GloomTactics | Gloomhaven strategy and tactics

Continuing with our Jaws of the Lion campaign, we move onto the first Scenario outside the teaching games: Scenario 6.  Of course, SPOILERS AHEAD. Stop reading now if you don't want spoilers. Last chance. For this scenario we switch out Crushing Weight for Level. Read on and the reason will make sense.

It's difficult to get your usual group together for some Gloomhaven adventuring during the middle of a pandemic. So the two of us started a Jaws of the Lion campaign at home. Despite being experienced Gloomhaven players we decided we would play through the tutorial portion of the game as a warm up and to get a feel for the game.  TayTay and Vengaboy - the two Jaws and alleged musical sensations. More painted minis on Instagram . We didn't put much thought into party composition, and grabbed the characters we liked best. My partner picked up the Voidwarden and I grabbed the Demolitionist, naming our characters TayTay  and Vengaboy  respectively. Jaws of the Lion spoilers ahead, stop reading now if you don't want Scenario 1-3 spoilers. 

So you got your 3 checkmarks... or  you leveled up. Amazing! But there are so many perks... which one do you choose? 

Each room in Gloomhaven is filled with incredibly dangerous enemies and traps. With a little bit of strategy, Gloomhaven can be a little safer. Split those enemies up and make adventuring in Gloomhaven less dangerous! Divide and Conquer (also sometimes known as Defeat in Detail), is a strategy to split up your enemies and fight them in smaller groups. We can use this in Gloomhaven to great effect to help win more scenarios.  Lets dive into the first room from Scenario 1. In a 4 player Scenario, there's 6 Bandit Guards deployed right in front of your party! That's a tough wall for a bunch of level 1 mercenaries. 

Lets talk about managing your Gloomhaven campaign. In between fighting monsters, there's a whole lot of decisions you need to make between scenarios. City events, Road events? What items to buy? Do you bother contributing to the Sanctuary of the Oak? Spoiler warning Stop reading now if you have not opened Envelope B (Contribute 100+ gold to the Sanctuary of the Oak). Some minor spoilers if you haven't hit prosperity 2.

The key to winning scenarios on higher difficulties in Gloomhaven is effective crowd control. Crowd Control is loosely defined as limiting the number of enemies that are actively attacking you. In Gloomhaven you are always outnumbered and some of your enemies are straight up tougher and deadlier than you. Good crowd control is how you even the odds.  Hey Tinkerer... Got any more of them Net Shooters? With some well placed stuns, immobilizes and some good positioning you can restrict how many enemies can attack you. This will help you take less damage, and ultimately push you closer to winning your scenario.

Inox Brute   So starting a new character and thinking of picking up the Inox Brute? Awesome.  What is the Brute?   Anyone's who's played Gloomhaven will soon learn the traditional fantasy roles of healer, tank, damage dealer doesn't translate directly into Gloomhaven.  The Brute is as aptly named. He's tough, he hits hard but he's not really suited to being a dedicated damage sponge. He has good tools to disarm or kill his opponents so they can't hit back. So should you play a Brute? Lets take a look his strengths and weaknesses.  My painted brute

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).