GloomTactics | Gloomhaven strategy and tactics

Welcome to initiative management 101 or better known as " How to not die as Scoundrel ". Isaac's design of this game is real neat.  Because of the way enemies focus players by proximity, melee characters naturally suffer the most pain. To deal with this, each melee class either has a large HP pool (ie brute), or is has cards with impressive initiative numbers (scoundrel, mind theif). Cool a psychic rat ! Wait it starts with how much HP? 6?! One trap new players fall into is they optimize their move by how much damage they can do or how many enemies they can hit without considering initiative values. This leads to some melee classes taking damage they cannot afford to take. For example Scoundrel says "Woah that archer is totally on her own, I should move fast next round and get my bonus damage on it!". When this is done carelessly, soft melee characters end up taking alot more damage than they should be.

For my first post I'm going to talk about evaluating cards! If you've drafted Magic: the Gathering or Hearthstone Arena, you'll understand some of these concepts. Fancy & Powerful One common mistake new players make is they evaluate cards by what looks cool & powerful rather than what looks consistent and useful. Take the Tinkerer for example The flamethrower is real fancy isn't it? A 3 target AOE (area of effect) for a potential of 9 ATK and 3 wound markers! Generates fire and 2 exp to boot! It also has a worthless bottom (mid initiative shield with no movement means you wont get the shield before enemies attack half the time).