Celisasu
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- Posted: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:30:47 +0000
Part.....something or another of Celisasu's "Let's talk about games that aren't talked about here very often!" threads.
Today I shall discuss with you.....Dominion. This is a non-collectible card game that plays in many ways like a CCG. To win you need the most victory points which are achieved by collecting Provinces, Duchies, and Manors(worth 6, 3, and 1 VP respectively).
At the start of the game you have a deck consisting of ten cards. These are 7 coppers and 3 manors. Set between the players are a 16 stacks of cards. Every game will play manors, duchies, and provinces(as these are how you get VP). Also every game will involve Gold, Silver, and Copper(how you buy stuff). The other ten decks are either picked randomly or chosen by players as desired. Your goal is to build a deck that will get you the most VPs. Cards have a cost of between 2 and 8. You can buy these with either treasure cards(gold/silver/copper worth 3/2/1 respectively) or action cards that do something as well as supply gold. Each turn you can take one action and buy one card. At the end of your turn you discard your hand and draw five cards. Some cards let you draw more cards, take more actions, or buy more stuff a turn. Other cards do other effects such as make players discard cards, steal treasures, etc. By purchasing the right cards you can get to victory faster. How you get there is the question. Do you focus on buying power? Mass card draw? Perhaps you believe the best way to gather resources is to deny your foes(whether via stealing treasures with the thief card or inflicting negative VP with curses or knocking cards out of their hand and so on). Be careful when buying VP though. VP cards go into your deck as well and they do absolutely nothing but give VP at the end of the game. Too many too early and you can find yourself with a hand that does nothing. When you empty out your deck and are required to draw a card, you reshuffle the discard pile and start going through your deck(including any new cards) again.
The game ends when either three piles of cards have been bought out or when all the province cards(the 6VP ones) are purchased.
At this point I've played three times. Each time I tried building a different style of deck. The first time I focused on cards that let me draw cards. Built a nice little card drawing engine. The second time I tried playing aggressively and threw a lot of witch cards into my deck to inflict curses upon my foes. Most recently a tried a buying power deck where I focused on having lots of resources with a few actions designed to annoy my foes by stealing their resources for myself(I bought a thief on turn one). Since everyone has access to the same pool of cards, unlike a CCG, you don't have to worry about a rock paper scissors situation or paying $50+ for a chase rare. It's all about being able to outplay your opponents(well and a bit of luck, but isn't that always the case with card games).
As usual I'll supply an example game. This one is the most recent game we played.
We have four players and play random cards. This game is somewhat expensive with five of the ten random decks having a cost of five. We also have three decks costing four, one costing three, and one costing two.
The other players have a nice initial setup as they all get either two copper or five copper in their hand(the two on turn one is good as they know they'll get five next turn). I kind of get hurt with a four copper initial hand so I'm the only one who doesn't get to buy a five cost card on turn 1 or 2. I end up getting a thief(cost of four) and a fishing village on my first two turns figuring that at least this way I'll start boosting my production and also maybe cripple theirs.
Two of the players are somewhat new so they try and buy one of everything to see how it works over the course of the game(one of them really likes the festival card with it's ability to speed draw, actions, and gold though and buys quite a few of them). I did the same in my first game so I don't blame them. Player #3 gets to work building a deck based on drawing lots of cards while denying cards to his foes. He puts lots of ghost ships in it(draw 2 cards, opponents discard down to three cards....even worse, they put two cards on top of their decks which hurts more than discarding into the discard pile) along with festivals and the like. I'm aiming for resources so I focus on fishing villages and and merchant ships which are cards that last two turns supplying money on both of them. I'm hoping that with these I can work around the ghost ship problem at least somewhat. Thieves(who steal gold, silver, and copper) serve as my primary means of attack and I also hope will speed up my resource acquisition by stealing silver and gold from my foes and putting it into my deck. I have throne rooms(which let you get a double benifit from your actions) to enhance both my thieves and gold producing actions.
Unfortunately my villages and merchant ships keep showing up on the wrong turns, so I get smashed by the ghost ships. I often only end up with one or the other in play when the deck needs both. Although I do have one great turn where they buy me two provinces back to back. But in the end the ghost ship deck wins via locking us all down too much.
Final Score:
Player 3(winner): 38 VP
Player 2-Me(2nd place): 21 VP
Player 4: 9 VP
Player 3: 6 VP
Today I shall discuss with you.....Dominion. This is a non-collectible card game that plays in many ways like a CCG. To win you need the most victory points which are achieved by collecting Provinces, Duchies, and Manors(worth 6, 3, and 1 VP respectively).
At the start of the game you have a deck consisting of ten cards. These are 7 coppers and 3 manors. Set between the players are a 16 stacks of cards. Every game will play manors, duchies, and provinces(as these are how you get VP). Also every game will involve Gold, Silver, and Copper(how you buy stuff). The other ten decks are either picked randomly or chosen by players as desired. Your goal is to build a deck that will get you the most VPs. Cards have a cost of between 2 and 8. You can buy these with either treasure cards(gold/silver/copper worth 3/2/1 respectively) or action cards that do something as well as supply gold. Each turn you can take one action and buy one card. At the end of your turn you discard your hand and draw five cards. Some cards let you draw more cards, take more actions, or buy more stuff a turn. Other cards do other effects such as make players discard cards, steal treasures, etc. By purchasing the right cards you can get to victory faster. How you get there is the question. Do you focus on buying power? Mass card draw? Perhaps you believe the best way to gather resources is to deny your foes(whether via stealing treasures with the thief card or inflicting negative VP with curses or knocking cards out of their hand and so on). Be careful when buying VP though. VP cards go into your deck as well and they do absolutely nothing but give VP at the end of the game. Too many too early and you can find yourself with a hand that does nothing. When you empty out your deck and are required to draw a card, you reshuffle the discard pile and start going through your deck(including any new cards) again.
The game ends when either three piles of cards have been bought out or when all the province cards(the 6VP ones) are purchased.
At this point I've played three times. Each time I tried building a different style of deck. The first time I focused on cards that let me draw cards. Built a nice little card drawing engine. The second time I tried playing aggressively and threw a lot of witch cards into my deck to inflict curses upon my foes. Most recently a tried a buying power deck where I focused on having lots of resources with a few actions designed to annoy my foes by stealing their resources for myself(I bought a thief on turn one). Since everyone has access to the same pool of cards, unlike a CCG, you don't have to worry about a rock paper scissors situation or paying $50+ for a chase rare. It's all about being able to outplay your opponents(well and a bit of luck, but isn't that always the case with card games).
As usual I'll supply an example game. This one is the most recent game we played.
We have four players and play random cards. This game is somewhat expensive with five of the ten random decks having a cost of five. We also have three decks costing four, one costing three, and one costing two.
The other players have a nice initial setup as they all get either two copper or five copper in their hand(the two on turn one is good as they know they'll get five next turn). I kind of get hurt with a four copper initial hand so I'm the only one who doesn't get to buy a five cost card on turn 1 or 2. I end up getting a thief(cost of four) and a fishing village on my first two turns figuring that at least this way I'll start boosting my production and also maybe cripple theirs.
Two of the players are somewhat new so they try and buy one of everything to see how it works over the course of the game(one of them really likes the festival card with it's ability to speed draw, actions, and gold though and buys quite a few of them). I did the same in my first game so I don't blame them. Player #3 gets to work building a deck based on drawing lots of cards while denying cards to his foes. He puts lots of ghost ships in it(draw 2 cards, opponents discard down to three cards....even worse, they put two cards on top of their decks which hurts more than discarding into the discard pile) along with festivals and the like. I'm aiming for resources so I focus on fishing villages and and merchant ships which are cards that last two turns supplying money on both of them. I'm hoping that with these I can work around the ghost ship problem at least somewhat. Thieves(who steal gold, silver, and copper) serve as my primary means of attack and I also hope will speed up my resource acquisition by stealing silver and gold from my foes and putting it into my deck. I have throne rooms(which let you get a double benifit from your actions) to enhance both my thieves and gold producing actions.
Unfortunately my villages and merchant ships keep showing up on the wrong turns, so I get smashed by the ghost ships. I often only end up with one or the other in play when the deck needs both. Although I do have one great turn where they buy me two provinces back to back. But in the end the ghost ship deck wins via locking us all down too much.
Final Score:
Player 3(winner): 38 VP
Player 2-Me(2nd place): 21 VP
Player 4: 9 VP
Player 3: 6 VP
