Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Why Dominion is great!  (Read 1916 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Simon Jester

  • Golem
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 186
  • Shuffle iT Username: hockeyzemlan
  • changed life, changed everything
  • Respect: +187
    • View Profile
Why Dominion is great!
« on: March 08, 2018, 09:27:44 am »
+14

[uhm. This is a bit random, I guess, but I needed to write this. Don't expect anyone to care too much]

Dominion is a great game!

I know, not much news there, but I would like to take some time to explain - if only for myself- why I love this game so much.

First of all, no game can be everything and each one that tries will end up being unfun and useless. Dominion is based on certain mechanics and tools and if you're not found of them it's hard to get started with the game. "A boardgame without a board? Why all the shuffles? So many cards to remember.." Well, man, what can I tell you. If you don't like it even at this stage there is no point at trying, there is plenty of other games for you.

However, when accepting the game premises it never stop to amaze me how much this game does. I'm a quite aggressive player, I like games where I'm allowed to mess with other players and fell naturally in love with the attack cards immediately. You can easily construct decks to cause as much pain (I miss you Saboteur..!) for your opponents as possible. It won't let you win usually, but for my type of player it's possible to have lots of fun anyway.

But all in all, rather soon we realized that other strategies than mono-Saboteur were possible and hey look, they were fun to play as well. The more we learnt about the game the more we realized that almost every game were based on interactivity and by the means possible trying to keep your opponent in check. I don't think I ever have had the feeling that I was playing solitaire in Dominion. To me the feeling of participating in a race has always been apparent and that the main goal with the game is to reach the key components and later the green stuff sooner than your opponents. Whether the key cards is actually useful for you or newb-traps as in the beginning doesn't really matter. The dominant feel of the game stays the same for me.

What has changed however is how the game has taught me to read. In the early years of isotropic I did just things on chance and by practicing "by the book"-rules. If I didn't find the key components I knew how to use (e.g Wharf/village) or a certain combo (Hayy NV/Bridge) I was lost. I didn't have a plan, I hardly knew how to make a plan. Dominion is still fun to be bad at, so I didn't really suffer being horrible at the game, but when I play now I notice a distinct difference. I see things. studying a kingdom shows more of a story on how the cards interact and how they will create synergies and power than before and that feeling, well, it's spectacular.

The game is still so complex and have added so much new mechanics (almost everyone ingeniously simple even though they create so many new levels of depth to the game. I mean, events- how the heck did we do without them for so long?) that you still meet many many kingdoms where you are left as clueless as ever in the beginning or where you miss a single component and choose a suboptimal strategy that allows your opponent to crush you horrendously, and I absolutely love it.

Yet another thing that makes me stuck at the game is how many different games that can be played within Dominion. The race to the green finish line is as stated above always present, but in other aspects you are allowed to do so many things within the game. You can build the insane power engines, go for enjoyable good stuff feastings, participate in slogsbattles or time to time play go for coinflip games where the swingyness of certain cards is the main factor deciding who at least get the main advantage in the game. If you don't like any of those certain kind of game types it's all fair and good since it's easy to avoid the cards that pushes the games in a direction you dislike, but if you can find enjoyment in all the different ways a game of Dominion can play out the game hardly ever gets boring since the variation is so intense.

I don't know. I'm not trying to convince anyone to be a Dominion fan with this and you guys most likely know this already. I'm not a top player, and I don't think I ever become one but given the personal situation I'm in currently I wanted to express my gratitude for the existence of this game and how much enjoyment and comfort I've been able to get out of it. It marvels me a little.

I guess I should end with a scout joke, but I lost all of mint.   
« Last Edit: March 08, 2018, 10:03:00 am by Simon Jester »
Logged
S

crj

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1477
  • Respect: +1644
    • View Profile
Re: Why Dominion is great!
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2018, 01:48:23 pm »
+8

I wish more people understood that, while Dominion was hugely innovative as the game which started the deck building genre, that's not a big part of why it's such a good game.

Particularly, I wish that was understood by the people who know I love Dominion and therefore expect me to be keen to play whatever other deck builder they've picked up this week.
Logged

Chase Adolphson

  • Conspirator
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 228
  • Shuffle iT Username: Chase Adolphson
  • I love dominion!
  • Respect: +130
    • View Profile
Re: Why Dominion is great!
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2018, 06:34:40 pm »
+3

I wish more people understood that, while Dominion was hugely innovative as the game which started the deck building genre, that's not a big part of why it's such a good game.

Particularly, I wish that was understood by the people who know I love Dominion and therefore expect me to be keen to play whatever other deck builder they've picked up this week.


Me too. I like it because each game is different so you never get bored of it.
Logged
I'm glad to be talking with people that like dominion as well.

Fuu

  • Bishop
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 114
  • Shuffle iT Username: Fuu
  • Respect: +87
    • View Profile
Re: Why Dominion is great!
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2018, 01:36:12 am »
+1

For me, in short, it's elegant. There doesn't seem to be any fluff, it's just solid design. Even down to the costs of the basic cards and how the price points are laid out, it just works.
Logged

sonotoridesu

  • Swindler
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 16
  • Shuffle iT Username: sonotoridesu
  • Respect: +12
    • View Profile
Re: Why Dominion is great!
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2018, 04:45:14 am »
+1

I wish more people understood that, while Dominion was hugely innovative as the game which started the deck building genre, that's not a big part of why it's such a good game.

Particularly, I wish that was understood by the people who know I love Dominion and therefore expect me to be keen to play whatever other deck builder they've picked up this week.
I used to be one of those people that went "there are so many deckbuilders now that we don't need Dominion anymore". Then I actually played it, and liked it, and with each game I've grown to appreciate how fine-tuned and consistently worded everything is despite how expansive it is. Now it's my #1 favorite deckbuilder and overall favorite board game. I still like other deckbuilders and have nearly a dozen of them, but I find myself comparing new deckbuilders I encounter to Dominion, and most of the time I find that I'd rather just play Dominion.
Logged
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.085 seconds with 20 queries.