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[naujack85]

Hey guys and gals,

I've been playing dominion for about six months now and am pretty addicted. It's been very insightful reading  through many of the board postings and simply accumulating game knowledge.

One thing I have noticed is that most of the strategy discussed here applies directly to 1v1 games.  I mostly play in-person four player games (though I've started playing 1v1 games online), can someone offer some broad strategies to consider when playing a 4 player game?

[naujack85]

And now I realize my noob mistake of not posting this on the general board...

[ehunt]

You may enjoy this thread. It's old, but the ideas are solid.
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2851.0

[-Stef-]

I expect theory will move it because it's not an article indeed.

The most important difference is that with 4 players you can't really control the game or your deck.
your deck -> Attacks are a lot more destructive - for every turn you take fixing your deck, three other people will take a turn attacking it.
the game -> You can stop buying from a certain pile, but if three others keep buying it the game will just end.
As a result, you should be much more focused on buying good cards, and not so much on good synergies or good strategies.

You can only build an engine in 4P if you could build a super-powerful-mega-engine in 2P. And even then you might be better off being the only one not building it if the three other players compete with each other for the pieces. But then you have the risk that someone else also thinks that and then the engine-builders will just win.

Defending is much more powerful in 4P then it is in 2P. In 2P, if you play with moat/moat against someone who plays with witch/witch, you will lose bigtime. In 3P it will be close. In 4P if you're the one with the moats while all the other players have the witches you just win.

Jester is super overpowered in 4P.

[jaybeez]

Everything Stef just said.  Another thing to bear in mind is that with 4 or more players, there are only 3 Provinces (or Colonies) per player, which greatly shortens the game.  So, in 4P you should generally start greening earlier than in 2P or 3P.

Also in 4P the metagame around cards that are powerful, but are only powerful if you get a lot of them (Fool's Gold and Minion particularly), is very different.  If you try to go for such a card, you have to have a plan B: if more than one of your opponents goes for the same pile, you're just not going to be able to get that many of the cards and you'll have to adjust your strategy accordingly.

Lastly, if you don't want your play group to all start hating each other, I would suggest always have a defense of some kind if Torturer is in the kingdom.  Without a good defense, that attack makes for a game of unending agony.  In my opinion at least.