I can see why someone would love it, my problem is the game has a really uneven difficulty curve where the first 2-3 rounds feels like the game is impossible and you're about to get over run and it's frustrating since there is so little you can do. If you survive that wave then you have so many cards you end up just slowly steam rolling and the game loses it's challenge even in the later waves when dudes spawn/develop on multiple areas.
I know the game has additional scenarios and other ways to make the game harder, but as I don't own a copy and the guy who got it at dice tower con has never even bothered to bring it back I can only comment on my one play. I didn't rate it on BGG because I do want to give it a second chance since everything you said is why I can see it being a lot of fun. Myself personally I was frustrated since for 3 turns I only had 1 totem on the board and 1 card to play (due to a mixture of not understanding the mechanics and bad teamwork) until someone pulled one of the legendary spells that let them give me an extra totem on the board. The turn after I refreshed we won the game :|
I have to fully agree that you did not understand the mechanics. All of the characters have very easy ways to add more presence (which I am assuming you mean by totems) And it's one of the most important things to do in order to gain more resources during the growth phase so that you can have mana to cast spells and play more cards.
Also if you beat the game in only 4 turns you likely missed something major. All of our games have taken until at least turn 6, usually around 8 or 9.
Did you make sure to adhere to your card play limits and spend your mana? Were you doing your thresholds for elements to cast innate powers correctly (aka only counting the elements on that cards you casted and not carrying over between rounds)
Did you do fear correctly, as you basically have to at least get through the first 3 fear cards before you can win. I mean it might be possible before that but I Can't imagine fully clearing people from the board as a real possibility.
did you explore and build correctly. When you explore all coastal areas that match the card get people as well as any area of that type that is next to a town or city. If you didn't do the town and city bit it was be way to easy. And when building did you make sure to add a town if there wasn't one, or a city if there were more towns than city as those ramp up areas quite quickly.
I don't disagree that it is harder early on and it gets easier, but every game I have played until we got to the turn we won there was still plenty of chance to not be able to win on that next turn.
by legendary spells I am assuming you are talking about a major spell? which I think only the advanced characters defaultly get one that would allow another player to place an extra presence. You should have been playing with the 4 basic characters we a preset deck of cards to get when you obtained more power cards. Spirit island has a lot going on and not starting off with the intro scenario is a huge mistake. It would make it far more likely you would make mistakes with the pieces and mechanics and result in a much harder time trying to grasp the game.
meanwhile if you build up as recommended you slowly continue to add mechanics which make understanding how to play the game far easier, and keeps it really interesting as the game strategy changes quite a bit depending on what mechanics you are using.
I mean not every game is for every person, but your description of the game feels like a vastly different game than I was playing.
