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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Favorite Expansions in 2018
« on: February 09, 2018, 08:36:35 pm »
Here is how I rank the expansions nowadays. My main criterias are :
- Creativity : expansions with cards that creates weird or counter-intuitives strategies that actually works will be ranked higher. Alt-Vp things and Trash-for-benefit are especially nice about creativity.
- Mechanic elegance : I tend to prefer simple things that works elegantly to more complicated things that involve more stuff. That's why I like Duration, Reserve and Night cards more than Split piles or Fates.
- Balance : Sometimes you know you are going to buy a card, at first glance, even without seeing the others. The edge cases are too uncommon. I usually like average/situationnal cards way more than must-buys.
- Tactical / on turn decision : A (very little) downside in Dominion (which is still my all time favorite game) is the predominance of strategy over tactic. Sometimes everything is scripted from turn 1. So, cards that adds touch of tactical decisions in the game get my preference.
So here is the list :
1. Cornucopia : My love for cornucopia is a bit irrationnal. But this little set is very solid. With the exception of tournament, I like every single card in it. Menagerie and Horn of plenty are easily in my top 5. The variety theme works very well for me, and brings lot of fun to the game.
2. Adventures : The +card/action/coin/buy tokens (+plan and ferry) are in my opinion one of the funniest things in dominion. The reserve mechanic is great too, it mitigates shuffle luck in a nice way. Those travellers are a little bit overpowered and inelegant, but I still like the Peasant line. Some cards are a little bit too similar too earlier cards, but i don't consider that in my ranking, because the release order says nothing about the inherent qualities of an expansion.
3. Dark Ages : It's a shame we have cultist and Rebuild (and Knights that turns almost every game into a knight battle) because the rest of the cards is absolutely awesome. Procession and Rats are two examples of how dominion can be fun and very complex at the same time. This is clearly one of the best expansions about creativity.
4. Hinterlands : I feel Hinterlands is little bit underrated. Overall it has a great balance : very few overpowered cards. There are maybe too many underpowered cards but in my opinion it matters less than the overpowered ones. It's also one of the very few sets that aren't too engine-friendly. Cards in this set are interesting and adds lot of subtle decisions.
5. Intrigue : With very simple ideas, this expansion brings the game to new thinking paths. Think about it : Conspirator, Baron, bridge, Duke, Coppersmith (still lives in my heart) all needs very different kinds of decks to work at there best. The 2nd edition is not particularly needed, especially considering we miss coppersmith, but still adds interesting cards.
6. Seaside : One of the most simple expansions, still with very different interesting concepts in it. Durations are very well designeed.
7. Base : Simplicity again. I would rank the 1st edition much lower though. The 2nd edition is almost perfect.
8. Guilds : I like a lot of the cards there too. Overpay is a nice mechanic but not enough used and not in the best way IMO. For example Herald would be fine without overpay. But coin tokens is a good mechanic.
9. Empires : On one side, I love Empires. Really. I feel bad it is so low on the list. The concepts are very, very interesting. But on the other side, I feel a lot of the cards ends up being uselessly complicated. Especially split piles. I like Fortune but not so much Gladiator. I like settlers but often don't have the opportunity to but a bustling village. Catapult/Rock is fun thematically but doesn't work that well in practice. Same for gathering. The events are not as elegant and interesting as in adventures.
I'm divided about landmarks : sometimes the game is very weird because of them, other times, they do add depth (and alternate paths of victory) to the game.
But I like the debt cards a lot : it's always hard to find the right moment to buy them.
10. Nocturne : I may rank it higher in the future but right now i'm simply not fond enough of neither boons nor hexes. That's randomness at it's most uninteresting way. And non-supply cards are just a little bit too much of design complexity for my taste. The rest is fine, Night cards are fun and Heirlooms add variety to the opening hands in a subtle way.
11. Alchemy : It's a fun engine expansion. My only problem is the overall balance and how attacks are devastating. But I still like possession.
12. Prosperity : Same here, Prosperity is the least balanced set in my opinion. Too much power-creep ruins the fun. I still enjoy Prosperity a lot, it's just that I like the rest more.
13. Promos : Again, we have too powerful cards. I learned to like governor though. Also, Prince and Summon are very fun.
- Creativity : expansions with cards that creates weird or counter-intuitives strategies that actually works will be ranked higher. Alt-Vp things and Trash-for-benefit are especially nice about creativity.
- Mechanic elegance : I tend to prefer simple things that works elegantly to more complicated things that involve more stuff. That's why I like Duration, Reserve and Night cards more than Split piles or Fates.
- Balance : Sometimes you know you are going to buy a card, at first glance, even without seeing the others. The edge cases are too uncommon. I usually like average/situationnal cards way more than must-buys.
- Tactical / on turn decision : A (very little) downside in Dominion (which is still my all time favorite game) is the predominance of strategy over tactic. Sometimes everything is scripted from turn 1. So, cards that adds touch of tactical decisions in the game get my preference.
So here is the list :
1. Cornucopia : My love for cornucopia is a bit irrationnal. But this little set is very solid. With the exception of tournament, I like every single card in it. Menagerie and Horn of plenty are easily in my top 5. The variety theme works very well for me, and brings lot of fun to the game.
2. Adventures : The +card/action/coin/buy tokens (+plan and ferry) are in my opinion one of the funniest things in dominion. The reserve mechanic is great too, it mitigates shuffle luck in a nice way. Those travellers are a little bit overpowered and inelegant, but I still like the Peasant line. Some cards are a little bit too similar too earlier cards, but i don't consider that in my ranking, because the release order says nothing about the inherent qualities of an expansion.
3. Dark Ages : It's a shame we have cultist and Rebuild (and Knights that turns almost every game into a knight battle) because the rest of the cards is absolutely awesome. Procession and Rats are two examples of how dominion can be fun and very complex at the same time. This is clearly one of the best expansions about creativity.
4. Hinterlands : I feel Hinterlands is little bit underrated. Overall it has a great balance : very few overpowered cards. There are maybe too many underpowered cards but in my opinion it matters less than the overpowered ones. It's also one of the very few sets that aren't too engine-friendly. Cards in this set are interesting and adds lot of subtle decisions.
5. Intrigue : With very simple ideas, this expansion brings the game to new thinking paths. Think about it : Conspirator, Baron, bridge, Duke, Coppersmith (still lives in my heart) all needs very different kinds of decks to work at there best. The 2nd edition is not particularly needed, especially considering we miss coppersmith, but still adds interesting cards.
6. Seaside : One of the most simple expansions, still with very different interesting concepts in it. Durations are very well designeed.
7. Base : Simplicity again. I would rank the 1st edition much lower though. The 2nd edition is almost perfect.
8. Guilds : I like a lot of the cards there too. Overpay is a nice mechanic but not enough used and not in the best way IMO. For example Herald would be fine without overpay. But coin tokens is a good mechanic.
9. Empires : On one side, I love Empires. Really. I feel bad it is so low on the list. The concepts are very, very interesting. But on the other side, I feel a lot of the cards ends up being uselessly complicated. Especially split piles. I like Fortune but not so much Gladiator. I like settlers but often don't have the opportunity to but a bustling village. Catapult/Rock is fun thematically but doesn't work that well in practice. Same for gathering. The events are not as elegant and interesting as in adventures.
I'm divided about landmarks : sometimes the game is very weird because of them, other times, they do add depth (and alternate paths of victory) to the game.
But I like the debt cards a lot : it's always hard to find the right moment to buy them.
10. Nocturne : I may rank it higher in the future but right now i'm simply not fond enough of neither boons nor hexes. That's randomness at it's most uninteresting way. And non-supply cards are just a little bit too much of design complexity for my taste. The rest is fine, Night cards are fun and Heirlooms add variety to the opening hands in a subtle way.
11. Alchemy : It's a fun engine expansion. My only problem is the overall balance and how attacks are devastating. But I still like possession.
12. Prosperity : Same here, Prosperity is the least balanced set in my opinion. Too much power-creep ruins the fun. I still enjoy Prosperity a lot, it's just that I like the rest more.
13. Promos : Again, we have too powerful cards. I learned to like governor though. Also, Prince and Summon are very fun.
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from the new edition cards, I like Mill, Replace, Diplomat and Lurker. These 4 could almost comfort me for the loss of coppersmith. Almost.