A silver lining from the lockdown was discovering that Dominion, my favorite deck-building card game, works even better online than on a non-virtual table. Andrew McIntyre, Penny Geng, and I have tracked our scores across 276 games since March each accumulating over 80 victories and 10,000 victory points.
A great feature of Dominion is that every game is different, and this variance is especially bonkers if you mix the base with the 13 expansions (I refer to these as 14 Kingdoms, although hardcore Dominioners assure me that Kingdom means something else).
Which Dominion kingdom is your favorite? Here are my rankings, from best to worst, along with my praise and grievances with each.
1. Prosperity
What gives the kingdom its flavor? The Colonies and Platinums -- I refuse to say “Platina” – make the games longer, the stakes higher, and the deck-building more fruitful.
Playing feels like: Going all-in before the flop.
Strengths: It is possible to earn over 100 points in a game, and 50 in a single turn, once the piles empty and the Cities bloom. Many of the cards, including Forge, Bank, Bishop, and Mint, have no parallel in other kingdoms. The possible combinations in this kingdom are killer: City-Goons-King’s Court, Mountebank-Counting House-Bank; Working Village-Rabble-Peddler. This is also Andrew’s favorite kingdom. He writes, “Off-the-board points, Colonies, Platina, King's Court. What more could you want?”
Weaknesses: Colonies, Mountebanks, and Goons make the slogs extra sloggy.
Favorite Cards: City, Goons, King’s Court
2. Empires
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Split-piles, castles, landmarks, and the ability to take on a Trumpload of debt.
Playing feels like: A Zoom party in the Roman Republic.
Strengths: The castles, Groundskeeper, and many of the landmarks let you rack up points without needing to buy victory cards. The game changes dramatically depending on which landmarks show up. My favorites are the Wall and the Bandit Fort, both of which levy taxes progressive enough to make Elizabeth Warren blush.
Weaknesses: This kingdom is nearly perfect, but I have one minor grievance: why doesn’t the Overlord give you victory points when you play it as a Groundskeeper? Humbug!
Favorite cards: Catapult, Castles, Overlord
3. Adventures
What gives the kingdom its flavor? The Travelers and Events make it possible to create super-hands, and congregating Bridge Trolls makes it possible to buy cards for nothing.
Playing feels like: Eating candy for dinner.
Strengths: The card lineup in this Kingdom is unmatched.
Weaknesses: I am terrible at Adventures because I’m a sucker for Travelers, Pilgrimages, Lost Arts, Inheritances, Training, Pathfinding, and, of course, Balls, not to mention other moves that are fun but get in the way of winning.
Favorite cards: Bridge Troll, Lost City, the Page-Treasure Hunter-Warrior-Hero-Champion sequence.
4. Renaissance
What gives the kingdom its flavor? You can bank coins (coffers), actions (villagers), cards (Sinister Plot), turns (Fleet), and benefits from price discounts (Canal) to waste management services (Cathedral, Sewers).
Playing feels like: Watching your lancer win the joust.
Strengths: I’ll let Penny and Andrew take this one…
Penny:
“As a Shakespeare scholar, I love the idea of murdering your entire Acting Troupe to get four villagers. Sinister Plot offers greater flexibility for draws. Crop Rotation is beneficial for the second half of the game (after one has accumulated a number of green cards). But my favorite is Star Chart. Does it slow down the game? Yes. But worth it. With this project, one may review one's entire hand PLUS top-deck any card.”
Andrew:
“Projects (favorites are Capitalism, Cathedral, Crop Rotation, Sewers, Silos, Sinister Plot), so many rewards for trashing (although the Cathedral is dangerous), Inventor (and the introduction of villagers allows for multiple inventors to be played). Do you buy the Swashbuckler?”
Weaknesses: They’re hard to find with this Kingdom. I suppose there is not as much variability in Renaissance as the top three. As a result, it’s difficult to score a huge turn or a blowout victory.
Favorite Cards: Flag Bearer, Recruiter, Swashbuckler
5. Base
What gives the kingdom its flavor? The base cards are the microbes from which all of the other kingdoms evolved.
Playing feels like: A first kiss.
Strengths: Can’t beat the real thing.
Weaknesses: None… except maybe the Vassal. That card is kind of sucky.
Favorite Cards: Chapel, Throne Room, Bandit
6. Dark Ages
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Trashing, sneak attacks, and ruins, which are the waterboarding of Dominion tortures.
Playing feels like: Finding a mint-condition Mickey Mantle in a mountain of garbage.
Strengths: “Rats” is the most dangerous, and probably the most interesting, card in the game. Ruins combined with Rats, Death Carts, Graverobbers, Mercenaries, Foragers, Altars, Junk Dealers, Rebuilds, Counts, Hermits, and Fortresses pave many paths to victory, and even more to defeat.
Weaknesses: The Knights are a royal pain. And, as Penny like to say, it takes a long time to get anything done in the Dark Ages.
Favorite Cards: Rats, Count, Cultist
7. Menagerie
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Ways (a backup option for action cards), Horses (ephemeral Laboratories), and cards (like Animal Fair and Fisherman) that change prices depending on your past shenanigans.
Playing feels like: A stampede.
Strengths: The Ways, Events, price fluctuations, and formidable card lineup make every deal different.
Weaknesses: Not beginner friendly.
Favorite cards: Black Cat, Coven, Animal Fair
8. Seaside
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Duration cards make waves that don’t crash until your next turn. And the nautical art.
Playing feels like: Walking the plank o’er insufferable seas.
Strengths: The attacks (Sea Hag, Ambassador, Ghost Ship) are Ramsey Bolton-fierce. Along with cards like the Pirate Ship and Treasurer Map, they force you to calibrate your temporal discounting rate.
Favorite cards: Pirate Ship, Treasury, Tactician
9. Intrigue
What gives the kingdom its flavor? The ability to mess with other people’s hands.
Playing feels like: Being forced to pay for something you neither need nor want.
Strengths: This kingdom will keep you on your toes…
Weaknesses: But then it will swipe them, scrape off your nail polish, and auction your hang nails on eBay.
Favorite cards: Swindler, Masquerade, Torturer
10. Alchemy
What gives the kingdom its flavor? The best action cards require potion and coin. And you can use the Possession to buy stuff with another player’s hand.
Playing feels like: A caffeine addiction.
Strengths: I’m on a 14-game winning streak with this kingdom.
Weaknesses: The kingdom is relatively small, so I use essentially the same strategy every game (top-decking as many Alchemists as I can buy). Also, attempting to possess while already possessing another player’s hand seriously disrupts the space-time continuum.
Favorite cards: Alchemist, Golem, Herbalist
11. Cornucopia
What gives the kingdom its flavor? You are rewarded for diversifying your card portfolio and winning Tournaments.
Playing feels like: Training for a decathlon.
Strengths: I love the incentive to diversify and that Tournaments become both better (when you have Provinces) and worse (when others have Provinces) as the game progresses. Followers, which both makes your opponents discard and gives them a curse, might be the most brutal card in the Dominion kingdom.
Weaknesses: I find it ironic that a kingdom that rewards variety offers only 13 cards.
Favorite cards: Tournament, Followers, Jester
12. Hinterlands
What gives the kingdom its flavor? If there’s a flavor to this kingdom, it is somewhere between vanilla and unsalted crackers.
Playing feels like: A familiar, though not unpleasant, commute.
Strengths: The perks that you get for purchasing the Border Village (another card worth up to 5 coins), Ill-Gotten Gains (others get a curse), Nomad Camp (gained to your kingdom), Inn (shuffling actions back into your kingdom) and Mandarin (top-decking your money) are swell.
Weaknesses: The kingdom offers what my marketing textbook would call an “incremental innovation.”
Favorite Cards: Highway, Haggler, Spice Merchant
13. Guilds
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Coffers, which lets you deposit spare coins for a rainy draw; and overpaying, which gives some cards a side-hustle when you leave a tip.
Playing feels like: A sober conversation with your financial planner.
Strengths: Coffers, overpaying, and getting rich while smiting others with the Soothsayer, the Lloyd Blankfein of Dominion cards.
Weaknesses: The kingdom includes only 13 cards, some of which are kind of sucky (Masterpiece, Advisor, Herald).
Favorite cards: Soothsayer, Plaza, Doctor
14. Nocturne
What gives the kingdom its flavor? Hexes, which lack the punch of a curse but are more needlessly complicated than ruins; boons, which feel like they should be more helpful than they are; and Night Cards, which add a layer of bureaucratic red tape.
Playing feels like: Insomnia
Strengths: The Shepherd / Pasture combo makes collecting Estates a viable strategy.
Weaknesses: The Night Phase, which either frustrates or bores me, depending on how the cards land.
Favorite cards: Vampire, Werewolf, Cursed Village
Photo credits:
https://whatsericplaying.com/
amazon.com
https://www.boardgamehalv.com/dominion-expansions-guide/