Gloomhaven Monster AI - The Basics

what's going on Internet this is Lambo coming to you from the nerdery or the basement and normally while I would be making some gloom Haven terrain I'm actually in the middle of building this sewer level for a scenario that we're coming up pretty quick on I wanted to take some time to make a video to explain monster movement the reason is a couple weeks ago I went through board game geeks or online forum there you have a web resource called the monster a eye movement quiz and some fine contributors have put that together testing all the knowledge you think you might have about how monster AI works and gloom Haven I took the quiz quickly learned that I don't glue Paden very good well okay I gloop Haven okay but I was definitely getting some of the rules wrong and that has affected certain aspects of our game and so having gone through this I wanted to put this video together to two-part series we're first to cover the monster AI basics and I'll do it on some cool-looking terrain so you have something nice to look at but it's gonna cover how monsters move when they don't move how they target and everything straight out of the gloom Haven rulebook I believe it's on page 20 go through the scenarios in here maybe a one or two extra to clarify it and then I will do a second video where we go through the AI quiz and you can learn all the ins and outs of monster movement and the finer points of when they really do move when they really don't move who they target why they target whatever I didn't write these rules these are coming straight from the answers that are on that forum by the group of contributors so if you have a question about why a rule works a certain way go to the BoardGameGeek forum that's where you'll find the answer I'm just telling you like it is but I'm really doing this video mostly to help me because you learn something better by explaining it or teaching it I'm also doing to help my gloom Haven group the players that I play with so we have a better experience but I have a you know 75 subscribers as of this video so developing the 75 of you also but mostly me and then the rest of you so hope you enjoy the video and let me know if you have any feedback comments questions okay I'll answer so first like I said this is going to go cover the monster AI basics straight from the Haven rulebook as found starting on page 29 let's cover activation first the most basic rule is all monsters of the same type take individual turns at the same initiative value listed on their monster ability card let's take this ability card right here we've got living bones they're going to move at +1 to their movement value an attack at negative 1 to their attack value all listed on their stack card and all at Initiative of 25 when initiative value 25 comes up all the living bones models will activate but the order which they will activate is elite models first followed by standard monsters afterwards those monsters will activate in ascending order according to those numerical values on their figures elites first followed by non elites here we have living bones numbers 1 2 3 & 4 according to those number tokens next to their basis first the elite living bones number 2 will activate here in the gold armor he's the lowest number to eat living bones figure on the board followed by elite living bones number 3 followed by Stan or living bones number 1 and lastly stat or living bones number 4 we now know what order the monsters activating we just now have to figure out what they're going to do when a monster activates the first thing it does before it does any of its actions is to select its focus monsters will focus on the enemy figure can perform its current attack on using the least amount of movement it will then find the shortest possible path to get into range and line-of-sight to use its attack and the figure that can be attacked at the end of that path is its focus that enemy figure is now considered the closest enemy figure here the living bones needs to find a focus to hexes away could attack the Tigger or it can perform a melee attack what hex away gives the brute after some intense calculations I am able to determine that 1 is less than 2 so the brute becomes his focus and he will then perform his actions moving down towards the brute to attack remember the key is to find the nearest hex where the model can perform its current attack from it doesn't matter if the monster can't get within range to perform its attack with its current movement just so long as there is a path for the monster to eventually get within range regardless of how many spaces the monster can actually move so let's back at the living bones to here and in this scenario the living bones has a move of two an attack of two no range we now count the number of spaces it takes to get within melee range of an enemy to get within range of the brute the living bones needs one two three hexes here and one two three four hexes here to the tinkerer since 3 is less than four the brute is again the focus and he will move one two hexes towards his focus or two here because when the distance is the same that is your choice where he ends up just so long as he gets as close as he can to his focus if the monster does not have an attack listed on its ability card it still finds a focus as if it had a melee attack so let's swap out this living bones here for this frost demon here and I did that because I have a card here and it says frost demon shield to move one and he'd consumed fire and suffered damage if there was any on the board in this case the frost demon has a move of two he's here and has no attack but he still selects his focus as if he did have a melee attack so his focus is still the brute and he'll shield and take a step down and consume that fire if there was any now let's go over some tie breaking situations because it can be the case that a monster can move the same number of spaces to get within range and line-of-sight of multiple and any figures as is the case right here it is one two hexes to get to the brute and it is one two hexes to get to the tinkerer so what determines a tie breaker the first thing that determines a tie breaker when it is the same number flexes to perform an attack against two different enemies is physical proximity to the model so living bones here is one two movement hexes away to attack the brute but is also to physical hexes away from the root and this is as the crow flies ignoring everything except walls you can't count through walls but everything else such as obstacles figures you ignore so two hexes to the brute and one-two-three hexes to the tinkerer proximity to the enemy as the key here it will act as the first tiebreaker so living bone still focuses on the brute and he will move one two here and attack that brute now what if two enemies are the same movement distance and physical distance away from the monster in this case you need another tiebreaker and that last tiebreaker is initiative value of the enemy so I put down to number tokens these represent initiative values in this scenario to check for the focus first we count 1 hex gets us into rage for both enemies we then check the first tiebreaker we see that they are both 2 physical hexes away therefore we check initiative values in this case the brute who must be wearing his PF Flyers guaranteed to make any adventure run faster and jump higher because he's going at an issue of 26 so he becomes the focus the living bones moves down and focuses the brute lastly the final type rate involves the summons and to the right of the tinkerer here is one of his summons decoy summons are always targeted before the figure that summon them if all other tiebreaking factors are equal so in this situation to determine our focus we see that I can get to each of the enemies in only one space of movement all three enemies are also equal physical distance away so now we check iniciative values and this time the tinkerer has 26 and the brute has 63 so as before the living bones could move forward but instead in this case the tinker's summon is the focus and not the tinkerer because of this final tie breaking rule this is because summons always activate immediately prior to their summoner so because of this since the decoy is actually the focus we could choose to move the living bones here instead and this would be up to the players decision all right I know I said summons were the final tiebreaker but I lied technically there is one other tie breaking situation I do need to bring up and that involves long rests so characters performing a long rest are considered last when it comes to targeting priority that means the character who is performing their action and initiative 99 is targeted first over a character performing their long rest also at initiative 99 if it helps you could think of a long rest as a sort of initiative 99.1 so I put down those tokens to represent 99 on the route he's moving about as fast as he can think this turn and the tinker is performing a long rest represented by that Imperial assault mercenary token to find the focus we see that one space away we can attack both enemies both enemies are the same physical distance away we check their initiative value and both are going in an initiative 99 but since the tinker is long resting and the brute is not the brute is the focus and the living bones moves one to focus Liberty in this example found on page 30 we have a living bones in the back behind another living bones and we want to know who that rear living bones will target step one is to count physical movement axes to a viable space the living bone can perform his attack from this hex is not a viable hex to attack from as it is occupied you could move through it if your path needed to pass through it for whatever reason but you can't count it as a viable hex for attacking purposes legal spaces to attack the brute front would be this one this one and this one and spaces to attack the tinkerer from would be any of these so now we find the shortest path to attack an enemy from and that enemy will be the focus so we count one two three four hexes to attack from here one two three four hexes to get to the brute from here and that would be five obviously to here and only one two to get to the tinkerer so even though the brute is physically closer to this living bones the first step in determining focus is who was at the end of the shortest path to launch an attack from at the correct range so in this example the living bones determines his focus first and then moves to to attack the tinkerer we've pretty much nailed down how to determine the focus of an attack but what does a monster do when it has multiple attacks the rules state the monster will move the least number of hexes in order to attack its focus with maximum effect when the monster only has a target one ability as this living bones does here the brute is his focus and he will simply move one forward and attack the brute if a monster has a multi target attack then it will move to a position where it can still attack it's focused enemy and as many other enemies as possible so let's now add a target to the living bones his ability now he has a target to attack the living bones his focus is still the brute but he has enough movement to target a second enemy as well and using the least amount of movement he can get within range to also target the tinkerer here so the living bones will move forward to a position where he can attack both his focus the brute and the tinkerer thus using his attack to maximum effect let's add another target to the living bones his ability giving him a target 3 attack now focus remains the brute but the maximum effect rule means we need to see if the living bones has enough movement to attack up to two other targets with his attack so the living bones will move one two he's not going to stop there he'll move three so he can still attack as focused the brute as well as to other targets let's cover the same principle but this time involving ranged attacks I've got a bandit Archer in the back there and he currently has a range three attack target one with ranged attacks the monster will only move the minimum amount of hexes to attack its focus with maximum effect so with target one range three his focus is one two three four the brute here so the Archer will only move one hex to be within range to attack his focus one two three or he can go here one two three players choice let's add another target to the archers attack giving him target to focus is still the route but we need to find the second enemy he should also target while still attacking the group with movement of one two he can attack it one two three or three so he could attack either of these two enemies the next thing to do is go through the tiebreakers first we check closest by proximity one two three or one two three they are both the same physical distance away then we check initiative values and we'll give the tinkerer an initiative of 63 and the scoundrel a six therefore the scoundrel is the second target of the attack monsters with range attacks will move away from their focus if it allows them to attack the enemy without disadvantage in this case the bandit Archer will simply move one hex away from the brute direction doesn't really matter and then attack the brute the maximum effect rule still applies those so if we give the ban an archer target two instead of moving here to attack justice Focus the brute he will instead move up here and attack at maximum effect targeting both enemies if a monster is forced to choose between losing disadvantage on its focused enemy and performing a maximized attack against other targets the monster will prioritize losing that disadvantage over maximizing attacks on any of those secondary targets this means here in this example the archer with movement one attack two and target two he's going to prioritize moving away from this brute with his one movement and he can go to any of these spaces in the process just to lose that disadvantage this will take him out of range of his second target but the priority is lose disadvantage on the focused enemy over maximizing the attack on secondary enemy targets the rules for movement and monsters with range attacks are pretty simple monsters with range attacks will use their movement to get as close as possible to a viable hex from where they could perform their attack they will only move if doing so actually puts them closer along the shortest path to conduct that attack in this case with a movement of 1 range to an attack of 1 the archer could attack from here or here so any movement the archer makes must take it closer along the shortest route to either of these hexes where the archer could attack from even if he can't perform that attack this turn let's talk about monster interaction with traps and hazardous terrain [Music] monsters without flying consider these negative hexes as obstacles when determining focus and movement paths unless movement through a negative hexes the only way you can focus on a target that being the case the monster will take a path which moves through the least amount of negative hex as possible in order to focus a target in this example which comes from page 31 of the rulebook you see the living bones in the middle only one hex away from the tinkerer but no path to get there without stepping on a trap there happens to be a brute well out of range over here but a clear path exists to him without travelling through any negative hexes therefore the brute is now the focus and with this movement to the living bones will move one two and stop there even though he could have attacked the tinker of this round the tinker is not the focus because of how monsters treat negative hexes such as traps if the brute weren't there then the living bones would focus the tinkerer and step on to whichever of these hexes you feel like moving him on to in order to conduct his attack springing the trap and suffering the consequences in the process a little change of scenery here but now let's take a look at how the bandit Archer we'll deal with movement focus and traps if bandit Archer number one were to activate she would first need to find her focus with the range of three she needs to find the shortest possible path that takes her within range of an enemy ignoring the traps that path is one two which takes her within range one two three to attack that fruit so with movement - that's exactly what she will do she'll move one two and shoot the brute at range three let's reset and say the bana Archer only has one movement now the bandit Archer first finds the shortest path which ignores negative hexes that takes her within range of attack now the trick to doing this correctly is to ignore how many spaces the monster can actually move and simply find the shortest path of legal spaces to move through the book doesn't say count as if the movement were infinite but if you think of this in terms of finding the shortest path as if the monster had infinite movement it will help you in the long run when things get tricky because a monster can move through its ally the shortest path to get within range takes it right through here this being the hex to shoot from with movement 1 you might think the monster would simply start moving around this way but the monster will not move here because it gets are no close to being in range of the brute a shorter path does exist even if the monster can't use it this string and it's not around that way I didn't write the rules so even though you'd think a monster would move around her buddy she won't and then the breaks to recap as found on page 31 of the rulebook it's abandoned Archer with movement one stays put even though she could get in range here it's a negative x and there is a path avoiding it it just happens to go through an ally which she can't move through this round with her current movement she also won't move back this way because it gets her no closer to this hex where she could shoot from so she stays exactly where she is and contemplates for poor life choices well thank you for watching that video hopefully that clears up any questions you may have and about monster movement AI targeting focus everything else it sure cleared up a lot for me and that video took a lot longer to make than I'd anticipated it took so long in fact that I was able to build a whole sewer level and then lose to it twice in the process because of these darn multiplying losses anyway hopefully in the future I can get another one of these out going over that monster AI quiz if that's something you want to see let me know if you want to see some cool terrain videos I have plenty of those on my channel but yeah thanks for watching and happy gaming

Channel: Lambo's Nerdery

Views: 43,118

Rating: 4.9692307 out of 5

Keywords: Gloomhaven, How to play, how to play gloomhaven, Gloomhaven rules, Monster movement, monster movement quiz, Gloomhaven monster movement, gloomhaven monster AI, Monster AI, Monster Rules, Rules, Gloomh

Id: 7Z6_5HUD2oU

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019