35
votes
Accepted
Should I use all actions before buying anything?
From the rules:
"The player must complete all of his Actions before
he moves on to the Buy phase of his turn."
- 11.1k
33
votes
Accepted
Can I buy a card without any treasure cards on my hand?
Short answer: yes, its possible and it has been officially acknowledged that the German rules are wrong.
Long answer: as you have already quoted from the base game rules (emphasis mine)
The cost of a ...
- 3,722
28
votes
Dominion - bold and regular type: which action comes first?
You do exactly what the card says in order, how bold the type is doesn't matter. The +2 Actions isn't an instruction to play (up to) 2 action cards at that time, it means that later in the Action ...
- 20.2k
27
votes
Accepted
Is not buying money the worst strategy in Dominion?
I don't know about the biggest - you could buy curses instead - but yes, this is definitely a big mistake and one of the most common.
Buying only silver and gold (aka "big money") is actually a ...
- 26.8k
20
votes
How important is game theory in Dominion?
One of the clearest examples of game theory in Dominion shows up quite frequently in 2 player endgames, and it's called the Penultimate Province Rule (PPR). Basically, you should avoid buying the ...
- 3,171
19
votes
Accepted
How many Dominion sets are there?
As of 2022, there are 16 sets and 11 promo cards1.
In release order:
Dominion (Base game)
Intrigue
Seaside
Alchemy
Prosperity
Cornucopia
Hinterlands
Dark Ages
Guilds
Adventures
Empires
Nocturne
...
- 71.9k
17
votes
Accepted
How does Hireling work with Throne Room or King's Court?
The wiki has this line on Hireling:
If you use Disciple (or a similar card, like Throne Room) to play
Hireling twice, you will draw two extra cards each turn, and Disciple
will also stay in play for ...
- 1,156
16
votes
How can I beat "Big Money" in Dominion?
I taught myself how to beat Treasure Bot (our name for this effect, to distinguish from the wait-for-platinum strategy Prosperity introduces) by having simple rules which -- while not on their own ...
- 261
16
votes
Accepted
When Using Throne room on a Throne room do you need two more action cards already in hand?
In Dominion, the general rule is that you have to do everything on a card in order before you can play another card.
This affects Throne Room in an odd way, because it means you have to do everything ...
- 3,936
15
votes
Accepted
Can you trash fortress indefinitely with donate?
No, because you trash all cards simultaneously.
From the Dark Ages rulebook:
When two or more cards are trashed at the same time, such as due to Count, first trash them all, then pick an order to ...
- 71.9k
14
votes
Accepted
What is a good modification of rules to make a game of Dominion slower?
Things that require no actual house rules:
1. Get and use the Prosperity expansion (or the Dominion Base Cards set), and play more games with Colonies/Platinum.
Games with Colonies usually last ...
- 71.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Is the Chancellor + Harbinger combo a viable Dominion strategy?
This doesn't work as you are thinking:
Harbinger has you draw a card before you look through your discard pile. This means that when you play Harbinger, the first thing you do is draw a card, which ...
- 71.9k
14
votes
Accepted
What Dominion cards have artwork featuring different versions of the same object?
The vast majority of the cards feature unique artwork, which is great. However, there are some cards that indeed include other cards' artwork, like:
Scrying Pool (from Dominion: Alchemy) depicts the ...
- 3,722
13
votes
Optimal Dominion strategy with only the Mine action card
Using the Dominiate Online Simulator I simulated a few Mine and money strategies in two player games against Big Money. The best strategy I could find was to play Big Money, but buy a Mine in ...
- 9,283
13
votes
Accepted
What makes King’s Court-King’s Court-Goons-Goons-Masquerade so powerful?
The combo is what is known as a "pin", although the biggest problem with it has been somewhat fixed in the 2nd version of Intrigue, which changed how Masquerade works.
For reference, the three cards ...
- 10.7k
13
votes
Accepted
Can I play multiple Idols one at a time and receive the effects each time?
Yes, you play them one at a time, and therefore you get the alternating boon and curse effect.
Note that this mandatory, not merely an option: You always play (and resolve) your treasures one at a ...
- 10.3k
12
votes
Accepted
How do I organise my cards in the Dominion big box insert?
There is a standard way to store those cards in the big box. Your big box should've come with a couple of large bookmark-shaped cards. One side has a bunch of card names upon decorative scrolls, like ...
- 24.3k
12
votes
How can we avoid big money in casual games?
For my suggestion of a house rule to use, please see the section of this answer titled "Embargo Counters".
If I understand correctly, you were learning the game naturally by playing it - it's just ...
- 411
12
votes
Accepted
How do I use the Dominion & Dominion Intrigue Update Packs?
The update pack serves two purposes:
Replace 6 old cards with 7 newer ones
Provide a new card strip; base cards are missing from the new strip.
Replacing older cards
The following 12 cards have ...
- 3,722
12
votes
When buying and playing a Villa in Dominion do you in a sense get 3 buys for that turn?
You don't get a new free Buy, sorry. Nice thinking though.
The base game rules do say that when you enter a Buy phase you get one default Buy, but the card-specific notes for the Villa in the Empires ...
- 24.3k
12
votes
Accepted
Donate at end of game
The game designer intends that "after this turn" effects do not happen when the game ends. The game ends at the end of your turn, so any other effects set up after that can't happen: nothing ...
- 352
11
votes
Accepted
Can I play Dominion: Hinterlands by itself?
Unfortunately, the clerk was mistaken. From Rio Grande Games' website:
Dominion: Hinterlands is an expansion, and cannot be played by itself; to play with it, you need Dominion, or a standalone ...
- 8,540
11
votes
Accepted
Village/Smithy strategy
"If you have 5 or more Smithies" means if you have 5 total Smithies in your deck (your deck being all cards you have; between your draw pile, discard pile, hand, in play, etc).
"If there are 3 or ...
- 71.9k
11
votes
Dominion Nocturne: Why is Raider not better than Gold
There are 3 main factors at play which make it so that a Gold may the right choice over Raider sometimes.
Duration cards are inherently weaker than non-duration cards for 2 reasons:
First off, ...
- 71.9k
10
votes
Can you shuffle your discard pile?
edit: The OP was not clear whether it meant "shuffle the discard pile and put it back in the draw pile" or just "shuffle the discard pile". Now that's clear, I'm adding the following:
True, as the ...
- 3,722
10
votes
Accepted
What cards use coin tokens?
Although the cards using coin tokens are already listed in the answer by RM Bee (including the comments), Coin tokens appear in currently four expansions (Seaside, Prosperity, Guilds, and Renaissance) ...
- 216
9
votes
dominion adventures, using tokens on duration piles
You only "play" the Duration once, on the turn when you, well, play it. The next turn it will just have an effect without you needing to play it.
So this means Durations don't work especially well ...
- 2,811
9
votes
Accepted
Dominion: ghost plus pixie
The golden rule in Dominion is follow the card instructions as much as possible. You can play Pixie a second time, even if it has been moved, e.g., moved to the trash. However, you may not be able to ...
- 3,722
9
votes
Accepted
How do I play out a Vassal hitting a Throne Room?
Playing an action card via Vassal is exactly the same as if you had played it from your hand: you follow the text of that card, top to bottom, doing as much as possible.
In the case of Throne Room ...
- 3,722
9
votes
Dominion Prosperity play out treasures
You are playing the buy phase incorrectly.
In the buy phase, you always play all of your treasure cards, one at a time, before you buy any card. In fact, you are not allowed to play any more treasure ...
- 71.9k
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