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[doesitgoboom]

My wife and I have played a few games using the base set. We enjoy playing as it has given a chance to sit down enjoy a beer and talk with out the distraction of a t.v. We just purchased Seaside and Dark Ages. Man reasonI picked up DA right now was it was 30% off due to a slightly damaged box so I thought it was a good deal.

I have been learking here a little bit but with so much Information I am having trouble digging through it all. Just wondering if anyone could give me some good starting points to go off of to improve my game play?

[jsh357]

The first thing you should do is play with all the new cards and enjoy yourselves.  Learning the cards is important.

I'll give you one tip.  Trashing your starting cards is important for making a powerful deck.

[Mr Anderson]

After I learned the cards, I started watching recorded games by other strong players on youtube. That really helped me improving once I knew the rules and the cards so I would recommend you doing that if you are interested and can find the time.

[bardo]

I'll second the notion that just playing and exploring the game is a great way to go.

This page on the wiki has beginner resources. http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/New_to_Dominion

I'll add, that depending on the nature of gameplay between you and your spouse, you may want to keep her updated on the things you learn from venues other than your own experience. Your style of play will probably change as you read the forum, blog and/or wiki, and it's not always fun for the other person who might get left in the dust or who may be playing the game in a very different way.

[Voltaire]

Try to avoid falling into the trap of generalizing cards as "good" or "bad". While generally true, Dominion is so fun because every card has a chance to be "good" or "bad" in each game. If you read that a card is good, and then just buy it every time you see it, you might not get a chance to learn why it's good.

Instead, I would read articles listed here as a starting point if you want to learn more.

[theblankman]

I'll second the notion that just playing and exploring the game is a great way to go.

This page on the wiki has beginner resources. http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/New_to_Dominion

I'll add, that depending on the nature of gameplay between you and your spouse, you may want to keep her updated on the things you learn from venues other than your own experience. Your style of play will probably change as you read the forum, blog and/or wiki, and it's not always fun for the other person who might get left in the dust or who may be playing the game in a very different way.

I'll second all of this.  Start out just playing and learning for your mistakes for a little while.  You need a handle on the cards and the ideas in the game before say WanderingWinder's stream will make a lot of sense. 

Also, if you and your wife are competitive with each other and enjoy that, by all means share what you're finding here and get better together.  But if you want more of a friendly game with her, maybe stay away from what the experts provide and just learn yourselves.  There's so big of a difference between a casual player and one who's read strategy articles that if one of you gets really into the articles here and the other doesn't, the game will stop being fun for either of you. 

It happened to me; I literally can't play with my RL friends any more because online play and reading articles made me that much better at the game (not bragging, I'm nowhere near the top players here, it's just that I think almost everyone on these forums has put way more time into Dominion than the average player).  Now my dead-tree copy of Dominion gathers dust on my shelf.  I have every expansion so far, but I'm definitely not buying the upcoming one until it's available online, because I don't think I'd ever use the physical copy.

[theJester]

1. Above all else, play for fun and enjoy the game. Improve at any pace you feel comfortable with

2. Gradually get familiar with all the cards you're playing with. If you want to do it casual way, just play games. If you want to do it pro way, in addition go to wiki.dominionstrategy.com and read articles on the cards. With practice, you'll get a hang of which card is good or bad in which circumstances.

3. While playing - before your first turn, analyze the board you're facing. Search for key components (+cards, +action, +buy, trashing, attacks...) and try to see how they synergize with each other. Among other things, this is something that Adam Horton videos () are great to learn from - as he usually talks about the board for a minute or two before he starts playing. It's ever educational to see how better players than you think and analyze the board

When you analyzed the board, formulate a strategy and stick with it through the game (which doesn't mean that you should be inflexible and not adapt to what your opponent is doing). If you won, it means your strategy had at least some merit (though of course you should always try to improve). If you lost, see where you went wrong. Maybe your strategy was inferior; maybe it was good but your execution was suboptimal. Whatever the case is, try to learn from yours and your opponent's mistake and get better for the next game.

4. As always, watching records of top players is quite a good way to improve your game. I myself have mostly watched WW's youtube channel (), but there are tons of other great ones as well.

5. Have fun playing (this can't be emphasized enough)

[doesitgoboom]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

[GeoLib]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Ghost ship is very strong and a pretty brutal attack, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should just keep buying them mindlessly. If you want advice on specific games you can post in the Help! board with the kingdom and your explanation of what you did and where you thought you might have gone wrong.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Falling behind your wife and not catching up is not necessarily a bad thing with respect to continuing to have a playing partner. 

[Beyond Awesome]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Ghost ship is very strong and a pretty brutal attack, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should just keep buying them mindlessly. If you want advice on specific games you can post in the Help! board with the kingdom and your explanation of what you did and where you thought you might have gone wrong.

I don't feel Ghost Ship is that brutal of an attack. There are so many ways to counter it. It just feels brutal. Have a crap hand? Put your good cards on top. Playing with Native Village, just put the bad cards on your mat. Is Herald on the board?Make sure your second card is an action, preferably another Herald. Menagerie? No problem. And, that's just naming a few counters off the top of my head.

[Awaclus]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Ghost ship is very strong and a pretty brutal attack, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should just keep buying them mindlessly. If you want advice on specific games you can post in the Help! board with the kingdom and your explanation of what you did and where you thought you might have gone wrong.

I don't feel Ghost Ship is that brutal of an attack. There are so many ways to counter it. It just feels brutal. Have a crap hand? Put your good cards on top. Playing with Native Village, just put the bad cards on your mat. Is Herald on the board?Make sure your second card is an action, preferably another Herald. Menagerie? No problem. And, that's just naming a few counters off the top of my head.

It still nullifies one Herald or Menagerie from your deck.

[GeoLib]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Ghost ship is very strong and a pretty brutal attack, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should just keep buying them mindlessly. If you want advice on specific games you can post in the Help! board with the kingdom and your explanation of what you did and where you thought you might have gone wrong.

I don't feel Ghost Ship is that brutal of an attack. There are so many ways to counter it. It just feels brutal. Have a crap hand? Put your good cards on top. Playing with Native Village, just put the bad cards on your mat. Is Herald on the board?Make sure your second card is an action, preferably another Herald. Menagerie? No problem. And, that's just naming a few counters off the top of my head.

All attacks can be countered. Ghost ship is still a good card though and can be powerful on a number of boards. Obviously going BM+GS is not a good plan vs a menagerie engine, but I wanted to contradict the OP's claim that it "wasn't a great card." I mean it's not the best, but it's still ranked 12/66 of the 5s in the Qvist rankings.

[werothegreat]

I am failing to get a good grasp on what to buy and when. It seems like I tend to fall behind vs my wife and never catch up. I just never sure what cards I should keep buying on a regular bases. Card I got caught on recently and figure it truly not a great card is Ghost Ship.

Ghost ship is very strong and a pretty brutal attack, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should just keep buying them mindlessly. If you want advice on specific games you can post in the Help! board with the kingdom and your explanation of what you did and where you thought you might have gone wrong.

I don't feel Ghost Ship is that brutal of an attack. There are so many ways to counter it. It just feels brutal. Have a crap hand? Put your good cards on top. Playing with Native Village, just put the bad cards on your mat. Is Herald on the board?Make sure your second card is an action, preferably another Herald. Menagerie? No problem. And, that's just naming a few counters off the top of my head.

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

[Awaclus]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

[theblankman]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Edge Case: Rogue or Graverobber in an engine that plays the same Pillage card(s) every turn. 

Because there's always an edge case on f.ds  

[LastFootnote]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Somehow I don't think gaining 2 Spoils was meant to be a penalty.

[GendoIkari]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Somehow I don't think gaining 2 Spoils was meant to be a penalty.

No, it would be much weaker without that. But compared to card draw, it's much harder to build an engine that can consistently play one.

[Awaclus]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Somehow I don't think gaining 2 Spoils was meant to be a penalty.

If it didn't gain 2 Spoils, it would cost $5 and a buy instead of just a buy.

[Grujah]

Good thing we are keeping on topic.

[Donald X.]

Good thing we are keeping on topic.

Why so [Serious]?

[Flip5ide]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Claiming Spoils are junk is a much harder sell than it was to convince people Silvers are often bad... which they often are. Now do you want to keep your Spoils in your deck? No. But I'd take Spoils over Survivors, Curse, and Ruined Village any day.

[Awaclus]

And then what happens when they play Ghost Ship again next turn?  And the next?  And the next?  I would argue that Ghost Ship is the most brutal handsize attack (yes, worse than Pillage) purely for its anti-cycling effect.

Getting Pillaged every turn is definitely a lot more brutal than getting Ghost Shipped every turn. There's a reason why the former costs a buy every turn and requires you to keep two extra junk cards in your deck and the latter helps you draw more cards instead.

Claiming Spoils are junk is a much harder sell than it was to convince people Silvers are often bad... which they often are. Now do you want to keep your Spoils in your deck? No. But I'd take Spoils over Survivors, Curse, and Ruined Village any day.

You need to spend the money you get from the Spoils to buy the next Pillage. I guess there's an extra $1 left over, but $1 in two cards is as good as a Curse and a Copper so yeah, that's junk.

[pacovf]

Pillage: Action 5$
+1$
-1 buy
Put two random cards from your hand on top of your deck.
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals his hand and discards a card that you choose.

[iguanaiguana]

Welcome to the board!!! We really do a lot more than just argue about ghost ship and pillage... Have you also checked out the forum games and dominion league??