This is such a weird situation. Overall it’s nothing bad, as they say they’re still well ahead of the original promised release date, but at the same time they had already said in a past update how the EU copies “are already with [the fulfillment company]”.
I can only imagine they themselves didn’t get an explicit update either and due to lacking EU paperwork their copies got binned so they now have to expedited-ship a bunch of new copies over.
In any case, NI soon. Ish. Soon-ish!
It’s an unfortunate situation, for sure. I’m glad to have found a digital option to play around with the new spirits and aspects while the red tape is resolved on my physical copy. Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine is so far my favourite of the Incarna spirits, but there’s still tons of things left to try. My limited plays of Dances Up Earthquakes indicate it’s definitely as brain-burning as the preview made it look.
How do the new spirits/mechanics compare to the previous expansions? I love spirit island so I’m so tempted to get this even though I probably don’t play it regularly enough to justify it
As a package, I feel they slot in well next to Jagged Earth.
Of the many new Aspects, the ones that stick out in my memory are Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves’ ones. Unconstrained is a neat variant that makes Sharp Fangs less sensitive to those same Blight targeting issues, but also makes your creation of Beasts a bit more constrained. I’ve not yet played any games with Encircle but it looks to tap into some of the feel of a good Shroud of Silent Mist offensive - smothering the Invaders by putting Beasts in neighbouring lands rather than concentrating them in the land you’re targeting.