Review: Dominion

Dominion is a deck-building card game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino.  In it, the players' goal is to gain cards worth Victory Points--typically represented by forms of territory (Estates, Duchies, Provinces, etc.), and build decks full of Treasures and Actions to allow them to afford the more expensive Victory Cards.

To set up, basic cards must be divided into piles (various Treasures and Victory Cards), and then ten more piles of cards are picked (called Kingdom Cards), which can be more Treasures, Victory Cards, or Actions, which allow players to do many things, such as buy more than one card in their turn, attack other players, protect themselves, upgrade their cards, and much more.

Only ten piles of Kingdom Cards are used, but in the base game, there are twenty-five options to choose from, so you aren't likely to play the same game twice.  Beyond the base game, each expansion might have twelve to thirty-five new sets of cards, so part of the fun is randomly selecting ten sets of cards to play with and discovering what strategy works best in the game.  Sometimes a card that seems useless in one game can be a necessity in another; sometimes cards interact in interesting ways and play off each other in big combos, netting a player lots of money or devastating attacks.

The base game offers a simple set of cards that introduce such features as Attacks, Reactions, upgrading, and Curses (worth negative Victory Points).  It serves as a great introduction to the game, and can be played a multitude of times without getting boring.

The first expansion, Intrigue, offers the first of many themes: choices.  Many cards in Intrigue give players the option to do one of many things, and it is up to them to decide which to do.

A few Intrigue cards.  Click to enlarge & read.  Notice some of them give you choices.

The theme of the second expansion, Seaside, is Duration Cards, which, when played, last for more than the player's current turn, and usually affect the player's next turn, giving them bonuses.  Also introduced are tokens, which can be used as extra money and to give players Curses.

The third expansion, Alchemy, is small, but introduces a major new form of Treasure: Potions, which means that some cards require you to have a Potion in your hand to purchase them.

The fourth expansion, Prosperity, introduces lots of new Treasure cards and an expensive new Victory Card.  Because of the high money present in games, many cards in this expansion are expensive, but make up for their expense by being very powerful.  It also introduces Victory Point tokens, which count toward your score without clogging up your deck.

The fifth expansion, Cornucopia, is another small expansion with a big theme: "variety", meaning that cards react according to how many different cards you have.  For instance, a card might award you victory points depending on how many different cards you have at the end of the game, and duplicates don't count.  This expansion also offers "Prizes", which are unique cards that cannot be bought in an ordinary way, but can be powerful additions to a player's deck.

Prizes in Cornucopia.  Very powerful, but can't be purchased in any ordinary way.

The theme of the sixth expansion, Hinterlands, is cards that do something the moment you buy them or gain them.  Usually in Dominion, buying or gaining a card results in the player putting it into their discard pile, to be shuffled in later, but Hinterlands allows you to do something immediately.

Dark Ages, the seventh and largest expansion, has two themes: the Trash, and upgrading.  In Dominion, sometimes you throw away cards, whether on purpose or because another player forced you to, and these go in the Trash.  Dark Ages makes use of the Trash by allowing you to take cards out of the Trash, and has cards which do something special when Trashed, or otherwise interact with the Trash.  Other cards can upgrade themselves into very special cards; for instance, a Hermit and only a Hermit can be upgraded into a Madman.

Dark ages also introduces Ruins, Spoils, Knights, and other specialty cards that have unique rules, making a rather complex set to play with.

The eighth expansion, Guilds, is expected to be released sometime in Spring 2013, but details of its theme have not come out, only that it is a small expansion, about the size of Alchemy or Cornucopia.

Each of these expansions can be mixed and matched, and there are even additional rules regarding how best to mix and match them.  With so many cards, you might never play the same game twice.  But if you want a solid introduction to the cards and the kinds of impressive combinations that can be made, each game offers named sample sets to play with to ensure you play with every kind of card and see the possibilities.

People playing a set they've probably never played before.

Only vanilla Dominion and the first expansion, Intrigue, come with base cards, and it is best to start with those anyway so the game is not too complex right off the bat.  However, a set of solely Base Cards was released, so that players who found their Treasures and Victory cards getting worn down could replace them.

There have also been five sets of Promotional Cards released which are not part of any expansion.  You can buy them as single packs just like you would by any CCG booster pack.  Some of them look interesting, but I have not yet been able to get my hands on them to test them out.

Overall, Dominion is an epic game that introduces its mechanics in an easy fashion, so timid players have plenty of time to get used to them.  The game is both for casual/family board game players and board game hobbyists who like more complicated games.  It strikes the right balance, which makes it perfect for introducing new gamers into the board game world without being too simple for enthusiasts.

Dominion also has a medieval theme, allowing players to learn cards quickly without overdoing the fantasy elements that might make other games daunting.  Combine this with funny back-of-the-box text and you will feel comfortable quickly learning a new game.

After playing just a few games, you can see why it's won tons of awards, including the Spiel des Jahres and the Meeples Choice Awards.

Head down to your local board game shop and you're sure to find it.  In fact, it's such a staple you can even find the base game in Barnes and Noble and other non-board game stores.  And, of course, it can be purchased online just as easily.

And if you don't like your family and friends, play in a tournament instead!