Thunderstone Boardgame Review

Designer Mike Elliott
Artist Jason Engle
Publisher Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)
Arclight
Edge Entertainment
Pegasus Spiele
Year Published 2009
# of Players 1 − 5
User Suggested # of Players Best with 3 players
Recommended with 1, 2, 3, 4 players
Playing Time 60 minutes
Mfg Suggested Ages 12 and up

Thunderstone is a fantasy deck-building game. Fight the evils of the dungeon to prove your worth. Gain powerful weaponry and level into new and mighty hero classes. Claim the best cards and survive to take the Thunderstone.

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The Game:

Thunderstone is a Deck Building Card game that is quite similar to Dominion. There are several modes of play and I just tried one last night.

Thunderstone basically is about a group adventurers entering a dungeon, fighting through a horde of monsters to get to the Thunderstone and thus ending the game. And before you can enter the dungeon, you have to be in the village to equip yourselves with the right equipment.

For anyone with collectible card gaming experience, this game will be easy to pick up. You have some cards which give you gold, some cards which give you attack points, some hero cards which attacks, some cards have additional to boost your hero's attacks, light, the monster cards have a defense you need to exceed, and more.

The game is much about deck building and card draws. Like any card game, having a consistent draw is very important, and cluttering the deck with unnecessary things is bad. To win, a clear strategy is important, and there is not a lot of luck involved as the decks can be optimized for the adventure as the game goes along.

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Gameplay:

The gameplay is pretty good actually. If you are a collectable card gamer, or you have played other card games, this game is very easy to pick up. Most of the time, a game of Thunderstone will take 30 minutes and about 15 minutes to set up, but sometimes when the randomness is bad, then it may take about 1 hour to complete.

Game is fun, and I would say great for 3 - 5 players.

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Replayability:

The game is very replayable. It is a different game every time you play as there are many variation of cards, and even better, variation of game play.

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Overall:

I feel that Alderac has done a good job testing the game. It is pretty well balanced with a 30 - 45 minute game play. To be good at the game, there are a few strategies you can build and it does get challenging and entertaining.

I would say that this is a great game to buy and play with a group of friends!

-- Robin Low