Red Guard class guide and strategy for Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion

[@MandatoryQuest]

Who would win? - A group of living spirits or 1 spiky boi? Patreon - patreon.com/mandatoryquest

[@ZDTcko]

Some guy on reddit today said he doesnt like your guides cuz they are too long and he doesnt have time for them? Needless to say i defended your honor. Youre videos are top class guides compared to any game there is. You even put timestamps on all important topics, like DUDE! Keep up the good work and also know there are many of us who do appreciate your extensive, informative and still entertaining guide videos. Cheers.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Hey that's all good man, different strokes for different folks an all. Glad you enjoy the videos my dude.

[@jefffoxunworthy9551]

You do realize it's a dick thing to say that, right? Your comment would have been a billion times more supportive if you just didn't include the first two sentences.

[@JaceMazama]

3 hour guides, who has time for that? ...I think I can watch 3 today.

[@grit1]

I gotta say Im impressed with how much elemental generation all the Jaws characters have. It screams 'use an elementalist" with them

[@peytonwilliams3107]

I noticed this as well, but when you think about it it makes sense. Across Gloomhaven’s 17 characters, you can use all 6 elements, with some classes using a lot, and some not using many at all. Jaws only has 4 characters, so if you want to give players the potential to use all 6 elements, it makes sense to do an even spread (demo has fire and earth, red guard has fire and light, hatchet has wind, and the voidwarden handles ice and dark)

[@michaeledmonds4849]

Strangling Chain fire-boosted top on an enemy also surrounded by its friends, then VW Resigned Frenzy forcing all those friends to hit it. That was key to me winning the RG spotlight scenario.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Nice, I haven't played the spotlight yet but ill keep that in mind!

[@GameStreit]

I have come to love the Red Guard Shield spike build. I think he can replace Sun in one of the most broken parties in the game, especially at high level. Red Guard, Music Note and Cthulhu is a great broken party. Shield up the RG with like 4 shield easily and the have the enemies pulling pulling curses. HP just vanishes.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I love the fact you can do both damage and tanking on the same turn. Leads to a very aggressive and fun play style, that also rewards good play. Sun can sometimes be a bit too straightforward and vanilla IMO.

[@scoobiusmaximus9508]

I feel like Sand Devil is a card that has a lot of potential creative uses but that causes people to overthink it. Personally I found the most use from it 90% of the time just moving it between 2 enemies next to the Redguard every turn. An enemy it starts the turn on doesn't get the muddle or damage but if you move it on to another enemy and then back to the first one it does. This basically results in a psudo-wound on 2 enemies and keeps them muddled which is actually useful because the Redguard tends to take a lot of hits, especially with a Shield Spikes build, and if those enemies are ranged they won't move away which also helps with that. It is unfortunate though that using Shield Spikes and Sand Devil requires burning 2 cards. As much as I find the synergy between them to be pretty good it's not something that you can do early in a scenario, or even at all in many scenarios.

[@shaso567]

I keep finding that shield spikes while completely insane when it goes off well, is really mediocre when enemies have random ranges every turn or sometimes just dont attack.

[@scoobiusmaximus9508]

@shaso567 you can't do much about enemies not attacking, but Redguard has the ability to perform a lot of pull combined with immobilize or muddle that can make ranged enemies stay close. At the very least you won't waste any item shields on enemies that aren't attacking.

[@ShaneChristianC]

Nice one!

[@markusjagering7449]

When I reached lvl 5 I didn't pick the Sand devil but the other lvl 4 card.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I think that's absolutely fair. It's one of those cards that has a lot of potential, but you need to work real hard to get an above average performance out of it. I think everyone should try playing with it at least for a bit of fun, but its not powerful a lot of the time.

[@Tojofallz]

Currently playing guildmaster with not a ton of unlocks and i just unlocked chain hood. It seems like it actually does work quite well especially with the shield spikes build!

[@mrsamtheman80]

I am fairly new to JotL but find Blade Dance + Flame Shroud borderline OP, at least through scenario 8. Playing 2P with Demo, just before tackling a boss, using Blade Dance with both elements prepped before opening the room door, stand in the doorway, Attack 2 + Pull 2 + 2 auto damage (from active flame shroud). Then move 2 away, attack 2 + pull 2 + 2 more auto damage. And now the boss is next to a wall, away from the boss “support network”, ready for a massive Demo strike. Even with bad luck, the boss goes down the next turn and boss supporters can only move, no attack…but average luck or even slightly bad luck the boss goes down first turn. (Oh, and you get 2-3 xp depending on whether you get one from the Shroud.) What am I missing? These cards together make mince meat of the first type of boss in very easy fashion…with two cards available from the start for the same character. That said, in general your videos have really helped me; thank you for them!

[@basseon]

Well, I just played a scenario with Flame Demons, Spitting Drake and Rending Drakes. Tried playing Spike Shield on 1st round, immobilizing and cranking up my Shield, I even had a Tower Shield and Spiked Shield on. I did a grand total of 0 Retaliation 🤣🤣Think I need more practice with that type of build or I'll go back to pulling them into my Flame Shroud.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Bottom of healing Sands can help force ranged to stay adjacent to you, but yeah can be tough to put it all together. I like using Signs of the Void on Void warden to free up a bottom action on the Red Guard but still have shield.

[@oliverjones2426]

what i did is i gave him an helix ring, gave him prismatic cycle and honorable fury, so prismatic cycle can really help him generate stuff and set him up for the helix ring and i also enchanted a few of his moves with elements and gave him volatile bomb+pendant of the dark path, ultimately with the helix ring+ pendant of the dark path he has around 70 hp so even though he cant block much damage hes great on the offense . and for the shielded ennemy that bottom of honorable fury destroys them. but i do agree he can be an amazing tank too especially with shield spikes, ill probably do that build in the guild mode. right now im in campaign mode and hes my most reliable merc. which is funny because at first i hated him, but i guess thats what i love about gloomhaven, i often dont like the mercs until i discover items or way to use them and then i get really excited and get attached to them.

[@teosuperman_]

Let's go 🔥

[@maxmustermann-zx9yq]

Started JotL campaign on Christmas, playing red guard, scenario 3 as a tank ended with 6 curses in my deck xd

[@MandatoryQuest]

Hey sometimes you just got to take one for the team! :)

[@imbahzor]

i feel like losing warrior of the sun is not that good, it adds immobilize, if you can enchant that with 1 more shield and use a movement plus shield you suddenly force ranged enemies to be muddled and take retaliate damage of 3+ depending on the composition, if you add soothsinger to the party you have a potential of 3 more shield for that 1 turn and you will basically kill almost everyone around you. Horns of the beast 4 shield (or 5 if you have the cash) , warrior of the sun 2 shield, defensive ditty active on soothsinger, echoing aria bottom and suddenly you have jump and up to 10 shield, and with the correct items you get around 12 shield + more with single use items, with retaliate for one turn, your only downfall then is if the enemies doesnt attack that turn

[@p3x]

This helped me a lot! I m just new to the game and try not to spoil myself too much, so I gonna reopen this video here again and again. :> The thing is, I was reading a lot that tanking is hard in Gloomhaven, as you miss out on damage, which is just not good, even more in a 2-Player. Thanks to the Red Guard I can do what I like, tanking, and doing some damage. How did you level up your heroes that fast for this video btw? I might like to use it in the future for some button pressing. :D

[@MandatoryQuest]

Glad you are finding the video useful. Yeah tanking is a less valued mechanic in general because of course dead enemies cant attack, and most scenarios require you to kill all (or at least a lot) of enemies. I think its valuable though as it buys your team time, and your going to have to take damage at some point. Red Guard is great because shield spikes helps to bridge that gap between having to choose between tanking and damage. I had a special save I use for doing my guides, and in Guildmaster mode you can always 're-spec' whenever you like for free :)

[@danhayes2456]

Love the guide! (and all your guides) Couple thoughts. You are REALLY focused on getting that light from Warrior of the Sun lol. Why not just run a minor mana potion? Or a wand if you really need it? You have 4 perks that make light as well... Just seems weird to run a pretty mediocre card just to make light. Can't think of a single other character where I would take a mediocre level 1 card just to make one element, especially one we don't really even need? Further, if you are cutting Sand Devil anyway, why not just take Radiant Sickle at that level and play that over Warrior of the Sun? You can play what seems to be a better card that makes light over a lesser one. Or do you value the immobilize (which we get from Strangling Chain as well) that highly? Oh Sand Devil. I definitely had fun with it, but it's kinda bad. I think overall I did more damage to my own team with it than the enemy's ;p Can't wait for Voidwarden!

[@MandatoryQuest]

I do like the immobilize a lot actually, but that's maybe just more of a personal choice for hardcore Shield Spikes build. Yes you can use a mana potion or a wand, but both those items aren't suited on you, so you'd need a friend. Strangling Chain has to be a top action IMO as its just so good. Yeah Sand Devil is a bit of a disappointment. Very fun, but weak overall.

[@stephencleary562]

We just finished Jaws tabletop last night and I'm thinking of doing a retire/enhance with the VoidWarden and RedGuard. Just going through the RG cards now to brainstorm and came back to this video for some ideas. One I thought of was Poison on Strangling Chain - the card's effect is effectively single round poison/double poison so it stacks a good thing. I've been low-key hanging out for your VoidWarden video for the last few weeks to get your ideas on her enhancements - my wife loved the forced attack burns like Resigned Frenzy & we're using Frosthaven's enhancement rules so the burns are half price. I appreciate though that these epic videos take time, particularly for the highest complexity Jaws class. We'll next go on to the x4 10 scenario Community Campaigns to try to lull casual friends into Frosthaven. Thanks for the channel MQ!

[@MandatoryQuest]

That poison idea sounds great actually, really goes all in on the idea of Strangling Chain! The Voidwarden video should be up on the Patreon by the end of this weekend, and will come to YT a week later :)

[@antoinevaillancourt1466]

I have a question. When a monster wants to move while he's on the sand devil, does he leave the devil by moving freely, or does the devil follow his movements constantly? This card has a lot of text, but I don't think it explains everything.

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes monsters can move freely off the Sand Devil and the Sand Devil does not 'follow them' so to say. This way you can switch who the Sand Devil moves onto/with often making it more flexible.

[@markusjagering7449]

Burn away the Dark is also a good card to annoy a Nightshroud player.

[@MandatoryQuest]

A very real benefit

[@hammerspace8866]

I assume gloomhaven digital doesn't have the solo items. Because the sun's class solo item is really good for this class if you're playing shield spikes.

[@MandatoryQuest]

No solo items in Digital at the moment, but they are doing more DLC so who knows.

[@SaschaKleiber]

It seems they changed the available perks from the digital game compared to the boardgame? In the boardgame there’s only one „remove two -1“…

[@maxmustermann-zx9yq]

Well they are also using the original items and not the rebalanced JotL ones

[@jwrath5188]

Just started playing, does shield stay with you the whole scenario? Or is it just that round?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Anything with the circle arrow is a till end of round effect. If the card has the infinity symbol (like on shield spikes top) then it stays for the rest of that scenario.

[@basseon]

Interesting how I've never used Shield Spikes once, as I've learned in your other videos and playing for year, that Retaliate is not controllable and is less reliable than doing damage (don't know if enemies will do melee attack or range, or even attack at all). I can see how that could potentially do a lot of damage. I'm will try it for sure. Curious to see how that work with Tower Shield and such, but right now my Red Guard has the Hooked Chain for roleplay reasons (and combo with the Flame Shroud). Is it just me or it's pretty hard to get equipment to all the mercenaries in GuildMaster? Like I have to to the Scenarios giving items non-stop and even there, a lot of mercenaries have empty slots.

[@MandatoryQuest]

I think in the past most other characters have struggled to get Retaliate right. The only exception to that is maybe Sun or Music notes use of it. Its either too inconsistent, inefficient, or focuses you into a very narrow playstyle. Shield Spikes as a card is a master stroke IMO on solving that issue. Now all your little shield 1 bonuses can contribute to your damage, and the character gets given all the tools to keep enemies adjacent to actually trigger it too. Just the perfect storm really. Yeah I have definitely noticed an item/gold imbalance in all game modes really, especially if you like to play on increased difficulty. Maybe try and hunt down the relic missions as a priority as they have items as rewards in Guildmaster.

[@basseon]

Yeah, having played Tabletop for awhile, I would warned new players that they would only get 1 or 2 Enhancements IF they're lucky and IF they don't donate to the temple. Which is disappointing because you can't really explore the whole Enhancements system.

[@basseon]

@@MandatoryQuest I wished I could do more Relics but they're almost all locked. I need to unlock Starting Village and don't really know how. I've been doing mainly Travel scenarios, which are suppose to unlock Starting Village eventually, but I've done a lot (all my Mercenaries are around level 4-5 now) and still haven't unlocked any Starting Village I think.

[@MandatoryQuest]

@@basseon Sounds like you are doing everything right. It's been a long time since I've played Guildmaster now unfortunately, so I don't remember all the unlocks.

[@davidberman3201]

Don't know why you would consider removing warrior of the sun on a shield spikes build

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yeah its kind of necessary although not particularly glamorous. In scenarios with a lot of melee enemies where immobilise is not so important you could consider swapping it out then.

[@danhayes2456]

Voidwarden soon?

[@MandatoryQuest]

Yes 👍

[@danhayes2456]

@@MandatoryQuest Yaaaaaay! I need to get some popcorn for when you discuss her level 9 cards ;p