Into the Fray with the First Gloomhaven Scenario

Learn how a new solo adventuring party set out to triumph over the first puzzling scenario in Gloomhaven.
After plenty of good-natured poking and prodding, I finally broke down and decided to give the behemoth of board games a whirl. That’s right! Gloomhaven made it to my table early today… Then I spent hours finalizing my organization of the components. After putting together a trio of characters, I was ready to go adventuring!
Game Overview
Game Name: Gloomhaven
Publication Year: 2017
Designer: Isaac Childres
Artists: Alexandr Elichev, Josh McDowell, & Alvaro Nebot
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
I decided to go with the brute, spellweaver, and tinkerer. They just seemed to go together with a potential backstory and reason for heading off into the world.
Note that I played about a year ago, and struggled to enjoy the game. With a fresh start, I set out to solve the puzzle!
The Idea of the Puzzle
At its heart, gameplay is all about strategic card play and working through the puzzle of each scenario. There isn’t a set way to win, but the challenge is to find the optimal way to utilize a party. I struggled with this initially. I didn’t feel connected to the world for some reason. Managing a trio of characters wasn’t hard, yet it also wasn’t fun for me.
I went into this session with an open mind and a positive attitude, though! There have always been some board games that just don’t work for me. Would this be another one? I didn’t rule it out, yet I was hopeful things would pan out.
Stopping in the City
Before the team could leave the city, there was a most necessary trip to the New Market! This city event offered some interesting choices. I hope I chose well.
I’ve tried to play a campaign with various groups, so I’ve seen a handful of these events. They introduce random elements and some choices that cascade.
Still, after spending so long getting everything ready to go, the fairly thin narrative was hard to get past.
Maybe I was wrong for hoping for a deep world, though. I had to focus on the battles! Much more important.
A Fitting Road Event
As the party headed off to the first scenario, a stranded group of circus wagons waved them down for assistance.
Consisting of mostly Quatryl individuals, the tinkerer felt a need to offer up as much help as possible. It was a sign… That I chose wisely with my starting characters. Ha!
Actually, I mostly just went with whatever felt right at the time. The spellweaver and tinkerer seemed like they had been together for a long time.
The brute was a hired hand for this expedition, though there seemed to be more to him than mere strength.
So Many Components
I got the play area under control pretty easily, but that didn’t hold true for the rest of the components. Think this looks orderly and neat? Think again.
My entire game table was taken up! I needed to keep elements off to the side, and that didn’t even take into account the main box with the unused components.
Things crept onto the floor, which is unheard of for me. My gaming table is a dining table… With both leaves!
So I was already a little perturbed just before I got started. This didn’t look good, but still… It’s a highly rated game!
Into the Darkness
The funny thing is that after all this time, I have the first scenario practically memorized! I think I’ve taken part in it about 3 or 4 times. So… Nothing too surprising!
The new party was rather stunned to see a large group of bandit guards in the background, though. I didn’t blame them for a little hesitation. That’s a lot of danger!
So I started planning out my turn, and really enjoyed all of the card effects. Working together proved useful, too.
The initiative order was interesting, too. Enemies could thwart the best-laid plans… And so they did!
Elemental Magic
The spellweaver benefited the most from the elements, although it wasn’t always easy to set her up. I had to carefully think through the bonuses she could get.
Sometimes, it paid to just ignore the elements. There were many other ways to deal damage and get benefits.
Healing was something I neglected during many of my previous plays. Fortunately, the tinkerer was quite adept at keeping everyone in tip-top shape!
Meanwhile, the brute soaked up plenty of damage and dealt his own in turn. All looked to be going well!
Celebrating a Victory
After a lengthy adventure, the party triumphantly stood over the fallen bodies of the enemies. It had been a long and difficult battle, though it paid off in the end.
The spellweaver earned plenty of experience and made it to the special treasure chest. What a wonderful surprise!
I, on the other hand, felt exhausted. Hours from setup to completion wasn’t my idea of fun, plus I had trouble getting into the story. Was there a story?
And that might be my main issue with the game: I value deep narratives, and this doesn’t necessarily offer one.
Session Overview
Play Number: 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Scenario 01 at the Easy Difficulty Level
Required Play Space: 40″ x 30″
Setup Time: 15 Minutes
Play Time: 2 Hours
Outcome: Win
Not everything turned out well, though. The tinkerer fell right near the end. The brute looked on sadly, for he had tried to protect his tiny friend. It wasn’t to be. At least his body didn’t fall back into that nasty trap, though!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
1
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
4
Quality
Components & Rules
4
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
8
Continue the Conversation
What are some of your thoughts about Gloomhaven as a solo board game? There are definitely some excellent and innovative ideas, but I wonder if it might be best played in a multiplayer environment. How many characters do you have in your party? I’m still struggling to find the enjoyment here, though I’m definitely up for another scenario!
My choice from a year ago was this or Mage Knight based on high solo ratings, popularity, and cost. I went back and forth, forth and back, up and down, etc. Finally decided on Mage Knight and I feel I made the right choice. Maybe this game finds its way into my library or maybe I’ll keep an eye on Frosthaven.
It’s session reports and some reviews like this that make me pause. The game seems so far up my alley of what I would like in a game, but there is that nagging feeling to stay away. I think I need to find someone who owns a copy and play a session.
Looking forward to more reports on this one from you!
Thanks, Derek! I’m not entirely sure why it hasn’t clicked with me so far, but I’m still willing to give it some more time. Early impressions aren’t everything, and there’s a good chance it’s just repeating the first scenario that’s not working. I can’t fault the game for me just restarting it over and over again… I doubt that’s how it was meant to be played!
I should have at least another session report done by the end of the weekend! It’s hard to say that I’m super excited about it, yet I’m still staying positive and hoping that another scenario will introduce some more. We’ll see!
Comparing this with Gloom of Kilforth (which I also haven’t played, so I’m going entirely off the impressions I’ve got from reading about them), it seems to me that both of them involve fights strung together by narrative… but Gloomhaven is tactical, in that the fights are the primary point of the game, the thing you spend the majority of your time doing, and the decisions are mostly there to get you to the next fight; while Kilforth is more strategic, since the fights seem to be over relatively quickly, and you spend more of your time thinking about where you want to go and what you want to do next.
Excellent assessment, Roger! I think that explains the main differences, at least in terms of how I’ve been looking at the games. In another post, you’ll see I came to a similar conclusion: It’s the micro-management of movement in individual battles that doesn’t work for me. I don’t love counting hexes and considering the placement of my characters.
It’s a good thing to know, though! I may hesitate with tactical and miniatures games in the future… Which is fine, as far as my wallet is concerned. Ha ha! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!