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Spirit Island: Branch & Claw
90m - 120m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 13+
Card drafting games are games in which players pick cards from a limited subset, such as a common pool, to gain some advantage (immediate or longterm) or to assemble hands of cards that are used to meet objectives within the game.
Card Drafting
Co-operative play encourages or requires players to work together to beat the game.
Cooperative Play
Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an "optimal" sequence.
Hand Management
Play occurs upon a modular board that is composed of multiple pieces, often tiles or cards. In many games, board placement is randomized, leading to different possibilities for strategy and exploration.Some games in this category have multiple boards which are not used simultaneously, preserving table space. Unused boards remain out of play until they are required.
Modular Board
The simultaneous action selection mechanic lets players secretly choose their actions. After they are revealed, the actions resolve following the rule-set of the game.
Simultaneous Action Selection
Variable Player Powers is a mechanic that grants different abilities and/or paths to victory to the players.
Variable Player Powers
Fantasy
Mythology
26.00
€
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Search for:
Kickstarter – Gamefound
Board Games
Strategy
Family and Children
Party
Adult
Thematic
Ελληνικα Παιχνιδια
LCG
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game
RPGs
D & D
Pathfinder
Gamebooks
Others
Accessories
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Bags
Dice
Sleeves
Sapphire Sleeves
Paladin Sleeves
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Plunder boxes
Marvel: Crisis Protocol
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aeroguru1978
Rating with the base game (DISCLAIMER: I don't separately rate expansion material, so read the fine print), and while I like what is on offer here generally, I'm not yet convinced of the value of the new event mechanic (except maybe at low-level difficulty games). On the positive side, there are a couple of additional spirits, "Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds," and "Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves," and as is the case with so many of the Spirit Island spirits, they each have a unique feel that makes gameplay feel quite a bit different (Sharp Fangs is really enjoyable once you figure it out--its presence has to be regularly sacrificed to add more beasts to the map, but once you have an army of beasts ranging them around to eat invaders is quite satisfying; Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds starts slow but manageable, and grows into something that is probably overpowered). Also, having an expanded variety of Blighted Island cards is a welcome change from the two offered in the base game. The main mechanical change of the game is the introduction of a variety of tokens that alter gameplay slightly (wilds that prevent invaders from exploring in a particular location, disease that prevents invaders from building on a particular space, strife which prevents a particular invader from contributing to a ravage, and beasts which can be moved around to cause damage or fear via power cards or abilities). While great in concept, and while providing additional tools to invader expansion or growth, outside of those spirits that can manipulate the tokens as an innate ability (e.g., Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds can easily add wilds to the board), I don't find that they see a ton of play in many games unless I go out of my way to select powers that manipulate the tokens (and, on balance, those powers simply don't tend to be as generally good, though they can be situationally very effective). Still, sometimes fun to drop the occasional disease or strife into the game to spice things up. The game also adds some 50+ new powers (roughly half minor, roughly half major), which are approximately as cool as the various powers in the base game, but that does tend to dilute the respective power decks with their inclusion (i.e., there are so many powers, that on a particular draw of four cards to gain a new power, one is less likely to actually pull one that works well with one's spirit or strategy, particularly since a lot of the new powers are only situationally effective depending on what tokens are out on the board). There's a need for a lot of powers to actually utilize those new disease, strife, wilds, and beast tokens, but unless one is managing a spirit where those tokens are a significant part of the strategy (in which case you wouldn't want to be reliant on pulling a random power related to them anyway), it's a lot of powers that have a tendency not to be selected. Defensive minor powers seem to be more diluted, but there are a few extra blight management cards thrown in, so it seems to balance that out a little bit (this is key, given that the two new spirits have significant restrictions when it comes to interacting with blighted island spaces)--and I've found it more enjoyable to have opportunities to manage existing blight rather than just always have to prevent it's occurrence in the first instance. The fear deck suffers from a similar dilution (in that there are a lot more fear effects that ultimately end up being less useful). In the base game, while one wouldn't know exactly what effect an earned fear card would trigger (absent playing Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), it was easier to make an educated guess about where to rely on a fear effect to provide some last minute destruction or protection prior to a key ravage, for instance. The event deck provides a little spice in variability due to unknown impacts that cannot be planned for, but I don't think it works with the rest of the game mechanically (that relies on balancing quick vs. slow powers and knowing the progression of invaders in an area from explore, to build, to ravage). Playing at difficulty zero (no scenarios or adversaries) means these random events provide a little spice and don't necessarily push a game one way or another, but playing at higher difficulties (where chance of success already rests on a knife edge and in some instances may ultimately depend on the random order of the invader deck) the random element just doesn't work for me. I've not yet played with the Jagged Earth expansion, and maybe some of those spirits or materials would improve my impression of the events. I do quite like playing with Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, and after a number of games with the expanded power decks, I'm developing new overall strategies that can be deployed with a greater mix of the powers, so I've finding more of them to be useful in more scenarios.
Arbiter_is_watching
They took a great game and made it even better with this expansion. A must have addition to the Spirit Island experience.
Bluedude303
The events and tokens made the island feel alive! I fully agree with the designer, Branch and Claw makes Spirit Island the complete game. (For those unaware, Branch and Claw was split out from the base game in order to make the base game more accessible and cheaper to sell). The spirits added in this expansion aren't my favourites, but they're not the reason this box is great.