A short write up of the game Dominion
I did not play too deep into Dominion, but it definitely did not gave me the sparks as much as Settlers of Catan did. It was also a fun game to play, but the lack of player interaction compared to Catan was a big minus to the game for me. Personally because I love to trade things, however, I feel like Dominion is more of a single player game in the big parts.
The goal of the game is to earn victory points, just like in the Catan, but with a different method. In this game, player collected things that adds up to their victory points at the end of the game. The game has various different cards: currency cards (copper, silver, gold), estate cards (estate, duchy, province) along with various action cards that one can perform tasks with. Players take turns to cast their cards, buy cards and then discard their used cards and draw a new pile of 5 cards from their deck. The player can also curse the opponent with their curse card and witch card. This pattern continues until the supply pile of province cards is empty or any 3 Supply piles are empty. The players then calculate the amount of victory points they have and determine the winner.
The game was relatively quick and fun to play, it takes less time to make decisions and the pace feels just right — unlike Catan where at some point of the game it feels like things are on hiatus and progressed to slow. A thing I like about the game is the various deck combination you can have that somehow surprises you with a challenge every time you pull them out. I really would’ve enjoyed the game even better if there were more player interactions and negotiation, given that its a system of buying and trading goods, but that would also be hard because the only currency used in the game is either the copper, silver, and gold. I love games that includes trading system and I think that makes the game more fun to play as it touches a skill which not a lot of game incorporates — negotiation.
Image source: http://dominionstrategy.com/2011/04/18/guest-article-annotated-game-7/
