Mongo and Marvin Episode 1: The Black Barrow

Mongo and Marvin in the pre-game warmup

Welcome to my first blog post - ever - like, ever ever! I apologize if the format, spelling, grammar, images, and content suck. :P  I promise it will all get better. 

Alright so ... this blog series is all about the epic adventures of Mongo, our beloved, dimwitted Brute, and Marvin, the slick, trap-dealing Tinkerer. (Yes, Marvin was initially going to be a Craghart, but I changed my mind.)

In case you missed my overview on boardgamegeek, this is a solo Gloomhaven campaign, with a few twists and turns. In order to replicate Mongo's shall-we-say 'lack of brains', he'll be making a bunch of decisions on his own.  At the beginning of each scenario, I’ll be randomly selecting Mongo’s 10-card hand from his available deck. He might leave the perfect ability card back at home, or he might happen to bring it along. Who knows. Plus, at the beginning of each round, I’ll be randomly selecting the two cards Mongo intends to use on his turn … these two cards might be perfect for the situation at hand, or absolutely useless. Mongo doesn’t care about strategy … he just wants to kill monster, eat food, go home. Thankfully, Mongo will allow me to choose the initiative, as well as the specific top and bottom ability from the two cards he picks – and I’ll be deciding who and what Mongo tries to attack on his turn - so I can at least do the best I can with what’s in front of me. 

I will also decide how and when Mongo will use his items, rest, heal himself, and so on. But when Mongo rests, whether it’s a short OR a long rest, I’ll be randomly selecting a card from his discard pile to lose. 

Marvin, on the other hand, is under my complete control. He’s going to act selfishly, looting all the gold, grabbing the treasure chests, healing himself, and otherwise ignoring Mongo’s blatant disregard for cooperative adventuring. 

Mongo's starting hand

Marvin's starting hand

Alright - let's get into Episode 1, shall we? Ahhh, the Black Barrow ... a twisted, horrifying dungeon filled with danger and hexagons. Can our dynamic duo fight their way through? Well, yes. Yes they can. 

The start of the scenario went very smooth. Mongo jumped into the fray immediately, disarming the elite bandit guard. Then Marvin took the opportunity to ensnare a couple of his foes with the Webshooter. From there, Marvin plotted to unleash the first wave of his trap fetish. Sneaking around the far side of the first room, he opened the door with a Move 4, then stepped back to drop a Proximity Mine. :D 

Mongo continued to pound away at the guards, while the newly revealed guards started walking towards the door to their demise. Sure enough, guard #2 stepped in the doorway and BOOM! Toast. Meanwhile, Marvin continued to have some fun ... laying down a 2-Damage Poison trap next to the injured elite guard, then using the Hook Gun to lure him in and finish the job. Nice. 

Don't look down, boys. Just keeeep walking towards the door

Blah, blah, blah. More stuff happened. Elite archer died. Mongo ate something off the floor. Marvin looted a crap-ton of coins.

And then ... my favourite moment ...

Damn, I'm good. 

Once again, Marvin pulled a sneaky move-trap combo. Actually, first, I have to give credit where credit is due.  Mongo, bless his heart, took one for the team, stepping on the first existing trap in the hallway to clear a path for Marvin. With a high-five and a 'thank you', Marvin opened the door to the final room, stepped back, slapped down another poison trap, and then went invisible, posing as an obstacle to the stupid Living Bones. The map funnel worked to perfection, as the first Living Bones  moved forward to take a swipe at Mongo. Alas, he stepped on the 2-damage poison trap as well as the existing 3-damage trap. 5 damage total. Dead. Good times.

Look mom! All done

Anyway, when all was said and done, Marvin had grabbed the treasure, and together, our preposterous pair had cleared the dungeon with cards to spare.

Quick selfie with the loot

FAST FACTS

Scenario Time: 42 minutes

Experienced Gained: Mongo 8(+6), Marvin 4(+6)

Gold Looted: Mongo 4, Marvin 12

Checkmarks Earned: Mongo 0, Marvin 1 

I'm still relatively new at Gloomhaven, but with a few rounds of practice, I'm slowly figuring out how to play this game effectively. I made a few errors throughout the scenario, but overall, I was pleased with how things went. Here's what I learned ..

- Opening doors early is a good thing. Because card management is crucial in Gloomhaven, it often pays to let monsters come to YOU, instead of wasting cards to run to them. Plus, your foes will funnel through doorways one at a time, allowing you to set up different attacks as necessary - and keying on the nasties you want first. True, you may find yourself with more enemies to deal with in a hurry, but if you play your cards, right, so to speak, you won't have to travel far to kill them all.

- 3-4 lost cards is just fine for the Tinkerer. Maybe I just got lucky, but Marvin had a ton of cards available at the end of the scenario - even after using Weshooter, Proximity Mine, and the Ink Bomb.

-Mongo is dumb. He stood around a lot. But he did manage to kill both elite enemies all by himself.

-Traps are fun. REALLY fun. I can't wait until I get a few more at my disposal.

Next up ... the Barrow Lair ...


Thoughts? Comments?