Dominion is a quiet genius of a game. The strategy of a board game without the set up and pack down time, the excitement of a card game without the collection aspect. Designed for ages 10 and up (younger gamers will not find it difficult to learn) Dominion can be played in 30-60 minutes, depending on the number of players.
The game is designed for 2-4 players, and one of the expansions, Intrigue, gives rules for 5 or 6.
So what is the game about? Dominion follows the adventures of the players as they attempt to build a city and kingdom to dominate all others. Starting from a small collection of cards, players can purchase other cards over the course of the game to build up their deck and their kingdom. The winner is the player with the most number of victory points.
In your turn, you can take and action and also buy an additional card to build your deck. Some action cards grand additional actions, great for extending your turn. Other cards grant you additional purchases, to help you build your deck more quickly. Some action cards allow you to attack other players, either by reducing their hand size, or giving them a Curse, which is worth -1 victory point to them at the end of the game. Curses can be gotten rid of, though its not always easy.
The cards in the game are coins, victory, and kingdom cards. You get 25 Kingdom cards with the game, and these are cards such as Village, Market, Militia, Festival, that you use to build your deck. The Victory cards will cause you to win but otherwise don’t do anything, making it a tactical choice when to start adding them to your deck. Treasure cards allow you to buy the other two. There are also the Curse cards, and on those I will only say that it is better to give than to receive!
Ten kingdom cards are used each game, and these can be chosen randomly at the start. With a pool of 25 Kingdom cards there is a large amount of variability in the game, and the path to victory will seldom run the same course twice. Expansions provide even more variation to play.
Dominion has a very shallow learning curve and a great depth of play, which is a nice combination. Even the box interior has been well designed, with a card insert that allow you to store each different card separate from the others, for ease of set up and pack away.
Copies of Dominion and many of the expansions are available in the LXG club library.
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