All we wanted to do was to get to the sleeping lion and have a rest, however nothing ever just goes to plan now does it?
Gloomhaven JOTL is a standalone expansion to Gloomhaven (could you have guessed that?) It is set before Gloomhaven and in this version we are playing a mercenary from the renowned Jaws of the Lion (JOTL for short). Now we have done that lets cover the basics!
Players (yes you need them): 1 to 4
Age (I'm old thank you): 14+
Time (always running out of time): 30 minutes per player
Okay that is the basics covered now lets take a look at what we get in this large box!
What is in that large box?
Well there are a lot of pieces to this game due to how it works, Gloomhaven is a game that is played over a long period of time. You complete scenarios in order to follow the story behind the game. This of course means that you have a lot of different components for the game. I can not go in to details about all the pieces you get because there are far to many and this would take a lot of time to create! Instead I am going to summarize so you get a good idea of exactly how many pieces you get in this game!
In the box you will get;
1 rulebook
1 scenario book
1 scenario companion book
1 how to play book
1 per character box that contains everything you need for that character
8 miniature boxes containing figures
4 character sheet pads 4 character mats 144 ability cards 20 character tokens
4 character dials 18 initiative tokens
1 city board 1 city sticker sheet 4 reference cards 1 elements board 6 element tokens 97 monster tokens 108 monster ability cards 16 white stands 8 gold stands 4 monster stat envelopes 16 monster stat cards 8 warning cards 22 event cards 60 condition tokens 179 attack modifier cards 52 item cards 32 battle goals 3 card dividers 12 trap tiles 8 activation tokens 32 1 damage tokens 12 3 damage tokens 6 10 damage tokens 20 destruction tiles 4 treasure tiles 25 money tokens I think that is everything, now look at all that! You get a lot with this game! I would like to point out that I bought the reusable city board and sticker pack for this game as the one that comes with the game is a one time use!
Now let us move on to the next section. You still in shock about everything you get in this game? I know I am....
How to set up the game?
This section is going to be difficult to cover because of how the game works, firstly use the learn to play book and it will walk you hand in hand through setting up the first few scenarios and show you what you need to do, this was super useful to be honest. You always start by opening the scenario book and following the instructions, usually the first step is to place a sticker on the city board to show what you are doing so you can come back to this at a later point in time.
The reason I bought the reusable set is to allow me to play this again if I wish and I can use the stickers and board again, it was only like £8 on top but worth it! Now you will need to make sure you always have the same character, so you take their tuck box and figure and set them up, now its hard to tell you how to do this because it will all depend on where you are in the game to what you will need to do here. Like I said use the learn to play book and follow the set up. There is no real point to this section because I really can not cover how to set the game up, follow the books and trust me you will get it, to make it even easier the scenario books show you what you need for each one and where to place them. It does a great job of making sure you can easily set the scene up for the game! Because I am going to struggle in this section we will move on.
Aim of the game? Once again this is a tough one! I mean the general aim is to complete all the scenarios and follow the storyline, that is the ultimate goal. Saying that each scenario does have a goal; to you need to complete to finish that scenario and continue with the story.
How to play this game?
Just like all the sections above this is a tough area to cover because this can be different depending on how you play the game. I am going to try my best to cover this section and give you a broad idea of how you play this game. Let us assume that you have set the game up and now it is time for you all to start playing. You can discuss you general tactics but you can not tell other players what cards you are going to use this is important to the game. Each player will pick 2 cards that they have (ability cards), now you have to play one top and one bottom of the card, if you look at an ability card you can see there is a light blue area (top) then a divide line with a number, finally there is a dark blue area (bottom). This means when you perform your turn you will do a top action on one card and on the other you will do the bottom action, you can never perform both from the same card, nor can you perform 2 top actions or 2 bottom actions. I hope this is making sense so far.... Now once you have all picked your cards you need to make sure the bottom card (because you flip and show them) is the initiative score you want to use, now when I mentioned there was a divider with a number this number is an initiative number, the lower the score the more likely you are that you will go first. The enemy figures will also have one, once you work out who goes where in order place the character and monster initiative tokens in order so you know who goes when in this round. Then you can perform one top and one bottom action in any order you wish, this might mean you want to move first and then attack or maybe attack then move, maybe you want to move and heal? There is a lot you can do here and you get to pick the order you complete them, just make sure that it is one top and one bottom action from different cards! What you need to know is that when you use the cards they go into your discard pile, if you have 1 or less cards left you need to do a short rest, when you perform a short rest you will shuffle and place a card in the lost pile (this is now lost and can not be used) if you want that card still you loose 1 life, shuffle the cards in your hand and replace it with a different card, you can only do this once per round! This does mean you are on a time limit during each game and you must work as a team to complete these scenarios! If at any time you become exhausted (no life points left or literally only have 1 card left in your hand because all others are lost) you are out of the game! You remove your player piece and pray that the other players can finish the scenario.
There is combat, this is easy, either ranged or close, each tells you how much damage and targets it will hit and wound, you will apply damage modifiers which can help or hinder you. It will also if it is ranged tell you how far you can aim and hurt a creature. Combat in this game is really easy to follow and will in later scenario allow you to collect coins. Moving is very straight forward you just move that number of hexagons on the board, you can move through over players but not creatures or obstacles. This is pretty straight forward. There is not much to cover because it all depends on the scenario you are playing, the rulebook and learn how to play book have this well covered. I am just trying to think what else I can say.
Monsters and creatures and other what nots all have stats that you will need to use when playin them, you always move them to the closest target if they move, they have attacks and wound and pay attention to if they are a white or a gold base monster as they do have different stats. There are conditions such as poison and you just need to make sure you perform their special rules at the start of each turn and place a token on your character mat so you know what it going on! For a complex looking game the rules are pretty simple, I highly recommend that you watch a video on this game and I recommend: Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion - How To Play - Part 1 - YouTube < there are several parts and he does an excellent job on explaining this game!
Final thoughts!
I have spent a long time wanting to play this game, so very, very, very long and I feel a little underwhelmed by it all, saying that I only did play the first 3 scenarios.
The game tokens are poor, they rip easily and fall apart, I have never been so mad removing game tokens from the punchout before. I have loads of games that have had punchouts and not one as ever been this terrible before.
This is an example of 1 of many that came apart, others ripped and yeah not pleased with the quality there. The cards, figures and other pieces all seem to be fine, I have had no issues with them, I do think the token holder and box should be bigger for this game, it is easy to take them all out of the ox but a nightmare to get them back in, the tokens do not seem to fit the tray they provide as there are too many.... You made the damn game know how many pieces there are and how much space they will take! Frustrating yet again. The learn how to play book is an excellent tool for teaching you the game however watching a video online will trump it no matter what. The game is simple to play, easy to learn and fun, I had a good time playing it, I just did not have a great time playing it, I did not feel I was connected to the story and I am unsure why? People rave about this game and Gloomhaven and I want to love them, but so for I am only liking them. The story is not gripping me, I could not care for my character or the blacksmiths wife, I feel I am missing out on the main aspect of this game, I am unsure if it is the way it is written, the lack of descriptions, the shortness of the story on each section or if I am just dead inside, I could be dead inside. I do not know, for a story driven game I think the story is a little on the slow ands lacking side. Personal opinion though and we are all different and entitled to our own. I am of course going to play it more, maybe edit the story a little to add more depth to it, maybe start again and change the character, add more back story to the creatures I am killing and fully immerse myself in this universe. This is going to be controversial but I think Talisman is a better game, but that is my opinion. 7/10 I want to love it, I just seem to like it
