Gloomhaven, Award-Winning Strategy Board Game, For 1 to 4 Players, 60 to 120 Minute Play Time, For Ages 14 and up

I was super hesitant to pull the trigger on Gloomhaven and boy am I glad I did. The TL;DR is this is an absolutely fantastic game and well worth the money. While it's a tough sell given the high price tag, think of it more like getting a base game plus 10 DLC with it. The developer could easily have made the base game and sold 80% of the content in here as add-ons later, but as is you're getting easily 100+ hours of fantastic gameplay.I won't go deep on the game 101, but generally this is a persistent RPG deck-builder + tactical grid combat system. Your character persists between sessions and grows as you complete more of the story throughout the campaign. It's akin to any RPG video game. The only difference between this and something like X-Com or FF Tactics, is you control a single player rather than a team or squad as you make your way through "dungeons".There's also loads of customization options for your character. Between card choice in your deck, unlock-able/findable/purchasable items and equipment, and level up choices, there's plenty to custom tailor your play. It balances player agency and style with character mechanics very well requiring you to adjust to new situations/deck choices without sacrificing your play style.The combat mechanics themselves are balanced between RNG and strategy, but even the probability of what attack modifier card you'll pick next plays into the strategy. I never felt completely betrayed or out of control with the randomness of events. My fate still felt firmly in my own hands and my demise was solely attributable to my own poor decisions.The only real flaw of the game is the shear number of pieces that come with it. While it's overly impressive how many cutouts and tokens and map tiles and whatnot come with the game, there's a real need for organized piece storage (hence why you see so many $80+ organizers out there). For those that don't want to spend that kind of scratch on something to hold pieces, I'd recommend doing what I did and using the foam packaging materials to make makeshift piece holders. It takes a bit of time, but it's easy and cheap to use a box cutter to make your own holder. Granted not everything will fit back in the box when you're done, but it'll make gameplay muchhhhh more enjoyable if you can find things easily.The only other suggestion I have is to use a companion app for battle tracking. There are fantastic ones out there (a simple Gloomhaven search will bring them up in the App Store if you're an iOS user). Dealing with multiple monster cards plus all the things you have to track between rounds would be a herculean administration task if you're using the included pieces. If you really want the full on analog experience and don't mind it, by all means, but for me the free app is a necessity to keep the game loops at a comfortable pace without sacrificing the core analog experience.If you have a friend or two that also enjoys longer campaigns and weekly sessions (think D&D or MTG), you won't be disappointed with Gloomhaven. Solo play is also great if you don't know any other cool kids that want to reserve 2-3 hours a week for game night. Guessing if you're looking at this page and reading the reviews, you should probably just pull the trigger and purchase it. No regrets.

My family just recieved the game (2nd printing) last week, and we are instant fans. At first opening, it seemed overwhelming as there are so many components. It did cause me to purchase a 2nd party organizer to help keep everything seperate, as well as cut down on scenario set up and tear down time, but wasn't necessary, just a personal preferance.My family is a huge fans of cooperative games (Descent - with the available app, Marvels Legendary, Dead of Winter... to name a few), but this took it to a whole new level. While the game can be played solo (you playing two different characters) there is an extra challenge of not fully knowing what the other player is going do on their turn. You play as mercernaries instead of Hero's, so you have personal goals to achieve as well as scenerio goals (like Dead of Winter but without the traitor). It took my son and I a second try to complete the opening scenario as we wasted some turns picking up dropped loot. Who wouldn't pick up that dollar left on the floor? The game mechanics provide your character a supply of "stamina" through the use of playable cards. Run out of cards to play, and you become exhausted and can't continue.The art and game mechanics are outstanding. I love how additional features are "unlocked" (sealed envelopes and boxes) upon completing specific goals. The additional characters that are unlocked are unique and require different play styles. The new health and experience trackers are a great addition to the 2nd edition game. One of the things that really stand out, is not requiring the same players for every scenario. If you normally have 3 players, but one is unavailable for the next round (lets say, going off to college), the next scenario difficulty can be easily adjusted to allow you to play with two or four players. Please note, there are 90+ scenarios, and if you didn't want to complete a campaign scenario, there is a random scenario generator that can allow your character to earn additional experience or money, and you can always jump back into the campaign at any time.Lastly, I ended up purchasing the removable sticker set to add more replayability. We have only played a few of the early scenarios, but we are every bit as excited to play as we were when we first opened the box. This game is a very worthwhile investment and easily my families new favorite game.