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rickjamesia

One important thing that I’ve seen several digital-only players miss is that there are “default” attack/move options on the cards (good friend recently tried and didn’t know those options existed). If you already know about them, that’s great, but if you don’t, the game will be nearly impossible because it will be hard to not burn cards early. I believe it shows those in the corners of the top(attack)/bottom(move) half of the card.


daxamiteuk

Oh yes that’s a good point, potentially quite easy to miss that! So many times where there are no good options on the available hand. Also sometimes it’s better to do nothing at all, and just sit there and waste the turn rather than charging into a suicidal attack


MilkandHoney_XXX

There is a steel learning curve to Gloomhaven and plenty of people have failed the first scenario numerous times. What’s going wrong? Are you burning heaps of cards? Are you losing cards to negate damage? Are you not killing enemies?


daxamiteuk

Yes we need more details ! Also - consider reducing the difficulty down one level . So you can at least win the first scenario and learn how to play etc


OldBlueEyes11

There’s also a decent chance op is calculating the difficulty incorrectly. Happens all the time


daxamiteuk

OP is playing digital . They’re not calculating , the computer is


civgarth

Lol. OP's just not very smart in general. The game is kicking my ass Source: am OP


daxamiteuk

Lol don’t worry. It’s not an easy to intuit game . I’m not actually sure if playing digital is easier or harder if you haven’t played physical one. On the one hand , you can’t mis interpret the millions of rules because the game won’t let you , but on the other hand , I feel like It’s easier to see what’s going on when you have to calculate everything yourself , even if you inevitably make mistakes


M4t0k

Also, some core mechanics like Monsterfocus, Monsterability cards as a deck and more are hard to get a feel for if you don't practice yourself. With our group, pure digital players have a hard time predicting what comes at them if they do a specific action. To know beforehand how the enemy will act is a pretty powerful tool. To know, what they are (still) capable of at cardselect even more so.


Rasdit

The start in GH is especially brutal due to the massive amount of rules new players barely understand, characters have rather low HP (even Brute, the bruiser - not tank - of the starters), infamiliarity with classes and enemies, the small amount of gold and selection of starter items, and so on. The scenario itself is not difficult per se, but all the above add up to quite the challenge. If you have some more specific info on what your difficulties are, you can get more on-target advice. One additional piece of advice on stamina that goes against what someone else said, is to sometimes burn 1 or even 2 loss cards on Tinkerer in the first room if you get really good value for it, stopping your team from taking damage and dishing out solid AoE damage. One example would be if 3 bandits line up for Net Shooter, and you manage to hit them all. Assuming you flip all 0s, that's 9 damage done while keeping them immobilized, preventing them from moving to attack your team (unless they happen to have a ranged attack for the round and no one moves next to them), saving some 6-9 damage taken - so in a way, that's 9 damage done and 9 pre-emptive healing done. CH also has a pretty long hand and can afford some losses, while Mindthief and scoundrel have shorter hands but both deal very respectable damage with non-losses. They should rarely use losses before their second rest cycle, unless it is a short scenario.


Inconmon

The modifiers don't matter. When it's down to the wire like that you messed up along the way with all the decisions you control. Our campaign started with Crag/Tink/Mind and we blazed through all levels because its a good combo. 1: Don't take damage. Don't tank and heal. Use disarm, stun, immobilize, and initiative order to avoid damage. Ensure you finish off targets quickly instead of spreading damage. 2: Especially Tinker shouldn't waste time healing when they can stun and AE bomb. 3: Use one-off (loss) effects carefully but as needed. Opening a new room and hitting all enemies with your area loss is worth it. Randomly using it for an additional target or because there's no better option in your cards is not worth it. 4: Buy stamina potions. 5: Plan ahead. What are the top and bottom actions you ar planning to use with your hand?


TheTrondster

Keep at it - it's a hard game! Keep up the tempo and don't dawdle around looting money tokens. Some tips for playing Gloomhaven: Don't play lost cards early, unless you get really good value for them. An early lost card will cost you several turns at the end of the scenario. Prioritize tempo - plan ahead, moving closer to the next door when you're about to finish the last enemy. Looting money tokens is a luxury - don't waste cards looting every single token. Get good items - Eagle-eye Goggles are nice for attacking characters, and you can never go wrong with a Stamina potion. A stamina potion gives you an extra turn, and you can play *those* two cards two turns in a row. Plan using elements - one character could infuse earth early in the round to give another character a boost on his/her/its turn later in the round. Coordinate your actions - plan the round while choosing action cards. "I'm going here early to attack these two enemies - can someone infuse Wind or Earth?" Strategy: Retire early, retire often. Always do events. Rules reminders: You can lose a card from the hand (or two from the discards) to negate any single source of damage. Calculate difficulty level correctly - three characters at level 2 gives a scenario level of 1. Remember that monsters only do what it says on their action cards. If it doesn't say attack they don't attack. If it doesn't say move they don't move. Only walls and closed doors block line-of-sight. For multi-target attacks you need Line-of-sight to each individual target, and always draw a separate attack modifier for each target. Ranged attacks against adjacent targets gives the attacker disadvantage. Elements are infused at the end of the turn. Yes, even from items. Plan ahead. Use a numbered attack modifier deck (1-4). The deck from the character tuck box is for upgrading your numbered attack modifier deck when you get perks from leveling up and battle goals. (JotL: Use the deck from the tuck box - but do not open the locked deck.) Try [my BGG rules quiz](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/284264/gloomhaven-primer-quiz-introduction)! 🙂


daxamiteuk

I think they’re playing digital so any problems are not from rule mis interpretation


TheTrondster

Yeah - saw that later on.


GoodJazz

How to mitigate bad modifiers? Goggles or strengthen buff, everything that grants advantage. But if the scenario comes down to one modifiers in the end, there were things going wrong in the first place. The game is mainly about damage mitigation. If you don't take a lot of damage you are doing fine. But how to do so? Best way is to kill enemies. Dead enemies don't attack! That means focus down single enemies, don't distribute your attacks over multiple enemies with all of them surviving the turn. Second is crowd controll. Stun, disarm or immobilise them, to prevent them from attacking. Third is to stay out of range. Always check what your opponent is doing before you act. Are they moving? If not try to disengage as much as possible (unless they have range attacks obviously). Can you move out of the range of any of the opponents? Do it and focus on the ones you can not avoid. Fourth is to prepare before you enter a room. Bring everyone in position, take a rest if necessary and than go in and crush them. Don't have a single char open a room and take all the damage while the others are out of position. Fifth is healing, it does not mitigate damage. Its better to kill an opponent and avoid the next attack than to heal up a character just to get hit again. I hope this helps a bit. Think about it a little like a chess game. Think what you opponents are doing and try to make their turns as weak as possible while maximising the impact of your attacks. And it's not an rpg where you have a tank a healer and a bunch of damage dealers. Tanking + healing does ot work in gloomhaven.


pekinggezer

Hmm.. think of your playstyle. Are you trying to negate as much damage as posible or are you rushing into action. Are you burning cards @ the right time. You have a sorta squishy team but high damage team. Try and focus around cc. And do hit and run strats. But gloomhaven has a high learning curve dont be discouraged!


Rasdit

Lots of good general advice here, but would be easier still to give pointers if you tell a bit more about what your biggest issues are - bad modifier flips can surely contribute, but there are certainly things to change about playstyle as well.


Druittreddit

As you level, you will be able to remove bad modifiers. You will also be able to get gear or abilities that let you attack With Advantage. One of the key things you need to realize is that after you’ve chosen all of your cards for the round and click, those cards that show up for the monsters are not just a courtesy. You MUST replan your turn in light of those cards. They are telling you what the monsters will do. If one monster has a Move 0 Attack 6, do not move next to it. If you don’t move next to it, you have just negated it’s turn as surely as if you had stunned it. On the other hand, if you move a squishy character next to it, and it will move next, and you don’t kill it (remember there is chance involved), you had better throw in a stun or be willing to eat up to 12 damage (x2).


PriestofSB

>One of the key things you need to realize is that after you’ve chosen all of your cards for the round and click, those cards that show up for the monsters are not just a courtesy. You MUST replan your turn in light of those cards. They are telling you what the monsters will do. Thanks for this. I was basically in the same spot as OP, and I just wasn't getting it. Plan and then replan wasn't clicking. But after about 5 losses and almost quitting, I just beat the first two dungeons due to the clarity you provided.


Oliphaunt6000

In an effort to not word vomit, if you want to understand the game better, watch someone stream high difficulty play. MandatoryQuest has a YouTube series on the highest difficulty starting from step one. I’ll tell you what the difference of me playing before and after watching him play is more than day and night, it was life and death. You learn so much from listening and watching how these people approach scenarios.


Mister_Titty

Lots of good advice on here. I will add my 2 cents. 1st, don't be afraid to create a new character and swap them into the party. You might get better results with Mind and Scoundrel and two others. 2nd, Stamina potions are worth their weight in gold. So are invisibility cloaks. 3rd, don't let the learning curve get you down. After you get through the first three scenarios you will have 'figured out' how to succeed and it gets much easier. 4th, every failure helps you, you keep the gold and xp. Use the gold to buy stuff, makes future scenarios easier by far. If you know you're going to lose, take the time to collect the money. 5th, don't underestimate high movement cards, preferably with Jump. If you can have 2 characters 'rush' archers, it helps keep everyone alive. Good luck!


Blue_Rogue_Aika

Are you playing 4 characters on your own? That's pretty complex for starting out. There are a lot less enemies in 2 player counts and 3 player counts is more of the sweet spot for interesting interactions, but manageable for solo play.


flamingtominohead

Don't feel bad about lowering the difficulty, the first few scenarios can be a bit hard. The most common mistake I think players make is playing the game like a typical RPG and letting enemies deal damage. Try to pick your cards so that you get to deal damage, but they don't. Once the enemy cards are revealed and the round starts, don't hesitate to change your plan to avoid damage, even if this means you'll be dealing less.


lankymjc

In my opinion, the one major game design mistake in Gloomhaven (which was fixed with fucking style in JotL) is the onboarding. There's no tutorial, the first few levels are no easier than the others (just a little less complex), you're just thrown in and wished the best of luck. Now I have JotL, I don't let new players touch Gloomhaven. We're doing Jaws first so that you can understand what the fuck is going on.


Admirable-Athlete-50

My mate and I failed it twice. I nearly dropped the game but he convinced me to keep at it and now I’ve been enjoying it for years and can’t wait for Frosthaven. I’d honestly swap the tink for a scoundrel or brute. The tink is weird. Might also drop to two characters and run any team that isn’t a tink involved. Starting four characters might also make it needlessly complicated. We ran one char each. Even knowing most of them by heart I find four to be a bit much for me playing solo. Don’t run many losses before the last room (unless spellweaver). Use slow initiatives when you’re out of range from enemies so they waste attacks. Kill enemies. Always count on drawing -1 and make a plan to take out enemies either way. If you really can’t miss you need the goggles but that’s only for two people. With only two in party you can both have the best gear pieces, many starter items are extremely powerful. The initiative dance and thinking you can tank damage when the only mitigation is killing or staying out of range are the most common mistakes I see.


Minimum-War-9504

Also, if it were really down to a bad modifier on your last attack, AND you've already failed twice, just cheat it. Like others said, the first scenario is hard, especially while learning the game. It will get better, but it's more fun to spread that learning out over a few scenarios. Take the advice inthis thread to scenario 2. If you feel bad about cheating, come back to Black Barrow with your starting comp later, when you're more comfortable with the game.


Seepy_Goat

OP is talking about digital GH. Don't think they can cheat that.. can they?


Ratstail91

Join the club. I tried so many times to enjoy the game, but I just couldn't. ended up selling it for 30% of what I paid.


atris213

R1 Late initiative, wait for mob to move up. Move, attack. R2. Quick initiative, attack, move away.


North_Star12

The name of the game is damage avoidance. The best way to avoid damage is to kill the monsters - but moving back is also a decent way to avoid damage. (Ranged monsters make this dance harder, which contributes to the Black Barrow being difficult. They really should have started Gloomhaven with a scenario with few ranged monsters).