The Dominion Boardgame (Deck Building)
I came from the generation that grew up with famous collectible card games like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Magic the Gathering, and more. Even though those games are super fun and even cooler to win, they are super expensive to specialize each deck to work well and win (Yes, I had more than one deck). Since the corporations won't stop making a successful project, all those decks that you have made with the best cards can now be beaten by the newer cards and combos that just came out! This bummed me out until I was introduced to deck-building games.
Out of the many different deck building games that I have tried, Dominion continues to come to the top of my lists. Here's a brief explanation of the game and why I love it.
Donald X. Vaccarino's Dominion Board Game is a deck-building game where there isn't much a board, rather a table of cards to draft (or purchase) and add to your starting deck of basic cards. Each turn, players (between 2-4) on each of their turns will use their action(s) and buy(s) to accumulate more cards from the table (the "Kingdom") and add them to their deck (their "Dominion"). Once three decks of available resources in the "Kingdom" is depleted or just the Providence deck (the highest Victory card available), the game is over, and the players add up their victory cards to see who has the best Dominion. There are three types of cards: Actions, Treasures/Curses, and Victory cards (with more types are introduced in new expansions).
Each turn is broken into three phases (as easy as ABC): Action, Buy, and Clean Up. Players are only given a base of one action, in which they can play card(s) from the hand, and one buy, in which they can acquire a card from the supply on the table for the treasure cost with the treasure cards in their hand that turn. Actions can improve these base limits and even hinder other players options (Action - Attack cards). There are also ways to get rid of unwanted cards from your deck in order to increase the chances of drawing the cards that you need. At the end of each turn, all cards used and left in hand are discarded and a new hand of 5 cards is drawn from their deck.
I instantly fell in love with this game after my first few games. This love has encouraged many repeated games and even acquiring many expansions to provide even more strategies and ways to combine effects to make the best "Dominion." The reason this game is superior is because of the equality of the "Kingdom". Everyone playing has access to each card in the game, so based on their decisions of what cards to get and add to their decks determines who will come out on top. It has a light medieval theme, which introduces really cool artwork. This game is super easy to teach new people and the setup and clean up is quick as well. Since you don't use all of the cards provided in the game for your setup of the "Kingdom," the replayability is really high because each board set up can be slightly different, thus encouraging new strategies and ways to win. Expansions exponentially increase this playability and are definitely worth the price. Below I will list my favorite expansions and where you can get them for a cheap price all in one place.
My Rating
For detailed explanation of my ratings, read my other post with the full breakdown.
Also, here is my rap of this game that I wrote many years ago. It has many pictures of the actual cards used in the games from different expansions. Enjoy!
My Favorite Expansions (need the base game) are:
Intrigue (which was also a base game)
Prosperity
Hinterlands
Seaside
To buy a bundle of two or more versions of Dominion, please send an email to me describing which games you would like to get with free shipping.
If you don't own Dominion (the base game) yet,
but would like to, you can get your own copy here:
I came from the generation that grew up with famous collectible card games like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh, Magic the Gathering, and more. Even though those games are super fun and even cooler to win, they are super expensive to specialize each deck to work well and win (Yes, I had more than one deck). Since the corporations won't stop making a successful project, all those decks that you have made with the best cards can now be beaten by the newer cards and combos that just came out! This bummed me out until I was introduced to deck-building games.
Out of the many different deck building games that I have tried, Dominion continues to come to the top of my lists. Here's a brief explanation of the game and why I love it.
Donald X. Vaccarino's Dominion Board Game is a deck-building game where there isn't much a board, rather a table of cards to draft (or purchase) and add to your starting deck of basic cards. Each turn, players (between 2-4) on each of their turns will use their action(s) and buy(s) to accumulate more cards from the table (the "Kingdom") and add them to their deck (their "Dominion"). Once three decks of available resources in the "Kingdom" is depleted or just the Providence deck (the highest Victory card available), the game is over, and the players add up their victory cards to see who has the best Dominion. There are three types of cards: Actions, Treasures/Curses, and Victory cards (with more types are introduced in new expansions).
- Victory cards have a Victory Point (VP) value but usually have no use during the game. These can take up your hand if not balanced enough with other types of cards below. These are colored green.
- Curse cards are like Victory cards but have a negative VP value. These are colored purple.
- Treasure cards give you "Coins" which you can used to buy other cards from the "Kingdom" during the Buy phase. These are colored yellow/gold.
- Action cards give you effects during the Action phase. Effects can vary from: drawing more cards; generating Coins, more Buys, or even more Actions; gaining or discarding of cards; or affecting other players. These are colored grey unless it is combined with one of the above effects.
Each turn is broken into three phases (as easy as ABC): Action, Buy, and Clean Up. Players are only given a base of one action, in which they can play card(s) from the hand, and one buy, in which they can acquire a card from the supply on the table for the treasure cost with the treasure cards in their hand that turn. Actions can improve these base limits and even hinder other players options (Action - Attack cards). There are also ways to get rid of unwanted cards from your deck in order to increase the chances of drawing the cards that you need. At the end of each turn, all cards used and left in hand are discarded and a new hand of 5 cards is drawn from their deck.
I instantly fell in love with this game after my first few games. This love has encouraged many repeated games and even acquiring many expansions to provide even more strategies and ways to combine effects to make the best "Dominion." The reason this game is superior is because of the equality of the "Kingdom". Everyone playing has access to each card in the game, so based on their decisions of what cards to get and add to their decks determines who will come out on top. It has a light medieval theme, which introduces really cool artwork. This game is super easy to teach new people and the setup and clean up is quick as well. Since you don't use all of the cards provided in the game for your setup of the "Kingdom," the replayability is really high because each board set up can be slightly different, thus encouraging new strategies and ways to win. Expansions exponentially increase this playability and are definitely worth the price. Below I will list my favorite expansions and where you can get them for a cheap price all in one place.
My Rating
Dominion = 14/15
CQ = 3
LRNCV = 3
SU&CU = 3
CFLT = 2
RPLY = 3
For detailed explanation of my ratings, read my other post with the full breakdown.
Also, here is my rap of this game that I wrote many years ago. It has many pictures of the actual cards used in the games from different expansions. Enjoy!
My Favorite Expansions (need the base game) are:
Intrigue (which was also a base game)
Prosperity
Hinterlands
Seaside
To buy a bundle of two or more versions of Dominion, please send an email to me describing which games you would like to get with free shipping.
If you don't own Dominion (the base game) yet,
but would like to, you can get your own copy here:
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