Looking for strategy/ideas/tips from playtesters for using Volcano Looming High. Over the holidays I took the proxy I made of Volcano Looming High (https://docdro.id/ArliIKE) out for a test drive, and left feeling a little frustrated. After a couple of test games (against England Lvl 4), it simply felt too restrictive:
- Despite the great range (+4) on adding presence via his third growth option, it seemed to make no sense to spread presence all over the island, since his real value comes from a big "blow-off," and you need lots of presence (6+) in one place to make that effective. Yes, I know Volcano has an innate that allows him to move Presence, but (a) it occurs in Slow, which means you need to plan at least one turn ahead to be able to use it, and (b) it requires 4 Earth and 4 Fire, which absent a lot of help from other Spirits, Volcano won't achieve until Turn 4 at the very earliest (Use Growth Option 2 3X, taking Presence off of the card play track every time to get to 3 cards, then reclaim on Turn 4 to have the cards in hand able to play).
- I spent most of the games adding presence via growth option #2...which left me stuck in one place on the board with nothing but Volcano's base cards, which are somewhat underwhelming -- they're all Slow and only one of them deals any real damage. Yes, adding Presence via Growth Option #3 gives you more powers/+1 card play, but (a) it's a crap shoot -- if you don't draw fire/earth cards every time, the new powers don't really help, and (b) adding Presence half as fast builds up your Explosive Eruption potential half as much; by Turn 4 you'll only be doing 4 Damage with Explosive Eruption.
- We played on the thematic map, which really seemed like a "damned if you do/don't situation": If the Invaders explored in the mountains early, the only way for Volcano to deal with them was to waste 2 Presence in an early Explosive Eruption, which stunted his growth/potential for the rest of the game. If the explorers didn't explore in the mountains early, Volcano had to try to build up to a 4-6 Presence Explosive Eruption to try to have the range to reach them, and by the time he was able to do that, we were so far behind the Invaders that 4-6 Damage wasn't going to do us much good. Maybe that was a function of playing against city-heavy England, but I have to think you'd have similar problems against other difficult Adversaries.
- To do a really effective Explosive Eruption you need to have 6 Presence in one place ready to be destroyed, which will take you at least three turns to achieve. But against Invaders of any appreciable difficulty level waiting three entire turns to be able to do something productive is a killer. Even Serpent (traditionally the slowest of the spirits) can have an immediate effect with Elemental Aegis -- as early as Turn 2, Serpent can defend 3 in a large number of territories. None of Volcano's starting cards is nearly as effective as Elemental Aegis.
- More rhetorical than anything, but how is anybody *ever* going to be able to do a top-tier Explosive Eruption, which requires the destruction of 10 Presence? Unless you have the other two Spirits gifting you Presence every turn, it will take you at least 5 turns to build up 10 Presence in one land, and you'll be doing little else of consequence in the meantime.
To any people out there who have playtested Volcano effectively, any ideas/tips? I know he is a slow-grow spirit, but even Serpent (the slowest growing spirit up until now) gives you decent defense and so-so attack right out of the gate with out having to sacrifice Presence to do it, and can spread over the island quickly. Volcano just seems too restricted to one place and too slow to reach his potential to be effective against any but the easiest-level Invaders.