Dominion is a two to four player deck building game by Donald Vaccarino and published by RioGrande Games initially released in 2009 with the second edition coming out in 2016. I first came across this game in a visit to my local gaming shop and liked the concept of it as I was a fan of CCGs and the deck building aspect of them. This was different though as you have to build your deck and strategies around your deck as you’re playing. The basic premise of the game is that you are a monarch of a small kingdom competing with other monarchs to build your kingdom up. You win the game by getting more points than your opponent(s). Inside the box are 500 cards depicting treasure, victory, curse and kingdom cards as well as a randomiser cards which allow you to choose the ten different kingdom cards you will be collecting throughout the game. There is a card holder with an organiser to show where the cards go to make setup and putting away easier (something that I’ve been doing with other games).
When you start a game, you shuffle the randomiser cards and take the top ten cards and those will be the kingdom cards you use for that game alongside the treasure and victory cards. The amount of victory and kingdom cards vary for two, three and four player games making the game quicker for fewer players. Each player starts with three estates (victory cards) and seven copper (treasure) in their decks. Each player starts with five cards in their hand which they will play to buy kingdom cards. Each kingdom or treasure card has a cost to buy which you use your treasure for. It can start off slow as the estate cards are only worth points so building up coppers which you can claim for free in the the first few turns unless you are lucky enough to have cheap kingdom cards to buy.
The turn is made up of three phases; action, buy and clean up phases, and you can only play one action and buy one card unless a card you play allows that to increase. All the kingdom cards are action cards which allow you to do certain things like draw cards, give you extra actions, extra buying slots and treasure to buy new cards. This can help in building up your deck faster and some cards can even hinder your opponent such as the Bandit (I’ve been screwed over many times by this card). Once you’ve completed your action phase you move to the buy phase where you can play as many treasure cards as you like to buy kingdom, treasure cards or victory cards. You can only buy one card unless you’ve played an action that allows +1 buy of which there are many. If you’ve built up enough actions and cards, it is possible to have multiple buying slots to get those much needed victory cards provided you have the treasure to pay for it. When you’ve finished the buy phase, all your cards from the turn you just took are placed in the discard pile and you draw a new hand of five cards. If you run out of cars you just shuffle the discard pile and create a new deck ready to draw from.
The game ends when three piles of kingdom, treasure or curse cards have been depleted or when the Province victory card have been claimed. Your cards are then gathered together and any victory shields are counted to give you a total points value. The player with the highest points is declared the winner.
The game is fun and very fast paced. I’ve sometimes found I’ve taken my turn before the previous player has shuffled their cards and got new ones and vice versa. The strategies and cards you use are the key to winning the game and you have to be very mindful of the cards you collect as the cards you use are different for each game. I’ve never played a game with the same ten sets of kingdom cards twice which keeps the game fresh each time you play as you have to adjust your strategies accordingly. I think we’ve racked up about five or six games in one afternoon if not more making this game extremely playable. The artwork on the cards is very good and the game itself is simple enough to pick up fast. The rule book is kept simple and has examples of various turns to help explain what you do in each phase. There are ways of playing with five or six players like buying a second core set or getting one of the many expansions that are available (something which I have been meaning to get for a while now). The game retails at around £45 but if you shop around you can get it for around £35. If you get the Big Box, which contains the Intrigue expansion for five or six players, it will set you back around £70 but I have seen it for around £55 on some gaming retailer websites.
Overall, Dominion is one of my top ten games and highly recommended. It’s easy and fun to play for all. It’s definitely getting played again once we can all meet up and play games.
Tabletop Tales 