:44

same and you're going to be

53:47

doing the same things, ie,

53:47

destroying towns and cities and

53:53

causing fear and mayhem. But how

53:53

you do that changes each game,

53:58

and how the invaders are going

53:58

to react changes. So wrote

54:05

versus random, like this is

54:05

probably as an eighth on the

54:09

random scale I think.

54:11

I'm having trouble with

54:11

wrote versus random lately. I

54:14

wonder if we need to change this

54:14

rating? Because again, I

54:19

wouldn't describe it as a super

54:19

random game, but I totally

54:24

understand what you're saying.

54:24

The wrote components I would say

54:29

are in this isn't even

54:29

necessarily wrote as in like

54:33

from game to game. This is the

54:33

same but like wrote as in

54:37

predictability, I would say is

54:37

in the Explorer deck and how you

54:41

can see where they're going to build where they're going to ravage all of that. If you add

54:43

the branch and clock expansion,

54:46

that's totally mixed up, though.

54:48

That makes it very

54:48

difficult to predict. Yeah.

54:52

So I guess it's pretty

54:52

high. I would also give it I'll

54:58

give it a seven on rover seems

54:58

random. But I'm starting to

55:01

wonder if we need to come up

55:01

with like different words to

55:04

kind of describe this section.

55:04

Because I think what we're

55:07

trying to capture is like, what

55:07

would be the most rote game?

55:13

What do you think is the most

55:13

rote game? Like what would be a

55:15

one on this scale?

55:17

Checkers?

55:19

Yeah. Okay. Checkers.

55:19

Chess even I guess would be

55:23

wrote, even though like, what

55:23

we're trying to describe is your

55:29

gameplay. Yeah. But like, two

55:29

games of chess are going to be

55:33

very unique based on what people

55:33

choose. And I know we've had

55:36

this argument before the player

55:36

actions are not considered

55:39

random.

55:40

No, they're not according

55:40

to you.

55:43

I know. But I'm starting

55:43

to question like, maybe random

55:47

just isn't the right word. So I

55:47

don't know. Stay tuned to see if

55:52

we if we change the terminology

55:52

for this section. But anyway,

55:56

that's my long rant ramble

55:56

seven, I'll give it a seven.

56:00

Okay, so yeah, that's spirit

56:00

Island. Time to answer the

56:04

question, Jake. Would you rather

56:04

play this game than dealing with

56:11

patients at work that are

56:11

complaining about not getting

56:14

their procedures done, even

56:14

though it was only ordered five

56:17

hours ago, and you're still

56:17

backlogged from like three days

56:20

ago, and other people are

56:20

calling you and telling you this

56:24

needs to get done now? Oh, no,

56:24

but sorry, you're still backlog.

56:29

There's like, there's a priority

56:29

to the way that things are

56:31

supposed to be done.

56:33

I think personally, I

56:33

would rather deal with

56:35

hemorrhoids than work. That

56:35

being said, I would much, much

56:40

rather play this game than

56:40

anything at work, regardless of

56:44

how my day of work is going.

56:46

Hmm, yeah, I can quit my

56:46

job and just play this game all

56:49

the time. I'll do it. I'll do it

56:49

right now. Sign me up. Well,

56:53

there you have it. That is

56:53

spirit Island. Thank you guys so

56:57

much for listening. As always,

56:57

you can hit us up on Facebook,

57:01

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57:01

bored podcast. That's S O B o ar

57:06

D podcast. We love hearing about

57:06

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57:11

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57:11

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57:14

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57:14

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57:18

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57:18

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57:21

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57:25

media, you can reach out to us

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57:29

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57:29

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57:41

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another episode next week. So

57:53

you'll be glad that you're

57:55

subscribed. Oh, what's this is

57:55

an off week. I wasn't expecting

58:00

a new we're so bored episode.

58:00

Yes, we're going weekly, just

58:04

for the month of October this

58:04

year, because we've got so many

58:07

spooky Halloween type games that

58:07

we want to talk about.

58:11

Well, this year work we

58:11

are doing something a little

58:14

different. Last year, we did all

58:14

spooky Halloween games. This

58:17

year, we're doing costumes.

58:20

Yes. So essentially

58:20

games that have themes that

58:24

would make good costumes.

58:26

Stay tuned and see if you

58:26

could figure out what costumes

58:29

are for each episode.

58:31

Mm hmm. We'll probably

58:31

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58:37

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59:01

Thanks to a&t podcast

59:01

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59:04

episode. They are professional

59:04

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59:08

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59:13

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59:15

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So check him out at m i s c. O S

59:20

Ara on Instagram, or on his

59:20

website at Mitchell Mims. That's

59:25

mi ch e l m i m s dot c ar

59:25

rd.co. Once again, we are

59:31

streaming on Wednesday nights on

59:31

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59:36

like spirit Island. We have done

59:36

that several times now. And we

59:40

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59:40

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Bored podcast that's S O B O A R

59:46

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59:51

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59:56

for y'all. I am at

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twitch.tv/naughty Doc 541 That's

1:00:00

NAU GH TYD OC 541. I do lots of

1:00:08

retro games. I haven't been

1:00:08

streaming it but I've been

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playing some amazingly bad but

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So you are notified when we get

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Thank you all so much for

1:00:28

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1:00:31

Bye bye