Dominion (RGG)

Game: Dominion (Rio Grande Games)
Scenario: Repetition (3p), Reach for Tomorrow (3p), The King's Army (4p) and Potion Mixer (4p)
Participants: Jeff "Jeffe" I, Joe "YJ" C, John C and Myself
Time: Saturday, May 21st ~ 11.45AM - 6.15PM

Dominion is highly addictive. It has taken hold in my group in St. Louis. I blame Rikk (aka "The Pirate") my friend in Arizona who out of the blue sent me the game a few months back. In the last month, I have played it with all of my gaming friends and it has proved very popular. Several times we've elected to play Dominion in lieu of a 'real' game. For those of you that are wargamers that might be looking for something to fill in the cracks, or perhaps something that the wife and children would enjoy, Dominion is certainly worth your time. A couple of my friends have played it with their wives, mothers and children...most of the time they (the family members) were the first ones to say "lets play again".

I talked about the game in depth in this (2nd half) post, so I wont spend time here going over the mechanics of the game. I will talk briefly though about the expansions to the game, which we played through this past Saturday. First off there is Dominion: Seaside. Seaside adds cards that have multi-turn effects as well as cards that can add resources to themselves over the course of the game. "Prosperity" adds another layer of victory and treasure cards as well as new cards that are both actions and treasures, or better said treasure cards with perks. Lastly there is "Alchemy" which introduces a new currency to the game (potions). These are the only three expansions that I have played with to date, there is one "Intrigue" that I have and have not played yet as well as a brand new one "Cornucopia" that I do not yet have.

Repetition Deck

Game #1 "Repetition" (Dominion + Seaside) [3-player]

This deck has the "Pirate Ship" in it and I stayed away from it, preferring instead to stick "Caravan" and "Festival" to start off with. YJ and Jeffe caught on quick and this was a tight game.

The Final Score looked like this:

• Jeffe: 33
• Myself 30
• YJ 24

Reach for Tomorrow Deck

 Game #2 "Reach for Tomorrow" (Dominion + Seaside) [3-player]

This is an interesting deck. It had "Treasure Map" in it and we all jumped on those cards early on. Jeffe and I had success getting them played early, giving us an advantage early. YJ was however able to fight back in and got a very close win.

Final Score:

• YJ 36
• Myself 35
• Jeffe 10

Me, John and Jeffe

Game #3 "The King's Army" (Dominion + Prosperity)

John showed up and after some amazing chow (thanks T-Money!!!) we played this very enjoyable deck. There are several attack cards in it and the "Moat" was very popular. Late in the game we figured out that "King's Court" was a huge card. Once we got a few of those in our hands the game drew quickly to a close. I had a lot of luck in that I seemed to have a "Moat" at all the right times. I also got the "Goons" going very early on and they ended up giving me something like 15 victory points. The game didn't end when the "Provinces" ran out, but rather when I (wanting to end it early as Jeffe was coming back on me) bought out the third kingdom pile to end it. The prior turn, I blew a card play, costing me a few coins which I could have ended the game on that turn, Jeffe was able on his last turn to get enough VP's for a one point win...very cool.

Final Score:

• Jeffe 27
• Myself 25
• YJ 11
• John 11

Jeffe, YJ and YJ's Hair

Game #4 "Potion Maker" (Dominion + Alchemy)

This was our last game of the day and is was pretty good. We all tried to figure out the new cards and the potions, with Jeffe getting it first. Despite this YJ was able to get it going with the "Golems" and in the end between Jeffe and YJ and their damn "Golems (which can extend their turn) it turned into a race between them, while John and I could only watch and wish that we had some dang "Golems" too.

Final Score:

• YJ 38
• Jeffe 30
• Myself 21
• John 21

Potion Maker Deck in Action

So all in all we had a fantastic time. Jeffe and John played three more games after we left. My thanks to Jeffe for hosting.