Too Many Spirits on the Island

So I recently picked up one of my wishlist items, Spirit Island (woohoo!).  I'd only played it cooperatively so far and it had been a little while, so I decided to throw down a multiplayer game to refresh my memory of the rules.  Usually when I play a cooperative game solo, I'll play at least two-handed (e.g. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and Aeon's End).  I thought I would try that here as well, I'm a pretty expert gamer, right?

I decided to use two of the lower complexity spirits: Lightning's Swift Strike (chosen for their attack) and Vital Strength of the Earth (chosen for their defense).  I played on the simplest difficulty with no specific invader or blight cards.  Things seemed to be going pretty well at the start. The invaders were slowly spreading but I had a pretty good control of them still.

But then I realized, about four rounds in, that I had been forgetting to use my spirits' special powers!  Strength gains 3 defend wherever he has two presence and Lightning can speed up his attacks.  Doy!  I decided to soldier on and just start using them from now on.

Usually when I play a game, I don't sit down and play the whole game through.  I leave it set up in my basement and play it in 5-30 minute intervals whenever I get a chance between parenting and husbanding.  Well, that started to take its toll in this game.  I was beginning to lose track of what I had done last and what the invaders were doing.  It wasn't long before the board looked like this.

I decided I would try a game pure solo using on Lightning.  Very soon the board looked like this and I had the cards to finish the last two guys off.  How did this happen?  It's only been a few rounds into the game?  Oh, what's that?  The invaders get the starting move?  Whoops, missed that one.  Reset #3!

Kind of like the story of Goldilocks, this third game felt just right.  I won, but it's because I worked hard on the fear and then got rid of all the invaders towns and cities.

It was still a little bit too easy, but I'm excited to experiment with different spirits and also try the different invaders.  I can't wait to get into my next game because this one is so great.  So many ways to set up, so many ways to win, so many spirits to be!