Heart of the wildfire and spread of rampant green is a wicked combo! Sunbright and oceans hungry grasp is also really fun, push everything to the coast and ocean takes care of the rest
I love how Monique discouraged Naveen from taking a (pretty strong) card that would add blight because "we only have 11 blight in the blight pool". I believe at the end of the game, there were still 11 blight in that pool!
Hey I just want to note that at around 22:15 when you used Devouring Ants, you are not required to target a land with Dahan in it! So you can use it to do damage and if you're careful you can avoid its downside.
I've just entered the Spirit Island universe, and am loving it! Your three videos have done more to help me learn than anything else I've seen. I'd love to see one on Branch and Claw or Jagged Earth. You guys really do have the best playthrough videos on UA-cam. Keep up the good work!
Oh I'm so pumped for this. My wife and I have been getting into cooperative games, and Spirit Island has always been on our list but we've been too intimidated to pick it up. This looks like the perfect compromise
I've probably posted this so many times UA-cam is gonna think I'm a bot. Horizons-> Base-> Branch and Claw -> Feather and Flame -> Jagged Earth -> Nature's Incarnate Stick to that progression and you'll be fine. Missing what is LITERALLY "Step 1" for so long was really hurting the franchise. Horizons smoothed out that curve so well, and all 5 spirits are great and lack the 'pitfalls' many of the Low complexity spirits have in Base.
I love your video! I've just bought the game and had some difficulties to go through the rules. But your video was so clear and so entertaining that rules are not a problem anymore. Thank you so much!
When explaining the rules, at 4::00, you mentioned that you lose if you flip the last invader card. Actually, you lose when you need to flip and invader card but don't have any more to flip.
One piece of advice I like to tell new players is that blight is a resource. Especially without blighted island cards, you get so much blight in your pool that you won’t really notice if you lose one or two dealing with big problems. My go-to move is to let a land blight early on that has enough dahan to counterattack the town so I can use my resources to deal with explorers before they can build
Yeah, early on they decided against picking a power that generated Blight, but they never put down a single one the whole game; they could have afforded losing 1 or 2.
There is no klingon in this video. Great to see this clearly you played the original first, but many rule omissions from the horizon booklet are clarified so thanks for this video! 4:00 that third loss condition is not in the rb. 9:00 those fear cards, when you gain a card, when do you flip it, and how long do the stated effects stay active? 10:35 no, net damage. Your fast actions have Defend. And the rb doesn't explain how it works. 11:00 that's the thing, say your powers gave you enough defense so no blight token was placed. Why do the invaders then attack dahan? 11:20 basically every 2 invader soldiers destroy 1 dahan. From the leftover dahan, 1 soldier damages a dahan. Then ALL dahan fight back? The undamaged dahan as well? and if so, is their power 1 or 2? 12:20 not "elements on your cards" (suggesting a hand of cards) - only the cards you played and paid for. 13:02 major replaces from your entire deck, including cards you already played, in your hand, or on the spirit? 14:00 i guess by construction each spirit's starting location is a number and not a board right? 16:00 lol you went to the trouble of merging the deck in advance lol. Normal mortals would keep their progression cards in a simple ziploc bag - per spirit. 18:00 you started with 8 Fear, 4 per player. The tutorial starts with 12 fear. I guess 4 per player, but not in rb. 25:30 wait, where did that token come from? 29:00 aha, reminder tokens! interesting to see how you will calculated defense from that. 32:00 so the fear card effect only applies during one round. Also not in rb. 33:00 important - dahan fight back regardless of the damage (blight) dealt! Undamaged or damaged, each hut counts as 2! 33:40 I think you discarded the fear card too soon. Mine said invaders cannot build towns. That would have had no effect. At the very least the fear card should remain active until the cleanup phase. 34:10 what do you mean not near ocean? There may be rocks, but the rule doesn't mention "beach". It's still near the ocean. (where in the rb does it explain rocks?) 43:38 why do you not flip up the fear card immediately? 51:00 why do you think this particular play is all about generating fear? Isn't every game the same? 55:20 you both may repeat it's perfectly legal and valid but it's not - "gather" must be toward your presence. that beach has only a hut. 1:30 congratulations! Nobody would want a more difficult experience. You said yourself you never made it past the first divider. What this game (esp. horizons) needs is a VERY EASY mode and an EASY mode. Very easy as in walk in the park difficult. Anyone winning with all spirits would automatically go to the parent game. Without easy mode, most people will get frustrated with horizons. And the Horizons rulebook is sloppy.
Great playthrough. I think at one point you say that Inland is anything not adjacent to oceans and the mountains, but I believe it's just Oceans. Unless that rule has changed in the Horizons.
The only thing I don't like about this game is the patchwork island with its bizarre pointy shape (left and right). This could have been an opportunity to make the island look, you know, like an island. Fine in a multi-board, multi-player game but jarring for new gamers. I imagine most people aren't happy losing the plastic Dahan pieces but I love them. The invaders get bent and tangled together, the Dahan huts roll all over the place and the plastic blight tokens flip upside down. Cardboard? Love it.
I love Spirit Island so I got this almost immediately after it was in Target. I really enjoyed how they really didn't remove any elements from the base game. Other games like Terra Nova or My little games removed a big portion of the base game to make it much easier, but Horizons SI is basically the same game with down graded components, and this might not lower the learning barrier significantly, the powers are quite straightforward so personally I think they did a very good job for players who are familiar and new.
Ah, so no rules differences, just simpler components and less table space. That's nice to see. I actually kind of prefer these invader tokens to the plastic ones. Still, as someone who owns Spirit Island there's little reason to get this. Which is fine, of course, it's intended to invite more people into playing Spirit Island in a more accessible form, which I am entirely on board with.
Target has sales on board games often. It's worth it for the spirits alone. Plus because it does contain a "vanilla" experience it's nice to not have to sort out your B&C/JE power, fear, and blight cards when introducing people
This was a wonderful playthrough. It looked to get dicey near the end but you managed it quite well. I hope sometime in the future you could revisit this one at a harder level. Happy holidays to you both.
Thanks for the clear and entertaining playthrough. I've seen some reviewers say that the components are unusable, because the board gets too messy later in the game and pieces spill over to adjacent regions - do you have any thoughts on this aspect? I'm mostly interested in solo play, or later on two-handed solo with 2 spirits.
Nice! Spirit Island is such a great game. I have the original base game, but I think I actually prefer this standalone variant because it has the tokens, instead of the little plastic invaders/buildings! 😂
Awesome playthrough, as someone that is interested in getting Spirit Island, would you recommend starting with Horizons of Spirit Island or go for the OG one? What do you say are the pros and cons of each in your opinion?
Oh! We went by the definition in the glossary, so I'm not sure if it's different for this edition? It says, "A land not adjacent to the printed Ocean area, or separated from it by cliffs."
@@BeforeYouPlay I interpret that as an Inland land is [1.] a land not adjacent to the printed ocean area or [2. a land that is] separated from it by cliffs. I can see how it could be interpreted both ways. It seems slightly clearer in the base game rules.
There is no difference between the rules of this game and the original Spirit Island. Because of that, changing the number of coastal/inland lands would change the gameplay drastically. To play this game identically to the original, you should treat the cliffs as if they disrupt the adjacency to the ocean. Each island “board” (or each spirit’s corner of the island) should have only 3 coastal lands.
I tried to play this with some friends. I had a loose idea of the rules and mechanics but figured the quick start would get us moving. We played two rounds after the quick start and put it back in the box. I think the quick start included in the box is good as a refresher, but it didn't come close to get us playing the game.
@1:34:00 how does the explorer explore and get put onto the sand space at the top of the map? It's not on a coast or next to a city? Great video and playthrough! I just picked this up over the weekend to play with my wife and soon to be 10 year old (he's smart and can pick up on games, so I'm really hoping the suggested 14+ recommendation won't discourage him and be too tough)
I saw you guys just moments ago on better board games. I will so you more often in the future 😉 Spirit Island is our most beloved game and we got Horizons at Essen Spiel this year, actually we rushed to the booth to get a copy before it sold out. There are many great combinations like River and Ocean, or Tiger and Swarm but everything is always better with the shrubbery, because he helps pushing out Presences 👍 I am looking forward to enjoy your content. Thank you for that and we wish you happy holidays. P. S. My girlfriend asks, what is the dark spot on your arm, she is worried, but if you won't tell, that's OK. Privacy has to be protected
I may be wrong as I've only just started the game, but when you choose a Minor Power card I thought you just picked the top card. I thought you only got to select one from 4 when you choose a Major Power. I could be wrong?
Have you tried Spirit Island? What are your favorite spirit combinations?
Heart of the wildfire and spread of rampant green is a wicked combo!
Sunbright and oceans hungry grasp is also really fun, push everything to the coast and ocean takes care of the rest
I love how Monique discouraged Naveen from taking a (pretty strong) card that would add blight because "we only have 11 blight in the blight pool". I believe at the end of the game, there were still 11 blight in that pool!
Yeah, that’s something where you can afford to lose some if it gains you a huge bonus.
This is the best play-through that I found. I can actually play solo now! So thank you so much 😄❤️😀
Thanks so much!!
Hey I just want to note that at around 22:15 when you used Devouring Ants, you are not required to target a land with Dahan in it! So you can use it to do damage and if you're careful you can avoid its downside.
I've just entered the Spirit Island universe, and am loving it! Your three videos have done more to help me learn than anything else I've seen. I'd love to see one on Branch and Claw or Jagged Earth. You guys really do have the best playthrough videos on UA-cam. Keep up the good work!
Oh I'm so pumped for this. My wife and I have been getting into cooperative games, and Spirit Island has always been on our list but we've been too intimidated to pick it up. This looks like the perfect compromise
Spirit Island itself has quite a few options for beginners as well. After you mastered this, you should not feel intimidated by the "big" brother.
I've probably posted this so many times UA-cam is gonna think I'm a bot.
Horizons-> Base-> Branch and Claw -> Feather and Flame -> Jagged Earth -> Nature's Incarnate
Stick to that progression and you'll be fine. Missing what is LITERALLY "Step 1" for so long was really hurting the franchise. Horizons smoothed out that curve so well, and all 5 spirits are great and lack the 'pitfalls' many of the Low complexity spirits have in Base.
Got this game for Christmas and I'm still trying to figure it out. Thanks for the terrific play through. :)
I love your video! I've just bought the game and had some difficulties to go through the rules. But your video was so clear and so entertaining that rules are not a problem anymore. Thank you so much!
When explaining the rules, at 4::00, you mentioned that you lose if you flip the last invader card. Actually, you lose when you need to flip and invader card but don't have any more to flip.
Thank you for the clarification!
Love this one for making a great game easier to teach to other players and giving us more simple options.
Absolutely!
One piece of advice I like to tell new players is that blight is a resource. Especially without blighted island cards, you get so much blight in your pool that you won’t really notice if you lose one or two dealing with big problems.
My go-to move is to let a land blight early on that has enough dahan to counterattack the town so I can use my resources to deal with explorers before they can build
Yeah, early on they decided against picking a power that generated Blight, but they never put down a single one the whole game; they could have afforded losing 1 or 2.
Y'all have the best playthroughs. Engaging, entertaining, well-paced.
There is no klingon in this video.
Great to see this clearly you played the original first, but many rule omissions from the horizon booklet are clarified so thanks for this video!
4:00 that third loss condition is not in the rb.
9:00 those fear cards, when you gain a card, when do you flip it, and how long do the stated effects stay active?
10:35 no, net damage. Your fast actions have Defend. And the rb doesn't explain how it works.
11:00 that's the thing, say your powers gave you enough defense so no blight token was placed. Why do the invaders then attack dahan?
11:20 basically every 2 invader soldiers destroy 1 dahan. From the leftover dahan, 1 soldier damages a dahan. Then ALL dahan fight back? The undamaged dahan as well? and if so, is their power 1 or 2?
12:20 not "elements on your cards" (suggesting a hand of cards) - only the cards you played and paid for.
13:02 major replaces from your entire deck, including cards you already played, in your hand, or on the spirit?
14:00 i guess by construction each spirit's starting location is a number and not a board right?
16:00 lol you went to the trouble of merging the deck in advance lol. Normal mortals would keep their progression cards in a simple ziploc bag - per spirit.
18:00 you started with 8 Fear, 4 per player. The tutorial starts with 12 fear. I guess 4 per player, but not in rb.
25:30 wait, where did that token come from?
29:00 aha, reminder tokens! interesting to see how you will calculated defense from that.
32:00 so the fear card effect only applies during one round. Also not in rb.
33:00 important - dahan fight back regardless of the damage (blight) dealt! Undamaged or damaged, each hut counts as 2!
33:40 I think you discarded the fear card too soon. Mine said invaders cannot build towns. That would have had no effect. At the very least the fear card should remain active until the cleanup phase.
34:10 what do you mean not near ocean? There may be rocks, but the rule doesn't mention "beach". It's still near the ocean.
(where in the rb does it explain rocks?)
43:38 why do you not flip up the fear card immediately?
51:00 why do you think this particular play is all about generating fear? Isn't every game the same?
55:20 you both may repeat it's perfectly legal and valid but it's not - "gather" must be toward your presence. that beach has only a hut.
1:30 congratulations!
Nobody would want a more difficult experience. You said yourself you never made it past the first divider. What this game (esp. horizons) needs is a VERY EASY mode and an EASY mode. Very easy as in walk in the park difficult. Anyone winning with all spirits would automatically go to the parent game. Without easy mode, most people will get frustrated with horizons.
And the Horizons rulebook is sloppy.
Great playthrough. I think at one point you say that Inland is anything not adjacent to oceans and the mountains, but I believe it's just Oceans. Unless that rule has changed in the Horizons.
Ah yes, I think there is a note on it in the rulebook that made it unclear
The only thing I don't like about this game is the patchwork island with its bizarre pointy shape (left and right). This could have been an opportunity to make the island look, you know, like an island. Fine in a multi-board, multi-player game but jarring for new gamers. I imagine most people aren't happy losing the plastic Dahan pieces but I love them. The invaders get bent and tangled together, the Dahan huts roll all over the place and the plastic blight tokens flip upside down. Cardboard? Love it.
Thank you guys for putting this together. Great explanation of the game!
I love Spirit Island so I got this almost immediately after it was in Target. I really enjoyed how they really didn't remove any elements from the base game. Other games like Terra Nova or My little games removed a big portion of the base game to make it much easier, but Horizons SI is basically the same game with down graded components, and this might not lower the learning barrier significantly, the powers are quite straightforward so personally I think they did a very good job for players who are familiar and new.
Ah, so no rules differences, just simpler components and less table space. That's nice to see. I actually kind of prefer these invader tokens to the plastic ones. Still, as someone who owns Spirit Island there's little reason to get this. Which is fine, of course, it's intended to invite more people into playing Spirit Island in a more accessible form, which I am entirely on board with.
Target has sales on board games often. It's worth it for the spirits alone. Plus because it does contain a "vanilla" experience it's nice to not have to sort out your B&C/JE power, fear, and blight cards when introducing people
After 150+ plays of Spirit Island and another 350+ plays on Steam... I can't wait to have 4 new spirits to play with 🙂
WOW that's impressive!
I want to be there for this guy’s reaction when he opens the box and sees there are FIVE new spirits to play with 😆
@@daugarten lol even better!
What's Steam?
Congratulations on reaching 50k subscibers!
Thank you!!
This was a wonderful playthrough. It looked to get dicey near the end but you managed it quite well. I hope sometime in the future you could revisit this one at a harder level. Happy holidays to you both.
Thanks for the clear and entertaining playthrough. I've seen some reviewers say that the components are unusable, because the board gets too messy later in the game and pieces spill over to adjacent regions - do you have any thoughts on this aspect? I'm mostly interested in solo play, or later on two-handed solo with 2 spirits.
Nice! Spirit Island is such a great game. I have the original base game, but I think I actually prefer this standalone variant because it has the tokens, instead of the little plastic invaders/buildings! 😂
It's definitely a nice option to have!
Moniques power makes me want to watch the movie Tremors
At 1h24m your Fear card said that invaders don't ravage in coastal lands, and then you performed the ravage actions.
I see no option for Klingon subtitles as directed in the video. Did something change?
Awesome playthrough, as someone that is interested in getting Spirit Island, would you recommend starting with Horizons of Spirit Island or go for the OG one? What do you say are the pros and cons of each in your opinion?
Might as well get this one. It is cheaper and has a better introduction to how to play the game
@@andrewkratzer6398 thanks for the reply! Sounds reasonable, plus if me and my board game group enjoy we can always add the OG
Don't be afraid to "spend" some blight! 11 blight is a *massive* amount. :D
You're right haha
@@BeforeYouPlay Yeah, you only played 1 extra Blight the whole game; you could afford to spend a few on Land of Haunts and Embers.
I’m pretty sure the lands adjacent to the cliffs are still “inland”.
Oh! We went by the definition in the glossary, so I'm not sure if it's different for this edition? It says, "A land not adjacent to the printed Ocean area, or separated from it by cliffs."
@@BeforeYouPlay I interpret that as an Inland land is [1.] a land not adjacent to the printed ocean area or [2. a land that is] separated from it by cliffs. I can see how it could be interpreted both ways. It seems slightly clearer in the base game rules.
@@Chereebers ah okay! We could have interpreted it incorrectly!
There is no difference between the rules of this game and the original Spirit Island. Because of that, changing the number of coastal/inland lands would change the gameplay drastically.
To play this game identically to the original, you should treat the cliffs as if they disrupt the adjacency to the ocean. Each island “board” (or each spirit’s corner of the island) should have only 3 coastal lands.
The north and south edges are cliffs and NOT adjacent to the ocean?! 🤦♂️🤦♂️ My goodness I was playing this wrong.😖
Great game . If you are going solo with more than one spirit , it’s a real brain burner…
I tried to play this with some friends. I had a loose idea of the rules and mechanics but figured the quick start would get us moving. We played two rounds after the quick start and put it back in the box. I think the quick start included in the box is good as a refresher, but it didn't come close to get us playing the game.
This video is way better. Glad they got sponsored
Can you buy this one and then add some expansion ?
Or do.the expansions only work with the "base "spirit island game. ?
@1:34:00 how does the explorer explore and get put onto the sand space at the top of the map? It's not on a coast or next to a city?
Great video and playthrough! I just picked this up over the weekend to play with my wife and soon to be 10 year old (he's smart and can pick up on games, so I'm really hoping the suggested 14+ recommendation won't discourage him and be too tough)
Invaders can explore from towns I believe.
$15 I guess I better buy now.
I saw you guys just moments ago on better board games.
I will so you more often in the future 😉
Spirit Island is our most beloved game and we got Horizons at Essen Spiel this year, actually we rushed to the booth to get a copy before it sold out.
There are many great combinations like River and Ocean, or Tiger and Swarm but everything is always better with the shrubbery, because he helps pushing out Presences 👍
I am looking forward to enjoy your content.
Thank you for that and we wish you happy holidays.
P. S. My girlfriend asks, what is the dark spot on your arm, she is worried, but if you won't tell, that's OK. Privacy has to be protected
I may be wrong as I've only just started the game, but when you choose a Minor Power card I thought you just picked the top card. I thought you only got to select one from 4 when you choose a Major Power. I could be wrong?
Is this game the Jaws of the Lion equivalent for Spirit Island? Same game/rules, but a bit simpler and less daunting experience.
Is there a reason why you guys don’t have the review section at the end?
This is a sponsored video so we don't include a review
3 player??? Why????
Not sure what you mean! We played 2-P
This might throw off the entire gameplay, but any land that a blight is in, it removes a pressence token from the entire game
Sorry I'm late, work stuff. 👋
Hope work is going okay! 👋
What?
It's really messy with these cardboard components...