We had been here already. With completely different group, including Spellweaver, Tinkerer and Doomstalker. We failed miserably then. A time for revenge has come.
Our Gloomhaven Campaign in chronological order: #1 Black Barrow, #2 Barrow Lair, #3 Inox Encampment, #69 Well of the Unfortunate, #4 Crypt of the Damned, #5 Ruinous Crypt, #93 Sunken Vessel, #10 Plane of Elemental Power, #21 Infernal Throne, #14 Frozen Hollow, #19 Forgotten Crypt, #27 Ruinous Rift, #8 Gloomhaven Warehouse, #7 Vibrant Grotto, #20 Necromancer's Sanctum, #6 Decaying Crypt, #28 Outer Ritual Chamber, #94 Vermling Nest, #95 Payment Due, #13 Temple of the Seer, #16 Mountain Pass, #43 Drake's Nest, #18 Abandoned Sewers, #25 Icecrag Asent, #28 Outer Ritual Chamber (#3), #29 Sanctuary of Gloom, #55 Foggy Thicket, #56 Bandit's Wood, #72 Ozing Grove, #59 Forgotten Grove, #60 Alchemy Lab, #22 Temple of Elements, Solo Scenarios, #81 Temple of Eclipse, #24 Echo Chamber, #15 Shrine of Strength, #33 Savvas Armory, #32 Decrepit Wood, #43 Drake's Nest (#2)
Drakes – small dragons – were part of our Gloomhaven adventure for quite a long time. They were always quick, deadly and had a lot of hit points. Usually we managed to deal with them but many scenarios ago when we were in process of redefining our group play-style (due to retirements) we attempted #43 Drake’s Nest, but we did not mange to pass this scenario.
An opportunity came this week to attempt to settle this unfinished business. As our unusual 4-player group was not able to meet, we played in a smaller sub set (3 players) – just like we did for majority of campaign This time that was:
- me – playing level 8 Scoundrel
- Kuba J – playing level 9 Soothsinger
- Kuba G – playing level 8 Sunkeeper
The scenario goal was to kill – in our case – 12 drakes. Seemed like an easy task, but those monsters are really fast and can bite with wound and poison! Let us see in my photo-rich session report how it went!
A large, 6-room player mat will be place of our hunt for drakes. Let us begin! 
First room and two elite Fire Daemons. In our first attempt we had piercing bow as well as Goggles which made this room an easy pick. 
Did I mention we play on Very Hard difficulty? That means level 7 (maximum) monsters. 
That was a really hard-fought battle and only my Scoundrel – with poison de-buffs – was able in normal way to get through Shield 5. Lucky for us, Sunkeeper also rolled a bless in his attack and in the end we were pass this initial obstacle. 
Now, to the second room. Drakes finally! And so many traps – mainly a stun-ones. Of course, we have Fire Daemons too – but this time it will be much easier to get rid of them. 
All of the sudden most of the enemies entered our room and started to perform “Target Two” abilities. That was critical moment of our game… 
…but then Scoundrel ability to kill instantly Normal monsters started to show how powerful it is. 
Then we have two, 3-Drake rooms to clean. It goes relatively quickly in first area. 
The second falls to our concentrated attack also pretty speedily. 
We are still two Drakes short, so we decide to enter the suspiciously looking, far end of the board room. We are not disappointed – there are many enemies there! 
We are at the verge of exhaustion – which in the end gets Sunkeeper and Bard – but we manage to fulfill the mission goal. 
Our trophies – all in all we dispatched 13 Drakes – two are missing above due to lack of figures!
We really have good team composition now. With tank, support and damage dealer we have almost no issues with tackling that very difficult scenario – and there was one trick which really assisted us. Please see below:
I heard a lot of accusations that Scoundrel is pretty situational and frustrating character. I disagree. With proper use of cards it can achieve tremendous effects. Ability to approach enemy at the end of turn, force it to move and then instantly kill is a super-powerful combo. A combo which I used yesterday six times and allowed us to kill very nasty monsters, high-shield Fire Daemons including.
For the next meeting, in full, four-player set-up, we plan one of the most crazy and difficult scenarios of all – #40! We will have three, 9th level adventurers already (Scoundrel, Bard and Sunkeeper) so we are ready for a challenge!
The Boardgames Chronicle 
First room without piercing bows was very painful, we had to eat quite a lot of retaliation damage. After we cleared it be decided to go quick and it could have ended bad to my poor old Bard . After revealing main chamber i took few steps back and felt ok, i can move away and let Sunkeeper take damage for us. First round was ok, monsters moved towards the door barely scratching our Sun, but the next round was painful(we already have been bit tired – maybe did a mistake that we continued without long rest) and monsters received target 2 and melee became ranged as well, our Scoundrel got invisible and prepared for the long rest and there was no chance for me to avoid damage this and next round. Due to wound and poison it was difficult for me to recover health(my song work for allies only) and i went down to 2 HP and even had to burn card (one of my favourites – disorienting dirge) to cancel damage and did a long rest. That was crucial point, we were even affraid we’ll need to repeat it, as my deck started to get thin due to unexpected card loss, and there were still tons of monsters to handle, but we’ve managed to kill few rending drakes(no elites, so less HP) and Michal started to pick out enemies one by one. After we killed our most fearsome enemies – flame demons, we’ve regained confindence we can beat that. Later rooms had fewer monsters and therefore much easier to handle. At the end , luckilly we’ve managed to secure chest(Sunkeeper and Scoundrel argued who will get it and Sunkeeper was the first to move , cleared his path by not pickingt cancel hit and slowly moved on it 😉 ). 2 “supports” exhausted(no cards left to pick) at the same time and at the end of that turn Michal/Scoundrel finished scenario – very well timed. We’re very satisfied, we flushed the dishonor after painful loss(due to our mistake – forgeting about rule we can discard card to avoid damage), and we’ve beaten 4 flame demons(including 2 extreemly powerful elites) without piercing bows . Good work!
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