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Feb 9th, 2014 at 18:39:55 - Dominion (Other) |
Game Overview:
Dominion is a deck-building game with a Medieval theme. The game can be played by 2-4 players (up to 6 players with the inclusion of the "Intrigue" expansion set). The recommended age range is 10 years or older. The game has a minimal set up time and take approximately 30 to 60 minutes to complete one game. While there is an element of chance in the game (reshuffling your deck after each pass through), the game does require some skill and strategy to construct a successful deck.
Game Assets:
The original game consists of 500 cards:
- 130 Treasure Cards
-- 60 Copper (value = 1 coin)
-- 40 Silver (value = 3 coins)
-- 30 Gold (value = 5 coins)
- 48 Victory Cards
-- 24 Estate (value = 1 victory point)
-- 12 Duchy (value = 3 victory points)
-- 12 Province (value = 5 victory points)
- 30 Curse Cards (value = -1 victory points)
- 252 Kingdom Cards
-- 24 Action Cards (10 of each)
- 32 Randomizer Cards (used to create game sets)
- 1 Trash Card (designates the trash pile for the game)
- 7 Blank Cards
For the game sessions described in this log, the following cards were also used:
Cards from the Intrigue Expansion Set:
- 90 Kingdom Cards
-- 9 Action Cards (10 of each)
Cards from the Seaside Expansion Set:
- 20 Kingdom Cards
-- 2 Action Cards (10 of each)
Game Play:
Dominion is a turn-based deck-builder. The set up of the game will be 18 card stacks on the table:
1. Estate(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
2. Duchy(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
3. Province(8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4 players)
4. Copper(All)
5. Silver(All)
6. Gold(All)
7. Curse(10 for 2 players, 20 for 3 players, 30 for 4 players)
8. Trash (Trash Card)
9-18. Randomly selected Action Cards(10 each)
Each player begins with a deck consisting of 3 Estate Cards and 7 Copper cards. This deck is shuffled and a hand of 5 cards is drawn from the top of the deck. A player is chosen at random to start and play continues in a clockwise fashion. Each player's turn consists of three phases described below:
1. Action phase - In this phase the player has the ability to play an action card from his hand. These cards will fall into 1 of 4 categories
- basic action cards (allow the player to perform basic actions like draw extra cards, gain cards from the table, or perform extra actions)
- action-attack cards (allow the player to perform actions against other players in the game such as steal cards)
- action-reaction cards (allow the player to avoid the consequences of an attack from another player)
- action-victory/victory cards (gives the player extra victory points)
2. Buy phase - Once the player has no more actions or action cards available, he begins the buy phase. In this phase, the player can purchase one card from any pile on the table, except the trash, that is equal to or less than the amount of money she has in her hand.
3. Clean-up phase - After completing the buy phase, all cards purchased, played, and unplayed from the player's hand are put into a discard pile. Then five new cards are selected from the player's deck. If the player does not have enough cards in his deck to make a 5-card hand, he shuffles his discard pile and pulls the number of cards necessary to complete the hand. The remaining cards create the new deck. Then, play passes to the player on the left.
The game completes when all of the Province cards have been purchased or any 3 supply piles are depleted. At this point, the players count the number of victory points they have acquired throughout the game and the winner is the player with the highest number of them.
Play Session 1:
Set up:
The following action cards were randomly selected for the first gameplay session:
- Secret Chamber ($2; Action-Reaction; Discard any number of cards, +$1 for every card discarded; Defend an attack, +2 Cards, then put 2 Cards on top of deck)
- Courtyard ($2; Action; +3 Cards, put a card from hand on top of deck)
- Wishing Well ($3; Action; +1 Card; +1 Action; Name a card, if your top deck card matches add it to your hand)
- Great Hall ($3; Action-Victory; +1 Victory Point; +1 Card; +1 Action)
- Workshop ($3; Action; Gain a card costing up to $4)
- Warehouse ($3; Action; +3 Cards; +1 Action; Discard 3 Cards)
- Feast ($4; Action; Trash this card; Gain a card costing up to $5)
- Ironworks ($4; Action; Gain a card costing up to $4, if it is an action card then +1 Action, if it is a treasure card then +$1, and if it is a victory card the +1 card)
- Spy ($4; Action-Attack; +1 Card; +1 Action; Each player shows his or her top deck card, and the attacker decides if it is left on the deck or discarded.)
- Mine ($5; Action; Trash a treasure card from your hand, gain a treasure card costing up to $3 more, and put it into your hand)
Gameplay:
This was the first game I have ever played of this game, so it was spent more on learning how to play than a particular strategy. However, certain cards appeared to be more beneficial immediately. For instance, it became evident that the price of the cards definitely corresponded to the general usefulness of the card. Therefore, my initial strategy was to obtain higher value cards ($4 and $5 dollar range). This strategy, however, proved not to work very well. While I was focused on acquiring action cards, I neglected to continue to increase my overall buying power by purchasing more treasure cards. Fortunately in this session, I was able follow a simple progression (Feast -> Mine) or (Workshop -> Feast -> Mine) to upgrade the treasure cards that I started the game with.
However, I quickly changed my strategy to include purchasing higher value treasure cards. This ultimately proved to be too late however as the other players had already increased their buying power significantly. Furthermore, I attempted a strategy of continuously buying Duchy (mid-level victory point) cards throughout the game with the assumption that amassing them would allow me to overtake a player with a fewer number of Providence (high-level victory point) cards. Again however, this strategy failed because as a consequence of purchasing lots of victory cards, my hands became diluted with them preventing me from putting together any high buying power hands with which to continue building my deck.
Other clearly favorite cards that were used by all players were Great Hall cards, Secret Chamber cards, and Ironworks cards. I used the Great Hall cards to assist with my strategy of building up my victory point count by card quantity. I used the Secret Chamber cards to counteract that failed strategy late game by allowing me to discard all of the victory point cards diluting my hands for $1 a card. It didn't solve the problem completely but it did help me to remain competitive.
Results:
The final standing were as follows:
1st Place - Will (43 Points)
2nd Place - Donald (42 Points)
3rd Place - Sean (24 Points)
Ultimately my strategies failed and I came in last place. However, as this was my first game, I did learn what not to do in future games. Also, it was interesting to notice how, based on the random drawing of the action cards, some became effectively useless in that particular game. For instance, no one in the first session purchased a Courtyard or Wishing Well card. The Courtyard card was overshadowed by the Warehouse card and the Wishing Well card basically provided the same abilities as the Great Hall card except that the Great Hall also provided an extra victory point.
Play Session 2:
Set up:
The following action cards were randomly selected for the second gameplay session:
- Chapel ($2; Action; Trash up to four cards from your hand)
- Moat ($2; Action-Reaction; +2 Cards; Defend an attack)
- Ambassador ($3; Action-Attack; Reveal a card from your hand, return up to 2 copies of it to the supply, then each other player gains a copy of it)
- Shantytown ($3; Action; +2 Actions; Reveal your hand, if no action cards, +2 cards)
- Swindler ($3; Action-Attack; +$2, each other player trashes their top deck card and gains another of equal value that you choose)
- Coppersmith ($4; Action; Copper cards are worth +$1 this turn)
- Throne Room ($4; Action; Choose an action card in your hand and play it twice)
- Scout ($4; Action; +1 Action, Reveal the top 4 deck cards, put revealed victory cards into your hand, put other cards in any order and back on top of the deck)
- Smithy ($4; Action; +3 Cards)
- Thief ($4; Action-Attack; Each other player reveals top 2 deck cards, if any treasure cards are revealed, the player can force the other players to trash up to one treasure card each and then gain any or all of the trashed cards, all other revealed cards are discarded.)
- Laboratory ($5; Action; +2 Cards, +1 Action)
Gameplay:
It became clear almost immediately that the this gameplay session would revolve around the use of the Thief card. Therefore, my early strategy was to focus on gaining as many of them as possible. Interestingly, it was generally considered that Copper cards (only worth $1) were actually more detrimental to a player to have in their deck, therefore any Copper cards that were revealed using a Thief card were left in the opponents deck. However, many times throughout the game Silver and Gold cards were stolen back an forth between players.
Another aspect of this session that was not as prominent in the previous session was the strategy of chaining actions together. Many different card progressions allowed me build up hands that were upwards of 15 cards. Chaining together Laboratory, Smithy, Shantytown, and Moat cards allowed me to build up the number of Copper cards (Silver and Gold were rarely acquired this game because of the Thief cards) in my hand so that I could purchase higher value cards. I also used the Throne Room cards to double my Thief attacks or to acquire enough actions to continue chaining cards together.
A strategy that Will used was to use the Ambassador card to reduce the number of Estate cards in his hand and dilute our hands with them. While I didn't sue this strategy, it seems to be a pretty effective one given the final outcome of the game. A strategy that I didn't see used and was surprised by was the lack of Moat cards purchased to counteract the use of the Thief cards. I didn't use this strategy either, so I guess the general consensus was that the Thief card wasn't doing enough damage to warrant polluting the deck with the Moat cards.
Having learned from my previous game, I didn't focus on acquiring victory points throughout the game. I waited until the end game when I was able to purchase Providence cards, and only then would I buy a Douchy card if I couldn't afford anything else.
Result:
The final standing were as follows:
1st Place - Will (37 Points)
2nd Place - Sean (31 Points)
3rd Place - Donald (25 Points)
While I didn't win the second session either, I definitely improved my performance from the first session. I only lost by one Providence card, which means that one turn could have changed the outcome of the game. I think Will's experience with the game probably helped him, specifically with the use of the Ambassador cards.
Final Thoughts:
This was my first experience with Dominion. While I have played other deck-building games that share many aspects, this game provided an interesting twist by requiring players to purchase money with money, and only allow one action and one buy per turn. I definitely like that the randomization of the action cards provides a very unique game session and different challenge each time. I definitely look forward to playing this game again.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2014 at 18:42:46.
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