The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I am so good at fucking up rules.

When I played my first game of Thunderstone, I read it as “Go to the Village, Go to the Dungeon, AND Rest every turn.” It’s really “Or.” That’s kind of a big deal.

Still, though, Thunderstone is as advertised, and I was pretty pleased with it.
How was it advertised?
Basically, as Dominion, but with a more clear theme and monster fighting. That’s basically how it works out, too. You’re building up a deck which you shuffle a lot, and you’re killing monsters to earn victory points, which go in your deck and clog it a bit, but you need it to win.

Still, I can see why people really dig Thunderstone over Dominion. It has a much cooler theme, and does seem more well-thought out. However, there are some issues, at least from a first playthrough. As expected, the cards aren’t very easy to read. There are a lot of symbols that aren’t very clear that you have to figure out, which is unfortunate. It’s not Race for the Galaxy bad, but it isn’t great, either. Dominion is much easier to pick up.
The “light” mechanic seems a bit weird, too. Basically, you have three depths of monster you can fight at any time, and there is a light penalty to attack them, which you have to get rid of with light sources. There’s no markers for this light penalty, which seemed to make it hard for people to grasp that it was there. Some sort of play mat to put the monsters on would probably make that clearer. It also just seems weird that it’s there at all. It’s like they were really desperate to make another type of card to buy.
Finally, people claim that the low number of heroes, which everyone needs, that is in every game is a problem. I haven’t played enough to say, but I can definitely say that there was a big shortage of them. I can see people getting annoyed at that. Such shortages aren’t much of a problem in Dominion, because once three piles run out, the game is over. However, in Thunderstone, if nobody is attacking monsters, many piles can run out and the game can still continue for awhile. It makes the shortages a little harder. I feel like this is a feature, and not a bug, but it’s weird.

The biggest problem with Thunderstone, though, is the box. What the fuck were these people thinking? They’ve obviously played Dominion. Why isn’t the box built like that? There’s no good way to sort the huge number of decks in the game in that box, and that is just annoying as fuck. It’s going to make setting up games last much longer than it should, and they should be ashamed for fucking up such an easy, obvious thing.

Still, I had a good time, and I want to play more. Additionally, unlike some claims I’ve read, I don’t think that Dominion is obsolete because of this game. Dominion is “pure,” it is the essence of an idea, and that’s always fun to get back to. It’s easier to pick up and play, and there’s plenty of strategy. Thunderstone, though, has a theme, and more deep mechanics. It’s pulling from the well of Dominion to a different purpose. That’s cool. But it’s a very different beast from Dominion. I think they’ll catch different groups, but I can enjoy both, certainly. Both are fun, but Dominion is lighter, with more variety in what happens, and Thunderstone is more involved and detailed. That’s totally cool.

Anyway, those are my thoughts after a game. We’ll see what I think after I’ve run through all the different cards and stuff after a few more playthroughs.