Three of us, Spirit Island, the Brandenburg-Prussia adversary at level 3. We won, narrowly.

The board state going into round four was bad. The invaders had a foothold in three of the five lands, and the blight bag was halfway empty. We had a council mid-game where we openly considered restarting and called it through.

What turned it around: a major power that gave us two fast cards in a single round. We held two cities and stopped the blight from cascading. After that the game was a slow grind back to a winning position.

Win conditions met on round eight. Total play time: just over three hours. Two of us had played the spirits before; one was on a brand new spirit and held their own.

It's a game I keep coming back to because the failure mode isn't bad luck, it's bad decisions. Even at higher difficulty levels, the game gives you the information you need; the question is whether you can read it in time.