Even more Spirits to fend off the invaders

Not playing 🌬️Spirit Island for a long time feels like a crime. But we recently rectified that, also trying out the expansion Nature Incarnate for the first time! 😉 It took a bit of reading to make sure we remember every rule correctly, and I was surprised how bad some of the rule explanations are. Especially now, with multiple rulebooks, it can be a bit of a struggle. But that aside, the game is a mechanical and thematic masterpiece. Undoubtedly one of the top 3 co-op games ever made. ☺️

Nature Incarnate is a similar expansion to Jagged Earth. The best addition, as always, are the 8 new playable spirits. A unique aspect of this expansion is the introduction of a new mechanic called Incarna 🧐 Some spirits not only have their usual presence in regions but also a large Incarna token symbolizing their physical presence, which enables more powerful effects and new strategies. There are also new spirit-specific token types, such as Quake, Deeps, and Vitality.

Of course, you get many other things you have come to expect like new cards, new aspects, new scenarios and a new adversary. The new adversary is the Habsburg Mining Expedition which we chose to go up against - if they have more than 3 pieces in a land, they perform ravage actions instead of build actions, so they are a pain to fight against. But I guess every adversary is frustrating and challenging for different reasons. 😄

It was so great to get back into the game. The arc is so satisfying every time: you start out weak, barely able to do anything against the incoming waves of invaders, but with each turn, you grow stronger and stronger, eventually gaining access to major power cards and wiping out evil cities with tsunamis. I love it. 🥰 It makes me want to play with every spirit combination against every adversary - even if there are thousand of variations. 😁