The Dominion Thread
Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:08 am
If you've hung around the Indy folks you've probably seen or at the very least heard of a board game called "Dominion." This is the thread where we discuss this game!
Dominion is a board game for 2-4 players (2-6 with the Intrigue expansion) that is mostly an exercise in deck building. MTG fans will be immediately drawn to the game, as it seems to do a good job tickling the same pleasure centers as a good game of [popular collectible card game]. That said, Dominion is not a card game, it is a board game. You want proof? Too bad.
The core idea of Dominion is very simple. Each player is given the same starting deck, composed of seven "Copper" cards (currency) and three "Estate" cards (victory points). When the game begins, every player draws a five card hand - due to the fact that everyone has the same deck at this point, your hand is either going to be Three Copper/Two Estates, Four Copper/One Estate, Five Copper/No Estates, or Two Copper/Three Estates. Now what the fuck do you do with these cards, you might be wondering? The answer is simple - buy shit.
On your turn you are given two phases: an Action phase and a Buy phase. On your Action phase you are allowed to play a single "Action" card from your hand. However, you won't have any in your hand for at least two turns so you can safely skip this part. The Buy phase allows you to buy a single card from the Supply. The Supply where the magic happens - it's 17 piles of cards, including:
Currency: Copper (worth 1 money, costing 0), Silver (worth 2 money, costing 3), and Gold (worth 3 money, costing 6).
Victory Points: Estate (worth 1 VP, costing 2), Duchy (worth 3 VP, costing 5), Province (worth 6 VP, costing
, and Curse (worth -1 VP, costing 0 Protip: don't buy these)
Actions: There are 10 Action cards of various cost and function chosen randomly from your entire collection (anywhere from 25 to 78, depending on how many expansions/promos you have).
So anyway, on your turn you buy shit with the money in your hand. Once you buy stuff, you put it in your discard pile, and then you discard the rest of your hand and all money spent/actions played. "But Merk!" you might protest. "If I discard shit I bought, how do I use it??? I'm dumb." Easy - once you run out of deck to draw from, you shuffle up your discard pile and start over. Through this constant shuffling your deck will (hopefully) be getting better and better cards added, and it also means anything you bought you won't see again for at least one more turn usually. Plan accordingly.
As for actually winning, it's pretty easy - you just gotta have the most points in your deck/hand/discard pile and the end of the game (which happens when either the Province pile is gone, or any three other piles are gone)! To get points, you buy Victory Point cards. but be careful!! If you buy them too early, they'll just be dead weight in your deck as you draw cards that don't do anything other than take up space. On the other hand, wait too long and you won't get jack. It's all part of the strategy.
Dominion is a board game for 2-4 players (2-6 with the Intrigue expansion) that is mostly an exercise in deck building. MTG fans will be immediately drawn to the game, as it seems to do a good job tickling the same pleasure centers as a good game of [popular collectible card game]. That said, Dominion is not a card game, it is a board game. You want proof? Too bad.
The core idea of Dominion is very simple. Each player is given the same starting deck, composed of seven "Copper" cards (currency) and three "Estate" cards (victory points). When the game begins, every player draws a five card hand - due to the fact that everyone has the same deck at this point, your hand is either going to be Three Copper/Two Estates, Four Copper/One Estate, Five Copper/No Estates, or Two Copper/Three Estates. Now what the fuck do you do with these cards, you might be wondering? The answer is simple - buy shit.
On your turn you are given two phases: an Action phase and a Buy phase. On your Action phase you are allowed to play a single "Action" card from your hand. However, you won't have any in your hand for at least two turns so you can safely skip this part. The Buy phase allows you to buy a single card from the Supply. The Supply where the magic happens - it's 17 piles of cards, including:
Currency: Copper (worth 1 money, costing 0), Silver (worth 2 money, costing 3), and Gold (worth 3 money, costing 6).
Victory Points: Estate (worth 1 VP, costing 2), Duchy (worth 3 VP, costing 5), Province (worth 6 VP, costing
, and Curse (worth -1 VP, costing 0 Protip: don't buy these)Actions: There are 10 Action cards of various cost and function chosen randomly from your entire collection (anywhere from 25 to 78, depending on how many expansions/promos you have).
So anyway, on your turn you buy shit with the money in your hand. Once you buy stuff, you put it in your discard pile, and then you discard the rest of your hand and all money spent/actions played. "But Merk!" you might protest. "If I discard shit I bought, how do I use it??? I'm dumb." Easy - once you run out of deck to draw from, you shuffle up your discard pile and start over. Through this constant shuffling your deck will (hopefully) be getting better and better cards added, and it also means anything you bought you won't see again for at least one more turn usually. Plan accordingly.
As for actually winning, it's pretty easy - you just gotta have the most points in your deck/hand/discard pile and the end of the game (which happens when either the Province pile is gone, or any three other piles are gone)! To get points, you buy Victory Point cards. but be careful!! If you buy them too early, they'll just be dead weight in your deck as you draw cards that don't do anything other than take up space. On the other hand, wait too long and you won't get jack. It's all part of the strategy.
