Gloomhaven for ants?
If you’ve told me that Gloomhaven experience can be downsized into a teeny-tiny box while still keeping the feeling and strategic gameplay I would have said “no way”. But Gloomhaven Buttons & Bugs is here and I’m holding it in my hands and it is in fact possible! Unbelievable. 😯 As the name suggests, you will take part in a whimsical (solo) adventure, as you trigger an enchantment trap and get shrunk to a tiny size and have to find a way to turn back. Very fitting! 😁
There are 6 characters included. I’ve heard people mention before how small the minis are, but they are REALLY tiny! 😄 The gameplay remains quite similar to Gloomhaven: each turn you choose 2 cards from your hand, 1 for its top action, 1 for its bottom action. You also choose initiative then you see what the enemies try to do. But how does it all fit into the small box?
The 20 scenarios are 20 cards: 🧐 one side describing a bit of story background, while the other shows the map you play on. To track enemies you use colored cubes and dials for each of their health.
Instead of having many modifier and behaviour decks, you get a single die. 🎲
Thus, monster decks become just one card per monster, where a die roll determines which of their 3 turn-types they do.
When you or enemies attack you just roll the die and check on a little sheet what modifier you get - then you move a tracker cube down so possible results keep changing. As you level up your sheet will improve, and there are additional difficulties for monsters.
✋Finally each character plays with only 4 cards in a scenario. However these are double sided. After you use the A-side, instead of discarding the card you flip it to its B-side. After using the B-side it is discarded and you can get it back as normal using a short or long rest. You can also level up that allows you to swap out cards for their better versions.
If you like playing solo and are craving that Gloomhaven experience, you can scratch that same itch but with a minimal setup time of a minute. Of course it’s all a bit fiddly but that’s a trade-off thanks to the size. With 20 scenarios and 6 characters you should be entertained for a while! 😉
