[Thunderstone] i dont get it

so let me get this right.

i get 1 deck for starting which unlocks one campaign with 10 scenarios. Now, if i don’t get the rest of the decks, which cost actual money, then im stuck with this campaign.

and no matter how many times i play the campaign, i’ll always have the same unchangeable deck. i can’t upgrade any cards unless i’m in-game, and each time they will reset to militia or whatever.

i also didn’t see a deck building screen, so i can only build my deck when i’m actually battling. plus, when i’m actually battling, luck plays a certain factor, which means my deck-building is also based on luck.

And although in the tutorial the game told me i’d be able to get better cards later on, which made me think that i’ll get points depending on my victories and use those to get better cards, this doesn’t seem to happen.

i’m not sure if i got everything straight, but i think that’s the gist of it.

so, if that’s all correct, this is actually a pay-to-play card game where you try to win the computer using the deck you’re given (for campaign 1 it’s the starters deck for campaign 2 it’s the muscle deck etc.) and you cannot change your deck or upgrade it, or put fewer/more cards in or anything.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool game, but i’d like it to be more diverse by enabling me to build my own strategy using a variety of cards. And the funny thing is i can come up with 3 or 4 names just on the top of my head that are almost if not completely free but have an in-game money system.

Well, this IS a deck-building game. It was made after Dominion, which is kind of the quintessential deck-building game. In both, all players start with a premade deck, and gameplay consists of purchasing cards that go into those decks.

The cards in the middle are supposed to be randomly-generated from a base set of about 60 cards, in the actual physical game you can buy in your local game store. This gives the game almost infinite replayability, which is the main selling point of all DBGs.

Unfortunately, the various levels within the campaigns differ only slightly in terms of the Village/Monster/Hero cards that are in the game, which makes it very difficult (almost impossible) to see the value of this type of game. There is, however, the Skirmish mode, which lets you randomize the cards as in the real game, albeit in a very limited way when you don’t at least have the first pack of cards you buy with Kreds. This is, in my opinion, the biggest failing of the flash incarnation (the second being the spotty AI).

The decks you unlock with Kreds are not pre-built decks; you always start with six Militia, two Torches, two Daggers, and two Iron Rations. This will never change. The additional card packs unlock different cards that will appear in the Dungeon deck and the Village.

Honestly, there’s is absolutely nothing else like this that exists in Flash form, to date. Unfortunately, the design implementation leaves something to be desired, and makes it really hard to see the true worth of the DBG format.

nail on the head right there ^ I kind of wish there was a physical copy of Thunderstone to play with my friends, with a few tweaks and extra cards it could be wicked fun to play with friends.

Originally posted by GodSandwich:

nail on the head right there ^ I kind of wish there was a physical copy of Thunderstone to play with my friends, with a few tweaks and extra cards it could be wicked fun to play with friends.

There is a physical copy of Thunderstone. Mine cost me about $50. If you do decide to buy it, I suggest buying Thunderstone Advance. It’s basically a reboot of the physical game, though still (mostly) backwards compatible with previous expansions. The new basic starter cards allow you to get into the dungeon a little more quickly (regular, longspear, and thunderstone shard replace militia, dagger, and iron rations). Also, they added a 4th action you can take called Prepare. It lets you take some number of cards from your hand, put them on your draw pile, and discard the rest. If you can’t do anything, and don’t want to destroy one of your cards, it lets you stack your next draw.

Fun again games is selling Thunderstone Advance for $40

Yeah you should be able to get it for ~40.

I’ve never played Advance, but the regular ones were mostly solid. There are some definite balancing issues that you can see in this game as well (some cards are way way way overpowered). My chief complaint about the physical game is that the rules are very dodgy on how certain cards work and interact.

I’m not sure I like the sounds of that “Prepare” addition to Advance.