Dominion: Second Edition Review Game

Dominion: Second Edition

WBG Score: 7

Player Count: 2-4

You’ll like this if you like: Deck-building 

Published by: Rio Grande Games

Designed by: Donald X. Vaccarino

This is a free review copy. See our review policy here

By Steve Godfrey

Dominion was first released in 2008 and this second edition was released 8 years later in 2016. Countless numbers of people have played this over the years and it’s still being played as much today as it was back then. 

Box art generated with Photoshop as we have the big box and wanted to show the original box!

It’s got 16 big expansions at the time of writing and a ton of other promos and up-date packs. So it’s safe to say that Dominion is kind of a big deal…people know it…it has many leather bound books and….no, sorry, that’s Ron Burgundy.

With all that said, the question remains. How the hell do you review a game with this kind of legacy!? What else can I say that hasn't already been said over the last 18 years? Because surely at this point, reviewing this old of a game that’s this well known in the hobby would be like me saying to people  “hey have you heard of this David Attenborough guy? He’s pretty good at nature documentaries and you should check him out”. Well, whatever I say I should probably start with the rules right?

How to Dominate

To set up, make up a deck of cards for each player containing 7 coins and 3 estate cards. Place out the rest of the coin cards of 1, 2 and 3 denominations in their stacks and do the same with the rest of the Estate cards as well as the Duchy, Province and Curse cards but for these set out a certain amount depending on player count. These cards are worth 1, 3, 6 and -1 points. Then choose 10 kingdom decks and place these on the table. You can either choose these by personal preference, use the pre-set list or pick them at random. Each deck comes with a randomizer card and you separate all of these into one deck which you can then shuffle and draw ten at random to choose your setup. Each player then shuffles their deck and draws a hand of five cards. 

On your turn you play cards in your hand following the three phrases of the game. First, the action step. You can play one action card from your hand. Action cards are usually the kingdom cards in your hand. These will do a large variety of things like giving you additional money, options to buy more cards on a turn, letting you draw cards from your deck and even giving you more actions so you can play other action cards from your hand. Once the action phase is over you go onto the buy phase. You add together all the money cards in your hand and add on any money you may have gotten from action cards. You can now buy 1 new card from the supply. Some action cards will let you buy more than this when you play them. Pay the money cost on the card and add it to your discard pile. Next is the clean up phase. Put all played cards and cards left in your hand into your discard pile and draw a new hand of five cards. When your draw pile has run out then shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck. 

The game will end when three of any piles of cards are empty or all of the 6 point province cards have run out. Then total up all the points on cards in your deck and minus points for any curse cards you have. The player with the most points wins.

My relationship with Deck-builders

I’ve said many times across my reviews that standard, card only deck builders don’t really do it for me. They usually have some kind of battle mechanic and I find them to be a bit anticlimactic for the most part I don’t really enjoy them (there is the odd exception) Even though I knew Dominion was a fight for points rather than attacking your opponents, the card only aspect still put me off trying it even when I’ve had the opportunity on a couple of occasions. Then I was sent a copy by Rio Grande and I figured that if it was on the shelf it'd be rude not to give it a try. As with everything I went in with an open mind but honestly, I kinda expected to be more on the negative side given my previous experience. Add to that the fact that my history with designer Donald X Vaccarino's games has been mixed. I have to say though, I was presently surprised by it!

The evolution of a deck. 

From the very first read of the rules the game categorically tells you that you're limited with what you can do on your turn. However, as you set out the kingdom cards they whisper to you “don’t worry, we’re gonna let you break those rules in so many ways that you’ll feel like you're cheating.” Regardless of that, those first few hands still feel a bit underwhelming (which is generally true for deck-builders since your starting hands are the barest of bare bones.) even with those first couple of kingdom cards drip feeding and even with the odd little bonus here and there it still feels like buying those expensive cards is going to be almost impossible. As your deck builds that impossibility melts away and before you know it those early stunted hands make way for some epic combos. One minute you're drawing your hand of five cards and only playing with those. Next you’ll be drawing cards and chaining actions as quickly as your drunken family joining the end of a conga line and boy is it satisfying, the cards not the conga, no one wants to be the one behind drunk auntie Pat, you’re basically in charge of holding her upright! 

Each card gives that little dopamine hit as you draw another card, which could give you another action, which you can play to draw another card and each of those other cards have given you extra money to spend and even another buy action. It’s actually satisfying as you finish up your turn knowing you’ve done so much.

Those big combos aren’t always going to trigger though and in fact, having those big chains of cards may not be your style of play. Fortunately that isn’t the only way to play Dominion. There are plenty of play styles to lean into and the game absolutely lets you because of its replayability. The game comes with 26 kingdoms and that gives room for a decent amount to mix and match each game and each combination will give you a chance to experiment and explore different strategies. The rulebook will give some recommended combos or you could just throw caution to the wind and randomly put together your own. Just make sure that if you have got attack cards then maybe have some reaction cards to help counteract the effects, otherwise you're sure to get those agents of chaos who like to snap all those cards up and just go on an all out attack and it’s not fun being on the constant receiving end.

Will all of those combinations be balanced or fun? I’m going to say, probably not. Maybe you want to play Dominion but don’t want to put the time or even have the time to experiment with different combos and just want to play with the good ones. Don't worry because I'm sure there are enough seasoned Dominion players out there that can tell you the good stuff. In fact the big advantage of a game that has been around this long is the vast amount of information and community there is about it. Players have put countless hours into the game and there are going to be so many knowledgeable people out there who have probably compiled lists of the best and worst combos. Of course these are all subjective but if there's a way you avoid those bad games because some heroes out there have done the work for you then all the better.

A game of two halves.

As you start a game of dominion it’s all about building up your deck, getting those optimal combinations set up and really building that engine. You find yourself focused making sure you get exactly what works for your game into your hand. That is until you see people starting to reach for the odd point card, it may be now and then  and you may think nothing of it. But then you catch them going for that sneaky 6 point province. You might even notice that one or two of those decks are getting low. Now the game becomes a race. Now everyone is scrabbling for points. Every turn people are gonna be desperate for coins and just hoping that the engines they built in the first half are going to pay off and more importantly, if it’s going to hold up under the weight of all the points cards that are now clogging up their deck . It’s honestly like the standoff from reservoir dogs, just less violence. Everyone is just waiting for that perfect time to pull the trigger on the end game but one wants to be the one to do it unless they know they can consistently score points until the end of the game. It's that lovely balance of timing. Go all in too soon and you may be floundering towards the end, unable to score the bigger cards. Go too late and the bulk of the good points will have been snapped up. 

Everyday I’m shuffling.

Are you good at shuffling? Have you never shuffled a deck of cards before? Are you ok at it but need improvement? Well then worry not because Dominion is not just a board game, it’s a card shuffling crash course in a box. In one easy payment you can get all the shuffle training you’ll ever need! Depending on your play style it can be all too easy to burn through your deck in a couple of turns with a combination of +1 cards and +1 action cards cycling through your hand. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to happen because you can cycle through to your really good cards even quicker and even accumulate a decent amount of money on a turn. The downside is that you’ll be shuffling your deck….a lot! For some this is a moot point and is barely worth bringing up because they don’t mind that aspect. For others it could feel like a chore that gets in the way of an otherwise fun game. I love shuffling cards. I'm the sort of person who, when asked to shuffle, will keep going until I'm told to stop, but I think even I get to a point during games of Dominion where I could do without shuffling my cards anymore.  

Like most deck-builders, hands can turn into a luck fest. Even with some great cards in your deck and the potential to trash cards it's still possible to get late in the game and draw a hand of cards that resemble those of a starting hand. Now you could argue that with optimal play you could avoid this but during your early games (especially if you've not played a deck builder before) it can be all too easy to have a bad hand of cards and if that hand comes out in the last gasp for points then if can feel a bit crummy. 

After enough plays, I felt the turns in Dominion really speed up, even if I’ve got that long chain of actions. This isn’t a bad thing by any means and one reason people love this game is because of how quick they can get through a game. However I can’t help feeling that a part of that is because I started to go into autopilot. You start to learn what cards do at a glance so you play them and react so quickly to them it’s like you are not really taking the game in. How you feel about that may sway your decision on if this game is for you. I know a lot of people love Dominion for that very reason but for me personally, when I play a game I like to be engaged on every turn and I increasingly felt like I was just going through the motions and I found myself not enjoying it quite as much as I did when I first started to discover it. 

Indiana Jones and the original deck builder.

It’s been 18 years and I have to say that Dominion still holds up. In a market full of games that have taken great leaps to innovate on Dominions foundation it’d be so easy to write Dominion off as a relic of the time and label it as “a good start.” But just like Harrison Ford refusing to let go of Indiana Jones, Dominion refuses to let go of its relevance. Unlike Harrison Ford though Dominion rightly proves why it shouldn’t stop. It’s still just as fun and approachable today than I imagine it was when it first came out.

So the question is, has this journey back to the start of deckbuilding changed my mind on the genre? Am I now a fan of dominion? No and probably not? This “points”. style of deck builders has certainly taken a step in the right direction. So much so that I may actually look twice at something like this in the future. In terms of being a fan? Well, not quite. I’ve certainly had fun with my plays of Dominion and I can see why this game had the impact it did. For me, it’s not managed to make that leap over my own personal hurdles for me to consider it collection worthy. I’ll still play Dominion if it’s put on the table and I’ll still enjoy that time playing it but I might have to be in the right mood before I suggest it.

If you're a fan of deck-builders, regardless of how many you’ve played and how many different types you’ve played, Dominion is still absolutely worth your consideration. It’s simple to pick up and play but offers so much more depth, strategy and replayability than I thought was possible, and that’s just the base game alone.

Right, I’m off to take Dominion down to the pub for its first legal drink and let it get a tattoo. It is 18 after all.