Cephalofair Games | Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion | Ages 14+ | 1-4 Players | 30-120 Minute Playing Time
Cephalofair Games Gloomhaven-Jaws of The Lion, Mixed Colours
You are a member of “Jaws of the Lion”, one of the most infamous mercenary groups in this run-down backwater city of Gloomhaven. When a sinister cabal starts disappearing the less fortunate of the city, it somehow falls to you to get to the bottom of it….so long as you get paid for your trouble.
Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion is a fully stand alone, and cooperative, campaign game of tactical combat set in the same unique fantasy world of it’s predecessor Gloomhaven. Players will assume the roles of 4 new hardened mercenaries and work together to fight through a new prequel campaign full of choices, challenges, and twists. New built in tutorials, learn-to-play guide, and play-surface scenario books allow players to jump into the action more quickly and easily than ever before.
| Dimensions: | 29.21 x 23.11 x 11.43 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| Model: | CPH0501 |
| Material: | Paper |
| Colour: | Mixed Colours |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Age: | 14 – 83 years |
| Assembly: | No |
| Colour: | Mixed Colours |
| Material: | Paper |
| Quantity: | 1 |
Fantastic game. No missing or damaged pieces.
Fantastic game. No missing or damaged pieces.
Amazing game with best tutorial system eve
The tutorial system for this game is the best I’ve ever experienced. Always wanted to try a legacy game and feel like this is an excellent way to go about it.
Imagine Gloomhaven but with all the negatives addressed
My first experience of the original Gloomhaven game was not the best of introductions. Yes, I loved the gameplay and rpg character building elements but man, was it a slog to get going. It took us a full day to get through the first scenario – and that’s not because its necessarily hard, but all the barriers to entry that come with it. Compare that to my experience with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (with a new group too) and I’d say that within the first hour or so we’d opened the game, chosen our characters and completed the first scenario. It’s a brilliantly curated introduction to the game that really wants to address the feedback of the original by giving you just enough each scenario so as to not completely overwhelm your players.
If you already own Gloomhaven and you’ve found it difficult to get momentum with your group, buy it. If you’re thinking about getting Gloomhaven, get this instead. Smaller investment, better experience and it will almost certainly hype you up further for the full game. And as an added bonus, you can even transfer your characters over too.
Imagine Gloomhaven but with all the negatives addressed
My first experience of the original Gloomhaven game was not the best of introductions. Yes, I loved the gameplay and rpg character building elements but man, was it a slog to get going. It took us a full day to get through the first scenario – and that’s not because its necessarily hard, but all the barriers to entry that come with it. Compare that to my experience with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (with a new group too) and I’d say that within the first hour or so we’d opened the game, chosen our characters and completed the first scenario. It’s a brilliantly curated introduction to the game that really wants to address the feedback of the original by giving you just enough each scenario so as to not completely overwhelm your players.
If you already own Gloomhaven and you’ve found it difficult to get momentum with your group, buy it. If you’re thinking about getting Gloomhaven, get this instead. Smaller investment, better experience and it will almost certainly hype you up further for the full game. And as an added bonus, you can even transfer your characters over too.
Excellent so far!!!
The box arrived in good condition, nicely packaged. First things first!! There’s a lot of stuff in the box!!!
There is even a 4 page guide to how much stuff is in the box and how to set it up.
Warning – this is not a game for people who like a couple of rounds of Yahtzee. There are a lot of components and quite a lot to learn; even punching the cardboard counters out and organising the pieces will take a good hour or so.
You may want to take a colour copy of the city map, or record your progress another way, as you have to stick things on the map to indicate where you are.
There is a handy guide to setting the game up and playing through the first scenarios, which I found very useful. The basic premise is that you have a party of up to 4 characters, and you are going to explore the city of Gloomhaven. The first scenario gets you started with the game mechanics quite easily.
I am playing solo, which involves controlling 2 characters. Whilst everything looked very daunting initially, within 10 minutes I had worked out the turn sequence and mechanics and was enjoying a really entertaining skirmish.
The thing about this game is, you could just play it straight out of the box. However, if you are a bit of a hobbyist, you could also “upgrade” the components. I am sure there are people who have swapped out all the standees for mini-figures and added scenery.
For the moment, I am very happy with it. It’s a DM – less dungeon crawler. There are 25 scenarios, and assuming each one takes 2 hours to play through, that’s a lot of adventuring for the money, and that’s just playing it solo.
My only gripe is that the card stock and counters could probably be a bit better quality. It’s not as good as say, Elder Sign. Nonetheless, this doesn’t detract from the game play at all.
Overall, I can heartily recommend if you are looking for a fantasy dungeon crawler. Very pleased!
Worth it!
Great longevity with this game, 20+hours and still lots to unlock. Takes a while to become familiar with the rules but the complexity adds to the game’s depth. Lots of content too so it is worth the money. Definitely recommended
Awesome game
We’ve played 4 “scenarios” now, and highly rate it with 4 players.
Immense interactive campaign, but be warned you will need almost a full day per session, and that day will fly past as you get stuck into it!
They also have a companion audio you can buy to narrate the scenarios, highly recommend that as it really sets the scene of each scenario.
Download their free app (on android its free, but paid on iOS) to make combat much quicker.
p.s. buy an insert to save you HOURS setting up and cleaning up.
An excellent introduction to Gloomhave
This game serves as an introduction to the world of Gloomhaven, as well as an excellent game in its own right. The 5 chapter tutorial is great fun and explains the rules well.
Excellent for someone wanting to try boardgames agai
Haven’t played board games since a kid. Read about Gloomhaven when searching for a game that can as a one player. However, that is an expensive gamble if one does not enjoy it.
Jaws of the Lion is apparently less complicated and an excellent game overall.
Complex game. Very dark theme.
This really is 14+. It’s all about blood monsters and the artwork is really graphic. If it was a movie it’d be 18, i suppose.
It’s very complicated. The first five levels are tutorials and we were dreading the next one piling yet more complexity. But once you’re through that you get the hang of it and it’s fun.
You really need a table which you can keep it all out on for weeks until you’re done. It’s too much to be getting it all out and fitting back in the box.
Good game
Got this game after playing the beta version on steam. Its really fun and games go on for a long time meaning the 100+ scenario’s will keep you go for months.
Absolutely brilliant!
Both beginner friendly and fun!! It eases you into the game giving you plenty of time to learn the mechanics before the difficulty level increases. Of course if you’re more used to gameplay mechanics you can jump in headfirst and increase the difficulty as you see fit. The game is beautifully made and has so many unique and interactive components to gameplay that keeps it interesting and just straight up cool!!
I bought this for my boyfriends birthday in the start of August and its not been put away since. There is so much to do and so many things to explore and discover! Theres achievements to unlock and hidden locations to explore and its endless fun. We are obsessed with this game and Gloomhaven has become our all time favourite boardgame!!
Excellent game - Recommended
Really fun game, I am playing this solo which is a bit of a learnign curve but its good. It does take a little whole to learn the rules and do expect to spend 20-30 mins at first punching out all the cardboard and arranging all the cards etc to setup.
Overall excelle
Llegó en excelentes condiciones
Lleg en tiempo y forma, en buen estado! Excelente juego con bastante contenido para horas de juego en solitario o con amigos
Llegó en excelentes condiciones
Lleg en tiempo y forma, en buen estado! Excelente juego con bastante contenido para horas de juego en solitario o con amigos
Ein wirklich sehr, sehr starkes Spiel!
GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION ist der eigenstndige Nachfolger zu “Gloomhaven”, einem Brettspiel, welches in den letzten Jahren fr Furore wie kein zweites gesorgt hat und zahlreiche Spitzenbewertungen in den einschlgigen Foren eingeheimst hat.
Ich muss gestehen: ich fand den Hype um “Gloomhaven” immer etwas befremdlich (ohne das Spiel zu kennen, wohlgemerkt) und habe mich daher GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION beinahe skeptisch genhert… muss aber nach einigen sehr spannenden und lustigen Abenden mit diesem Spiel feststellen, dass es wirklich ganz hervorragend ist.
Sicherlich: GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION ist ein kooperativer Dungeon-Crawler – hieraus macht das Spiel aber nun gar kein Geheimnis. Wer dieses Spielprinzip nicht mag ist hier (natrlich) falsch, und selbstverstndlich ist dies etwas fr Gruppen, welche sich Seite an Seite durch eine finstere Fantasy-Geschichte hacken wollen.
GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION berzeugt in zwei Belangen. Zum einen ist die Aufmachung und die Ausstattung zu nennen, welche sehr wertig , optisch ausgezeichnet und auch sehr durchdacht ist. Das Spiel ist, genau wie “Gloomhaven” selbst, opulent ausgestattet, und diese Ausstattung ist mehr als nur Eye-Candy, sondern auch fr ein zgiges, flottes Spiel optimiert. Manche Ideen (z.B. die Karten als eine Art Ringbuch zu prsentieren) sind nahezu genial und sorgen immer wieder fr berraschungen.
Zum anderen berzeugt bei GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION natrlich das Spiel und die Regeln selbst, welche immer wieder fr spielerisch und taktisch interessante Situationen sorgen, eine progressive Charakterentwicklung erlauben und sich schlicht und einfach sehr gut spielen. GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION macht sowohl zu zweit wie auch mit mehreren Spielern schlichtweg eine Menge Spa und ist dabei sehr spannend, schlielich mssen die Handlungen im Kampf gut abgewogen und koordiniert werden, wenn die Gruppe hier erfolgreich sein mchte.
Zu all dem kommt natrlich noch “das gewisse Etwas”: GLOOMHAVEN – JAWS OF THE LION ist auch atmosphrisch gelungen und erzhlt eine spannende und finstere Heroic Fantasy Geschichte, und auch hier berzeugt die Aufmachung, ganz einfach weil diese Geschichte gut erzhlt ist.
Alles in allem: ja, ich habe mir immer wieder gedacht, ob “Gloomhaven” nicht vielleicht berbewertet ist. Nun kenne ich zumindest seinen kleinen Bruder JAWS OF THE LION und muss feststellen, dass dieses Spiel in der Tat ausgezeichnet ist, und mit grandioser Aufmachung, durchdachten Regeln und einem tollen taktischen Spielgefhl berzeugen und begeistern kann.
Von mir gibt es verdiente 5 Sterne!
This is a very fun game. I looked at the bigger Gloomhaven Game first before finding this one. JOTL reviews said this was a good introduction to the Gloomhaven larger Game. The first five scenarios do a good job of stepping you through the rules. There are extra class cards for these scenarios with learn to play text on them. By the time you get to scenario 4 you replace these learning cards and have your characters full cards at your disposal. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in trying out the larger Gloomhaven or frosthaven experience.
This is a very fun game. I looked at the bigger Gloomhaven Game first before finding this one. JOTL reviews said this was a good introduction to the Gloomhaven larger Game. The first five scenarios do a good job of stepping you through the rules. There are extra class cards for these scenarios with learn to play text on them. By the time you get to scenario 4 you replace these learning cards and have your characters full cards at your disposal. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in trying out the larger Gloomhaven or frosthaven experience.
This is a very fun game. I looked at the bigger Gloomhaven Game first before finding this one. JOTL reviews said this was a good introduction to the Gloomhaven larger Game. The first five scenarios do a good job of stepping you through the rules. There are extra class cards for these scenarios with learn to play text on them. By the time you get to scenario 4 you replace these learning cards and have your characters full cards at your disposal. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in trying out the larger Gloomhaven or frosthaven experience.
This is a very fun game. I looked at the bigger Gloomhaven Game first before finding this one. JOTL reviews said this was a good introduction to the Gloomhaven larger Game. The first five scenarios do a good job of stepping you through the rules. There are extra class cards for these scenarios with learn to play text on them. By the time you get to scenario 4 you replace these learning cards and have your characters full cards at your disposal. I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in trying out the larger Gloomhaven or frosthaven experience.
Fast Amazon shipping, delivered within a day. 4 fun characters, excellent solo mode (control 2 of the characters). Lots of content. Scenario 1 - 5 is the tutorial which is great for newbies as it trickle feeds you more and more of the game mechanics. It even tells you how to store the pieces when you're punching them.
Fast Amazon shipping, delivered within a day. 4 fun characters, excellent solo mode (control 2 of the characters). Lots of content. Scenario 1 – 5 is the tutorial which is great for newbies as it trickle feeds you more and more of the game mechanics. It even tells you how to store the pieces when you’re punching them.
se convirtió en mi juego de mesa favorito
ecomiendo conocer antes otros juegos ameritrash para realmente ver por que es tan bueno
se convirtió en mi juego de mesa favorito
ecomiendo conocer antes otros juegos ameritrash para realmente ver por que es tan bueno
Fantastic value for money, most fun I've had in a while!
Loads and loads of content, you’ll have hours upon hours of fun. Me and my family love this RPG game and play it a couple of times a week for a few months now, and are still discovering new things and secrets. My fave board game ever.
Envío rápido, gran pequeño juego
El juego est en Ingls, es una buena manera de motivarte a aprender el idioma.
Es como una “previa” de su hermano mayor Gloomhaven y te ensea a jugar.
Muy divertido y fcil de guardar.
El envo fue muy rpido.
Recomendado a quien disfruta con este tipo de juegos.
Envío rápido, gran pequeño juego
El juego est en Ingls, es una buena manera de motivarte a aprender el idioma.
Es como una “previa” de su hermano mayor Gloomhaven y te ensea a jugar.
Muy divertido y fcil de guardar.
El envo fue muy rpido.
Recomendado a quien disfruta con este tipo de juegos.
No problem, everything is in good condition, miniatures are rly detailed. Satisfied.
No problem, everything is in good condition, miniatures are rly detailed. Satisfied.
No problem, everything is in good condition, miniatures are rly detailed. Satisfied.
No problem, everything is in good condition, miniatures are rly detailed. Satisfied.
This game was a Christmas gift for my husband's brother. They're obsessed with it! They've spent HOURS and hours playing this game. They're now purchasing pieces to hand paint, which aren't cheap either, so I would say for anyone into this kind of stuff, you'd win with this game!
This game was a Christmas gift for my husband’s brother. They’re obsessed with it! They’ve spent HOURS and hours playing this game. They’re now purchasing pieces to hand paint, which aren’t cheap either, so I would say for anyone into this kind of stuff, you’d win with this game!
This game was a Christmas gift for my husband's brother. They're obsessed with it! They've spent HOURS and hours playing this game. They're now purchasing pieces to hand paint, which aren't cheap either, so I would say for anyone into this kind of stuff, you'd win with this game!
This game was a Christmas gift for my husband’s brother. They’re obsessed with it! They’ve spent HOURS and hours playing this game. They’re now purchasing pieces to hand paint, which aren’t cheap either, so I would say for anyone into this kind of stuff, you’d win with this game!
This is a popular board game. It was purchased as a present and Amazon offered the best price.
This is a popular board game. It was purchased as a present and Amazon offered the best price.
This is a popular board game. It was purchased as a present and Amazon offered the best price.
This is a popular board game. It was purchased as a present and Amazon offered the best price.
Fabulous, deep but utterly accessible.
I’d hesitated for a long time about buying a Gloomhaven game. I was a bit nervous about the depth of rules and commitment of tabletop space. That was all unnecessary. This is a fabulous game, everything is slick and easy to understand. Plus I’m have a lot of fun playing it solo. A very easy 5.
Alot to play through!
Really big game with alot to get through, great for regular gaming nights!
Best for a group with regular meet ups, the individual scenarios as once offs aren’t as enjoyable outside of the campaign. The campaign is so massive this is only a small complai
This was my first board game purchase and it was well worth it! I’m playing the game as a duo (2 people), with an extra 3rd character that we share. The game itself takes some time to learn and at the beginning it will seem confusing. It takes at least a few maps to get the hang of things. I recommend fully reading the rulebook and Googling any questions you may have, as that will familiarise yourself with the mechanics quicker. I also recommend finding and printing out character sheets and such, as you will need to write down a lot of information and the provided sheets are too tiny. The game has plenty of content; lots of classes, maps, good/bad routes, items etc. The game is very fun but be warned that maps can take a long time! My runs usually lasted several hours, at least 1-2 on shorter maps. I recommend trying to complete a map in one go if possible, as it’s more immersive, otherwise it may be hard to continue where you left off from a previous game. You’ll also need a large amount of space to play, about a large table, or 2 coffee tables worth of space.
Quality, practicality and decent price in one heavy box!
The game itself is amazing on its own; no doubt about it. I am just playing the campaign alone, with the occasional additional player 🙂
But the quality of what you get for your money is crazy high! Everything is essentially cards and cardboard tiles/pieces with plastic, resulting in cheap and practical components. However, the high resolution of the printouts and the coating of all these pieces makes it into a quality product. Highly recommended!
This is an amazong way to learn the game and try to see if you will fully like it before buying the full game. So far amazed about the game. The fantasy and adventure is almost only in the background, what is amazing about this game is the strategy and the mechanics. Be aware of loads of admin, make sure one of the players really like organization and keeping tracknof everything.
Will recomend anyone to buy this first before investing in Gloomhaven.
Another thing to add, love the fact of the maps/board withing the campaign book, not more dealing with a thousand tiles to build different scenarios
Superb game, but be prepared!
Finally took the plunge on Gloomhaven after mo this of coveting. The detail is immense and even though we have yet to play our first game, are impressed with the contents and quality. There are pros and cons though. Two cons: 1) time to punch out all the pieces. 2) And this is a major one – for a game costing 100+ they really should have included an insert to hold all the pieces. I had to but one separately and that’s another 25 gone. The rules are long, but not too complex and there are plenty of videos and guides online. I also bought the sticker pack to save ruining the game book and map (recommended).
Brilliant game and well worth the money.
Absolutely love this game. Well designed, great fun and you get sooo much for your money! The box is extremely heavy and so packed that you can’t get it all back in the box after you get it out. Really recommend.
Great BUT read this review entirely
Good game. Quite hard to wrap your head around initially but once you get going it’s relatively straight forward.
Some parts of it feel quite cheap compared to other cheaper board games like Talisman though… the box cover is a graphic glued onto cardboard which looks tacky.
PROBLEM: CJ-MAX (seller) have second hand copies being held onto in their stock so you may get sent a used copy. Amazon were kind enough to resolve this matter for me and send me a brand new copy of the 6th (most recent) printing.
A Modern Heroquest with a perfect balance of difficulty and complexity that oozes quality
Without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played.
While it is complex it is very approachable and easy to understand. Someone coming from a background in video-games will find this all very familiar.
The game oozes quality and is a thoroughly rewarding experience to play and will keep you (solo) or a group content for many hours
Please note that the picture I have taken is using the App to help guide you and includes some non standardised scenery I have made.
Gloomhave
I spent 3 weeks trying to get it from a independent shop only to be told at the end they didn’t have it in stock. When I ordered from here, it took 1 day.
Great game – quite a hard to understand initially but very easy once you’ve played it through a couple times.
Great game
Me and my boyfriend love playing this, great to get friends together and really fu
Buy this game
Amazing game, great value for everything included in the box & time spent playing
Amazing game, well worth the money
Such an amazing game, but it was a little overwhelming and difficult to learn at first. I highly recommend watching some YouTube tutorials before attempting. But now that we have got the gist it is great!! We’re hooked and can easily see how this game will provide us with years of fun!! Well worth the money. The only thing is it has so many little pieces and characters that we need to buy a gloomhaven insert organiser because it’s driving us mad trying to find everything. Also we’ve just started using the gloomhaven app to track things and it’s great once you know what you’re doing!!
Good choice for board games fa
Amazing game, however better with friends than solo.
Challenging, but rewarding with good storyline
Wonderful game
Played this a lot over the Christmas holiday; great as a two player game. Learning curve is pretty good, and there’s a hundred hours or so of playtime to be had from the main campaign game.
Brilliant game.
This game can be played on your own and it is good.
But if you got family or friends too play it’s so much better.
Comes in a nice box and all the parts are good quality.
Awesome game!
This game is great if you enjoy DnD, RPG, character progression and legacy style games
Game is number 1 overall on boardgamegeek. not much I can add to that really.
It is just brilliant, considering the wealth of components and scenarios to play it is great value.
the gameplay is incredibly well thought out, rules fairly straightforward. The most complex rules are handling how enemies focus on players, but once you play a scenario you’ll get it.
The only negative is that they haven’t sorted out the printing quality on the cardboard pieces. The images aren’t always perfectly centered, noticeable on the smaller tokens (gold, health etc) and can tear easily when removing for the first time.
I am still playing the campaign. The game seems amazing. The RPG immersion is all inside. But the components quality, for the high price we pay, could be better.
Tiles edges tend to crumble at the slightest touch. Many pieces of them and tokens seems to be of an used game even before you start to play the game. The box is so massive with so many components and you struggle to keep them organised. A better plastic insert would alsso be a good idea.
Also, with that enormous quantity of componentes, you will need a big table to play the game mostly (start from a 6 chairs one). Think about it if you live alone in a small apartment, maybe you ll have to play it on the floor.
Plastic miniatures are nice though. The case with every character components (there are 17 of them) are also well made.
The rule book is well ilustrated, with good quality paper. And the basics of the game, once you ve read and played one first mission, are very easy to master.
An excellent game. But a bit isapointed by the cardboard componentes and play cards quality vs price paid. I would give it a 3 star. But the game is so awesome that deserves a 5. Finally, 4 star.
Awesome Game
Excellent game came quicker than expected, if you haven’t played it yet give it a go. Watch video play on how to play, once you get the hang of it, your be hooked.
Need a lot of spare time to play but worth i
Amazing game with awesome damage mechanics. Characters are awesome and the moves are thought out well.
Definitely one of the best (or maybe *the* best) board game I’ve ever played.
It’s big, has a pretty steep learning curve and takes a while to really get into and the setup and teardown are definitely quite cumbersome (you’ll need some way to organize all the components). However, the payoff is definitely worth it, no other game compares
You do get your monies worth
I’m not a huge dungeon crawler fan, and I’m confident my fiance (with whom I play my board games with) wouldn’t enjoy most dungeon crawl games either. But I love board games, I love fantasy, I love story, I love strategic decisions, and this game is ranked number 1 on BoardGameGeek and rated highly by many professional reviewers. So I took the gamble and spent the most on a board game that I ever have.
Thankfully, it was absolutely worth it. The game is addictive and there are many mysterious boxes and envelopes you can open along the way. We’ve played about 21 of the 95 scenarios, and when each game takes at least an hour to play you realise you are suddenly getting your monies worth. Each play is different and fresh as you have new goals, new areas and new enemies to navigate and defeat. We are close to retiring our first characters after 20-odd games so if the progression continues in that vain then it looks like we might get to play as 4 different characters each across the whole of the campaign. The story is good, and there are a lot of branches to it, but I think I would have perhaps liked even more. I think the fact that it is a strategic thinky game is what has made it a success for us. We love puzzles and teamwork and if this had just been your classic roll a dice and kill things game I don’t think we would have personally enjoyed it half as much as what we do.
It’s not all smooth sailing. The game is very fiddly – lots of small parts like damage tokens which can be tricky to manoeuvre or count – and there is quite a bit of setup which can be off-putting at times. To give you an example, for one game you would need to: find the correct map tiles and set them up, find all the doors and terrain tiles needed and place accordingly, find the correct monster tokens put them in the correct standees and places them accordingly, find the correct monster stat cards and sleeve them, find the correct monster card decks and shuffle each one, set aside damage, status effect and coin tokens, shuffle your own modifier decks, lay out your items, select a number of your cards to take in with you into the scenario, set up your HP and EXP trackers, set up the magic tracker, then finally read the scenario introduction and carry out any additional instructions written there. It’s a lot. But you do get used to it, and the enjoyment of the game far outweighs the slight negative of the setup.
Great Game... Needs Improveme
This game is great. You definitely get your pounds per wear out of this item. The game needs improvement to its rules as some things are left unclear as to what to do in certain situations. Due to the large community of players in this game, most questions are answered online and its great that new updates and editions are being brought out. Great fun and lots of investment in terms of time. Great game.
Legacy Dungeon Crawler with Brilliant Narrative & Gameplay
Gloomhaven is what happens when you combine an old school RPG hexcrawler and dungeon crawl with Heroquest and Warhammer Quest, then remove all of the dice!
You use a hand of cards which you can recycle (loosing 1 card each time you do) to perform your actions which vary depending on your specific race/class/archetype. There are some typical fantasy trope-ish characters as well as some new imaginative and unique ones, each of which brings a different set of skills and way to play to the table. From the elementally infused Crags to the nimble, rat-like Vermling.
The game can be pretty tough – but if adventuring was easy then everyone would be doing it!
However as you survive your character gets better, or at the least ‘less bad’ until you complete your hidden unique goals and can retire.
The plot doesn’t end there however as there are scenarios and quests which convey a narrative as well as your own hidden goals. As you play more characters become ‘unlocked’ and new locations to explore/pillage become available
on a world map.
The game weighs almost 10kg and is very deep. If you are concerned about the legacy/permanency aspects you can use removable stickers so that if you finally get bored you can start from scratch although the rules explicitly say that you can revisit and replay scenarios if you want.
There’s over 1500 cards, 17 characters, 95+ scenarios/adventures, as well as minatures for the heroes, and probably close to 100 standies for the monsters, full colour hex based tiles and a fold out, hardback world map.
There is a reason this game hit the top of the board game charts and won several prizes for design and gameplay. For the hours of gameplay in this hefty box, it actually offers surprisingly good value for money!
This has already had many hours of use with our D&D group, a really detailed game with tons of replay-ability. A little pricey, but worth the investment if you have a good group to play it with.
Great delive
Exactly like i hope. Delivering in a few days in France. Great !
Unfortunately missed out on the Kickstarters ($80 with postage included from America) for this and have had to wait absolute ages for europe supplier option to make this even close to affordable but I am over the preverbial moon with this purchase. It is stated as a 1-4 game but if playing solo campaign then you need to control 2 characters, which is certainly not unusual for this game type. There is a pure solo option whereby a scenario has been created for each character in the game but would not recommend running these until you have played the campaign as you will likely hit spoilers. The game scales very well when played at either 2,3,4 character and it even provides an additional scaling option based on increased difficulty for a party of experienced players or decreased if the game group is new and struggling with the actions strategy. There are more scenarios available outside of whats in the box, A special adventure (numerous scenarios) was created specifically for the 2nd edition kickstarter and supporters have created ‘homebrew’ content available from various gaming focused sites. A new expansion is also coming soon, if not already out BUT there is plenty in the box to keep you(and hopefully friends) amused for many many hours before needing to spend any more. This is clearly a considered price point purchase for most and if you can get it cheeper as distribution improves all power to you, but whatever price you end up paying, I don’t beleive you’ll be disapponted. Good adventuring.
The title of this review doesn’t lie. What Isaac Childres has created is a game of such scope and wonder as to seem almost daunting at first. However, bore down into the game and it’s a simple mechanic, refined and worked to create an elegant dungeon crawler with the added bonus of an ever changing, evolving storyline. One which you control!
You take on the role of your character and dive into the scenarios, levelling up, adding new items and unlocking new game content as you go. That’s right, NEW GAME CONTENT. Much of Gloomhaven is kept hidden from you in the beginning behind sealed boxes, envelopes and books. Only upon completing certain achievements or progressing your party’s story can these be opened. With 95 scenarios to play through too there is plenty of scope for progression.
Characters will actually retire during your play through and you’ll take on new roles as you progress. The story is about the events surrounding Gloomhaven city and you are just an interested (and influencing) party.
Players can easily change from scenario to scenario as the game allows for different party sizes. Replaying scenarios is fine too and there’s a casual mode if you just want to grind for some gold and experience.
The price may be daunting but this game could potentially offer you years of enjoyment and the shear number of components contained within (over 2000), help to justify it a bit. If you like your adventure games, mixed with a sense of control from you, the players then you really won’t be disappointed with this game.
My partner and I love this game, just a shame we only get time to play it once a week!
Some cool features that may sway you if you are on the fence:
You can play solo and replay previous scenarios or random dungeons in casual mode
You gain perks
There are tons of unlockable characters
Your friends can drop in/out of you campaign without impinging progress
There are no dice
As you level up so does the game around you, unlocking better merchant gear and world options
Playing a healer/support is fun and actually viable!
Gloomhaven is a pinnacle of game design.
I am not sure what kind of mind it takes to come up with this game, but everything seems to have been considered in order to give you the best experience. This is a big dungeon crawl campaign game BUT the encounters are comparetively brief and highly tactical. There are almost puzzles to be solved with your group of exiting adventurers. There are tons of meaningful decisions to be made, starting at which actions to put into your character deck, over the usual tactical consideration over which NPC to trust, which mission to fulfil and who to ally with. Oh my god, this is a great game and I am sad I can only give it 5 Stars.
I did not buy the game through Amazon but have nearly 30 hours game play so far and hardly scratched the surface of the scenarios. My gorup is enjoying it greatly and it will easily scale from 2 to 4 players. At nearly 20 pounds in weight you get a lot of components in the box. I would judge the rules to be of medium complexity. Paul Grogan rules and campaign videos are a must watch (google it). There are also apps that help with managing the turns.