Game review: Dominion

"You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams!"

Adult Board Games

This game is quite possibly the best board or card game I have ever played. This is perhaps not such a grand call for those who haven't ventured far beyond Monopoly, Taboo or Pictionary. However, A few years ago I took the plunge into the exciting territory of the Euro game, and have never looked back. I began with Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne. A good starting place. Both are often described as 'gateway games' - games that are fun, addictive, and dramatically different to play from your traditional board game. However, both of these games are best played with more than two players. My husband and I don't often have the third or fourth player on hand, thus my quest began to find games that are just as fun with two as they are with three or more. Enter Dominion.

Dominion

Dominion is a Rio Grande game and has won many prestigous awards, including the coveted "Spiele des Jahres". I found the game by extensive lurking on boardgamegeek.com, read the reviews and brandished my credit card. I have lost track of how many times I have played this game, and I am yet to tire of it.

Game play

Dominion is a deck-building card game. It takes a round or two to learn how to play, and a little longer to develop and test your strategies. The story behind the game (being a monarch expanding territories) does not seem overly relevant to the game play. The game focuses on players competing for provinces, duchies and estates, all contributing to the overall victory points for each player. You need money to expand your territories, and there are a range of clever cards that you purchase to assist you in obtaining money and/or land. Here lies the cleverness of the game. There are 25 Kingdom cards, and only ten of these are ever in play during a game. These cards can be chosen randomly, or players can choose to play specific scenarios. Cards are then selected to focus on the ways the cards work together. Because of the range of cards available, no two games are the same. This ensures the capacity to play over and over again, and the opportunity to develop and try out a range of strategies. The additional expansions provide an incredible variety to the base game. We are planning on getting the Intrigue expansion soon.

Each player has an "Action", "buying" and "discarding" phase during their turn. It can take a while for new players to get used to how this sequence flows.   Action sequences can be long and somewhat complicated, and may directly advantage the player or damage the opponent. The game moves quickly - it can be all over in as little as twenty minutes if only two people are playing. The only downside to the game in my view is that the cards are likely to deteriorate over time.

Dominion is highly addictive, and it is difficult to capture the fun and excitement of the game in words. If you are looking for a game that is satisfying for two players, you will be hard pressed to find better than this one.

Dominion Intrigue arrived by post today.  Intrigue is the first expansion for the Dominion series, and is also able to be played as a stand alone game.  Another review to come.