Board 8 > Has anyone here played Gloomhaven?

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GANON1025
05/18/19 1:44:55 PM
#1:


It's this gigantic tabletop boardgame that came out a few years ago, and it's on sale on Amazon right now.

I know it has been very well-received, but I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with it?
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Naye745
05/18/19 1:55:37 PM
#2:


it's really fun! it helped me out that i started playing with some folks who already knew the rules, so i could ask questions and learn along while playing the first few times.

if you're not super board game savvy, there's lots of good online videos to watch and learn rules though, so if you're at all interested i'd go for it!
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Mobilezoid
05/18/19 1:58:55 PM
#3:


I played it a few years ago and thought it was amazing. If you have a group of board gaming friends who are willing to join you for the long experience there aren't many things I'd recommend more (really only Kingdom Death Monster and 7th Continent beat Gloomhaven imho). I mostly played with only one other person but people can easily drop in and out so in total we had like eight people participating, which was good because some support heroes don't really work with two people. Pretty unique selection of heroes to choose from, too. I have fond memories of pulling off insane invisibility combos with the void hero.

Only downside is that you can really only play through a copy once since the game changes as you play, but you'll be getting a whole lot of mileage out of that playthrough so it isn't a rip-off or anything.
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GANON1025
05/18/19 2:16:18 PM
#4:


I have friends who like to play board games, and are also interested in tabletop/roleplaying games, so reading up on Gloomhaven made it look like a nice fit.
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Great_Paul
05/18/19 2:18:42 PM
#5:


Yeah it's pretty fun. Our group was pretty consistent at first but due to people moving it kinda fell apart. The box is massive though and there are a lot of pieces, so I'm glad I'm not the one who got it.
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DoctorBIind
05/18/19 2:34:07 PM
#6:


Thanks for the heads up! I havent played it before but its been on my list for a while now. Just swooped it up with the sale.
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banananor
05/18/19 3:54:27 PM
#7:


thank you for the heads up. i've been on the fence about this game for so long

is it fun? as someone who has played d&d in the past, it looks like a more restrictive imitation where all you can do is fight- does anyone that has played both have an opinion?
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GANON1025
05/18/19 4:28:17 PM
#8:


I know there is some role playing involved, but I personally cant say how much of course
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Robazoid
05/18/19 6:12:07 PM
#9:


I haven't played Gloomhaven in two years (and I also haven't played D&D in over a decade) but there were definite story elements and decisions to be made that had slight impacts on how things proceeded. Combat is definitely the focus though, which was fine since the combat was amazing. Once you get the hang of the gameplay and a feel for how your character operates you can pull off some real neat moves.
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ShatteredElysium
05/18/19 8:16:06 PM
#10:


I played it in a group for a while and I really enjoyed it. It basically felt like D+D without having to roleplay (which for me is good because I like the stat aspect rather than the roleplaying). It was an absolutely massive time investment though.

The rules took a little bit of getting to grips with. I know we had some disagreements at first basically because most of us wanted to play it by the book and one of the dudes was trying to game the rules to his benefit which was stupid because it's a team game.

I kinda want to play again now but getting people together was always such a chore.
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GANON1025
05/20/19 7:50:12 PM
#11:


Any other impressions?
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dexter28
05/20/19 8:33:23 PM
#12:


I've run through maybe 40 or so scenarios with friends over the past year and a half.

We've enjoyed the game. We've ended up house ruling a few things (honestly, more than I think we should have, but I'd rather the group enjoy the game). One thing in particular I think should be house ruled is the Personal Goals system. Every character gets a specific Goal they need to complete, and once they do the character immediately retires and you roll a new one. (very minor, non-specific spoilers) I feel like they vary too much in difficulty, time needed, and things completely out of your control, and an alternative "Get to max level" condition for retirement is a good safety valve for players who end up hating their class but can't make progress on their personal goal.

Combat is great. There are some monsters and scenarios that are over/under tuned, but the scaling difficulty system works well enough if you think that things are getting too easy or too difficult.

Roleplaying is a minor factor. Between every scenario your party will choose between two options once or twice in random events, and even if your group is the sort to make choices based on character instead of expected value there isn't all that much meat on any of the choices. The overarching story is interesting, but I don't think there would be much there for a group that enjoys RP.

If you do decide to pick it up, a few recommendations:

Work out a storage solution. The base insert they give you is really not good enough. We use plastic tackle boxes for bits and bobs and standees, old check boxes for the small cards, and an accordion folder for map tiles. Makes playing the game and set up/tear down much simpler.

Consider using the Gloomhaven Helper app, if everyone in the group has the same smartphone brand (or a nearby large screen). Keeping track of damage on enemies is time consuming, and this helps with that.

You unlock new classes by completing specific personal goals, so if your group wants to be opening new classes try and make sure that everyone's personal goal unlocks a different class (You start with six classes, so a little overlap isn't a crisis).
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Seginustemple
05/20/19 8:42:24 PM
#13:


Started playing with my brother last week, only did the first mission or whatever but seems promising.

recently all my board game time has been devoted to Twilight Imperium
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GANON1025
05/21/19 8:14:35 AM
#14:


The whole "replace you character once you complete their personal quest" seems a little odd. Isn't it frustrating for players who really like their character to have to give them away?
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Tom Bombadil
05/21/19 8:41:26 AM
#15:


Heard a lot of hype for it but haven't had a chance to try

almost crushed myself to death trying to get the box off a store shelf this weekend, actually
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ShatteredElysium
05/21/19 9:09:48 AM
#16:


GANON1025 posted...
The whole "replace you character once you complete their personal quest" seems a little odd. Isn't it frustrating for players who really like their character to have to give them away?


Yes and no. You unlock more classes as you play so I think their idea was that you retire characters so that you can try the new classes. I imagine a lot of groups house rules it and allow you to pick whether to retire or pick another personal goal with the same character.

And yeah both my friends who bought it invested in separate boxes to keep everything in. Those kind of big transparent ones with lots of compartments that I've seen people use for storing miniatures
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GANON1025
05/21/19 7:20:01 PM
#17:


Well, I decided to get it! Any videos/apps/anything else I should look up?
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GANON1025
05/23/19 6:33:02 PM
#18:


Got the game today

Its so BIG
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GANON1025
05/27/19 10:46:13 AM
#19:


Spent some time yesterday punching out stuff and organizing everything. Sometime pointed me to the YASS method (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1726878/yss-yet-another-storage-solution) which seemed to work pretty well.

What are some good online videos for learning the game? I'm sure I can learn it with the instructions, but a good video could help a lot too.
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Peridiam
05/27/19 11:07:58 AM
#20:


Unrelated to Ganons current questions but I bought Gloomhaven about 6 months ago and went all out with a cool box insert. My wife and I played it for about 20 missions before retiring it. It was pretty enjoyable but a bit repetitive, and it took forever to set everything up, even with the organization of the box insert.

I still kinda wanna play it but given how heavy of a box it is, it may be better put to use as a way to lift weights and work out.

Hope you enjoy it. We apparently picked the worst class combo to start and made it work for us.
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GANON1025
05/27/19 7:40:43 PM
#21:


Somewhat related, but another game I was looking into getting, Star Wars Imperial Assault, is $40 on Amazon. Which seems like a great deal from everything I can tell.
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Aeon Azuran
05/27/19 11:25:43 PM
#22:


Glad you're enjoying Gloomhaven, it's one of my favorites! My advise: be prepared to cheat a little on fulfilling personal quests, otherwise some of them can take way too long (and unlocking new characters is the best).

Imperial Assault is also great, and if coop is your thing there's a free app called Legends of the Alliance that adds a well implemented coop campaign.
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GANON1025
05/30/19 8:03:17 AM
#23:


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