Gloomhaven is king of the hill over at BoardGameGeek (it's the number one ranked game of ALL the games), but then along comes the little sibling. Will the upstart show up their older relation? Or can they cannot compete with the bigger version?
For those who don't know anything about Gloomhaven, it was created by Isaac Childres and it is BIG. Twenty-two pounds of miniatures (18-ish), scenarios (100-ish), boards (a bunch) enemy standees (like a zillion), and every token and card imaginable (immeasurable). It's a cooperative campaign-style game with some legacy elements (stickers added and whatnot) taking place in a fantasy world created by Childres. You choose one of the starting characters and level up as you progress through the campaign, making choices that affect what happens to your party and what your character becomes. There's a whole lot more, but you can read about that in my review of the original game here.
in 2020, Childres made some kind of deal with Target to bring a scaled down version of Gloomhaven to the shelves, something that more than just hardcore gamers could get into it. Jaws of the Lion was born and contains around 25 scenarios, 4 characters, but still a buttload of enemies to battle and cards to acquire. How does Gloomhaven: Lite compare with the original? Let's find out together.