The keys of the kingdom: domain rules
There are a wide variety of great board games out there, and most of them will suit partygoers who want a short and simple game, on the lighter side, or fantasy fans who want a long and complex game. , on the heavier side. . But Dominion is a board game for board gamers. It is about the strategy and dynamics of the game. Every game is challenging, and every game is fun. It is by far the best designed game I have ever played.
The basic premise of the game is that you are building a kingdom, which is represented by your deck of cards. You start with a deck of some treasure (coppers) and some land (states). You buy better treasures (silver or gold), shares or better lands (ducats and estates) with your treasure, then discard everything and draw a new hand. When your deck runs out, you shuffle everything and redraw. Treasures and actions have different costs depending on their power, and land has a cost based on how many victory points it gives you. The object of the game is to build the best deck of treasures and actions that you can so that you later have the purchasing power to acquire the most land. The player with the most land (victory points) at the end of the game wins.
The game is highly strategic, addictive and infinitely replayable. There are several things about its design that make it a model of great game design:
The goal is to build decks.
The object of the game is not to reach the finish line or collect all the money or kill all the other players. The goal is to build the best kingdom possible. This goal is flavor-appropriate and aesthetically pleasing, and makes for a phenomenal game.
In other games, you might get knocked out of a game early or your opponent gain such a phenomenal advantage that you know your situation is hopeless. As the game progresses, many players often get bored, especially the ones who are losing. You rarely see this problem with Dominion. All players are working on their own strategies semi-independently, and each may experience different levels of success. It’s always fun to see your master plan come to fruition, even if it’s not enough for you to end up being “the” winner. When the game progresses and everyone accumulates victory points in their decks, it’s often hard to keep track, and often people won’t be sure who the winner is until the countdown at the end.
Probability
Because the main mechanic of the game is to shuffle a deck and draw cards, the order in which the cards come to you is entirely based on luck. This factor is important because it prevents many card interactions from being a block. If you could design your deck so that you have access to certain actions and treasures each turn, some strategies would be clearly better than others and everyone would use those strategies. The game would be quite predictable. But since there is a lot of probability, instead, the strategies can succeed or fail based on luck. You can draw what you need and you may not. Your opponent can take the last copy of a card from you before he can get it, or they can make you discard cards, or they can allow you to draw cards. There are a lot of things you should try to keep in mind, and therefore your options are rarely black and white.
(Almost) Every game is different.
10 different cards are randomly chosen for each game, and then players must develop their strategies based on how these different cards interact with each other. The 10 cards are chosen from over 100 possible cards. This means that there is a finite but huge number of different possible starting configurations for the game.
Even when you are playing with a fairly familiar set of cards and you think you have the different strategies figured out, there is usually no “best” strategy that you decide on and stick with throughout the game. The best strategy has to adapt to what other players are doing, since they are competing for the same resources as you and can even attack you with cards. Which strategy works best will also depend on how your luck flows, for example if your starting hands are 4 and 3 copper or 5 and 2 copper respectively.
Strategy and luck are balanced.
The game is primarily determined by the card interactions that occur, and therefore the player with the best strategy will usually win. But the game isn’t entirely daunting for the new player, because there’s also a lot of random factor with players constantly drawing from shuffled decks. Sometimes a good tactician can beat an excellent tactician if the cards work that way.
The only downside to Dominion is that the base game is around $45 and the expansions are $30-$45, which means it can be an expensive habit for a poor grad student like me who feels the compulsive need to have each expansion. It’s not as expensive as my old Magic: The Gathering or Warhammer addictions, but it’s a bit pricey nonetheless.
The game and expansions can be affordable if you can find good deals online. If you’re playing with a group, you can also spread the cost among yourselves by taking turns buying expansions, making the game much cheaper than something like Magic where each player is expected to have their own set of cards. However, the absolute cheapest way to play Dominion is online. The gameplay is fun and fast online, but I still prefer the in-person games. I see online gaming more as a way to practice and hone my strategies.