Author Topic: Dominion (card game)  (Read 15349 times)

Offline RobbyPants

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Dominion (card game)
« on: November 08, 2011, 11:09:59 AM »
Has anyone played the Rio Grande game Dominion?
I have most of the expansions. My wife and I love it, and we've gotten a lot of our family and friends hooked on it.

It's the first game like it that I've played. My wife and I pretty much stopped playing M:tG when we were introduced to it. Do you have any favorite cards/combos/sets?

My wife and I highly favor about anything that allows for trashing. I usually try to do something a little more sophisticated than Big Money just to keep it interesting, but usually the harder I try, the worse I do. :P
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Offline archangel.arcanis

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2011, 11:46:14 AM »
Karleigh's god father got a few sets of it. We enjoy playing occasionally. I think our favorite set has definitely been sea side. We all love the pirate ship. Oh if you have an android phone may I reccomend Dominion Shuffle. It is a great randomization app for quickly getting a game started by picking the cards for you with some base rules you set.

Offline Dan2

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2011, 04:42:45 PM »
It's a fantastic game, and it has (rightfully) spawned several variations or spin-offs.

My favorite card is definitely the Laboratory, and my least favorite is a close race between Witch and Swindler (from one of the expansions).

For anyone with time to make craziness happen, I would recommend playing the all-victory setup (all/only cards with victory point values).
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 07:36:28 AM »
I didn't like Seaside as much at first, but I like it a lot more, now.

Laboratory and Chapel are my favorite two from the original set (Lab was my first favorite).

My wife and I tried an all victory setup. It was kind of weird, but at least Intrigue has several hybrid victory cards that at least do things. Otherwise, an all-green setup is basically just Big Money, where you buy Provinces or Colonies at the end and no action cards. We may have put Trade Route in it to mix things up, too (that can get to be worth a lot of money toward the end).
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Offline Nanshork

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2011, 03:39:19 PM »
I played it once, and I thought it was really fun.  I liked the modular setup rules.

Offline Revenant

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2011, 05:54:59 PM »
I've played a lot of Dominion, most of it Basic+Intrigue. I'm a big fan of Chapel, Remodel, or any card that allows trashing.

My gaming group recently acquired Hinterlands, so we're currently deconstructing that. The same thing is happening as when we got Intrigue: The first month, everyone plays ludicrously farfetched combo decks. There's a lot of nice cards in Hinterlands (Spice Merchant, Scheme, Highway) but I think I like Border Village the best, because it sits at the Gold slot, encouraging people to try crazy combos instead of Big Money.

Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2011, 08:34:06 AM »
My gaming group recently acquired Hinterlands, so we're currently deconstructing that.
My gaming group recently acquired Hinterlands
recently acquired Hinterlands
Hinterlands
A new expansion!?!

I know what's going on my birthday list!
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Offline Revenant

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2011, 11:35:28 AM »
I think it got released at Spiel this year. The theme seems to be 'effects when buying/gaining cards', and it's been a lot of fun so far. Here you go.

Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2011, 03:34:21 PM »
I think it got released at Spiel this year. The theme seems to be 'effects when buying/gaining cards', and it's been a lot of fun so far. Here you go.
Thanks. I'd already checked that link as soon as I saw a mention of something newer than Cornucopia.

My wife and I haven't played much lately, but we mentioned it earlier this week, hoping to play a new expansion.
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Offline Nytemare3701

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2011, 04:40:55 PM »
I have played dominion and ascension, but I'm absolutely addicted to Thunderstone. It's the Dominion deckbuilding mechanic merged with Munchkin dungeon crawling, with Jason Engle (the guy who does stormwraiths for warlord TCG) illustrating the whole thing.

Offline CE2JRH

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2011, 04:55:27 PM »
Played it the other day for the first time, had a lot of fun. Though the second hand we played with something that cursed, and everyone ended the game with negative points. It was a little strange.

Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2011, 08:35:23 AM »
Played it the other day for the first time, had a lot of fun. Though the second hand we played with something that cursed, and everyone ended the game with negative points. It was a little strange.
Curses can be a real pain, especially if you can't trash them. They also slow the game down.

One quick question: how many players were there and how many curses were you using? You're only supposed to use a number of curse cards equal to (the number of players - 1) x 10. My wife and I didn't know that at first and used to play two player games with all 30 curses. Those games were terrible!
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Offline Necrosnoop110

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2011, 06:03:44 PM »
Can't get the hang of it. Too many cards I don't know. By the time I look down at my hand and figure out what I think I might want to do, the turns have buzzed around the table at 100 mph. And then everyone is looking at me "hey lets go" and I haven't seen what anyone else has done that turn.  :banghead

Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2011, 09:17:34 PM »
That is one thing I hate about that game. It's often that I'll draw my hand and instantly know what I want to do next turn, only to wait for two minutes as someone runs through half their deck with a Village chain, or sits there pondering which of the two actions they drew to use. To be fair, sometimes I'm the one holding things up, but I totally understand the impatience.

Sometimes it's a skill factor and sometimes it's a play style difference (Big Money vs Village Idiot, to use Boardgamegeek terminology).
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #14 on: November 23, 2011, 08:19:47 AM »
I got Hinterlands yesterday for my birthday. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. From what I've read of the cards, it looks like it encourages large decks and discourages dumping your copper. This is pretty much the opposite of how my wife and I play. It'll be fun to see who wins out if we try different strategies (although I have a feeling the lean, money-heavy deck will win more often).
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Offline Marco0042

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #15 on: November 24, 2011, 12:16:50 PM »
If you have played the Alchemy expansion there is a really broken combo that I got slaughtered with "Possession/Throne Room". Each time you get that combo you can completely run through your opponents deck. 
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2011, 07:29:45 AM »
That doesn't surprise me. Possession is one we usually avoid due to it being hard to adjudicate once you start playing multiples.
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Offline CE2JRH

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2011, 02:04:10 PM »
Quote
Curses can be a real pain, especially if you can't trash them. They also slow the game down.

One quick question: how many players were there and how many curses were you using? You're only supposed to use a number of curse cards equal to (the number of players - 1) x 10. My wife and I didn't know that at first and used to play two player games with all 30 curses. Those games were terrible!

We had 5-6 people, and two ways to trash curses...moats and some card that let you get rid of cards for victory points.
The problem was we emptied out those stacks really fast, and one guy knew he was going to lose so spent the rest of the game dumping curses. Things got emptied right when everyone had tonnes of curse cards and no VP. 2-3 of the people hadn't played before, either.

Offline Bloody Initiate

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #18 on: December 19, 2011, 08:51:46 AM »
Curses aren't usually a problem when my group plays Dominion, there's a sort of unspoken gentleman's agreement not to bother with the Witch. As far as attack cards go the Witch IS kinda lame imo, +2 cards isn't that special when the spy can be played literally for free, the militia gives you cash, and the bureaucrat gives you reusable cash. Thieves aren't always as practical, but work pretty well depending on the other cards in play (Money Lender, for example). All that makes it easy to ignore the Witch.

When we HAVE seen curses take a starring role, two of us started buying and using witches and defending against each other with moats, while the third player - who had missed the opportunity to stock up on moats - just eclipsed the curses by buying victory points and ended up winning the game. Fighting so often fails the combatants and benefits neutral parties...

I tend to prefer if no one bothers with her though, I just don't like the card. I don't know why a single action card requires an entire special deck to be in play, I would rather they spent the space in the box with more unique action cards.
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Dominion (card game)
« Reply #19 on: December 20, 2011, 08:31:44 AM »
In my experience (mostly two-player games), if one person buys an attack card and another one doesn't, the attacker tends to win. This isn't always the case, but if they're playing with an otherwise similar approach, attacking seems to grant an edge.

As for choosing the Spy over the Witch because it can be played for "free", you'd probably love or hate the Familiar (from Alchemy). It's +1 Card, +1 Action, Every other player gains a curse. Basically a "free" witch without the draw. I've played in four player games with that card and tried to ignore it, and it gets terrible. Everyone else is chain-spamming them. The only way I can keep my head above the water is if there's also Apprentice in the set (or something else that lets me trash cards).
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