Haven't tried the really difficult spirits yet - though I love the art style of Fractured days split the sky. Hope I'll be able to master this one some day :D So far I like Stones unyielding defiance the most, since it's just so satisfying to go balls deep into the big bad places that everyone else tends to avoid and just wreak havoc. My wife keeps playing with Shifting memory of ages since it's just an all around good spirit with a lot of flexibility.
Nice, good to see a Stone fan! Given how messy my playstyle is they *should* be one of my favourites, maybe I just need a few more plays with them! Memory is very straightforward compared to a lot of the Jagged Earth spirits and that's no bad thing!
What are your favourites? (Also: I'm livestreaming Spirit Island fortnightly on Twitch ( www.twitch.tv/peasantsi ) next one Thursday 16th September 3PM UK time, be lovely to see you there!)
Thanks for making this video! I own base game + jagged earth, and will buy Branch and claw and feather and flame when it releases. I love stone, trickster, vengeance and star light. O definitely agree star light should be high complexity not very high
I just got a physical copy of Jagged Earth! (And finally also of the base game which had been sold out for some time). Based on the pictures Shroud would be my favourite (because it reminds me of the LucasArts Loom adventure game). Second would be Vengeance, also because I see that the beast element is more important for that spirit and none of the spirits from the base game seem to be really focussed on that element. Thanks for your suggestion to try Memory first! I also need to learn all new rules that come with this expansion. I haven't played with "Branch & Claw" yet, a physical copy of that still looks to be sold out where I live. Luckily, based on your plays I already have some idea how strive, beasts, disease, plants and events work - though I haven't the rules clear in my head yet. If I were to combine Memory with a spirit from the base game, which would fit best? Or would it be better to combine Memory with an other spirit of Jagged Earth? I'd like to explore Jagged Earth together with a friend. Not sure if picking two spirits from Jagged Earth for a first game would be a good idea, I think it would be less overwhelming to combine it with a spirit I'm already familiar with.
Whoop whoop! So glad you got your copy of JE + base! Shroud and Vengeance are very cool spirits, tricky to play but very evocative. I would combine Memory with a familiar comfy spirit while you get used to the tokens, the events and all that kind of thing. Though something if you have only just got a physical copy, might be good to even run a base game with your physical copy just to get used to administering your own rules (I'm assuming you've been playing the app here). I *can* and sometimes *do* overwhelm myself by trying to do things that are overcomplicated in this game, so unless that's what you're into I would steer towards a gentle introduction to the new stuff - there's no rush (unless there is XD).
@@pheasantSI Okay, so your recommendation is to first play the expansion with spirits from the base game? I've played two games with the physical game so far with that friend (or technically one, since the second one isn't finished yet). From that experience I see that I quite sometimes forget to draw the explore card after build and I also once made a mistake of drawing a second explore card (since after explore I immediately shift all cards). I also wondered a few times if I already used my innate (in our second game I played with Ocean). So I plan to play at least a few more games with the base game alone with that friend (also because he's completely new to the game). Maybe introduce him first to advisories before making the jump to Jagged Earth - though he seems to be eager to quickly go to JE. It looks like Starlight drew his most attention.
I didn't realise you already had a couple of games under your belt with that friend already. The odd extra or missing explore is no biggie :D The answer here depends almost entirely on what your friend is like! I have friends that I play board games with that I wouldn't dream of introducing them to the game with tokens / events etc. and I have a friend or two that would insist on playing with everything! Some people it might work to play first game against Prussia and some at difficulty 0. My general feeling with playing with newer players is to go with very comfy spirits for myself so that if I have to answer rules questions or help out on the board it's not too much of a mental strain - so I like Green for that. If your friend really wants to play a tricky spirit like Starlight I wouldn't stop them!
@@pheasantSI My friend is a fan of Carcassonne and he loves to play that with 12 or even more expansions (not me, I found that a bit too much). This weekend, when I introduced him to the game, he wanted to start with Bringer - which I strongly discouraged. So I gave him Bringer for his second game and I thought that would complement well with Ocean as I think you had one play with that combination here on the channel. We also brought River and Earth to our second game as we used these in the first one - not sure if that was a good idea: each turn took about 45 minutes! It was also my first play with Ocean in a four spirit game. The first few turns I was busy with getting presence in all 4 oceans so they would all be available for receiving explorers and towns. But I noticed it was hard to get much presence of Ocean on the coast. I also had to reclaim a lot because I hadn't many cards on Ocean's hand (I used the second grow option a few times in the beginning in order to be present in all oceans). Luckily I got my beloved Rootbiters card for Ocean which really shined so far in this game: there were quite a few times two towns on a coastal land. And because I suggested to focus more on the inland with the other spirits, "The Land Trashes In Furious Pain" also finally had a tremendous role in a game of mine. We let blight happen on the complete coast on one board and Ocean could then clear two coastal lands with that card. We've only got a few cities on the board left, it looks like to become a winning game. Especially since I now got "Talons Of Lightning" with Earth (yet again!).
My love for Green, Bringer & Ocean is strong! I'm curious to see how I'll feel about them if I get to a point where I've played the Jagged Earth spirits the same kind of amount.
I love Fractured Days. It's probably my favorite spirit overall, though I am new to the expansion, so that is subject to change. I just love it's theme and the fact that it can be a strong support spirit in a multiplayer game.
Days is great! I love how wildly different they are to some of the usual considerations about presence placement, and the big hand of cards to work towards is exciting too! And their unique powers are so great too.
Hey Micah! Good question. I did attempt some (mid difficulty) in the past but I wasn't really happy with the result (I made too many rules errors). Once I'm back home I'm planning on doing more livestreamed physical recordings and I could do some more beginner friendly ones - i.e. an overview and an overexplain approach? I generally consider Jagged Earth content to be well beyond what I'd call 'beginner friendly' as there are a lot of extra complications and the spirits are pretty complex :) So maybe it would be more like a mid-level runthrough on something like Prussia 3 so that it's somewhat representative of people that are at an experience level that's appropriate for JE content. I'm interested to know what you think! I feel like doing no adversary runs on JE content is serving people that don't exist, but I could be wrong on that! Thanks for the comment :)
@@pheasantSI Thanks for the reply! I am a very seasoned spirit island player, I typically play multi spirit games near to or the highest difficulty. I like the when you give some openings to spirits so I can jump into a new spirit faster. Plus learn JE a bit more. Maybe a weird but it has not been clear, am I supposed to mix the cards? Like the fear, minor, and major cards or only play 1 or the other even if I mix the games?
Yes, you mix together all the new cards from Jagged Earth with the ones you had from Base/Branch and Claw/PromoPacks :) I love how this means I don't see the old staples so much (Indo Claim/Para Fright etc.) and means I sometimes get a weird selection of cards to play with :D I do have a series on openings with the spirits planned but I've been a bit slow to start making it (and I plan for that to also include JE spirits).
Gotta stop looking at Jagged Earth sprits, we are still only 3 plays into base, but Trickster / Starlight / Fractured just look sooooo up my alley. Only one more play before we bring in branch and claw I think. Playing all spirits in base game once vs 0 strength, then doing branch and claw and then going to start exploring adversaries and maybe scenarios. I love the tokens and extra powers in branch, but am a little worried that the event deck might slow things down too much for us with all the reading and interpreting what each one does.
The Event deck is great but I wouldn't rush to add it, it does change the game quite a lot from base and make things a lot less predictable! And you're right it does slow things down - until you've played with events a lot they're a lot of information to understand. Trying them too early also might put you off them, which is a shame because they really make the island feel more alive.
Lack of creativity on my part, but bc I think Offense/Fear is the best thing a spirit can do, I always build Starlight the same way. Probably most powerful fear/offense Spirit in the game
Interesting! It's entirely possibly that I've not played *enough* with all the Jagged Earth spirits, maybe over time I'll become too settled in a a certain way of playing Starlight. Typically I just really enjoy building around a Major and you can end up with some weird and interesting builds. (Or that's how it feels right now!)
Lure is OP, not Many Minds. Very very OP. :) Mine are 1 Fractured Days 2 Lure 3 Downpour 4 Starlight 5 Grinning Trickster Honorable Mention: Many Minds I don't like that much 5 Shifting Memory: Too situational. You're relying too much on Major powers 4 Stone: Very powerful but I don't seem to get him working properly 3. Vengeance: Very underpowered at levels 5 and 6 2. Finder: I actually really like Finder, but it's too weak against levels 5 and 6 1. Shroud: Can't get it to work.
Nice list! Haha Shroud is a bit weird, but I'm not worried about them being tricky. I'll have to go back and have another look at Lure. They're definitely one of the Spirits I was most hyped for before getting my copy. But then Starlight and Downpour showed up!
@@pheasantSI Yep, Starlight and Downpour rock (no offense Stone :D ). We've found out a broken strategy for Lure that is also kind of boring (I started it and my friend added the finishing the touches). ANd nothing I have tried after even comes close to that level of power. I'm interested to see whether you'll find it also. :) PS. All of the Jagged Earth spirits looked boring (especially Downpour) at first read, but boy was I wrong!
A broken strategy as Lure eh? OK how about this - on my next batch of live recordings I'll play some Lure and see if I find it. I'll not look at any guides or anything, but I will play a little myself in the run up - (I'm trying to do what I can to reduce the number of rules /strategy errors in the live recordings). It's entirely possible I'll not notice the broken strategy!
@@pheasantSI You should, since you're way better than me at high level adversaries. If the live recordings are on TH-cam, I'll try to join if time difference and work permit. :)
Haven't tried the really difficult spirits yet - though I love the art style of Fractured days split the sky. Hope I'll be able to master this one some day :D So far I like Stones unyielding defiance the most, since it's just so satisfying to go balls deep into the big bad places that everyone else tends to avoid and just wreak havoc. My wife keeps playing with Shifting memory of ages since it's just an all around good spirit with a lot of flexibility.
Nice, good to see a Stone fan! Given how messy my playstyle is they *should* be one of my favourites, maybe I just need a few more plays with them! Memory is very straightforward compared to a lot of the Jagged Earth spirits and that's no bad thing!
Great video, thank you sir!
What are your favourites? (Also: I'm livestreaming Spirit Island fortnightly on Twitch ( www.twitch.tv/peasantsi ) next one Thursday 16th September 3PM UK time, be lovely to see you there!)
good to watch your video
Thanks!
We have such different tastes. My favorite is Trickster, then Volcano and Many Minds.
I love that there's no spirit that's everyone's clear favourite!
Thanks for making this video! I own base game + jagged earth, and will buy Branch and claw and feather and flame when it releases. I love stone, trickster, vengeance and star light. O definitely agree star light should be high complexity not very high
Glad you liked it! Stone is great, hoping to stream some Stone soon!
Boy I need to get this to the table again. Only played Shroud and Lure which I have enjoyed very much. I guess my favorite JE spirit is Shroud.
I can see why Shroud would be a favourite spirit - Shroud's definitely got their own thing going on!
I just got a physical copy of Jagged Earth! (And finally also of the base game which had been sold out for some time). Based on the pictures Shroud would be my favourite (because it reminds me of the LucasArts Loom adventure game). Second would be Vengeance, also because I see that the beast element is more important for that spirit and none of the spirits from the base game seem to be really focussed on that element.
Thanks for your suggestion to try Memory first! I also need to learn all new rules that come with this expansion. I haven't played with "Branch & Claw" yet, a physical copy of that still looks to be sold out where I live. Luckily, based on your plays I already have some idea how strive, beasts, disease, plants and events work - though I haven't the rules clear in my head yet.
If I were to combine Memory with a spirit from the base game, which would fit best? Or would it be better to combine Memory with an other spirit of Jagged Earth? I'd like to explore Jagged Earth together with a friend. Not sure if picking two spirits from Jagged Earth for a first game would be a good idea, I think it would be less overwhelming to combine it with a spirit I'm already familiar with.
Whoop whoop! So glad you got your copy of JE + base! Shroud and Vengeance are very cool spirits, tricky to play but very evocative.
I would combine Memory with a familiar comfy spirit while you get used to the tokens, the events and all that kind of thing. Though something if you have only just got a physical copy, might be good to even run a base game with your physical copy just to get used to administering your own rules (I'm assuming you've been playing the app here). I *can* and sometimes *do* overwhelm myself by trying to do things that are overcomplicated in this game, so unless that's what you're into I would steer towards a gentle introduction to the new stuff - there's no rush (unless there is XD).
@@pheasantSI Okay, so your recommendation is to first play the expansion with spirits from the base game? I've played two games with the physical game so far with that friend (or technically one, since the second one isn't finished yet). From that experience I see that I quite sometimes forget to draw the explore card after build and I also once made a mistake of drawing a second explore card (since after explore I immediately shift all cards). I also wondered a few times if I already used my innate (in our second game I played with Ocean). So I plan to play at least a few more games with the base game alone with that friend (also because he's completely new to the game). Maybe introduce him first to advisories before making the jump to Jagged Earth - though he seems to be eager to quickly go to JE. It looks like Starlight drew his most attention.
And yes, I've been playing the app for about half a year now. 🙂
I didn't realise you already had a couple of games under your belt with that friend already. The odd extra or missing explore is no biggie :D
The answer here depends almost entirely on what your friend is like! I have friends that I play board games with that I wouldn't dream of introducing them to the game with tokens / events etc. and I have a friend or two that would insist on playing with everything! Some people it might work to play first game against Prussia and some at difficulty 0.
My general feeling with playing with newer players is to go with very comfy spirits for myself so that if I have to answer rules questions or help out on the board it's not too much of a mental strain - so I like Green for that. If your friend really wants to play a tricky spirit like Starlight I wouldn't stop them!
@@pheasantSI My friend is a fan of Carcassonne and he loves to play that with 12 or even more expansions (not me, I found that a bit too much). This weekend, when I introduced him to the game, he wanted to start with Bringer - which I strongly discouraged. So I gave him Bringer for his second game and I thought that would complement well with Ocean as I think you had one play with that combination here on the channel. We also brought River and Earth to our second game as we used these in the first one - not sure if that was a good idea: each turn took about 45 minutes!
It was also my first play with Ocean in a four spirit game. The first few turns I was busy with getting presence in all 4 oceans so they would all be available for receiving explorers and towns. But I noticed it was hard to get much presence of Ocean on the coast. I also had to reclaim a lot because I hadn't many cards on Ocean's hand (I used the second grow option a few times in the beginning in order to be present in all oceans). Luckily I got my beloved Rootbiters card for Ocean which really shined so far in this game: there were quite a few times two towns on a coastal land. And because I suggested to focus more on the inland with the other spirits, "The Land Trashes In Furious Pain" also finally had a tremendous role in a game of mine. We let blight happen on the complete coast on one board and Ocean could then clear two coastal lands with that card.
We've only got a few cities on the board left, it looks like to become a winning game. Especially since I now got "Talons Of Lightning" with Earth (yet again!).
my faw's are Ages and Time I love them. i don't like any of the rest expension spirits yet, I'm a fan of the base spirits :D
My love for Green, Bringer & Ocean is strong! I'm curious to see how I'll feel about them if I get to a point where I've played the Jagged Earth spirits the same kind of amount.
I love Fractured Days. It's probably my favorite spirit overall, though I am new to the expansion, so that is subject to change. I just love it's theme and the fact that it can be a strong support spirit in a multiplayer game.
Days is great! I love how wildly different they are to some of the usual considerations about presence placement, and the big hand of cards to work towards is exciting too! And their unique powers are so great too.
When are you going to do jagged earth walkthroughs?
Hey Micah! Good question. I did attempt some (mid difficulty) in the past but I wasn't really happy with the result (I made too many rules errors). Once I'm back home I'm planning on doing more livestreamed physical recordings and I could do some more beginner friendly ones - i.e. an overview and an overexplain approach? I generally consider Jagged Earth content to be well beyond what I'd call 'beginner friendly' as there are a lot of extra complications and the spirits are pretty complex :) So maybe it would be more like a mid-level runthrough on something like Prussia 3 so that it's somewhat representative of people that are at an experience level that's appropriate for JE content. I'm interested to know what you think! I feel like doing no adversary runs on JE content is serving people that don't exist, but I could be wrong on that! Thanks for the comment :)
@@pheasantSI Thanks for the reply! I am a very seasoned spirit island player, I typically play multi spirit games near to or the highest difficulty. I like the when you give some openings to spirits so I can jump into a new spirit faster. Plus learn JE a bit more. Maybe a weird but it has not been clear, am I supposed to mix the cards? Like the fear, minor, and major cards or only play 1 or the other even if I mix the games?
Yes, you mix together all the new cards from Jagged Earth with the ones you had from Base/Branch and Claw/PromoPacks :) I love how this means I don't see the old staples so much (Indo Claim/Para Fright etc.) and means I sometimes get a weird selection of cards to play with :D
I do have a series on openings with the spirits planned but I've been a bit slow to start making it (and I plan for that to also include JE spirits).
@@pheasantSI ok sweet! Looking forward to it then 😄
Gotta stop looking at Jagged Earth sprits, we are still only 3 plays into base, but Trickster / Starlight / Fractured just look sooooo up my alley. Only one more play before we bring in branch and claw I think. Playing all spirits in base game once vs 0 strength, then doing branch and claw and then going to start exploring adversaries and maybe scenarios.
I love the tokens and extra powers in branch, but am a little worried that the event deck might slow things down too much for us with all the reading and interpreting what each one does.
The Event deck is great but I wouldn't rush to add it, it does change the game quite a lot from base and make things a lot less predictable! And you're right it does slow things down - until you've played with events a lot they're a lot of information to understand. Trying them too early also might put you off them, which is a shame because they really make the island feel more alive.
your top 3 matches exactly with mine :D
I'm really surprised about my 3rd pick! Top 2 I've always been excited by.
Lack of creativity on my part, but bc I think Offense/Fear is the best thing a spirit can do, I always build Starlight the same way. Probably most powerful fear/offense Spirit in the game
Interesting! It's entirely possibly that I've not played *enough* with all the Jagged Earth spirits, maybe over time I'll become too settled in a a certain way of playing Starlight. Typically I just really enjoy building around a Major and you can end up with some weird and interesting builds. (Or that's how it feels right now!)
My favorite are
1. Lure
2. Downpour.
They are so strong, thematic, and really fun to play 😊 will try them out against top adversaries soon.
Lure has certainly grown on me since making this video :D
Lure is OP, not Many Minds. Very very OP. :)
Mine are
1 Fractured Days
2 Lure
3 Downpour
4 Starlight
5 Grinning Trickster
Honorable Mention: Many Minds
I don't like that much
5 Shifting Memory: Too situational. You're relying too much on Major powers
4 Stone: Very powerful but I don't seem to get him working properly
3. Vengeance: Very underpowered at levels 5 and 6
2. Finder: I actually really like Finder, but it's too weak against levels 5 and 6
1. Shroud: Can't get it to work.
Nice list! Haha Shroud is a bit weird, but I'm not worried about them being tricky. I'll have to go back and have another look at Lure. They're definitely one of the Spirits I was most hyped for before getting my copy. But then Starlight and Downpour showed up!
@@pheasantSI Yep, Starlight and Downpour rock (no offense Stone :D ). We've found out a broken strategy for Lure that is also kind of boring (I started it and my friend added the finishing the touches). ANd nothing I have tried after even comes close to that level of power.
I'm interested to see whether you'll find it also. :)
PS. All of the Jagged Earth spirits looked boring (especially Downpour) at first read, but boy was I wrong!
A broken strategy as Lure eh? OK how about this - on my next batch of live recordings I'll play some Lure and see if I find it. I'll not look at any guides or anything, but I will play a little myself in the run up - (I'm trying to do what I can to reduce the number of rules /strategy errors in the live recordings). It's entirely possible I'll not notice the broken strategy!
@@pheasantSI You should, since you're way better than me at high level adversaries. If the live recordings are on TH-cam, I'll try to join if time difference and work permit. :)