Dahan Konundrum

This part uses the base game plus Board F from the Jagged Earth expansion.

Rae (Shadows): I want to play a challenging game of Spirit Island right now.

Luna (spectator): I'd be down to play with you.

R: Nah, I haven't played in a few days, so I want to play a true solo game.

L: (in a sarcastic tone of voice) how about Shadows against Russia 6?

R: *groaning noise* I don’t feel like bringing out the expansions… I’m just gonna play base game for now, without any adversaries.

L: fine, how about trying to play Shadows on its worst board?

R: What do you mean by “worst board”?

L: well, there’s the board in the expansion where it starts with all 3 presence in the same land.

R: Oh yeah, board F. Sure, I’ll give it a try, I just happen to have that stored with all my other boards with the base game.

Setup link

Turn 1

R: Ok, that’s setup done. It was pretty simple, just place Dahan, Invaders, and Blight when they appear next to the number.

L: wait, you’re missing 1 blight from the card, there’s an official errata on that. there you go.

R: Time to reveal the initial explore.

L: ooh I like that. anything that isn’t Wetlands is great.

R: It’s especially nice because I get to do that cool combo of Favors Called Due and Concealing Shadows and have it destroy a City during next turn’s Ravage.

L: yeah, although you’ll only be able to gather 3 Dahan into that land, so you won’t get the extra Fear from Favors, and you only deal 6 damage instead of 8.

R: Eh we’ll worry about that later.

R: So start with the third Growth option, let’s see…

R: Well, the two Wetlands are the only two lands that aren’t within range 1 of my starting presence, so I want to fix that and make them both range 1.

L: yeah I feel like the Wetlands are just terrible, especially as a Turn 1 Explore, as your board has zero Dahan adjacent to either.

R: Fully agreed.

R: I want to use my innate, and I’ll need the 2 card plays to be able to get the 2 Moon needed for the first threshold. Now looking at my cards, there’s zero chance that Crops Wither and Fade will be useful this turn, so we might as well play Mantle of Dread and hope for either Mountains or Jungles to be the next explore.

R: Ok, so my only fast power is my innate, which I will use to move the Explorer in land 1 to land 2.

L: in the invader phase, we build, then explore… nice, you predicted correctly!

R: I might as well shove this Explorer into the Sands that’s about to ravage. It’s not gonna die since there aren’t enough Dahan, but it won’t do anything for at least a couple turns.

L: right, since you can’t outnumber the invaders anyways it won’t matter whether you gather the Dahan into land 8 before or after pushing the Explorer in there.

R: Whatever, as long as I actually gather them and not forget to use the power like I did last time.

R: Alright, time passes!

Sample excalidraw notes
Sample spreadsheet notes

Turn 2

R: Ok, let’s gain a Minor Power, shall we?

R: Ooh, Shadows of the Burning Forest! None of the other 3 cards seem useful at all.

R: I’ll just add my presence into the ravaging land to save that 1 energy. I don’t care about presence being destroyed that much.

R: Crops Wither is still gonna be completely useless this turn, so I will play Concealing Shadows and Shadows of the Burning Forest.

L: ah yes, the two cards with your spirit’s name on it.

R: On with my plan to destroy the City with the Dahan counterattack. I’ll also gather this other Explorer into that land, since it won’t be doing anything there for a while.

R: Ok, how have no Fear Cards been earned yet?

L: it’s because you couldn’t get the 3 Fear from Favors.

R: Right. Why is board F such a *bad* board?

R: Well, that ravage gives us a good amount of Fear.

R: Build doesn’t happen because the lands are empty, explore Wetlands,

L: yay, you cut off one of them!

R: Yeah, I only add one of the two Explorers!

R: Ok, in the slow phase, I will use Shadows of the Burning Forest to generate 2 Fear…

L: wait, you need an Invader in one of your lands to use that. or you could pay to use it…

R: Oh right. Nah, let’s not spend the Energy, that one Energy matters sometimes. I can move the Explorer out of land 3 with Darkness Swallows next turn anyways.

check: the only building on the island is the City in land 2

Turn 3

R: Let me gain another Minor. Oh hey, Lure of the Unknown has my elements!

L: damn, you’re getting lucky draws today.

L: I see you’re also saving a lot of energy; you have 5 energy and are only spending 1, which means you’re going for a Major next turn right?

R: Yeah, watch me draw something OP like The Jungle Hungles or something.

L: you mean The Junger Hungers?

R: shush

R: Maybe I should add my presence into land 2 so Crops Wither will actually be useful. Then I won’t have to worry about thresholding Jungle Hungers next turn, if I do get it.

R: Hmm, I’ve only been shuffling Explorers around this game. How many times have I used Powers that moved an Explorer? Also yeah, 5 energy is a lot, how much Energy have I gained and spent so far?

(5) subtract this number from the amount of total Energy gained, then multiply by the amount of total Energy spent (including this Spirit Phase)

R: Ok, I will gather this Explorer into land 2. Actually, I might as well gather it into land 5 right afterwards so a Fear Card like Isolation or Fear of the Unseen can get rid of it.

L: oh wait, you could actually use it to deal with land 8 instead. if Sands comes up, it’s much easier for you to prevent both Builds by moving two Explorers instead of three, and if Jungles comes up, you just let Favors + Concealing deal with land 2 while you prevent the Build on land 5.

R: Yay, removing Explorers!

R: Ravage, Build, Explore is Sands again, with the funny flag symbol on it this time, which if we’re not playing against an Adversary, doesn’t do anything.

L: good thing we removed from land 8 instead of land 5!

L: you should have enough actions to be able to get rid of both of the Explorers in the Sands now before either of them Build, right?

check: Rae has 6 cards in discard, 0 in hand, and 4 Energy

Turn 4

R: Ok, let’s reclaim and gain a Major this time.

L: bruh

R: I called it! I might as well play it this turn, There’s not much other stuff for me to do in this turn anyways, and I can easily afford to play it. Both Wetlands are empty, and we have another card play and an innate that can each move an Explorer from Sands.

R: And I might as well gather the Land 1 Explorer into the land that’s getting hit by Jungle Hungers. I’ll gather the Explorer in land 8 into, I don’t know, land 6? Sure.

L: the Fear Card is Fear of the Unseen. good thing you removed an Explorer from land 8 last time, now you can remove the Explorer from land 5.

R: Ravage, then they don’t Build anything, Explore…

R: Oh come on! Now I need to clear my coasts again!

L: imagine worrying about your coasts smh

R: Ok, time to use Jungle Hungles, my only Slow power.

check: no buildings are on the board, only 1 Explorer in land 1 and land 3 (though there may be Explorers elsewhere on the board)

Turn 5

L: huh, the game hasn’t ended yet, but there are no buildings anywhere, so we can probably rush some Fear and win.

R: Let’s look at the Majors again.

L: are any of these actually useful?

R: Oh wait, I can just play Concealing Shadows and Crops Wither, that’s enough to hit Terror Level 2 and win by the slow phase this turn. They're only building in the Wetlands anyways, I can just get rid of any buildings they build.

L: wait, since Fear is the only thing you need, doesn’t that card generate 3 Fear in the fast phase? (pointing at Vengeance of the Dead) it also lets you hit level 2 of your innate so you could use that to generate 2 more Fear if you needed.

R: How did I not notice that? Well, there’s 6 Fear. 1 from my Unique, 2 from my Innate, 3 from Vengeance. Could I have won without gaining all 6 Fear? Yes, but why wouldn’t I just get extra Fear anyways?

L: yeah, getting more fear is better style anyways.

L: If you didn’t draw that, you’d still have Terrifying Nightmares as a backup, though it doesn’t have Fire so you wouldn’t be able to get both the one Fear from Concealing Shadows and the two Fear from your innate. I can’t really help with that.

R: Yeah, if only I had a fourth Card Play so I could hit the threshold on Terrifying Nightmares.

R: I just realized that I haven’t used my Special Rule all game.

R: Luna, why’d you steal the Dahan from land 1? I haven’t finished calculating my score yet!

L: don’t worry, I’ve already calculated it for you.

(note: score = 10 + 5*difficulty + 2* number of unrevealed cards in the Invader Deck + (number of living Dahan - number of Blight) / number of players. This may be useful for checking work.)

L: though you should count how many Explorers, Blight, and Presence are on your board at the end.

(3) 2 * (4 - # Blight) * (# Presence - # Explorers) - 1

score: 28

This part uses the base game and the Branch & Claw expansion, plus the “Playing Without Events” section of the Jagged Earth rulebook.

Bjorn (Fangs): Let’s do Opposite Shores? So none of our Coastal lands touch each other’s boards at all.

Dalia (Keeper): Sure, let’s do that, we can cut the center of the island off more easily, so my Wilds tokens will be more useful to stop Explores on the coasts.

B: Huh, I get to place my second presence anywhere I want on the island.

D: Anywhere that already has a Beasts, not really anywhere.

B: Oh yeah. Well, land 8 on my board doesn’t cover a lot, so I might as well go to land 5 on my board.

D: Sure. There are two lands on my coast you can add Presence to. You can jump over at any time.

D: Are we playing against any adversaries?

B: No, the adversaries were all stored in the Jagged Earth box, which I couldn’t find.

D: Not a big deal. Let’s look at the initial Explore, shall we?

Setup link

Turn 1

B: Ew, my other Jungle is blighted so I can’t go through it to do anything against my land 3. I think I’ll just need to let it go.

D: Eh, it’s just a blight and a Dahan or two, it’s not *that* big of a deal.

B: Yeah, I just hope I don’t need them later.

B: Well, I can at least Ranging Hunt this Explorer right on top of me to stop the Build.

D: Hmm, this defend card seems pretty useful, and it has decent elements for my Innates. I’ll take it, especially since Sands is ravaging next turn, so I’ll take advantage of the Defend 4.

D: As for my other Growth option, I only have 1 choice for where to add my Presence.

B: Ooh, Elemental Boon. I’ll take this, it’ll help with thresholding Majors in future turns. This turn I’ll play my other 2 Plant + Animal cards so I can use Ranging Hunt for damage.

D: Oh, do you want Growing Power?

B: Sure, then I’ll have 2 chances to look for a 0-cost card with Animal so I can play Majors myself later, or just something that can deal with land B3 next turn. Also, more energy :yum:

B: Ok, that’s Ranging Hunt done. I’ll go to the Jungle so I can target my cards from there if I wanted to.

D: Ok, we build and then explore.

D: Wait, are we supposed to discard an Event this turn?

B: No, the Event cards are also in the Jagged Earth box, although we have Command Beasts here that we’ll use later. If you don’t remember, it’s explained in the Jagged Earth rulebook, which is uhhhh also in the Jagged Earth box, whoops.

D: Sure, I’ll use my Innate to push this Explorer into B8 so Drift Down will be able to defend this land fully next turn, and then add the Wilds. The Dahan won’t be able to finish off the land so I’ll do that last 1 damage for them, although I’ll probably also end up destroying one of the Dahan.

B: rip B3, none of these cards will be able to deal with that, but hey, I can add even more Beasts to the island, and this card is even free!

B: Ok, I can snipe this Explorer in B7 with Too Near the Jungle, and add a Beasts to D1 to prepare to clear D8 with Ranging Hunt next turn.

D: Oh, I see where you placed your Presence this turn! I was looking all over your board, and forgot to look at my coast.

check: the sum of land numbers of Beasts on board B should be 8 higher than the sum of land numbers of Beasts on board D

Turn 2

D: I do like not having to think hard about where to add Presence with my third Growth option. There are only two legal lands for me to add Presence to, and it’s probably a better idea to add it to the land that doesn’t already have my Sacred Site.

B: Same, my Presence placement is quite constrained, there aren’t many options for me that let me reach D8 with Ranging Hunt.

D: Since you have Elemental Boon, I might as well just gain a Major now, right? Also, where should I add this Presence? I think D2, so I can hit that City with my Innate.

D: *laughs out loud* good game, this Major carries, we just have to survive a couple more turns and then we’ll be so far ahead of the Invaders that they won’t even stand a chance. I can forget Towering Wrath.

B: Oh. Well, I can’t find anything to save land B3, so I’ll just have to let it go. This blight in B4 is so constraining. I wish I could just travel through B4 to get to B3 with Ranging Hunt, I’d even give up the extra Beast on my land 8 for it.

B: I guess this card will just be forget fodder for Majors later on.

B: To threshold your Major, it looks like you need another Sun and Plant. I only need Plant and Animal, so giving you elements won’t hurt me at all.

D: Yeah, I’ll use this power on myself first. I want to uncover the Plant on my tracks so I can get 4 Plant elements and let my innate damage multiple lands this turn.

B: Great! I’ll play Swarming Wasps for myself to add a Beasts to B6 just in case I want to destroy the Town at some point. I'll also clear D8 with Ranging Hunt which also pushes everything into D1.

B: Ok, well, we Ravage, then Build, the Disease stops the Build in B2, then Explore.

D: Well, looks like my Defend isn’t gonna be nearly as useful for a couple turns.

D: Your coast is a bit messier than mine, and your board has no Wilds on it yet. I have the range to push this lone Explorer on your coast into the ravaging land, and we won’t have to worry about that land at all until it Explores again.

D: Let me grow into this land since it’s gonna cascade otherwise, and push this Dahan into D2 with my Special Rule. Wait, I have Sacrosanct Wilderness next turn, which would clear this land anyways, wait, why do I even need 4 Plant?

B: Looks like you could save a Dahan by doing 1 damage where you just added Presence, and the other damage in D7.

D: Oh sure, then I will do that. I don’t think I need a third card play just yet, and I want to do my fourth Growth option a lot which costs a lot of Energy. I feel like the pros will get mad at me for this, but it’s not like we’re playing a level 6 adversary or anything, right?

D: Ooh, Sky Stretches, another OP card that might come in handy later.

B: Very versatile, and it might also come in handy if we somehow get in trouble again.

D: Or if we want to win in the Fast phase of Turn 5 instead of the Slow phase, or you want to add more Beasts with a Slow power right before we use Command Beasts.

check: there should be at least 1 Wilds in each terrain type, there should be no Beasts in Sands or Mountains on either board

Turn 3

D: What if I reclaimed and gave you the extra presence this turn?

B: I would love that! Let me start growing my bottom track so I can have 4 card plays next turn.

B: Hmm, there aren’t enough Beasts on the island, I should start turning my Presence into Beasts. I have 4 Presence on the board which I think is usually where I start doing Call Forth Predators every turn.

B: I should also reclaim, I want to use Ranging Hunt for damage again, and I might want to give away elements again this turn.

B: Let me also gain a Major.

B: Ooh, Savage Transformation.

D: Isn’t that card one of the worst Majors?

B: but BEASTS

D: I can hit the threshold of Unrelenting Growth on my own this turn by the way.

B: Ok, so Elemental Boon won’t be needed this turn, and hitting the threshold for Savage Transformation is kinda awkward if I play it this turn, so I’m gonna wait until next turn to play this.

D: Heh, OK. Good thing I gained 9 energy this Spirit Phase, I’m spending 6 and I’m only playing 2 cards.

D: Where should I push these two Dahan in D2? I just made a Sacred Site there.

B: I might be able to whittle down D3 enough for you to defend it next turn. There’s a Beasts in there so something will probably happen there.

D: Sure, I’ll push them there.

B: Well, let me clear D1 with Ranging Hunt, so I can actually cut off a few lands. I’ll dump everything into D2.

B: I’m also gonna continue spamming Beasts in B6. Here’s a third one.

D: Ok, so we Ravage…

B: Wait, where did the Towns in D5 and D7 … Oh wait, you destroyed them without telling me! I haven’t added the Fear for those yet, fortunately it didn’t matter this time.

D: I thought I told you what I was doing last turn!

D: ... Build, and Explore, and we cut off 1 land, but there was a Wilds there anyways so it wouldn’t have mattered. Though the Blight on two of the lands that actually Explored will probably be pretty annoying for us. Unrelenting Growth can remove one of the Blight, but I can’t use Regrow from Roots to remove the other one.

B: But if the Explore was Mountains, it would have made a difference.

D: True.

B: Let me use Too Near first so I can forget it for a Major: I’ll snipe this lone Explorer that’s about to Build.

D: Nice kill. Anyways, where are you growing into?

B: Actually, I just realized Terrifying Chase hasn’t been used at all, I can probably forget that instead.

B: Ok, back to your question. How about B3? It’s gonna ravage in 2 turns, so we might as well use that Blight removal.

B: Yeah, I’m gonna grab another Major.

D: Dang we’re getting all of the really good majors this game.

B: I know right? This one has all 4 elements I use in my innates, and also an Earth for some reason.

D: I could deal some damage this turn, though I only have 1 land with any invaders. I could destroy a Town on top of me if there was one. I also have Spreading Wilds, although I don’t think it matters very much where I use it.

B: Can’t you use Spreading Wilds to push something onto you and then use Punish on it?

D: True, I could use it in D3 and push the Explorer onto me, then I can defend D3 with that Defend 1 from Drift Down next turn.

check: an Inland land has a Town and a City, and on both boards, land 2 has just a City and no Towns

Turn 4

B: Well, time to play 4 cards this turn, and continue dumping Beasts into B6. Wait, actually, your board seems to be a bit lacking in Beasts, my board has 3 more than yours. I’ll call forth a predator in D2.

D: I can play 3 cards this turn.

B: Oh, it looks like I’ll be spending 6 energy this turn. Interesting, all 4 of the cards I’m playing have different Energy costs.

D: Hey, guess what I found!

B: Vigor of the Breaking Game?

D: No, but something almost as good.

B: Oh, then it looks like I can turn 4 Explorers instead of just 2 into Beasts this turn.

D: I can let you do that fast too.

B: Ooh, that can clear the Explorers from my coasts.

B: Also, don’t we have Command Beasts available?

D: Oh yeah! We can completely clear land B3, so we’ll only have D4 that’s building. Is the damage useful anywhere else, or are you just gaining fear with the rest of the Beasts?

B: Let’s see when we get there.

B: I can give you a couple elements so you can hit the threshold on Powerstorm and let me add even more Beasts, with my reclaimed Swarming Wasps. It looks like we both need Fire. Is there anything else you need?

D: I will still want 3 Plant to keep my options open.

B: Ok, so we need to be careful about what order we do things in. First, I’ll give you some elements: Fire, Plant, and Animal.

D: Yeah, and then I’ll target you with both of my support powers.

B: Ok, I’ll need to add 2 Beasts from Swarming Wasps to B6, and convert all 4 Explorers on my coasts to Beasts with Savage Transformation.

D: Now we use Command? Wow, we have how many Beasts on the island?

(1) add this number to the total number of Beasts added by Bjorn after setup but before Growth this turn

B: Yeah, it looks like all of our Beasts in B2, B6, D2, and D3 can be used to generate Fear.

D: So that’s 7 Fear for your board, and on my board, that’s … :o

B: And the rest of the Beasts can be used to deal damage or move into the adjacent land with Invaders if the land is empty. I still have a couple of other Powers that can be used to finish off Invaders after, but those remove Beasts so I want to use Command Beasts first.

D: Ok, that's all of Command Beasts done.

B: Ok, now I’ll Ranging Hunt B6 for as much damage as I can, which is enough to destroy both of the buildings in there plus an Explorer. I’ll push all of my Presence and two Beasts into B1 so I can snipe lone Explorers more easily.

B: Finally, I'll remove all of the Beasts and the Disease in D2 for Pent-up, I’ll get 2 of the Beasts back, and it’s extra Fear.

D: Ok! That was a lot of Fear. How much Fear did those two Powers after Command Beasts get you?

(2) multiply these numbers together, then subtract from 36

D: Ok! That was a lot. Oh yeah, I need to use my Defend 1 on D3.

B: Fear of the Unseen? How useful is that, even? The land we want to Remove stuff from, which is D4, doesn’t have any Presence.

D: Yeah, Sense of Dread legit makes us earn 1 less Fear, because it Removes the Town from D3 that would have been Destroyed in the Ravage.

D: Ravage, Build, Explore.

B: There go the Wilds on our coasts!

D: Nice, the wilds stopped 3 coastal Explores. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop the one in D1. I could Spreading Wilds to push that Explorer into D2.

D: We don’t have very many buildings left and they’re all in two lands. We can definitely finish them all off before any more are built.

B: True, I can Frenzied Assault this one right now!

D: I might as well clear a couple of Explorers from my lands too, such as D2.

check: there are 10 Beasts on board B, 3 on board D

Turn 5

B: Ok, I had 2 energy when Time Passed, so I have 6 energy this turn.

B: Wait, you actually don’t need to do anything, I’ll just use this Unique that I haven’t used yet together with Pent-up. That’ll let me remove 3 Beasts in D4 instead of 2.

D: I might as well gain another Major and add a Presence just for fun, and forget Unrelenting Growth since I’ve used it so many times already, and then Reclaim and play all of my support Powers just in case you actually need any of them.

B: Yeah, you could just not play any Power Cards and we can still win.

B: Hmm, are there any Explorers I can snipe with Ranging Hunt on the way to D4? If so, I'll snipe them.

D: Alright! Wow, we could have both let 1 more Ravage through and we’d still be Healthy!

B: Unrelenting Growth is such a broken card to get early game.

D: Pent-up is too, it’s so strong late game. Imagine how much Fear we could have gotten if I actually bothered doing my Spirit Phase this turn.

D: How much Fear have the two of us generated this turn, either directly or through Damage? Also, how many Wilds do we have on our island?

(8) 19 - 2 * (# Fear generated - # Wilds)

score: 28

This part uses the base game, and Branch & Claw, Feather & Flame, and Jagged Earth expansions.

Undine (Downpour): Hey Fern, do we want to play against an Adversary?

Fern (Wildfire): Sure! I love playing against Russia, they’re my favorite Adversary. Especially at level 2, where I just get free Fear from destroying Explorers.

U: Yeah, I think it’s a bit more awkward for me. I tend to play more control, so I don’t really like playing level 3 or higher.

F: So there’s an obvious solution, let’s play Russia 2. So we have the Escalation, Explorers doing double damage, and them also being annoying to get rid of.

U: Great! Do we want to take Opposite Shores or the standard layout? I like Opposite Shores, since I can cut off the inlands more easily. I also want to play with Command Beasts since Events might mess with us cutting off the inlands.

F: Fair, I don’t like coastal lands on one board being adjacent to inland lands on other boards either. I always get screwed over by Events, so I’m fine with playing without them.

U: Ok, let’s flip the initial Explore.

Setup link

Turn 1

F: Well, that’s a great opportunity to go into the blighted land on my board to push the Explorer out. Also, I want to take Plant more than Fire, so I’ll grab Flow Downriver, although I don’t see any use for it yet.

U: Hmm, what do you usually call the act of pushing an Explorer by destroying it?

F: I don’t have a standard term for it, but I guess we could say “kick”, though some people also use the name Sergei to refer to the kicked Explorer. So yeah, I will kick the Explorer from A4 into A2 with my Presence placement.

U: Ok. Huh, A5 has 5 adjacent lands, I’ll add my Presence there this turn. Also, both of my Ravages will need Defending next turn. Oh well, I have Unbearable Deluge which is enough Defend for 1 Explorer and 1 Town.

U: If I Isolate A8, and you deal with the Explorers in A7, that’ll cut off one land of all 3 other terrain types! I’ll do that and ignore both of my Sands this turn.

F: Yeah, let me get these two Explorers off my starting land, maybe I’ll dump them into A8 with the Town. I can kick one with Firestorm and push the other one with Threatening Flames.

U: Build, Explore. None of us have slow powers.

check: board E has 1 more Explorer and 2 more Towns than board A

Turn 2

F: Ok, I found a 0-cost card that is at least useful to deal with this Explorer in A1 in the Fast phase. I can push the Explorer onto me, and then kick it into A2 for an extra Fear, since I don’t have another land to use Firestorm in.

F: I can handle this Explorer in E5, and also push the Dahan there into E3.

U: Last turn, I found Savage Mawbeasts, which I didn’t want to play since I couldn’t have Repeated anything with my Special Rule. If you give me Flame’s Fury this turn, I can clear 3 Towns by just Repeating this card twice.

F: Ooh, that seems worth it.

U: I don’t think I need to move my Presence this turn, I’ll just make a Sacred Site here so I can target Savage Mawbeasts.

U: I will also play this Defend 3 in E6, although I won’t bother defending E1, especially since you kicked that Explorer from E5 into that land.

F: Whoops, I can take it back.

U: Nah, I’ll let it go, and instead clear our inlands later this turn, I think that’s a better use of my Repeats anyways.

F: Ok, is that all of Fast?

U: I think so, then Invader phase. Hmm, that makes 3 Explorers in A2. I hope that won’t cause problems down the line when it Ravages.

U: Hmm, I think I want to clear the 2 Explorers from E8 instead of a Town from A8, though I will still carry through with destroying the other two Towns. With your Blazing Presence and Firestorm, you can deal with A8 a lot more thoroughly than I can.

F: Alright, I’ll grow into there next turn. I do need to grab my second Fire and some Energy at some point.

F: You might as well kick one of the Explorers from E8 into A8.

F: Wait, how’d you deal damage in E6? *looks at Undine’s Spirit board* Ah. I see.

Turn 3

U: I have 2 Presences in lands that are building, which means I can destroy both Towns in Slow with Foundations Sink. I’ll move a Presence into E1 just in case one of those Builds is prevented by the Fear card. I don’t think I’ll need this Sacred Site here anymore.

U: Hmm, Steam Vents is the only one of these cards that seems useful, although 3 of my Presences, including the one I had during Setup and never moved, are in lands with a single Explorer, so all it would do is generate a single Fear, so I won’t use it this turn.

F: Well, it’s time for me to play both of my 2-cost Uniques with the 4 energy I gain from Growth. This card is kinda funny because it’s basically just Shatter Homesteads with an extra “Push 1 Dahan” and an extra Plant, it’s the same range, speed, and energy cost otherwise.

U: I have another card play. I could use it on an Isolate, and keep some lands clear.

F: Ok, so I destroy a Town with my Presence and 2 Explorers with Firestorm… Actually, if you Isolated this land, I could actually destroy the Explorers instead of needing to kick one!

U: Sure, that’s not a bad idea.

F: Ok, we have a Fear Card. It is Wary of the Interior.

U: Wow, both of these builds just got stopped then.

F: No Foundations Sink targets?

U: Well, I still have E1. Also, that means I get to gain 1 Energy instead of spending 1 Energy on a Repeat, and we cut off a massive swath of the inlands.

U: Also, where are we Escalating? We do have Command Beasts that we can use to deal with Escalations.

F: Two Explorers into A7 and two into E8, and I’ll add my Presence into E8 next turn to deal with that.

U: Sure, and we can use Command Beasts to just deal damage for free Fear.

U: Hmm, we cut off two Explores, but both of those lands have Explorers in them anyways.

F: Ok, I’ll also ignore the threshold and use Flash-Fires to kick this lone Explorer into A1 for even more Fear, and Asphyxiating Smoke in A8, not like there are actually any better targets. Oh, I can also remove a Blight with my Innate.

Turn 4

F: Huh, we’ve let quite a bit of Blight through. There are 6 on our island, although there were 4 to start with, so we’re still Healthy. I’ll grow into E8, push everything into E7, and then hope to get a Blight removal Minor Power.

F: Oh nice, I found one that’s free, that means I can grow from bottom track again, and my next Presence placement after this turn will deal 3 damage.

U: I’ll also grow into E8, although it’ll be after you, of course. As for where to place my other Presence… how about A2? Then I can Isolate it.

F: Instead of using Blazing Presence to push the Beasts to E7, let me push it into A8. I don’t think E7 will be doing anything this turn.

F: Are we ready for Command Beasts now? I want to do it before I use any of my Powers.

U: Sure. You can kick 1 Explorer onto each of the Wetlands, from either your Powers or from Command Beasts. They’re all ravaging but my Presence will grant all of those inland Wetlands Defend 2. It’s fine to let A2 go, so you should kick the Explorer from A1 into there. Also, A6 isn’t gonna be doing anything, so you can kick an Explorer into there.

F: Ok, so that’s 4 Fear from kicking Explorers.

U: I will use Deluge in A2 and I guess E1, and I have to push out the one Dahan in A2. I’ll push it to A3. I don’t want to use it more than twice, as I want the 2 extra energy from Pour Down Power plus the 2 from Water Nourishes. That way, I could Repeat a Major next turn to get rid of the two Cities on our island. They’re probably going to be quite annoying to deal with.

F: Huh, pushing Dahan is mandatory with Deluge. I never noticed that.

F: I’m gonna remove the Blight in E1. E1 will add another one and cascade if we don’t do anything about it. It’s not like I need the third Presence in A7 anyways. Oh, I still need to use Firestorm in A7.

U: Right, I also should be removing Blight. I can use Water Nourishes to remove this Blight from the Wetlands that you aren’t in, I will not gather a Dahan, because it won’t do any damage in the counterattack. I moved a second Presence into E4 this turn just so I could do that and still defend E4.

U: Our first Fear Card is Fear of the Unseen. Whoops, I should have made more Sacred Sites.

F: Whatever, it’s not like any of our inland Sands are Building anyways.

F: Hmm, Sense of Dread would be more useful if any of the Wetlands except A2 were undefended, but sure, we might as well remove some of these lone Explorers so the Inlands are emptier.

F: Good. We didn’t remove the one that I can attack with Firestorm.

U: Alright. So we Ravage, Build, and Explore. A2 is isolated, so it doesn’t Explore at all, even though there’s a City in the land.

F: Yay, no Escalation! We also stopped at least one Explore! Which lands on our island had Invaders added to them at all during this Invader Phase?

(9) (sum of the lands' numbers) x (# Towns added) - 1

F: So with Flow Downriver, I was thinking about moving the Blight out of somewhere so I could add Presence there next turn, but none of the buildings on this island are within range, which is so annoying, so the most I can do is disrupt a Build, which I can do in only one land.

U: I don’t have any Slow Powers, so time passes. Shoot! Did I forget to use Gift of Abundance? Uhh I’ll just retroactively add the Presence I removed to remove that Blight earlier into A5.

check: there is an Explorer in E8

Turn 5 (heavenly intervention)

F: Wait, didn’t I play Threatening Flames on turn 1? How did it get back into my hand? Did I forget to discard the card?

F: I could take this opportunity to grow … What happened to the buildings on our island?

U: Yeah, I was prepared to gain a Major on Reclaim so I could destroy both the Cities, but they seem to just have disappeared?

F: I don’t know, the buildings were there since the last Explore, right? Were they silently removed? I looked away at my Spirit board and at the Minor deck for a few seconds, and when I looked back they weren’t there anymore.

U: I don’t remember what happened either, I wasn’t actively paying attention to the board since the last Fast phase ended, though they were still on the board at that time. Did a Fear Card do something to them?

F: I.. don’t think so. Well, we can just play without them. They were probably removed for a reason.

U: Ok, but don’t we win then?

F: I think we’re short on Fear, so we should just gain as much Fear as we can before the Invaders Build again.

U: I guess that’s why you only have Threatening Flames in your hand, someone reclaimed it for you.

F: Well, I might as well play it then. Wait, I can get the extra 2 Fear if I do this!

U: Wow. Do you want to Repeat that? I can give you Abundance, and add back that Presence of mine you just destroyed. I’m surprised that we aren’t using any Isolates to assist with that, given that we’ve done so much Isolating. How many Isolates have we done so far?

(10) subtract this number from 10, then multiply by the lowest land number Fern has Presence in

U: I’ll also gain a Minor then. I think there are more Fast Minors that generate Fear than Fast Majors. Oh, Dry Wood Explodes can generate 3 per use, I’ll take that one.

U: Ok, how much Fear can we generate?

F: Let me gain another Minor and check.

F: Nope, none of these generate Fear, but Gift of Living Energy has perfect Elements, so I might as well take it, even though I don’t think you really need the 2 Energy.

U: I can play Dry Wood Explodes fast twice and only need to pay 1 extra Energy. I’ll use it on E1 both times for 6 Fear. It doesn’t matter where I kick the Explorers, I’ll just kick one into E5 and one into E7. I’ll also remove this Blight from my coast with Water Nourishes.

F: I get 1 Fear from Firestorm and 4 for Threatening Flames. That gives us 11 in total, plus 4 more for every time I get to replay Threatening Flames.

U: Wow, we overshot Terror 2 by a lot!

F: It seems like we removed a lot of Blight but were still close to the edge of flipping the Blight Card. Also, there’s still so much Blight on the island.

U: *glares* Yeah, and how many of that Blight are in your lands? Also, how many Presences do we have on our island?

(6) multiply these two numbers together, subtract the product from 99, then divide by 2

F: What’s our score?

score: 46.5