Legend of Drizzt - After a few playthroughs (Pictoral)

Legend of Drizzt Board Game -

a pictoral summary after a few playthroughs

Finally got my copy of Dungeon and Dragons - The Legend of Drizzt board game. After playing it with a friend, I could not wait to get my hands on my copy. Unfortunately, my circumstances meant that for the next 3 months, I will be away with my wife to a foreign land. Which meant no board game nights for 3 months! 

For the last 3 weeks, I have been playing this game solo until yesterday night when Wifey agreed to join me on a dungeon crawling session. Wifey is more into casual games like Dixit, Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. So dungeon crawling would be a significant step up for her. We did not do so well together in our first game though with more plays, we might improve our strategies. 

Here, I will post some photos and summarize on a few sessions. Unfortunately, I cannot remember all the details to every session. But all the pics I took would go to waste if not posted. So just for my entertainment and yours, I will do a quick summary of some of the games that I managed to get some pictures from.

What a finished board looks like. After winning this game, I decided to lay out all the monsters I encountered during this session on the board and take a pic. Looks like Catti-brie is in trouble. Let's hope Wulfgar gets there in time...

Catti-brie stumped to find a Feral troll after failing to defeat the monsters she had stumbled upon. IMO, kiting is child's play to Catti-brie. With her ability to move an extra 2 spaces after exploring, the whole board can be filled with monsters and she will still survive after exploring again.

The Feral Troll, the most formidable monster in the whole game, not counting villains. Look at it towering over our hero. If its swipe hits, your hero goes flying out the window (if there were windows in caverns)

A close up shot of the Feral Troll's nasty grin. Looks like our hero is getting an arrow to launch at it.

In this session, Wulfgar and Athrogate team up to find and defeat Shimmergloom, the dark dragon. Our first explore brought the drow wizard who teleports to a tile with the most heroes and attacks all the heroes. Then a Feral Troll pops up to join the fight. "Tempus!", shouts Wulfgar to the God of Battle.

Athrogate quickly summons Snort, his pet boar, after being surrounded by spider swarms.

Snort goes down after an encounter with a water elemental. Snort goes in for the attack, deals one damage and dies beside the water elemental. His sacrifice will not be in vain!

The battle with Shimmergloom. A close call. Athrogate is knocked out while Wulfgar uses the last healing surge to get up and deal the killing blow to the fiery dragon! That was a lucky session, yes it was...

Bruenor goes after Yvonnel Baenre with Dinin, the drow-spider mutation of Drizzt's brother, by her side. A secret tunnel lies nearby for Bruenor to escape. "Juz 'n case me shield is not enough for protectin".

Wulfgar toweing ove a Goblin Champion. Goes who wins, Thor's hammer or big axe...

This was a memorable one yet. The dice were killing us with lousy rolls. And how lucky for us to land on two Feral Trolls at opposite ends of the hallway. Run, heroes, run!

Wulfgar standing up against another Feral Troll after defeating his first Feral Troll.

And that's all folks...

Tune in for more session reports from time-to-time.

Friday by Friedemann Friese

Friday Board Game

for 1 player (strictly solo)
play time 30 mins
setup time 5 mins
teaching time 15 mins (if you're teaching yourself)

Fun! fun! fun!

Sometimes we all need that one board game that we can play solo especially when no one's free for a board game night and your hands are itchy to touch some components and when you feel like a bit of strategy. Not having enough time for a full fledged board game? Take on Friday, and you'll have time spent "wisely".

Friday is a solo deck building game (as said in every review). The theme is about you (Friday) teaching Robinson Crusoe how to survive the island of hazards (If you've read the story of Robinson Crusoe, you'll immediately know what I mean. If not, I just peaked your interest to find that out). To do this you choose which hazards to fight. You also choose whether to win or not because by winning, you add good cards into your deck (good experience thematically) and if you lose, you get to take out the bad cards from your deck (learning from mistakes thematically). At the end of the game, you should have built a good enough deck to face the tough pirates who have come to raid the island.

Components 7/10

For a cheap, small game, Rio Grande Games have given you all you need and more. 3 square-shaped boards to place your different piles of cards on. Although this is simply a deck building game and you could do without the boards, they do give you an added board game feeling instead of just a card game. The boards also help you remember which deck is which.

The cards themselves are thin and elongated vertically. I found these easy to shuffle when shuffled sideways. The art on them is comically cartoonish but IMO adds to the flavor of the game. I do not really look at them much throughout the game but mostly at the numbers on them but I do appreciate good art. So far after plenty of games (probably more than 20 games), the cards are still in perfect condition. They are bendable and do not defect easily although they are thin. I do take good care not to roughen up the edges when I take them of the table hoping that will make them last longer.

The life tokens are in the shape of leaves and made of wooden blocks colored in green. A very nice touch to a survival game in an island. 

Yes, only three components in this small box. Cheap as I got it for $15 and have played it so much. 

Mechanics 8/10

Deck building, an art of mechanics. This game uses it so well making it seamless and easy to adapt to any player, new or old. 

You start with a deck of 18 cards, good and mostly bad cards (a.k.a. your Fight Deck). Each of these has a comical Robinson drawing and a number at the top left showing its strength and a number of life tokens drawn at the top right depicting how many life tokens it takes to discard that card. Some of the cards have special abilities which you can use by tapping the card sideways (just like in Magic the Gathering). You also begin with 20 life tokens.

You draw two hazard cards from the Hazard deck and choose which to fight. This is where most of your decisions take place as you need to balance which cards you need in your deck and whether you are able to fight that hazard. Each hazard card has the top and bottom side. At the top side is the hazard side which shows the strength you need to defeat the hazard and how many free cards you get to draw. The bottom side of the card shows a Robinson drawing just like in your starting cards with numbers and life token drawings on it so if you add this card to your Fight Deck, this side will show you how much better your deck will become.

After choosing which hazard card to fight, you discard the other hazard card and Robinson Crusoe goes into battle mode. You can draw as many free cards up till the number stated on the hazard card. After this, it will cost one life token for every additional Fight card you draw. If your card has any special abilities, you may tap and use them at any time. Once tapped, you may not use it again. Some abilities allow you to draw additional cards for free, some give you life tokens and still others help you destroy bad cards. If your strength matches or is greater than the number needed to defeat the hazard, you have won this fight and the hazard card, along with all the Fight cards you have drawn is placed in your discard pile (Don't worry, you will get to use these again later). If you decide not to draw any more Fight cards and lose to the hazard, you discard the number of life tokens equal to the number of strength you still need to defeat the hazard. For every life token you discarded this way, you can destroy the face-up Fight cards according to the amount of life tokens they have at the top right corner. This will then help you to take out the "poison" from your deck.

Once your Fight deck of 18 cards is fully drawn, and when you need to draw an additional card, you will add the top card from the Aging deck to your discard pile, shuffle them all and this will now make your new Fight deck. So all the Hazard cards that you have won go into your newly shuffled deck which you get to use when you draw them out again. An Aging card is a bad bad card. Thematically this shows Robinson getting older and making more mistakes. It takes two life tokens to get rid of Aging cards.

So as you play the game, your Fight deck gets stronger. You'll need to strengthen your deck because after going through the Hazard deck, you reshuffle the discard pile to form the new Hazard deck and now they become harder. The number you now have to match is higher than the previous level. You go through the Hazard deck 3 times and after that you will face the tough Pirates. 

Gameplay 8/10

The strategy is there. There is luck involved in which Hazard cards and Fight cards you draw but the strategy is in the statistics, knowing which cards are left in your Fight deck, and building the most appropriate Fight deck to get more cards that you need. What you do in your first round, second round and third round, just before the pirates, will determine how far you will get in the game. 

The different special abilities allow you to shape how and when your deck will be a certain way. Say for the first round you needed more life points, then when a Hazard card comes with life tokens, you will choose those. Or say you needed more strength, you still need to pace yourself because those cards that have higher fight strength will cost more strength to defeat first. So you might wish to get a lower Fight strength first and go for the higher strength cards later.

I always pick this game up when I do not have an hour to play. It is so enjoyable. The steps are easy to learn and once played through, the game will flow like a river - take two cards, choose one, fight, win or lose, repeat. This is one game where the simplicity does not take away the strategy. The point system and also the possibility to adjust the game difficulty level makes the game accessible for both the heavy gamer and casual gamer. 

Replayability 7/10

The point system and 4 difficulty levels allow the game a sufficient amount of replayability. After the game is over, whether or not you have defeated the pirates, you get to total up your points and see how well you did to survive the island. The more you play, the better you will become to beat your previous score. This is not a competition with anyone but yourself so it takes the "take that" pressure away. 

I'm currently at level 4 (the highest level) and managed to beat the pirates just today actually! The available strategy in this game does bring you back again and again to play and beat your old score. However, I'm not sure if there is any meaning to play anymore after you've found that optimized strategy to beat the game. As with most solitaire games, after finding out how to beat the game, it becomes more of a routine. I would say that the different difficulty levels provided do need different strategies to win each time. 

Then again, with most solitaire games, some of us do not care if we use the same strategy to play again and again. To give you an example, if you have played the game "2048" on Android or iPhone app, you will know what I mean when I say the game is addictive. It is a solitaire game where there is only one optimized strategy to win. But we still play it again and again hoping that by chance we can achieve a better score. Heck, I have managed to get 4096 once and have been trying to get there again ever since (Not much luck so far). Friday gives you that kind of addiction, to come back again and again to beat your old score. There is always a chance that you will get lucky today.

Overview 8/10

Love this game. A very cheap alternative when you have no one to play with you. Get two boxes and you can challenge a friend and play together. There are variants that folks on BGG have come up with for multiplayer games (You'd have to get more than one box for this). The game is portable, so you can bring on trips to take away that boredom and itch for board games. A word of caution - Do not take this out to play solo when you have friends around as it will deem you a social outcast.

A fun, addictive, solo, deck-building game. It will not hurt your wallet to get one immediately.

Pros:

Can play solo

Addictive

Cheap cost

Simple

Filled with strategy

Cons:

Can play solo

Addictive

Cheap components

Let me know what you think of the game once you've played it! Leave me a comment...

Descent 2nd Edition Review

Descent 2nd Edition - Journeys in the Dark

2-5 players

Play time 2.5 hrs avg

Setup time 20 mins

Teaching time 20 mins

"Descent: journeys in the dark second edition is a narrative board game in which one player takes on the role of the treacherous overlord, and up to four other players take on the roles of courageous heroes. Featuring double-sided modular board pieces, countless hero and skill combinations, and an immersive story-driven campaign, descent: journeys in the dark second edition transports heroes to a vibrant fantasy realm where they must stand together against an ancient evil.this updated version of the classic board game of dungeon-delving adventure features a host of enhancements, including new heroes and monsters, streamlined rules, a class-based hero system, campaign play, and much more"

I had the privilege to play this with an introductory board game group (A group that introduces new board games). Two sets of Descent were opened and two overlords ran two games simultaneously. We played Fat Goblin Encounters 1 and 2. It was an awesome experience altogether. I played a hero necromancer who reanimated a skeleton over and over again. It might be just me but I felt like the overlord was being lenient on us. The first game went by without the overlord using any of his overlord cards. He lost and we, the heroes, won. The second game, the overlord wanted to win so he used advanced monsters to up the challenge but we tied that game. The dice wasn't on his side that day but I did feel that the overlord could have won that game if he made the right choices. 
Okay okay too much blab, on to the review...

Gameplay 9/10

I did research this game a bit before I played it which made me want to buy it. Now that I have played the game, I really want to buy it!

Mechanics are very simple to teach and the details can be taught as the game plays out. It takes some time to setup the maps and choose the heroes and monsters. It is pretty straight forward - Refer to the quest guide (mostly one page per quest), fix up the puzzle maps together as shown on the quest, read out the objective and special rules, heroes are chosen by the players playing heroes, overlord choosing his/her open monsters. As soon as the objectives of the quest is understood and the players know how to read their hero cards, the game can begin.

Everything here makes sense - the movement of heroes, the straightforward objectives (the overlord has objectives as well), the attacking using dice, etc. It is a dungeon crawl encounter that makes sense, definitely up my alley. Every turn, a hero gets to perform two actions, whether to move and attack, attack and attack, move and move, stand up (after getting knocked out), or rest (to heal fatigue). You can also move, attack and then continue with your leftover movement for two actions.

For monsters, they also have movement and attack dice, almost exactly like the heroes. The lieutenants that the overlord controls (boss monsters) are exactly like the heroes with stats and everything. However in Descent, you will not see any adding up of points and stats like you see in DnD games. They streamlined this to make it accessible to everyone. Which doesn't take away much from the game at all.

There is a really creative, strategic mechanic that is added called "Fatigue". You use fatigue to do extra moves, but your fatigue is limited so you'll have to strategize when best to use it. It adds to your decisions which gives seasoned gamers good strategies to incorporate.

The dice really add to the game. They have creatively created different colored dice to represent the intensity of one's attack or defense. On some of the faces, each die has a lightning bolt symbol as well which represents surges. These you use to activate different skills and spells your hero/monster may have. Range is also embedded in the dice for range attacks. All these add both luck and strategy to the game.

There are 20 quests in the scenario book. You can either play them as individual encounters or link 16 of them in campaign mode. Campaign mode offers so much more as you get XP to increase the skills of your heroes or overlord cards for the overlord and the heroes also get gold to spend in between Quests to get better equipment. I love games that allow leveling up. It just allows one to be the character instead of just playing it.

Some players would like this - no one dies in this game. They just get knocked out and lose a turn to come back around the next time, or another player can use one of his/her actions to revive a hero adjacent to him/her.

The Experience 8/10

The experience is good. There are some balancing issues where the first few quests are easier for the heroes. I guess that just makes the challenge more worth the win for the overlord. I have not played the later quests yet, so I cannot say much here.

Replayability 9/10

I see this getting many plays especially in campaign mode. Whether we will get tired of this, I'm doubting. With 16 Encounters to complete, this is definitely replayable. The number of cards you can get also attracts you to play more. The monsters, however, remain the same few so you'll be seeing a lot of them being reused in various quests as you play.

The fact that this is only semi-coop would mean that it is definitely replayable to see who can be the best overlord. The number of heroes that a player can pick can also be factored in.

There are so many big and small expansions available for Descent 2.0 that it looks like the game is endless. As an adult who has a day job to keep, my time in board gaming may be only twice a month. So this game would probably last me way more than a year if I consistently play this.

Components 9/10

Oh gosh how do I begin. The map tiles are beautifully printed and sturdy. They will last a lot of games. They fix together to form a stable map (not easily broken if the table is knocked). 
The cards are durable and beautifully designed. Hero cards are big but skills and equipment are small - probably to reduce the play area. 

The miniatures, and oh so many of them, are sweet... Monsters in red and white, heroes in grey. the heroes are pretty small. Would prefer bigger ones but it does not hinder the gameplay. The lieutenants (evil bosses), however, are in token form (like what?). Yea, they didn't have enough cash to make these into miniatures so now they sell the miniatures separately and each one cost a bomb, well to me at least. It would be nice to have them with the base set, but oh well.

There are many tokens for conditions, health markers, fatigue, etc. The tokens are thick and coin sized, which I appreciate over pea size ones. I hate losing my pea size tokens.

Overall, really good components. Opening this will be just like opening a toy box.

Overall 9/10

I might give this a 10 once I own it and have played a few more quests. Every moment I'll be thinking about the game. But currently, it is sold out at my favorite board game store. 
A dungeon crawl that is a must have for any board gamer into dungeon crawling/delving and leveling up. One of the best productions of Fantasy Flight Games. Go get it!

Pros:
Gorgeous components
High replayability
Engaging gameplay
Rules make sense
Character enhancement

Cons:
Needs the right group to play with (Some over-competitive people take an hour to make one decision)
Balancing issues between the Overlord and the Heroes


How did you find this game? Let me know if there are some things i might have missed out that you wish to hear...



























Awesome components
Awesome gameplay
Awesome experiences

Lieutenant tokens? Are you kidding me?
May be a bit complicated for the light gamer

Malaysian Politiko 2E review

Politiko

3-6 players

Play time 1 hour

Setup time 3 mins

Teaching time 5 mins

It's election time (Finally!)

Politiko is a card game about wacky scheming, cynical realpolitik - in other words, it is about a game about winning the Malaysian general election!

The player to get 8 voters in his/her voter pile, wins. Easier said than done. 

As we all know, through the news, TV, internet, reader's digest or any media of that sort, that the Malaysian general election was filled with all the hanky panky stuff you can think of, from frauds to phantom voters and everything in between. This card game tries to emulate all these, but they were wise enough to mask the party's names with other names. But of course, everyone knows which parties they actually represent. We just hush hush about it. Sshhhh!

Mechanics 7/10

Typically, you start by choosing a party to run. The party card gives you Voter Restrictions (which type of voters may/may not vote for your party), which prevent you from adding certain voters to your voter pile. On each party card, there are also Alliance Restrictions, which lets you know which parties you cannot form an alliance with.

After that, each player is dealt a hand of 7 cards. Throughout the game, your hand can only have a maximum of 7 cards at the end of your turn. During a turn, the active player will start by drawing 2 cards into his/her hand. Then they either add voters (election time - no quantity restriction) into their voter pile following their Voter Restrictions OR play 2 schemes.

Schemes can be "Scheme" cards they can play during their turn. These "Scheme" cards can vary from stealing voters from other players to enhancing your party further. Schemes may also come in the form of joining/creating/breaking out of an alliance with one other alliance or party. Schemes may also be in the form of closed door meetings, i.e. exchange as many cards as you want with as many cards the other player wishes to exchange (the number of cards need not be equal for the exchange - I guess parties never get their fair share during closed-door meetings).

After their actions, the turn ends and the next player begins.

The mechanics are typical of a cards game but what rocks in this game is the double mechanics. You can choose either to continue adding voters from your hand into the voter pile or play schemes but not do both. This provides the players with thought based strategy, to think up a plan before their turn comes around.

Gameplay 8/10

I thought that a game with a bunch of cards would be like playing UNO, but in Politiko, you get so much more than just wanting to play all your cards. The choices for strategy provided in this game is wide. Do you form an alliance or win alone? Do you play schemes or add voters into your voter pile so that other players cannot steal the voters they would need from your pile? What do you do with the voters in your hand that you cannot play? 

There is so much variety to this game that you are always on your toes thinking of your next move.The fact that the other players can sabotage you is also a plus. If they see you are winning, everyone will come around and start attacking you. But if you have a solid plan, you will not crumble so easily. 

The thing that attracts in this game, and this is the same thing that attracts one to buy the game, is the theme itself. So far in all the games that I have played, I have learnt so much about the politics in Malaysia. Very often it is the dirty parts that make a party win the election (at least in Malaysia). And this game emulates it so well. Give away free wifi and you get voters. Give away money and neutral voters will vote for you. So much of Malaysian politics is displayed here. We laugh about all the cards being played (even the voter cards). You will need someone to roleplay and read all the titles being played because if players are too focused on what the card does instead of what the card represents, you will miss out on a lot of fun.

Downtime in this game is minimal. You still have to wait till it's your turn to play cards. However, interaction is definitely guaranteed because even the quiet ones become loud when they get their voters stolen. 

Replayability 8/10

Even if I already know what every card does, every different group you play with has a different play style. And play style changes when they learn new strategies after a few plays.

There are also 9 different parties for players to represent. Each party provides players with different opportunities to try out different things.

So replayability for this game is high on my list especially since it is light and can be played during travels.

Edit: Just to mention also that there is already an expansion out for this game. They title it "Sabah & Sarawak". More cards! These cards represent the schemes being used in East Malaysia thus adding more fun and laughter to our beloved game.

Overall 7.5/10

Since I bought this last week, it has never failed to hit the table. We are all excited to be a party and gain our voters. Randomizing the parties also add to the fun and laughter. I have played 5 games already (including lunchtime at work :p)

Politiko can be bought at any Borders bookstore in Malaysia. Or go online at LoyarBarang.com and see if you can get a copy for yourself!

If you have played the game and wish to share your experiences with me, do drop me a comment below here. I'd love to hear from you.

Dungeon Roll review

Dungeon Roll

by Tasty Minstrel Games

1-4 players

Setup: 5 mins

Playtime: 20 mins per player

The Dungeon lies before you; you’ve assembled your party of hearty adventurers and have a few tricks up your sleeve. How far will you go to seek glory and fame? Will you risk losing everything?

This is a dice game. At the start of a turn, players roll to see which heroes will follow them into the dungeon. Then the heroes delve into the dungeon level by level. The deeper the delve, the more monsters one has to fight. These monsters are represented by another set of diced rolled. Players look at the heroes they have and decide which heroes they wish to sacrifice to kill the monsters.

There are various combinations that the active player can play. If there are a few monsters of a certain type being rolled, one specific hero can defeat them all. If a dragon is rolled, then they go into a pile. Collect 3 dragons in one turn and you risk losing more heroes  to them.

You can also roll scrolls which you can turn to potions which will help you revive heroes. Open treasure chests and you are entitled to rummage through an actual treasure box made of cardboard and claim treasure for yourself.

The active player can choose when he wants to leave the dungeon and keep the victory points he has earned (equal to the level of dungeon he/she managed to delve into). After 3 rounds, the points are summed up and the victory goes to obviously the player with the most points. More than this, you can look at the chart in the rulebook and see what you achieved. Get more points and you might be more than a village hero.

Gameplay 6/10
A playable and fun game. What takes the fun away is the downtime. One player would have his/her turn for 5 mins. They inserted that another player should throw the dice for the monsters but one player could do both for just the same feel. I'd say playing with two players is the sweet spot.

Dice not Yahtzee style. You usually don't get a choice unless you have other dice or powers to help you re-roll.

Luck in this game is there (as with every dice game) but not overwhelming until you feel the game is playing itself. There are still decisions to be made and each decision may reward you better.

Components 6/10

Love the dice. Colorful and beautifully engraved.

What brings the component score down is the box which stores all your game components. It is shaped to be a treasure chests with which you can open to draw treasure during the game. It is beautifully designed with art and all but this box is made of cardboard that does not feel solid enough to go through many rounds of play. Because it is not solid enough, you'd better not stack any other board games on top of this or it might collapse. Also because of the many times the box is being opened and closed throughout the game, the latch may spoil easily.

Tokens in this game are flat and small, which does not take much away from the game because the artwork is still good.

Replayability 7/10

For those times when you need a travel game and a quick game, this can be brought out. It is not rule heavy so new players will get the gist of it within the first play. There is good replayability here because the ranks that are available allow you to strive for a better score. So you can play this solo and go for the highest score.

Overall 6.5/10

This will be one of those games you keep near just in case there isn't an hour for a full on board game. The art and dice will draw any player to play it. The theme can be felt throughout the game, much more for dungeon crawling lovers.

It's just the box. Small is good for travel but the flimsiness fell short for me. Cheap though so you can't complain much.

Pros:
Dungeon delving theme
Colorful dice
Plays quickly
Strive for a better score
Beautiful artwork

Cons:
High downtime
Flimsy box


If you've played this game before, leave a comment and let me know how you felt about it.

Thunderstone Advance Towers of Ruin - First play review

Thunderstone Advance Tower of Ruins

For 1-5 players

Play time 2-3 hours

Setup time 15 mins

Teaching time 30 mins

So I was craving for some solid dungeon delving, deck building game and a friend got himself this (Thunderstone Advance). So we quickly arranged a session one Saturday when we had the time.

This game gives you oh-such-an-experience. You basically build your deck by buying/upgrading heroes, equipment, items, villagers and stuff. Then get ready to delve into the dungeon. The deeper you go, the darker it gets, the more the penalty for darkness. There's only one reason why as an adventurer you go deep into dangerous territory - to kill off some monsters of course. The more monsters you kill, the more victory points you add into your deck. Once the boss monster comes out and is defeated, all victory points are added up and the player with the most victory points win the game.

Disclaimer: this review is only after my first game. I have not played the base set Thunderstone or any other of the sets or expansions for that matter. Once I have a few more plays under my belt, then I might add another review. You may take this review as a first impression to an average gamer.

Components 8/10

The number of cards were impressive. Something like 500-600 cards so if you wish to buy this, do include sleeve costs of an additional half the price of the game itself. And yes, you definitely want to buy sleeves because you are going to do a lot of shuffling in this game and games to come.

The insert holds the cards even in sleeves. They used bigger cards as a separators for the various cards (these you don't have to sleeve) which have the names of the different cards written on top for easier sorting. They do look good in the box but I'd prefer slightly bigger cards for sorting so that I don't need to pull them up to see the names written on top. Still they make sorting so much easier as compared to other deck building games like Dominion.

They also provided a board printed double sided. It looks good and will last for many games. This is where most of the cards are placed and where you will be looking at all of the time if not looking at your hand of cards. So yes, the board is a pretty significant component to this game, something I wished Dominion or Elder Sign had.

Game Mechanics 7/10

If you have played deck building games before or know how to play them then skip to the next paragraph. For those of you who are new to the genre, deck building basically takes the fun of building decks with trading card games and makes it into a card game mechanic itself. And trust me, it is fun. You will start with a base deck of 12 cards (in thunderstone at least) and build your deck as the game goes along. Every turn, you will draw a number of cards into your hand to use. Whether you use all of the cards or not, at the end of your turn you discard them all into the discard pile. When your draw deck runs out of cards, you shuffle your discard pile and this becomes your new draw deck. In this way, the cards get "recycled".  Each card will have a cost and a monetary value. You can use cards to buy other cards to give you more or better abilities. The cards that you buy go into the discard pile and will be available to use when you reshuffle your deck and draw them into your hand. Newer players will need to go through the draw deck at least once to understand that discarding cards in this game is not a bad thing. In fact, you don't just want to discard cards, you want to destroy the cards that will not benefit your hand in the long run. That's deck building 101 for you. Now let's get to the gist of this game's gameplay.

Once you know the basics of deck-building, the rest of the gameplay is not too much different than other deck building games. In Thunderstone, you gain victory points by going into the dungeon and defeating mosnters. Each monster has a certain number of victory points, and not just that, some of them have a trophy or ability you can use when added to your hand. As monsters get killed, more come out of the dungeon deck until the Boss of evil comes out. Defeat him and the game is over. Victory points are summed up and the player who has the most Victory Points win the game.

During a turn, the active player may choose either to go to the village to "suit up" or to the dungeons to fight monsters. You cannot do both. Suppose you are not equipped to fight monsters and you do not have enough money to buy stuff or you do not wish to buy anything, then you may choose to either Rest which means destroying (culling) one card in your current hand, or Prepare which means keeping a number of cards in your hand for your next turn, discarding the rest and drawing up to 6 cards into your hand.

There are monetary values on each card and you can use those to buy other cards (equipments, heroes, items, villagers). Unlike Dominion where a card by itself is considered monetary value, a card in Thunderstone has monetary value on all of the cards including heroes and items. This, in my opinion, is a better mechanic because you have more room for strategy - fight or buy stuff?

A good strategy is to cull your deck and destroy all level 0 hero cards (they only give +1 physical attack). Get rid of the cards that would pull you down and keep upgrading your heroes. You can upgrade your heroes by using up XP which you gain when you defeat monsters. A good deck is one where it guarantees every hand you draw will win you something good.

Oh I almost forgot. Throughout the game, you get a pet in the form of a "familiar". This one card is very helpful and you get this by killing your first monster. Then you draw two cards and pick the one that you feel will benefit your strategy. Every player will get only one throughout the whole game so choose wisely.

Replayability 9/10

The replayability is unending from a first timer's perspective. In each game, you will only use three types of monsters and 4 types of level 1-3 heroes. I heard from the friend that there are 20 different types of monsters and 20 different types of heroes. The cards we used for our first game didn't even cover half the number of cards provided. So yes, the replayability is high in my opinion. However, someday you will have used all your cards (especially if you play lots of solo games) and then you might get bored. Then get the expansions and God knows there are so many. Definitely high on the replayability scale.

Gameplay 7/10

I love the idea of dungeon crawling in the form of deck building. I love the idea that we could "level up" and buy weapons and armor. However, when we played this game, it came a bit short for me. I think it was because we could buy heroes. Heroes are meant to level up so how can you buy them? You can also buy multiple of the same heroes to ensure you have enough physical strength to battle the monsters. Per game you get to upgrade to 4 hero types and you get to buy 5 different weapons/armor, which was a bit little in my opinion. There are some specialized weapons that could only help dwarfs and some heroes that had special abilities. Other than that, we just look at their physical attack value. In other words, we are playing heroes with one stat - Physical attack (or better known as strength to the regular dungeon crawlers out there). No defense or speed, no accuracy or magic. Even the magic attacks just stack onto physical attacks.

Thunderstone gives a dumbed-down experience of dungeon crawling without the maps, stats, movement strategy, etc. It is a streamlined dungeon crawling in the form of deck building. Which does not mean the game is not fun. Hey, I rated a 7 for gameplay so it must have its pluses.

Yes, yes it does and is fun. The many cards on the board keep you occupied most of the time, even if it is not yet your turn. We played a 4 player game and the downtime was barely felt (although there were times when some other player was also busy looking at the board they did not even know it had reached their turn, which was frustrating for the rest of us and took a longer time for us to play). Every turn feels very significant, every decision is important. Do I destroy the bad cards this turn or buy a card to strengthen my deck? Do I have enough Physical attacks to kill a monster this turn. The strategy and tactical depth is deep enough to keep a heavy gamer engrossed.

I love the idea of having a pet Familiar. When you draw this card, it stays by your side until you use it to help you out. Some pets don't help you out so much like the one I drew during this game. But it definitely is a good idea. I can imagine myself lurking in the dungeons with my pet beside me. The thought of going into darkness doesn't seem as scary anymore.

For the dungeon deck, we arranged it according to the different levels of monsters (level 1 shuffled and placed at the top, level 2s in the middle and level 3s at the bottom with the Boss). This made much more sense as monsters get stronger and stronger rather than drawing level 3 monsters at the beginning of the game.

During our game, I started out with the worst of lucks. I drew all heroes and no weapons, then all weapons and torches but no heroes. Then my luck grew worse as the game progressed. I decided to cull my deck a lot and only get the necessary cards that I needed (thanks to my friend who owns this game for the strategy tip). Pretty soon, I could draw some pretty descent hands and played them really quickly to kill lots of monsters. I won the game with 31 Victory points and my friend who owned the game tagged behind at 28 (although he killed the Boss).

Overall 7/10

I'm not saying this is a good game because I won. That would make this review useless. It is the experience that matters to me. Did I have a good time playing Thunderstone? Yes, I did. Was the experience worth the time and effort? Yes, it was. Was there enough strategy and tactical depth to keep me thinking even after the game ended? Yes. Was the social interaction between friends rich? Unfortunately, no. We mostly focused on our own decks and our own game strategy that there was not enough time to listen to another person's strategy or even converse about stuff. Though I'm grateful to my friend for teaching me how to build a good deck and watching how the others are playing. I guess all deck building games would suffer from player interaction unless a decision affects everyone else as well.

Though I enjoyed this game, I would not be playing it every game night. My heart still belongs to those nights where we shouted from across the table laughing about the antics of our friends and how our luck took a turn during games. Seeing the true colors of friends and how we can socialize over a board game still means something to me.

Thunderstone Advance Towers of Ruins. A good game if you're looking for a streamlined dungeon crawl, deck building game. Better than Dominion in my opinion but probably not for the casual gamers out there (It will kill some brain cells).

Pros:
-Deck building with level upgrades
-Heroes and many of them
-Combined with dungeon delving
-Plenty of cards = high replayability
-Beautiful components
-Hack and slash monsters
-Good strategy
-Engrossed in the board and cards most of the time

Cons:
-Lacking social interaction
-Not many elements of dungeon crawling


If you have played this, what did you think of the game? Feel free to leave me a comment on your opinion of it.