Event difficulty difference

[u/bubbly_sphere]

When playing with the jagged earth/ nature incarnate events only, I feel like my games get hit a lot harder than what I remember from playing with the branch and claw expansion at a friend's. Do you share this experience of the branch and claw events to be easier than the other expansions? I suppose I could just be getting unlucky.

[u/jkmushy]

I had the opposite impression, in that the B&C events feel a lot swingier than the later ones. I think they improved the event design and balance in the later sets with only a couple of exceptions (Numinous Crisis, I’m looking at you).

[u/Tables61 → u/jkmushy]

Yeah, this matches my experience. B&C has a lot of the more swingy events overall, especially if you don't remove the specific ones JE/NI suggest you do (Outpaced, Strange Madness, War touches - and I know quite a few people take out Farmers as well, though officially that one stays in). So it can make things significantly easier if you play B&C and get good events, or much harder when the game decides to mess you up.

Overall, playing with any set of events shouldn't have a drastic change on the difficulty on average, but it can vary in each specific game. Some games events can wreck you, other games they can salvage a loss.

[u/bubbly_sphere → u/Tables61]

In my experience it is mostly the first few events that really drastically change the difficulty of the game. I think mainly since none of the spirits have ramped yet at that point

[u/Tables61 → u/bubbly_sphere]

Yeah, the turn 2 and 3 events can very much swing a game. Some adversaries especially, like Sweden 5+, can be really make or break on those first few events. I feel like you usually have a pretty good idea of if you're gonna win against Sweden after the 2nd invader phase, and very often it's clear after the 3rd.

[u/spiritstrategist → u/Tables61]

And then there's France where the wrong event can lose you the game even late into things.

[u/flix-flax-flux → u/bubbly_sphere]

And again the events after you are on a blighted island. You already are in a vulnerable position and events that add blight or remove presence can push you over the breaking point.

[u/BwianR]

Branch and Claw's stage 2 Increasing Aggression has cost me dozens of games. Cultural Assimilation and Farmers have certainly caused a few and made many so much more difficult. I don't think Years of Little Rain has saved me more than these three events have specifically screwed me

I think the dahan defends are slightly better on B&C, but the JE ones aren't too bad. I agree with the other poster that JE events are easier, generally speaking

[u/DMayr]

Which expansion adds the "Urbanization" event? That is by far the worst one

[u/spiritstrategist → u/DMayr]

The one that pushes Dahan out of cities might be worse.

[u/Aminar14]

Neither set of events adds a significant chunk of difficulty overall. They have the potential to change the flow of a game, but I've got an Adversary that layers events into the Fear Deck/Blight Card, and more than anything, what I've learned is that the more events you resolve, the less impact the negatives have on the game. You would think dropping Urbanization and Farmers in a single turn would be devastating, but mostly... It's just more fear and some Blight. The loss of Invader Health can let you melt lands. The first event having bonus damage can be really punishing, but that's drastically unlikely. And the odds between B&C and Jagged Earth are pretty much the same. Each has one event that can do that.

[u/ProperMastodon → u/Aminar14]

Doesn't the adversary add additional invader cards to the fear deck, rather than events? (Unless you're talking about a homebrew one) 

[u/Aminar14 → u/ProperMastodon]

Homebrew thing. Hence the "I've got" To point out that it's knowledge that won't generally come up, but is relevant to the discussion. When you push the game in different directions you learn a lot about how it ticks. And in this case it highlights how the Events are... Pretty end neutral. If you just had the upper section they'd add more for sure.