Dominion (game)
Encyclopedia
Dominion is a designer
card game
created by Donald X. Vaccarino, and published by Rio Grande Games
. The game was released at Spiel
2008 in multiple languages, and voted best game of the fair by the Fairplay polls with a rating of 1.75 from 147 votes. Within two months of its release, Dominion was one of the top ten games according to BoardGameGeek
ratings. In 2009, it won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres
and Deutscher Spiele Preis
awards. It was one of five winning games in American Mensa's 2009 MindGame competition.
The success of Dominion has spawned a series of imitation games or games that utilize the "deck building during the game" dynamic central to Dominion.
in which the players compete to gather the most valuable deck of cards, representing a Kingdom. There are five main classes of cards:
Some cards share multiple types.
The game is set up with three stacks of Victory cards, one stack of Curse cards, three stacks of Treasure cards; these cards do not change from game to game. In addition, ten stacks of Kingdom cards (most of which are Actions) are added to the tableau. The Kingdom cards can either be selected by the players or chosen randomly. Finally, each player receives the same starting deck of ten cards, consisting of the lowest value Treasure and Victory cards, and randomly draws five cards to start the game.
Each turn, the player performs the following phases (abbreviated as "ABC" to help new players remember the order):
If at any time the player must draw from an empty deck, the player shuffles their existing discard pile and uses it as the deck. Some Action cards can trash cards, removing them from the game permanently. In the base game, trashing is the only way of preventing undesirable cards from being reshuffled into the deck.
The game is over under two conditions: when the Province stack (the highest-value Victory card in the base game) has been exhausted, or when any three other stacks have been exhausted. At that time, the players count the number of Victory Points in their complete decks, and the player with the highest score is the winner.
The game has been compared to the "draft" gameplay style of collectible card game
s where players vie for the best deck from a common pool of cards. The game's main strategy is to strive to have hands that provide 8 coins for which to purchase a Province card; this often results from creating Action card chains, using cards that grant additional actions and benefits to build one's available coins to 8 or more. The game's strategy is also one where the players must balance effective deck building to reach this coin goal with the acquisition of Victory cards to win the game; Victory cards have little value during most of the game, and dilute a player's deck of Treasure and Action cards, clogging up their draws.
German-style board game
German-style board games, frequently referred to in gaming circles as Euro Games or Euro-style, are a broad class of tabletop games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction and abstract physical components...
card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
created by Donald X. Vaccarino, and published by Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games.-History:...
. The game was released at Spiel
Spiel
Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen...
2008 in multiple languages, and voted best game of the fair by the Fairplay polls with a rating of 1.75 from 147 votes. Within two months of its release, Dominion was one of the top ten games according to BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek
BoardGameGeek is a website that was founded in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko as a resource for the board gaming hobby. The database holds reviews, articles, and session reports for over 45,000 different games, expansions, and designers. BoardGameGeek includes German-style board games,...
ratings. In 2009, it won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres
Spiel des Jahres
The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...
and Deutscher Spiele Preis
Deutscher Spiele Preis
The Deutscher Spiele Preis is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine "Die Pöppel-Revue", which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals and game clubs. The results are announced every October at the Spiel game fair in Essen,...
awards. It was one of five winning games in American Mensa's 2009 MindGame competition.
The success of Dominion has spawned a series of imitation games or games that utilize the "deck building during the game" dynamic central to Dominion.
Gameplay
Dominion is a deck-building card gameCard game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
in which the players compete to gather the most valuable deck of cards, representing a Kingdom. There are five main classes of cards:
- Victory cards, which have a Victory Point value that is tallied at the end of the game, but generally have no value during the game.
- Curse cards, which are like Victory cards, but have a negative Victory Point value that counts against the player at the end of the game.
- Treasure cards, played during the Buy Phase, which generate Coins (and sometimes have other effects).
- Action cards generate effects during a player's turn, allowing that player to gain more cards, Coins, Buys, Actions, or get rid of cards, or may affect other players in the game. Some action cards have further subtypes: Attack cards negatively affect other players, and Duration cards affect future turns by the player.
- Reaction cards, which can be triggered out of turn in response to a certain event, such as other players' Attacks.
Some cards share multiple types.
The game is set up with three stacks of Victory cards, one stack of Curse cards, three stacks of Treasure cards; these cards do not change from game to game. In addition, ten stacks of Kingdom cards (most of which are Actions) are added to the tableau. The Kingdom cards can either be selected by the players or chosen randomly. Finally, each player receives the same starting deck of ten cards, consisting of the lowest value Treasure and Victory cards, and randomly draws five cards to start the game.
Each turn, the player performs the following phases (abbreviated as "ABC" to help new players remember the order):
- Action phase: The player starts with 1 Action during this phase, which with they may play one Action card, following its instructions. As some Action cards generate more Actions, the player may be able to chain many Action cards together in order to generate Coins, Buys, or other benefits. Remaining Actions do not carry over into the next turn.
- Buy phase: The player starts with 1 Buy during this phase, plus any extra Buys generated during the Action phase. To pay for cards, the player can use any Treasure cards in their hand to generate Coins, as well as any Coins earned during the Action phase. The player can buy a number of cards from the tableau up to the number of Buys they have; each card has a price in Coin noted in the bottom left of each card. Bought cards are added to the player's discard pile (from where they will be later shuffled into the player's deck). The player does not need to use all of their Buys nor spend all of their Coins, but unused Buys and Coins do not carry over into the next turn.
- Cleanup phase: The player collects their hand and all played and bought cards and places those into their discard pile. The player then draws five new cards from his deck.
If at any time the player must draw from an empty deck, the player shuffles their existing discard pile and uses it as the deck. Some Action cards can trash cards, removing them from the game permanently. In the base game, trashing is the only way of preventing undesirable cards from being reshuffled into the deck.
The game is over under two conditions: when the Province stack (the highest-value Victory card in the base game) has been exhausted, or when any three other stacks have been exhausted. At that time, the players count the number of Victory Points in their complete decks, and the player with the highest score is the winner.
The game has been compared to the "draft" gameplay style of collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
s where players vie for the best deck from a common pool of cards. The game's main strategy is to strive to have hands that provide 8 coins for which to purchase a Province card; this often results from creating Action card chains, using cards that grant additional actions and benefits to build one's available coins to 8 or more. The game's strategy is also one where the players must balance effective deck building to reach this coin goal with the acquisition of Victory cards to win the game; Victory cards have little value during most of the game, and dilute a player's deck of Treasure and Action cards, clogging up their draws.
History
During development, Dominion was originally called "Castle Builder" and then, later, "Game X".Releases
| Color | Name | Release Date | Size | Cards | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominion (Base game) | October 2008 | Standalone | 500 | The original game. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 25 | Adventurer, Bureaucrat, Cellar, Chancellor, Chapel, Council Room, Feast, Festival, Gardens, Laboratory, Library, Market, Militia, Mine, Moat, Moneylender, Remodel, Smithy, Spy, Thief, Throne Room, Village, Witch, Woodcutter, Workshop | ||||
| Intrigue | July 2009 | Standalone or Expansion | 500 | Decisions among multiple possible effects; victory cards with an in-game effect. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 25 | Baron, Bridge, Conspirator, Coppersmith, Courtyard, Duke, Great Hall, Harem, Ironworks, Masquerade, Mining Village, Minion, Nobles, Pawn, Saboteur, Scout, Secret Chamber, Shanty Town, Steward, Swindler, Torturer, Trading Post, Tribute, Upgrade, Wishing Well | ||||
| Seaside | October 2009 | Expansion | 300 | Effects that persist to the player's next turn. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 26 | Ambassador, Bazaar, Caravan, Cutpurse, Embargo, Explorer, Fishing Village, Ghost Ship, Haven, Island, Lighthouse, Lookout, Merchant Ship, Native Village, Navigator, Outpost, Pearl Diver, Pirate Ship, Salvager, Sea Hag, Smugglers, Tactician, Treasure Map, Treasury, Warehouse, Wharf | ||||
| Alchemy | May 2010 | Small Expansion | 150 | Introduces the Potion, an alternate card cost. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 12 | Alchemist, Apothecary, Apprentice, Familiar, Golem, Herbalist, Philosopher's Stone, Possession, Scrying Pool, Transmute, University, Vineyard | ||||
| Prosperity | October 2010 | Expansion | 300 | Treasures, victory point tokens, and expensive cards. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 25 | Bank, Bishop, City, Contraband, Counting House, Expand, Forge, Goons, Grand Market, Hoard, King's Court, Loan, Mint, Monument, Mountebank, Peddler, Quarry, Rabble, Royal Seal, Talisman, Trade Route, Vault, Venture, Watchtower, Worker's Village | ||||
| Cornucopia | June 2011 | Small Expansion | 150 | Variety in player decks. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 13 | Fairgrounds, Farming Village, Fortune Teller, Hamlet, Harvest, Horn of Plenty, Horse Traders, Hunting Party, Jester, Menagerie, Remake, Tournament, Young Witch | ||||
| Hinterlands | October 2011 | Expansion | 300 | Cards that have an effect when purchased or otherwise gained. | |
| Kingdom Cards: 26 | Border Village, Cache, Cartographer, Crossroads, Develop, Duchess, Embassy, Farmland, Fool's Gold, Haggler, Highway, Ill-Gotten Gains, Inn, Jack of All Trades, Mandarin, Margrave, Noble Brigand, Nomad Camp, Oasis, Oracle, Scheme, Silk Road, Spice Merchant, Stables, Trader, Tunnel | ||||
Promotional Cards
Mini-expansions consisting of a set of a single card type have been released as promotional items.- Dominion: Black Market (2009)
- Dominion: Envoy (2009)
- Dominion: Stash (2010)
- Dominion: Walled Village (2011)
- Dominion: Governor (2011)
Awards
- 2008 Meeples Choice AwardsMeeples' Choice AwardThe Meeples' Choice Award is an award given for board games and card games. It is given by Spielfrieks, an internet discussion group about board and card games.- Past winners :...
- 2009 Spiel des JahresSpiel des JahresThe Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...
- 2009 Deutscher Spiele PreisDeutscher Spiele PreisThe Deutscher Spiele Preis is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine "Die Pöppel-Revue", which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals and game clubs. The results are announced every October at the Spiel game fair in Essen,...
- 2009 Mensa Select
- 2009 Golden Geek Award (Game of the Year & Card Game of the Year)
- 2009 Diana Jones AwardDiana Jones AwardThe Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does...
for Excellence in Gaming - 2009 Origins AwardOrigins AwardThe Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
, best card game of the year
External links
- Rio Grande Games' Dominion homepage
- Dominion video review "Dicetower"
- Dominion strategy blog "Dominion Strategy"
- Dominion strategy tips "www.play-board-games.com"