Finally, finally, FINALLY! All the work Tom and I have been doing in printing and painting miniatures and dungeon parts paid off last night as we finally sat down to play the first two scenarios in Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.
Jaws of the Lion is an introductory campaign to the Gloomhaven universe, where you and up to three friends take on the roles of a renowned mercenary company, the “Jaws of the Lion”, who have taken a job to look for a missing blacksmith and stumble onto a body snatching plot leading to some evil end.
Although the new characters are compatible with the wider Gloomhaven universe and can be brought to other games with no issues, the Jaws of the Lion plot is centered around the titular mercenary company, and the scenarios are designed to make good use of the four characters’ abilities.
I was playing the Voidwarden. She can buff her party members and grant them extra attacks, but her best ability is forcing the enemies to fight each other. She coerced an elite vermling raider to turn around and absolutely crush one of its allies. Feels good.
The Demolitionist used the terrain and obstacles to fuel her greatest attacks. The Hatchet was a fast mover who could control several enemies at once with his throwing axes. And the Red Guard placed the enemies where he wanted them — typically, in a trap.
All Gloomhaven games come with miniatures to represent the characters, but the monsters are just standees. In Jaws of the Lion, the dungeon layouts are printed in scenario books, but we’d decided even before we bought the game that we were going to use 3D printing to transform the printed scenarios into something more tactile.
There were a couple of problems with this approach.
It takes a really long time to rearrange all the hexes between scenarios. It might have taken me fifteen minutes to set up the second scenario after we’d finished the first.
Second is that we couldn’t do a third scenario because I hadn’t finished printing it yet. The third scenario takes place on docks and on a ship, so I need to print wooden floor terrain tiles, and likely more of the bases. I also have a lot more miniature painting to do, and I need to figure out how to represent tar in tile form.
Third is that having to know each scenario in such detail to prepare means that the plot is thoroughly spoiled for me. In the base game, all you need to do to prepare the next scenario is… turn a page.
This will all be worth it when Frosthaven, the next complete Gloomhaven expansion, arrives late next year. Most of the prep work will be done, and I’ll be able to handle anything that they throw at us. Aside from the snow tiles.
Because it will take awhile to prepare for the next three scenarios, next time we meet, we will be playing Mahjong.
