Random Dominion​ Musings

Well, here it is. My first official Dominion Blog. I hope you guys like it. In the future, I plan on adding some strategy discussion and also some lists. Lists​ are fun. I really liked jsh's idea for categorizing junking attacks. Qvists lists are fun, but something can be said for trying to figure out what trasher to buy or what village. Some list ideas I have are for best villages, best trashers and best alt VP. If you guys like those lists, I will create more.

Anyway today's post is more or less to say hi to everyone, and just write some random stream of thoughts pertaining to Dominion. Also, I promise future entries will be better. I'm typing this one from my phone. It's never a good idea to write an entire blog from one's phone.

I'm pretty excited about Dominion at the moment. Dark Ages shaked the game up a lot. And, Empires seems to be doing the same. Adventures also shaked up the game, but mostly by providing a lot of OP cards (Lost Arts, Peasant, Page, Save, Pathfinding). Whereas Dark Ages made people better players. While Empires doesn't have as many OP cards as Adventures, I do think it is changing the way we play the game and analyze boards. At least, for me, it's changing the way I play. For instance, I'm starting to notice estate pileouts, and I'm taking Gardens more seriously than before. Essentially, when there is any alt. VP, I give a moment to think of how that can impact the game moreso than I have in the past.

Speaking of Empires, Fortune is really nice. It's very strong, but does best in Engines that can reliably draw. Doubling your money is REALLY good. Though, I think City Quarter is the real Empires winner for best card (not counting Donate). With enough of these, you draw your entire deck and have all the Actions you need. And, man, you can spend an extra buy to get one and pay off the debt next turn. Debt is great.

One thing that bothers me about Empires is that I don't feel it got all the testing it needed. I feel some Landmarks and Events could have been improved or dropped from the game. Annex is weak. Conquest seems okay but almost never gets bought, at least by me.  Banquet is rarely good. People complain about Tax, but I actually like how it changes the game. Dominate and Donate also change the game a lot, especially Donate. I've heard people complain about Donate, but as far as Dominion cards go, I think it's balanced despite being crazy strong. Hey, it never misses the shuffle.

And, yah Landmarks. Some are game changing, but some just randomly give a VP edge to a player that was most likely ahead. I'm looking at you Colonnade. Right now, I like Mountain Pass. A lot of players don't know how to bid, the moment. A good strategy is to buy the first Province and then continue building an engine from there. Usually, players either underbid or overbid. If they underbid, take the debt, and if they overbid, they will likely have a hard time coming back after paying off the debt.

Speaking of cards not having enough play testing, Sauna/Avanto seems as if it may not have gotten all the testing it needed, but that's a post for another day.

That's all for today. Comments are appreciated.