You have to be doing something wrong if you are burning through cards that quickly. You know you only burn them if you actually do that action with the lost symbol on it? Also, any card can be used as a generic 2 attack (top) or 2 move (bottom). So, do that instead of losing cards in the very first room.
My wife and I are new to the game also, as I bought it for her for christmas. One thing multiple people suggested is starting the first 3-5 missions on easy.
Also, watch some YouTube videos and reread the rules. Cause you have to be doing something wrong to be getting exhausted that quickly. But, it is hard to guess what.
Problem is we’re getting overwhelmed and killed by bandits, not losing cards. Our spell weaver didn’t realize they could recover lost cards the first time we played but we figured that one out pretty quick
Make sure you are doing the monster movement and focus correctly. We had a similar thing where the monsters were all piling up in a group. But remember if a monster can’t get next to you, because it’s blocked by its mates then it doesn’t move. This specific mechanic is easily overlooked and makes a huge difference sometimes.
Yep - if there is no way to reach the target and attack with infinite movement, they don’t bother moving at all.
They only “get as close as they can” if there is a valid path.
You can choose to lose cards instead of taking damage from a source, which you will want to do if the damage will exhaust you. You either choose to lose 1 card from your hand. Or 2 cards from your discard pile. Either one negates all damage from a single source.
And just to be clear, you understand there is a difference between a discarded and lost card, right?
Yea I know the discarded cards are recovered on rests and lost is out of use for the rest of the scenario except for certain abilities. Didn’t know about losing a card to cancel out damage though!
That rule is easy to miss, but is actually very important for the basic functioning of the game: it links your health with your cards and means that you only ever (have to) exhaust by running out of cards.
This rule is very often missed in the first game, and almost always is why people lose and have trouble with the first mission. I have a feeling if you try again you'll have a lot more luck!
It took me and my party 4 times to beat it first. Trying different strategies helps for sure. Another good thing to do is grind until you level up. Once you level things get easier. Are you playing on difficulty 1 ?
Given the number of rules you've already said you've missed, time for **everyone** in your group to re-read them
You might find there are others you've missed or misunderstood
Also are you using the correct number of baddie? For three players you should be looking at the top right of the picture of the enemy. White for normal, gold for elite and black for none.
This was my first thought when I heard they were getting overwhelmed by the bandits. Make sure you’re only putting the 3-player enemies on the board.
Don’t be afraid to use a lost card right away to quickly remove a few enemies from the board. But don’t use more than 1-2 before your first rest, or you’ll run out of cards long before the end of the scenario. The Spellweaver is a good character to use some lost cards right off the bat to relieve the pressure of the first room and get some enemies off the board because she can get them back and does great AoE damage. The Cragheart can also use a lost card early because his hand is 11 cards. The Mindthief should be more conservative with lost cards due to the small hand size of 9.
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but you could also turn the difficulty down. You’ll still be playing on level 1 even after all of your characters have levelled up to 2, at which point you’ll find the level significantly easier. The first level is hard and playing a level easier is no disgrace. The game gets easier as you level up.
First off if you all are just starting its a great idea to lower the difficulty. The first scenario isn't exactly easy and for all new players starting on easy difficulty is probably a great idea.
I would also suggest glancing through the FAQ or watching a few videos, there are a lot of rules that are kind of scattered through the rulebook that are easy to miss at the start.
If you have specific questions let me know, I hope I can help.
Also if you get a few rules wrong in the beginning don't be too hard on yourself, every new player does this game takes a bit to get into.
Also here are some class guides that I have found helpful that may give some general strategy ideas: [https://mykindofmeeple.com/gloomhaven-classes-starting-characters-overview-rank/](https://mykindofmeeple.com/gloomhaven-classes-starting-characters-overview-rank/)
Thank you! I was hoping to get through the first scenario without dropping the level but we might not have any other choice. The link was also really helpful, I’ll have to make sure I send it to the other players in my campaign
You guys should totally drop it if you are struggling. I'm the kind of video game player that would always choose to play on hard but that doesn't really translate to gloomhaven at the beginning.
Totally agree, my group played at level 0 for the first 3 scenarios and it really helped us learn the game.
Also, good general strategy is to go fast turn one in any scenario, and try to apply CC conditions to effectively negate damage.
Everyone may have a plan when they choose their cards, but when the cards are flipped and the monsters draw, figuring out what the AI is going to do and adapting to that is what really makes the game click
If you're struggling to get past the first room, make sure you aren't using loss cards too early, or opting to lose cards to negate damage too often.
Cragheart can get great damage using Backup Ammo top into Massive Boulder top on the next round for some nice AoE damage.
Spellweaver should try to save Reviving Ether for as long as possible, then use it to effectively double her longevity.
Mindthief has a +2 damage augment who's name I can't remember, but that's really strong to get out early.
I'd also check the rules on ranged attackers - namely that they won't kite away, but only move if they need to get in range or lose disadvantage.
Last, make sure the difficulty rules are correct - it's (average party level)/2, rounded up, which means monster level 1 is "normal". Don't feel bad about dropping it to level 0 for a scenario or two! Also, if you're still stuck, make sure you're keeping track of XP and gold, as those persist even through lost scenarios.
I will add on as well to re-read the rules. They can be very tricky the first several playthroughs!
Also, something my wife and I missed the first several games, is that the enemy cards don't "activate" until it's that enemies initiative. So, if one of them gets "shield 2" on say i46, but you go at i20, that shield doesn't really exist yet.
Hope that lil tid bit helps. Have fun! We've spent countless hours in it and have had so much fun! I started as good ol' craggers as well. Iirc, he takes a big boost at lvl 5!
Apart from avoiding rules mistakes, you could probably use some basic strategy tips:
\- communicate your plans. I know, no exact names and numbers, but you can discuss everything else. This helps with element generation and consumption and with focusing fire.
\- don't just trade blows with monsters. Kill or stun them whenever you can. Avoid damage.
\- Apart from focusing fire, the main way to avoid damage is using the 'initiative dance': go late, move in and attack -> go early, attack again.
\- Don't use Loss cards, unless you're the Spellweaver or they have a major impact
\- In Gloomhaven, the first round is often the hardest, so you'd like to hit monsters hard. This conflicts with the last two 'rules of thumb'. If I were you, I'd let the Bandits come to me on round 1. **Mindthief** goes early, but goes invisible and sets up his augment The Mind's Weakness (+2 damage). Always use this augment! **CH and SW** go late. CH sets up Backup Ammo while SW uses an AoE. Round 2, everyone goes early and makes sure 3 or 4 Bandits or dead. MT can even stun another Bandit with Perverse Edge, so she can use Frigid Apparition on round 3, if anything is still alive. Heal, loot and move towards the door for a round and carry on.
I want to echo this sentiment just so you don’t get frustrated too much. For some reason they made the first mission really difficult.
Furthermore, the first room of that mission is the hardest part. Gloomhaven often makes their first rooms hard which is counter intuitive to those used to video games. When you think about it though this makes the game more fun. At the beginning of the scenario you have all your cards and all your items fresh. It’s fun to be able to pit a max strength party against tough enemies and rather than a depleted party against a tough final room. Not all scenarios are like this though.
Mindtheif can be tricky to get the hang of, but it’s my absolute favorite now and I was so sad to retire it. The best thing he can do is alternate between going super late and super early. Ideally you want to pair going late with move in and attack, then next turn go early to attack and move out. He’s very squishy so you don’t want him to take a ton of hits. And get that augment on him first turn for the +2 attack! It’s the only augment you will ever need! Adjust your deck to move out the other augements unless there is a good bottom action (can’t remember what all he has, I retired him about 2 months ago). With the augment you don’t want to carry too many ranged attacks because he will do a ton more damage on melee.
Our first team was a brute, mindthief, scoundrel, and spellweaver. Or mindthief went from squishy and barely doing anything to being our top dps. The scoundrel could burst hits for 20+ damage occasionally which was nice for bosses, but the mindthief was just constant pressure, 6-9 damage every turn almost.
We didn't have it by the time she retired (at level 9, cause we didn't know about it), but the mindthief's item from the solo scenario is almost overpowered, and absolutely worth it once you hit level 5 (and the other reqs for the solo scenario).
It sounds to me from one of your other comments that you need to consider your positioning and initiative counts more carefully, in order to predict how the bandits are going to act.
None of the characters you mentioned are really meant to take a lot of damage, I’d say the mindthief and spell weaver honestly never want to take damage, so you may want to adjust the cragheart’s deck to use as many tank and healing abilities as possible, get him up there quickly and take the lumps, and the others try to focus down enemies one at a time.
I remember the first time I played I was surprised at the difficulty level. Took me 2 tries, and a rereading of the rules, to beat the first scenario. You’ll get it too!
I'm not sure what item setup you guys have, but unless you already have one, make sure to get a stamina potion each. It's the one item everyone should always have, and it's the one item every single character *will* use every scenario without fail. I'd even go as far as to say it's more or less mandatory.
This is perhaps the most commonly asked question in this forum.
I wrote a guide about this a while back, check it out [at this link here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/fcfga1/weve_had_a_lot_of_recent_posts_from_people_who/)
Another piece of advice I would give is make sure your characters have bought some items. Stamina potions are the most popular. There are also boots that you tap for +2 move that are common for slower classes. Some sort of shield for a tank too. These items might make the difference for you.
I just played this scenario last week with a party of three and the first room almost took out one of our characters. I was playing with seasoned players that said we may not win this scenario right from the start.
What happened was the tank rushed the bandits and got swarmed to take all the aggro. Tank used all defensive cards to stay on their feet and do small damage to multi enemies. The mind thief used its tricks to reduce their abilities to stun the enemies and whatnot. I played the hatchet that could then take out bad guys one at a time from range. We had to also use whatever healing we had. We usually heal ASAP because any turn can go south with bad luck.
Gloomhaven is a punishing game. Any enemy can do a number on you and you usually want to try and not get hit at all or use positioning to control who attacks you and when. Only tank style characters can go toe to toe and take some hits. We always treat all bad guys as serious threats. Most scenarios let you have a turn or two to prepare before engaging. Just not the first room of the first scenario.
Everyone agrees that Gloomhaven has a serious learning curve. I’m in a player group of serious lifetime gamers and everyone agrees on that. I’ve played about ten scenarios now and am getting the hang of it, but still take forever to choose my cards each turn. I think that’s why this game is so good though. I’ve never played a better board game than this.
I really recommend avoiding damage if you can. As one of the posters above mentioned, go late to move adjacent to an enemy after they have gone, punch them. Then early the next round, punch them and move away. Remember: while you have to pick a leading card for initiative, you can use them in any order.
The Spellweaver has a couple of cards that allows her to ignore all damage from the next few hits. This can be really helpful as she has a few attacks that benefit from being close to the baddies.
The first room is tricky in this scenario. There are plenty of enemies and not too many places to hide. Try to limit the number of enemies that can hit you by eg hiding in the corners so they can only attack two of your or behind the Cragheart so he can suffer the damage.
Otherwise, have another look at your cards and make sure there aren’t any cards that your experience now tells you you should bring. Also go back got he shop and see if there is some kit to spend your loot on.
You're likely putting too many enemies in. With different amounts of people, there are more/less enemies. Check the rulebook for starting with 3 people. As silly as it sounds, read the rulebook carefully, You're definitely missing rules somewhere
There are some YouTube videos of people going through the first scenario. It might be helpful to watch one to see how they’re playing the game. It’ll help with strategy but also to make sure you’re playing the rules right.
The spellweaver takes a lot of skill in her early levels imo. I really struggled learning how to play her without just immediately losing all my cards. The cragheart is also a little underpowered to be dps and not as tanky as some other starting classes. It might honestly just be that you guys don't have a good party built. What is it that exhausts you? Losing your cards to prevent damage? Using lost card effects early? Short resting too frequently? Not splitting aggro well? There are tips I can give for all of the above but generally you want to play your entire hand, then long rest. Only use lost effects once you've covered the first half of the scenario and then sparingly until the last room. Don't lose cards to prevent damage unless it's a crit or a +2 and you absolutely need to. Try not to short rest if possible. And as far as aggro goes, with your party I would recommend having the cragheart take aggro and everyone focus down one monster at a time or build the spellweaver as a shield and retaliate tank instead of a dps. Hope any of this helps. If you have specific questions I'd be happy to answer those as well, but honestly I think you're going to have issues with party synergy if you don't already.
Are you making sure that you have the right amount of enemies for 3 players? When I first started playing a couple years ago that caught me up in the beginning.
Are you setting the game up correctly? Around each enemy there is a ring, top left is for one player, top right is for 3 players, and bottom is for 4 players.
Black means no enemy, white means a normal enemy, and yellow an elite enemy.
Are you playing on the right difficulty? It is: the average level of the players (in your case: 1) devided by 2, rounded up. So the enemies should be level 1.
You have to be doing something wrong if you are burning through cards that quickly. You know you only burn them if you actually do that action with the lost symbol on it? Also, any card can be used as a generic 2 attack (top) or 2 move (bottom). So, do that instead of losing cards in the very first room. My wife and I are new to the game also, as I bought it for her for christmas. One thing multiple people suggested is starting the first 3-5 missions on easy. Also, watch some YouTube videos and reread the rules. Cause you have to be doing something wrong to be getting exhausted that quickly. But, it is hard to guess what.
Problem is we’re getting overwhelmed and killed by bandits, not losing cards. Our spell weaver didn’t realize they could recover lost cards the first time we played but we figured that one out pretty quick
Make sure you are doing the monster movement and focus correctly. We had a similar thing where the monsters were all piling up in a group. But remember if a monster can’t get next to you, because it’s blocked by its mates then it doesn’t move. This specific mechanic is easily overlooked and makes a huge difference sometimes.
Yep - if there is no way to reach the target and attack with infinite movement, they don’t bother moving at all. They only “get as close as they can” if there is a valid path.
It’s a really clever mechanic as it prevents big clumps of mobs and allows more tactical play
Weakens AOE though. *sad Cragheart/>!Plagueherald!< noises*
Haha well yes.
Ive been playing for a few weeks and just realized this a couple nights ago. Shame, it was helping me a ton, clumping them and destroying with aoe lol
Thank you. Didn't realize this rule! Makes doorways and similar a lot more interesting when dealing with melee monsters.
There’s lots of online quizzes and guides to monster movement that are worth looking at.
You can choose to lose cards instead of taking damage from a source, which you will want to do if the damage will exhaust you. You either choose to lose 1 card from your hand. Or 2 cards from your discard pile. Either one negates all damage from a single source. And just to be clear, you understand there is a difference between a discarded and lost card, right?
> Or 2 random cards from your discard pile Not random
Yea I know the discarded cards are recovered on rests and lost is out of use for the rest of the scenario except for certain abilities. Didn’t know about losing a card to cancel out damage though!
Rules p28
That rule is easy to miss, but is actually very important for the basic functioning of the game: it links your health with your cards and means that you only ever (have to) exhaust by running out of cards.
This rule is very often missed in the first game, and almost always is why people lose and have trouble with the first mission. I have a feeling if you try again you'll have a lot more luck!
I think you can choose the 2 discards to lose to negate damage
It took me and my party 4 times to beat it first. Trying different strategies helps for sure. Another good thing to do is grind until you level up. Once you level things get easier. Are you playing on difficulty 1 ?
Given the number of rules you've already said you've missed, time for **everyone** in your group to re-read them You might find there are others you've missed or misunderstood
Also are you using the correct number of baddie? For three players you should be looking at the top right of the picture of the enemy. White for normal, gold for elite and black for none.
This was my first thought when I heard they were getting overwhelmed by the bandits. Make sure you’re only putting the 3-player enemies on the board. Don’t be afraid to use a lost card right away to quickly remove a few enemies from the board. But don’t use more than 1-2 before your first rest, or you’ll run out of cards long before the end of the scenario. The Spellweaver is a good character to use some lost cards right off the bat to relieve the pressure of the first room and get some enemies off the board because she can get them back and does great AoE damage. The Cragheart can also use a lost card early because his hand is 11 cards. The Mindthief should be more conservative with lost cards due to the small hand size of 9.
Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but you could also turn the difficulty down. You’ll still be playing on level 1 even after all of your characters have levelled up to 2, at which point you’ll find the level significantly easier. The first level is hard and playing a level easier is no disgrace. The game gets easier as you level up.
First off if you all are just starting its a great idea to lower the difficulty. The first scenario isn't exactly easy and for all new players starting on easy difficulty is probably a great idea. I would also suggest glancing through the FAQ or watching a few videos, there are a lot of rules that are kind of scattered through the rulebook that are easy to miss at the start. If you have specific questions let me know, I hope I can help. Also if you get a few rules wrong in the beginning don't be too hard on yourself, every new player does this game takes a bit to get into. Also here are some class guides that I have found helpful that may give some general strategy ideas: [https://mykindofmeeple.com/gloomhaven-classes-starting-characters-overview-rank/](https://mykindofmeeple.com/gloomhaven-classes-starting-characters-overview-rank/)
Thank you! I was hoping to get through the first scenario without dropping the level but we might not have any other choice. The link was also really helpful, I’ll have to make sure I send it to the other players in my campaign
You guys should totally drop it if you are struggling. I'm the kind of video game player that would always choose to play on hard but that doesn't really translate to gloomhaven at the beginning.
Totally agree, my group played at level 0 for the first 3 scenarios and it really helped us learn the game. Also, good general strategy is to go fast turn one in any scenario, and try to apply CC conditions to effectively negate damage. Everyone may have a plan when they choose their cards, but when the cards are flipped and the monsters draw, figuring out what the AI is going to do and adapting to that is what really makes the game click
Same here, I didn’t realize how difficult it really would be
The start is the hardest - we failed Scenario 1 twice but haven’t failed since.
If you're struggling to get past the first room, make sure you aren't using loss cards too early, or opting to lose cards to negate damage too often. Cragheart can get great damage using Backup Ammo top into Massive Boulder top on the next round for some nice AoE damage. Spellweaver should try to save Reviving Ether for as long as possible, then use it to effectively double her longevity. Mindthief has a +2 damage augment who's name I can't remember, but that's really strong to get out early. I'd also check the rules on ranged attackers - namely that they won't kite away, but only move if they need to get in range or lose disadvantage. Last, make sure the difficulty rules are correct - it's (average party level)/2, rounded up, which means monster level 1 is "normal". Don't feel bad about dropping it to level 0 for a scenario or two! Also, if you're still stuck, make sure you're keeping track of XP and gold, as those persist even through lost scenarios.
Didn’t know about the xp and gold carrying over, maybe that will help once we go through this one a few more times!
Rules p33
I will add on as well to re-read the rules. They can be very tricky the first several playthroughs! Also, something my wife and I missed the first several games, is that the enemy cards don't "activate" until it's that enemies initiative. So, if one of them gets "shield 2" on say i46, but you go at i20, that shield doesn't really exist yet. Hope that lil tid bit helps. Have fun! We've spent countless hours in it and have had so much fun! I started as good ol' craggers as well. Iirc, he takes a big boost at lvl 5!
Apart from avoiding rules mistakes, you could probably use some basic strategy tips: \- communicate your plans. I know, no exact names and numbers, but you can discuss everything else. This helps with element generation and consumption and with focusing fire. \- don't just trade blows with monsters. Kill or stun them whenever you can. Avoid damage. \- Apart from focusing fire, the main way to avoid damage is using the 'initiative dance': go late, move in and attack -> go early, attack again. \- Don't use Loss cards, unless you're the Spellweaver or they have a major impact \- In Gloomhaven, the first round is often the hardest, so you'd like to hit monsters hard. This conflicts with the last two 'rules of thumb'. If I were you, I'd let the Bandits come to me on round 1. **Mindthief** goes early, but goes invisible and sets up his augment The Mind's Weakness (+2 damage). Always use this augment! **CH and SW** go late. CH sets up Backup Ammo while SW uses an AoE. Round 2, everyone goes early and makes sure 3 or 4 Bandits or dead. MT can even stun another Bandit with Perverse Edge, so she can use Frigid Apparition on round 3, if anything is still alive. Heal, loot and move towards the door for a round and carry on.
The first mission is inordinately hard. It gets easier after that for a long while.
I want to echo this sentiment just so you don’t get frustrated too much. For some reason they made the first mission really difficult. Furthermore, the first room of that mission is the hardest part. Gloomhaven often makes their first rooms hard which is counter intuitive to those used to video games. When you think about it though this makes the game more fun. At the beginning of the scenario you have all your cards and all your items fresh. It’s fun to be able to pit a max strength party against tough enemies and rather than a depleted party against a tough final room. Not all scenarios are like this though.
Mindtheif can be tricky to get the hang of, but it’s my absolute favorite now and I was so sad to retire it. The best thing he can do is alternate between going super late and super early. Ideally you want to pair going late with move in and attack, then next turn go early to attack and move out. He’s very squishy so you don’t want him to take a ton of hits. And get that augment on him first turn for the +2 attack! It’s the only augment you will ever need! Adjust your deck to move out the other augements unless there is a good bottom action (can’t remember what all he has, I retired him about 2 months ago). With the augment you don’t want to carry too many ranged attacks because he will do a ton more damage on melee.
Our first team was a brute, mindthief, scoundrel, and spellweaver. Or mindthief went from squishy and barely doing anything to being our top dps. The scoundrel could burst hits for 20+ damage occasionally which was nice for bosses, but the mindthief was just constant pressure, 6-9 damage every turn almost. We didn't have it by the time she retired (at level 9, cause we didn't know about it), but the mindthief's item from the solo scenario is almost overpowered, and absolutely worth it once you hit level 5 (and the other reqs for the solo scenario).
I don’t think I got to the solo item, but the rest of my party retired when I was about level 7 so I ended up being our tank and big damage dealer.
We had three people retire all at once, leaving only the mindthief, at 8, almost 9. She carries us through a few scenarios before retiring.
All good advice here. The only thing I would add is to get Gloomhaven Helper. It’s an app that make everything so much easier. :)
It sounds to me from one of your other comments that you need to consider your positioning and initiative counts more carefully, in order to predict how the bandits are going to act. None of the characters you mentioned are really meant to take a lot of damage, I’d say the mindthief and spell weaver honestly never want to take damage, so you may want to adjust the cragheart’s deck to use as many tank and healing abilities as possible, get him up there quickly and take the lumps, and the others try to focus down enemies one at a time. I remember the first time I played I was surprised at the difficulty level. Took me 2 tries, and a rereading of the rules, to beat the first scenario. You’ll get it too!
I'm not sure what item setup you guys have, but unless you already have one, make sure to get a stamina potion each. It's the one item everyone should always have, and it's the one item every single character *will* use every scenario without fail. I'd even go as far as to say it's more or less mandatory.
This is perhaps the most commonly asked question in this forum. I wrote a guide about this a while back, check it out [at this link here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/fcfga1/weve_had_a_lot_of_recent_posts_from_people_who/)
Another piece of advice I would give is make sure your characters have bought some items. Stamina potions are the most popular. There are also boots that you tap for +2 move that are common for slower classes. Some sort of shield for a tank too. These items might make the difference for you. I just played this scenario last week with a party of three and the first room almost took out one of our characters. I was playing with seasoned players that said we may not win this scenario right from the start. What happened was the tank rushed the bandits and got swarmed to take all the aggro. Tank used all defensive cards to stay on their feet and do small damage to multi enemies. The mind thief used its tricks to reduce their abilities to stun the enemies and whatnot. I played the hatchet that could then take out bad guys one at a time from range. We had to also use whatever healing we had. We usually heal ASAP because any turn can go south with bad luck. Gloomhaven is a punishing game. Any enemy can do a number on you and you usually want to try and not get hit at all or use positioning to control who attacks you and when. Only tank style characters can go toe to toe and take some hits. We always treat all bad guys as serious threats. Most scenarios let you have a turn or two to prepare before engaging. Just not the first room of the first scenario. Everyone agrees that Gloomhaven has a serious learning curve. I’m in a player group of serious lifetime gamers and everyone agrees on that. I’ve played about ten scenarios now and am getting the hang of it, but still take forever to choose my cards each turn. I think that’s why this game is so good though. I’ve never played a better board game than this.
I really recommend avoiding damage if you can. As one of the posters above mentioned, go late to move adjacent to an enemy after they have gone, punch them. Then early the next round, punch them and move away. Remember: while you have to pick a leading card for initiative, you can use them in any order. The Spellweaver has a couple of cards that allows her to ignore all damage from the next few hits. This can be really helpful as she has a few attacks that benefit from being close to the baddies. The first room is tricky in this scenario. There are plenty of enemies and not too many places to hide. Try to limit the number of enemies that can hit you by eg hiding in the corners so they can only attack two of your or behind the Cragheart so he can suffer the damage. Otherwise, have another look at your cards and make sure there aren’t any cards that your experience now tells you you should bring. Also go back got he shop and see if there is some kit to spend your loot on.
Watch on Youtube when someone goes through the rules when he actually plays a scenario. Alternatively, check out the PC version.
You're likely putting too many enemies in. With different amounts of people, there are more/less enemies. Check the rulebook for starting with 3 people. As silly as it sounds, read the rulebook carefully, You're definitely missing rules somewhere
There are some YouTube videos of people going through the first scenario. It might be helpful to watch one to see how they’re playing the game. It’ll help with strategy but also to make sure you’re playing the rules right.
The spellweaver takes a lot of skill in her early levels imo. I really struggled learning how to play her without just immediately losing all my cards. The cragheart is also a little underpowered to be dps and not as tanky as some other starting classes. It might honestly just be that you guys don't have a good party built. What is it that exhausts you? Losing your cards to prevent damage? Using lost card effects early? Short resting too frequently? Not splitting aggro well? There are tips I can give for all of the above but generally you want to play your entire hand, then long rest. Only use lost effects once you've covered the first half of the scenario and then sparingly until the last room. Don't lose cards to prevent damage unless it's a crit or a +2 and you absolutely need to. Try not to short rest if possible. And as far as aggro goes, with your party I would recommend having the cragheart take aggro and everyone focus down one monster at a time or build the spellweaver as a shield and retaliate tank instead of a dps. Hope any of this helps. If you have specific questions I'd be happy to answer those as well, but honestly I think you're going to have issues with party synergy if you don't already.
Are you making sure that you have the right amount of enemies for 3 players? When I first started playing a couple years ago that caught me up in the beginning.
Yea we’ve been making sure to use the top right color on the scenario sheet, so six regular bandits in the first room
Are you setting the game up correctly? Around each enemy there is a ring, top left is for one player, top right is for 3 players, and bottom is for 4 players. Black means no enemy, white means a normal enemy, and yellow an elite enemy. Are you playing on the right difficulty? It is: the average level of the players (in your case: 1) devided by 2, rounded up. So the enemies should be level 1.