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.

Welcome to another Gloomtactics special where we continue our Jaws of the Lion campaign run. We're about to embark into Scenario 4 and 5, the last few "teaching" scenarios.  Once again spoilers for Jaws of the Lion Scenario 4 and 5 ahead, so continue at your own peril. 

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? 

Time for something a little different! I know this is a Gloomhaven strategy and tactics blog, but due to lockdown and the pandemic it's difficult to get Gloomhaven games going.  So instead we will do a painting guide for the Jaws of the Lion - Red Guard :)  Painted minis improve the Gloomhaven experience by adding color to the grey blobs representing your adventuring mercenary. It's a worthy undertaking to splash that color on and make the experience awesome for the entire group.  The Red Guard in all it's glory @jackogoeswacko4smackos

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. 

Gloomhaven rules you probably got wrong at some point Right so you've read the rulebook, and you've played some games, but Gloomhaven is a monster of a game and there are probably rules you've gotten wrong or might not know is even possible. I've put in some the ones we've come across before. Chances are you may have run into these too!

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.

Not sure if you want to play a tank, a healer, a crowd controller or a damage dealer? Well why not play them all?! The Cragheart does it all.  This Cragheart guide will show you how to do some amazing things with obstacle placement and destruction. Nothing like slowing down your enemies by throwing some rocks in their way.  Plus the Savvas Cragheart has a cool backstory. Exiled and had his chest cavity shattered by his people for being inadequate, he goes around slamming rocks at monsters. Damn, talk about a rocky upbringing!   Cragheart problem solving:  Make rock, throw rock, destroy rock.

Minor spoilers ahead!!  While the existence of Gloomhaven enhancements is not a spoiler, how and when you get access to them is.  The goal of the this guide is to provide some guidance and options on selecting your enhancements. If you haven't got access to enhancements yet, I recommend you go back to your game until you eventually unlock it.  Enhancements are also very expensive! Enhancements allow for personal choice and allow for plenty of room to experiment with different playstyles. This guide is to give some general advice on choosing your enhancements and what cards to improve. It's sticker time!

Everyone needs to rest from time to time, and that includes your Gloomhaven mercenary band too. Short resting lets you keep your momentum and keep fighting but at the cost of losing cards unpredictably. Long resting extends your exhaustion timer by 1 round, provides a small heal, lets you strategically choose cards to lose and refreshes your items. Long resting is obviously preferable if you can afford to spend the turn doing so. But is the loss of momentum worth it? And with such dangerous enemies around you, how can you afford to long rest? Scoundrel needs a nap When can you rest? You can only rest once you have at least 2 cards in your discard pile. Pg 17 of the rulebook: The rest action can only be taken if a player has two or more cards in his or her discard pile, and a rest action always results in losing one of the discarded cards. This means you can't simply rest, then immediately rest again to try exhaust yourself (for battle goals or personal quests). You need to play som

So you've chosen the Human Scoundrel? This Scoundrel guide will cover her skill choices and techniques. Maybe you like playing humans, maybe you like stabbing enemies for big numbers or maybe you like the color green. Regardless the Scoundrel is fun class to play.  Sneaky sneaky stab stab Let's go over what makes the scoundrel a killing machine and what limitations she has.

Gloomhaven is harsh. Being able to work as a team will often make the difference between survival and failure. Good team work means good communication. This post we'll cover ways to improve your team coordination so you can make it to the end of the scenario in one piece. instagram.com/jackogoeswacko4smackos  for more painted minis

We're going to cover something different this time. How to setup your game faster.  Gloomhaven has a monstrous amount of components. The setup can be long and tedious, but we can make that easier by investing a bit of time in improving the storage.  There's dedicated organizers you can buy that will make your life easier, such as this . However, you can get by with much cheaper and more accessible items.  A Spellweaver, her Chubby Unicorn summon and a Brute face off against some bandits.

The introductory Orchid Spellweaver guide.  There's a special allure about playing a crystal skinned lady swinging fire and ice. Should you pick up a Spellweaver? Let see.

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

In the world of GloomHaven, one of the biggest dangers to the health of your party is lurking behind those mysterious doors. Learning effective techniques to "kick doors" will help you avoid death. I'll be using Scenario 1 as example [Scenario 1 spoilers if you haven't played yet]. This is a more tactically complex topic and may take multiple posts to cover.

Minor Scenario 2 spoilers towards the end of this post. Even before the nitty gritty tactics, there's some planning & strategy you can do at Scenario Setup to help you win. When setting up a new scenario, the first step is to look in the scenario book to set up the map tiles and prepare all the monster types you will be fighting. Then read the introduction text and apply any negative scenario effects from the “Special Rules” section. Next, two battle goals should be dealt to each player, one of which will be discarded. Players can then decide which items they would like to equip from the collection of items they own (adding in -1 cards to their attack modifier decks when applicable). Next, players should decide which ability cards they would like to put in their hand, choosing from the pool of those available to them. A player must select a number of cards equal to his or her character’s hand size...  ...After players select their hand, any effects of a preceding road eve

[Minor Prosperity 2 spoilers ahead. Stop reading now if you want to avoid] . . . Gloomhaven does magic in a very original and unique way. The cost of Magic in most games are mechanically represented by a separate resource, like a Mana value. Once you run out of Mana you can't use your magic powers anymore.