[Game design is like magic: if you do it right, it looks easy. The reality is that a lot of hard work and dedication goes into making a game work. No one knows this better than Al Newman. Al started designing games back in 1973 and his credits include Super 3 by Milton Bradley, Babushka (Ravensburger), Match 3 (Nathan), Wacky Wizards (Western) as well as many early computer game designs including Domination (which won the first First prize ever awarded in the Atari Star competition), Tutti Fruitti (adventure Int’l) and Hotel Alien (Artworx). But Al hasn’t stopped there. Al continues to design successfully received games including Winds of Plunder (GMT Games), Dynasties (Jolly Roger Games) and Tin Soldiers (RnR Games) with more on the way. Al first appeared in these pages with his Fall 1998 review of Richard Garfield’s Filthy Rich. In kicking off our 25th year, Al has contributed this, his 25th review!]
(Alderac Entertainment Group, 2-5 players, ages 12 and up, 45 minutes; $29.99)
Reviewed by Al Newman
In the Spring 2010 issue of Gamers Alliance Report, we covered the release of Thunderstone, a Dominion-like card game with a theme that truly scratched the itch of those who love Dungeons & Dragons. In less than an hour, players could take their heroes through the dungeons, battle with monsters and win victory. As we said a few months ago, after the success of Dominion, it was inevitable that card games with similar mechanics would appear. And now that Dominion has spawned so many expansion sets, it was inevitable that Thunderstone would do so as well.
Thus, Thunderstone: Wrath of the Elements, designed by Mike Elliott, has arrived. The 580 original cards are now supplemented by another 380 cards, including a new Thunderstone card, 5 more reference cards, 12 Trap cards, 33 Randomizer cards, 42 Basic cards, 51 Monster cards, 84 Hero cards and 112 Village cards. The box has several foam pieces to separate the cards and is a great touch. As well, 76 wider than normal cards are included to use as dividers for both the expansion and the basic set, a very nice touch! Best of all, the expansion can be played with – or independent of – the basic game. This means countless possibilities if you intermix the sets, just like Dominion.
Wrath of the Elements includes a new mechanic, Traps, adds a Guardian, a second Thunderstone and a Monster that is scored differently than all the others.
An important note: the rules, like the original version, are not perfect and references are made to cards that are not included in this expansion, so a little interpretation and logic comes in handy. As well, the expansion requires a couple of seemingly redundant manipulations that could probably have been improved on.
When the randomizing process takes place to determine what will be in the Monster Hall, 3 special randomizer cards are added. If any are selected, one of five “Dungeon Feature” cards is chosen and depending upon the “feature,” the actual Death Trap, Dire Trap or Guardian is selected. Sound complicated? Yes, a bit. Moreover, although there are two Guardians in the five Dungeon Feature cards, there is only one actual Guardian in the game. The other card is likely there for a future expansion but it only complicates the process.
The effects of the Trap cards occur as soon as they are revealed from the Dungeon. The 6 Death Trap cards can kill Heroes while Dire Trap cards can inflict penalties on the players. For instance, if the Pit Trap is revealed, each player reveals a Hero from his hand (if he has one). If the Hero is not a Thief, it is destroyed. If a Delerium Poison Trap is revealed, the players hands are shown and all Spells are destroyed. After the effect of the Trap is taken care of, the Trap is destroyed and the Dungeon Hall is refilled.
If the Guardian is in play and reaches Rank 1, its special effect is to move away from the Dungeon Hall to create a new “rank 0” space. Only the Guardian may be in that space and if defeated, “rank 0” ceases to exist. Guardians are extremely strong and in the case of the expansion’s Dark Champion, the active player must destroy one card from his hand at the end of his turn. The only way to remove the Guardian is to defeat him.
The new Thunderstone is only worth 1 VP and has no other effects. The designers suggest that you might even want to play with both the original and new Thunderstones in the deck and end the game when both are won. That sounds like a pretty decent variation.
Before, I mentioned a Monster that is scored differently than all the others. That would be the Horde. There are two Horde decks of 10 cards each, again contributing a bit of complexity to the game play. One deck is just plain Horde monsters and the other have health numbered consecutively from 3 to 12. If they are randomly selected to begin with, the plain Hordes are placed in the Monster deck and the other deck is placed aside, weakest to strongest. A revealed Horde is immediately replaced by the top card of the other Horde deck that shows the health of the monster. Hordes have no VP value during the game but if defeated and placed in your deck are worth as many VPs as Hordes that you have defeated, up to a maximum of 5 VPs each.
There are a whole hose of other effects, like the Traits of some monsters, that can impact play. For instance, Ebon Fume has Magic Attack immunity and reduces all of a party’s Magic Attack bonus to zero. The new Village cards present a few very interesting possibilities like the Illusory Blade spell, which enables the player to equip a Hero with any weapon from the Village (provided the strength requirement is met) and the weapon is destroyed at the end of the battle. The Amulet of Power not only provides a light bonus of +2 but each Hero gains strength of +3. Cursed Mace introduces an extremely powerful “blunt” weapon that affords +6 to attack but the player gains one Disease card if the weapon is equipped. New Heroes include the powerful Runespawn Thief/Wizards, and Blind Fighter/Clerics that can use light to increase their attack and in the case of the Blind Grandmaster, ignore light penalties altogether. Quite a few variants are offered in the rules which should add to the fun.
Again, if you like Dungeons & Dragons but can’t stand the prospect of playing for hours on end, Thunderstone and the Wrath of the Elements expansion will do the trick in an hour or perhaps just a bit more. Definitely recommended.
Fall 2010 GA Report Articles
[Jeff Feuer is an active member of the Long Island Gamers, one of the longest continually running gaming groups in the United States, and, in real life, a mathematics professor. As he says, "I've been computer gaming since the Atari days (including having played many of the incarnations of Civilization as well as some Railroad Tycoon and the Age of Empire series) but, except for ...
Read More
[Gaming transcends geographical boundaries and, recognizing this, Gamers Alliance is international in scope. Andrea "Liga" Ligabue is one of our valued contributors from outside the borders of the United States. He is an active participant in gaming in his native Italy, being closely involved with Club TreEmme, and a driving force, serving as Coordinator and Head of Program behind Italy's large gaming convention: Play: The ...
Read More
[When it comes to games, Marty Goldberger has an impressive resume. He worked for SPI games in its heyday, designing Inkerman and serving as a developer on many SPI titles including the legendary Campaign for North Africa "monster" game. Marty is a Mensa member and adventurer, diving with dolphins as well as plunging into depths of over 800 feet in a submarine. Marty first appeared ...
Read More
[K-ban, aka Steve Kurzban, has been an active gamer for decades. Always a fan of sports games (with a strong affinity for baseball and race car simulations), K-ban has always been a strong influence in spreading the joy of gaming, from running backgammon and Strat-O-Matic Baseball leagues in the 1970s and early 1980s, to reporting on the New York International Toy Fair for GA Report, ...
Read More
[In those days before the internet, information about games was relatively hard to find. Game publications were few and far between and those that existed were either specialty publications limiting themselves to a specific genre or company or too short-lived to satisfy the need to know. So, with the supreme confidence of someone who doesn't know any better, I embarked on a journey to fill ...
Read More
[Frank Hamrick and games crossed paths at a very early age. From the time he was 7 years old - and taught Monopoly by his grandmother, the seed was sown and has since blossomed. From Monopoly, Frank graduated to wargames and, when looking for something lighter and shorter, discovered The Settlers of Catan and his fascination with Euros began. And then he went to the ...
Read More
The 47th Element This has been a long time coming. It takes many elements to put together an editorial, an issue, an organization. First of all is a love for the subject. From this love comes determination and dedication, additional and necessary elements in making the whole thing work. You also need an element of, for want of a better phrase, "reckless abandon". You can ...
Read More
[In the estimation of many people (and I include myself in that group), Sid Sackson was one of the greatest game designers of all time. If he had only designed Acquire, that would have been sufficient to grant him legendary status. But Sid didn't stop there. His list of quality designs are staggering: Bazaar, BuyWord (named GAMES Magazine's Game of the Year), Holiday, Kohle, Kies ...
Read More
[Joe Huber is one of those guys who grew up with games. As he says, "I grew up playing Acquire and Civilization, and still enjoy both games today - if few of the wargames I also played back then. In 1995, I got back into gaming, discovering both German games (particularly Settlers of Catan and Auf Achse), 18xx (particularly 1830 and 2038), and TimJim/Prism games ...
Read More
[In our years of publication, games from Queen have frequently appeared. The first time was actually a "double dose". In the Winter 1999 issue, two Queen games were featured: Schnappchen Jagd (designed by Uwe Rosenberg who would go on to even greater success with IGA winner Agricola) and Showmanager (still my favorite design by award winning game creator Dirk Henn). This is the 12th time ...
Read More
[I first played this game at The Gathering of Friends and liked it enough to make this review number 677! - - - - - - - Herb Levy] (Alea/Rio Grande Games, 2 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, about 60 minutes; about $35)
Reviewed by Herb Levy The bonnie green fields of Scotland provide the color of the box and the setting for ...
Read More
[Block wargames from Columbia Games have often been reviewed in Gamers Alliance Report. Ironically, the first Columbia Game to appear in GA Report was a collectible war-related CARD game - Dixie - in the Spring 1995 issue. This review is the 9th for Columbia Games and the 678th for me! - - - - - - - Herb Levy] (Columbia Games, 2 players, ages 12 ...
Read More
[Few people enjoy a better - or more well deserved - reputation than Greg J. Schloesser. Greg is a formidable force in the world of games. Starting and developing a readership as one of the most respected reviewers on the internet, Greg has spread the good word on gaming by being the driving force behind TWO gaming groups (the Westbank Gamers of New Orleans and ...
Read More
Reviewed by Nick Sauer (Mayfair Games, 2-4 players, ages 12 and up, 60-90 minutes; $45 ) In Lord$ of Vega$, players enter the glitzy world of Las Vegas by building and fighting for control of casinos on the strip. The game is designed by James Earnest and Mike Selinker and published by Mayfair Games. The game's Las Vegas casino building theme may remind one of ...
Read More
[Expect a spirited conversation when you talk with Ben Baldanza. That may be because, in real life, he is the CEO and President of Spirit Airlines. But even successful business executives need to relax and Ben has been playing and collecting games since playing card games with his family as a child. Ben plays regularly with gamers, formerly in the Washington, DC area and now ...
Read More
[Tasty Minstrel Games is a newcomer to the gaming scene. Their first appearance in these pages came with Homesteaders in the previous issue (Summer 2010). This makes it two in a row for the company and my 679th(!) review for GA Report. - Herb Levy] (Tasty Minstrel Games, 2 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, 45-90 minutes; about $35)
Reviewed by Herb Levy If ...
Read More
[Throughout our years of publication, we have been fortunate in attracting a diverse group of quality and insightful gamers from all around the world. One such person is Chris Kovac. As Chris, a Canadian, has said: "I have been a gamer since my University days in the 1980's. Initially a wargamer, I was converted over to Euro Games by a friend when he introduced me ...
Read More
[Game design is like magic: if you do it right, it looks easy. The reality is that a lot of hard work and dedication goes into making a game work. No one knows this better than Al Newman. Al started designing games back in 1973 and his credits include Super 3 by Milton Bradley, Babushka (Ravensburger), Match 3 (Nathan), Wacky Wizards (Western) as well as ...
Read More
[Larry Levy is one of the best known voices on gaming. His internet posts always attract attention for his insightful commentary and he has written for many game review publications. Not only that, Larry also conducts unofficial "game of the year" award tabulations, attracting voters and interest from around the world, with his highly entertaining - and thought provoking - The Meeple's Choice Awards. There's ...
Read More
[Few people have had such a broad experience in the world of games as Pevans. Pevans is the pen name of Paul Evans (well, a Paul Evans – hence the pseudonym). This Paul Evans is a British gamer who has been writing about games for well over 20 years. He was the founding editor of Games Games Games magazine and edited it for 12 years ...
Read More
