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« on: August 06, 2012, 10:11:12 pm »
I've got TC and its expansion, and according to someone at a game con I went to earlier this year it's now the biggest-selling non-customisable card game in Japan (although I don't know how big that market actually is). It's quite interesting, and the differences from Dominion are enough that it does play quite differently - for example, since the basic currency costs one more than in Dominion, a BM strategy isn't necessarily going to do as well even amongst relatively inexperienced players.
Not mentioned so far is the flavour - rather than building a kingdom, you're collecting maids (which will be incredibly unsurprising to anyone who knows much about modern Japanese culture). All the action and victory cards are different kinds of maid, and the currency you use to employ them is "Love". With a few exceptions, though, the artwork is pretty G/PG-rated, so nothing too racy.
The other big difference not mentioned is the form of attacking - in direct opposition to Donald's maxims, the "attacks" actually do target players. Specifically, you can buy "Illnesses" that attach to a player's chambered maids (some maids can either be moved from your deck or bought directly into your "chambers", making it like an Island) that render them worthless, as well as "Bad Habits" that go straight into the players chambers and act like a Curse except that they get even more powerful if you wind up with too many of them. I think the fact that these attacks use up a Buy rather than being part of a card Action helps balance their targeted nature, and typically you don't wind up using them much unless you need to pull someone's lead down - especially if they've got a powerful Special Maid (the "Black Market" deck mentioned) that you want to neutralise with an Illness.
It's fun, it's definitely heavily based on Dominion, but it's got some neat twists to it and I haven't played it nearly enough to work out how much its strategy differs from Dominion's.
