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[Gazbag]

swiped away all of the broken cards

It had two or three terminals, including Bridge Troll and Artisan.
Forager and Bonfire to trash down to practically nothing

I think you missed a few, although maybe I just have a lax definition of broken...

[weesh]

...There's another way to play which I've used in the past, and I think it might be the best way to teach, but I just hate doing it, and it rubs me the wrong way and goes against the spirit of Dominion:

Play the same kingdom twice..

My experience is that beginners really like this.
Sometimes asking me to save kingdoms they want to play again.

But I think I prefer the "swap out two cards of their choice" strategy.
Does that have the same effect to you?

[JThorne]

You say they're a "relatively new player", so OK maybe it wasn't their very first game.

Yeah, you're quite right, but admittedly it wasn't their 50th game, either.

They've played maybe a half-dozen times so far. Again, like with the original poster, he's an experienced gamer, and we had already played several introductory games with base cards plus a splash of color.

I didn't even realize how many mechanics there were until I set it up. I just avoided painful cards like cursers, discard and trashing attacks, too-many-decision cards like Count, and overpowered cards.

Part of the problem is that I really enjoy showing the game to Magic players, because it scratches a lot of the same itches, but without the money treadmill. The huge variety and number of mechanics is part of the hook!

That said, even for Magic players, it's a learning curve.

I definitely try to read my audience, though. I wouldn't play that kingdom with most inexperienced players. The player in question definitely enjoyed the game and will keep playing, and he appreciated the strategy advice and notes about card interactions.

There's no substitute for playing a lot of games in order to get better at it. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to help new players after I've hooked them.

[JThorne]

Bridge Troll / Artisan / Forager / Bonfire

I think you missed a few, although maybe I just have a lax definition of broken...

I gave Bridge Troll a hard look, believe me. But I thought, well, there's no big draw, so you're not going to be able to draw and play huge numbers of them for a Province-piledriving megaturn. Artisan is expensive and terminal. Forager is a trash-one, and Bonfire only trashes coppers.

When I think of broken trashing, I think of game-warping speed like Chapel or Donate. I also think of game-warping cards that are so singularly powerful that everyone is going to immediately buy as many as they can, like Wharf.

By swiping away obvious power cards, though, I accidentally did the worst possible thing, and ended up with a kingdom that was really tricky to play.

That's why I'm rethinking my approach. Leave the power cards in, stomp the first game, play a second and let the trainee do the stomping.

[JThorne]

But I think I prefer the "swap out two cards of their choice" strategy.
Does that have the same effect to you?

I've tried that once or twice.

When you do that, what cards do they tend to swap out? Do they swap out the power cards that you just murdered them with to try to prevent you from winning again, or do they plan to use those cards and swap out cards that they didn't buy or didn't like?

The problem I can already imagine is that when the two new random cards appear, either of them could be power cards that set off alarm bells in your head as an experienced player, changing the kingdom entirely.

In that game, for example, the new player might have swapped out Distant Lands, because it's fiddly and hard to play correctly and they didn't buy any in the first game. But even if we had played exactly the same kingdom again, and the new player had mirrored my first-game play, I would have tried something different like a money strategy with Artisan/Bridge Troll for gold-gaining, but with more aggressive trashing, possibly even trashing a Gold at some point for the big Forager upgrade.

[weesh]

But I think I prefer the "swap out two cards of their choice" strategy.
Does that have the same effect to you?

I've tried that once or twice.

When you do that, what cards do they tend to swap out? Do they swap out the power cards that you just murdered them with to try to prevent you from winning again, or do they plan to use those cards and swap out cards that they didn't buy or didn't like?

In my extremely limited experience with this strategy, they have flopped out the un-purchased cards.

[greybirdofprey]

I always start by going over the kingdom. Ask players if any cards are new for them and tell them what they do (not just what the card says, but what that actually does to your deck/turns).

For example, if cartographer is new I tell them that you can use cartographer to discard useless cards like curses/coppers/victory cards, and it lets you rearrange your deck so you can choose which card you draw with your next +cards action, or combo with [insert mystic/wishing well/lookout/sentry/herald/tunnel/etc, whatever is in the kingdom].

If I need to introduce people I usually start with cards from base, then introduce one or two mechanics every game (like duration, reserve, multi-type, etc.). I've found that the order expansions are released in is also more or less a good learning order (with some exceptions like alchemy).

[crj]

There's another way to play which I've used in the past, and I think it might be the best way to teach, but I just hate doing it, and it rubs me the wrong way and goes against the spirit of Dominion:

Play the same kingdom twice.

I don't see why playing a kingdom twice is against the spirit of Dominion. We agree to do that a few times a year, if something especially fascinating happens.

Or someone wanders over, sees how I won, complains that all the other players shouldn't have let me get away with it and had they been playing against me they'd have... Result: rematch against a different opponent. (-8