Hmmmmm
My love for the fun aspects of this faction temper my dislike for the amount of board-wide control they can easily exert. But nonetheless:
Spores go crazy. Having a single toadstool warrior on a single clearing with a spore means that no matter how many warriors a faction will have, they always lose. Heavily. Unless they attack you to remove the spore first, which gives you more actions and releasing the spore burst. This is extremely oppressive and forces factions to play around YOU and ONLY YOU, which doesn’t sound like fun. The game basically progresses as you see fit, and you get free points throughout. Because you score at the end of your turn, with enough dead warriors, and with very little to start on the board, it’s achievable to get the 5 point mark easily. And while you do this, you actively slow down all factions that require any form of militant dominance, which is about every base game faction. ‘But I will place pieces for them’ no you won’t, metamorphosis gives them only one warrior in a random far off clearing that they probably wish was dead but can’t afford the actions to move away as they have to spend an extra attack on the freaking spore. I love the concept, but spores need to be limited and easily removable, or the control will make the game simply not fun for every other player.
But it’s all cool, because you can place a couple mole buildings in a random clearings and watch their lords die, which is hilarious. Also needs to be nerfed, but hilarious.
The theme and ways that is executed is perfect, I love the mycelium and composting, as well as a very unique action economy.
In short, great ideas, best I’ve seen, but the control that can be so easily exerted would suffocate every other faction and make it not fun for them
The art is beautiful by the way