Game Night Carnival For January 2012, Thunderstone
And here we are, back to the Game Night Blog Carnival, and what a game to come back with. Thunderstone has been a 
blast, and it is a game I would not regret having purchased*. At it’s core Thunderstone is a classic dungeon delve; you, as the party leader, must gather the resources and adventurers necessary to venture into the dungeon and kill monsters to take their stuff. It is a deckbuilding game for up to 5 players, and while it is best when played competitively against your friends you can play it solo.
In Thunderstone each player begins with a deck of 12 basic cards. While these cards are pretty mediocre, they can be turned into better cards (in the case of militia), or are useful even in the late game (in the case of torches). During each turn a player may rest, visit the village, or enter the dungeon. Going to each location is likely necessary for your victory. The trick is of course the balancing act between each location, as a player’s entire turn consists solely of visiting one of these locations. Before beginning the game each deck (the dungeon and the village) are predetermined using randomizer cards. This does significantly increase the length of set-up and clean-up time, but it allows the players to get a strategy ready before the game, and it keeps each game different from the one before.
The simplest, and potentially most vital, choice is to rest. Resting allows a player to take a single card from his or her hand and destroy it, removing it from their deck entirely. This is the simplest, and quickest way to get rid of the dross clogging up your deck. Of course, as was mentioned, these start cards can still be used to great effect later. When considering whether or not to rest and destroy, it is also worth noting that some cards in the dungeon and village deck can destroy your cards as well.
The village contains four stacks of heroes and an arrangement of nine other cards (as well as the village deck which replaces purchased cards from the village). The four types of heroes (which are randomly chosen, like the dungeon and village cards) have three different levels, and are stacked in ascending order. The easiest way to add a hero to your deck is to purchase it with
gold, which is supplied by many of the cards. Unfortunately a player can only ever purchase a single card from the village, so paying for the hero stops you from buying a powerful weapon or similarly good card from the village. Alternatively a player can use xp earned from killing monsters in the dungeon to upgrade heroes. A militia (one of the cards each player starts with) can be upgraded to any type of hero, and any hero can be upgraded to to a higher level version of the same. Because the 2nd and 3rd level heroes can only be added to your deck when they are on the top of their respective stacks this introduces a nice level of strategy where you have to risk allowing other players easy access to powerful heroes in order to select them yourself. The rest of the village cards are a selection of weapons, spells, food, and light sources. Which items are necessary is highly dependent upon the game (for instance, the light sources may never be useful given the right heroes and monsters), but they can all be quite good. And remember, purchasing an item counts as your turn, so you only get one item or a hero. The selection of cards in the village presents plenty of strategy, as you must simultaneously purchase cards that will help you and stop your opponents from getting the cards they need. Knowing the types of cards in the village deck (though not the order they’ll come in) helps players to make their choices, and the measure the flow of the game. The adversarial element of the game comes from stopping your opponents, rather than directly screwing them over (usually).
gold, which is supplied by many of the cards. Unfortunately a player can only ever purchase a single card from the village, so paying for the hero stops you from buying a powerful weapon or similarly good card from the village. Alternatively a player can use xp earned from killing monsters in the dungeon to upgrade heroes. A militia (one of the cards each player starts with) can be upgraded to any type of hero, and any hero can be upgraded to to a higher level version of the same. Because the 2nd and 3rd level heroes can only be added to your deck when they are on the top of their respective stacks this introduces a nice level of strategy where you have to risk allowing other players easy access to powerful heroes in order to select them yourself. The rest of the village cards are a selection of weapons, spells, food, and light sources. Which items are necessary is highly dependent upon the game (for instance, the light sources may never be useful given the right heroes and monsters), but they can all be quite good. And remember, purchasing an item counts as your turn, so you only get one item or a hero. The selection of cards in the village presents plenty of strategy, as you must simultaneously purchase cards that will help you and stop your opponents from getting the cards they need. Knowing the types of cards in the village deck (though not the order they’ll come in) helps players to make their choices, and the measure the flow of the game. The adversarial element of the game comes from stopping your opponents, rather than directly screwing them over (usually).Lastly, and most importantly, is the dungeon. From the deck of monsters the top three cards are revealed, and when one of these monsters is defeated the next card from the dungeon takes its place. When a player decides to enter the dungeon he or she is free to chose which monster to fight, but may only fight the one. A player’s hand can consist of heroes, weapons, spells, food, and light. Each hero can equip only a single weapon, but you are not limited in terms of food, spells, or light. Heck, you don’t even need heroes in order to kill a monster- as an apparently powerful wizard you can enter the dungeon alone and throw enough fireballs to gain victory. Each monster has a hitpoint value which must be at least equaled by the total attack (or magic attack) revealed by the cards you play. Fairly straight forward at this point, but Thunderstone complicates the matter by adding the classic, and iconic, requirement for light when dungeon delving. As you go deeper into the dungeon it gets darker, and enough darkness will make it hard to impossible to defeat the monster. Fortunately there are plenty of light sources in the game, including several spells/magic items, or certain heroes. When a monster is killed it is added to the player’s deck, typically giving some gold and victory points (and rarely, a benefit for future battles), and the xp gained can be used to upgrade heroes. Eventually the thunderstone will be revealed, which signals the end of the game is near- either a player will enter the dungeon to take the stone, or it will enter the top level of the dungeon. Fairly straightforward, and unfortunately the strategy here is fairly shallow (as it just requires figuring out whether or not you can kill a monster before entering the dungeon). Additionally, it can be very easy to earn way more xp than you can use, and the extra is simply wasted at the end of the game. I’m considering laying out the monsters face down so that there is a dangerous, random element.
Once the thunderstone is finally discovered, and captured or freed, the game ends. The players then calculate their victory 
points, which are gained from killing monsters, gaining powerful heroes, and purchasing rare items. The player with the most is declared winner. So far each game I’ve played has been very close, with the expected winner shifting several times during the game (for good play, not random chance). The game has its faults of course, as all do, but it has many strengths, and overall I am glad I now own it. It provides a good level of challenge, with depth and complexity, as well as a large variety of strategies. It is fairly intuitive and easy to learn, especially for players familiar with deckbuilding games or D&D. I’m also imagining it has great potential for expansion and house rules (which I’ll be experimenting with).
points, which are gained from killing monsters, gaining powerful heroes, and purchasing rare items. The player with the most is declared winner. So far each game I’ve played has been very close, with the expected winner shifting several times during the game (for good play, not random chance). The game has its faults of course, as all do, but it has many strengths, and overall I am glad I now own it. It provides a good level of challenge, with depth and complexity, as well as a large variety of strategies. It is fairly intuitive and easy to learn, especially for players familiar with deckbuilding games or D&D. I’m also imagining it has great potential for expansion and house rules (which I’ll be experimenting with).TLDR; the game plays like a dungeon delve, and is built with all the smartness of a great deckbuilding game. A worthy choice to any gamer’s shelf.
* In full disclosure, Alderac Entertainment Group sent a copy of the Thunderstone base set to us and several other bloggers/podcasters for review. If a reader already believes this review was tainted by a $45 gift then declaring my honesty is inherently pointless.-Ian
