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1

Dominion General Discussion / Pricing the Dominion expansions: how much bang do you get for your buck?

« on: October 19, 2014, 07:57:08 pm »

I used Amazon.com to check the price of each card (as of October 19, 2014), and calculate what is the price you pay per kingdom card when you buy an extension.

Moreover, I used silverspawn's rankings to calculate the price per "good" (i.e. not terrible) card, where a good card is one that is ranked 3 or more by silverspawn.

I also added a prince per "well-designed" card, as ranked by silverspawn here. Here a well-designed one is one not ranked in Chapter I: The Bad Cards or Chapter II: The Weak Cards (And Outliers).

Expansion Base Intrigue Seaside Alchemy Prosperity Cornucopia Hinterlands Dark Ages Guilds Promo

Price $28.22 $29.73 $28.70 $20.20 $29.22 $19.09 $27.50 $25.87 $20.34 $2.50

Per card $1.13 $1.19 $1.10 $1.68 $1.17 $1.47 $1.06 $0.74 $1.56 $2.50

Per good card $1.57 $1.42 $1.20 $2.20 $1.33 $1.59 $1.15 $0.78 $1.56 -

Per well-designed card $1.28 $1.35 $1.25 $2.89 $1.27 $1.59 $1.15 $0.78 $1.56 -

As you can see, Dark Ages is by far the best bang for your buck, giving nearly twice as many kingdom cards for the money as the smaller expansions (Alchemy/Cornucopia/Guilds).

Although Hinterlands cost slightly less than Seaside/Prosperity, you get more "stuff" out of the latter two expansions (playing mats & coins for the former, Colony & Platinum for the later).

Base & Intrigue give a price per card similar to Hinterlands/Seaside/Prosperity, however both the original sets have many duds, which inflates their price per good card. Still, you get the money/victory cards only with Base/Intrigue, making buying one of these sets attractive.

Guilds & Cornucopia are among the most pricey sets - they cost about 40% more than Hinterlands/Seaside/Prosperity. This is not surprising, given that Guilds & Cornucopia have half the cards of bigger sets yet only cost $6-7 less.

Finally, Alchemy is the most expensive set for the cards you get. This is especially true if you don't could the "bad" cards of Alchemy (Transmute/Herbalist), in which case you pay nearly 3 times as much per card as Dark Ages.

2

Dominion General Discussion / Which expansion is underpowered? Overpowered? An analysis of Qvist's rankings

« on: October 09, 2014, 06:31:43 am »

Which expansion has the most powerful cards? Which one has the most useless ones? I tried to answer this question by analysis the data from Qvist's 2014 Rankings. (Note: since Alchemy cards have their own special costs, I excluded them from this list)

Here, I define a cards as “underpowered” if it is ranked in the 25% worst cards for its cost category ($1-2, $3, $4, $5, $6+). In my experience, these underpowered cards are usually unplayable & a waste of space; unless you specify pick a board for them, chances are they will have nearly no effect on gameplay - they maybe bought only once or twice in a game, if at all.

Or, in the words of Donald X, "There are some duds, and those duds reduce strategic options".

Here is the list of expansions and their associated underpowered cards. In parenthesis is the percentage of that set that is underpowered.

Base (36%):
     $3: Chancellor, Woodcutter, Workshop
     $4: Bureaucrat, Feast, Spy, Thief
     $5: Mine
     $6: Adventurer
Intrigue (24%):
     $2: Secret Chamber, Great Hall
     $4: Coppersmith, Scout
     $5: Saboteur, Tribute
Seaside (23%):
     $2: Pearl Diver
     $4: Navigator, Pirate Ship, Treasure Map
     $5: Explorer, Outpost
Prosperity (32%):
     $3: Loan, Trade Route
     $4: Talisman
     $5: Contraband, Counting House, Mint, Royal Seal
     $6: Expand
Cornucopia (15%):
     $3: Fortune Teller
     $5: Harvest
Hinterlands (27%):
     $2: Duchess
     $3: Develop
     $4: Noble Brigand, Nomad Camp
     $5: Cache, Mandarin
     $6: Farmland
Dark Ages (14%):
     $2: Beggar
     $4: Rats
     $5: Graverobber, Pillage, Rogue
Guilds (8%):
     $4: Taxman

First, we can see that Guilds (8%), Cornucopia (15%), and Dark Ages (14%) have the lowest number of underpowered cards. It is likely that that overly weak and useless cards were excluded from Guilds & Cornucopia as these sets already have few type of cards (13) to begin with. Dark Ages however is surprising – it has almost no useless cards (4) yet is the set with the most Kingdom cards. At about $28 on amazon, it might be the most cost-effective way to get a high number of playable cards.

On the other hand, the Base set (36%), Prosperity (32%), and Hinterlands (27%) all have a high number of unplayable cards. The base set has terrible $3 and $4 cards, many of which are among the worst of the worst. Prosperity has, surprisingly, the second highest proportion of terrible cards (32%). This is strange considering the glowing reception the set has received. It may be that the glowing reviews of the set are due mainly to the addition of Platinum & Colonies, and not the actual quality of the Kingdom cards.

After analyzing underpowered cards, I decided to see which sets were overpowered. Similar to underpowered cards, I define a card as overpowered if it's ranked in the top 25% for its cost.

Here, having overpowered cards may be good or bad, depending on your point of view. On one hand, overpowered cards are awesome to play and are often bought. However, having overpowered cards on the board can lead to a lack a variety as everyone rushes to buy the dominant cards.

Here is the list of overpowered cards & expansions with, in parenthesis, the proportion of the set that is overpowered:

Base (12%):
     $2: Chapel
     $4: Militia
     $5: Witch
Intrigue (32%):
     $2: Courtyard
     $3: Masquerade, Steward, Swindler
     $4: Bridge
     $5: Minion, Torturer, Upgrade
Seaside (27%):
     $3: Ambassador, Fishing Village
     $4: Caravan, Sea Hag
     $5: Ghost Ship, Tactician, Wharf
Prosperity (28%):
     $4: Bishop, Monument, Worker's Village
     $5: Mountebank
     $6+: Goons, Grand Market, King's Court
Cornucopia (46%):
     $2: Hamlet
     $3: Menagerie
     $4: Tournament, Remake, Young Witch
     $6: Hunting Party
Hinterlands (20%):
     $2: Fool's Gold;
     $4: Jack of all Trades;
     $5: Ill-Gotten Gains, Margrave
     $6: Border Village
Dark Ages (26%):
     $3: Squire; Forager;
     $4: Marauder, Ironmonger, Wandering Minstrel
     $5: Rebuild, Cultist, Junk Dealer, Counterfeit
Guilds (0%):

First we see that the Base set (12%), Hinterlands (20%) & Guilds(0%) all have few overpowered cards. As we have seen, the Base set and Hinterlands also have a high proportion of underpowered cards – it appears these two may well be the least powerful sets of Dominion. Guilds however also have only 1 underpowered card – this may indicate it is among the most balanced set yet, with nearly all its cards being useful & appropriately priced. Alternatively, the strengths and weaknesses of Guilds may be poorly understood given it is the most recent set – perhaps the rankings will change in the future.

Moreover, we see that Intrigue (32%) and especially Cornucopia (46%) are the sets with the most powerful cards. Again, having cards that are too powerful may be to the detriment of these sets, as cards such as Masquerade and Remake become auto-purchases on some boards.

Finally, I note that Prosperity (28%) also has a high of overpowered cards – even if it also has a high proportion of underpowered cards (32%). Prosperity seems to be made of very powerful cards and very weak ones, with few cards of average power.

In summary,

Most overpowered set: Cornucopia
Most underpowered set: Base Dominion (runner-up: Hinterlands)
Most unbalanced set: Prosperity (runner-up: Intrigue)
Most balanced set: Guilds (runners-up: Dark Ages, Seaside)