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Author Topic: [Solved]What if the Copper pile runs out?  (Read 1585 times)

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Dragons of Q

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[Solved]What if the Copper pile runs out?
« on: January 04, 2019, 03:03:12 am »
0

Hello,

I recently got Kingdom Dominion through the BGG Secret Santa, and me and my gaming partners liked it so much, I ordered the 2nd edition of the base game today.

One thing still bugs me, though. What if there are no coppers left on the pile, and a card (like market, for instance) instructs me to take one copper. I haven't explicitly found anywhere what to do about that.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2019, 04:42:50 am by Dragons of Q »
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sudgy

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Re: What if the Copper pile runs out?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 03:41:31 am »
+6

Three things:

First, when you can't do something, you just don't do it.  It's that simple.  If something tells you to gain a Copper but there are no Coppers to gain, you do nothing.

Second, Market doesn't tell you to gain a Copper.  It gives you an extra coin to spend in the current buy phase, and that's it.  I had someone tell me it makes sense to describe it as "+$1 makes it like you had played a Copper this turn."

Third, welcome to the forums!
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   Quote from: sudgy on June 31, 2011, 11:47:46 pm

Ingix

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Re: What if the Copper pile runs out?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2019, 03:42:30 am »
+2

Welcome to Dominion!

Piles running out is a normal feature of  a Dominion game. It happens to Kingdom piles regularly (those where there are 10 cards of in the pile), and occasionally also to the basic Treasure piles like Copper (as in your case), Silver or Gold. It's even part of a game ending condition (3 piles running out). In that case, an instruction to gain a card of such a pile is ignored and doesn't happen.

But, your remark "(like market, for instance)" shows that you made a mistake (that probably lead to the Copper pile runinng out): Market does not say you gain a Copper, it says to add $1 (the usual text representation used for 1 coin symbol) to your current turn's 'money account'.

You can think of the game as having a money account for you (and others), that gets emptied at the start of a turn. If you play a Copper, $1 is added to it, similar $2 is added from a Silver and $3 from a Gold. It is from that money account that you pay for your cards when you buy them, not directly from the Copper or Silver. Similiarly, when you play Market, you draw a card, then your Action account is incremented by 1 Action (thats one of the other accounts I talked about above), then your Buy account is incremented by 1 Buy (yet another account) and finally your money account is increased by $1. No Copper changes hands for this! Similiarly, a Milita doesn't give you a Silver, it adds $2 to your money account.

In the base game, you can usually easily calculate how much money you have available by looking at the cards in play. But be aware of Throne Room, which may 'double' the effect of a card. In later expansions there exist cards that make this account system necessary, because cards from play can go elsewhere, so the simple "look at what you have in play" wouldn't work any more.

Again, welcome to Dominion and have fun playing!
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Dragons of Q

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Re: What if the Copper pile runs out?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2019, 04:40:42 am »
0

Thank you both for the extra explanation of these rules. I don't think I found anything explicitly mentioning this.
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Ingix

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Re: [Solved]What if the Copper pile runs out?
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2019, 09:53:08 am »
+3

Take a look at a part named "Common terms used on Action cards" (starts on page 6 of the rulebook and is on white background) it says:

Quote
"+$X " – the player has X number of additional coins to spend in the Buy
phase. The player does not take additional Treasure cards for these coins.
(emphasis mine)
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crj

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Re: [Solved]What if the Copper pile runs out?
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2019, 11:00:37 am »
+1

The terminology I use when teaching Dominion is that playing Treasures gives you "coins to spend this turn", and playing something like Market gives you "an extra coin to spend this turn".

If I use that terminology consistently from the outset, people are seldom confused.
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