I was working on lots of new games in 2019. And going to restaurants, and walking down the sidewalk within 6 feet of strangers, without a care in the world. The pandemic hit and everything stopped. It turns out I cannot get much work done on games that are never played. Then I started playing Dominion with Dame Natalie in 2020, and well now there's an expansion coming out. It's a lesson for us all. Allies feels to me like "more Dominion" more than most sets; there are a lot of cards that could go in any set. Part of that is how it came to be; I just made a bunch of cards. But it does have some mechanics, and I'm leading with Allies themselves.
Allies are landscape cards that tell you how a Favor token can be used. Favor tokens are produced by Liaisons. In games with a Liaison, you put out a single Ally (even with multiple Liaisons), and well that's that, it tells you what the token does. There are 23 Allies, in their own separate deck, which is like having 23 new kinds of tokens. Only we use coin tokens for all of them, and put them on a mat. Here are some Liaisons, out of the 9 total in the set:
Underling is as straightforward as they get; it's a cantrip that gives you a Favor token. If you want a bunch of Favor tokens, Underling is there for you. Bauble is the Treasure version of Pawn you never knew you wanted. The last option is that whole bit about getting to topdeck cards; you can pick any two options and that's one of them. And one of them is a Favor. And then Broker is the combination Apprentice / Salvager / other things that you never knew you wanted. It can make a lot of Favors at once when you want that.
Well that's all well and good, but what are the Allies like? Here are five of them:
So let's say the game has Underling in it. You turn over an Ally, it's Cave Dwellers. This game, you can get Favors with Underlings, and you can use them to discard/draw repeatedly at the start of your turn. That's all there is to it. No wait, there's one more thing: you start the game with a Favor token. So if you never get a Liaison, you still get to do a little something. Except with Allies that cost more than one Favor to do anything.
Cave Dwellers lets you filter; Coastal Haven saves cards for next turn; Peaceful Cult trashes. Those are all pretty simple. Plateau Shepherds is like a Landmark, it lets you score for having a bunch of $2's, but you need to pair them with Favors. And then League of Bankers doesn't let you spend Favors; you just amass them, and get +$ each turn based on how many you have.
Cards will be playable online at dominion.games (maybe not exactly when this is posted, but soon afterwards; take your time to savor these words and it will all work out), in the same way we've done for the last few expansions. Three kingdom cards, that's not enough, let's have two more.
Hunter is a Lab that gets you a varying number of cards, based on type. Skirmisher Militias people, but only when more attacks are coming in. Which of course can just be more Skirmishers, or some other attack.
So there's a preview, and there will be more previews (with cards playable online) through Friday.
