This was one of our first board game purchases and we went into this one more or less blind about what it was. In fact, we had never even heard of the deck building genre before buying it. The guy at the store told us that it was very highly recommended in that people general love it and usually want to get the expansions after they play it. My first impression I think was fear and overwhelm-ness, to be honest. There was a tonne of different cards and no board… What did I get myself into?! Those thoughts quickly passed after the first play of the game though. We fumbled through it without any real strategy but yet I still really enjoyed it.

This game is a deck building game and has a medievalish theme to it, which was cool, even though I tend not to get too drawn in by this sort of thing.

I read the rules before playing, and not only were they short and easy to comprehend, but the actual game mechanics were very simple as well. All you had to remember was ABC (Action, Buy, Clean Up), so straightforward to learn and to teach people.

This was obviously a huge draw for me, since it was one of our first games, and I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time trying to understand the game, only to get frustrated and then never want to play it with someone else.

Most times I am the one explaining the games to the new players, so if this was going to be a painful experience (especially as a gateway type game) then that would’ve sucked.

Gameplay

There is a fair amount of strategy involved in this one. You must plan how you want to build your deck, to maximize each hand that you get. You do this with the action cards available, on top of that, you have to decide when to start getting the more valuable coins… And, eventually when to stop building and start collecting Victory Points.

(Dominion Currency)

If you are a planner like me, you will like this one. However, there is still an element of luck of the draw. You never really know when those recently purchased cards are going to surface, so it can get a bit frustrating if you end up wasting a few hands. Not frustrating “I want to quit” but more “fricken stupid cards…COME ON” kind of way.

That deck luck can play a big part early on in the game. If you are able to get a decent action card (these are usually worth 5 or so), then you can have a big advantage. This game has a lot of momentum to harness with your deck, so craft wisely and you can do well, especially early on.

The interaction level on this game is a little lower than I would like. There are a few cards where you can attack other players (5 of them, see picture below), otherwise, you are more or less doing your own thing, building away at your deck. In fact, if you are randomly selecting kingdom cards, there will be games where the 'action - attack' cards aren't even used! There is a quick fix for this if you really want them in there. You simply randomly select one of these cards to be in play (and then shuffle the rest into the randomizer deck.

(Dominion Action - Attack Cards -- Click to see full size)

You do have to pay attention to what other people are doing, so you know what is available and when you should start getting on the Victory Point train.

The way it’s played, you can only partially plan out your next move. If you are getting “+1 card” and/or “+1 action” type of cards, then you will want to wait to see what card comes out of your deck next before making your decision. This can slow the game a bit, but not enough that it bothered me. What really slows the game down is usually the buying phase.

(Dominion Action Cards -- Click to see full size)

There are 10 cards, all with different actions on them and different costs. As the game progresses (with more action cards being used) you won’t know how many coins you have to spend until the hand if finish. At that point you see what your options are, and most more often than not, you have to reread all the cards to see which will work best for you.

If you want to fully wait for the person before you to finish making their decision, the game can slow right down. What I suggest is that the next person starts on their ABC’s to keep the flow of the game.

The end of the game can come a bit abruptly if you aren’t watching carefully. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it has ended almost without warning a couple times we played. I found myself sitting there upset because I was FINALLY getting somewhere with my deck.

That brings me to my next point. Balance. As mentioned, at some point you have to switch from building to collecting VPs. Usually you can see this coming because 1 player will start and everyone else has to chase them down that path. If you don’t, they will run away with the game. If you pay attention, you can watch see how many Victory Points they have collected. For me, this takes away from the game a bit. I like to know who is winning, yes, but I don’t like being able to see that things are futile so far in advance. This kind of ruins a game for me.

There are some ways around this, however. One way the game is supposed to end when all the ‘Province’ Victory Point cards are gone. We played a couple rounds where you would play until all the ‘Dutchy’ cards are gone as well. Or one where you kept going until 3 action cards were gone no matter if the ‘Province’ cards ran out or not. This is just a personal thing, and someone else might enjoy the way it is set up more than I do.

There is a massive amount of replay-ability in Dominion. You only ever chose 10 of the action cards out of the box every time you play. Plus you usually pick this randomly (with the randomizer deck), so the chances of getting the same set of cards twice is very rare! The other thing that adds to the replay-ability factor is the strategy you chose. If you are like me, you usually pick a strategy and then try to refine it every game, but this game changed that for me. When we play this one a lot, I find that I am constantly trying new things, which keeps it really fresh. Actually, that has helped to break me of the habit within other games!

(Dominion Action Cards In Box - Click to see full size)

There is a bit of experience player advantage to this one. Mostly in knowing how you will want to build your deck from the start. As mentioned, early momentum can be key in this game. That being said, most new people we play with pick it up so fast that the advantage can disappear quickly.

This game is an awesome deck building game, in fact it topped our list of Best Deck Building Games! It has a lot of replay-ability, is easy to learn, and easy to set up. If you are new to the genre, this is the one you will want to start with. It plays a lot differently than games with a board, which is a nice change of pace sometimes, yet has enough strategy to have me coming back over and over again. Plus, it has a massive amount of expansions, so I see this one staying in my collection for a long time.