Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Good evening everyone. Tonight is a fine night for the beginnings of an epic quest and so Amanda and I, joined by our trusty dice guardian Hector, began our quest with Gloomhaven: Jaws of the lion. For those not in the know, Gloomhaven is the current number one ranked game on boardgamegeek.com and is generally well regarded everywhere else. I passed on the original kickstarter because it seemed like a massive and obtuse kludge, but with Jaws of the Lion offering what is essentially an intro campaign, I thought I would give it a try. There will likely be another review closer to the end of the campaign once all the concepts are introduced. Also be aware this is a very substantial game so this one might be a little longer than my typical reviews.

Starting out with the components, I will say that this game is indeed, a massive obtuse kludge, particularly in terms of components, but a mostly well produced one. Starting with the positive, everything looks great. From the box to the cards to the books, everything is beautiful. In addition the box is setup in such a way that it can instruct you on your initial setup and scenario as you unpack it, which is a great idea and always appreciated in games which have a complicated unboxing. It also contains a good insert and enough bags to store all of it’s components, which is good because it will still take a good 20 minutes to sort out all the components.

Now onto the bad. Most boardgamers have had the experience of a game fitting into a box very nicely when packed, but once you open the components and everything is punched and removed from it’s wrapping, it hardly fits in the box anymore. Well Jaws of the Lion has that before it’s punched, in fact my box actually, despite being still in shrink wrap, burst out one side before I ever touched it. In addition the books and components are packed too tightly at the factory to let the box close down all the way. This was easily fixed with packing tape, but still annoying. The cardboard tokens and the like are also either too thick, or the die punch was not up to the task, because they constantly ripped and tore as they were punched or lost their entire surface and had to have it glued back on. This problem persisted regardless of which side I punched from. It is also even harder (still impossible) to properly shut the box once punched and setup, regardless of fiddling around with it. Overall I was a little disappointed, since Cephalofair is no longer in first kickstarter territory, and these issues should have been sorted out by now.

With the long components description out of the way, how does the game play? Well it’s a scenario based skirmish combat game with an overlapping campaign behind it. Players set up their scenario and characters, represented by nice looking models, and enemies represented by standees. At the start of the turn, each player plays 2 cards, one of which sets their initiative. Acting in initiative order players can take 1 top and 1 bottom action, 1 of each from each card, and monsters act according their individual AI and abilities. When player’s hands are entirely spent, they refresh their hand at the expense of 1 card being lost and continue. Players win when the scenario objective is completed and lose if all players are exhausted, by either running entirely out of cards or health.

As far as the gameplay, it’s pretty solid. It largely revolves around manipulating the board, your enemies, the initiative order, etc. in various ways to maximize each attack, but with a random factor thrown into each equation so it’s not simply a puzzle game, even though it has a little of that feel. The enemy AI is simple, but solid and easy to understand, and understanding it is an important part of the gameplay. Combat is super simple, far simpler than I expected based on how highly reviewed this game is, but also deep due to the variety of options each character has each turn and each one having a large impact on the game.

The characters each play very differently. I chose the Red Guard and Amanda chose the Hatchet, and they both have quite different playstyles, even in the early game. The guard is tanky and can manipulate the enemies around the battlefield or pin them down, while the hatchet is very mobile and strikes effectively from a distance. The remaining options sound quite fun to play too, however I will be unlikely to try them given the completely unnecessary legacy aspects they have included in the game. From what I understand the full Gloomhaven game has a legacy aspect to it but as far as I an tell, it’s only in this box to prevent replayability. This is both a shame and nonsensical, since the game provides disposable character sheets for multiple playthroughs, but a map that requires stickering and can only be used once.

You may have noticed, there seems to be a little bit of a roller coaster going on here, with some components being of excellent quality, and others not so much. Sometimes the parts are innovative, like the envelopes which allow a single monster card to contain stats for 8 levels of that monster, but then attempting to track that monster’s health by stacking fiddly little damage and conditions in tiny spots on that same envelope ruins the idea almost entirely.

So with all that being said, it might sound like I didn’t particularly enjoy Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, but the fact of the mater is it’s a really decent game. I’m only so picky because the game is so highly regarded on the internet. There is one of the most solid bases for a skirmish combat game ever here, and I look forward to seeing how it builds up over the course of the campaign, even if it is built on a foundation of some dodgy components.

On the other hand, unless there turns out to be something miraculous to be revealed, I am going to have to write this one up as the most overhyped game I’ve ever played. It’s a very good game, maybe even a great game, but even if the system gets expanded exponentially as the campaign increases, it is not “best of all time” material, even in its genre. There may be a massive amount of content available, I suspect the 25ish games that Jaws of the Lion offers will give me my fill of Gloomhaven and not convince me to acquire the full big box set, time will tell.

Note: The set up took way longer than playing through the first game. While it was enjoyable, I hadn’t been prepared for such a long set up. Once we got going it was pretty fun, and our characters did well together. I like it, and as Kage said, we’ll see what happens as we continue on.

The Teal Deer

Game: Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Designer: Isaac Childres
Price: $50
Players: 1-4
2 player Scaling: Seems to work great
Playtime: Scenarios vary
Estimated Lifespan: The 25ish scenarios in the capaign
Expected Average Play Frequency: Weekly until finished
Complexity: 3.5
Components: 3.5
Bang for Buck: 2*
Value for Time: 4
Fun Factor: 4
Overall: 4

*Although the box is quite reasonably priced for the components, I am deducting 2 points for the inclusion of permenant legacy elements which insofar as I can tell, add nothing but visual flair to the game and exist soley to reduce the resale and trade value of a game that is exactly the kind of game for trading or loaning to other players when you’re finished with the campaign. Shame on you Cephalofair.