Gameplay in Brief:
In this deck-building card game, players all begin with the same 10 cards: seven copper pieces and three victory points (VPs). You have a hand of five cards; a basic turn consists of using one action and buying one card. New cards either give you new abilities (e.g., increasing the available number of actions or forcing other players to work with just three cards) or add to your VPs. Although you need VPs to win, during the game VP cards waste precious space in your hand. Fans of collectible cards games will feel at home with Dominion, but it is also a fantastic family strategy game.
Basics:
For 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up. About 15 to 45 minutes per game.
Designer:
Dominion was designed by Donald X. Vaccarino.
Publisher:
Dominion was published by Rio Grande Games and Hans im Glück. Editions have also been published by more than a dozen other companies, including 999 Games, Filosofia Editions, and Korea Boardgames.
Genre:
Dominion is a deck-building card game with some similarities to collectible card games.
Also by Donald X. Vaccarino:
Dominion is the first game designed by Vaccarino to be published.
Awards:
Dominion won the 2009 Spiel des Jahres, the 2009 Deutscher Spiele Preis, and a 2008 Meeples Choice Award. It was also my pick as the best card game published in 2008.
Expansions:
Six Dominion expansions are now available: Intrigue (2009), Seaside (2009), Prosperity (2010), Alchemy (2010), Cornucopia (2011), and Hinterlands (2011). Dominion: Intrigue can also be played as a stand-alone game, but the other expansions require either the original game or a copy of Intrigue to be played.
In addition, three promotional cards -- Envoy (2008), Black Market (2009), Stash (2010), Governor (2011) and Walled Village (2011) -- have been published.
