My group really likes the game, except for Witch. That card is just the antithesis of fun. In one game, two players did nothing but buy witches until the stack was out, and due to the random selection of stacks, there weren't enough options to stop the witches. I ended up with a negative point total, and most of my hands had 2 or 3 curses.
__________________ Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock
Author of the War of the Burning Sky serialized novel, free at EN World. Part Two, The Irons Have Tolled, now available.
My group really likes the game, except for Witch. That card is just the antithesis of fun. In one game, two players did nothing but buy witches until the stack was out, and due to the random selection of stacks, there weren't enough options to stop the witches. I ended up with a negative point total, and most of my hands had 2 or 3 curses.
That's just part of the game. Particularly in the base game, if the witch is out, you need to take that into account. My usual strategy is to try and get her as quickly as possible and give out as many curses as I can; the more curses I give out and the faster I give them, the fewer that can be given to me!
Of course, there are also several ways to play around the witch. The Adventurer might be helpful, since it will fetch you coins no matter how deeply they're buried under curses. Anything that lets you get rid of curses is great, e.g. remodel, chapel. And of course if the moat is around, that's a wonderful card.
I'm really, really loving Intrigue. It adds a ton to the game; the base game is kind of like "Basic Dominion" and Intrigue is "Advanced Dominion." Slows it down a bit, but there's way more player interaction, strategic decisions to make, etc. I'll also say that curses play a much larger role in Intrigue... Not many cards in the expansion reference them specifically, but many cards bring them into play regardless (looking at you, Swindler!).
I'm now the third person in our group with the Intigue expansion/version. Unfortunately it looks like the first guy to bring Dominion to game night is starting to tire of it. I guess we played the game too much and I can certainly see the wear on his cards!
I'm considering getting the promo cards. Though, of the two the Envoy is funner because of the interaction with your neighbor, though most of the time my luck gets me 1 more coin and multiple Actions cards, but no more actions to play them.
I've only played 2-player games to this point but we've played somewhere between 75-100 of them if you include Intrigue. It's rare that a game takes longer than 45 minutes and the suggested set-ups for both sets, with the occasional exception, are really interested. We've taken to starting up with 10 random pulls and then, as the rule book suggests, swapping out one card per player after each game. We play a total of 9 games and see who gets the most wins and highest total point scores.
If one wanted more interaction as one poster mentioned above, the Intrigue expansion is perfect. Also, just make sure to play each game with at least 4 attack cards.
I'm really looking forward to the new Seaside expansion!
__________________
Dr. Chuck Jones wrote the book on these situations.
Been a whole range of people winning it? does this mean its too random, dont know yet
As with any card game, luck does play a part. But a good dominion player should beat a poor dominion player pretty consistently, if not 100% of the time. Luck comes into play more when everyone's on equal footing, skill wise, and even then they may opt for different strategies depending on the cards available...
My guess is that no one's really started to "figure out" the game yet.
Seaside has some really fun stuff--the ability to shift cards around in your deck with things like haven, island, and native villiage adds a whole new level to the game.
__________________ In California? Enjoy gaming? Then you don't want to miss PolyCon.
Yeah, the haven and native village are both deceptively powerful, imho.
Haven essentially sacrifices your current turn for your next turn, and in that respect it's like a mini Tactician. However, one chosen card, even a copper, can make a huge difference. And if you play multiple havens... Fuhgeddaboutit.
The native village is nice because it's a combo-enabler (i.e. extra actions) and it also sets you up to have a crazy turn some time later.
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