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New Turkey Day Game!
posted by GJ on October 14, 2009 @ 2:06PM
That's right, it's almost time for Turkey Day again--and that means GAMES! Of course, Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan will be making appearances, as will Apples to Apples and a new social game named Clever Endeavors. Hold on to your hats, however, as Game of the Year 2009 will find its way to Baldwinsville this year. What game, you ask? Why, none other than Dominion! Here's Charis Games' review of it: Dominion is an exciting, addicting, fast-action, deck-building game that plays well with two or three players. I predict that it will be one of our top selling designer card games in 2009. What makes Dominion such a great card game? For starters, Dominion is easy to learn. The rules are simple, the game can be explained in just a few minutes, and newcomers can be up and playing in less than 5 minutes. Dominion includes 500 cards, but you do not use all of them in the game. Each game uses 100 of 250 possible kingdom cards. Through this variety, Dominion allows each game to have a unique flavor and challenge. Dominion plays fast. Although Dominion has a solitaire-type feel to it, you are playing against opponents. After your first couple games, you will find yourself racing through your deck of cards, shuffling and reshuffling. This is not mandatory, it not a rule, you will simply be drawn into the game. Dominion will continue to grow. In fact, the first expansion set (Dominion: Intrigue) is already available.
So how do you play Dominion?
Dominion uses an A-B-C turn-based system. During a turn a player completes the following steps:
Action: At the beginning of the game the only cards you have in your hand are copper (worth 1 coin) and estate cards (worth one victory point). Very soon you will need to begin buying actions cards which will allow you to take various actions such as gaining additional cards or money, attack your opponents, and receive extra actions or bonuses. A clever player will learn to string a series of action cards together for maximum benefit.
Buy: During this phase, you will purchase new cards. At the beginning of the game, you can only make one purchase per turn. However, as you build your deck, you will be able to buy multiple cards per round. Sample cards that you can purchase include treasure cards (which give you money), victory cards (which give victory points), and kingdom cards (which provide all sorts of bonuses and actions).
Clean up: During this phase, you discard all of the cards from your hand and take five new cards. This is one of the best aspects of Dominion. You will start every round with a fresh set of cards.
The game ends when players deplete a stack of Province cards (the highest victory point cards), or deplete any 3 stacks of kingdom cards. At this point, all the players count their victory points. The player with the most victory points wins.
In a nutshell--Dominion is a deck-building game. You race to build the most efficient cash-building machine so that you can quickly purchase victory points before the game ends. So, you'll get to see this one in just a few short weeks!
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