New Game: Gloomhaven

This week, I bought Gloomhaven. I was going to play a solo campaign, so I had something to stream when no one else is available. But Shane was interested, so it became a 2-player campaign. I asked Luc, but he couldn't 100% commit to a weekly game, which I completely understand. We'll play some casual scenarios with him some time. I do wish you could drop in and out like we do with Shadows of Brimstone. I don't actually see why you can't, I've just accepted that that is the case. Like, the difficulty scales with player count, but if we had three players one week and two the next week, how could that affect gameplay? I don't think it could. Maybe I'll Google it.

All the bits!

Anyway, we had our first game last night. I had a lot of it ready to go, mostly everything was bagged and sorted, I even rearranged the game room so we could sit on the same side of the table and face the camera. We watched a tutorial, and Shane read through a FAQ for helpful tips and errata. I had read the rulebook on Sunday, and I thought I had a firm grasp on most things. We discussed characters, and he thought the Spellweaver sounded cool. So, I picked the Brute so he wouldn't die immediately. We got our personal quests and kept them secret. I think we both chose long-term quests.

We approached the first scenario, Black Barrow. Well, we were supposed to draw a Road card when traveling to a scenario, but we completely forgot about that part. In the first room, we fought three bandit guards, and when the room was clear, I had like 4 health. I died in the second room. Well, became exhausted. Shane cleared the second room, and made it into the third room. I think he killed a skeleton, then he also died. Two hours into our first adventure, we failed. Was it poor planning? Wrong characters? Should I have elected to lose a card in the first room to avoid taking 4 damage at once? On one hand, you could say yes, I should have done that, there was no reason to lose 40% of my total health in one attack. But on the other hand, I only have 10 cards, I'm going to constantly lose them anyway, and we were only in the first room.

Shane took the dog for a walk, and when he came back we talked about maybe going back to Gloomhaven and changing characters. He liked the sound of the Tinkerer. I like the Scoundrel. If he kept me alive, I could eviscerate our enemies. We weren't going to play again, but we figured it wouldn't take another two hours (spoiler: it did).

So, we again headed out to scenario one (no, we did not draw a road event that time, either), and made a second attempt. This time went much better. The first room was emptied quicker. The second room was less of a problem, although I did place the guards in the wrong location, and it made them easier to kill, but I think I could have killed them anyway. I rushed into the third room before the second room was empty (just one guard left). Shane managed to complete his scenario goal by outright killing the unharmed guard with a single attack. My goal was to kill 5 or more enemies, which I also did. When we had a single archer remaining, in the third room, I was low on health, Shane was fairly okay, and we realized that if we killed the archer, we couldn't look that room's chest. And I wanted it. I had four cards left, so two turns before I'd rest before my final turn. I had the means to get adjacent to the chest in one turn, and look it the next. Shane wanted to loot the coins in the upper part of the room. The archer had a single hit point left, so we figured out that odds were pretty good that they couldn't kill me as I ran past them to the chest, drawing attention away from Shane, and I could kill them and loot the chest next turn.

We pulled it off, got a bonus scenario out of the chest... somehow? and walked away with 8 and 14 gold, and about a dozen experience each.

I wanted to go back to Gloomhaven just to do a city event, just to have the full experience aside from road events (which we should have seen two of already), but Shane said there was no point, and he was right. We stayed in Black Barrow, so we could go to Barrow Lair next week (or possibly this weekend) without an event.

In the end, I liked the Scoundrel better than the Brute, but I should not have substituted action cards before the scenario, my new personal quest is a complete mystery because it wants me to complete specific scenarios I have no knowledge of. I'm a little concerned that it will be a long time before my character gets to retire. My first secret goal had a definite timeframe. But this goal is based on a type of scenario, and I don't know when or if it will come up. Also, here's an issue I have: if I had a card that says something like "complete scenario 52" and it comes up eventually, then fine. But what if that goal is on my second character, and we've already completely scenario 52? That character can't repeat it, so can they completely their goal? Maybe the wording on the card is clearer than I remember. Maybe the card unlocks scenario 52 and then you can go and do it, so it wouldn't show up otherwise, but then again you don't reveal your secret goal until you retire, so you can't say "my card unlocks this scenario trust me" and just put a sticker on the map.

I don't think I really have any concerns with the game so far. Just things that probably aren't even issues. I love that the map board will become more alive with these stickers that get added. The bonus scenario we unlocked was in the water, and added a location that had no presence whatsoever beforehand.

The stream seemed to go well, too. Gained 3 followers, didn't really have consistent views, though. But if those three people tune in again, I'll be happy. Even if they don't, I'll still enjoy playing the game with Shane.

Definitely need a better storage solution, though...