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deh157's Dominion (Other)
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| [February 10, 2014 09:21:07 PM]
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For the non-video game analysis three members of our group from the three week game got together to play the deck-building game "Dominion." I had never before played a deck-building game, so it took a little while to learn the basic premise of the game.
*** Session 1: ***
Two of us had never played the game Dominion before and needed to be taught the rules. After that we both had to take a few minutes at the beginning of the session to familiarize ourselves with the cards in front of us so that we could devise a strategy going forward.
In Dominion the playing area is divided into three sections, not including the players' spaces. The first section of three sections contains three stacks of victory cards and one stack of curse cards, the second section contains three stacks of treasure cards, and the third section includes ten stacks of action cards. The victory card section includes a stack of estate cards which are worth one victory point each, a stack of duchy cards which are worth three victory points each, a stack of province cards which are worth 6 victory points each, and a stack of curse cards which are worth a single negative victory point each (we never used these because none of the action cards we used called for them). The treasure card section includes a stack of copper cards which are worth one coin each, a stack of silver cards which are worth two coins each, and a stack of gold cards which are worth three coins each. The action section contained any ten stacks of action cards (all the same for each stack) and these are different for every game.
At the beginning of the game each player is give a starting deck which contains seven copper cards and three estate cards and everyone draws five random cards from their deck. During each player's individual turn he has a single action and a single purchase available to him. An action allows the use of action cards and a purchase allows the player to buy a single card worth no more than the total amount of coin in his hand during that turn. At the end of each turn the player discards his hand and draws five new cards. This continues until every province has been purchased (there are twelve total) or any three of the other stacks have been depleted.
The first game went well for me thanks to the action cards available. I went for a strategy that called for getting as my high value treasure cards as quickly as possible and thanks to that I came in second only one victory point the only person who had played the game before. Having done so well I was hopeful for the outcome of the second game.
*** Session 2: ***
Each time a new game begins a new set of ten actions cards is chosen, whether at random or with some purpose. This is the one weakness I identified in the game. Since our cards were chosen at random it meant that there was a good chance that some of the cards wouldn't complement each other or a certain strategy. There is also a problem in choosing the cards deliberately each time because you will constantly be playing similar games in different sessions.
In the second game one of the action cards that was available was the "Thief" card. This card allowed the player who played it to steal every other player's high value treasure cards if they were within the top two cards of each players' decks and it discarded the cards that weren't taken. Thanks to this card my strategy of getting as much treasure as quickly as possible was rendered useless and by the time I tried to also use the thief it was too late and I lost by a sizable margin.
*** Conclusion: ***
Overall I really enjoyed the game. My only gripe was the choice of having ten stacks of action cards. If those cards could have been more uniform in the way they were chosen or the way the overall selection of action cards was balanced then I believe it would be better. I would definitely play this game again, if given the chance, and I would recommend it to everyone. I would just like to recommend that action card stacks are chosen with a sense of direction.
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deh157's Dominion (Other)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 9 February, 2014
GameLog closed on: Sunday 9 February, 2014 |
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