Dungeon Master Forum

If you have never heard of Dominion, don't even know what system it came out for, and wonder if your machine will meet the hardware requirements, this may come as a shock to you: this thread is about a board game, or rather, a card game. I can honestly say that the only game that ever fascinated me as much was Magic. A friend of mine - somewhat fittingly - described Dominion as a cross between Settlers of Catan and Magic. Right now, I basically spend all of my (very limited) free time to playing Dominion. So what is it all about?

Dominion is a card game where each player has his own deck. You have a supply of different cards that each player can buy. You start your game with a deck of 10 cards. On your turn, you draw the top 5 cards of your deck, play them, and buy other cards. Everything you bought, used or didn't use then goes onto your discard pile at the end of your turn, and you draw 5 new cards. If your deck is empty, you just shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your draw pile. There are three types of cards:

- Money cards
Money cards are used to buy more cards. You usually may only buy one card. Each card has different costs depending on its power (and yes, you can buy more money cards, too).

- Point cards
When the game ends, each player counts the points on his point cards, so they are basically what the game is all about. Too bad that you cannot do anything with them when they are in your hand, so you have to balance these cards out - they are useless while playing, but necessary to actually win.

- Action cards
The bread and butter of the game. Action cards allow you to do all kinds of things, like drawing extra cards from your draw pile, giving you money, or playing more action cards (as you usually may only play one per turn) - or any combination of the above. There are also attack cards that force your opponents to discard cards or steal money from their decks.


The most interesting aspect of the game is that each game is played with 10 different available action cards, each with 10 copies that are free for everybody to buy, but the box comes with 25 different action cards. You can either choose a recommended setup (the manual contains a few), choose your own setups, or choose a set randomly. This means that you can play dozens of different combinations, the cards' power is only relative to each other. Some things work great together, others don't. Each game, you have to re-evaluate the cards new.

There are already two expansions for the game, and what can I say - it seems the sets are getting better and better each time. The cards get more complex, there are new card types, and the number of possible combinations rises exponentially. It really is an amazing game, and I am totally addicted. If you have a few people available up for a game, you won't be disappointed. It also plays well with only 2 players.

Trantor wrote:described Dominion as a cross between Settlers of Catan and Magic

Wow, you've sold me this game two times over!

I play it too ! The add-on is a must-buy ! (check it on boardgamegeek)

Is it better than Die Siedler von Catan? If yes, then I must have it!

I don't know Settlers of Catan, but it is different. Dominion is a "development" game, where you have to choose an optimal strategy taking into account what cards your foes buy.

The add-on is a must buy because it provides multiple new aggressive strategy that increase player interactions and a lot of variety to the game.

I have never been a huge Siedler-fan, so it should come as no surprise that I like Dominion better. I mean, Siedler is a good game, and I've played it a few times and had fun, but it never captured me in that "I-need-to-play-that-game-RIGHT-NOW!"-mood like Dominion did in the last 3 weeks. It really is amazing.

If someone is interested, but unsure, I found a video review that doesn't describe the game perfectly, but it's good to get an impression I think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENsEhRbVIM

Edit: I totally agree with Joramun that the addon is great. In fact, there are two addons. One is called Intrigue, which is playable on its own (and, if you use it together with the basic game, allows you to play with 5 or 6 players). In general, the cards in Intrigue are more complex and more demanding. It's harder to gauge their power level and harder to use them correctly. There are also lots of cards in it that add interaction with the other players, an aspect that sometimes is a little low in Dominion. A great addon indeed, though I'd stick to the basic game if you are a new player. Playing both together doubles the fun.

Then, there is also an expansion called Seaside which is only playable if you own one of the other two sets (because Seaside does not contain money or point cards). Seaside adds cards that stay in play for a turn, making long-term planning more important. In my opinion, the cards in Seaside are just fantastic, I think it's actualy the best set so far. I should also add that I think this is rather special, as I often feel that expansions to board games don't quite fit the basic game and can indeed do more harm than good. Dominion is an exception, though to be fair, the concept of the game absolutely begs for expansions.

In short, if you like Dominion, buy Intrigue. If you like that better, try Seaside and prepare to be amazed. And I really spend way too much time thinking and talking about this game!

I'll probably buy Dominion to someone as a birthday gift and then play it with him/her (either to my girlfriend... erm, she loves Siedler von Katan, so I hope she'll like it too... although she probably won't be too overexcited, lol; or to my brother... a better option perhaps, but his birthday is later, doh). It's my usual tactic of getting to new games and stuff like that.

Jan - you are a genious. I like that idea!

That's a very good idea, and the tactic that I used for Intrigue with my girlfriend. She wasn't disappointed, and neither was I.