Cloudspire PVP - Maximise enjoyment guide for new players
People have described it as super complex chess. Usually people who play it are familiar with board games. Yet it can still be overwhelming. It is possible to play this under crippling conditions that it leaves you with a bad taste to never want to play it again. But there's plenty of people who really enjoy this massive game! What are you missing?
I write this guide to help people understand cloudspire a little better getting into it. It is a masterpiece in solo due to the well curated scenarios and story, but it is also incredibly rewarding if certain conditions are met in PVP mode, namely if played at a competent level. I hope to bridge that gap between brand new fumbling player, to a player with some idea + awareness able to play competently. Of course this insinuates that you are able to be that competent player. But there are also other factors that will influence your gaming experience that are not written anywhere except maybe in some far reaches of online forums. This guide is a consolidation of thoughts to help maximise your cloudspire experience as early as possible.
Make no mistake, this game has a high barrier to entry. First allow me to explain something: Cognitive Load vs Automaticity.
Assume your brain has 100% power available, and you can devote some of it to new memory and some to decision making. Your brain really ticks when it’s using this power for the latter to make meaningful decisions. The problem is, when you learn a new game, remembering the ruleset draws on this smae pool of brainpower (cognitive) and that is not unlimited. The higher the complexity to learn, the less percentage you have to actually make decisions. What you end up is just making decisions according to the rules instead of understanding the consequences of your decisions. When they say that Cloudspire (or other similar complex games) takes repeat plays to understand and appreciate, it is referring to the high commitment of memory of the rules and then getting further. Add to the asymmetrical faction complexity that you can’t lean on copying what another player is doing. However, once you have played it enough for the rules and faction mechanics to be familiar, it becomes automaticity that can be recollected, and you are no longer committing cognitive load brain power to it.
Root is commonly compared with because of its asymmetry and thus well known for its complexity. Cloudspire is much more complex than root.
I WILL state from experience of playing many games: Not every complex game is worth the hurdle. Not every mountain worth the climb. But some are.
Is cloudspire one of them? I believe so, and I’d like to share the view from up here if you would like to see it.
With time, the rules become engrained and nuances of trying to remember them simply melt away. What you’re left with is strategic decisions with very impactful consequences. I emphasise that understanding the consequences makes the decisions all the more fun.
Why do I talk about the complexity?
I watched this youtube video about someone attempting to play cloudspire and introduce it to a friend while doing a tournament across the different factions. Seemed like a great idea, until I heard him say:
“I don’t like to do any studying before the game. I’m not that type of person. I like to work it out as I’m playing.”
Sure and no judgement to him. But the following video he posted that he couldn’t go through the tournament with his friend because it wouldn’t have made for engaging content. And I agree, but do you know why?
Because Cloudspire is absolutely the type of game that benefits from study and familiarity beforehand! There are a lot of powers which equates to reading and mental processing - which doesn’t make for great content to watch. What DOES make for good content is if the whole ruleset and powers are familiar to the content creator and they’re explaining the rationale behind the decisions they take. That’s fun for the creator + viewers, and I’d wager it’s the most enjoyable part of the game! For PVP, it sings when both players come to the table with familiarity and are coming up with strategies and combos at a higher level, rather than just bumbling about reading the abilities and trying to figure how it works.
And of course you can brute force that familiarity with many play sessions and many hours. But you can also skip ahead - with studying beforehand and I am encouraging players to do so. Everything I write here is IN ADDITION to the rules. But understanding these will greatly enhance your decision making. The choices you make matter very much in this game, and the earlier you can spend knowing why, the more time you can spend deciding them. Remember, you only learn the rules for the first time once. Likewise you learn these key concepts from my guide for the first time once. Subsequent practice of these concepts will only reinforce your competency.
For cloudspire, I posit that the majority of interactive decisions will be made within the following categories:
- Faction Mechanics, including Fortress Advancements. - Usually all text and cognitive memory load. Aided by the double-sided sheet in front of you.
- Faction Heroes - Unique units that can be controlled. Limit of 2 on the battlefield per faction, and only the Tier 1 can be summoned in wave 1.
- Faction Minions - Units with limited control and meant to be somewhat predictable.
- Board State - Spires, Terrain, Pathing, Landmarks
- There’s also the market and events, which is a separate layer of added complexity but not as essential to “study” as it is more reactive. Please note there is an endorsed variant of events: draw # of players +1, and each player vetoes an event. The remaining one gets played. This helps counter any potential swinginess.
These are the categories that I will break my guide into.
Faction Mechanics:
Your experience is governed by very early decisions: First is the faction matchup.
Say in Magic The Gathering, which is renown for it’s endless deck construction possibilities. You might start with a colour and stick to it. You might see all these neat creatures or spells and include them in your deck. Without any prior experience, you’re not sure what the right composition is.
That deck has an inherent power level, determined by the cards in it. There’s many factors that I won’t elaborate here (costs, value, land ratio, etc) It’s very hard to quantify and it takes an experienced player to understand. Nonetheless, the power level shapes the gaming experience of the person playing the deck.
Yet consider the following: it’s very different for an inexperienced player to play a weak deck, and get frustrated at an outcome that seems unfair that they didn’t have a chance, vs. an experienced player looking at that deck and realise “wow, this deck will struggle. I will have to play very well to even have a chance” in a challenge mindset. The latter knows what to expect based on experience, and playing the exact same deck, can have a lot of fun. However this is achieved through experienced-based analysis.
So why go through this analogy? Because Cloudspire is very much a game where experience allows you to see through hurdles and understand the challenges you face. The first decision: picking a faction, already determines some advantages/disadvantages in your matchups.
This guide aims to bridge that gap a bit between new player and experienced player, with some statements that are collated from many people’s experience.
As a board game with limited editions, publisher’s can’t really “update” rules or erratas that frequently as a digital game. They’ve got to be very cautious about taking some ideas that might change the balance upon release, because often they only get one shot at it. With all the factions released for Cloudspire, we should have enough to discuss the wide range of its history, especially with new players getting into this game with the fulfilment of kickstarter.
In asymmetrical competitive games, its natural there are “metas” that form. Most people won’t know this, and it doesn’t hurt to find this out before you play.
There’s 4 waves. I reference Early game as Wave 1. Mid Game is Usually 2 and sometimes 3. Late game is 3 and sometimes 4.
So let’s get some statements out of the way. Generally speaking in PVP:
- The base game’s 4 factions are very different. Heirs favour early to mid game. Brawnen and Grovetenders thrive in late game. Narora are very flexible both early and late but also a bigger barrier to entry.
- Many games will not play out to all 4 waves, so don’t expect to have a 4 wave game all the time. Heirs have good tools early game while Brawnen have a lot more tools late game, so naturally Heirs have the advantage in that matchup.
These are not hard and fast rules. Brawnen and Grovetenders can play agressively early-mid game. Experienced players can play strong late game Heirs. But they’re a basis for you to understand before exploring your options.
If you're not aware, Brawnen have had an errata where they can Deploy any single hero in wave 1 but still need pay is cost. This is to give them a range option against a particular early game flying unit that would otherwise have very little counter.
If you and your buddy are brand new to Cloudspire, i suggest both paying against each other as Brawnen and Grovetenders, for the reason that both are more late game and therefore an even playing field when learning he game. Just note the Grovetender can be a little more complex.
Expansion factions tend to be a bit more complex than the base game factions. There is a huge variety now that we have 10 factions! If there is an expansion faction that you’re eyeing and rather play it, I suggest the following factions first:
- Griege: Narora
- Horizon’s Wrath: Heirs
- Uprising: Brawnen & Narora
- Shada: Grovetenders
- Keel: Brawnen & Heirs
- The Graft: Grovetenders and Griege
The base faction might help introduce some concepts, e.g. Grovetender summon can alter their movement, just like Shada. Try to analyse whether the faction does well earlier or later: Does it offer burst damage potential in a wave? Or does it have more in-built defence capability? Some of this bleeds into Fortress Advancements.
Fortress Advancements
You don’t need to build everything to be effective. I propose the opposite to you: Work out what key advancements you’re building towards + what units you need for a combo to be effective. Once you have the advancements built for your combo, consider it “full-build” and you can spend the rest of your source on gravy (e.g. spires, market, less priority advancements, etc). You can even consider which waves to purchase them.
A competent player can just focus on this tight strategy and explore the options around it. Narrow down your options so that you can spend more time on observing the board state and enemies.
Here is an example: Brawnen vs. non-heirs faction - Aggressive Spires Strategy
Aim to go down the Assembly line - pushing with advance towers and possibly siege towers using architects.
- Wave 1: (5 source) Purchase Source shields, deploy 1x Aegis. Aim to get at least 6 source.
- Wave 2: (13 source) Workshop Quarters (4) + Construction Yard (3 but not essential). Purchase Earthscape and place + build dispatch platform. Deploy 1x Architect and 1x Dispatch. Have the architect move (3 movement) to the dispatch platform as soon as possible to convert it to a siege tower, and use the assembly die to add an upgrade to it. This can be near the centre island to threaten anything the enemy builds there.
- Wave 3: (15 source) Gateport (3), Smelter 1 (6) and Purchase Siege Tower (6) or Earthscape and place + build dispatch platform. Deploy Kram + Battleborn. Protect the spires and apply pressure up at the centre isle. Remember to use assembly die.
- Wave 4: (12 source) Purchase 2x Earthscapes (4) and dispatch platforms (8) or double purchase units from market (clearing if unfavourable). 2x Architects and 1x Dispatch.
Not saying this is the best or even a good combo, but it’s a starting point to understand making a plan. DON’T be afraid to bring a small cheat sheet of notes to the game. Does this work? You can only try in battle! But at least you’ve got a plan where your choices work together. It focuses on a particular synergy rather than trying to diversify. I also liken this akin to building your own identity with the faction, because your choice is not just playing the faction but how you're choosing to play it.
I write this to encourage trying to come up with different ideas and synergies for yourself rather than just finding a meta and playing it that way. Cloudspire doesn’t need to be played optimally to be enjoyed, instead I think self-discovery is key to longevity in it. Half of that is front loading your learning so that you can have a better time during the game.
There’s certain advancements that are very significant that you need to look for to analyse a faction:
Almost all factions have ways to get source, but the capacity increase to 30 is limited to 3 - Brawnen and Grovetender and Narora. It is no wonder they’re considered late game factions (Narora flex). Most expansion factions do not have this luxury.
Understand that any advancements that interact with the market will probably only activate next wave, while advancements that activate during the prep phase get benefit immediately.
Also consider if you’re up against a faction that will probably rush you, buying defensive advancements is not a bad idea. These usually are accessible for less than 5 source for your wave 1 purchase.
And if you want to analyse your opponent, ask this question:
If so, you want to watch out if they catch you out of position to rush your gate.
Finally: I wrote a guide solely focused on fortress advancements and how it links to perceived complexity. Importantly I touched on how the build phase is a series of “start&stop” due to the nature of one build at a time which makes it hard to mentally hold your build sequence together. I'm pleased to hear that official cloudspire tournament rules made the build phase simultaneous, so you can just build your advancements without interruption, and then the spire placement proceeds. You can consider adopting this build phase method.
Players will start the build phase by purchasing fortress advancements or upgrading existing spires. This will be done simultaneously. Once both players have finished purchasing fortress advancements, they will have a chance to alternate building spires. This will be done in turn order, to ensure players have the opportunity to use turn order to their advantage (either to avoid being blocked, or to block their opponent). Players can still use these turns to upgrade existing spires on their turn.
Faction Heroes:
They're kind of your avatars in the game. They can freely move and choose to attack. You start out with a tier 1 hero, usually free. While they can be very strong if retained the entire game, it is also not game over if your starting hero gets killed. The game after all had a limit of 2 heroes on the battlefield within each faction, and you have 3 to choose from.
Losing your tier 2 or your 3 hero is an entirely different setback though. Try not to let that happen.
When the wave is approaching the end, try to note which player goes first. If your hero is in enemy territory, they might be the target of the next wave's deployment.
Some games have wave two spend all their CP by purchasing their tier 3 hero and no minions. If this happens, wave 2 immediately ends upon starting because there are no minions in play.
Now here is the number 1 rule that people get confused: Camp-fire mode vs. End of wave trigger. If you haven't already, you will probably confuse it at least once. Try to tell all players to be aware it is the most common mistake to raise awareness. If you think you know it, read it again.
As a reminder:
Camp-fire mode: when only one faction has UNITS in play while all other faction has NO UNITS in play.
End of wave: When no more MINIONS are on the board from all factions.
Each faction's heroes have different abilities and stats, and therefore different roles. Try to note their terrain allowance and movement range as it vastly grants them versatility. 3 movement is HUGE for a hero, as is flying.
Your heroes will tend to have this arc - starting weak, then getting stronger as they kill and get upgrades, then suddenly weak again upon promotion but have a new ability, and then finally singing at full upgrades. For their CP cost, they are the biggest bang for their buck if invested well. So of course it can be psychologically damning and a swing in the battlefield if they are taken out.
Faction Minions
These are the bread and butter of combat. They are usually the best for taking out the fortress gate.
At a higher level, try to analyse which minions are your end game or “win condition”. You can also separately categorise which minions are unit focused, and which are spire focused. Understanding your options can help you react accordingly.
That said, not all factions have the same range of minions available and herein lies the biggest factor of complexity for the Narora. Their chips are double sided and available to them in wave 1. They have 11 units to choose from (if they get 6 CP)! That's a huge range of options! Not counting combinations of the lower CP minions. By contrast Brawnen are simple - 5 total options: 1x battleborn + 1x dispatch, 2x battleborn, 1x Aegis, 1x Architect, 1x Drang. Having a wide variety of options is not a benefit if having all of them to analyse will distract you from making the choice you really need to make. This is why I say Cloudspire is a game that rewards studying. Narora tend to have answers to every situation - you just need to learn what they are. Not a bad idea to write a cheat sheet for them.
As alluded to in the faction mechanics section, it is not a bad idea to write a plan of which units you will purchase wave to wave as part of your strategy. Most factions have predictable CP generation.
Grouping is one concept it can be tricky to figure out, especially since you have to decide from the prep phase. As a general rule of thumb you want to ungroup minions for more damage potential, or group them under minons with defensive traits.
Minions may have mandatory movement, yet try to control the rate of progress. It is generally better to move slower so that you can meet the enemy under cover of your own spires, than speed towards the enemy lines and fight them under their own spires.
Remember that minion movement:
- Cannot enter the same hexes they leave
- Must make at least 1 step towards progress, counted along the path through units.
Therefore you can kind of zig zag them to try to avoid them advancing quickly.
One last thing: like fortress advancements: it's perfectly okay to not fully explore all the minions in one game. Try to stick to a synergistic plan than constantly pivoting.
BOARD STATE
It's what you will be staring at for the next few hours. Thankfully it is very pretty. The maps are dynamic and colourful, and every chip has colour! (Take that Too Many Bones! j/k). But I emphasis it is what you want to spend more of your in-game time strategising and responding to, so these sections I will not go into as much detail as the others.
Reading the stack of chips is incredibly intuitive to know what’s healthy/dangerous. Knowing the abilities, stats and movement range on each unit is not. Unfortunately that takes time, and certainly one thing to concentrate your cognitive brain power in-game. The good thing is that once the prep phase is done, that conveys all the units you need to be aware of. There’s no sudden injection of units mid-battle. So rather than remembering every single enemy minion type, just identify the key threats. Spires however, can be introduced mid-battle and so perhaps note what spires and how much source your opponent has.
Spires
Spires are a subtle way of exerting control. It’s almost an area control game, except that you can overlap. Two spires in a hex group won’t damage each other (except siege towers) and that brings cover to each of those factions, evening out the clash. But if minions are meeting the enemy on the opposition’s turf, they can be whittled down before their big fight.
Heroes will tend to avoid approaching a spire alone due to how hard it is to recover health. The longer you can keep them out of commission, the less value they have. This is the other subtle art of area control: restricting your opponent’s value.
One tip: try to keep track of how much source you are getting next wave, and spend any source in excess of that with limited builds. In my plans, I try to be practical and just aim for a certain amount of source below 20. Anything more than that is gravy. Limited builds are the main way to spend your source in the middle of the wave.
For example: it is wave 2 and the heirs will get 9 source next round. Therefore, any source in excess of 11 will be wasted. Furthermore, if you plan to only use 15 source, then you really only need to end the wave with 6 source. That leaves you with plenty of source to play with during the wave.
The most awkward thing is to have to dump a lot of excess source at the start of the wave because you miscalculated how much you were going to get in the income phase.
One more point is the centre spire: It’s always forest, and holding it is tough but the main benefit is the advance influence you can have since that is usually where the clash happens. You can circumvent this by buying earthscapes and building spires upon placement, rotating for an optimal position using range instead of right next to the path. Often the more you can close up the numerous paths to funnel the enemy into your kill box, the more benefit the earthscapes will grant you.
Terrain
There’s a reason that the rule book has on the back a table for terrain allowance. It’s a hierarchy and the better your units can travel, the more they have access to. Try to note if units have different movement types promoted before you deploy them. Otherwise you will almost certainly forget when they promote in the heat of battle. Some notable ones are Treeds, and Anvasse.
There’s also a particular classification that may take some getting used to. A lot of abilities reference this, particularly to place a chip on.
Non-path hexes.
At first you might think this involves just any terrain hex that is not a path. BUT know that this also includes Source wells (and also Fortress gates but most people don’t mistake that). A source well might not be a path, but it is not classified as a “non-path hex”. Heroes movement is not limited to non-path hexes and can stand on top of a source well to occupy it. However most effect chips cannot cover a source well. I get that it would be too wordy to call it non-path/non-source well hex, so just remember that those don’t count source wells.
One such example that can come up is the Grovetender’s Creeping Vine spire ability that lets it move onto a adjacent non-path hex. It can move OFF a source well, but it cannot move back ON the source well because it is not a “Non-path hex”. I know this has tripped me up more than once and I hope it doesn’t for you.
Path
If you can rotate your starting isle so that it presents yourself with more movement options, always do so. If you’re a defensive/late game faction, try to have the approach to your fortress in a straight line. At the very least, it might help block incoming flying units.
It will be very obvious yet often necessary to count progress along the hexes to the fortress before you move your minion. Sometimes Cloudspire gameplay is a lot of counting hexes before minions are moved. But placement can mean life or death for them so careful consideration is understandable. Try not to see it as an unenjoyable aspect but as a necessity.
One skill you might want to pick up: counting the number of hexes with your eyes, but that's at an advanced level to plan something covertly.
There’s many niches about placement that I believe approach advance territory but also is not difficult to learn from experience. Again the aim of this guide is to help prepare coming to the battlefield with the optimised conditions for enjoyment. Learning about placement on the path is one of the enjoyable aspects playing the game and not necessary for “study”.
Often it can be a mistake or “misplay” that lets an enemy minion through to your fortress and you get “punished”. These are lessons to learn from, and always discuss with your opponent how that happened and maybe how it could have been avoided. In all likelihood there was a play that you missed and your opponent took advantage of it, and revealing that opportunity is important to improve as a player. I hope this mindset improves your sportsmanship and competancy.
Market
Don’t underestimate purchasing earthscapes to manipulate the path or spire build. Furthermore, if you think you can survive this wave, don’t discount a tactic holding back your purchases and deploying them later. There’s a range of market chips and many more that do not make an appearance. It makes sense to know your faction as much as you can beforehand, and then in-game learning about the market chips available for possible synergies. It’s another topic that can be a tough skill to master, but is perfectly fine to experiment and play suboptimally. Spending 2 source to try something new that doesn’t benefit you is not crippling.
Landmarks
You’ll learn more about each landmark but note the following: Every swamp is a minion that is killable and able to be cleared to reveal the source well. Some monuments and ruins cannot be cleared during that wave and therefore are not guaranteed to reveal a source well for you. Each type (swamp, monument, ruin) has a traxxyr with engage and foreboding (of different stats). There are other foreboding landmarks but generally if a traxxyr of a landmark type has already been revealed, the remaining of that type is safe to explore.
Final thoughts
It is a common suggestion that Solo is the best way to introduce players because the experience is so well curated, and there isn’t the pressure of rules and time when playing with someone else. I agree but I also challenge that PVP isn’t a format for learning or enjoyment either. 2 people’s first games of cloudspire can stretch to 4-5 hours. But 2 veteran players can usually call their game in 1.5 hours. It’s fascinating when it boils down to tactical manoeuvres and strategic plays, because many decisions have to be made early, it’s great to see them pay off later. Nonetheless, this is a base for you to develop your own learning to go on your path for high level playing.
Cloudspire is a scenic game. If you can engrain the rules into autopilot, you can enjoy the view it has to offer: the diversity of strategies within each faction, and your ability to execute these strategies within a dynamic environment. The cloudscape is gorgeous from high up here and I wish you to join me.
Some further reading:
Fortress Advancement Complexity ~ (things to know before venturing to other factions)
https://csh.dustinhendrickson.com/general-strategies/1
Various guides by Turtle on Dustin Hendrick’s site
https://csh.dustinhendrickson.com/strategies
Advanced Tactics by Mark Buxton (no longer active in Cloudspire unfortunately)
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2427856/literally-every-thought-ive-had-about-cloudspire-t
And if you haven’t joined the discord, it’s a decent way to get answers really quick! Come say hi!
https://discord.gg/Qx3bMYQ8N
Also other veteran players: what do you think is good for new players to know before getting into cloudspire? I wouldn't mind to keep this an expanding document and updating nuggets of gold (while crediting contributors).
