• Founders of Gloomhaven
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Cephalofair Games

Founders of Gloomhaven

Low stock
$79.00
$79.00 RRP $102.00

Founders of Gloomhaven is a competitive city-building strategy game for 1–4 players, playable in around 90–120 minutes. Set centuries before Gloomhaven, it combines tile placement, auctions and influence voting as fantastical races raise the city together. Medium-heavy; recommended for ages 12+.

Players
1–4 players
Play time
2h
Age
Teens
Complexity
Hard

About the Game

A game of Founders of Gloomhaven sees rival fantastical races grudgingly cooperate as they raise the city together: placing resource buildings on the map, refining basic goods into advanced resources and delivering them to building sites to earn prestige. No race can import every resource type, so players must work through each other's networks, while periodic auctions let them spend influence to vote on which new buildings appear and where.

Founders of Gloomhaven plays with 1–4 players over 90–120 minutes. It is a medium-heavy strategy game recommended for ages 12 and up, built around tile placement, auctions, voting, route building and variable player powers.

Published by Cephalofair Games, Founders of Gloomhaven is a standalone game set in the same world as Gloomhaven. Its events take place hundreds of years earlier, depicting the original construction of the city, and it swaps dungeon-crawling adventure for competitive city-building — no experience with Gloomhaven is required.

History

Founders of Gloomhaven is a standalone title from Cephalofair Games, set in the same world as Gloomhaven. Rather than continuing that game's story, it takes place hundreds of years earlier and depicts the original construction of the city, offering a competitive, self-contained experience that requires no familiarity with its predecessor.

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Shipping details

Founders of Gloomhaven

$79.00

Watch: How to play

Rules of Founders of Gloomhaven

  • Setup: each player chooses a fantastical race with its own variable powers, then the map is seeded with starting resource buildings and players receive their starting goods and influence as the rulebook directs.
  • Turn flow: take actions to place resource buildings on the map, produce basic goods, refine them into advanced resources, and deliver them to building sites.
  • Routes matter: deliveries travel along connected routes, so extend your network so goods can actually reach the city.
  • Shared networks: no race can import every resource type, so you will need to work through other players' buildings to source what you lack.
  • Auctions: at intervals, players spend influence to vote on which new building appears and where it is placed.
  • Objective: earn prestige by delivering resources to complete city buildings.
  • Game end: once the city's construction is finished for your player count, the game ends and the player with the most prestige wins.

Strategy

  • Read your race's unique power carefully and shape your opening turns around what it does well.
  • Secure a reliable supply of basic goods before investing heavily in refining — advanced resources are useless without steady inputs.
  • Note which resources your opponents can import, and lean on their networks for what you cannot produce rather than overextending.
  • Place resource buildings with future delivery routes in mind so goods can reach building sites without detours.
  • Save influence for auctions that genuinely affect you; winning the vote on both the building and its location can reshape the board in your favour.
  • Even when you lose a vote, look for ways rival buildings can open routes or resources you can exploit.
  • Balance producing, refining and delivering — prestige comes from completed deliveries, not from stockpiled goods.