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[ehunt]

We tried this IRL last night. Your partner sits across from you and there are 4 players. All rules exactly as in Dominion, except the win condition is that your combined score should exceed the opposing teams' combined scores (same tiebreaker rule.) Pretty good game; the problem is that it's not so different from Dominion (though there are many cases like Swindler, Pirate Ship, where the strategy is quite different). The most interesting thing is the strategy discussion - what are you willing to tell your partner?

[jonts26]

I think if you're doing team dominion it might be nice to add a new play rule or mechanic or maybe even some sort of trading phase which will increase the strategy space to make use of the teams dynamic. It would certainly take some thought to balance well but even something like the ability to put a bought card into your partners discard pile or something would be fun. Likely that scenario would end with one partner keeping their deck strong while the other just takes all the green stuff, though when to start making that switch would offer in interesting strategic decision.

[GendoIkari]

Why would Swindler play any different?

I think there should be a rule that all players are not affected by attacks played by their teammates.

[WanderingWinder]

Why would Swindler play any different?

I think there should be a rule that all players are not affected by attacks played by their teammates.

Well, but then you get things like spy that affect you too...

[HiveMindEmulator]

I think an interesting variation for team play would be that your partner gets your "next turn" duration benefits instead of you (and you clean up the cards after his turn). This is not as extreme as giving cards to each other, but allows for interesting dynamics. For example:
 - double-tactican strats can be done with one tactician each
 - wharf chains require you to both have a lot of wharfs (kind of hard with 4 players...)
 - on player can mass fishing villages while the other gets terminals, or one player can trash down to nothing but caravans and tacticians to the other person gets big turns
 - haven has to get some sort of special ruling, either it stays visible on the table and gets cleaned up to the original owners hand, or it becomes the only actual way to pass cards to your partner...

[WanderingWinder]

How's this for passing cards: every card you discard (and gain?) goes to your partner's discard pile...

[dondon151]

I've been in the process of creating a fan expansion with cards (and a few extra rules) deliberately designed for 2v2 Dominion. Maybe I'll post it some time... Unfortunately, we don't really have the time or means to adequately playtest the cards.

My play group and I have tried doing this before, but with just the base rules, it's really just everyone to himself, competing for the most points.

[DrHades]

I think that an interesting variant can be:

"Every time you are about to gain a card, your partner can gain it instead if you both agree."

It might be that "Send me the good cards, you will have greens and curses" is the best strategy here, but then again - you have superb deck, but playing against 2 players...hard to say if this works and that is why I think it would be interesting

[Jimmmmm]

I think that an interesting variant can be:

"Every time you are about to gain a card, your partner can gain it instead if you both agree."

It might be that "Send me the good cards, you will have greens and curses" is the best strategy here, but then again - you have superb deck, but playing against 2 players...hard to say if this works and that is why I think it would be interesting

Hmm. I suspect that perhaps your suggested strategy would be better in good engine kingdoms, where one player can build an awesome one and destroy the two mediocre ones, but in basic BM kingdoms, it would probably be better to play fairly normally.

[jonts26]

I think that an interesting variant can be:

"Every time you are about to gain a card, your partner can gain it instead if you both agree."

It might be that "Send me the good cards, you will have greens and curses" is the best strategy here, but then again - you have superb deck, but playing against 2 players...hard to say if this works and that is why I think it would be interesting

Hmm. I suspect that perhaps your suggested strategy would be better in good engine kingdoms, where one player can build an awesome one and destroy the two mediocre ones, but in basic BM kingdoms, it would probably be better to play fairly normally.

I think you're probably right. The thing to remember is that in a 4p game there are only 3 provinces per player which most big money decks can get without slowing down. Thus you're going to need both players buying them to keep up.

[DrHades]

I think that an interesting variant can be:

"Every time you are about to gain a card, your partner can gain it instead if you both agree."

It might be that "Send me the good cards, you will have greens and curses" is the best strategy here, but then again - you have superb deck, but playing against 2 players...hard to say if this works and that is why I think it would be interesting

Hmm. I suspect that perhaps your suggested strategy would be better in good engine kingdoms, where one player can build an awesome one and destroy the two mediocre ones, but in basic BM kingdoms, it would probably be better to play fairly normally.

I have more or less the same opinion and if this is true, it's a good variant, cause you need to think, not just go for an obvious winning strategy.

Also there are many funny things that can happen. For example - board with a cursing attack and Ambassador - 2 players (1 from each team) are playing ping pong with Curses, while the other two are playing as if there was no Ambassador on the board in the first place 

[igelkott]

How does this sound?

When a card refers to something in your hand, your partner MAY reveal his hand and you MAY use cards from his hand instead. If not trashed, cards used in this way stay in your partners possession and benefits accrue only to the partner currently playing.

So for example if both partners have a treasure map in their hand. One can play it then the other could reveal his hand. Then both treasure maps would be trashed and the playing player would gain 4 gold.

So some cards would become more powerful but at the cost of revealing your partner's hand to your opponents.

Chris

[Octo]

I think that would introduce a little too much down-time as everyone looked at their partner's cards each turn. Also, do they get to look at their opponent's cards before they decide to play the card? This would affect it a lot.

I think a simple variant could be this: "During your turn you may place one card from your hand on your partner's discard pile."

Really though, the main thing is that it really depends on what cards are on the table. Tables with 3 piling as a viable strategy would be more interesting. Duration cards would be interesting if they applied to your opponent. Attacks - not sure if they should apply to your partner or not. Probably not I guess as otherwise it'd make people avoid them too much, but it could be interesting if you knowingly go for the counter strat the matches up.

Another idea, your partner's discard pile is yours, in so much as you always discard there (no option), but when you shuffle up you shuffle up from the other one. It allows for a sort of 8-shaped 2-phase cycling of the cards, and could lead to some interesting imbalances in the deck-sizes if someone has a lot of draw and the other doesn't. However, I think this would unfortunately gimp the more extreme strats - drawing your whole deck would only work for one turn, as they'd all end up back in the other player's pile, and next turn you'd only have a few cards to play with, which literally be the hand they just played with. I suppose you could also end up with no cards to draw for next turn too. Hmmm. Balls.