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« on: December 14, 2012, 08:21:38 pm »
5 players or more is problem with many games to be honest, not just dominion. The games have to be really careful to either enforce really quick turns, have simultaneous turns, have some kind of player interaction not on your turn or have not individual turns at all (there's other solutions too but you get the idea). Games that aren't specifically designed for larger groups and simply have mechanics that don't prohibit it usually suck in my experience, something I've found the hard way as my group expanded. Even some games specifically designed for many are still better with fewer though in my opinion eg Citadels - great game that's really solid with 2 or 3 where you have 2 roles each, but 5,6 and 7 can often veer into boredom if people aren't really really on the ball. So it's a common problem.
The particular problem with dominion is not so much the wait between, but that your own turn is so quick. Games where you have a longer turn with a lot more phases and stuff, sure you have to wait longer because everyone else's turn is longer too, but the wait feels a bit more worth it because you have a big chunk of doing stuff in one go, you make progress. Dominion on the other hand, you wait for 2 guys to churn out their engine and then 2 more to um and ah over what to buy, and then you throw down $6 and buy a gold in 1 second, something you've known you were going to do since the instant you picked up your cards. Worth the wait? Not really. As mentioned, 4 is passable but not ideal, particularly with new cards and inexperienced players, 5 just crosses that line into tedium.
Strategically - yeah I would agree with the OP: 4 upwards it's much the same, just take a punt on a strategy and see how it goes, almost always incorporating an attack as far more attacks are not ignorable or counterable. You have to chat with other off players in between turns to keep the game lively, so hard strategy just isn't sensible really. Just play for fun.