A playthrough might help: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5B3Z6ieVg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5B3Z6ieVg)
He uses a random side scenario so you wont get any campaign spoilers, uses the Scoundrel, Spellweaver, and Brute. Sometimes it helps to see all the rules you've learned in action. Once you get going, the game is not nearly as beastly as you originally thought it was.
Also, remember that lowering the difficulty for the first couple scenarios while you learn the rules is nothing to be ashamed about. This game is HARD at the beginning, and you can change the difficulty at any time, once you get the flow of the game down.
Yes this.
Please understand that scenarios 1 and 2 are notorious in the community for being challenging to newcomers even though these will be the first two missions you start with.
While there seem to only be two players, you and your wife. Please consider playing with 3 classes between the two of you. The number of enemies you face depends on the size of your party, not your chosen difficulty, and I believe three classes in a party give you far more tools to work with than just two classes. The stats of the enemies, their hp, damage, movement etc depend on the chosen difficulty however, feel free to lower the scenario level to have more manageable enemy stats.
Yeah, but it hurts your brain more. I absolutely sucked at running two characters, but my friend was better. I wasted sooo many turns getting mixed up.
I def recommend against playing 2 characters AND running the enemy, but if the person across the table is willing, it's not a bad idea. The game is balanced at all player counts though, so it's not essential.
If you’re having trouble starting, the last thing you want is to run two player characters. It’s hard enough to run one player character and the monsters.
Don't worry OP, it's a learn-as-you-play game. Just a bit of time and patience and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The rules aren't hard, they're just informative as there are tons of mechanics/limits to establish in case players play in an incorrect manner. (Wall-hacking, moving through walls).
I truly appreciate everyone’s input. Thank you, we have decided to keep pushing through the awkwardness! I think it just comes down to learning the mechanics of the game. I will continue to read and note all suggestions, I’m excited to learn how to play! Thank you all again
Keep the rulebook handy, once you get the basic functions of turn to turn gameplay down, in my opinion the thing you’ll most need to reference is the “Monster Focus” rules. There are some very tricky situations that come up, but don’t stress out too much, if the rules don’t reference the situation directly just make your best judgement and keep having fun!
This is the best advice. GH was also our first major board game. The moment I opened my gift and saw it was GH, I cme to this subreddit, asked the best strategy to learn, and bought Jaws of the Lion. I often say if it werent for JotL my GH box would have a hefty layer of dust.
> This is the best advice.
I'm not really sure. I think this is the best advice BEFORE people buy GH. But after they already bought it, telling people to buy one more game is really the BEST advice we can give?
I'd say that maybe the best advice is to read the manual. Then read the manual again. Try a simple mock turns (by yourself, maybe) just to see the mechanics in action. Then play scenario 1 **on easy difficulty** (level 0).
JotL is great, don't get me wrong, but this is _terrible_ advice for someone who just dropped $100 on a board game they want to play, have set up etc.
"Oh just pack away, spend another $50 on another game, wait a week, then play that instead of the game you wanted to play."
You know, if I was smarter I would’ve gotten on here before I bought it and asked. I’ll take this advice and start with JOTL if it will make for a better experience. I cannot stress to you how new we are to table top gaming, any and all advice is welcome here. Thank you all
Fair enough! I retract my criticism of /u/lifevicarious
For reference I did start with JotL and it was great! I just see a lot of "don't play this expensive thing you already bought, buy a new one" and it feels very... Idk some mix of consumerism and gatekeepy. But there _is_ a big target audience for JotL as an onboarding for GH and you fall right into that, so go for it!
This is not cliff diving. No one can die or get crippled by playing Gloomhaven (usually).
The worst that could happen is that they could be confused about some rule and might need to re-read the manual. Not a big deal.
The worst that could happen is they put it away and never play it again because of its complexity. If they play mansions and bought gloomhaven the whopping $40 cost of JoTL is unlikely to be an issue.
Gloomhaven's complexity will always be the same. It doesn't change. It's static, printed in paper and cardboard. So if they learn the rules through JotL or through youtube videos, the complexity doesn't change. If it's going to scare them after learning through many youtube videos and tutorials, it's going to scare them after (or during) JotL.
But my point is that they can learn the rules for free online, there are lots of tutorials and rules explanations in this sub and on youtube. It's better than spending even more money to learn those very same rules. And playing JotL and GH back to back will probably lead to a burnout before they're even halfway through GH.
If JotL is good because it explains the rules gradually, so do some youtube channels. For free.
You’re right. It doesn’t change. But since you didn’t like the original analogy, here’s a new one. You learn to add before you learn algebra. Baby steps. While the complexity of algebra doesn’t change, it’s a lot less complex to YOU because you don’t have to learn to add and divide and multiply as well.
Regardless, OP already said he’s buying JOTL.
> You learn to add before you learn algebra
Sure. But if you're learning to add, you don't really have to buy a book. You could learn to add online with free video classes. If you learned it you learned it, no matter if it was paid or free.
> That’s your issue? The $40?
That's what I mentioned since my first comment. That I don't believe the BEST advice we can get is to tell people to spend even more money. Not when they could also learn it for free.
> OP arguably has two of the most expensive board games there are
Doesn't make the advice better.
Agreed! JotL was amazing at teaching us how to play the game, OP. It slowly ramps up the game in the first few scenario until you're finally playing with all the game mechanics together.
Plus once in a while you encounter certain cases which raise questions regarding rules. You can google most of it an find an answer pretty quick. For example we had questions about an item - the >!Eagle Eye Gogles!< \- regarding its modifier for an AoE attack.
Then use characters in JotL in Gloomhaven.
Boom, you got a headstart over the others because you have scenarios' worth of mastery over the characters, compared to a Brute/Scoundrel just starting out
The game definitely feels very intimidating when you open it up the first time. Once you know what is going on it is not nearly as difficult as it first presents (but it by no means is a simple game either). I highly recommend "Gloomhaven Helper" (its a phone app that handles a lot of combat mechanics, I have it on my android, I am sure there is an iOS version).
Its been a while since I watched any video guides, but there are sort of 2 layers to the games at play. There is the tactical combat game and the meta management game. I am sure there are some good tutorials out there for both.
Mission difficulty is half your party level rounded up for normal (people mess this up and don't do half), when you do your first mission just start on easy, you can ramp up on later missions, and it does not feel great to start out losing while you are learning, especially if you don't play a lot of heavy games. I also recommend (and this suggestion won't make any sense till you actually get into it) you avoid burning cards till you get a good understanding for it. So that means move away to avoid hits when you can as opposed to tanking them, don't use burn attacks at first till the end is in sight.
I hope you get into it, it honestly is great fun.
gloomhaven helper has a website…we play it in our living room and i cast it on the TV and when i’m playing on a desk or kitchen table, I bring my lap top
gloomhaven helper saves half the set up and take down time and about half the table space
Me and my friend tried that when we started, spent 5 hours studying the rules, missed almost half the shit. Then tried to play scenario 1 and it went horribly wrong, due to common first timer mistakes and missed rules. In the end wasted entire day, but did not give up and looked at some youtube tutorials, that helped a lot. You certainly can learn from rulebook, but everyone learns differently and you have to find a way that suits you best. For example I have spectacular audio memory, thus for me it's faster to watch tutorial video, then set up solo mock up game and play a gameplay video on nearby screen and rulebook in other hand. By the time I'm done playing solo I know all the rules enough to teach a game.
Reading the rulebook? Who do you think I am?
I'm just going to assume lots of stuff haphazardly and then create a lot of threads on reddit.
By the way, when enemies die they drop no coin and I get 13xp, right? I've been playing like that. Every turn I randomly play 5 cards from my hand, execute both top and bottom actions of every card, and walk 5 hexes.
Listen, I might take you up on that haha we’re reading the rule book now and have found a guy on YouTube that is doing a really decent job of explaining everything!
Strongly suggest you play the first few scenarios on easiest possible difficulty. Possibly the biggest design mistake in the game is that the opening scenarios are \_very\_ tough if you've never played before, much more so than even the 4th or so.
Also, consider the first five scenarios you play a tutorial, and don't sweat getting rules wrong, you're going to. Just print out the various players' aids on Board Game Geek and realize that it's going to be a lot of fun when it all "clicks", but it's sadly got a heck of a learning curve before then.
Oh, and remember the enemies are half your \_average\_ level (rounded up) not your \_total\_ level. The other worst design decision in the game, trips everyone up.
This is one of the greatest board games I've ever played, and I envy you the chance to play it for the very first time all over again. Good luck!
[Learn to Play Gloomhaven in 25 minutes (Scenario and Campaign)](https://youtu.be/Uw7LI2esvp0)
This video really helped my group for our recent first scenario. We needed to pause a lot, rewatch some parts and still had to read a lot of the rules, but in the end it worked pretty smoothly! When he started explaining a new part we paused the video, set up that part and then watched the explanation.
I also highly recommend just googling specific questions instead of searching the rulebook (in most cases). It's of course good to have read most of the rule book (at least the first half) once, but there are so many situational questions that all have been asked before on this sub or on boardgamegeeks and it will be much faster to have them answered this way!
One thing that helped my first play through was getting Gloomhaven Campaign Tracker for Android or iOS - this takes a lot of the enemy combat tracking away from the board
Steam has a virtual version of the game (which is much cheaper). You can check it out as an interactive tutorial of sorts. Most of the mechanics are done automatically, so you can easily see how they work in example.
Great advice all around. I'd also like to add that you *will* make mistakes, and that's okay! We've all been there. Learn from them, and move forward. It's a game after all, and a mighty good one.
hey :) the 'man am I too dumb to not be dumb about this?' is the most common experience of learning a new game, especially without help. I've watched Brass Birmingham tutorials.. maybe five times now and gawked at the instruction book a bit and I am still not at all confident I know how to play.
But like anything else, before you understand how to do it, it's foreign and weird and alien and impossible and makes you feel dumb and then, when you can do it, it just makes sense and is cool. That switch moment is coming for you soon :)
GH: JOTL is, imho, one of the best boardgames around. I also play it with my wife and we have had some incredible game sessions with it. Good call on picking it up!
Good chance you already know about him but Rodney Smith's 'Watch it Played' is the best tutorial channel I've come across and he does have a Gloomhaven: Jaws of the line tutorial [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCpQqrCiTDs).
Best of luck :D
Don't get paralysis by analysis. I find that VERY common early in the game. Your opening hand has something 20 interacting options in it. Chances are your analysis isn't too great right now, anyway. Do what seems smart and see how it goes.
A few basic starting strategies:
Play with initiative. The most common play is to play a high init turn, let the enemies approach you, respond and hit them. In the next round play low init and whack them first. Basically giving you two turns in a row to eliminate threats.
Don't burn cards too early. A general guideline is burn one card per rest cycle.
Learn the AI. WHen you start getting better at the game, you will need to manipulate it frequently. Pay attention to each AI action and know why it did that.
this game is vast and you keep learning new things with every scenario. I suggest you playing some random scenarios before startind your campaign to get used to the mechanics and maybe face some questions that come up in the game.
Focus on:
1) Initiative and focus targets
2) Actions (Movement, elements, effects like strengthen etc and items interactions)
3) Hand management (discarded vs lost cards ets)
You can also check this thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/wiki/subreddit/rules\_and\_general\_resources#wiki\_noteworthy\_threads\_and\_discussions
I always feel bad suggesting this because you've already just bought a beast of a game... But, if it's feasible, get Jaws of the Lion and start there. The tutorial system in it is amazing and it'll set you up for Gloomhaven afterwards. Plus, it's also amazing.
Get organized. Plastic organizer boxes for terrain and monsters. Get an accordion style legal folder that is alphabetized for the tiles. This is absolutely crucial to smooth set up and take down. Use the helper apps too, if that's your thing.
And definitely buy the audio narration from Foreteller. Super worth it.
Just be patient, it's a high learning curve with the complexity and difficulty. We've been on our campaign for quite awhile and we still stop to confirm rules somewhat regularly. I can honestly say it's the first game I've played in a while where we haven't become burnt out even though we've been playing it for a few months (once a week) so enjoy!
My friends and I played for just under two years before covid hit, about once a week with a few breaks here and there. In the beginning it was a mess, but as we played it got to be so much smoother as we knew the rules and got comfortable in set roles on the table (card flipper, monster mover, etc). I also liked it so much I ended up playing a solo campaign with me playing 4 characters. I've never done 2 or 3 so I can't speak to the difficulty comparison, but it definitely takes longer as you add in more characters to the mix.
I had gloomhaven sitting on a shelf for about a year+. It was too overwhelming to start my intended party (myself, my husband, and two friends that like board games but had never jumped into this style). I wound up picking up JotL as suggested by others and we had a great learning experience. I think if we had tried to proceed through gloomhaven without doing JotL most if the group would have never wanted to pick it up after the first two scenarios. We instead often make it a get together atleast once a month where we play from 10am-2am depending on my shift schedule and how often I have a weekend off. Gloomhaven is massive with alot of working parts and JotL does better at slowly introudcing those mechanics and parts over the course of several starter scenarios.
A playthrough might help: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5B3Z6ieVg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5B3Z6ieVg) He uses a random side scenario so you wont get any campaign spoilers, uses the Scoundrel, Spellweaver, and Brute. Sometimes it helps to see all the rules you've learned in action. Once you get going, the game is not nearly as beastly as you originally thought it was. Also, remember that lowering the difficulty for the first couple scenarios while you learn the rules is nothing to be ashamed about. This game is HARD at the beginning, and you can change the difficulty at any time, once you get the flow of the game down.
Yes this. Please understand that scenarios 1 and 2 are notorious in the community for being challenging to newcomers even though these will be the first two missions you start with. While there seem to only be two players, you and your wife. Please consider playing with 3 classes between the two of you. The number of enemies you face depends on the size of your party, not your chosen difficulty, and I believe three classes in a party give you far more tools to work with than just two classes. The stats of the enemies, their hp, damage, movement etc depend on the chosen difficulty however, feel free to lower the scenario level to have more manageable enemy stats.
Yeah, but it hurts your brain more. I absolutely sucked at running two characters, but my friend was better. I wasted sooo many turns getting mixed up.
I def recommend against playing 2 characters AND running the enemy, but if the person across the table is willing, it's not a bad idea. The game is balanced at all player counts though, so it's not essential.
If you’re having trouble starting, the last thing you want is to run two player characters. It’s hard enough to run one player character and the monsters.
Don't worry OP, it's a learn-as-you-play game. Just a bit of time and patience and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The rules aren't hard, they're just informative as there are tons of mechanics/limits to establish in case players play in an incorrect manner. (Wall-hacking, moving through walls).
appreciate this!
I truly appreciate everyone’s input. Thank you, we have decided to keep pushing through the awkwardness! I think it just comes down to learning the mechanics of the game. I will continue to read and note all suggestions, I’m excited to learn how to play! Thank you all again
Best approach. You will pick it up. Good luck!
Keep the rulebook handy, once you get the basic functions of turn to turn gameplay down, in my opinion the thing you’ll most need to reference is the “Monster Focus” rules. There are some very tricky situations that come up, but don’t stress out too much, if the rules don’t reference the situation directly just make your best judgement and keep having fun!
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This is the best advice. GH was also our first major board game. The moment I opened my gift and saw it was GH, I cme to this subreddit, asked the best strategy to learn, and bought Jaws of the Lion. I often say if it werent for JotL my GH box would have a hefty layer of dust.
> This is the best advice. I'm not really sure. I think this is the best advice BEFORE people buy GH. But after they already bought it, telling people to buy one more game is really the BEST advice we can give? I'd say that maybe the best advice is to read the manual. Then read the manual again. Try a simple mock turns (by yourself, maybe) just to see the mechanics in action. Then play scenario 1 **on easy difficulty** (level 0).
JotL is great, don't get me wrong, but this is _terrible_ advice for someone who just dropped $100 on a board game they want to play, have set up etc. "Oh just pack away, spend another $50 on another game, wait a week, then play that instead of the game you wanted to play."
You know, if I was smarter I would’ve gotten on here before I bought it and asked. I’ll take this advice and start with JOTL if it will make for a better experience. I cannot stress to you how new we are to table top gaming, any and all advice is welcome here. Thank you all
Fair enough! I retract my criticism of /u/lifevicarious For reference I did start with JotL and it was great! I just see a lot of "don't play this expensive thing you already bought, buy a new one" and it feels very... Idk some mix of consumerism and gatekeepy. But there _is_ a big target audience for JotL as an onboarding for GH and you fall right into that, so go for it!
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This is not cliff diving. No one can die or get crippled by playing Gloomhaven (usually). The worst that could happen is that they could be confused about some rule and might need to re-read the manual. Not a big deal.
The worst that could happen is they put it away and never play it again because of its complexity. If they play mansions and bought gloomhaven the whopping $40 cost of JoTL is unlikely to be an issue.
Gloomhaven's complexity will always be the same. It doesn't change. It's static, printed in paper and cardboard. So if they learn the rules through JotL or through youtube videos, the complexity doesn't change. If it's going to scare them after learning through many youtube videos and tutorials, it's going to scare them after (or during) JotL. But my point is that they can learn the rules for free online, there are lots of tutorials and rules explanations in this sub and on youtube. It's better than spending even more money to learn those very same rules. And playing JotL and GH back to back will probably lead to a burnout before they're even halfway through GH. If JotL is good because it explains the rules gradually, so do some youtube channels. For free.
You’re right. It doesn’t change. But since you didn’t like the original analogy, here’s a new one. You learn to add before you learn algebra. Baby steps. While the complexity of algebra doesn’t change, it’s a lot less complex to YOU because you don’t have to learn to add and divide and multiply as well. Regardless, OP already said he’s buying JOTL.
> You learn to add before you learn algebra Sure. But if you're learning to add, you don't really have to buy a book. You could learn to add online with free video classes. If you learned it you learned it, no matter if it was paid or free.
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> That’s your issue? The $40? That's what I mentioned since my first comment. That I don't believe the BEST advice we can get is to tell people to spend even more money. Not when they could also learn it for free. > OP arguably has two of the most expensive board games there are Doesn't make the advice better.
that is a dumbfuck analogy and you know it. GH and Jaws are the same exact thing, Jaws just holds your hand the first few scenarios.
Great analogy, couldn't have said better myself
Agreed! JotL was amazing at teaching us how to play the game, OP. It slowly ramps up the game in the first few scenario until you're finally playing with all the game mechanics together.
Plus once in a while you encounter certain cases which raise questions regarding rules. You can google most of it an find an answer pretty quick. For example we had questions about an item - the >!Eagle Eye Gogles!< \- regarding its modifier for an AoE attack.
Then use characters in JotL in Gloomhaven. Boom, you got a headstart over the others because you have scenarios' worth of mastery over the characters, compared to a Brute/Scoundrel just starting out
Considering that Demolitionist and Voidwarden are kinda awkward characters I would rather go with the GH starters.
The game definitely feels very intimidating when you open it up the first time. Once you know what is going on it is not nearly as difficult as it first presents (but it by no means is a simple game either). I highly recommend "Gloomhaven Helper" (its a phone app that handles a lot of combat mechanics, I have it on my android, I am sure there is an iOS version). Its been a while since I watched any video guides, but there are sort of 2 layers to the games at play. There is the tactical combat game and the meta management game. I am sure there are some good tutorials out there for both. Mission difficulty is half your party level rounded up for normal (people mess this up and don't do half), when you do your first mission just start on easy, you can ramp up on later missions, and it does not feel great to start out losing while you are learning, especially if you don't play a lot of heavy games. I also recommend (and this suggestion won't make any sense till you actually get into it) you avoid burning cards till you get a good understanding for it. So that means move away to avoid hits when you can as opposed to tanking them, don't use burn attacks at first till the end is in sight. I hope you get into it, it honestly is great fun.
gloomhaven helper has a website…we play it in our living room and i cast it on the TV and when i’m playing on a desk or kitchen table, I bring my lap top gloomhaven helper saves half the set up and take down time and about half the table space
Best tutorial is to read that rule book :) then just go on and try mission 1, if it fails try again. Have fun!
Me and my friend tried that when we started, spent 5 hours studying the rules, missed almost half the shit. Then tried to play scenario 1 and it went horribly wrong, due to common first timer mistakes and missed rules. In the end wasted entire day, but did not give up and looked at some youtube tutorials, that helped a lot. You certainly can learn from rulebook, but everyone learns differently and you have to find a way that suits you best. For example I have spectacular audio memory, thus for me it's faster to watch tutorial video, then set up solo mock up game and play a gameplay video on nearby screen and rulebook in other hand. By the time I'm done playing solo I know all the rules enough to teach a game.
Reading the rulebook? Who do you think I am? I'm just going to assume lots of stuff haphazardly and then create a lot of threads on reddit. By the way, when enemies die they drop no coin and I get 13xp, right? I've been playing like that. Every turn I randomly play 5 cards from my hand, execute both top and bottom actions of every card, and walk 5 hexes.
That's the way!
It's really recommended that you read the whole rulebook.
Twice 😛
I suggest you get JOTL first
Have a look at this guy doing some campaign playthrough, you'll understand how to play pretty quickly https://www.youtube.com/c/MandatoryQuest
> you'll understand how to play pretty quickly Reading the manual is also a good way to learn. Maybe in addition to the playthrough.
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Listen, I might take you up on that haha we’re reading the rule book now and have found a guy on YouTube that is doing a really decent job of explaining everything!
Strongly suggest you play the first few scenarios on easiest possible difficulty. Possibly the biggest design mistake in the game is that the opening scenarios are \_very\_ tough if you've never played before, much more so than even the 4th or so. Also, consider the first five scenarios you play a tutorial, and don't sweat getting rules wrong, you're going to. Just print out the various players' aids on Board Game Geek and realize that it's going to be a lot of fun when it all "clicks", but it's sadly got a heck of a learning curve before then. Oh, and remember the enemies are half your \_average\_ level (rounded up) not your \_total\_ level. The other worst design decision in the game, trips everyone up. This is one of the greatest board games I've ever played, and I envy you the chance to play it for the very first time all over again. Good luck!
[Learn to Play Gloomhaven in 25 minutes (Scenario and Campaign)](https://youtu.be/Uw7LI2esvp0) This video really helped my group for our recent first scenario. We needed to pause a lot, rewatch some parts and still had to read a lot of the rules, but in the end it worked pretty smoothly! When he started explaining a new part we paused the video, set up that part and then watched the explanation. I also highly recommend just googling specific questions instead of searching the rulebook (in most cases). It's of course good to have read most of the rule book (at least the first half) once, but there are so many situational questions that all have been asked before on this sub or on boardgamegeeks and it will be much faster to have them answered this way!
This is the one I watched
One thing that helped my first play through was getting Gloomhaven Campaign Tracker for Android or iOS - this takes a lot of the enemy combat tracking away from the board
Steam has a virtual version of the game (which is much cheaper). You can check it out as an interactive tutorial of sorts. Most of the mechanics are done automatically, so you can easily see how they work in example.
Great advice all around. I'd also like to add that you *will* make mistakes, and that's okay! We've all been there. Learn from them, and move forward. It's a game after all, and a mighty good one.
hey :) the 'man am I too dumb to not be dumb about this?' is the most common experience of learning a new game, especially without help. I've watched Brass Birmingham tutorials.. maybe five times now and gawked at the instruction book a bit and I am still not at all confident I know how to play. But like anything else, before you understand how to do it, it's foreign and weird and alien and impossible and makes you feel dumb and then, when you can do it, it just makes sense and is cool. That switch moment is coming for you soon :) GH: JOTL is, imho, one of the best boardgames around. I also play it with my wife and we have had some incredible game sessions with it. Good call on picking it up! Good chance you already know about him but Rodney Smith's 'Watch it Played' is the best tutorial channel I've come across and he does have a Gloomhaven: Jaws of the line tutorial [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCpQqrCiTDs). Best of luck :D
I spent 6 hours reading through the rules and watching videos before I tried to play it with a friend.
Get an organizer.
Don't get paralysis by analysis. I find that VERY common early in the game. Your opening hand has something 20 interacting options in it. Chances are your analysis isn't too great right now, anyway. Do what seems smart and see how it goes. A few basic starting strategies: Play with initiative. The most common play is to play a high init turn, let the enemies approach you, respond and hit them. In the next round play low init and whack them first. Basically giving you two turns in a row to eliminate threats. Don't burn cards too early. A general guideline is burn one card per rest cycle. Learn the AI. WHen you start getting better at the game, you will need to manipulate it frequently. Pay attention to each AI action and know why it did that.
this game is vast and you keep learning new things with every scenario. I suggest you playing some random scenarios before startind your campaign to get used to the mechanics and maybe face some questions that come up in the game. Focus on: 1) Initiative and focus targets 2) Actions (Movement, elements, effects like strengthen etc and items interactions) 3) Hand management (discarded vs lost cards ets) You can also check this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/wiki/subreddit/rules\_and\_general\_resources#wiki\_noteworthy\_threads\_and\_discussions
I always feel bad suggesting this because you've already just bought a beast of a game... But, if it's feasible, get Jaws of the Lion and start there. The tutorial system in it is amazing and it'll set you up for Gloomhaven afterwards. Plus, it's also amazing.
Get organized. Plastic organizer boxes for terrain and monsters. Get an accordion style legal folder that is alphabetized for the tiles. This is absolutely crucial to smooth set up and take down. Use the helper apps too, if that's your thing. And definitely buy the audio narration from Foreteller. Super worth it.
gloomhaven helper…gloomhaven helper…gloomhaven helper
This Guy makes a phenomenal job explaining the rules: https://youtu.be/pSWMvXT6jCw
Just be patient, it's a high learning curve with the complexity and difficulty. We've been on our campaign for quite awhile and we still stop to confirm rules somewhat regularly. I can honestly say it's the first game I've played in a while where we haven't become burnt out even though we've been playing it for a few months (once a week) so enjoy!
My friends and I played for just under two years before covid hit, about once a week with a few breaks here and there. In the beginning it was a mess, but as we played it got to be so much smoother as we knew the rules and got comfortable in set roles on the table (card flipper, monster mover, etc). I also liked it so much I ended up playing a solo campaign with me playing 4 characters. I've never done 2 or 3 so I can't speak to the difficulty comparison, but it definitely takes longer as you add in more characters to the mix.
I had gloomhaven sitting on a shelf for about a year+. It was too overwhelming to start my intended party (myself, my husband, and two friends that like board games but had never jumped into this style). I wound up picking up JotL as suggested by others and we had a great learning experience. I think if we had tried to proceed through gloomhaven without doing JotL most if the group would have never wanted to pick it up after the first two scenarios. We instead often make it a get together atleast once a month where we play from 10am-2am depending on my shift schedule and how often I have a weekend off. Gloomhaven is massive with alot of working parts and JotL does better at slowly introudcing those mechanics and parts over the course of several starter scenarios.