The later Dominion sets ratchet up the complexity of the game substantially. A factor that I hadn’t considered is that the sheer variety of mechanics is difficult for infrequent Dominion players. I’ve got all of the sets besides Alchemy and even when selecting for simpler cards, if the Kingdom has too many different mechanics, inexperienced players tend to struggle. For example, Bandit Camp, Baker, and Monument are all simple cards, but keeping track of Spoils, coin tokens and VP tokens and thinking about the strategic implications is very challenging. In addition, there are so many mechanics that it even if someone gets a better feel for, say, coin tokens after a game with Baker, it may be a number of games before coin tokens come up again.
With that in mind, I’m looking to create a simplified group of cards to use when playing with less experienced players. These people aren’t completely new to the game, but they may only have played 5 times before, and do so rarely. There will be other frequent Dominion players in these games, so just using the base set would be too drastic a change. Most games will be 3-4 players.
My initial thought is to use Dominion 2nd Ed., Intrigue 2nd. Ed., Seaside, but exclude:
Torturer (Rabble’s attack is less oppresive and doesn’t lead to analysis paralysis), Pearl Diver (not interesting enough), Navigator (replaced by the more interesting/stronger Monument), Sea Hag (replaced by Soothsayer which helps you and hurts your opponents less), and Explorer (replaced by Hoard which is better and has synergy with Mill/Harem/Nobles/Island).
And additionally include: Bishop, Monument, Worker’s Village, City, Rabble, Hoard, Soothsayer, Amulet, Lost City, Hireling, Enchantress, Forum.
Reasoning behind these cards is: Bishop and Monument are the simplest VP token cards, and using them may lead to using landmarks in the future. I want to add at least two +Action cards because it’s a little rarer in Base/Intr/Sea than in more recent sets: Worker’s Village adds +Buy, City is a nice mirror-image to Poacher, and Lost City is friendly interaction. Amulet and Hireling are fun and simple duration cards. Enchantress and Forum are among the simpler Empires cards, and it shouldn’t be hard to explain how Enchantress interacts with Moat/Lighthouse if that comes up.
Thoughts? Have other people done something similar?