We're a few sessions in now, we know the rules but still often forget things. I'm still finding it difficult to evaluate my cards, both for making my deck and for playing them.

I'm finding the 'discourage discussion' part more of a miscommunication issue. The guide stressed about not discussing details and selecting cards at the same time, and with me having no idea about the gameplay at the time, it just sounded like forcing a specific type of scenario in game theory.

Now that we're more or less familiar with the rules, it feels much more natural. Occasionally we do break the discussion rules though, because we really enjoy highly detailed planning, and there's no Gloomhaven police here to confiscate the game.

Btw JotL has battle goals. Not sure about retirement goals, we each have a pack of cards that we're not supposed to open or read about till level 5.