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So I ran into a situation where I had a single treasure, the Loan card. I wanted to play the Loan card but I did not want to buy any cards.

So can you play treasure cards and not buy anything?

I believe I read in the rules that you play treasures first, then buy cards. So I believe that means I can play treasures and not buy any cards.

Thanks.

Edit

I just re-read my question and I failed to mention that I want to make sure I can use the "powers" of the treasure cards even if I don't buy anything. So in the example above I want to use the powers of the Loan card, but not buy any cards.

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    Upvoted because this is the first Dominion question in a while that made me go "Ooh, that's quite a good question", rather than "obviously the answer to that is written in plain English in the appropriate section of the rulebook, why didn't you just look there in the first place?" ;) Jan 27, 2011 at 23:37

3 Answers 3

16

That's fine. From the Dominion rules:

The cost of a card is in its lower left corner. The player may play some or all of the Treasure cards from his hand to his play area and add to their value the coins provided by Action cards played this turn. The player may then gain any card in the Supply of equal or lesser value. He takes the purchased card from its Supply pile and places it face-up on his Discard pile. He my not use the ability of the card when it is gained.

If the player has multiple Buys, he combines Treasure cards and any coins available from Action cards to pay for all of the purchases. For example, if Tyler has +1 Buy and 6 coins provided by two Gold cards, he can buy a Cellar costing 2, placing it face-up in his Discard pile. Then, he can buy a Smithy with the remaining 4 coins and place that face-up in his Discard pile. If he wants to use all 6 coins to buy one card, he can buy a Copper (for free) with his second Buy or not buy a second card. Players do not have to use any or all of their Buys.

(bolded for emphasis by me)

EDITED, to answer Chris' edit: Yes, it's fine to use Loan's "power" and then not buy anything. As stated in the rules above, you play a Treasure card from your hand, in this case the Loan: at which point the Loan card's abilities kick in, and you carry out all the revealing, discarding and trashing. Now you have (at least) 1 coin in your pool that you could spend on a Buy: but the rules make it clear that actually buying something is always optional, no matter how much cash or how many Buys you are entitled to!

9

No, you do not have to buy a card. You are free to use the power of Loan or any other treasure played during your turn. There is no obligation to buy anything just because you used the power of a treasure.

From the rulebook pg7, emphasis mine:

The player may play some or all of the Treasure cards from his hand to his play area and add to their value the coins provided by Action cards played this turn. The player may then gain any card in the Supply of equal or lesser value

and later on

Players do not have to use any or all of their Buys

4

Just to add something minor to the other two answers, you can also play treasure without buying anything to gain the benefits of other cards, e.g. Alchemist.

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