Gloomhaven - roguelike dungeon-crawling adaptation of the board game

[pakoito]

Can't unsee soyjak

 

[Whisper]

Used too many skills in first figth? Well in last fight you will auto-lose since you run out of cards to play.

git gud

git gud yourself

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Used too many skills in first figth? Well in last fight you will auto-lose since you run out of cards to play.

git gud

git gud yourself

Play the hand bro, not the cards.

 

[Grunker]

Used too many skills in first figth? Well in last fight you will auto-lose since you run out of cards to play.

git gud

git gud yourself

I'm gud, that's why I don't lose last fights due to lack of cards.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing this for the last couple of days, it's an amazing game. Great digital implementation too.

Usually these dungeoncrawling boardgames devolve into players wanting to explore/kill every single tile on the map and it just kills the pace (for example, Descent 1st edition). The burn mechanic is a very welcome timer that really makes every turn into an interesting decision.

Something I felt was a little strange was the fact that the campaign mode - which I jumped into right away without ever having played the game, proceeding to get my ass kicked the first couple of scenarios - is meant to be played after the guildmaster mode. I had no idea guildmaster was a tutorial of sorts.

It's not a big deal, but they definitely should make it clear for new players that guildmaster first is the way to go.

 

[pakoito]

That's a failure of the original Gloomhaven that's more than fixed in Jaws of the Lion's campaign. Literally 5 scenarios (out of 25) and a handful of cardboard spent on teaching the game.

 

[Grunker]

I don't think Guildmaster first is the way to go. I didn't with my two groups. Guildmaster is more of a sandbox.

The "problem" is more that the first couple of scenarios in the campaign are pretty hard. If they made it more of a smooth curve the issue wouldn't be there.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Well, I mean, Guildmaster seems more "friendly" to group play at first - especially the pooled gold, the fact that you can "unbind" items for a cheap 10g, etc. Also, they introduce mechanics beyond the basic tutorial in a way that the campaign doesn't.

But it's not a huge deal at the end of the day. Today I played the first scenario with a full party with 3 other friends and we all had a blast. Great game.

 

[Grunker]

My point is that Guildmaster is basically just the gameplay - nothing else. Campaign is an entire structured story. So unless you're with a really dedicated group that doesn't have to pick between the two, I'd always recommend the campaign

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've settled for campaign play with my mates, and Guildmaster for solo. It's cool that GM mode scenarios change based on parameters (enemy placement, room layout), while campaign scenarios are static.

Speaking of which, I played a few hours yesterday with the mage chick and found her much harder to play than the Scoundrel, while also doing less damage overall, at least for the first couple of levels. I read somewhere that the stone guy/mage combo was a good one, but it just wasn't working out that well compared to the brute/scoundrel I'm more used to. The friend who was playing Cragheart is admittedly not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I wasn't doing as well as I had hoped either.

 

[Lacrymas]

Every char has a quick information screen that tells you how hard they are to play. The difficulty evaluation doesn't lie, let me tell you. While the chars which are easier to play are ...easier to play, the harder ones have more tools and answers to various situations.

 

[Grunker]

I've settled for campaign play with my mates, and Guildmaster for solo

Exactly what I did, yeah.

 

[Infinitum]

So it eases up later on? Trying a Brute/Spellweaver combo and I'm getting spanked six ways to sunday. Sub 50% clear rate on normal on the first 5 scenarios or so, and gaining levels has so far mostly netted me a cool extra 25% health on enemies. Not burning cards early and drinking my stamina potions to delay rests like a good boy, but I still lack armor penetration for the demons in particular. Considering adding two extra level 1 characters just to reset monster elvels. Is my starting combo just hardmode or what gives?

This is just getting exhausting to play what with every map being an optimization puzzle. Maybe its just tuned to people having 5 minutes downtime to plan their move every time?

 

[Grunker]

The difficulty stays the same - even spiking quite a bit in a few places - you just get better, which makes a huge difference in Gloomhaven.

EDIT: Remember that items don't scale enemies - they're "free power."

 

[Great Deceiver]

Item progression in the main campaign is very, very slow though. On Guildmaster you unlock stuff way faster, and therefore it's much easier. My level 3 GM Brute is rocking chain helm/chainmail and a large health pot + 4 shield ring, while my level 4 campaign Brute is still wearing hide armour, regular pots and the +1 atk after 4 move helmet.

So it eases up later on? Trying a Brute/Spellweaver combo and I'm getting spanked six ways to sunday. Sub 50% clear rate on normal on the first 5 scenarios or so, and gaining levels has so far mostly netted me a cool extra 25% health on enemies. Not burning cards early and drinking my stamina potions to delay rests like a good boy, but I still lack armor penetration for the demons in particular. Considering adding two extra level 1 characters just to reset monster elvels. Is my starting combo just hardmode or what gives?

This is just getting exhausting to play what with every map being an optimization puzzle. Maybe its just tuned to people having 5 minutes downtime to plan their move every time?

I find that the spellweaver has a lot of trouble with armoured enemies in general - giving her a bow helps, but not by much (only 1 use per scenario). I think enhancing her fire bolts card with armor penetration is worth it, but I don't think you've unlocked card enhancement yet.

Have you tried Brute + Scoundrel? I found that combination to be much easier to play, at least in early scenarios.

 

[Grunker]

It has a lot of inter-run variance though. In my first group with generally better players we don't have many items, but in my second group which is worse, we actually have more than I do in similar Guildmaster-progression. Reason being that bad groups fail more scenarios and thus compile more money on current mercenaries.

It sort of works as an incidental handicap-help for bad groups, lol.

 

[Great Deceiver]

It also causes some tension if you have one player who really wants to give a shot at completing the scenario (therefore sacrificing the easy loot) and another who's a defeatist who just wants to scoop the easy loot. It's already happened quite a few times to me - I always want to push forward and try my best to complete the scenario, while the other guy thinks the game is over after 2 turns and just wants to mop the floor for 3 piles of gold.

 

[Grunker]

That tension is fun though

 

[Mig]

So it eases up later on? Trying a Brute/Spellweaver combo and I'm getting spanked six ways to sunday. Sub 50% clear rate on normal on the first 5 scenarios or so, and gaining levels has so far mostly netted me a cool extra 25% health on enemies. Not burning cards early and drinking my stamina potions to delay rests like a good boy, but I still lack armor penetration for the demons in particular. Considering adding two extra level 1 characters just to reset monster elvels. Is my starting combo just hardmode or what gives?

This is just getting exhausting to play what with every map being an optimization puzzle. Maybe its just tuned to people having 5 minutes downtime to plan their move every time?

That's what I started out with too, and I was mostly getting my ass kicked as well. I added a scoundrel and it started going a lot better with a 3 man team.

 

[Infinitum]

Fucks sake. Finally cave and added a scoundrel. Try and fail the elemental cave quest because surprise, double the amount of enemies (did get the treasure; however all mercenaries must survive so fuck me I guess). Decide to let the sidequests be until I've gained some equipment and ways to deal with 4 armor fire elementals (got the bow for the spellweaver which helped once, so that's nice). Try my hand at the warehouse city main quest instead. 4 skellies in the starting room. K. Blitz one round one, severely hurt another. Survivors drew the move 4 squares, attack thrice card and proceed to mulch 16 hp from my frontline fighters. Quit.

This fucking game. I'd try to google a strategy, but I suspect the closest I'll get is some smug neckbeard advcicing to memorize all monster AI cards in addition to all mercenaries and all equipment prior to playing. Is there a mandatory order to the quests I've somehow missed?

 

[Grunker]

attack thrice card and proceed to mulch 16 hp from my frontline fighters. Quit. [...] I suspect the closest I'll get is some smug neckbeard advcicing to memorize all monster AI cards prior to playing

You realize you can just hover over a monster to see what it intends to do, right?

EDIT: If you're having trouble with shields I suggest rolling with Crackhead Cragheart.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Fucks sake. Finally cave and added a scoundrel. Try and fail the elemental cave quest because surprise, double the amount of enemies (did get the treasure; however all mercenaries must survive so fuck me I guess). Decide to let the sidequests be until I've gained some equipment and ways to deal with 4 armor fire elementals (got the bow for the spellweaver which helped once, so that's nice). Try my hand at the warehouse city main quest instead. 4 skellies in the starting room. K. Blitz one round one, severely hurt another. Survivors drew the move 4 squares, attack thrice card and proceed to mulch 16 hp from my frontline fighters. Quit.

This fucking game. I'd try to google a strategy, but I suspect the closest I'll get is some smug neckbeard advcicing to memorize all monster AI cards in addition to all mercenaries and all equipment prior to playing. Is there a mandatory order to the quests I've somehow missed?

I'd recommend dialing back the party to 2, replace the Spellweaver with the Scoundrel and keep the Brute. There's a pretty sharp increase in difficulty going from 2 to 3 mercs IMO.

 

[Infinitum]

You realize you can just hover over a monster to see what it intends to do, right?

Right. Seeing the pain train in advance doesn't exactly help in the starting room after you've chosen a bunch of direct damage cards though.

 

[Grunker]

You realize you can just hover over a monster to see what it intends to do, right?

Right. Seeing the pain train in advance doesn't exactly help in the starting room after you've chosen a bunch of direct damage cards though.

It helps you to not stand next to an un-CC'ed opponent whose turn you could otherwise waste, avoiding three attacks to the face

But honestly, if you take three hits from a skelly and your immediate response is "fuck this game" and not "fuck I'm dumb" your anus might not have the most soothing experience going forward

 

[Infinitum]

..Which in turn brings us back to the issue of

some smug neckbeard advcicing to memorize all monster AI cards in addition to all mercenaries and all equipment prior to playing.