Random Update: The Problem With Gloomhaven

Yes, I'm treading on dangerous ground here saying some negative about the game that is number one on BGG for theme, strategy, and just overall existence but hear me out.

I've played this game seven times now with my friend and it's a lot of fun.  The world is refreshingly different from other fantasy settings, and the gameplay is unique and interesting enough to keep you engaged the whole time.  Even if you "die", you can just take over moving and flipping cards for the monsters so even the downtime is limited once you've been taken out of action.  This heads right to my issue with Gloomhaven.

Based on what we have seen, there seem to be no consequences for failing.

Our latest adventure had us breaking into an Inox encampment.  The first time we were so close to succeeding... and then we started falling like dominoes.  Battered and beaten, we wake up outside of the encampment effectively no worse for wear.  Heck, the Inox that we just attacked didn't even take the gold we looted from their fallen comrades, never mind the other equipment that we had.  We walked back to Gloomhaven to buy some more equipment and give it another go.  Returning to the same encampment for a second time, they were just as shocked to see us though they did manage to soundly thrash us within a couple of turns.

Waking up outside of the encampment, battered and bruised but still very much alive after attacking the same group of Inox for the second time, we proceeded to attack them again.  The guards and archers had all taken their appropriate places for the beginning of this dance as the music started for a third time.

And this time, we actually won.

My first thought after the third run was that we must be missing something.  Surely you can't just make the same run over and over with no repercussions for our actions, but everything I found online indicated that we were doing it right.  You can literally play like its a video game and just grind for levels without it having any impact on the main storyline.

Is Gloomhaven still a great game, worthy of all of the praise it has received?  I think that it is, it just seems like there is a disconnect in the narrative that the game is generating, that the lack of the finality of character death does take a bit away from the drama of the story... The story that we will be continuing this Sunday as we push onto our next adventure.  After all, I did say that its still a great game.  Until next time...