This is a super interesting thread because of the 5 or 6 times I've played (mostly 2 player, but also 4 player), I've only lost once. I find the game surprisingly easy.
The core of the game is the balance between managing the map and driving towards the main goal and the subsequent battle with the adversary. If you spend too much time on one thing and not the other, you'll likely loose. If you've played Pandemic at all, it's basically the same: split your actions between managing the disease cubes and finding the cures.
Here is my general strategy:
At the beginning of a month, we decide how easy it would be to do the side goals. The main consideration is whether or not we already have the right advantages or resources. For the Companion quest, if it will take more than one turn to get what you need (advantages / resources) and do the quest, we will likely skip it all together because Companions benefits are usually not worth the extra actions/turns it would take to collect the stuff and do the quest. For the bad one, we weight the likely bad-stuff and decide if it's worth more than one turn to do it or just bite the bullet. I'd say about 66% of the time, if it will take more than 1 turn to do the quest, we just let the bad stuff happen and deal with it.
That frees up a lot of actions to manage the map and drive towards the main goal. In general, we mostly ignore the foes in favor of taking actions to prepare for the main goal and the adversary. For us, battles are mostly done for the spirit when another Hero action isn't that useful. However, there are times when we take out a foe because its bad-stuff, but it's not really a focus of ours.
Month 1: Focus on cleaning up the initial skulls and obtaining stuff (resources and additional advantages that match the foes, especially the adversary)
Month 2: Less focus on clean up, more on building advantages and cards for the main goal / adversary
Month 3: Manage the board a bit, but focus a lot of finalizing what you need for the main goal / adversary
Month 4: Trigger the main goal and spawn the adversary. Finish it off as quickly as possible.
Month 5: Focus on finishing off the adversary asap
The most important thing is to be as ready as possible to attack the adversary as soon as it spawns. Remember, you control when it spawns. Even if you have what you need for the main goal, you might not want to trigger it until you are ready to go all out on the adversary. In our games, one player completes the main goal, and the next player is fully ready to battle the adversary (they have the move points or power needed to get anywhere on the map, they have tons of warriors and advantages, etc...). I'd say 50% of the time, we trigger the main goal and win the game in the very next turn because that player has what then need for the battle. Remember: a player can take 2 corruptions and still win the game. That means during the battle with the adversary, that player can take up to 2 corruptions during the battle and still win it (and the game).
Usually we win our games by Month 4, sometimes Month 5. If we get to Month 6, the board is such a bad state that it's nearly impossible to manage it and keep up our offensive on the adversary.
Anyway, good luck!
The core of the game is the balance between managing the map and driving towards the main goal and the subsequent battle with the adversary. If you spend too much time on one thing and not the other, you'll likely loose. If you've played Pandemic at all, it's basically the same: split your actions between managing the disease cubes and finding the cures.
Here is my general strategy:
At the beginning of a month, we decide how easy it would be to do the side goals. The main consideration is whether or not we already have the right advantages or resources. For the Companion quest, if it will take more than one turn to get what you need (advantages / resources) and do the quest, we will likely skip it all together because Companions benefits are usually not worth the extra actions/turns it would take to collect the stuff and do the quest. For the bad one, we weight the likely bad-stuff and decide if it's worth more than one turn to do it or just bite the bullet. I'd say about 66% of the time, if it will take more than 1 turn to do the quest, we just let the bad stuff happen and deal with it.
That frees up a lot of actions to manage the map and drive towards the main goal. In general, we mostly ignore the foes in favor of taking actions to prepare for the main goal and the adversary. For us, battles are mostly done for the spirit when another Hero action isn't that useful. However, there are times when we take out a foe because its bad-stuff, but it's not really a focus of ours.
Month 1: Focus on cleaning up the initial skulls and obtaining stuff (resources and additional advantages that match the foes, especially the adversary)
Month 2: Less focus on clean up, more on building advantages and cards for the main goal / adversary
Month 3: Manage the board a bit, but focus a lot of finalizing what you need for the main goal / adversary
Month 4: Trigger the main goal and spawn the adversary. Finish it off as quickly as possible.
Month 5: Focus on finishing off the adversary asap
The most important thing is to be as ready as possible to attack the adversary as soon as it spawns. Remember, you control when it spawns. Even if you have what you need for the main goal, you might not want to trigger it until you are ready to go all out on the adversary. In our games, one player completes the main goal, and the next player is fully ready to battle the adversary (they have the move points or power needed to get anywhere on the map, they have tons of warriors and advantages, etc...). I'd say 50% of the time, we trigger the main goal and win the game in the very next turn because that player has what then need for the battle. Remember: a player can take 2 corruptions and still win the game. That means during the battle with the adversary, that player can take up to 2 corruptions during the battle and still win it (and the game).
Usually we win our games by Month 4, sometimes Month 5. If we get to Month 6, the board is such a bad state that it's nearly impossible to manage it and keep up our offensive on the adversary.
Anyway, good luck!