Spirit Island: Branch and Claw Expansion Review | One Pip Wonder

Jona and Daniel's thoughts of the first Spirit Island Expansion: Branch and Claw!
00:00 Intro
00:19 Expansion Description
01:42 Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds and Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves
04:17 The Events
09:08 Final Thoughts
11:30 A Note about Our Spirit Guide Videos
13:46 Outro
14:22 Bloopers
Music from the KZbin Library:
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Host: Jona Minotto
Featuring: Daniel Minotto
Photography, Filming and Editing: Jona Minotto

[@johninnaperville]

Hi, I can understand how the event cards are a pain in your plans, but they add the nature of an enemy doing the unpredictable into the game. This is one of my favorite games too and I play with the events and try to deal with the challenges they provide. As you get better with the base game, you start to begin winning earlier and why I really like winning, if it is no challenge it becomes boring. Then you can up the challenge by adding adversaries or start by adding the events. Adding either puts you back on the learning curve. I am nowhere near the skill level where I can consistently win with events and an adversary above base level, but it might be interesting to watch someone play who does. I have watched “Solo Playthroughs” play a solo spirit against level 4 adversaries with the event deck and win! I think that as your experience grows with Spirit Island you will eventually want to add in the cards. By the way, Jagged Earth adds in a lot of new spirits an some other tokens and is a lot of fun. I enjoy your videos, thanks again.

[@onepipwonder915]

Thanks so much for sharing John B! I actually talked about the fact that people might play the Events but at an easier adversary level but we had a camera hiccup and it was lost. We usually play at level 4 our higher. So really good point :) Yes we have Jagged Earth and have just scrapped the surface of all the new content!

[@AzureIV]

3:14 Sharp Fangs is really strong when you play him like Thunderspeaker. You run around the island with your swarms of lions, tigers, bears, elephants, and flocks of birds and insects, and you can pick off explorers, stop builds, and knock over cities with its innate damage power that can easily do 3+ damage to lands with enough beasts.

[@Iamwrongbut]

I also think that if you’re going to get the jagged earth expansion (which in my opinion is the best quality expansion for any game I’ve ever seen), then I think you have to get used to the events. Yes, the instructions include directions for playing without the events, but many of the JE spirits revolve directly around the tokens and the events directly impact them. Playing “many minds”, for example, without events is a HUGE disadvantage for that spirit. Further, after getting tons of plays of this game, the events really up the replayability for me. Ive logged close to 100 plays of this game and the vanilla game, while fantastic, seems less interesting than playing with events (and an adversary). The unpredictability keeps the games from feeling same-y, even if it ups the difficulty. Seeing as I typically play high difficulty games (adversary levels 4-6), I think playing without the events would remove another aspect of the challenge. Lastly, the events help me overcome analysis paralysis. With the vanilla game, there is a way to think through EVERY aspect of each turn if you take the time. All information is open except for the next explore which, combined with selecting power cards, growth options, etc. can lead to many minutes of silent pondering for the “perfect” turn. However with events in the mix I know that a “perfect” turn is impossible because I cannot predict the events, so I play more relaxed and actually tend to have more fun because of that.

[@onepipwonder915]

great points! thanks for sharing :)

[@AzureIV]

10:45 So I play with Event cards on solo and multiplayer and the Event cards have never made me lose or anything. In fact sometimes those bonus “good things” have let me win a turn early (though I’ve also been delayed a turn with some of the “bad things”. As a veteran player, the Event Deck just adds a little to the challenge and unpredictability of the game. Otherwise the game is sometimes way too easy because the invaders are too predictable and usually easy to counter.

[@OurFamilyPlaysGames]

(Mik) Cool video! I still need to get Spirit Island to the table! I must! :)

[@onepipwonder915]

thanks Mik! I hope you do, its an outstanding game for sure!

[@shortydancer]

We need all spirits. Lives are at stake, think of the Dohan! I like the Groot looking spirit.

[@onepipwonder915]

very true!

[@greyhawke115]

Great video. Love seeing you both together.

[@onepipwonder915]

Thank you!! 😊

[@matthewmelissamakak2615]

I still need to play the base game more before going for an expansion. I've only played once :( but i loved it! But I did want to hear your thoughts on this expansion! Awesome review

[@onepipwonder915]

thanks Melissa! this is one you can play over and over, its really crazy that way! hope you get to try it our some more :)

[@Kentchangar]

1. Sharp Fangs: When I realized that the optimal way to play some spirits is with 2-3 presence on the board I also realized the right way to play Fangs *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* :) 2. I totally agree about events. I hate the Events with a passion. I'm glad Jagged Earth introduced the official rule to play without them.

[@Amnachaidh]

The game (first couple playtest versions) originally had all the tokens -- wilds, disease, beasts, and strife, and events. Playtest suggest it was too much to absorb at oncce. Events takes some getting used to, but I do like them for most of the reasons that you find them problematic. Higher difficulty without events, or easier with events, is my jam. Spirit Island, without events is more predictable. Event cards are like a misbehaving fourth party after the Spirits, Invaders, and Dehan. I really love the additional cards with Branch and Claw and Jagged Earth.

[@Pit1993x]

Funnily enough, our very first multiplayer game was with 6 people, of which 1 person barely has played any board games before and 5 experienced board gamers but of which only I had played Spirit Island before (about 7 games solo with 2 spirits each time). We played with Branch & Claw (no Jagged Earth) because we were so many people and although I was skeptical how well people would like it with all of these things from the get go, it was an instant hit and we haven't had a chance to play since but the others have been clamoring to play again. :D Generally though, I agree with you. If I hadn't gathered some experience during my few solo rounds and been able to guide the others through the rules, this would have been a slog. We even started playing close before midnight and were done 5 in the morning. XD

[@AzureIV]

12:45 Just to inform you: in official rules/errata, if you are playing a true solo game (one spirit and one board) ALL cards that target “Another” spirit also targets you. So all those “support” cards that are normally used on your other spirit friends can be used to empower you, the only spirit in the game.

[@cuauhtemocchavez1509]

At the beginning I really hated the event deck. I don't love it now but appreciate the random element it brings to the game and when you get use to it is not that hard to cope or accept the effects. Additionally, Jagged Earth helps a lot to level up beast based spirits because now there are more options to place them making them viable taking advantage from the event deck.

[@grantprice9768]

Good video. One constructive criticism would be to try to use the name of the spirits or a shortened form of their name. A few times you talked about them pretty vaguely and with that it sounds less legitimate.

[@onepipwonder915]

thanks Grant, its the little things that matter ;)

[@billable1861]

I am absolutely no good with Sharp Claws he has very high RNG but never seems impactful. Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds seems incredibly powerful whenever I play. Jagged Earth slightly revises the rules for the event cards where you don’t have to activate an event on your first turn; this DRAMATICALLY improved gameplay. Jagged Earth also adds more positive events and more healthy and blighted island cards. Overall I do not like the event cards because it almost defeats the purpose of the strategic thinking in the original fantastic core game!

[@mbalazs3544]

Like this game is not hard AND complex enough :D i skip this expectation, A bad expansion mechanic wont turn a good game bad :D one just need to skip the expansion mechanic that's a pain.