Vengeance as a Burning Plague

Spirit Overview — Framing

Vengeance is a destruction-triggered scaling spirit — its whole kit is inverted: letting Invaders Ravage your lands and destroy your presence unleashes the plague. Rei’s identity thesis:

I think of them as a sleepy spirit that needs to get woken up by invader’s destructive tendencies to unleash its revenge.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Wants Invaders (and itself) to take Damage — Blight is fuel via the Badlands rule, Destroyed Presence becomes Disease, and the innate scales with Damage dealt.

jlrothe’s framing (BGG):

Decide early where your kill zones will be, get presence there, get killed, get a bunch of disease in there, get to the second level of your first innate… that’s all she wrote.

Rei’s power-spike benchmark (canonical):

3 energy / 3 card plays unlocks Tier-2 innates and energy sustainability — anything beyond that is gravy. Scaling is much stronger than cards for Vengeance.

Complexity signal: High is correct. The psychological inversion is the hard part — most spirit-island instincts say “prevent Ravages, preserve Presence.” Vengeance wants the opposite, and choosing which Ravages/destruction to accept is decision-dense.

Starting Setup

1 of your Presence starts the game already Destroyed. Put 2 Presence on your starting board: 1 in a land with Blight, 1 in a Wetland without Dahan.

Yes — one Presence starts already Destroyed. That starting-Destroyed triggers Lingering Pestilence: 1 Disease seeded at setup on whatever land you designate.

Growth Options (growthtype: “many” — pick multiple)

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (5 slots): energy1 → energy2 → animal → energy3 → energy4
  • 1E → 2E → +Animal marker → 3E → 4E
• Card-play track (7 slots): card1 → card2 → fireX → card2 → card3 → card3 → card4
  • 1 CP → 2 CP → Fire scaling → 2 CP → 3 CP → 3 CP → 4 CP

Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Terror of a Slowly Unfolding Plague

When Disease would prevent a Build on a board with your Presence, you may let the Build happen (removing no Disease). If you do, 1 Fear.

Free 1 Fear per turn if you don’t use your Disease to prevent a Build. The token stays — use it to seed the next Ravage-farm instead. Rei clarifies: the Presence needs to be anywhere on the board, not in the specific Disease land.

Special Rule: Lingering Pestilence

When your Presence is destroyed by anything except a Spirit action, add 1 Disease where each destroyed Presence was.

Every Ravage that destroys your Presence = 1 Disease on that land. This is why Vengeance wants to be Ravaged.

Special Rule: Wreak Vengeance for the Land’s Corruption

Your actions treat Blight on the island as also being Badlands.

Every Blight token is a Badlands for your damage-scaling — Plaguebearers, Savage Revenge, and any Badlands-scaling Minor triple-dips.

Innate: Epidemics Run Rampant

• Speed: Fast · Range: 1 · Target: Disease

Text: (Disease cascade — check Wiki for exact text; the tool parse didn’t surface thresholds. Known effect structure: Disease in the target land spreads/multiplies, with element-gated tiers.)

Wiki page has fuller thresholds; cross-reference your physical panel or the Wiki Vengeance page.

Innate: Savage Revenge

• Speed: Slow · Range: 0 · Target: Building

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	3 Air	This Power has Range +1.
2	3 Fire + 1 Animal	1 Damage.
3	4 Fire + 2 Animal	+2 Damage.
4	5 Fire + 2 Air + 2 Animal	+3 Damage.

Cumulative at L2+L3+L4 = 1+2+3 = 6 Damage to a Building at Range 0. Rei: “Scaling is much stronger than cards for Vengeance.” — this is why.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Fetid Breath Spreads Infection

• 2 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Land with 1+ Invaders · Air, Water, Animal
• 1 Fear. Add 1 Disease.

The Disease-seeder. 2E Slow is expensive, but Disease-placement is the whole game setup. Drafted into Majors, Fetid Breath is the first Forget candidate — specialization into other Disease-adding Minors takes over.

Strike Low with Sudden Fevers

• 2 Energy · Fast · Range 1 · Land with 1+ Disease tokens · Fire, Air, Earth, Animal
• 1 Fear. Invaders skip Ravage Actions.

Ravage-skip at Disease lands. The conservation play — skips a whole Ravage in a land where you’ve pre-seeded Disease. Rei: never cast this “just because you can or for hitting a Tier-1 innate” — only when there’s a specific Ravage worth skipping.

Fiery Vengeance

• 0 Energy · Fast · No Range · Any Spirit · Sun, Fire
• Cost to Use: Target Spirit Removes 1 of their Destroyed Presence from the game. 1 Fear and 1 Damage in one of target Spirit’s lands.

0-cost self-fueling damage. The Destroyed-Presence cost is your resource — 1 Destroyed Presence per cast. Carries Fire → helps Savage Revenge thresholds.

Plaguebearers

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 2 · Land with 1+ Disease tokens · Fire, Water, Animal
• 1 Fear if Invaders are present. For each Disease, Push 2 Explorer/Town/Dahan. 1 Disease may move with each Pushed piece.

Disease-push + Disease-relocation. The signature Vengeance card: moves Invaders into your kill zones + relocates Disease to where you want it next turn.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Let Ravages happen in your farmed lands. Destroyed Presence = Disease; Ravaged Blight counts as Badlands.
2. Rei’s power spike is 3E / 3 CP. Target this by T4. Don’t chase beyond it.
3. Decide kill zones early. jlrothe: “Decide early where your kill zones will be, get presence there, get killed, get a bunch of disease in there.”
4. Specialize elements — don’t straddle Fire vs. Animal. Rei picks Fire by default (Savage Revenge L2 without Disease concentration).
5. Terror of a Slowly Unfolding Plague gives 1 Fear per turn for free. Presence anywhere on the board, not the specific Disease land.
6. Forget Fetid Breath when you draft Majors — specialization takes over. Exception: if the Major synergizes with Fetid (Flow Like Water, Sea Monsters), forget Fiery Vengeance instead (especially vs England).
7. Monitor presence-destruction Blight cards (Tipping Point, Pall, Erosion of Will) — in solo keep 2+ presence banked.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 2 Presence + 1 Destroyed Presence + 1 Disease on board (Disease seeded via Lingering Pestilence from Destroyed setup).
• 4 Uniques in hand: Fetid Breath Spreads Infection (2E Slow, Air/Water/Animal), Strike Low with Sudden Fevers (2E Fast, Fire/Air/Earth/Animal), Fiery Vengeance (0E Fast, Sun/Fire), Plaguebearers (1E Slow, Fire/Water/Animal).
• Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Opening A — Fast-Tempo Minors (Rei’s “bread & butter”) 🟨 (default)

Above-tempo with Invaders; farms Blight for scaling.

T1 · Growth: G3 (Minor + top-track presence + 1E). T1 · Play: Fetid Breath — seed Disease at range, prep T2 Plaguebearers target.

T2 · Growth: G2 × 2 (two bottom-track). T2 · Play: Plaguebearers + flex (Fiery Vengeance or Minor). Push Explorer+Town from setup land to create “sacrificial altars” (jlrothe’s phrasing).

T3 · Growth: G2 × 2 (two bottom, Disease-seed Ravaging / Dahan lands). T3 · Play: Strike Low with Sudden Fevers + Minor + flex.

T4 · Target: 3/3 CP pre-Reclaim. If Invader cards “doubled up” (Stage-1→Stage-2 same terrain), skip T3 Strike Low. Otherwise Reclaim loop is expected.

Opening B — Minus-Tempo Minors 🟨

On-tempo with Invaders; patient growth.

T1: Same as Opening A. T2: G2 (single) — preserve flex into Fast Tempo if T3 demands Strike Low. T3: If no Strike Low pressure → grab a Minor; set up T4 for 7–8E + 3 plays + Strike Low ravage-skip.

Opening C — Early Major (Rei-preferred) 🟥

T1 · G2 (top × 2) + Fetid Breath (~1E left). T2 · G2 (top + bottom into Ravaging/Dahan lands) + Plaguebearers + Fiery Vengeance (flex). T3 · G3 — gain Major + top-or-bottom presence (priority: Sacred Site for Major > range > Ravaging land). 6–7E pool. Flex Strike Low if needed.

Fire-vs-4E decision: Fire if Major is 2–3 cost OR Strike Low must skip T3; 4E if saving Strike Low for T4 or aiming at 4–6 cost Major.

Opening D — jyonker13 simplified 🟨

For teaching / new players.

T1 · G2 (+1E, Minor, presence from energy). Play Fetid Breath. T2 · G3 (2 presence). Play Plaguebearers + new Minor. T3 · G2 (2 presence). Play Strike Low + Fiery Vengeance. T4: Reclaim.

jyonker13 prefers Fire over Animal Minors: “your second innate scales better than your first without requiring Disease to be concentrated in one land.”

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A (Fast-Tempo Minors) for most matchups — Prussia, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, Habsburg.
• Opening B (Minus-Tempo) when board-state is fragile T2.
• Opening C (Early Major) when the Major draft lands Fire or Water at ≤4E.
• Opening D for teaching or low-L play.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — Vengeance-specific ranking

1. Plaguebearers — Disease-push + relocation engine.
2. Fiery Vengeance — 0E Fast self-fueling damage.
3. Strike Low with Sudden Fevers — Ravage-skip (conservation).
4. Fetid Breath Spreads Infection — Disease-seeder; first Forget candidate for Major drafts.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Fire > Animal > Plant)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (Rei’s favorites)

Also Rei-favored: Infestation of Venomous Spiders, Bloodwrack Plague, Utter a Curse, Pillar of Living Flame, Focus the Land’s Anguish.

Cards to Avoid (Rei’s almost-never list)

Rei’s minor-avoid list: Renewing Boon, Dry Wood (contradicts above — flag variant: drafting context matters), Reaching Grasp, Haunted by Primal, Encompassing Ward, Call to Migrate/Ferocity, Prowling Panthers.

Adversary Matchup Matrix (Rei-documented)

Board / Map Configuration

Per Rei:

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• Fetid Breath → Plaguebearers → Strike Low (flex) cadence.
• 3 CP / 3E power spike by T4.
• Savage Revenge L1 (3 Air) online via Air-minor draft.

Mid (T4–6)

• Savage Revenge L2/L3 — multi-Damage destroy cycles.
• Major-integration (if Opening C).
• Presence destruction accepted as Disease-fuel.

Late (T7+)

• Savage Revenge L4 (6 damage cumulative).
• Plaguebearers multi-Disease cycles.
• Major board-wide closes (Bloodwrack, Focus).

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• Energy-donors — Rei: Vengeance should almost always get first board-pick; Energy/card gifts reward the destruction engine.
• Water spirits (Downpour, Ocean) — Board A/C coordination for water access.
• Defend-providing partners — unlock Vengeance’s aggressive mode.
• aaroncstevens93: “If a Spirit gives Vengeance a Gift, then Vengeance can exact revenge on that Spirit’s behalf as well.”

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/vengeance-burning-plague.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Primary strategy: Rei’s BGG Guide 2709070.
• Openings: jyonker13 thread 2484534.
• Podcast: Rei on Spirited Discussion.