Gloomhaven - Die Pranken des Löwen

Nice roar from a lion!

Gloomhaven, the cround funding game from 2017, is currently named best boardgame on boardgamegeek.com. Among experts and boardgame fans, the game hit like an asteroid and has enchanted a great number of players. Access to the original game, however, was rather difficult, and the components were strongly exuberant, so that Gloomhaven had no allure for casual gamers. Gloomhaven - Die Pranken des Löwen / Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion is a sequel game that tries to address that problem.

Tired and weary, the four mercenaries shuffle towards Gloomhaven. They have neither found the blacksmith nor one of the other missing people. It was not easy to give those bad news to the people in town. Only across that hilltop and they would be home, were it not for those Rat Men who positioned themselves on the path to town. Those highwaymen must be taken care of first ...

Gloomhaven – Die Pranken des Löwen is a fantasy adventure game that tells a story in several scenarios, 25, to be exact. The first five scenarios are used to introduce players to all the rules slowly. This format has been used to explain the many options offered over a longer period.

Scenarios are constructed in dungeon-crawler mode- Each player takes on a character that acts on the map of hexagon slots. The selected character stays the same for each player during the whole campaign. During the campaign, characters become stronger and their abilities improve. Opponents are drawn automatically. The rules for that are very sophisticated overal and should be always kept in mind during the game, as tasks become more and more challenging in later scenarios.

But let’s start at the beginning: The four characters available for selection are Sprengmeisterin / dynamitress, Rotgardist / Red Guardsman, Axtwerfer / Axe Thrower and Leerehüterin / Guardian of the Void. Each of those four heroes has certain abilities - the dynamitress is good in close combat and essential to remove obstacles. The Axe Thrower is, as indicated by his name, a good long-range fighter. The respective differences result from the individual decks of ability cards, which can be replaced only by suitable cards.

Ability cards show three sections. There is a value for initiative and an upper and lower action; upper action often is an attack, lower action often a movement action. At the start of a round, all play two ability cards face down and then all cards are revealed simultaneously. Furthermore, one action card is revealed for each open monster in play. Those cards also show an initiative and name the action of the monster in its turn. Initiatives determine sequence of play for the current turn.

The active player may implement one of the upper and one of the lower actions, whereby both cards must be used. When it is the monsters‘ turn, they resolve their actions. Those actions follow a rather simple but  quite logic principle so there is no need for a special game master for them. Actions of players and of monsters can differ widely. There is movement and attack, and also healing or collecting wealth, to relocate monsters or to destroy barriers.

The Combat system is also quite interesting: Each attack causes a basic damage which then is modified by a card randomly drawn from your own attack deck. At the start, all those decks are identical; however, due to experience won in the various scenarios you can improve not only ability cards, but also especially this attack deck.

Besides those basic rules there is also magic that needs to be activated, and items that you can acquire between scenarios and also combat goals that can bring experience. The really challenge, however, comes from cards that were played going out of play and thus reducing your selection of actions during the game. Therefore, planning and coordination with other players are a deciding factor. The rules allow this, albeit without communication exact values, a bit of role play, so to say. Remarkable: The designers have even included an option to raise or lower the level of difficulty, as each monster is available in eight levels.

Gloomhaven – Die Pranken des Löwen / Jaws of the Lion will surely be well received by the community of experienced players. Those of them that have played their way across Gloomhaven will look forward to scenarios; others that were deterredby the dimension of the predecessor will see Die Pranken des Löwen / Jaws of the Lion as a good intro. I am enchanted by the access to the game as it also allows inexperienced players to access the game easily and well, but I dare to doubt all the same that the targeted group of families or casual players. will be attracted. The overall setting is simply too nerdy for that.

I do not want to go too much into the mechanics, because they have, in reality, been taken 1:1 from Gloomhaven, which is a good thing as the combat mechanisms have been excellently balanced there. It might be that some people will experience the rules as too complex which results less from the mechanics but more from the tactical options of each individual character.

So, it remains to give a recommendation for the game!

Thomas Bareder

Players: 1-4

Age: 14+

Time: 30-120

Designer: Isaac Childes

Artist: Alexandr Elichev, David Demarat, Josh McDowell

Publisher: Feuerland Spiele

Web: www.feuerland-spiele.de

Genre: Fantasy, adventure, scenarios, campaign

Users: With friends

Special: 1 player

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr

In-game text: ja

My rating: 7

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 1

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0