Friday 1 January 2021

Boardgame Session; Gloomhaven - Jaws of the Lion

When Gloomhaven was released it was received with much hype and praise from the boardgaming world, but I quickly realised that it was game I was unlikely to play. My wife, Elaine, is not enthused by high fantasy, RPG, combat, dungeon crawl types of game, so spending a three figure sum on a monstrosity like Gloomhaven would not be prudent. It would just sit on my shelves glaring down at me! I did read up about Gloomhaven and the mechanics used, and I therefore did have an inkling about how it played. This summer, Gloomhaven – Jaws of the Lion (JOTL) came out, a streamlined, scaled down version of the original, that apparently could be viewed as a prequel for the main game. A strong point (for me) was the price, less than a third of the full Gloomhaven; so I decided to gamble and hope Elaine would play at least a few games before consigning the experience to a dusty shelf.

Fortunately Elaine did stick with the short tutorial games and gradually began to enjoy the game more and more. We played a few games a week intermittently over the next months and finally completed the adventure last week! I played the ‘Hatchet’ character and partnered with Elaine using ‘Red Guard’. Both characters reached level 6 at the end, with very similar experience points. We did fail 4 or 5 scenarios, but always succeeded on the second play (occasionally we did downgrade the level, as suggested in the rules, if we considered the game too tough; but this was rare). So, I now feel able to give my thoughts on JOTL:

The components of the game are good; a lot of card chits, counters and standee’s etc. The playing card quality is good, especially the main character cards, although the type face on the event cards is a bit small. The smaller combat cards, NPC action cards etc. are glossy and shuffle well. The plastic figures are nicely sculpted (I have not been tempted to paint them). The rule book is excellent and the tutorial games introduce the rules and mechanisms in a very clear way. This is an ideal way of bringing players into a ‘complex’ game such as Gloomhaven; I don’t think Elaine would have endured reading a detailed rule book before playing, so the ‘drip-drip’ method of adding progressively to the rules works really well. In fact, Elaine has never read the main rulebook! The printed book of scenario maps is excellent and I’m sure will inspire many other games to mimic this format. One of the common criticisms of the original Gloomhaven was the set-up and take-down times involved, but using this booklet solves this issue.

From previous knowledge of Gloomhaven, I had high expectations of the game storyline, character and theme. I was sadly disappointed in this aspect of the game. I did not expect a literary masterpiece but the story telling supplied can be described as ‘adolescent’ at best. We never felt engaged in the story, nor had any empathy with any characters (even our own). The introductions to each scenario could be best covered as “blah, blah, blah, kill all enemies”. There were no hidden clues or hints in the text to be used to unlock a puzzle in the upcoming game, or the campaign as a whole. This is reflected in the scenario goals which never varied beyond kill everything, or kill/destroy a named opponent or artefact. I suppose for a combat based boardgame this might be OK, but I was hoping for much more sophistication in scenario design and objectives.

The game mechanics is where JOTL/Gloomhaven excels! The split action cards, using the top of one card and bottom of another, is brilliant! The card selection prior to game play into a limited hand size provides a key decision point for players requiring thought and difficult choices. The variety in action cards nicely delineates different characters, so that Hatchet was very different from Red Guard. As characters develop, more powerful cards become available to each character, but often these cards have a sting because they are single use, rather than re-usable, cards. How many of these ‘powerful’ cards do you take? The more you have, the less time is available because the limited hand size provides an internal ‘clock’ within the game that needs to be managed. ‘Rests’, and the replenishing of hands, need to be taken at the ‘correct’ times within the game, and of course, each rest results in the loss of one more card from your available hand! The additional equipment cards you purchase between scenarios also fit with above (i.e. single/multi-use, what to take and what to leave behind etc.), although I would have liked a more wide ranging use of the gold you accumulate, maybe paying for healing, possibly buying a temporary increase in hand size for the next game etc.

The action cards for the NPC monsters again works really well, so as players you can never be sure what the opposition will do. The initiative system is excellent, so turn order is never certain, and the limited communication between players means plans can (and do) go awry; I found the Red Guard was much faster than Hatchet in terms of initiative. Some monsters were spritely compared to others who were lethargic. I liked the variation between monsters and the way some were fast/slow, some were hard-hitters whilst others caused an averse condition (poison, wound etc.), and some were tough to wound (shielded). The only disappointing aspect of the monsters was the over-simplified way of balancing the improvements of the player characters by just increasing the characteristics of the same monsters; maybe a ‘Blood Imp’ should always be the same and not simply become tough versions paralleling the improvement your character has achieved. Instead I would have liked to see either (or both) an increase the number of monsters in the scenario, or the addition of more powerful ‘new’ monsters?

The combat mechanisms worked well. I like the absence of dice and their replacement with a combat card deck, which again can be improved as a character gains experience. The cards, especially the curse/blessing cards, do introduce a strong luck element in combat and players have to accept this. For example, when playing Hatchet, you have a powerful ranged attack-6 card and this can be combined with a double damage card, but both these effects are single use. I nearly always kept these cards in my hand, but frequently failed to use them together because I needed the ‘time’ more than the effect. In fact I only used the combo twice in the campaign; the first time I drew the ‘curse’ combat card, so I did no damage and had lost 2 cards from my hand (and failed the scenario)! But, in the final game where the opposing ‘boss ‘ needed many hits to take down, I made sure to have these cards available and when I played them I drew a +3 combat card, and thereby inflicted a massive 18 points of damage in one turn. When we reflected on this last game, it was apparent the only way to succeed was to have the right card combo, at the right time, and draw a strong positive combat card.

The mechanic that did not work smoothly for us was the ‘element’ effects. We frequently ‘forgot’ to decline the element markers at the start of turns and I feel this was because the excitement and pace of the game drove us to want to move ever faster. My character, Hatchet, was not heavily influenced by the elements whilst Red Guard utilised them more (and I suspect other possible characters use elements a lot).

In summary, Gloomhaven JOTL provides an enjoyable game with good components and excellent mechanics that is quick and easy to play, and forces players to make tough choices before and during each scenario. On the downside, the storyline and setting is disappointing, and the scenario design becomes rather tedious.

Now we have completed the campaign we plan to stick with our characters and play through the few remaining scenarios we have not yet encountered, either because of ‘forks’ in the campaign or event cards that were not drawn. Then, I will spend an afternoon re-ordering the cards etc. so that the game returns to its starting condition, replacing figures back in their boxes etc. Then, I think I will sell on the game at a B&B stall at a convention (assuming we ever return to normality). The thought of replaying JOTL with the 2 unused characters is possible, but I feel we have had our Gloomhaven experience and it is time to move on.

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