After talking about Shadow specifically against England, I decided to fire up a game to see exactly how it would play out!
Adversary: England lvl3 (I choose this level so that it wouldn't be impossible difficulty wise, but to also include the extra build phase which I have not played with before)
Board: A and C (west to east)
Spirits: Shadows and Fang
Game 1: Learning Experience
This game when pretty poorly, with a loss by blight comming in just after the second invader card of stage 2. I didn't lock down parts of the island early enough, and with Engalnds double build phases and not needing explorers to build, I never had control. Early blights in heavily fortified parts of the coast really hurt Fangs ability to clear those areas out (since blighted areas can't be targets for ranging hunt) and by the second card of stage 2 I had the choice of losing to a ravage and blight cascade or losing to Engalnds additional loss condition. It didn't help that the Blighted Land card was a 3-per-player one for this particular game. I would have taken Downward Spiral with its 5-per-player blight and lived to at least see another or two.
I don't think I played Shadows or Fang very well in that game. Very early sub-optimal decisions snowballed hard against me, with Fang not able to generate the beast tokens needed and Shadow just overall having a low impact. In addition, the last card of stage 1 and the first card of stage 2 were both wetlands. This was a terrible bout of luck because Board A has Englands starting City+Town in a wetland. It built up really quickly in that area and I was not prepared to deal with that along with the other areas that were out of control.
I was pretty unsatisfied with how I played that game and was 100% confident that if I played the spirits better early on, with a little luck on the power draw, I could do a lot better.
Game 2: The Comeback Strategy
The initial explore draw was Jungle, which was perfect for me, as both Shadows and Fang start in Jungle areas. After the first game, I knew that I needed a better gameplan to beat England. Before taking the first turn, I decided that:
1) the initial forest builds need to be destroyed/prevented first.
2) the town in the inland mountains of board C had to go immediatly after.
3) Work toward clearing the buildings in the coastal sands of board C (where the starting City/Town combo is).
The reason I layed out this specific gameplan was that I knew I had to insulate as much of the board from explorerless builds as early as possible. Not only will I cut off sources of exploration into the inlands, but Board C, since it was on the east side, has a coastal sands that connect right to a Jungle that runs clear through to the south side of the island, providing the most access points for Englands special build condition. If I could figure out a way to do that in turns 1-3, I would have a very good chance of controling the entire middle and southside of the island.
Fang: When playing Fang, it is SO important to get good minor power draws that allow you to activate Ranging Hunt. Luckily I was able to pick up 2 minor powers early that proved to be pivitol. Swarming Wasps was my first draw, and it's perfect for Fang. Not only does it have Claw and Fire elements, but it provides cheap beast token generation, combined with Ranging Hunt allowed for reliable and cheap small area clears for my aformentioned steps 1 and 2. Call to Tend was another minor power I picked up which gave both Claw and Grass element, but also gave me MUCH needed blight removal so I could use Ranging. Mid game I picked up the Major power Insatiable Hunger of the Swarm, which is the perfect pairing for Wasps. Swarm is made for Fang, providing reach, beast generation, claw/grass elements, and big damage. This card allowed me to win this game as early as I did. Wrap in Wings of Sunlight was used once, but it was very clutch when I drew it. For innate cards I never used Terrifying Chase, but Prey on the Builders had massive value against Engalnd's 2-3 build phases per turn.
QUESTION: I'v gotten used to playing Ranging Hunt a certain way, but during this game was the first time I really questioned if how I was using it was actually correct or if I was breaking the rules.
Say I have an area with a single presence and 1 beast token. I use Ranging Hunt on an adjacent land with a town. First I gather the beast token to the target land, moving my presence along with it. Is it a legal move to right now use Fangs Special Rule to devolve my presence into a 2nd beast token and then resolve the 2nd line effect of Ranging Hunt for the damage, effectivly going from 1 damage to 2 and destroying the town? Or is it the case that I actually can't interupt the power use with the Special Rule?
For what its worth, it feels very satisfying to play it that way, and outside of that, the Special devolve rule isn't all that usefull outside of using it to trash presence that would be destroyed anyway. I think it should be played how I'm doing it. It "feels" correct. But I am honestly unsure if it's actually correct.
Shadow: Shadow was pretty challenged for the game as his innate cards are just not all that usefull against Engalnd outside of Crops Wither and Fade. I pulled a lot of minor power cards and no majors. Given the cards I was shown, I decided to move shadow into more of a direct support for Fang who became the heavy lifter that came with the extra beast generation it got. Two minor powers really solidified this for me. Gift of Constancy was first, and a turn or two later I drew Spur on With Words of Fire. Words of Fire was particularly useful, as it allowed Fang to gain more energy, draw a major power sooner, and let him play more of his cheap cards (like the 0 energy Wasps) which were then reclaimed through Constancy. Entrancing Apparitions was also really useful for me here as it was some minor defense I could play cheaply that didn't come with land target restrictions you see with a lot of other minor defense based cards. Because of my focus on supporting Fang, my minor powers never went to activating my innate, which really holds very little value against Engalnd anyway.
In order to step up my early game control, on turn 1 I choose the +3 energy growth option while I uncovered the 2 card plays from the presence track first. Even though I had to reclaim a turn earlier with Shadow than I did in game 1, the benefit of the stronger early game payed off and I felt more compfortable and even was able to afford Shadow's special rule when needed early.
For the whole game I didn't feel like I was pulling off great moves or really helping much, I was just steming the tide as I supported Fang. Fang was all over the Island, controling Engalnds expansion from the middle outward. Crops Wither was a key card however and the single most used ability against England to control the builds. I really want to try and play more games with Shadow against other adversaries. It's fear generation is good and it offers good Dahan control, but when you are forced to just play as a support bot for the "real" spirit it felt really underwhelming in both the first game loss and the second game win. I think I will keep playng with Shadows for the time being, and after beating England lvl3 so handily with a suboptimal spirit, I think I'll move to Sweeden where Shadow's explorer destruction should shine.
As I said before, game 2 was a win. I was able to win just before stage 3 hit under Fear 2 win condition of no buildings. The gameplan I set for myself I was able to pull off. I think the 2nd game I had a much better handle on how to get control over Englands builds and was way more compfortable with the specific Board layout. Getting that coastal sands clear was tough, but it was absolutly crucial that I did it when I did as it prevented the entire southern side of the map from ever being a problem.