by Entreri43
I'm a relatively new player, and haven't had a chance to play multiplayer with the same people repeatedly; so every time it's with new players and I haven't had a chance to experience high-level multiplayer strategy. I've done a bunch of solo's, slowly ramping up difficulty while rotating somewhat spirits, mostly with Prussia (up to lvs 4-5) and a little with Sweden (lvs 3-4).So this is a tier list mostly from the perspective a somewhat less-experienced solo-player focused on Bradenburg-Prussia; I know the game designer commented early that the spirits are not particularly balanced for solo-play. I also haven't given equal treatment to trying all the spirits, so my opinions might be incomplete or skewed.
Upper solo tier:
Thunderspeaker:
•Incredible flexibility in terms of presence positioning via Dahan movement makes it easy to not have to worry about range and targeting restrictions on card draws.
•Great starting cards, particularly Manifestation working together Voice of Thunder or your innate Dahan movement to deal damage that scales however high you need it to be.
•Arguably the best growth options among spirits for all three choices. A nice reclaim 1 spot on its card plays.
•As a solo spirit, it doesn't really need to rely on other spirits for anything in its play.
River Surges in Sunlight:[list]
•Cheap cards and energy gen in the cards lets me not have to worry about growing energy track much (I've usually leave it at 2 for most of the game).
•2 great presence placing growth options. Nice reclaim 1 spot in card plays.
•Starting cards good at triggering its innate. A decent number of minor powers give the elements needed to start triggering lv2 and lv3 innate, which are both great powers.
•Lv2 and lv3 inates work well together (along with it's starting push 3 card), to take care of large numbers of invaders in one go.[/list]
A Spread of Rampant Green:
•With the ability to target itself with both its growth cards in solo play, and its intrinsic high growth, it ramps up amazing fast.
•The fast growth (and fast presence placement cards) paired with Choke the Land gives it the ability to shut down invaders pretty effectively right out the gate.
•Good card draw to find the powers it needs.
•As a big asterisk on these opinions, I've actually only played one game with this at a lower level (lv2 or 3), but I had such a boringly easy game that I decided to shelve it. I really should try it again at the higher difficulty.
Lower solo tier:
Vital Strength of the Earth:
•Relatively weak growth options. In particular, very difficult to gain new powers.
•Too dependent on Dahan movement without the starting cards to move Dahan effectively. Its one attack card needs 3 Dahan to really be worth it, but it can only move 2 at once. It's inherent sacred site defense also really wants Dahan there for counterattacks. It seems like multiplayer with a spirit good at moving Dahan (River, Thunderspeaker, or maybe Shadows) would help a lot.
•Difficult to trigger innate. Maybe I've gotten unlucky with my card draw elements, but I've had trouble being able to trigger my innate as often as I'd like when playing.
•Expensive cards with lower starting energy production (and difficulty getting new cards) makes it difficult to play enough cards to respond to multiple invader actions.
•As a positive, while it's gather Dahan card isn't sufficient for its Dahan movement needs, the gather explorers part is awesome. It's other cards are also very good if you are lucky enough to get the situations to make full use of them.
•I do think I'm not playing him effectively; he's my only loss in my current process of ramping up difficulty.
Lightning's Swift Strike:
•Low energy production, expensive starting cards, and slow new card draw makes it difficult to play enough cards to trigger innate early.
•Starting card to make powers fast does nothing for itself (other than have elements on it), as it can usually make powers fast by itself. It's difficult to get good use out of Raging Storm (for its cost) without relying on other spirits to group invaders together and/or deal partial damage.
•Difficulty triggering its innate and slow card draws makes it difficult to keep up with invaders early game.
??? solo tier:
(I haven't played with these enough to form strong opinions on where to place them):
Shadows Flicker Like Flame:
•Somewhat weaker starting cards, though not too bad.
•Can get to decent card plays and energy fairly early.
•When I've played this, I've had trouble getting the right cards to trigger my innate, though I feel like it shouldn't actually be that hard.
Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares:
•Mostly just trying to pump out fear as fast while balancing not losing to blight.
•Lots of fear can come quickly with the right major powers.
Ocean's Hungry Grasp:
•Obviously limited in it's solo game by the ability to only play on the coast.
•Tons of energy from drowning units in a solo game.
•Relies on good major power draws to handle inland lands.
Heart of the Wildfire:
•Good growth options.
•Multiple ways of dealing damage/destruction at start of game.
•Can effectively shutdown invaders in its area by splitting its innate's damage.
•Can be difficult to build sacred sites (usually need to clear the existing blight first).
•Not very good at influencing at a distance with starting cards/innate; blight+presence can be pretty restrictive.
•Difficult to add presence to already blighted regions; reliant on finding the appropriate blight removal card, or an effective ranged major power.
•Likely will be triggering the blight card a turn or two earlier than other spirits would.
•I've played a few games where I've done quite well, and almost wanted to place them in Upper Tier; but the games I played also had tipping points in the middle, where I felt I almost lost only to be saved by a lucky fear card or new card draw.