Gloomhaven expansions11/30/2022 ![]() ![]() Gloomhaven isn't as bad since you are selecting actions simultaneously, but both are lower player count games in my opinion. The downtime goes up as you get more players involved. You don't need to replay anything as there are over 99 missions (and more online) and people and drop in and out at any time (although there is a story so people may not want to do this).Īs far as 5 players goes, I wouldn't want to play either of these with 5 players. You definitely don't need to destroy any cards you can just set them aside. Yes some cards may end up with stickers on them eventually (but you are talking after about 15+ hours of play one card may have one sticker on it. ![]() Gloomhaven isn't really that destructible. But that is for me, hard to know what you would like. But if I was forced to choose between Gloomhaven and Mage Knight I would drop Gloomhaven in a heartbeat. In many ways I prefer it as a solo experience controlling 2 to 3 characters where I can play at my leisure. The box is so big because, unlike other tactical games, all of the exansions are included.Īll that said Gloomhaven is a monumental achievement. At it's core, Gloomhaven is just a campaign driven tactical minis game with modular boards and standees instead of minis. I also find that massive box with Gloomhaven to be a bit of an embarrassment and really unwieldy. In these sorts of games, I personally prefer less detail and to let my imagination fill in the blanks, a la Mage Knight. This shows the limits of an indie designer who doesn't have a team of writers to flesh the world out and edit out the rough spots. The story writing is OK, but the race/character development is a bit on the twee side. Managing the shop if equipment items is unwieldy and tracking everything on the map board, character, and scenario sheets is a pretty clunky way to handle persitence. It sucks to have to retry scenarios when you fail. The campaign progression is slow and character development is very grindy. There isn't really a natural stopping point in scenarios of Gloomhaven like there is with the day night cycle of Mage Knight. When playing with others, I feel the pressure to finish up a scenario in one sitting, which can take two-three hours, in order to make progress on the campaign and level up etc. You really need a dedicated group for Gloomhaven to work well with 2 or more players. With Gloomhaven, there is a wide variety of scenarios but there isn't the sanbox of choice that you have in Mage Knight and I don't find the turn by turn decisions to be quite as compelling (although the card driven system is still good). We often play with 3 players and we generally play a scenario over multiple days, which gives the game a bit of a campaign feel. You have lots of ways to tackle a scenario and still succeed. Every game of Mage Knight feels unique, especially once you have Lost Legion, and the puzzle of each turn is super crunchy. The only situations where Mage Knight suffers in comparison are when you have a large group (less downtime in Gloomhaven) or want an evolving campaign. ![]() As you level up, you have more to choose from, but the number of "slots" doesn't go up. It's much more like playing a wizard in D&D - at the start of a session, you have to decide what abilities you're going to take in to the scenario. The deck building that exists in Gloomhaven isn't at all like Mage Knight. The game scales, gaining levels over your friends doesn't matter, and everything works out just fine. #GLOOMHAVEN EXPANSIONS PLUS#A huge plus is that having characters sit out for a session doesn't matter at all - you just play without them, like you would for a D&D game when someone couldn't come one week. GH works best with 4, but scales just fine from 2 and up. Personally, I wouldn't ever want to play MK with 5, that would just be hell for downtime. ![]() The decisions are very crunchy, like Mage Knight, but without quite so much AP as that game. Gloomhaven is, at it's heart, a co-op hand management game. The gameplay is only superficially like Mage Knight, in that you're playing with a hand of cards and working out what order to play them. The icon for "remove this card from the game" looks like a ripped card, but I just put them all in a separate bag. Additionally, you can buy 3rd party removable sticker packs. There's nothing preventing you from replaying, or even starting from scratch and just tracking unlocked scenarios with paper if you wanted. Mostly, the stickers go on the map, just to show which scenarios you've unlocked for play. My friends and I are up to about 60 hours played, and we haven't even retired a character yet. The non-replayability is overblown, for a couple of reasons: 1. I own Gloomhaven, and have played Mage Knight a couple of times. ![]()
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