I bought Dominion a few months before Christmas last year and it rapidly became one of my favorites. It's easy to learn but has a lot of depth. I would highly recommend it. Start with the first game, though. Intrigue (the second game in the series) has a lot more "gimmicky" cards that change up gameplay a lot...but I think you'll appreciate that more after you have a few games of the original under your belt.

The rulebook is actually really short, but includes details on each and every kingdom card in the game. keep it handy when you play.

« Last Edit: August 17, 2009, 02:41:29 AM by hepcat »

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Dominion did win the Spiel des Jahres for 2008, so that should tell you how good the game is. I do enjoy it a lot when I get to play it. I totally agree to start with the original game and then get the expansion later. I played Race for the Galaxy for the first time this weekend and I enjoyed it, but I think I like Dominion better because you choose which cards actually go into your deck. While you do control which cards go into your hand in RftG, it's randomly decided which cards you get to choose from.

Oh, I know it's won all kinds of awards (including the big one), but being an award-winner doesn't make it a game my wife will play with me. My daughter might be more inclined, but she's 6 (though we usually do okay with games rated 8 years old with her). So, I'm really curious about the whole gateway thing. The biggest hurdle for getting my wife to play a game is getting through the rules. She absolutely hates hearing rules.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

But I do hope Dominion gets ported to XBLA, as some other great board games have (Carcasonne, Catan, etc). I would be all over it. Come to think of it, we should start a grassroots campaign to get that done.

Offhand, I can't think of a single game in existence that doesn't have rules.

The game of life. (Not "Life")

She doesn't like sitting through the rules for Mousetrap, let alone something more complicated. That's why I'm trying to guage how rough the Dominion rules are. She'll do it, but after, say, 5 minutes, she'll get that "Can't we just play" look on her face.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

I think it does, but most of my games have only been with two players.

Thanks. My wife has expressed more of an interest in board/card games lately so I'm looking for some new ones to try.

What games do you have now and what games do you enjoy? Maybe with that we can give you some other ideas.

We've only played a few together in the last few years--Knightmare Chess, Lost Cities, Bananagrams. She also loves Spades, Scrabble and has played a little bit of Magic. We have Carcassonne: the Castle but haven't played it yet, so we'll probably break that out before adding many more games to the shelf, but I still like to keep my eye out for new ones. A few that I've thought about getting are Loot, Hera and Zeus, and Castle Keep. I don't want to hijack the thread, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Although I can't really do two player with the wife anymore. It either has to include the six year old or be something I can play with only her.

As for Dominion, I ordered it. We'll see if I can get a game going. I watched some demo of play online somewhere (through Boardgamegeek, IIRC). It didn't look too tough to explain, but all those cards may turn out to be overwhelming.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

Although I can't really do two player with the wife anymore. It either has to include the six year old or be something I can play with only her.

As for Dominion, I ordered it. We'll see if I can get a game going.

I recently went through the same thing with my wife and two daughters. They enjoy games, but hate, hate, hate to go through rules explanations. Dominion gave them problems at first, because it takes a few rounds of play for non-gamers to understand the concept of creating their own deck. They were bored silly until it suddenly clicked for them, typically when they managed to pull off their first combo.

6 years old might be a bit young for this game, but I'd give it a shot. Well, especially since you already ordered the game!

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Although I can't really do two player with the wife anymore. It either has to include the six year old or be something I can play with only her.

As for Dominion, I ordered it. We'll see if I can get a game going.

I recently went through the same thing with my wife and two daughters. They enjoy games, but hate, hate, hate to go through rules explanations. Dominion gave them problems at first, because it takes a few rounds of play for non-gamers to understand the concept of creating their own deck. They were bored silly until it suddenly clicked for them, typically when they managed to pull off their first combo.

6 years old might be a bit young for this game, but I'd give it a shot. Well, especially since you already ordered the game!

We generally find she can do games rated 8 yrs and up. And she's played Xeko (the CCG of the Environment - Woohoo). This might be too big a leap, but she might really enjoy it.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

Bullwinkle, I'm anxious to hear how it goes. I want this game, but my girlfriend has a pretty low "geek factor" tolerance.

She likes playing Jack, Carcassone, Lost Cities, Catan. I have my copies of Runebound, Memoir, Battlelore, Arkham Horror crying for some playtime, but she won't get past the subject matter.

I have every one of those games sitting unplayed, myself. Waiting for the day the daughter is age-appropriate. Somehow, I don't know that I'll ever be playing Memoir, though (I may pick up one of the Campaign packs and play by myself - I used to love doing that).

The others we've played (which Jack, though, are you talking Mr. Jack? I have that, but it's two player, so I have to wait for the planets to align when the kid is in bed and the wife is willing), except, shockingly, Catan. Her best friend from Middle School just got into it, and I've been easing the family in with Zooreka and Zooloretto.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

Well, I started a game with the 6 year old, but had to stop due to company arriving.

She completely got it. And we had a blast.

Not only that, but it really wasn't that hard to explain, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to rope the wife into giving it a go. The subject matter may turn her off, though, not to mention she watched the set-up, and it took forever (we've played Risk exactly once, and it was only the set-up...I've heard the new version speeds up play a bit). I've divided the cards into piles, though, so next time should be must faster.

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"The cause of death was asphyxiation, or smothering, in layman's terms."

Well, I started a game with the 6 year old, but had to stop due to company arriving.

She completely got it. And we had a blast.

Not only that, but it really wasn't that hard to explain, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to rope the wife into giving it a go. The subject matter may turn her off, though, not to mention she watched the set-up, and it took forever (we've played Risk exactly once, and it was only the set-up...I've heard the new version speeds up play a bit). I've divided the cards into piles, though, so next time should be must faster.

Sorry, did you say your 6 year old daughter is playing Dominion?I'm going to get this now! I have an 8 and a 10 year old daughter who more than happily put up with a geek factor.

Heh. Me dumb. So that's what that strip of paper is for!!! I almost threw it away.

Got Dominion about a month ago but didn't get a chance to play it until this past weekend. We played with four, including my wife who is a good game player but has a low tolerance for learning new games or games where the concentration level is too high (she keeps making noises about how games should be fun and social ... I don't get her some times). Highly recommend Dominion. Really strikes a nice balance between gateway game and a game with a fair amount of depth. I'll see how long I can hold out before I run and get the expansion.

Be sure to start with the original Dominion game first and get well settled in with that. Dominion:Intrigue is not for beginners and adds some interaction that may put some people off. I love both games for what it's worth.

I played for the first time over the weekend with a couple friends and had a great time. We only had time for a couple games since we had made time for Arkham Horror, but the two games couldn't have been more different.

First game:We followed the recommendation on the rules for the Kingdom cards for a first game setup. Rules are easy to understand and follow. The first game was pretty tame with everyone pretty much going through the deck and playing cards. Not much interaction between players other than the Militia being taken by one player and Moats taken by myself and my other friend. Mr. Militia ended up winning by getting some money rolling in and picking up a good chunk of the Province cards. After the first game we could see it was a solid game, but were looking for some more interaction. Well, no sooner said...and we started up the

Second game:This game was a total 180 from the first and was a fun surprise. We ended up picking random kingdom cards this time : 5 from the main set/5 from the expansion. We ended up with the Thief, Swindler, and Saboteur as the main players. These guys were getting tossed around left and right. No one wanted to buy anything worth much since it would end up getting trashed. At the end, we had decks chock full of Estates, Coppers and Curses. The winning player (not me) ended up with a winning total score of 4 thanks to the single Duchy he managed to pick up and keep.

We were all pretty happy how different the games turned out and had a really fun time. I would recommend it to anyone and an really looking forward to play again.Now I'm just waiting for an order of card sleeves to put all those cards in...

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