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t1 victories with bad spirits

section 1: shadows

while i was on vacation, i found this:

  • start on board d, initial explore sands
  • g2, add presence from bottom track to d7, gain haunts and embers
  • play concealing shadows and haunts and embers
  • innate gathers d4 explorer to d5
  • haunts and embers pushes d5 explorer into d7, cascade to d2 (4 fear total)
  • concealing shadows d7 (5 fear total)
  • unsettled downgrades d2 city
  • build sands ravages in d7, dahan counterattack clears the land
  • flip a pall upon the land, removing the d2 town

notice that i didn't use any special rules of any shadows, so this just works with all shadows. i also didn't even use aid from lesser spirits, which is a more powerful blight card.

increasing the difficulty a bit

if we actually used aid from lesser spirits, we can defeat a higher level adversary.

so the minor we get from aid would need to be able to deal at least 2 damage to the d2 city, plus destroy the explorer that comes from the turn 1 explore. so it must deal at least 3 damage, 2 of which is in d2.

the only minors that can really do that are the "1 damage per dahan" minors, and purifying flame. we can set up purifying flame pretty well though by cascading between d2 and d5, and we can actually get 4 blight into d2 to deal 4 damage. so the fear card didn't need to damage the city, and could deal with another building added during setup, like a prussia town in land 3.

now all that's left is to make sure that purifying flame can reach d2, which isn't true for madness.

  • start on board d, initial explore sands
  • g2, add presence from bottom track to d7, gain haunts and embers
  • play concealing shadows and haunts and embers
  • innate gathers d4 explorer to d5
  • haunts and embers pushes d5 explorer into d7, cascade to d2 (4 fear total)
  • concealing shadows d7 (5 fear total)
  • isolation removes d3 town
  • build sands ravages in d7, dahan counterattack clears the land
  • flip strong earth, add blight to d2, cascade to d5
  • flip border, destroy d7 presence, discard favors for 1 energy, cascade back to d2
  • flip invaders find the land to their liking, cascade to d5 then d2
  • flip aid, take purifying flame, cascade to d4
  • explore jungles, d6 is cut off
  • purifying flame clears d2

proof that all shadows except madness can use purifying flame on d2:

  • base: pay the 1 energy gained from border, originate from d6
  • reach: ignore range, originate from d6
  • amorphous: in fast (before haunts and embers), move presence from d5 to d1. in slow, move presence from d6 to d1
  • foreboding: use foreboding innate in d2, originate from d6
  • dark fire: instead of destroying presence in d5 and d7, push the presence to d1

section 2: the new spirit, covets

(apparently covets is pretty good in multiplayer but sucks in solo)

naturally, when i see a new spirit, one of my first thoughts is "can this spirit win turn 1?"

  • start on board east, against prussia 3 saltsburg 3
  • initial explore wetlands
  • g3, add presence from top track to east4, gain pent-up calamity
  • play pent-up calamity
  • pent-up removes strife disease disease from east3, generates 3 fear, destroys town city city, and deals 1 damage to the other town (8 fear total)
  • plan for departure gathers east2 town into east3
  • daunted by the dahan generates 1 fear, invaders deal 6 less damage to dahan (9 fear total)
  • build wetlands, ravage in east3 upgrades the damaged town, dahan counterattack destroys town city (12 fear total)

afterwards, i realized that i was actually playing sunshine.
(this also works with immense and both base and hostility keepers)

part 3: epilogue

hmm, saltsburg and thematic boards both seem to make winning on turn 1 a lot easier. but how much easier?


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