Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: werothegreat on May 25, 2012, 11:16:57 am
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A few months back, I asked how to spice up the First Game kingdom recommended by the Base game, as I teach Dominion to quite a few people: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1022.0
I think I finally have a good board that can effectively introduce the game to new players, utilizing Intrigue and Seaside (and maybe Prosperity/Hinterlands):
Courtyard - replaces Cellar and Smithy - easy enough to understand - take 3 cards, put 1 back!
Moat/Lighthouse - do you want to explain Reactions, or Durations? your choice
Warehouse - replaces Cellar - while its existence does NOT make Cellar worse :P it is a little easier to explain
Smugglers - repalces Workshop - a little more useful than Workshop, and about the same level of complexity
Village/Worker's Village - Village really is as simple as it gets for that kind of card, but if you really want to ditch every card in the First Game kingdom, Worker's Village is a simple step up, and adds a nice +Buy to this kingdom
Woodcutter/Conspirator/Nomad Camp - are you cool with keeping Woodcutter? If not, Conspirator requires a little explanation (but not as much as Remodel, Moat, or Mine), or, if you have Hinterlands, Nomad Camp can introduce players to the when-gain mechanic
Cutpurse - replaces Militia - a littler easier to explain - most newbs I teach think Militia means to discard 3 cards
Salvager - replaces Remodel - it works how most newbs seem to want to think Remodel works, and is a little less confusing to explain
Bazaar - replaces Market and Village (to an extent) - nice vanilla card
Trading Post - as mentioned by Jorbles in the original thread, this makes the trash-for-benefit concept a lot clearer than Remodel or Mine
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I too take it upon myself to share Dominion with as many people who I think would like it as possible. Since the game doesn't take very long to play, and almost everyone wants to play several times I sort of introduce the game's simpler concepts over the coarse of 3 games.
Game 1: Mostly random Base cards. Never with Witch or Chapel, always with Militia and Moat. I try to encourage buying currency, because people tend to see all these neat actions cards and end up with a pile of terminal actions and 7 coppers if I just let them play.
Game 2: Introduce Curses. Sea Hag/Witch/Young Witch whatever. I always make sure some reaction card or decent trasher is there to help them along. Depending on how much they seem to be "getting it" I may choose to introduce some duration or choice cards.
Game 3: Chapel game. After playing nice the first two games and trying my best to let them win I blow their doors off with a simple Chapel -> BM strategy. It may sound sinister, but it teaches them a valuable lesson and really helps them graduate from noob to beginner.
If they want to keep going I'll start to slowly introduce some more complex cards, and perhaps try to demonstrate the value of a solid engine if they get all "If you just buy silver, then gold, then provinces you win" on me.
I think the most important thing is to bring people along slowly and give them tips along the way without being overbearing. The best way to learn dominion is to play it over and over again.
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About which game should you introduce Potions? Durations? Somebody make a game-by-game thingy like BJ Penn except longer and one that begins easier, and slowly gets more complex and that will cover every card at least once. And please list all kingdom cards. I will start:
Game 1:
Remodel, Adventurer, Militia, Moat, Chancellor, Market, Laboratory, Smithy, Festival, Woodcutter, Village.
You are a noob. You have just been introduced to a game called "Dominion" that your friend says is so fun. OK, lets give it a try.
Like BJ Penn, I think showing them that 500 terminals is not a good thing. This will maximize skill im BM, an minimize the "Village Idiot".This is the reason I have left out Mine. Mine would give them an excuse to just recycle into better currency instead of buying it, and the fact that buying money is a good thing needs to be inforced! So if anyone writes gae two, I recommend avoiding Mine and maaaayyybe Bureaucrat and money gainers.
Other than that, I think we should keep the first kingdom fairly simple, less words more +this +that. Hence Festival, Lab, Market, Smithy, Woodcutter, Village.
Any thoughts?
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About which game should you introduce Potions? Durations? Somebody make a game-by-game thingy like BJ Penn except longer and one that begins easier, and slowly gets more complex and that will cover every card at least once. And please list all kingdom cards. I will start:
Game 1:
Remodel, Adventurer, Militia, Moat, Chancellor, Market, Laboratory, Smithy, Festival, Woodcutter, Village.
You are a noob. You have just been introduced to a game called "Dominion" that your friend says is so fun. OK, lets give it a try.
Like BJ Penn, I think showing them that 500 terminals is not a good thing. This will maximize skill im BM, an minimize the "Village Idiot".This is the reason I have left out Mine. Mine would give them an excuse to just recycle into better currency instead of buying it, and the fact that buying money is a good thing needs to be inforced! So if anyone writes gae two, I recommend avoiding Mine and maaaayyybe Bureaucrat and money gainers.
Other than that, I think we should keep the first kingdom fairly simple, less words more +this +that. Hence Festival, Lab, Market, Smithy, Woodcutter, Village.
Any thoughts?
I'd say after a few games (within a reasonable period of time), new players should be ready for anything thrown at them. Introduce Potions and Durations whenever you feel like it.
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Game 3: Chapel game. After playing nice the first two games and trying my best to let them win I blow their doors off with a simple Chapel -> BM strategy. It may sound sinister, but it teaches them a valuable lesson and really helps them graduate from noob to beginner.
But regular BM beats Chapel-BM, doesn't it? Or at the very least, Chapel is far from the best X for BM+X.
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Game 3: Chapel game. After playing nice the first two games and trying my best to let them win I blow their doors off with a simple Chapel -> BM strategy. It may sound sinister, but it teaches them a valuable lesson and really helps them graduate from noob to beginner.
But regular BM beats Chapel-BM, doesn't it? Or at the very least, Chapel is far from the best X for BM+X.
Nah, chapel-BM beats just plain ol' BM, but not by that much. The main issue is that most players with only two games under their belt can't beat BM anyway.
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I'd say after a few games (within a reasonable period of time), new players should be ready for anything thrown at them. Introduce Potions and Durations whenever you feel like it.
Depends on the player. I wouldn't feel comfortable using Durations or Potions with players who have not mastered basic gameplay things like:
- Keeping discard and draw decks separate
- Playing cards to the in-play area rather than directly to the discard
- Understanding the difference between trashing and discarding
- Keeping the action and buy phases separate (in particular, not forgetting that if they use something like Workshop they can still buy something)
- Remembering to discard their hand and draw 5 cards during cleanup
Some players will have this all down by the end of the first game, others may take much longer.