Tonberry BGR : ThunderStone Review

A small intro here. So last week I started going to the local game shop to partake in some board game related activities. There's a post I finished that said I would do a review of each of the games I played. Unfortunately I'm extremely late on that but no worries cause here it is the first of many. ThunderStone Review.

What is ThunderStone?

Thunderstone is a deck building card game that exercises many of the mechanics similar to other deck building games such as Dominion or Ascension. While I can't speak on the note of Ascension in great detail there can definitely be some notable difference between ThunderStone and Dominion. Though we shall not get to that point yet but in a nutshell as started earlier its a deck building game where its the players goal to collect items, heroes and venture into the dungeon to defeat enemies. Once an enemy is defeated you gain experience and victory points based on the creature defeated. After sometime the thunderstone will appear in the enemys cave and the player to claim it gets 3 points and ends the game.

Components?

The game comes with an instruction manual that's about 20 some pages long, and the cards in not so convenient dividers. When I mean not so convenient I mean mean no-existent with the main purpose that it leaves plenty of room for expansions and there's no fixed space. Blessing and a curse I suppose but that's about it. The instructions do a fairly effective job of explaining the game without leaving too many areas for guessing.

How does the game play?

Your initially deck/resource that you receive consist of a variety of cards such as Torches, Daggers, Militia, and other cards. Each of these cards has a set ability or cost for example Torches provide +1 light and can be used as 2 coins and Militias have +1 attack and have no coin value. On your first turn you draw 6 cards and then choose to go to the village or the caves. The village offers the ability to purchase a new item or hero to use in combat, upgrade a hero you have in your hand or rest to remove one card in your hand which in some cases are diseases. Caves provide an avenue of gaining experience and also obtain trophies which can be used as ability cards for future combat. There's also different levels of the caves/dungeons in which the players use light to even out there power against the monsters that are further in the cave. Everything at the beginning from items and heroes you can buy to types of monsters you fight are randomized. At the end of each turn you discard your hand and draw a new hard of 6 cards. This cycle repeats itself till the dung is exhausted down to the Thunderstone in which once claimed the game is over.

Similarities to other games:

There are strong similarities to other games which one comes to mind is Dominion however there are striking key difference between the two:

Players battle the caves, not the other players - While in each game the key goal is to stream line your deck so you can obtain the maximum points possible in dominion you must also keep in mind a secret priority to screw over your opponent whenever you can. Even in some cases based on the starting cards the deck you build can be based on keeping your opponent down while you win with a very minimal lead. This tends to create a lot of hit and miss reactions for some Dominion players. Some definitely enjoy the fact of building your deck as effective as you can but feel hampered when there opponent tries to wreck there strategy. This concept doesn't exist in Thunderstone as everyone is focusing on killing as many monsters as possible from the cave. For a lawl comparison think of it as the difference between a RP and non-RP server in mmos. On the RP server users are usually friendlier as the community is much smaller while on non-RPs it tends to be whoever can tag the mob first wins/gets to keep it.

Aside from this I can't think of any other similar games.

Cons?:

Some of these are rather straight forward. With most of these deck building games the player who goes first typically has an advantage as priority over choices can pay off in the long run for resources that are strongly wanted. This tends to play a large role once monsters are slayed. Another gief I have is the lack of player interaction amongst players. While this is also what make the game gold you really don't even need to communicate with your friends and for the most part play out your turn then wait for it to come up again. There's also some cases where enemies in the cave/dungeon where they all have negative effects and no one wants to engage them which creates a miniature stalling effect. In most cases though it still advantages to fight it even if you get a disease or two against it as the reward paces of the plague.

Pros?:

Its another deck building game alternative. The one thing that I must admit that turns me off dominion is re-randomizing if the set-up seems too 'aggressive' for new players or people who don't enjoy that element. Sense that element does not exist in this game less re-randoming is needed. It also brings the unique element of leveling up your hero and choosing between the equipment in which how you wish to build them, so there's a bit of a meta element of not only making your deck work but also making your deck work with your heroes as well.

Recommendations:

I would recommend this game if:

Your looking for an alternative to Dominion.
Enjoy playing games with friends in which you pat each other on the back instead of backstabbing.
Find the aspects of building something from scratch into something effective a neat concept.

Specifications:
Average Cost: $35-$40
Time to play: 15-45 minutes.

Final Thoughts:

As I already own Dominion myself I can't really see myself picking this up any time in the future. Equally along with the fact that there are several other board games that have my interest at the moment which are currently on the back burner. If your contemplating between this and Thunderstone be sure to consult the group of people you play with first and understand what style of game there looking for from there. While I must say I do enjoy Fury of Dracula, Lunch Money and just recently Middle Earth: Quest knowing friends that don't enjoy a crap ton of meta rules stop me from ever wanting to play it.

That's it for this review next up Magical Athlete.