Frosthaven is the latest release in the Gloomhaven series, an amazing co-operative legacy campaign adventure series, consisting of two huge game boxes, sandwiched by the more introductory and streamlined version called Jaws of the Lion. Whilst these games are often classed within the dungeon crawler category, they are not randomised encounters and explorations, but are a linked progressive story comprising a series of scenario challenges, or puzzles that you must overcome with your limited resources.
The game is crafted around your character and their deck of cards which will contain abilities and skills suited to their unique play style. In each scenario you will choose which cards form your deck from a pool, and your hand size effectively represents your health, so once you run out of cards you will be exhausted, and cannot continue to participate in that encounter. You will be balancing off saving your most potent abilities for the right moment, as using these will require you to discard the card. You can also lose cards if you take excessive damage from enemies. During each turn of the game you will select two cards to play, using the top ability of one and the bottom ability of another.
After each scenario is completed, your party will visit their frozen outpost, where they encounter an event, and can purchase new equipment and weapons. In Frosthaven this part of the game has been developed significantly, as you will be adding new buildings and crafting potions from the loot you collected, increasing what you can then do within your settlement. It adds a layer to the game that was absent or undeveloped in the original Gloomhaven.
The components of the game are very similar to its predecessor, the graphics on the cards has seen a small upgrade, and the tiles are based around ice and frozen tunnels, and while i do like them more, they remain functional rather than beating the artwork levels of tiles from some other adventure games. Heroes can be represented by either models or standees, while enemies remain standee based, and overall production seems very slightly better, but not significantly so. There is an app that can help you reduce the admin burden if you do not want to use tokens for everything.
This game has always been one of the best group games i have encountered, as the interaction between characters is relatively high and what one player does in their turn, will have effects on others. The general complexity of the starting characters does seem to have seen an uplift, particularly when compared to the original six from Gloomhaven, and there is good variety to select from, including a skeleton summoner and an insect pairing that sees you running with two decks. This game series offers great card strategy, with a lot of involvement and discussion between players, and whereas Jaws of the Lion simplified the set up and improved the storyline aspects of Gloomhaven, this new version uplifts the complexity and is probably better reserved for those who have played one of the previous games first. All in all this continues to shine, and while i like frozen setting and characters, the added work involved from the city stage can feel like a burden with Gloomhaven more streamlined. I am therefore looking forward to the 2nd edition of the original.
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Expansions
There are expansions you can add to enhance or change the gameplay (my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Solo Scenarios
A set of scenarios and reward cards specifically designed for strategic solo play highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each class from the game. It is meant to be played with hero characters at least level 5. A good addition if you want to solo play, although i personally do not feel the game shines as a solo adventure.
Gloomhaven
The original game version, with a slightly lower complexity level but a story that gets lost along the way somewhat. The forthcoming 2nd edition could be the definitive one for me personally > Gloomhaven