Difficulty

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
General Play
  • How do I figure out the Difficulty of a game using both an Adversary <i>and</i> a Scenario?
    A good rule of thumb is "add the Difficulties together", but that's only a starting-point.
    It really depends hugely on the specifics. If the two don't interact much, it could be as low as "the higher of the two Difficulties", perhaps +1 or 2. If they synergize, it could be much higher than additive. (And sometimes player skill level or the Spirits involved can influence how the two combine.) Coming up with a generic, accurate formula is more or less impossible.
    If you're scoring games, go with "add them together", but trust your gut about how hard the game felt (presumably you have some experience to go on by the time you're combining Adversaries + Scenarios) and adjust Difficulty up or down accordingly. Not a truly satisfying answer, I realize, but I suspect it's the best one practically possible.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Difficulty, Scoring
  • The game is really hard and is kicking our butts. What can we do?
    To lower the difficulty slightly,
    • For a slight difficulty decrease, give each Spirit one free Growth at the end of Setup. Then take your first turn, which will start with Growth.
    • For a moderate decrease, skip the Explore that's normally at the end of Setup. Don't even reveal the Invader Card.
    • For a large decrease, do both of the above.
    Also worth noting: a few rules can cause sudden, crushing losses if played incorrectly. When Invaders Ravage for 2+ Damage, add only one Blight to the Ravaged land. (Not 1 per 2 Damage!) When you add Blight to a land with Blight and it cascades, you add an additional Blight to one adjacent land. (Not all of them!) You start with your four unique Power cards in hand. (You do not have to gain them!) See also the Rules semi-commonly misplayed.
    But different people cue into some of the bread-and-butter techniques for fighting the Invaders at very different speeds.
    If you want some strategy tips, there are some tips for early plays on BoardGameGeek.
    Tags: Learning, Difficulty
Scenarios
  • Can you mix two or more Scenarios?
    You can, but it's not officially supported (they're not tested in pairs), so you'll need to use your own judgment when combining them - what will play well together, how Difficult it might be, and if there are any tweaks you need to make to avoid degenerate situations.
    Scenarios exist on sort of a spectrum between "mods" (Varied Terrains, Elemental Invocation) and "goal-driven" (Ward the Shores). Mixing two Scenarios on the goal-driven end of the spectrum tends to result in more oddness, whereas mixing a mod-like Scenario with others tends to be cleaner (though Difficulty may be notably impacted by synergies / anti-synergies between the two).
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Difficulty, Varied Terrains, Elemental Invocation, Ward the Shores, 0 more...
~ Expansions, Promos, and Publishing
  • What happens if you just add some of the Branch & Claw expansion cards / elements to the game? Do you think you could play with everything from the expansion but the Event Cards?
    Many expansion elements rely on each other to a greater or lesser extent. Mixing in some without others won't break the game, but may skew it.
    Going item-by-item:
    • Scenarios: Are fine to use. Most of these are in the expansion purely because they use the expansion's Scenario Tokens.
    • Adversary: France can be used at Level 1 and below without any trouble. Level 2+ will be harder without Strife tokens and the Event Deck. (Though you can fix the latter by just resolving Slave Rebellion every 4 turns.)
    • Events: Most of them should be usable by skipping the token Event... but this will make the game harder. However, if you look up the Jagged Earth rulebook online, it has rules for playing without Event Cards (without kneecapping Beasts-using Spirits like Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves).
    • New Fear Cards: There are about half a dozen fear cards that don't reference tokens. (They're in the expansion because of new rules, or just to keep effect distribution even.) Including just those 6 will slightly skew the effects of the fear deck, but not in any way that you're apt to notice unless you're a very experienced player.
    • New Blight Cards: The expansion Blight cards don't have a negative ongoing effect, because the Event deck handles that: About 1/3 of the Event cards involve adding Blight / destroying Presence if the island is Blighted. So using the new Blight cards without the Event deck lowers the incentive to keep the Blight Card from flipping early, which in turn slightly lowers difficulty / early-game tension. Doing so also makes the small-pool Blight cards better (especially "Back Against the Wall" / "Aid from Lesser Spirits") because they're less risky.
    • Spirits: Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds needs Wilds tokens. It may have a slightly harder time of it without the possibility of players gaining Minor/Major Powers that add Wilds, but is probably fine. Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves needs Beasts tokens to function well, and Beasts need Event Cards to be good; without Events, Sharp Fangs is almost certainly underpowered unless you use the "Play Without Event" rules from Jagged Earth.
    • New Power Cards: Adding only a subset of new Power Cards is likely to change the distribution of different types of effects, and near-certain to change the elemental distribution (both how often each element appears, and how often each pair of elements appears). The game will absolutely still work, but some Spirits will be invisibly penalized / rewarded (because Power Card draws will on average be lousier/better for their elements), and it may skew strategy depending on what types of effects get added to the deck. This isn't apt to be a big deal if you're just adding a few cards, but if you're adding half the new cards it could be more pronounced. Also, some Major Powers are in the expansion because they shouldn't be part of a small Major Power deck.
    And finally, "Everything except the Event Cards": If you omit the starting Disease from each board, and don't use the "Aid from Lesser Spirits" / "Back Against the Wall" Blight cards, my educated guess is that using everything but the Event Cards wouldn't mess with game difficulty too much - Beast tokens will be much worse (mild difficulty boost), and the Blight Card changes will make things slightly easier. (You could also use Event Cards for token Events only, in which case you're probably making your game easier by 1 or 2 Difficulty?) It's totally untested that way, but if you want to give it a shot, please go for it - and if you have a chance, post to BGG or the >G forums to let me know how it went!
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Events, Learning, Difficulty