Hello all, I just bought the game and read the rules. I haven't played yet. I did have a couple of questions which the FAQ addresses (thanks, Eric!), but couldn't find the answer to one:
One of the options to lower the difficulty even below the starting assumptions is to skip the initial Explore step during setup. But as near as I can tell from a reading, wouldn't that mean the spirits win instantly? Without that, there are no invaders of any type on the island, and at fear level 1, that's the win condition. What am I missing?
Each board has starting towns and cities. What you wouldn’t have by not doing an initial Explore is any Explorers on the board.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
Yeah, every board starts with a Town and a City - the Town is always in an Inland land and the City is always the middle of the three Coastal lands on each board - all four boards are laid out in such a way that there will always be two Explorers added per board in the initial setup.
I am the Wordweaver...
Basically, I like writing stuff ;)
There's a common confusion between "Explorers" (the pieces that look like people) and "Invaders" (including Towns or Cities).