And a minimum of another $10-100 to organize it in any meaningful way to play it. (It has a ton of components, and not organizing it seriously hinders your ability to play with any efficiency.)

But Gloomhaven has its "intro version" (Jaws of the Lion) that's around $40 and reasonably organizable with how it comes. 4 characters (unqiue to that, but playable in full campaign) and a shorter, less complicated campaign with less branching, and a few of the meta-mechanics not present. Still a good experience.

(JotL has a mass-market retail agreement with Target in the US, so your purchasing options may be limited.)

MSRP is $140 USD, used to see it in my local Target store around that price. You can find it for less than that pretty easily though. Miniaturemarket.com has it for $100 for instance.
No LAN - not unexpected for an Asmodee game. You can play multiplayer through Galaxy - supposedly crossplay with Stream - haven't tried myself yet.

Gorbachevious, that's expensive.

It is not that expensive when you look at the Tainted Grail, Dark Souls and Nemesis etc. board games. This game as a board game will provide probably several weeks if not months of gaming with friends or solo.

It is, but a very good cost/price ratio compared to some other games. It occupied me, my husband, and a friend one night a week for OVER a year. And unlike other games that are super expensive because they add all sorts of useless bling (like Kingdom Death Monster and its bazillions of miniatures. Reportedly a fine game, but the cost isn't worth it because it's all about the miniatures [which, you need a new house to store them].
Shh, Tainted Grail is on the shelf to play after we finish Middara [though parts 2 and 3 are still forthcoming]. And by the time that ends, ISS Vanguard might be coming out...

Since someone's bound to ask, my most expensive "board game" is definitely Arkham Horror LCG, for which I have it all but a couple cards. Pricing is coming down on that a little bit with them repackaging how they sell it (finally!). Of course, this excludes Magic the Gathering (which fortunately never truly got deep hooks in me; I just bought cheap cards and never hunted rares), and RPGs (I shall plead the 5th here).

Most important thing is the AI for the single player. So .....?

I'm somewhere in the middle - I've played a few games where the achievements were thoughtfully designed and encouraged experimentation.

Tho in most games it seems like they exist just to exist.

Could you actually complete your statement?

Cheers for that. Of course your right. :). If other comments (not related to AI) are correct then it will be a challenge. Im not one to look for loopholes in the AI etc so i think the game will be fine for me. Thank you :D

I have the board game and play on Steam with some buddies.

It's the best adaptation I've ever played of a board game. It has fun strategic gameplay. And lots of wonderful moments of unlocking gear, quests, additional characters, and story. It's not super-story-rich, but it's decent enough for mood-setting.

You can play it hotseat, over the Internet, or alone. You assign characters to players, so you can just share who is controlling whom if playing multiplayer. And the game owner can keep playing on their own if want.

It's a fantastic game. Hundreds of hours of content. And enough varied stategic moments, quests, characters, skills, and gear, that it stays engaging for a long time.

Sweet! Actually almost picked this up in physical form a few months back!

I sort of almost feel I'll get more entertainment / enjoyment out of it playing it this way (my group of friends is seriously lacking in people willing to dive into a multi-hour dungeon crawl board game campaign, damnit).

When I pick it up / fire it up - how easy is it to hook up with people? I've been sort of absent lately but now that it's fall / winter I might be up for a beer and pretzels night with people here if there's any interest.

Also - how hard is the game? I heard the board game can be challenging. I'm willing to learn mechanics and huge rulesets - that's not an issue - but is it easy to bork a campaign by sucking? I don't want to limp my way through 90+ missions on my way to failure.

Regardless - nice pickup - glad to see it here!