Phataskippy's guide to Phantasms, part 7: Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares.

Games Spirit Island
#21

I had an interesting experience with my first game playing Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares.

So far, I've found the Fear mechanic to be interesting, fun, and critical to the game progress. Getting the extra bonus before the Invader Phase is a great reward that really adds to the flavor of the game, and sometimes provides a key tactical benefit. We quickly found that earning one or two Fear cards each round put us on a good path to victory. We'd not yet seen an outright Fear victory, though we'd made it to Terror Level III on several occasions.

So, I figured that Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares would be an outright asset to our victory over the Invaders. At first, of course, I was generating huge amounts of Fear, regularly earning at least two Fear cards each round. However, after seeing how helpless Bringer was at keeping the Invaders at bay on its home board, letting Blight get out of hand, I started to pick up a couple Defend powers. This had almost the opposite effect I wanted: whenever I used the Defend powers, my Fear production dropped off precipitously, and I wasn't actually good at anything. So, I left off the Defending and resumed Fear - generating it at an accelerated clip, and despite an ever-increasing level of Blight and torrents of Invaders, we won a Terror victory.

I found the win totally unsatisfying. Playing a game with Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares turned the game into a matter of playing cards that let us move some counters up, until we moved enough to win. We simply had to try to do this before the Invaders did too much. The board, what the Invaders were doing, the other spirits, Presence - none of it was really relevant to Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares. It just had to care about ticking up these little counters until we reached VICTORY at the bottom of the Fear Deck. In some ways, that's thematic to the spirit - but it made for a very unsatisfying game.

Playing Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares convinced me that Fear should not cause an outright victory. It absolutely should make the Invaders more demoralized and make victory easier over the course of the game, but I think having "You win!" at the bottom wasn't really as fun as it could have been. I would have liked to uncover an effect at the bottom of the Fear deck that has the Invaders running in terror from the island, the spirits, and the Dahan, but continue the game until the "no cities" condition from Terror Level 3 is met.

#22

Bringer is not as helpless at defending its home board as all that.  Pushing is nearly as powerful as real damage if utilized with a delicate hand, and Bringer starts with both a Defend power and enough Dahan manipulation to bring the hurt on anything you can't push away.

#23

Were you playing Bringer solo?  Because that is pretty much Bringer solo, you try to survive long enough to win from fear.

If it was a multiple spirit game, you can't just focus on fear.  You want to stage fights with Dahan, and use damage to push towns around and generate fear.

Bringer really shines when you can nuke a built up land, generating huge fear, and push the towns and explorers to places others (spirits or Dahan) can destroy them.

I realy like Bringer paired with someone like Ocean or Fangs, who are good at destroying but are somewhat limited in where they can reach.

#24

Bringer/Ocean is one of my favourite games that I’ve played - and a lot of it was me (Nightmares) looking after most of the island, protecting and manipulating and letting the Dahan fight. It’s a potent spirit in its own right.

In defence of fear victories, it makes a lot of thematic sense in that, after facing sufficient opposition, people are going to get the frick frack out of there, and gameplay-wise having a race condition can make a satisfying end if you’re close to the end of the fear deck; I’ve found it to work well.

#25

Oh, if you don't like the straight fear ending, try having the empty fear deck mean invaders no longer explore or spread out, and you just have to clear lands that are built up.

You still advance the invader track, but don't explore ever, and don't follow events that put things in empty lands.  Thematically I see it as the invaders abandon the colony, and those that stay aren't venturing out, but they are still trying to hold their land.

#26

That sort of reward at the bottom of the fear deck makes a lot of sense to me.

#27

To add to justification for the Fear Victory, think of it this way:

  1. Terror Level 1:  Invaders are not afraid
  2. Terror Level 2:  Invaders are afraid on their own, but feel safe in towns and cities
  3. Terror Level 3:  Invaders feel that small towns no longer offer protection and they only feel safe in cities
  4. Victory:  Invaders no longer feel safe anywhere, even in cities, and flee the island abandoning their cities.
#28

Phantaskippy, can I suggest that you edit your guide to make it clear that you can flip any fear card? This is a common mistake, and makes Bringer of Dreams & Nightmares significantly stronger if you play it right. For instance, it's not really that crucial to flip a Fear card every single turn, as long as you're strategic about which card to flip.

This is (now) a FAQ, but I think it won't occur to many people to look it up.

#29

You might want to review the topic title.  I'm not sure what Dreans are.  

#30

Dream Beans.

They are delicious. It's how Bringer eats. It turns invader thoughts into tiny little morsels for easy consumption. Plus they go well in stew. Bringer looooooves stew.

#31

Thanks for the advice, edited.

#32

Thanks and thanks for the guides.