Saturday Morning Gaming: The Gloomhaven Stream
Okay. I figured that I continue to be tickled pink by Gloomhaven and think that it’s a game that any aficionado of board games should sit down and try.
*BUT*, I also know that the mechanics of the game can be a little opaque. Pick two cards? Take the top of one and the bottom of the other? Some of them get discarded, some of them get burned? There are modifiers for each and every attack?
What?
So I thought that I’d do a little stream and try to show, instead of tell, how the game worked. I apologize in advance for the sheer number of filler words that I use. (“Uh” is the one I noticed even as I said it… I’m sure that there are more. I’m sorry. In my defense, the very first “uh” was me deciding to *NOT* open with “yo, yo, yo it’s ya boi Jaybird”.)
In this game, I walk you through how to pick your first three heroes and go into your first dungeon and clear out the first two rooms of your first dungeon (leaving the third room unopened, if you want to see the game played but not, you know, *SPOILED*). It’s my first one of these and, hey, it might be the last but if you want to see this game played before investing your hard-earned cash/time into it…
Well, check it out:
So what are you playing?
Breathedge – I’m normally not a fan of survival games, but I appreciate the comedy aspect of this one, and the fact that it’s a zero-G game (your ship is floating debris, you have limited oxygen, you need to find resources to build equipment to let you survive; also, you have an immortal chicken that comes in handy every once in a while).Report
One area where the computer version COMPLETELY outshines the tabletop version:
I have had to do one particular dungeon 4 times. Still haven’t beaten it. I do not mind playing this dungeon for a fifth time… but I wouldn’t want to ask my buddies “HEY LET’S DO THIS DUNGEON AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN”.Report
I finished off Scenario 5 of Jaws of the Lion. Fortunately I read this post before I got around to playing it and realized that I had been ignoring the “top of one, bottom of the other rule” until now. Considering the first four scenarios are still introductory scenarios with low difficulty, I don’t feel too bad about it. Scenario 5 is the first boss fight, and it ramps of the difficulty a bit.
I have not played regular Gloomhaven, but it sounds like it really throws you into things from the start. JotL does not. It starts out with simplified action decks and adds complexity over the first few scenarios. I definitely recommend it for learning the game. Also, the maps are in the book. No tiles. This makes setup quick and easy, which I understand is also a turnoff in full Gloomhaven.
I’m not sure if I will try digital Gloomhaven or not. It seems like when I try digital versions of boardgames, they don’t quite work for me. I like the tactile aspects of the real thing, and I tend to have trouble keeping up with everything going on when it’s silently done by AI.Report
Gloomhaven does kinda throw you into the deep end rather mercilessly.
I’m about a dozen dungeons into the game and I went back to replay one of the early ones and HOLY COW IT’S SO EASY NOW.
I don’t know if it’s because my dudes are all between level 5 and level 9 now or merely that I know how to read the map and know how my stuff works.Report