AEG Thunderstone Root of Corruption Board Game

Reviewed by JD Woody, host of “Live and Let Dice” on adrenalineradio.com.Root of Corruption is the best expansion available for Thunderstone Advance, and I would recommend that you buy Towers of Ruin as a base game and then add this one next. If you wish to save a little money you could get the Starter Set and then this expansion, but ToR is much better.Root of Corruption offers more monster cards, hero cards, village cards, treasure cards, and even a new curse. You get randomizer cards for determining which decks will be used in a game. There are even reprints of “ambusher” cards from Towers of Ruin and Caverns of Bane.The rulebook is extremely helpful and includes a glossary as well as three scenarios you could set up using these cards. Everything about this expansion is great.There are two new guardians (Archdruid, and King Caelan, who is also a Thunderstone Bearer). As such, there is a Guardian randomizer card in the deck.  The monster groups introduced in Root of Corruption are Djinnbound/Corrupted and Summoner/Old World (Level 1), Gnoll/Humanoid and Royal Guard/Corrupted (Level 2), and Elemental/Earth and Incarnate/Abyssal (Level 3). All monster groups come with a deck of ten monsters. Usually two or three copies of the same monster are in each deck. The Summoner group includes two decks: one for the summoners, and 12 different monsters which can be summoned!The Heroes introduced with this set are a Dwarf Fighter named Armsman, a Human Wizard named Blademage, a Human Fighter Cleric named Honormain, a Human Cleric Wizard named Profaned, a Human Thief named Silvertongue, a Corvaxis Ranger named Moonclaw, and a Treefolk Cleric named Woodguard. Each hero has a deck of twelve cards that levels up (six level ones, four level twos, and two level threes).The Village cards with this expansion are Edged Weapons (Cursed Dagger, Greatsword, and Labrys), a Liveoak Bow, a Maul, three Items (Blood Debt, Elven Waybread, and Tincture of Victims), two Auxiliary Spells (Circle of Protection and Mind Control), a Support Spell (Rage of the Disowned), and four Villagers (Debased Wizard, Hedge Witch, Hysterical Villager, and Stablehand). Each Village card includes a deck of eight copies of itself.The best part about this expansion? It includes a poster which can be placed at the top of the ToR game board to represent a siege scenario wherein monsters can line up in rank and file and breach the village. This turns Thunderstone Advance into a 3+ player co-op. With just those two games (Towers of Ruin and Root of Corruption) you have a ton of game here. If you wanted to expand it further I would recommend adding Caverns of Bane and the “Starter Set”, but there is a ton of game going on here. Highest recommendation.

Okay, first of all, let's talk about this so-called "play mat" they give you. It is certainly not a board, and I wouldn't call it a mat either, I would call it ... a bad idea really.This "mat" is a folded, 22" x 22" piece of paper very similar to the quality and thickness of a rolled-up poster. Mine does not lay flat and I doubt it ever will. It's still useable, but I was looking forward to this and it is a disappointment.I can understand that for $30 you're not going to get a thick, gorgeous board like "Towers of Ruin," but I for one would rather pay $40-45 for quality, or just leave this sorry excuse for a playing surface out of the box entirely. If you're going to advertise it on the box as a selling point of this set, it should be worth it.Furthermore, I was excited for "Co-Op" mode, but I was disappointed to learn it is only for 3-5 players. (I was hoping to play it with 2 players.) I can't find this information anywhere in the description of the product or on the box, so in case this matters to you, take note: Co-Op mode is for 3-5 players only. (Yes, it's probably possible for 2 players to use 3-4 "characters" in a cooperative fashion, but ... not the same thing.)HOWEVER, the cards are great. I was buying this expansion for the cards -- the Co-Op feature sounded neat but that was just going to be an added bonus to the Main Event: regular Thunderstone.Final result: Cards: 5 stars. Crappy "mat" and limited Co-Op mode: 3 stars. Final average: 4 stars! Still worth $30 in my opinion, as I'm sure I'll get hours of fun out of these cards.

All of the "Rage of the ..." cards were missing from the set, I contacted the company and they send me ONE copy of the missing card. Still trying to get it resolved. The way the posted is folded in the box was pretty "low-rent" but it fits in the big box fine as long as you're willing to live with severe folds.Thunderstone has some problems as a whole, and I fear what sort of problems the original version may have had. But my group loves it and I think I its got a lot of play left in it even after 7 games, also, we had a great time playing coop.My base set is Numenera so its a little interesting mixing these together rules wise but thematically its actually fine and even interesting. It just take a little extra effort when comprehending the rules.

I played thunderstone a TON, and LOVE the new Advanced. The only reason I bought it was that my friend already had all the original Thunderstone with it's expansions, but he wasn't going to get them, so I did. The expansions give you just the right mix of new powers and new flaws/costs to keep it fresh and not overpowered.

The co-op variant is well-designed and works pretty nicely, but unfortunately the folding play mat was sort of... jammed into the box. It was folded haphazardly and really won't work for much until smoothed down. A friend of mine had the same thing happen, contacted the company for a new mat, and received much the same thing.Game is quite good, however, so I won't kill the average.

Most of the other seller have been over pricing this game because of it being out of print, I found this to be a fair price and shipped rather quickly. best seller around

bought for a gift

Honestly the game could have come with only new cards and I'd have been happy, but new rules additions like Guardians and Siege Mode add even more value. Still haven't tried Siege Mode yet but it's on my to-do list.