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In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end. You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner. But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents wouldn
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Technical Details
- 2-4 player game- 30 minutes to play
- Tactical Card game
- Massive replay value
- Quick to learn, many ways to win
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By C. Thomas (Oregon)
We played this game once at a friend's house and had to get it for ourselves. It's fun game that is different every time. It is somewhat similar to Settlers of Catan, although there is less setup, the game is quicker, and you don't have to pay attention as much during other peoples' turns. Great for shorter attention spans and shorter windows of available time.
By Christopher K. Halbower (Muskegon, MI)
Dominion is a non-collectible card game published by the good people at Rio Grande Games. Players accumulate wealth, spend their wealth to make improvements to their town and then use those improvements to acquire more land. Land equals victory points for the most part. Whoever has the most victory points wins.
Dominion, like its evil cousins (collectible card games), is a game where players must manage their decks. If you can count cards, you will have a distinct advantage in Dominion. Counting cards is not necessary to be successful (or even to have fun with Dominion)--but serious, tournament gamers will be of the card counting variety. Because you must count your cards, you must manage which cards you put into your deck. You put cards into your deck through purchases.
Players start with 10 cards: 3 estates and 7 copper. Players draw an initial hand of 5 cards. At the end of your turn, you muck your hand (if you have a hand left) and then draw 5 more cards. Any cards you purchased go in your discard pile. Once your draw pile is empty, shuffle your discard pile and form a new draw pile.
You start the game with a complement of estates and copper. Estates score you 1 VP but otherwise clutter you hands. Copper is the least valuable coin. Using this starting complement you must purchase more valuable coins (silver and gold) and buildings.
Players will want more valuable coins because they only get 5 cards in their hands at one time. So if you happen to draw 5 copper coins, you only have $5 to spend. Each silver card is worth 2 copper and each gold is worth 3.
Players also will need to buy buildings. Buildings allow players to take extra actions (normally players only get 1). Some buildings allow players to make extra purchases (normally players only get 1). And some buildings give players special options like drawing extra cards, causing opponents to discard cards, etc. Deciding which buildings to buy is important. These buildings will be cluttering your hand. Will they give you the necessary economic engine to buy the more valuable land cards?
Acquiring land cards is a double edged sword. On the one hand, they are the primary way to get victory points. On the other hand, they clutter your hand without giving you an "in-game" bonus.
Dominion comes with a huge complement of cards. There are enough cards in the base game to satisfy all but the most diehard CCG fans. Since Dominion has two expansions, this should assuage Dominion's detractors.
I have two main gripes about Dominion.
1. Tedious amounts of shuffling. Players are constantly shuffling their decks. This is both tedious and it causes wear and tear on your cards.
2. There is virtually no player interaction. Dominion is a 4 player solitaire game. There are a few "attack cards". But there is no real interaction. Players can play "Militia" which forces their opponents to discard 2 cards. But that's not player interaction. There is no auction system, no vying for control of the center of the board, no driving up the cost of resources...just 4 player solitaire.
Dominion is a good, quick game. Because of the amount of cards in the base game, there's quite a bit of replayability. With the expansions, there should be replayability for years to come. If you don't mind the lack of player interaction and the excessive shuffling, then Dominion will probably scratch your gaming itch.
By C. Muench (California)
Dominion is an excellent game. The rules and gameplay are relatively simple, while the strategy can get extremely complex at times. The goal is, similar to a collectible trading card game, to build a deck that'll allow you to win. You have money, actions, and point cards. Most points at the end wins. It can occasionally be that simple; usually it isn't.
Every time you play the possible cards in play are different. You play with 10 of the 25 Kingdom cards every game, and a difference of even one or two in play can be huge. The claims of massive replay value are very accurate.
The game is also great because players of reasonably similar experience and skill levels will almost always be well matched. Also, finding innovative strategies is a very important factor; while there is a fairly "standard" strategy that applies to most games, a cunning player can usually find some topsy-turvy way to thwart his/her opponent(s).
By A. M. Schiermeyer (Redmond, WA USA)
This is one of my favorite boardgames, and as interesting as a 2 player as it is as a 4 player. Was a little too abstract for my 11 year old AP niece, although she enjoys Settlers of Catan.
By R. Hough (NW Michigan and SW Florida)
Just got this game based on reviews at amazon and elsewhere. My wife and I have trouble playing game together (we both can handle losing, but it is tough when that means the winner is always your spouse !!!), but this one seems to appeal to both of us. Excellent game design with lots of variations based on which kingdom cards are in play. The first game took us about 1 1/2 hours including reading the rules and doing all the setup. Subsequent games take only about 1/2 hour, turns move quickly. The storage box is wonderfully designed making setup between games a cinch.
I disagree with one reviewer that says you should have a "house rule" to always have moat cards in play if you have attack cards in play; without moat cards the attack cards become more valuable, but can skew your strategy, you may focus too much on attack and forget to make progress toward your own win.
I am going to purchase the card protector sleeves, I can see this being a family favorite and I want to keep the cards in good shape.
Our other favorite games are:
** Acquire (a classic, still probably my favorite game of all time),
** Settlers of Catan (we have the extension to allow 6 to play)
** Ticket to Ride (get the 1910 expansion set, much more fun)
** Monopoly (still fun if played EXACTLY by the rules and is played quickly at the beginning to get the properties sold),
** Card games: Hand and Foot, Hearts, Oh Hell and Texas Holdem poker
** The Empire Builder series of "crayon" rail games (time consuming but fun - my extended family owns 7 different maps for this game. Hint: make a game board out of light plywood or foam board with rasied edges, get a piece of plexiglass cut to fit inside the edges, then put the map board under the plexiglass and use dry erase markers to play - makes a big difference - we also use this board for Catan so we don't accidentally move the numbers discs during play. When we have a "game weekend" we like to start one of these rail games each evening then play it on and off during the following day.
** Puerto Rico - we are still trying to get a handle on this game, lots of possible strategies and "resources", but very well designed turn play.
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