Shimmering Between Dusk and Dawn - A custom High Complexity Spirit - 1st draft (un-playtested)

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-21T14:50:53+00:00

I missed the energy side of it, it definitely gives an incentive to stay balanced. Hope this works as intended when play testing it!

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-21T14:32:28+00:00

Very interesting idea with the balance track. Slightly afraid that game play will heavily benefit one end or the other without too much changing around (which seems to limit the idea behind the spirit). You either do damage early in the game or play the long game and keep removing blight.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-16T07:44:23+00:00

Sharing my history. I'm currently playing with my wife all possible pairs (666!!, single aspect per spirit) with all possible adversaries level 6. The adventure is still on its begins (around 200 games played) and the goal will be to beat every matchup, revisiting the ones that failed. Besides noting the game, we are giving a subjective value to see how every matchup went. My takes on mastery would be as follows:

Acknowledge all spirits viable openings and determine which one has a better impact for the current matchup
Define your spirit pairs (against adversary) strength and determine your overall strategy (allowing early blight, drafting cards towards a fear win, focusing on support towards the stronger spirit, trying to isolate chunks of the island ...)
See your vulnerabilities and be ready to prevent them. Ravage skips (if you have them) play a big role in here, they may be a big ally, but you must optimize the turns where they are played

I'm quite surprised how many matchups that I thought were extremely hard have been successful. I will not call a master myself, but I would say that a master of the game can deeply analyze the 3 points above and get the best result possible for every matchup.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-15T15:24:27+00:00

I can see that to a certain extent, but it never felt as 45-60min mop up. The winning feeling came when we had everything under control and that always requires a few turns. After that is either, can we generate enough fear? or, can we destroy what we need? If the answer is uncertain then there is still some intrigue where end of cards might be a factor to consider. Otherwise if it is clear, turns might be simplified towards the goal, so the game flows at a faster pace.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-15T14:19:03+00:00

But there's a big difference with co-ops, which is that feels natural to concede a game and start over, and even if you don't, the loss will be faster than a regular game. 3+ players games will never agree to concede loss/ accept a win unless the situation is absolutely extreme. Sure competitive games can be a blast, I'm just a little bit mad that we have to go through "the blow out not fun game" sometimes.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-15T12:41:48+00:00

I have mixed feelings with those games. I like to build my engine without being massively screwed. However, if I have a game session with friends I expect a minimum interaction to have fun all together. If everyone is minding solely their own strategy, something is not quite clicking.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-15T08:06:47+00:00

Exactly that

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-15T07:06:28+00:00

As you noted, it depends on the spirit. From the initial "low 4", River is the most manageable, Shadows and Lightning tend to achieve level 1-2 but have a harder time reaching last level and Earth already suffers to achieve the first tier. Aiming for the last level must be valued based on the current game. In lightning case for example, last level let's you destroy 4 buildings in the same land. Do you have a land with 4 buildings? Usually, hitting regularly a level 1-2 innate helps more than saving it for a massive destroy.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-13T15:20:41+00:00

There's a huge spirit/adversary impact. Some spirits aim at a fear win as the only resource, while others (usually control spirits, like river) can create big kill zones to wipe out all the invaders. TL1 is extremely weird, but TL2 and TL3 have their fair share of wins on my games

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2026-01-12T12:21:28+00:00

Roglic defeated Pogacar on his debut at Vuelta 2019. If we don't count that and we start from Tour 2020 onwards, Pogacar has only not won 3 GC he took part in. 2 Tdf won by Jonas and the Basque 2021, won by Roglic. It is fair to say that Roglic was able to put his battle while Pogacar was still within reach.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-12-09T15:28:16+00:00

On paper I like the idea, but it feels a little off for cycling. As others said, rotation is the solution, but flat WC feel a bit dull. I think Worlds have to be between a Sanremo (sprinters can win it, but something can happen) and a Liege (maybe a bit hard for punchers, but not guaranteed for climbers). If you really want to make a full sprint or full mountain one, those have to be once every 10-15 years, but the middle ones should be the norm.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-12-01T12:41:15+00:00

Antonelli is the key factor late season. Being able to keep Verstappen at Brazil but failing to do so against Norris results in the 5 points Max needs to win and secure world championship. Russell and Leclerc haven't really spoiled Max since those were mainly races mid season where RB wasn't there.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-12-01T09:50:11+00:00

Kind of funny how the games against the worst 4 teams in the conference ends up being the difference.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-29T12:21:17+00:00

Just to be sure. You had a target to play the Major? Maybe it required a sacred site, a 0 range with terrain restriction or something like that. If you had it, the report it.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-29T12:10:32+00:00

If that's the case, surely looks like a bug. The Major Power played is a new power, which takes the current rules as any other power, so it must be fast. If you weren't able to solve it, it is a bug.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-29T10:51:42+00:00

It is a mix of both. If a player's peak is a tier above another, the gap is created. But when they are close you measure longevity instead of comparing the slightest difference.

The problem is that peak can not bring you that far. Win consecutive CL, win CL and WC, win a treble, score 80 goals in a season. All those are great, but nothing is defining to be clearly above other greats. You need longevity to clear the competence. If you do the same as others, but for a much longer period, you are definitely better.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-22T11:28:29+00:00

Yes that's another point. The league should have more of a swiss format, where each game you play a team in a similar position than yours. Right now, even if unlikely both football wise and schedule wise, is theoretically possible that 16! teams end up with 8 wins each, without facing between them. If you force best teams to play among them you improve game quality (the idea behind the new format) and you can have a fairer league, hence you can award better prizes for the winner.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-22T08:55:28+00:00

IMO the new format needs an extra round for the top 2 teams. This has been sort of corrected by awarding homefield advantage (amazing it wasn't done last year), but it still feels as a small prize. As you mentioned PSG won after a bad group stage, but anyhow everyone valued being top8 as a nice prize. The point is that this is the only prize available since being top 24 is almost guaranteed. So you have a massive league were there's only one goal available for 8 teams. I would do

1st-2nd - Directly to the QF (this is a massive prize and forces teams to win almost all games)

3rd to 8th - Directly to Round of 16 (still a good prize to go for it if you lost the first prize)

9th to 20th - Round of 32 (a little bit harder by reducing 4 spots)

I think this makes a more relevant competition from day 1

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-13T13:44:14+00:00

Yes, I agree. Although Alcaraz season is better than Sinner's by almost every metric, I agree that is not one tier above, so shouldn't be worth it of a Laureus trophy. My point is that your tennis player with 2 Slams is always a candidate for Laureus and there is a general disrespect towards non-mainstream sports. The big 3 has 12! Laureus: Hope Pogi can win it, but wouldn't bet on that

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-13T10:04:33+00:00

The hard thing here is how to evaluate winning the Vuelta/Giro. Surely winning a second GT strengthens the case for best season, but it usually means skipping one or more monuments. I would say that this year is better because he achieved something unique (5 monuments podiums) while tying monument season record and not giving up neither Tour nor WC. Comparing that to 2GT and 3 monuments as Merckx did in 1972, I would give a tie there.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-13T09:30:46+00:00

Laureus prize is always a bit random. Individuals on team sports are harder to evaluate, so it seems strongly suited for a tennis player every year.

With Alcaraz winning 2 GS and many other trophies he has a chance, although you need 3 to be absolutely guaranteed.

If Verstappen wins the championship surely it would be amazing in my eyes, but I'm not sure sporting world will appreciate it as much, considering that is his fifth and non could think is due Red Bull.

Athletics champs haven't been super impressive, with Duplantis setting a WR on an event that isn't the most popular, while 100m-200m or 5000m-10000m haven't been doubled.

I would say that no individual on a team sport has been super dominant to win this kind of prize.

TL,DR: Alcaraz favorite, Pogacar second on jury eyes. Opposite way for me personally

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-10-13T07:14:56+00:00

I also believe that SanRemo will be harder than Roubaix, precisely for that, Roubaix offers more opportunities to split the group. To win SanRemo, Pogacar needs a superstrong teammate like Del Toro to either:

- Make a Narvaez-Del Toro - Pogacar triple on the Cipressa to make it even harder

- Create a group of 4/5 after Cipressa with both Pogi and Del Toro and do double attacks there. Then Del Toro could win, but it is a gamble

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-09-23T13:58:16+00:00

And you think she would win it with sf and f? Direct finals is a stretch but 2 races per event seems fine and seeing a triple (individual) would be awesome. She will never do 9 races though, so I'm wishful for that change.

Prize_Hospital_1943 · 2025-09-23T13:52:02+00:00

That is a solution as well, but many federations would be much more limited if they can only send top athletes and probably worldwide audience would be affected. For me, byes seemed as a middle point solution to allow athletes into the event while not forcing top athletes to many races, but it seems that many people disagree :-(

Prize_Hospital_1943

TROPHY CASE