Rochester Gamers Community

Dominion (2008, Published by Rio Grande games in the US) is a 2-4 player card game. The game is easy to set up and can be played in just under an hour, making it a good choice for lunchtime gaming at work. At the risk of sounding trite, I will still say that like most good games, Dominion is easy to learn but can take time to master. In this case, unless you always select the same 10 out of the current 25 different action cards in your game, mastering will likely never happen. On your turn, you do the following three things:

A. Play an Action card (if you have one)
B. Buy on of the available cards on the table
C. Clean up by discarding your hand and drawing back up to five cards

On the table, there are three different types of cards:

1. Treasure (money) cards with values of 1, 2 and 3
2. Victory Point (VP) cards with values of -1 (curse), +1, +3, +6
3. 25 different types of actions cards

The object of the game is to collect the most victory point cards before the end game is triggered (through three supply decks running out or the 6-point VP cards are depleted). So, the standard flow of the game is to build your deck through the purchase of Action or Treasure cards until you reach the point where purchasing VP cards does not have a huge effect on your card draw. Because your starting hand is five cards (this may be modified by you and your opponent action cards), you want to make sure you have enough action cards which give you additional card draws, actions and buys to diminish the weight of VP cards which do nothing for you until the end of the game.

Strategies will vary depending on the card combinations. For example, the Thief Action (Attack) card allows the active player to steal Treasure cards from other players (provided they are one of the two cards on the top of their draw deck). When the Thief card is in the game, the players may purchase Action cards which provide additional purchasing power rather than purchasing higher value treasure cards. If the Thief card is not available, it is probably more likely for folks to hoard the "3" value treasure cards. What this means is that every game will be different. With 25 card types available to play with, that provides 25x24x23x22x21x20x19x18x17x16 = 1.2x10^13 possible combinations. Granted, not all combinations are very fun. Playing a game with all the attack cards and no Moat (defense) cards could make for a long, low scoring game. The end game caused by the depletion of three supply decks helps the game to end in a reasonable amount of time.

Dominion has been criticized by some as a "2-4 player solitaire game" and that comment is somewhat true. Sure, there are Attack cards which do bad things to your opponents, but when the Attack cards are played, they affect all of your opponents equally. There is no mechanism to target players so there is some interactivity lost. However, with future expansions, this is easily fixed. Being someone who has an affinity for conflict, I would much rather prefer my attacks to be directed rather than done to all as it adds a new dynamic to the game.

Score keeping has to be done in your head. During the game, you need to pay attention to who is taking the VP cards and also what action cards are being taken as well.

The fun part of the game is looking for effective combinations that may come up throughout the course of the game. Because when they do, it feels pretty rewarding. That said, there are times where many cards are played and the final result is a purchase that ends up being quite trivial and unrewarding. This game can also be played online for free at http://www.BrettSpielWelt.de. However, because each game is so different, there is no sense in playing online for the purpose of increasing your skills. I have had a much more enjoyable time playing Dominion with friends.

To close, if it is conflict or heavy interactivity you are looking for, you won't get that in Dominion's current form. But, if you are the type of gamer that enjoys the deck building aspect of a Collectible Card Game (CCG), this game will likely appeal to you. Two out of three friends of mine at work who are a bit above the rank of "casual" gamer ordered the game shortly after exposing them to a few games. I'd say that qualifies as a game worthy of purchasing in my opinion. I give the game 9 out of 10 and I think it is best with 3 or 4 players.

Also.. There is a print-and-play re-theme available on BGG now with a zombie (Left 4 Dead to be specific) theme. Check it out at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/361553