Gloomhaven - How-to-Play - Monster's Turn

it's bandit guard three's turn in initiative order it's got a move minus one attack zero with a range two so its movement is going to be two its attack is going to be two and it has a range two what space is it going to move to and who is its target going to be [Music] hi i'm pete krause with modern cardboard and in this video we focus on the monster's turn and monster automation in gloomhaven i'm not going to be able to cover every conceivable board configuration in this video but i'll give examples that will build in complexity to provide you a solid foundation of how the monsters turn and monster's focus works and then you'll be able to tackle the example we started with and most other board configurations you encounter so let's get started one of the things that i like about gloomhaven is that all players take on the role of a character or characters rather than somebody having to act as the designated driver of the game and take on the role of the game master that's because gloomhaven has a set of automated rules the monsters take on their turns and this removes decision making or at least most of the decision making from the players when a monster activates in initiative order all monsters of that type will activate they follow the actions as written on their monster ability card from top to bottom these are the only actions the monster of that type will take this round so the monster's ability card says move and attack all they're going to do this round is move first and then attack if the monster's ability card says shield and retaliate then the monsters of that type would not move or attack this round but just apply shield and retaliate if or when they're attacked during the round when a monster activates an initiative order you're going to activate the elite monsters first followed by the standard monsters so if there's more than one elite monster then you activate them from the lowest numbered elite to the highest number to lead then move on to the standard monsters with the white bass activate the lowest number first and then they activate in ascending order so for this example let's say it's the banded guard's turn to activate an initiative order i have two elites and two standard monsters the elites would activate first starting with number one followed by number two then i move to the standard bandit guards starting with number three followed by number six each monster type has a stat card the stat card is divided into two halves this half is for standard monsters and this half is for elite monsters the number in the upper left corner matches the scenario level so make sure when you put this in the stat sleeve at the beginning of your game that it matches the current scenario level that you're playing monster stat sleeves come in two types there's the six base monster stat sleeve and then there's a 10 space monster stat sleeve so some monsters have 10 monster standees included with gloomhaven and others have six monster standees included with gloomhaven if you have 10 grab the 10 count monster stat sleeve that way there's a space for each monster of that type so when you randomize those if you have a monster number 10 there's a slot 10 that matches when a monster activates they take the ability starting with the top one and then they work their way down to the bottom so in this case the bandit guard would take a move action first and then an attack the plus zero over here is how this modifies the base stats as seen over here for the bandit guard so if i activate a standard bandit guard my first ability would be move and since this adds a plus zero i would just use the base stat of three so i would have three movement then i'd move on to attack and this adds a plus zero to my attack so my attack would just be a two so when a monster with either the abilities move attack or both move and attack on its ability card activates you first have to determine who the monster's focus is and as you'll see the monster's focus is really two things which enemy is the monster going to try to attack and what space are they going to move to so for this example it's the bandit guard's turn in initiative order it has a move plus 0 so it's going to use its base stat of 3 and then it has attack plus 0 and it's going to use its base stat of 2. this is a melee attack since it doesn't have any range specified on its monster stat card so a monstrous focus is the enemy it can use its current attack against using the least amount of movement to get in range and line of sight so in this case the standard bandit guard can perform a melee attack too to perform a melee attack you have to be adjacent to your enemy so for bandiguard 3 it could perform its maximum attack by moving one space to attack the spell weaver or it would have to move three spaces to attack the brute so in this case the spell weaver is the target and this is the space it's going to move to you'll always move the monster the fewest number of spaces where it can get in range and line of sight so the bandit guard performs a melee attack too against the spell weaver and attacks work a lot like they do for player characters when a monster attacks it draws one attack modifier card in this case the monster draws a null card so that means the attack does no damage lucky for the spell weaver next we move on to bandit guard six bandit guard six has the same it has a move three and it's going to perform a melee attack too to find its focus we have to find the position and the enemy it's going to attack since bandit guard 2 performs a melee attack it's going to need to be adjacent to the brute or the spell weaver we're going to count movement to see which of those it can attack using the least amount of movement to get in range in line of sight so one two three to get to the brute or one two three to get to the spell weaver so in the case of a tie there are two tie breakers the first tie breaker we start with is proximity to the bandit guard whichever one is closest as the crow flies in spaces breaks the tie first and in this case they're equal distant as the crow flies in spaces so the next tie breaker is initiative and i'll show the initiative order here and whichever one is lowest in initiative order is the one that's going to be the monster's focus so initiative order for this round is the spellweaver followed by the bandit guard and then the brute so the spell weaver is lowest in initiative so bandit guard six moves three spaces to get adjacent to the spell weaver it had to move three so it can move three next it performs its attack it has an attack two draws its attack modifier for -1 so it inflicts one damage on the spell weaver for a different example on a bandit guard's turn in this case it has a move plus one and an attack minus one so that'll be a move four and an attack one and as a reminder that's a melee attack one we have one banded card so bandit guard six is going to activate and then i've added some obstacles here to show a little different example of how you'll find monster's focus so the bandit guard's current attack is a melee attack so it again will need to be adjacent to its enemy we count spaces to see which enemy it can reach with the least amount of movement so we go one two three to the brute or one two three to the spell weaver the bandit guard doesn't have flying or jumps so it can't jump over the tables since there's a tie in this case three spaces of movement to be adjacent to either one of these player characters we have to break the tie the first tie breaker as i said before is proximity so in this case the spell weaver is the monster's focus because it's closest in proximity or as the crow flies there's only one space dividing the bandit guard in the spell weaver whereas we have three spaces that divide the brute and the bandit guard so the bandit guard moves adjacent has its move for this turn and the bandit guard inflicts an attack one draws an attack modifier which is a minus two so again lucky for the spell weaver it inflicts no damage this turn as we've seen movement works similar for monsters as it does characters so just like how our character can move through other allies but not through monsters or summoned monsters monsters can move through other monsters but not through characters or summoned characters so for this example bandit guard number three is going to activate it has a move zero and an attack zero this turn so it's going to move three and has a melee attack too so to get adjacent to either of its enemies it has to move three spaces to be adjacent to the brute or it can move one two spaces moving through this other bandit guard to be adjacent to the spell weaver so in this case the spell weaver is the target and this space is where the bandit guard is going to move so it moves two spaces and then would attack the spell weaver when you're finding monster focus always act as if the monster has infinite movement so if there's a path to the monster it will find it and try to take it so bandit guard number six activates it needs to find the least amount of movement to be adjacent to either the brute or the spell weaver so that's one two three four five to be adjacent to the root or one two three four to be adjacent to the spell weaver so in this case the spell weaver is the target again this is the space the bandit guard would move to however since the bandit guard only has a move three it still would move the move three and end its turn here if the monster can't get any closer to its focus for the turn it will neither move nor attack for the turn so if we look at the board i've added a couple bandit guards in this case and so for this example let's say the elite bandit guard is activated standard bandit guard three has already activated and now we move on to standard bandit guard number six's turn to get to the brute we would have three four five six spaces of movement to be adjacent to the spell weaver it would be one two three spaces of movement so the spell weaver is bandit guard six's focus for the turn however bandit guard six has a move two and wouldn't be able to get any closer because it can't land in the same space with another enemy it would have to have a move 3 to actually get closer to the spell weaver in this case bandit guard 6 would not move or attack so for this example let's say bandiguard 3 has already activated so we move on to bandit guard number six bandit guard 6 has a melee attack too so it needs to find its focus and its focus is pretty easily the brute so it really is just one space away where it would need to be to attack however since there's another monster in this space it can't move and it can't move closer so in this case since there's no path for monster 6 to attack this turn it skips its move and attack for this turn the living corpse just has a move plus 1 and no attack so we see move plus 1 means they have a move 2 for the turn if the monster doesn't have an attack on its ability card then you find the monster's focus as if they were going to perform a melee attack it has a move too and it won't be able to get in a spot where it could attack although it doesn't have an attack this turn it just has a move too so it moves along the path as if it were going to perform a melee attack and ends its turn and living corpse suffers one damage there we go for this example let's look at bandit guard six it's his turn in initiative order and he's got a move three and a melee attack too so he needs to get to this space but which one of these targets is he going to attack with his melee attack so we have to go to tie breakers and we know the first tie breaker is whichever one of these is closest in space's proximity as the crow flies away from this monster so this is one two spaces the spell weaver is two spaces as well so we have to go to the second tiebreaker of initiative so one of the things to remember with a character summon is they always come before the character in initiative order they come right before they take their turn so the summon character is lower in initiative and this would be the monster's focus it's going to move here or here players choice can move here and then make its attack against the characters summon traps and hazardous terrain work similar to obstacles when determining monster focus and just remember that traps hazardous terrain and obstacles doesn't really affect monsters with jump or flying that works a lot like it does for the player characters for monsters so the only time a monster without jump or flying will enter a space with a trap or hazardous terrain is if it's their only option to focus on a target in that case they would take the path moving through the smallest number of negative spaces possible to find focus and suffer the consequences the brood is the only enemy character out there so that's going to be the bandit guard's focus it can get within striking distance here in four spaces it wouldn't cross through the trap because there's an alternate path around that the only time it would go through trap or hazardous terrain is if that is the only option to its focus for the turn so in this case one two three four and then it would perform its attack and for this strange example let's say the bandit guard is stuck behind the hazardous terrain and the traps in this case since there's no other path to get to the brute it would take the path moving through the smallest number of negative spaces possible and then suffer the consequences of those spaces so in this case it could move through this hazardous terrain this space and then attack the brute and suffer the consequences trap damage is the scenario level plus two so if this is scenario one traps do three damage hazardous terrain does half of trap damage so 1.5 rounded down this bandit guard would take one damage so in this case the bandit guard has a move minus one so they'll have a move two in attack plus zero so an attack two and then range two and so now we have a ranged element so when we consider monster focus for the turn we're going to consider a range two and so really we'll only need to move one space to attack the spell weaver or one space to attack the brute so we have a tie and if you remember the first tie breaker's proximity how many physical spaces away is each enemy character and in this case they're both two physical spaces away from bandicard six the second tiebreaker is initiative so just to give the spellweaver a break for this turn we'll say the brute has lower initiative this turn so the brute is going to be bandit guard 6's focus it's up to the player characters to choose which of these two spaces bandit guard six moves to since both of those will put this bandit guard six in range two of the brute so let's say the players say hey move here bandit guard six would then perform its range 2 attack 2 against the brute for another ranged example we look at the banded archer so it's currently in range of both of these targets it's closer to the brute so this is its focus for the turn however if you notice the bandit archer is adjacent to the brute and if you remember from the character ability video when you are adjacent making a ranged attack to your enemy you're at disadvantage meaning that you have to draw two attack modifier cards and use whichever one is worse any time a monster is in a disadvantage area it would want to move where it's not in disadvantage it wants to move where it can make its maximum attack so in this case the banded archer would move one space away from the brute so it can make its maximum attack against the brute the players would choose which space the bandit archer moves to and in this case i'm going to move them back here all right now that we know the basics of monster focus let's look at some more complex attacks and in this case we add some living bones to the board the interesting thing about living bones is they have a target too meaning they attack two separate characters on their turn for this turn they're going to use a move plus 0 attack plus 0. so that means they can move 3 and have an attack one living bones number four takes its turn first with a multi-target monster whether they have a target ability like the living bones does or an area attack the first thing you need to do still is find the monster's focus and to do this we do it the same way we did before this monster doesn't have range so it performs a melee attack so it would be one two spaces of movement to attack the brute or one two three spaces of movement to attack the spell weaver so if this was a standard melee attack against one character this living bones would just move to this space and performance attack against the brute for a monster with a multi-target attack it will move to a position on the board to hit its focus meaning the brute in this case and as many other enemies as possible to hit as many targets as possible it would just need to move here to attack its focus and the spell weaver so it's the player's choice which character gets attacked first from a multi-target monster so on the bandit archer's turn this round it has an attack -1 but a target too so for this round the abandoned archer can make an attack one notice it doesn't have move on its ability card for this round the banded archer is in range of the brute and it has a range four so it's one two three four it's also in range of the spell weaver in this case since there's only two player characters it's going to attack both of these player characters if the spell weaver were here since the bandit archer doesn't have movement it wouldn't be able to hit the spell weaver and could only attack the brute for this example let's say that this banded archer has a move three this turn and also has an attack with a target too so the tinkerer is the banded archer's focus since it's closest however it's at disadvantage also since it's a multi-target attack it's going to want to attack the spell weaver as well so it needs to get in a spot where it's in range without disadvantage from both of these enemies the banded archer has a range 4 so the banded archer could move here and be one two three four be able to hit the spell weaver and the tanker [Music] i think you'd also have the choice it could move here as well so the banded archer would attack the tinkerer and the spell weaver so for quiz number one let's just say this elite bandit card just took its turn so it's a standard bandit's guard's turn in initiative order it has a move plus zero attack plus zero so it's got a move three and an attack two this turn and that's a melee attack where is it going to move and who is it going to try to attack so the first thing we look at is who is the focus for this monster is it the spell weaver or the brute we figure which one of those enemy characters is the least amount of spaces to get within range and line of sight since this bandit guard has a melee attack this turn it needs to be adjacent to the spellweaver or adjacent to the brute and so that's going to be one two three four spaces here or one two three four spaces to be adjacent to the brute since they're equal distance away in spaces of movement to break the tie you look at who's closer in proximity so the spell weaver is one two three spaces away from the spandex guard and the brood is one two three four spaces away so the spell weaver is this bandit guard's focus so it's going to take its move three even though it's not going to be adjacent this turn it still moves one two three so if you said this space and no attack you're correct it's banded guard three's turn in initiative order it's got a move minus one attack zero with a range two so its movement is going to be two its attack is going to be two and it has a range two what space is it going to move to and who is its target going to be [Music] so the first thing we determine is who is the monster's focus so with a range 2 this monster could move one two spaces and be in range of the spell weaver or move one two spaces and be in range of the brute since they're equal distant away we need a tie breaker and again the tiebreaker is who's ever physically closer in proximity so the spell weaver is one two three spaces away the brood is one two three four spaces away so the spellweaver is the focus so the bandit archer number three is going to move to this space and then take its ranged attack it wouldn't enter the hazardous terrain because there's a path to get to the spell weaver and a path to get to the brute on this turn if there was no path whatsoever to get to one of the targets and this was the only option then it would enter the hazardous terrain so let's look at a couple other abilities that monsters have we're going to look at heal loot and summon so the heal ability is pretty simple so in this case the monster would just heal two damage and it would apply to the monster taking its turn since it says self if they said range down here then you would heal another monster within range only if it has fewer hit points than this monster for a monster with the loot ability a monster can only loot the coins or money that's in its range it can't loot treasures so let's just say living bones had the loot ability with a range 1 it would be able to loot this coin but not the treasure the coins are lost when this monster dies that coin doesn't get dropped on the map if a monster has a summon ability it will summon another random monster standee of that type in an adjacent space closest to an enemy so in this case if living bones number six had the summon ability and i know living bones don't have the summon ability but if it did it would summon in an adjacent space and it would populate that in a place closest to another enemy so it could put it here or here that's going to be the player's choice another thing with summon monsters you have to remember is they don't drop coins when killed if there was no adjacent spaces open or standees left of that type then the summon doesn't happen so as you become an expert on all things monsters let's finish up by taking a look at some differences you will see on boss stat cards so the first thing you do when setting up a boss is you're going to grab the deck that says boss on it boss stat cards use the letter c many times and that's a multiplier for the number of characters in the scenario so for hit points for the bandit commander here you would multiply 10 by the number of characters within the boss deck you're going to see cards that say special 1 special 2 etc whenever you draw a card that says special for the boss's action for that round it's going to take if it's special 1 whatever it says next to 1 here for special 2 whatever it says next to 2. and then the last thing that you'll see on boss stat cards is the conditions that they're immune to they're always negative conditions so that's most of what's involved with the monster's turn monster automation is one of those things that i make mistakes on all the time or i miss something or forget that monsters are ranged when i move them thinking that their melee attack but you just do the best that you can and then continue to play that's what it's all about so if you missed any of the other modern cardboard gloomhaven videos there is a playlist link on the screen here and so i really hope you enjoyed this one and hope to see you all in the next video

Channel: Modern Cardboard

Views: 10,936

Rating: 4.9844961 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: CAkrLz10KZo

Length: 26min 29sec (1589 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021