How To Play Horizons of Spirit Island

Play your first game of Horizons of Spirit Island, a cooperative strategy game of settler-destruction for 1-3 players, designed by R. Eric Reuss. Players are called to defend their home as Spirits of nature, fighting to defeat the colonizing Invaders that threaten to destroy their natural existence!
Horizons of Spirit Island can be purchased at Target stores in the United States.

[@BlitkriegsAndCoffee]

To anyone looking at getting this game, I won't lie, the first time you play it will be very rough. Spirit Island has an enormous amount of replayability baked into the game. You can play it a hundred times and never play the same game twice. But this comes at the cost of your initial playthrough. While this version *is* simplified compared to the base game, there are still a lot of moving parts, and the first 3-4 turns you will probably be fairly confused about what is happening and why. If your group can make it through to about turn 4-5, all of the mechanics will start to gel and you will have a good idea of how everything is interacting with each other. By the end of your first game it should all click. Its a really great game, and worthy of all its hype, but that first playthrough can be a real headache if you don't have someone in the game who already understands all its mechanics.

[@allknighter5791]

Agreed that first initial hurdle can really stump a lot of people, but it is worth it I promise.

[@billstrohler]

This is where we are at. Determined to learn it, which is why I'm here. Looks very fun. Thanks for the heads up.

[@sagebirchwood9948]

Seriously, how do you remove blight? Instruction manual just assumes you played the adult version fml.

[@BlitkriegsAndCoffee]

@@sagebirchwood9948 Blight can only be removed by cards or special abilities on spirits. If you don't have one of those, you are probably stuck with it. Its not the end of the world though. You may lose a presence, and a few spells can't be cast on lands with blight, but after that the damage is done unless it blights a second time.

[@BoardgamesBourbon]

I like to think that those hands and that voice are the same person.

[@BruceRollerJr]

You did a wonderful job at explaining this game. The slow paced play throughs were well thought out. I just bought this game and am excited to play it. I know the first playthrough will be a learning experience which is the case with most medium to heavy games.

[@memolano100]

Excellent video with fantastic production. Thank you.

[@remarkzero]

My wife and i just tried playing this and just dont really get the strategy. She had the control spirit and i had the fire lizard. No matter what we did the enemy spawns were overwhelming. Managed to get 1 fear card after about 5 rounds and we just got tired and quit. Its interesting but we didnt find much enjoyment through this first try at it. Hopefully we can try again sometime.

[@tsjbb]

Did you ever go back to it? I'm worried this will happen with me and my wife too.

[@remarkzero]

@@tsjbb unfortunately we have not, we will eventually but i feel like i need a guide that explains how to evaluate the board state to make better plays.

[@Noxen74]

​@@remarkzeroI highly recommend videos on KZbin from Ryan Lackie or Redrevenge. They go more in depth of explanations of spirit island, but simply put, your mission is to slow down the invaders initially to give yourself time to grow. Sometimes you make sacrifices in losing dahan, or letting the island blight for you to grow stronger and hit back harder on a future turn. There are 4 main phases, growth, where you determine how you grow and which cards to play, fast phase, where you take action before the invaders, the invader phase where invaders ravage, build, and explore and finally the slow phase, where you take action immediately after the invaders finish theirs. You earn fear from destroying buildings or from playing cards that generate fear, and upon warning enough fear, you get to play fear cards which can help you greatly. Spirit island is a complex and difficult game to learn, but that's what makes it fun to get into. Good luck

[@taykey17]

I couldn't watch the background noise was too distracting.

[@BigCxxxxxxxxx]

This game is terrible I’m so stressed out rn 😅

[@emaanopeedro]

Nice video but the game is way too complex. Imagine every time u invite someone and you having to teach them all of that? It’s tiring! I don’t think I’d have fun playing it the first. I would probably not have a 2nd time playing it.

[@filippocoppo]

You see this on the wrong side. This game is beautiful because a new player can learn playing the game. It’s all written. The master have to manage the rules.

[@sagebirchwood9948]

For real, like there's 7 phases, wtf.

[@benme2253]

Because you are week, like a girl