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Author Topic: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?  (Read 3569 times)

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Townie_Caleb

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How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« on: February 18, 2021, 08:10:22 am »
+1

What are the best, the worst, and why? I tried this ranking exercise and would love to know your thoughts:
https://www.partieswithtownies.com/blog/2021/2/16/dominion-kingdoms-ranked
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Jack Rudd

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2021, 08:17:00 am »
+6

My immediate take is that you probably haven't seen a Herald deck done right. Ferociously powerful card when it gets going.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2021, 09:08:43 am »
+3

A side note: "kingdom" refers to the set of 10 cards in a given game. "Expansion" or "Set" is generally how each of the things you buy that contain 12-30 cards are called.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2021, 01:58:29 pm »
+2

Quote
Favorite cards: Alchemist, Golem, Herbalist

Boy, that's a hot-take if I've ever seen one...

Anyway, my top 4 are
1. Renaissance
2. Dark Ages
3. Menagerie
4. Adventures
And my bottom 3 are
1. Alchemy
2. Base
3. Nocturne
No idea how I'd rank the other 7, though.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2021, 01:27:16 pm »
0

Quote
Favorite cards: Alchemist, Golem, Herbalist

Boy, that's a hot-take if I've ever seen one...
Well, Alchemy has only 2 non-Potion cards, so I imagine that Herbalist would show up in quite a lot of people's top three of the set.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2021, 02:39:57 pm »
+1

Quote
Favorite cards: Alchemist, Golem, Herbalist

Boy, that's a hot-take if I've ever seen one...
Well, Alchemy has only 2 non-Potion cards, so I imagine that Herbalist would show up in quite a lot of people's top three of the set.
over apprentice though?
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mutated

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2021, 12:47:49 pm »
+1

I don't believe you can buy Guilds and Cornucopia separately anymore. If you play with only 1 expansion at a time, I agree that the smaller expansions aren't great for variety in that regard. You might try combining those and see if you enjoy them together, though they don't have any particular inter-set synergy that I remember.

I also think it's interesting that you didn't find Menagerie beginner-friendly. Anecdotally, my friends found it easier to grok most Menagerie cards over e.g. Adventures/Empires cards. Any clarification there, out of curiosity?
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Commodore Chuckles

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2021, 11:47:31 pm »
+1

My ranking is currently:
1. Empires
2. Adventures
3. Renaissance
4. Prosperity
5. Intrigue
6. Dark Ages
7. Seaside
8. Guilds
9. Cornucopia
10. Nocturne
11. Hinterlands
12. Menagerie
13. Base
14. Alchemy
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LastFootnote

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2021, 02:10:51 pm »
0

Let's see here.

1. Nocturne
2. Menagerie
3. Empires
4. Renaissance
5. Adventures
6. Intrigue
7. Mixed Box (Cornucopia + Guilds)
8. Dark Ages
9. Base
10. Hinterlands
11. Seaside
12. Prosperity
13. Alchemy
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2021, 02:22:44 pm »
0

My ranking:
1. Adventures
2. Cornucopia
3. Renaissance
4. Empires
5. Prosperity
6. Seaside
7. Guilds
8. Menagerie
9. Dark Ages
10. Base
11. Alchemy
12. Hinterlands
13. Nocturne
14. Intrigue

I value card modularity and minigames over the "pure" deckbuilding; like, pure deckbuilding is great too, but if I can do minigames? *chef's kiss*
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NoMoreFun

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2021, 10:43:03 pm »
+4

Amazing:
Renaissance, Menagerie, Empires, Adventures

Good:
Intrigue (revised), Base (revised), Cornucopia+Guilds, Dark Ages

Needs revision:
Prosperity, Hinterlands, Seaside, Nocturne

Not good:
Alchemy
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Donald X.

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2021, 12:35:22 pm »
+9

Amazing:
Renaissance, Menagerie, Empires, Adventures

Good:
Intrigue (revised), Base (revised), Cornucopia+Guilds, Dark Ages

Needs revision:
Prosperity, Hinterlands, Seaside, Nocturne

Not good:
Alchemy
That's about where I stand, acknowledging that for some players Nocturne is great.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2021, 01:02:12 pm »
0

I agree that Prosperity needs revision, but I put it high on my list because when it's good, it's so good.
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2021, 02:17:44 pm »
0

Amazing:
Renaissance, Menagerie, Empires, Adventures

Good:
Intrigue (revised), Base (revised), Cornucopia+Guilds, Dark Ages

Needs revision:
Prosperity, Hinterlands, Seaside, Nocturne

Not good:
Alchemy

Most accurate and best summarized overview ever posted 👊🏻
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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2021, 05:52:22 pm »
+7

I think 2nd edition base is underappreciated a lot because people take the base set for granted and because it's understandably not as exciting to play with cards you've seen so many times, but BSO feels great to play (relatively). I don't think any expansion, when using cards only from that expansion, leads to fun games as consistently as base does, even though they contain cards that are individually more interesting.
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Willvon

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2021, 12:24:04 am »
+1

I think 2nd edition base is underappreciated a lot because people take the base set for granted and because it's understandably not as exciting to play with cards you've seen so many times, but BSO feels great to play (relatively). I don't think any expansion, when using cards only from that expansion, leads to fun games as consistently as base does, even though they contain cards that are individually more interesting.

I have found that to be so true. If only this current edition had been Dominion when it was first released, I think more people would have rated it higher based on their first plays. The new cards really open up the game so much and enhance the variety, as well as making it less centered on big money. I remember a lot of people back in the early 2010’s were dissing base Dominion as too simple and predictable with several cards that felt useless or ignorable all of the time. I never felt that was true, but I’m sure the second edition cards would have helped moderate the negative aspects for some of those persons who just gave up on it too easily.  Dominion should definitely be ranked much higher than it is on BGG. If more people had started with second edition, I think it would easily be rated higher.
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Willvon

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Re: How would you rank the Dominion kingdoms?
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2021, 11:25:12 pm »
0

Here is my list:

1) Prosperity — My first expansion I bought. So it is a sentimental favorite, but my wife and I also love Colonies and Platinums. We use them whenever we can in our games.  It was the first to use victory tokens and has several cards that are real game changers in most any kingdom.

2) Menagerie — There are a lot of cards here that I greatly enjoy playing. Horses are a cool idea, and there are plenty of cards to help you get them. I love being able to exile cards. That’s a great mechanic. There are also more events, durations, and I even like the cards with weird costs. My favorite thing, though, are the Ways. So much fun to be had with this expansion.

3) Cornucopia — I really enjoy 10 of the 13 cards and consider them must buys pretty much any time they appear. 2 of the other 3 are often useful. Those are pretty amazing odds.

4) Adventures — Introduced Travelers, Reserve cards, and Events, along with the return of Durations.  A great expansion. I understand why many have it as their #1.

5) Dark Ages — Love the trashing theme. Includes many cards that I love. Introduces Ruins and Shelters. Also takes the use of non-supply piles to a new level.

6) Empires — Introduced Debt and split piles, both are great additions to the game. I also love having more Events and new cards making use of victory tokens. And Landmarks have really taken “alternate victory” to a new level.

7) Renaissance — Villagers are a cool mechanic, great for those games with few extra actions available the normal way. I also like the reimplementation of coffers. Trashing is also a prominent thing with this set, which is always welcome. But the highlight of this expansion for me are the Projects.

8. Base-2nd Edition — So much better with the new cards added and the duds removed. This really is an excellent introduction to the game for people. All of the basic concepts are well presented and utilized here. There are many cards here that I am always happy to see in a kingdom.

9) Intrigue-2nd Edition — With the 6 deleted cards and 7 new cards, this expansion really has improved greatly.

10) Seaside — Durations , Durations , Durations - at the time these were a major change to the game and whenever a new expansion was announced, there were always people saying they hoped there were more Durations in the set.

11) Nocturne — I love Night cards and Heirlooms, but there are very few, if any cards from this expansion that I get excited to see when they show up in a kingdom. States and Hexes and Boons just seem to add a lot of unnecessary fiddliness or work that doesn’t really enhance the gameplay.

12) Hinterlands — Has a few great cards, but most are average, which is not bad, just not as exciting as some of the new things in other expansions.

13) Guilds — I enjoy the cards that use coffers (as they are now named), and it has a couple of great trashers, and one of the top villages, but the size of the expansion makes coffers and overpay feel very underutilized.

14) Alchemy — OK, but not great. They can’t all be the best expansion.
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