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« on: June 27, 2016, 06:44:44 pm »
I played my first several games with the physical Empires cards yesterday. Had some friends over and just spent the whole day playing Dominion. I've a few thoughts so far.
EDIT: I realized after writing this that it is more of a review than a collection of "simple thoughts." Oh well. If this needs to be in a different forum, please feel free to move it if you're a moderator.
Landmarks
Huge fan. I love the way they change how you construct your deck, and the way the game plays. My only concern is that my friends and I kept forgetting about the one that gives you two VP when you buy a card that you have a copy of in play. I particularly enjoy the ones that give negative VP, as they completely modified our normal strategies. Definitely breathes new life into a game that, honestly, I didn't even think needed it. Also, I went 11 into debt for Mountain Pass' 8 VP. I don't know if it was worth it, but I won that game, so I'm not going to overthink it.
Events
Oh, Dominate and Donate are my friends. I, just for fun, set up a game on my own with the single purpose being to combine Donate and Windfall. A little underhanded, but still fun. Advance is also one that came to my mind as one I'd love to use. Especially if you have an expensive set of actions and you get a few crappy hands having to buy that only $2 action that you didn't really want. With the Events from this set and Adventures, and the Landmarks from this set, I can't really imagine playing Dominion without them anymore, and when my randomizing app doesn't select at least one, I feel sad inside.
VP tokens and Gathering
I am incredibly happy that VP tokens are back, as they are one of my favorite mechanics. Now there's so many uses for them... it felt like Christmas early. As for the Gathering mechanic specifically, I didn't get much chance to use Temple, but Wild Hunt and Farmers' Market are both fantastic cards. I love the tension the game has when you and another player are battling for the VP off the Farmers' Market pile. This set may not be as attack heavy as some sets, but there's certainly a lot of fun interaction.
Split Piles
Another form of fun interaction in the set is the fight for the Split Piles. Encampment/Plunder and Gladiator/Fortune stood out as favorites of mine. They also play very differently. Gladiator's Pile barely lasts, basically wanting you to quickly have access to Fortune. Encampment basically fights for its life to protect that Plunder. In addition, though we only played with Castles for one game, you can tell how much their presence changes the game. If one player starts going for them, it's basically a declaration of "I'm going Castles, come and stop me."
Kingdom Cards
I have a few thoughts on some of the kingdom cards, some of which I'm already able to list as favorites. First, I don't know exactly how useful Archive is, but it sure is fun to use. Engineer is fun to use, and it has nine lives. Engineer appeared in EVERY SINGLE SHUFFLE that we did to select kingdom cards. EVERY. ONE. City Quarter and Overlord are well worth the cost, and Overlord can even be good early game if you have a large amount of $5 cards in the Kingdom, or a large amount of $6-7 actions with cost-reducers in play. Or even just with cost-reducers, turning your Overlords into cost-reducers. While Catapult/Rocks may not be the best cards ever made, they're quite fun to use. Legionary is brutal if you have Gold. I'm a huge fan of the way Villa changes turn structure, and Capital's "deal with the devil" feeling. And I always love Throne Room variants, so Crown is a favorite.
So, in conclusion, Empires is awesome.
