I barely play any other board game now, Gloomhaven has taken over almost completely, we are under its control like that parasite/ zombie fungus that takes over ants brains and controls them. Gloomhaven is Skynet of the cardboard world.
With so much content to play through in the game, there are lots of stories to tell and that’s what I’m doing here. Sharing some of our funny moments, interesting fights, or whatever else may come to pass for our group. All in a non-spoiler-y way of course!
Our previous tale told the story of the ‘Unfortunate events of Dr Finkleboom’ and how he just couldn’t catch a break with a run of bad luck when trying to perform some interesting attacks. But I also told you that he would have his redemption day.
That day came in an unlikely place, a camp full of Inox. Gloomhaven is a world full of weird and wonderful characters of all kinds of strange fantasy races – many of which we’re still yet to encounter. But we’re becoming a little more familiar with the Inox. If you know of them then you will know that they’re a pretty large, muscular looking race, the kind of race that you probably wouldn’t want to tussle with if you could help it.
Dr Finkleboom on the other hand, he’s pretty small and in a pound for pound fight, you’d put your money on the Inox every day of the week.
Our battle hand been long and hard, the burn from magical attacks still smouldering on the walls; blood was probably still dripping from the defeated foes. I like to think it looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings after an epic battle where the smoke clears and our heroes still remain – you have to use your imagination a little bit, but you get the picture… Except our party was in tatters, only the Tinkerer was left standing to finish off the last of the enemies.
I was taken down after a rather clumsy move that put me right in the firing line of a few of the Inox Scouts. With my small amount of health I was quickly dealt with – Gloomhaven can be pretty punishing if you make silly moves, and even if you don’t sometimes….
The Inox were bearing down on the Quatryl Tinkerer as he played cat and mouse with them around the various obstacles still standing. The plan was to keeping moving, staying one step ahead of them and use ranged attacks to chip away at their remaining health.
For this specific scenario, we needed to kill a certain number of enemies in order to win. We had already mopped up about 90% of the kills needed.
With his card pool dwindling and only a slither of health remaining Dr Finkleboom was able to stay one step ahead of his enemies and whittle them down to bring home the win for us. It was a very close battle and had there been one or two more turns we would’ve probably failed. But, he was the hero and meant that we were able to move on more adventures.
This is one of the many reasons I love playing Gloomhaven, each battle feels tense, you feel like you can lose it in a flash if you don’t keep your wits about you, but the reward and satisfaction for winning is a great feeling.
Since those early days our party has grown with Surfboard Sword Lord the Inox Brute joining the ranks. He wasn’t with us for the first few scenarios – maybe he was just getting drunk in a tavern in the town of Gloomhaven, or something like that.
It was time for Mr Sword Lord to shine in ‘You snooze, you Ooze!’
A new adventure and new location awaited us in the under belly of Gloomhaven. We descended in to the sewers and were met with a new foe – the Ooze. Green and slimey they’re slippery little fellas that if not dealt with can quickly multiply and overwhelm you.
Our Inox Brute was heading the pack as we moved through a set of narrow tunnels – creating a nice firing line for anyone with an attack that can move through multiple targets. Surfboard Sword Lord has one such attack to his name called Skewer which allows him to attack two targets directly ahead of him. Couple this with a movement ability that can damage all enemies moved through he was in line for a devastating combo that would put those slimey green globs down for good.
Fate would not be so kind though and by fate I mean the attack modifier decks. That dreaded Null attack card popped up again essentially meaning his attack missed, he then struck out with some minus 2 attack cards.
In Gloomhaven with every attack action you draw an attack modifier card, so for Skewer you would draw a card for each enemy targeted by the attack.
In this case three enemies were being targeted and all we’re basically left undamaged by the end of the attack. As per usual is was our duty as his comrades to laugh profusely at his failings. It’s ok though, we were able to complete the scenario and we’ve now started to level up a little bit, which means new goodies for us to try out!
Incidentally a friend of mine has now also picked up a copy of Gloomhaven so I’m part of two groups. So I will report back any fun stuff that happens during that campaign too.
-Will
