Gloomhaven Catch-All

steinkrug wrote:

I retired my Cragheart. Unlocked “Eclipse” or “Moon”

Spoiler:

aka Nightshroud. Looks cool but I’m wondering if it’ll be a tough combo to pull off with my “Cthulhu/Squidface”

Ya, that class you mention needs a tank.

I had a rough game yesterday with my non solo campaign with my buddy. He’s so insistent in getting so many games in one session that by the end the law of diminishing returns starts to take a toll. I think we played two sessions for 5 hours. The last session was specifically rough because we got stuck behind a rock and a doorway and we kept blocking each other from attacks. It wasn’t fun. First mission was fun especially since we got a third person to join! I feel like one and three are the most optimal way to play this game!

Crockpot wrote:
steinkrug wrote:

I retired my Cragheart. Unlocked “Eclipse” or “Moon”

Spoiler:

aka Nightshroud. Looks cool but I’m wondering if it’ll be a tough combo to pull off with my “Cthulhu/Squidface”

Ya, that class you mention needs a tank.

Yeah that was definitely my initial impression. Seems like it would throw a lot of attention to the other character and “Squidface” can’t handle that kinda pressure.

steinkrug wrote:
Crockpot wrote:
steinkrug wrote:

I retired my Cragheart. Unlocked “Eclipse” or “Moon”

Spoiler:

aka Nightshroud. Looks cool but I’m wondering if it’ll be a tough combo to pull off with my “Cthulhu/Squidface”

Ya, that class you mention needs a tank.

Yeah that was definitely my initial impression. Seems like it would throw a lot of attention to the other character and “Squidface” can’t handle that kinda pressure.

It also depends on what you're specing for. If you spec for

Spoiler:

cursing everyone

then you can get your normal damage guy since there will be a lot of

Spoiler:

misses.

Also

Spoiler:

I'm writing too many spoiler tags.

I decided to try adding a third character, Brute, to give my Eclipse and Cthulhu a tank. Cthulhu has a personal goal to do missions in the forest. So we went to do Slave Pens.

Spoiler:

Ugh. Escort quest. This was a real pain. I tried in on the solo level boost at 3 and then again at 2 and failed both times. There are threads on BGG about this mission and I read them and I feel like a different group composition would have an easier time at this.

Not sure if I like running three characters or not. It definitely is more doable than when I attempted it early on but I still feel a little stretched mentally and table space is kind of tight.

Anyway, Cthulhu’s kind of stuck because he needs 3 forest missions and as far as I can tell I need to do Slave Pens to accomplish that.

Addendum: occurred to me I can replay scenarios in the forest completed before Cthulhu joined for his goal if I want to.

Decided to just put Cthulhu’s personal goal on the back burner for now. Last couple missions other than 38/Slave Pens have been successful but very very close. Just barely succeeding. I hadn’t been using the solo bump but I’ve started to and that’s probably why. Also I realized my team of 3 has barely any healing.

What are you talking about? Cthulhu

Spoiler:

has plenty of healing

We have now unlocked the final fight. My friend retired his character last session and came back as an Inox Brute so I needed to whip up a quick paint job for him.

IMAGE(https://scontent.fbne3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/84099442_10157707343245491_5382662515261964288_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ohc=N1pUjJL-4EEAX8JtCDM&_nc_ht=scontent.fbne3-1.fna&oh=3ba19b3f5b9929aca8706e4fa3a8d041&oe=5EBF52FA)

Might be the first board game kickstarter I actually support.

We finished the main campaign a couple of days before we went into lockdown so we still have forgotten circles to work through. I'm in on Frosthaven.

I don’t know if this has been shared before upthread but there is a really good scripted Gloomhaven + Expansion mod for Tabletop Simulator in the Steam Workshop. We started a 4-player campaign with some friends and it has been working really well!

Could be an option for those who typically play with friends in meatspace during non-pandemic times. It’s still janky like anything TTS, but it sure makes setup, cleanup, and shuffling a breeze!

chixor7 wrote:

I don’t know if this has been shared before upthread but there is a really good scripted Gloomhaven + Expansion mod for Tabletop Simulator in the Steam Workshop. We started a 4-player campaign with some friends and it has been working really well!

Could be an option for those who typically play with friends in meatspace during non-pandemic times. It’s still janky like anything TTS, but it sure makes setup, cleanup, and shuffling a breeze!

Which one is it you refer to? I see a whole ton sitting out there.

I'm betting this one: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...

The other one I see with 5 stars doesnt say it has the expansion.
The workshop community is interesting. a mod either has 5 stars because it's reasonably good or no stars because not enough people have messed with it.

Naturally, there's no way to sort by stars so sorting by popularity instead usually gives you the actual best result on the first page at least.

polypusher wrote:

I'm betting this one: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...

Yep, that’s the one we’re using! Thanks Polypusher.

Who is pump for Jaws of The Lion this week? Target is having them in stock this Sunday. (21st)

Looks like I'm making a trip to Target next weekend. Too bad it'll be an unknown amount of time before I can play it with anyone .

Eldon_of_Azure wrote:

Looks like I'm making a trip to Target next weekend. Too bad it'll be an unknown amount of time before I can play it with anyone .

Please please please don't buy it from Target. While I have nothing against Target in general, they have been able to sell board games and hobby supplies for months while game stores and hobby shops have been closed due to COVID. Those stores will have Jaws of the Lion in a month or so, please wait to buy it from them if you can.

Eldon_of_Azure wrote:

Looks like I'm making a trip to Target next weekend. Too bad it'll be an unknown amount of time before I can play it with anyone .

Gloomhaven was the game to start playing solo.

Got my copy this morning! The scenario book is amazing. I'm sure after I play this I will be REALLY hard to go back to a module board.

I'm going to wait until Gloomhaven Helper updates. Might be awhile but I still have a few scenarios left in Gloomhaven. I doubt I'll play the FC expansion. I played one scenario and I could already tell it's going to be a mess. New class is still worth it.

Atras wrote:
Eldon_of_Azure wrote:

Looks like I'm making a trip to Target next weekend. Too bad it'll be an unknown amount of time before I can play it with anyone .

Please please please don't buy it from Target. While I have nothing against Target in general, they have been able to sell board games and hobby supplies for months while game stores and hobby shops have been closed due to COVID. Those stores will have Jaws of the Lion in a month or so, please wait to buy it from them if you can.

Unfortunately, it would appear that I won't get to purchase a copy anytime soon. Neither of my local game stores (within 50miles) carry/sell board games, nor does any semi-local Target happen to carry Jaws of the Lion. . I'm starting to regret moving to this area.

So, I'd like to ask for advice from the Gloomhaven experts on this thread.

A very generous friend of mine has offered to give me his copy of Gloomhaven, which is barely used. I suspect he purchased it aspirationally, and never found a group of people to play with. Of course, I've accepted.

I've played maybe 4-5 missions of Gloomhaven, several years ago. I'm excited to get a copy, and I think my wife would be interested in playing. And from what I've read here, a 2-player Gloomhaven campaign is actually pretty good! But she hasn't played it before, and I know that to get her to play, it'll be up to me to manage setup, takedown, and learn all the rules of how monsters move & attack.

So, what sorts of organizers would you recommend for the box? (Another friend had the Broken Token one, which I liked.) What would you recommend for really learning the monster rules, or is there an app that can help streamline it? Are there any other things you veterans think would be useful for a newbie, and a relatively new person, to do -- like picking a particular class, or a path through the story? Is there anything else that would smooth the experience for us?

Get an organizer, stat. Absolutely worth either the time you take to build your own, or the broken token one. I love my broken token one simply because it looks good and makes putting up and putting away the game 100 times easier.

Secondly, I would absolutely whole heartedly recommend getting the gloomhaven app which allows you to keep track of all the monsters, their initiative and their health. It's 100 times easier than messing around with fiddly little bits on a piece of paper. Get it, use it, love it.

Thirdly.. the monster movement mechanics are the hardest bits to learn. But basically it boils down to three rules:

1. Does the monster move? If yes, move it towards the player who is the closest (least number of hexes away from it). If no, well... then don't. If it can reach you with its attack, it attacks.
1.5. WAIT! Is it already next to a player and doing a melee attack? It won't move.
2. Wait! Before you move! Is it doing a ranged attack or a melee attack? If it's doing a melee attack, it will move towards you and get as close as it can.
2.5 WAIT! Does it have more than one target? Then it moves to the best location so it can use both attacks on TWO separate targets. A monster never attacks the same target twice, even if it can only reach one target.
3. Oh, it was a ranged attack? Cool. Then move it closer to the nearest player, but only until it can make its attack. Then do the attack.
3.5. WAIT! Is it already standing next to a player? It will back up one step otherwise it will have to draw two attack cards and use the worst one.
3.7. Crap, there's more. If two players have the same distance to a monster, it will go after the one with the lowest initiative.
4. Is there a trap in the way of the monsters movement? Avoid it.
5. Is the ONLY way to the target through a trap? Go through it.
6. If the monster can't find an open path to its target (closest player) it will not move. At all. An open path, being a string of hexes that leads to the player. Other monsters are considered open hexes.

Keep these 3.. 5.. oh.. 8.. 10 rules in mind and you should be good.

I made a quick reference card for myself so I could remember the monster AI rules (in my group of friends I'm the one everyone expects to know the rules). I summarized it for myself thusly:

Monster Turns
  • Mobs activate elite → normal, in order of number on figure
  • Mob AI is based on focus target:
    • Focus = enemy an attack can be used on with the least movement
    • If no attack, focus is determined as for a melee attack
    • Ties broken by hex distance, then initiative
  • With focus chosen actions proceed:
    • Mob moves minimally to hit maximal targets including the focus
    • If ranged, mob moves to avoid disadvantage (even if it hits fewer targets)
    • If there was no valid focus, mob does not move or attack
  • For mob movement, traps are obstacles unless no other path exists
  • Mob heals prioritize whatever target is most wounded
  • Card bonuses (e.g. shield) are actions, and take effect during a mob’s turn
  • If a monster card consumes an element, all of that type get the bonus

The full reference is here if anyone finds it useful.

I see a bunch of apps. Do you recommend Gloomhaven Helper ($5)? Others look like they’re free, and I would guess the paid app has the best / most functionality.

The Broken Token is nice but expensive. If you want to go a cheaper route there are lots of options you can look into. I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube of different organization solutions. Still spent a little bit of money but nothing major.

LastSurprise wrote:

I see a bunch of apps. Do you recommend Gloomhaven Helper ($5)? Others look like they’re free, and I would guess the paid app has the best / most functionality.

We used Gloomhaven Helper. Not sure about the free ones, but it's absolutely worth 5 buckaroos.

Someone on Board Game Geek created a flowchart for monster actions. It comes in very handy at times.

Monster Focus and Movement Flowchart

I invested heavily in sandwich bags for my organization. Snack-sized bags from the dollar store took care of all of the little standee cutouts (organized by creature)

I don’t love that the little plastic stands are so tight. I ruined a couple of the standees trying to get them to fit into the stands. I know the game is supposed to be disposable, but yeesh.

My wife and I got part of the way through the second encounter before giving up. We’ll probably come back to it, but that boss encounter was just freakin’ ridiculous (also, it calls for more of one kind of monster than were included in the box. What’s up with that?) I would have hoped that the game would ease us in with a couple of easy encounters to dampen our toes, but nope. It’s the Dark Souls of board games, except Dark Souls let’s you try again. I’m glad we invested in the removable sticker set.

Fredrik_S wrote:

Thirdly.. the monster movement mechanics are the hardest bits to learn. But basically it boils down to three rules:

Spoiler:

1. Does the monster move? If yes, move it towards the player who is the closest (least number of hexes away from it). If no, well... then don't. If it can reach you with its attack, it attacks.
1.5. WAIT! Is it already next to a player and doing a melee attack? It won't move.
2. Wait! Before you move! Is it doing a ranged attack or a melee attack? If it's doing a melee attack, it will move towards you and get as close as it can.
2.5 WAIT! Does it have more than one target? Then it moves to the best location so it can use both attacks on TWO separate targets. A monster never attacks the same target twice, even if it can only reach one target.
3. Oh, it was a ranged attack? Cool. Then move it closer to the nearest player, but only until it can make its attack. Then do the attack.
3.5. WAIT! Is it already standing next to a player? It will back up one step otherwise it will have to draw two attack cards and use the worst one.
3.7. Crap, there's more. If two players have the same distance to a monster, it will go after the one with the lowest initiative.
4. Is there a trap in the way of the monsters movement? Avoid it.
5. Is the ONLY way to the target through a trap? Go through it.
6. If the monster can't find an open path to its target (closest player) it will not move. At all. An open path, being a string of hexes that leads to the player. Other monsters are considered open hexes.

Keep these 3.. 5.. oh.. 8.. 10 rules in mind and you should be good.

Frankly LS, whenever you find yourself taking more than 10 seconds to make a determination I'd suggest just fudging the monster movement to whatever feels agreeable. Typically it will all come out in the wash, and will save you a good deal of time spent pondering.