Jaws of the Lion Is the Gloomhaven Tutorial That Made Me Buy Actual Gloomhaven

I never touched the original Gloomhaven, the box alone scared me off, twenty pounds of stuff and a rulebook that looked like homework. Jaws of the Lion is what actually got me in the door, my wife and I ran the whole campaign as a two player game and it was honestly a fantastic experience the whole way through, working in tandem on every scenario, arguing over which card to play while the clock ticked down on us.

Fifty bucks for what’s in this box is close to absurd in a good way, tons of people online said the same thing, insane value for the price, and I’d agree, you’re getting something like fifty plus hours of gameplay for less than a lot of games that give you a third of the content. Per hour of fun this might be the best deal on my whole shelf honestly.

Two player specifically has a wrinkle worth knowing about though. A few people flagged that certain characters, the Voidwarden especially, feel underwhelming with just two, she seems built for a table with more bodies and more monsters to spread her support around, and we felt that in a few scenarios where her turn didn’t do much. Also worth knowing, since there’s no true adjustable solo AI, playing solo basically means running a two player game by yourself, managing two characters instead of one true solo experience.

The legacy stuff is lighter than the original too, mostly just leveling up characters, and I’ll admit I hesitated on the stickers at first, worried about misaligning one and having it stuck wrong forever, but once I actually placed a few it was a non issue. Writing on the map does feel a little permanent in a way that nags at you if you’re the type who likes to keep components pristine.

Only real complaint, the city event flavor text is pretty forgettable, a little more cliched than I’d like given how good the combat system is underneath it.

Five stars. Cheaper, smaller, and it made a full price Gloomhaven convert out of me.