Game ̶N̶i̶g̶h̶t̶...er...Day: "Thunderstone Quest" and "Paper Tales"

Got in a game of Paper Tales and Thunderstone Quest recently.

Back in 2008, game designer Donald X. Vaccarino had a brilliant idea: "Hey, everyone loves collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering...why not design a game where you build your deck as you play? Whaaaaaaat?!?" The resulting game, Dominion, was an instant smash hit, but then, just one year later, Mike Elliot's Thunderstone came along and added an actual theme to the concept...a dungeon crawl no less!

And, with that, Dominion was deader than disco to me.

Admittedly, that inaugural version of Thunderstone had a coupla pretty prominent warts, which necessitated several "new n' improved" editions over the years. The latest, Thunderstone Quest, released just last year, represents a high water mark for the design.

Just like in every other deck-builder, players start off with a handful of mediocre cards, which include pencil-necked adventurers armed with lame-ass weapons, as well as strength boosts to carry heavier stuff and light sources to delve deeper into the dungeon. Players also produce gold which can be used to, *surprise, surprise*, buy equipment and recruit hirelings from the Town Board's Marketplace and Guild's Quarter.

As these party members "level up" and start wielding increasingly-powerful equipment, players will look to "trim the fat" from their decks to create a lean, mean, monster-killin' machine. Naturally, the ultimate goal is to build an efficient engine that doesn't leave you sitting around polishing your longsword during any given turn.

I enjoyed Thunderstone Quest. The production design is fantastic and the art is breathtaking. Since you can typically plot your turn out well in advance, the game keeps chugging along at a nice clip. There's a ton of different weapons, equipment, characters, monsters and spells, which drives up the game's re-playability. Also: bonus point for linking the number of cards you draw to your current health and using poison cards to create dead spots in your hand until you heal.There's also a genuine visceral thrill going after powerful monsters, knowing that their impending death will yield tremendous rewards.

Victory points are so understated that I completely forgot about them and just spent every one of my turns getting ready to battle monsters or battling monsters(go figure). As a result, my final score sucked kobold balls (koballs?), despite an decent start and what I thought was a fair effort. Also, the co-operative final boss battle involves rolling dice to see what hirelings and equipment you'll lose in the fight. Naturally, given my Wheaton-esque proclivities with dice, I lost a bunch of random stuff right at the end.

I'd rank it a lot lower than A Few Acres of Snow, which I think is the perfect marriage between theme and mechanics. And even though the art in Clank! is vastly inferior, I still think like that one a shade better since moving around the board / exploring a maze does wonders for my immersion.

Thunderstone Quest rates four pips outta six with a big tilt up towards the top of dat Elven Outpost!

In Paper Tales, players secretly draft five cards, reveal them, pay their recruit cost, place once in reserve and then table the others. Two cards are placed in the front rank to battle against opponents sitting to the left and right while the remaining two are placed in the back rank to either support the front line or produce assorted resources.

Resources can be used to great production synergies between cards, create victory point engines and/ or construct buildings. The latter is great because they let you table more cards in future drafts, help bolster your troops, give you moar veeps and add to your resources. Basically the buildings help bolster your prevailing strategy.

At the end of a round, remaining characters get an "aging" token, sticking around for one more round before they "die", thus making room for new recruits. This mechanic alone requires some pretty deep planning, since new acquisitions will be taking over vacant slots and some even take advantage of the collective number of aging tokens on all of your cards.

This one has a lot going for it. Even though the building iconography is a tad muddy, the overall art style is whimsical and charming. The game is also surprisingly deep, requiring players to ponder through-line strategies and draft accordingly over the course of four rounds. Points gained from military wins are great, but if you ignore all other development then there's a really good chance that your l'il civilization will stagnate.

Paper Tales is a great choice for folks who have graduated beyond Sushi Go or they just don't wanna be bothered with a long and sterile-looking game like 7 Wonders. This is definitely one that'll have you agonizing over decisions and chomping at the bit to play again and again.

Four pips outta six with a mild tilt up out of the crystal-filled Mine!

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Game Night: "Through the Desert", "Photosynthesis" and "5 Minute Dungeon"

Hey folks! I'm introducing a new series here called "Game Night" which will feature super-brief reviews of the games we play on our, well, you guessed it, weekly game night.

Last week we kicked things off with Through the Desert.

This venerable Reiner Knizia classic sees players staking claims across a vast desert using their five caravan leaders. Turns consist of taking two camels of any color from the common supply and then placing them on the board to expand your caravan trail, picking up points whenever you reach a water hole or an oasis. Bonus points can be earned for walling off large tracts of desert space and having the longest caravan in each of the five colors.

The game is deceptively deep. Since rival camels of the same color can't be placed next to each other it's pretty easy to get up in each other's grill. Recognizing immediate threats and expanding early to "draw a line in the sand", so to speak, is critical to success. Successful players will always be studying the board, looking for a few choice colors to specialize in since "longest caravan" end-game points can really effect the scores.

The game isn't perfect, though. The pastel, candy-colored camels might be adorable but a full board of them results in visual anarchy. Fiddly tweaks and rules based on number of players and first turn placements can easily be overlooked. Poor allocation of your caravan leaders can result in players quickly getting hemmed in, but, honestly, this just makes me want to play it again to apply what I've learned.

For being vibrant, charming and deceptively tactical, Through the Desert scores four pips out of six with a slight tilt down to the burning sands of the Sahara!

Next up: Photosynthesis!

In this one, players attempt to expand their species of tree in a highly-competitive forest. After starting out with few small saplings, players cast off seeds to expand their growth. A "sun" tile constantly moves around the board, tracking turn cycles and giving trees the solar energy required to grow from sapling to Ent!

Even though I liked Photosynthesis, he rules aren't particularly intuitive and, without any quick-reference guide to refer to, we all seemed to be asking the same questions over and over again. There's just something vague, nebulous and slightly unpolished about the game, making it feel kinda clunky. There also not a lot of different options to pursue, making each turn feel kinda "samey". Finally, some of the game's elements are thematically baffling. For example, the biggest victory points come from mulching your oldest trees; an action that seems to be at odds with the game's otherwise environmentally-friendly message!

On the plus side, competing for space in this increasingly-crowded arena is pretty intense and forward-thinking players will try to set up their trees to gather as much sun as possible, regardless of its position. There's also something supremely satisfying about growing the tallest tree in a clearing to net mondo radiant points while casting shade on your frustrated rivals! Also, let's face it, this has to be one of the prettiest games on the market right now.

For being pretty but kinda dim, Photosynthesis rates three pips outta six with a tilt up toward the top of dat dere redwood!

Finally we played several games of 5 Minute Dungeon.

As someone who typically hates these frantic, stressful, real-time games with the fire of a million suns, I actually didn't feel compelled to bite down on a cyanide capsule while playing this one.

After selecting a fantasy archetype to play (Barbarian, Thief, Wizard, Valkyrie...etc, etc) and arming yourself with your character's customized deck of cards, players choose a boss monster to fight, which dictates the game's difficulty level, I.E. the number of dungeon cards you have to clear through and how tough the final boss is. A five-minute timer is started and players now must work together to blow through all of the dungeon cards, which represent various events, traps, and adversaries.

In order to overcome these obstacles, players must table the requisite number and type of cards. For example, to get past the "Miniature T-Rex", the group has to come up with two melee, two ranged and two defense cards in order to kill it and move on. Fortunately, every character has a cool special ability that players can leverage to break the regular rules of the game and mitigate misfortune. The players win if they can maneuver their way through the dungeon deck and destroy the boss monster before time runs out.

Unlike the annoying Escape: The Curse of the Temple and the "barely qualifies as a game" Camelot by the usually-solid Tom Jolly, this one isn't a miserable exercise in anarchy. Whereas it it's super-easy to fudge and / or screw something up in those two aforementioned games, 5 Minute Dungeon, forces you to play all of your cards communally in the middle of the table. Not only does this prevent  oversights it also ensures that crusty ol' rules lawyers like myself feel reasonably appeased.

The game's customized decks are well thought out, with fighter types having more swords and shields and wizards equipped with an abundance of scrolls. This rewards players for picking a nice variety of different character types. The official timing ap also adds a lot to the game's appeal since it features a charming variety of narrator accents and /or  temperaments. A lot of interaction and table talk is required, which usually results in participants becoming increasingly monosyllabic as they scramble for specific solves. As expected, the art design is goofy as hell and, even though I'm not a fan, I will concede that it matches the game's ridiculous tone. 

The bottom line is that no-one had to twist my arm to get me to play the game several times. I found myself keen to try out new characters and take on new boss monsters. Dare I say it? Yes, I dare...5 Minute Dungeon is most likely the high water mark for this concept. The fact that I'm willing to play it again is arguably the highest possible praise I can give to it.

For being fun, frantic and not overstaying its welcome, 5 Minute Dungeon scores four pips outta six with a slight tip up to the surface world!

Awrite, guys...thanks for reading and expect a back-log of these to show up over the next little while.
Until then, take care and game on!

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Hey, folks! If you enjoyed these reviews, please consider buying me a Coffee! Full disclosure: I probably won't use your donation to buy an actual hot beverage; most likely I'll use it to keep the lights on over my game table this winter!