Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles
Expansion of: GloomhavenGloomhaven: Forgotten Circles, the first expansion for Gloomhaven, features twenty new scenarios that take place after the events of the original Gloomhaven campaign and involve one new character class — the Aesther Diviner — and her attempts to prevent an approaching calamity.
The expansion also features seven new monster types (including three new bosses) and fourteen new items.
60m - 120m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 12+
Alyiz
Very cool once you ACTUALLY make it far enough in Gloomhaven to crack this open and try it out. Hate the class though. Otherwise it'd be a perfect 10. The class is just not able to handle any threats and no, "support your teammates" is not handling things. You're not really able to "support" enough to make up for being one less useful member. Music Note in the base game is just better. Or Moon. It's still really fun to use, no mistake, it just feels like a handicap. Again, the rest is super cool.
AstroKong
It adds unnecessarily complexity by forcing players to jump through a series of pages as each scenario unfolds. In addition, version one has a very large errata to both cards and the scenario book.
albcann
This rating is after only 4 plays, but I can't see it changing. This is a well crafted expansion, lots of effort went into it, and GH fans will not be disappointed. My issue is that it is way too involved. It is a massive slog. The first 4 scenarios took me on average about 3:45 each, and that did not count the 20-30 minute set up time. Fortunately, I have the luxury of keeping the game up on my table in the basement. Bent the rules to win scenarios 1 and 2, won 3 legitimately, lost the ridiculous scenario 4 (99) and I was not about to play it over. This game, this expansion, needs a better story, and a different path if the scenario is lost, so it doesn't have to be played multiple times. When GH was fresh, I didn't seem to mind playing a scenario multiple times, but now I won't repeat failed scenarios. Perhaps I burnt out on the game, but I will not purchase GH 2, if it ever comes out, if there isn't a mechanism in place to prevent repeating scenarios. EDIT 11/22/19 -- Played this 10 times solely to complete my 10x10 Hardcore challenge and would have stopped earlier otherwise. At this point in my gaming life, 50 something, mostly solo, it is too much. 4+ hour long scenarios, lots of flipping through the manual, sprawling setup, frustratingly difficult at times, I didn't enjoy it all that much. That said, there were some very innovative concepts that freshened up the base game's reliance on "kill all monsters" for most of the scenario goals. I did not complete the module getting to the final scenario and stopping. I had had enough at this point. It is solid gaming, many will like it, but for me, it wasn't something that I enjoyed playing and or that I will play again. The story, like the base game, was not compelling and falls far short of the richer story based games currently on the market like Folklore: The Affliction and Middara. The fact that I had no desire to see the story to conclusion, even getting to the last scenario, attests to my opinion that this is a bland story. My rating remains the same, meh.