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[JW]

For an upcoming trip I need a travel set that I can store in the box for Seaside that has mostly simple cards in case I’m playing with beginners. I’d also like to have some Adventures cards in there. Tokens/mats should be kept to a minimum.

Possible set, updated:
$2: Chapel, Courtyard, Lighthouse (3)
$3: Fortune Teller, Menagerie, Village, Warehouse, Workshop (5)
$4: Conspirator, Cutpurse, Remodel, Smithy, Treasure Map, Worker’s Village (6)
$5: City, Council Room, Duke, Festival, Giant, Junk Dealer, Laboratory, Soothsayer, Tactician, Treasure Trove (10)
$6: Altar, Hireling (2)

The set is engine friendly, but has mostly simple cards. I avoided the more brutal attacks, and beginners like Gold so there are 3 Gold gainers. It may need another $5 card in place of a $4 card. Smugglers could be another non-attack player interaction, but Workshop is simpler.

I should be able to add Events in the randomizer slots though I'd just use the simpler ones (not involving tokens). Thoughts? Has this topic come up before?

Update: removed Fool's Gold for Courtyard as Fool's Gold is too complicated. Removed Dungeon for Warehouse (Warehouse is very similar and simpler), changed Trading Post to Altar (less outclassed by other trashers), changed Gardens to Duke (more interesting Alt-VP card), changed Fishing Village to City (helps people learn to pay attention to piles, removed Fishing Village to avoid increasing number of + Actions cards).

Possible set, original:
$2: Chapel, Fool’s Gold, Lighthouse (3)
$3: Dungeon, Fishing Village, Fortune Teller, Menagerie, Village, Workshop (6)
$4: Conspirator, Cutpurse, Gardens, Remodel, Smithy, Treasure Map, Worker’s Village (7)
$5: Council Room, Festival, Giant, Junk Dealer, Laboratory, Soothsayer, Tactician, Trading Post, Treasure Trove (9)
$6: Hireling (1)

[Donald X.]

I should be able to add Events in the randomizer slots though I'd just use the simpler ones (not involving tokens). Thoughts? Has this topic come up before?

I suggested making themed sets of 25, and some people posted some. I don't see a beginner's set though.

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=6933.msg193031#msg193031

[allanfieldhouse]

I asked a very similar question when I was just getting into Dominion. I only had the base set and intrigue at the time, but there's still good advice in the thread about how to go about picking the cards to bring.

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9195.msg283443

[Polk5440]

This is what I have been using as a travel set for the last year or what I draw from when teaching someone new:

It's based on the Base Set, but replacing some cards to promote engines and speed up play a little.

From Base: Cellar, Chapel, Village, Workshop, Throne Room, Remodel, Militia, Gardens, Market, Witch, Mine, Festival, Library, Laboratory, Council Room.

In addition: Courtyard, Lighthouse, Wishing Well, Steward, Noble Brigand, Trader, Mining Village, Bridge, Envoy, Hoard.

The thinking: Lighthouse instead of Moat (decreases number of terminals, still gives defense), Wishing Well instead of Spy (more fun, moves more quickly in multi-player, more useful), Noble Brigand instead of Thief, Hoard instead of Adventurer (introduces alt money, more useful, fun to gain golds!), Trader instead of Bureaucrat (gains Silvers, moves more quickly in multiplayer, is a reaction since I removed Moat), Mining Village instead of Feast (another Village and non-terminal to increase engine opportunities; still has one-shot quality), Bridge instead of Woodcutter (useful more often), Steward instead of Chancellor (still gives money, but draw and trash increases engine options).

The big change: I removed Smithy and Moneylender and replaced with Courtyard and Envoy. I had removed some drawing and added trashing in the above changes, so there is room for some more draw, and Envoy and Courtyard are both fun twists on Smithy. By removing Smithy and Moneylender, there is room for both!

I play with 3-5 people, usually, so I keep the madness to a minimum.

[Chris is me]

Here's some tweaks I made, feel free to use them or not, I juts wanted to procrastinate for 15 minutes.

I started by trimming your list a bit, then added a few suggestions. You probably don't need more than 3 Villages. I took out Worker's Village mostly to make +Buy harder to get. Engines are nice but you don't necessarily want to hand them everything on a silver platter. The draw was also pretty lacking. If you're avoiding brutal attacks, Giant isn't really a good idea. I substituted out Workshop / Gardens for Ironworks / Feodum as both cards are a lot more useful if you fuck up the strategy (a bad Feodum rush at least has some buying power; a bad Gardens rush is just useless and sad to play with). Feodum also works better with Chapel and Junk Dealer. Soothsayer is probably the gentlest Curser and it is more fun for new players than Witch etc so I left that in. I would have taken out Trading Post, since it's kind of shitty compared to Junk Dealer and Chapel, but it works well enough with Feodum that I left it in. (Not sure on Tactician or Hireling yet)

So at that point, I've got 23 cards. So 2 additions plus any other substitutions. At this point there are only 2 +Buy, so I think Nomad Camp is a solid addition. Nomad Camp also has strong synergy with Fool's Gold and isn't too bad when combined with Ironworks in a Feodum /Silver rush. I'm trying to support multiple different strategies here and give it less of an engine bias while still leaving strong engine potential on the board. I think Cellar would also be a good idea here. It's a nice card to help new players who may have messed up and have to discard a bunch of terminals they collided, etc.

This set has a really similar card value distribution to the base set, but with gentler attacks, more cool / fun cards, and friendly player interaction. Other cards to consider substituting in would be Bishop over Junk Dealer if you'd prefer another 4 and another terminal. Maybe replace one of Tactician or Hireling; those can lead to a lot of decks where a really good player wipes the floor with everyone else. But they're not inherently bad at all, and I particularly like the strong double Tactician engine here. Library is the other card I would really strongly consider here - Library is a terminal draw card that's extremely forgiving for new players with the skip-over-Actions feature.

$2: Chapel, Fool's Gold, Lighthouse, Cellar (4)
$3: Fishing Village, Fortune Teller, Menagerie, Village (4)
$4: Conspirator, Cutpurse, Feodum, Remodel, Smithy, Treasure Map, Nomad Camp, Ironworks (
$5: Council Room, Festival, Junk Dealer, Laboratory, Soothsayer, Tactician, Trading Post, Treasure Trove (
$6: Hireling (1)

[JW]

It's based on the Base Set, but replacing some cards to promote engines and speed up play a little.

From Base: Cellar, Chapel, Village, Workshop, Throne Room, Remodel, Militia, Gardens, Market, Witch, Mine, Festival, Library, Laboratory, Council Room.

In addition: Courtyard, Lighthouse, Wishing Well, Steward, Noble Brigand, Trader, Mining Village, Bridge, Envoy, Hoard.

The thinking: Lighthouse instead of Moat (decreases number of terminals, still gives defense), Wishing Well instead of Spy (more fun, moves more quickly in multi-player, more useful), Noble Brigand instead of Thief, Hoard instead of Adventurer (introduces alt money, more useful, fun to gain golds!), Trader instead of Bureaucrat (gains Silvers, moves more quickly in multiplayer, is a reaction since I removed Moat), Mining Village instead of Feast (another Village and non-terminal to increase engine opportunities; still has one-shot quality), Bridge instead of Woodcutter (useful more often), Steward instead of Chancellor (still gives money, but draw and trash increases engine options).

The big change: I removed Smithy and Moneylender and replaced with Courtyard and Envoy. I had removed some drawing and added trashing in the above changes, so there is room for some more draw, and Envoy and Courtyard are both fun twists on Smithy. By removing Smithy and Moneylender, there is room for both!

Wishing Well is not simple in practice as it's a lot of effort to deck track. Spy should get replaced, but if you’re looking for a close analogue consider Caravan (also a 4-cost cantrip that can improve your next turn).
 
I agree with using Lighthouse over Moat. However, Trader doesn't seem interesting enough to introduce reactions for. I don’t own Envoy; otherwise would consider it over Smithy. Noble Brigand is a nice option to consider over an existing attack in my set above.

Warehouse seems simpler than Cellar and you’re already adding Courtyard at $2 (having only two $2s would be bad). I agree with having four +Actions cards. In 3-4 player games +actions cards can run very quickly.

[JW]

If you're avoiding brutal attacks, Giant isn't really a good idea.

Giant doesn't hit often, the attack part is not that strong overall.

I substituted out Workshop / Gardens for Ironworks / Feodum as both cards are a lot more useful if you fuck up the strategy (a bad Feodum rush at least has some buying power; a bad Gardens rush is just useless and sad to play with). Feodum also works better with Chapel and Junk Dealer.

It seems like Feodum would be bought for the VPs less often than Gardens (set has few Silver gainers other than Workshop or Ironworks, or repeatedly trashing Feodum).

I would have taken out Trading Post, since it's kind of shitty compared to Junk Dealer and Chapel, but it works well enough with Feodum that I left it in.

It’s a flaw that Trading Post is so outclassed by those two. But with Chapel and Junk Dealer any of the weaker trashers will usually be outclassed. They can’t all be the best $5 cost ever? Or do I need Explorer for that?

Library is the other card I would really strongly consider here - Library is a terminal draw card that's extremely forgiving for new players with the skip-over-Actions feature.

Library seems complicated; people often forget about the skip-over-Actions feature and the setting aside can be confusing. But having terminals that help with drawing terminals dead is useful.

Maybe Embassy instead of Dungeon? Dungeon is there mainly because it's from Adventures (Warehouse is simpler). Embassy adds more non-attack interaction and adds another $5 cost. However, Embassy + Council Room might make for too many fast money games, and Treasure Map needs an enabler.

[werothegreat]

My suggestions:

$2: Cellar, Courtyard, Lighthouse, Stonemason
$3: Guide, Menagerie, Oasis, Smugglers, Steward, Village
$4: Gardens, Magpie, Militia, Miser, Sea Hag, Worker's Village
$5: Artificer, Counterfeit, Haunted Woods, Highway, Journeyman, Lost City, Market, Royal Carriage, Upgrade
$6: Border Village

I think having the Tavern mat will be better than having the Journey token.

[JW]

$2: Stonemason
$5: Artificer, Counterfeit, Journeyman, Royal Carriage

I think having the Tavern mat will be better than having the Journey token.

Your set looks quite fun, but these cards seem too complicated for beginners (though Journeyman is easily replaced by Smithy). Also, the journey token is a lot smaller than the Tavern mat.

[Chris is me]

If you're avoiding brutal attacks, Giant isn't really a good idea.

Giant doesn't hit often, the attack part is not that strong overall.

It's not that it's *strong*, it's that it's brutal. It's really dickish to new players. Kind of like Saboteur - not going to single handedly win you many games, but playing against it as a new player sucks anyway. People don't like losing cards. Not the biggest deal in the world, by any means, but just a thought. I don't think it would ruin the game.

I substituted out Workshop / Gardens for Ironworks / Feodum as both cards are a lot more useful if you fuck up the strategy (a bad Feodum rush at least has some buying power; a bad Gardens rush is just useless and sad to play with). Feodum also works better with Chapel and Junk Dealer.

It seems like Feodum would be bought for the VPs less often than Gardens (set has few Silver gainers other than Workshop or Ironworks, or repeatedly trashing Feodum).

I would have taken out Trading Post, since it's kind of shitty compared to Junk Dealer and Chapel, but it works well enough with Feodum that I left it in.

It’s a flaw that Trading Post is so outclassed by those two. But with Chapel and Junk Dealer any of the weaker trashers will usually be outclassed. They can’t all be the best $5 cost ever? Or do I need Explorer for that?

[/quote]

Basically my thinking was if there's gonna be a weaker card included, there might as well be some support.

I don't see how there are fewer Feodum enablers than there were Gardens enablers before I made the substitution. Ironworks and Trading Post are great Silver gainers, and you can play a somewhat similar, sloggy strategy with them. The pure rush isn't necessarily as good, yeah. I just really like how people who are playing "creatively" and going for Feodum just to be different are gonna be far less screwed than doing the same with Gardens if the strategy backfires. They can revert to Provinces pretty easily and quickly.

But like above, both Gardens and Feodum I think would work. Whichever you prefer, really.

Library is the other card I would really strongly consider here - Library is a terminal draw card that's extremely forgiving for new players with the skip-over-Actions feature.

Library seems complicated; people often forget about the skip-over-Actions feature and the setting aside can be confusing. But having terminals that help with drawing terminals dead is useful.

Maybe Embassy instead of Dungeon? Dungeon is there mainly because it's from Adventures (Warehouse is simpler). Embassy adds more non-attack interaction and adds another $5 cost. However, Embassy + Council Room might make for too many fast money games, and Treasure Map needs an enabler.

Hmm... what about Gear? Gear is a soft terminal draw (you tuck your Actions away for next turn), it's a phenomenal Treasure Map enabler, and it's just fucking cool Adventures in general.

[pubby]

Here's a modification to JW's list:

$2: Chapel, Lighthouse (2)
$3: Dungeon, Menagerie, Oasis, Tunnel, Watchtower, Workshop (6)
$4: Conspirator, Gardens, Militia, Port, Remodel, Smithy, Throne Room, Worker’s Village (
$5: Cartographer, Council Room, Festival, Junk Dealer, Laboratory, Tactician, Treasure Trove, Witch (
$6: Altar, Hireling (2)

I removed Fool's Gold, Fortune Teller, and Giant because they have too much text. Tunnel replaces Treasure Map because Tunnel is more strategic. Watchtower was added because it's the best card. A few other changes were made to round things out.

[JW]

I removed Fool's Gold, Fortune Teller, and Giant because they have too much text. Tunnel replaces Treasure Map because Tunnel is more strategic. Watchtower was added because it's the best card. A few other changes were made to round things out.

Agree that Fool’s Gold is too complicated; I had forgotten that it was the only reaction. People who aren't used to reactions will routinely forget about its reaction. Courtyard seems like a good replacement, though it’s too similar to Gear so I can’t also add Gear, which was a good suggestion.  Altar is a great choice especially given that the set already has Chapel and Junk Dealer, and can replace Trading Post.

Tunnel is more strategic than Treasure Map in part because you added Militia, but beginners often have analysis paralysis surrounding Militia. For beginners, I try to avoid attacks that involve choices. Having lot of text like Fortune Teller or Giant seems okay as long as the card can be resolved quickly.

Might change Gardens to Duke. Duke is more interesting and it is less powerful in 3 or 4 player games than in 2-player games. Duke also combos well with Altar.

Cartographer and Watchtower seem too complicated for beginners. The set could use another nonterminal $5 action, though.

[Nelagend]

I would drop the Tactician - it's a confusing and unfun card for a beginner to think about.  I'd consider City in its place - it might have a lot of card text, but the effect is pretty simple to explain.  "It's an overpriced Village until a pile empties.  Then it's amazing."  City can gently coach beginners into thinking about the pile state of the game.

[JW]

I would drop the Tactician - it's a confusing and unfun card for a beginner to think about.  I'd consider City in its place - it might have a lot of card text, but the effect is pretty simple to explain.  "It's an overpriced Village until a pile empties.  Then it's amazing."  City can gently coach beginners into thinking about the pile state of the game.

Tactician isn't a first game card, but it helps people learn that one great turn is often better than two regular turns. I like the idea of using City to get people to think about piles, maybe instead of Fishing Village so as to avoid increasing the number of +Actions cards.