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[GendoIkari]

I've been a bit obsessed with this game lately. I first learned it back in June, but then played it again last month and have played it 2 more times since. And then just now I bought the base game and 2 expansions from the Target sale happening now. It's an amazing co-op game. Far deeper and more complex than other co-ops I've played like Pandemic. And huge amounts of variety/replayability. Ok maybe not as many different possible games as Dominion, but still a huge amount of different possible game setups; with a wide range of difficulty to choose from.

[Tables]

I've been having a sort of similar experience myself. First played the game back nearer release, maybe 2019? Then due to Covid had no chance to play again for ages. 2022 rolls around and my wife bought me the game for my birthday and I've been obsessed (ish) for over half a year. Was actually thinking of playing a solo game tonight!

The amount of variability and strategy in the game is great, even with just the base game. I really want to add an expansion for more spirits and adversaries though. One thing I do really like is how unique each Spirit feels. You can take every power with every spirit, but the element thresholds of unique powers and major powers encourages you to generally stick more to an elemental theme - and elements tend to be associated with different effects (e.g. defend is often Earth element, blight removal is often Water, Dahan movement is often Animal etc.) so you tend to be encouraged to stick to a theme through mechanics. But figuring out when a power is so important in the current situation that it's better to go off element is part of the fun and strategy.

[GendoIkari]

Yeah, compared to something like the different roles/powers each player has in Pandemic, the different spirits feel like playing a completely different game depending on which one you have. Just played my 5th game tonight; I won't be re-using a spirit until I've used them all.

[GendoIkari]

This has not died down. I've since gotten the last expansion I didn't have, along with Horizons just for the new spirits and updated cards. Played about 10 games so far; 2 more planned for tomorrow.

Still haven't actually lost yet, but it's always been close. Been increasing the difficulty level a bit each time, until we finally lose.

[Tables]

I recently picked up Jagged Earth and have been playing that a fair bit. Really enjoying it, I think it adds a lot to the experience. So far only played with 3 Aspects and 3 new Spirits, but will get through the rest eventually (and then start playing them all again and again)

[shraeye]

The game-length is what's so intimidating for me; really enjoyed every playthrough I've had....all 4 hours of them.

Obviously, it's permissible to set up a clock or something, and put the main focus on rushing through things, but that definitely would reduce my enjoyment.

What's the key to speeding things up without missing out on the fun?

[GendoIkari]

I haven’t found a good way to make games faster either; I think the biggest thing would be to get better at it so that you don’t need as much time every spirit phase to plan what you’re doing for the turn. I find most of the time is spent on each spirit phase. Mostly I’ve been doing entire-day sessions where me and my friend play 2 games of it and also have food and socialization along with it; with that it’s hard to even judge how long the actual games themselves are taking.

Finally lost for the first time. After beating Sweden 6 (difficulty 8 ) we misremembered what the chart said and thought we just beat difficulty 10. Tried France 6 which we thought was the same but was actually 2 levels harder. Lost pretty badly.

[Tables]

The game-length is what's so intimidating for me; really enjoyed every playthrough I've had....all 4 hours of them.

Obviously, it's permissible to set up a clock or something, and put the main focus on rushing through things, but that definitely would reduce my enjoyment.

What's the key to speeding things up without missing out on the fun?

How many players are you playing with? The more people you play with the longer the game tends to get. When I play solo, I tend to find that my games last maybe an hour or so (excluding setup/pack away time), when I play with my wife it's probably closer to 2 hours. When I've played 4 player it was definitely closer to 4 hours.

Spirit and adversary choice (and scenario) can make a big difference to game length as well. From the base game for adversaries I'd say the average length is England > Sweden > BP. England just keep building and building and the more stuff you have to destroy, the longer the game will take. Sweden don't really directly affect game length but since they try and win through heavy blighting, they're more likely to kill you quicker. Also Sweden 3 accelerates the deck 1 card. BP is all about speed, from BP 3 until BP 6 you remove one more card from the deck each time, so you have to win faster and faster. In terms of spirits, generally the more complex a spirit is the slower they probably are to resolve, because there's more to think about and consider. My games playing River and Earth tend to be very fast for instance since I can pick my powers fairly fast, while games with spirits like BoDaN are much longer as everything I do has to be planned more carefully.

[trivialknot]

There are variant rules to play without events, and that tends to speed things up.

[pacovf]

I have given it a couple of tries on Tabletop Simulator, solo but with multiple spirits, to get a feel for the game. Once I actually figured out the rules, it's still a long game (playing solo, about 2h per spirit/board, depending on their complexity and interplay). Best I can give to speed things up is to only plan your fast powers, and avoid overthinking slow powers : too many options to work through otherwise, given fear cards / events / explore actions can make it hard to predict what the board will look like by then.