Gloomhaven
Description
The cooperative dungeon crawler that redefined the genre! Gloomhaven is a dark fantasy Legacy experience that immerses you in a persistent world of tactical combat and decision-making. It's not just a game, it's an epic campaign with 95 scenarios, a world map that you unlock with stickers, and boxes of characters and secrets that open as you progress. The magic of Gloomhaven lies in its innovative card-based combat system. Each turn, you play two cards from your hand; Each card has a top action and a bottom action. You must use a superior action from one card and a inferior action from the other. This creates a constant and exhausting tactical puzzle: each action is powerful, but brings you closer to exhaustion (running out of cards), forcing you to burn valuable cards. It is brutal hand management. As your character fulfills his life's mission, he retires, and you open a new character box, introducing an entirely new class and reinforcing the feeling of a world in constant evolution. If you are looking for the maximum return on your investment in hours of gameplay, combat that requires you to plan your every move, and a cooperative campaign that permanently changes the game, Gloomhaven is a must-buy. Prepare your party of adventurers, wield your cards, and etch your name in the history of this dark world. The adventure awaits you!"
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How to play
Each scenario begins with the deployment of map tiles and monsters. In each round, players secretly select 2 action cards from their hand and choose which action (higher or lower) they will use from each. They also reveal an initiative card that determines the turn order. On the turn, the player resolves the 2 actions and then the monsters act according to their AI card. The key challenge is hand management: each turn, one of the two cards played must go to the discard pile; Resting allows you to recover the discard, but forces you to lose a card forever. When a player cannot play two cards or cannot rest, they are exhausted, resulting in the loss of the scenario for the entire party. The objective of each scenario is to complete the goal (e.g. defeat all the monsters, reach a point).
Why you might like it
If you're looking for deep cooperative gameplay, with a brilliant combat system and an ever-evolving campaign, Gloomhaven offers hundreds of hours of intense and memorable gameplay.
What to keep in mind
The setup time is high, the learning curve is demanding, and the exhaustion mechanic can be punishing, especially for less experienced players or casual groups.