This weekend I had a chance to play Dominion, a non-collectable card game from Rio Grande games.
Dominion is all about resource management with a dash of “screw your neighbor over” thrown in. The purpose is to amass the most victory points (which are represented by lands: Estate, Duchy, Provence, and Colony). There are also ten action cards that each affect the game in some way. Victory points, treasure and action cards are all purchased with money in the form of cards (copper, silver, gold, and platinum).
Each round a player will have an action phase in which they play an action card(s) and a buy phase when they can purchase treasure, victory points and more action cards.
What I really liked about the game is that it will be different each time, as you pick ten new action cards each game (the set we played had about 40 – 50 different action cards).
The Breakdown:
- Easy to learn (you’ll have the gist after one game)
- Changes each time for high replay value
- Fantasy-themed cards, but far enough removed from an RPG or fantasy board game that non-geeks will play and enjoy themselves.
- Low attention game (you can chat and joke without messing up your turn)
- Fast-paced 30-60 minutes a game
Rio Grande Games’ Dominion site
Pictures:
Boccob's Blessed Blog 