Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Dominion: Agraria  (Read 1174 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ChungBog

  • Pawn
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
  • Respect: +12
    • View Profile
Dominion: Agraria
« on: May 10, 2024, 12:49:54 pm »
+8

Dominion: Agraria is a fan expansion with 434 cards. It is an expansion focused on complex play through active decision making.





The Handbook, which organizes and explains the set, can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g1B2KzFnCLGg1dIN_eVyIh0MG-finEDWRRJCHz5lk5c/edit?usp=sharing
---
All cards can be found in this Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10aNx0LZuEXst1cLlBYegotW3mlGzcZDT?usp=sharing

Logged

Tiago

  • Moneylender
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 161
  • Shuffle iT Username: Tiago84
  • Respect: +237
    • View Profile
Re: Dominion: Agraria
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2024, 09:29:14 pm »
+2

Wow, this is impressive!

Here's some feedback. Sorry if it's a bit harsh, and a bunch of it might be incorrect.

Attendant
Attendant looks a bit automatic. I think it'd be much more interesting if it wasn't a cantrip (+$2 instead of +1 Card +1 Action, for example).

Barkeeper
The choose one on Barkeeper doesn't make sense. If it's purpose is to do something on the Tavern mat. there's not much point, since +1 Buy is such a weak bonus. I would recommend either removing the +1 Buy, or making it happen regardless of putting it on the Tavern mat. Right now it adds needless complexity. I also don't understand the "return to your Action phase" calling. This basically does not help you at all, except for edge cases. All official cards that have this effect also either give you Actions to use (Villa), Cards (Cavalry), or both (Launch). Switching phases has no inherent good, it's only good if you get more stuff to use.

Here's a suggestion: "+2 Villagers, put this on your Tavern mat. / At the end of your Buy phase, you may pay $2 to call this. If you do, +2 Cards and return to your Action phase."

Brewer
This card has too many concepts squished into one. It's a cantrip Villager/Market Square/Reserve Groundskeeper. That's way too much needless complexity. I would recommend something like "+$2, this turn, when you gain a Duchy, +1 VP". The Villager doesn't make sense here.

Farmhand looks super weak. If you're using +1 Action you shouldn't have bought it (Ruined Village sucks); and Ways are really bad to have in your deck. The thing that makes Ways good is that you can use any normal card for them. Yes, this lets you choose from two but most of the time I don't want this for free. I'll look at some Ways:
-Butterfly, Rat, Turtle, Pig - pretty much useless
-Ox, Otter, Squirrel, Worm, Sheep, Monkey - really bad
-Goat, Camel, Owl - could be situationally good, but if there is any alternative this is terrible

Edit: and Farmhands is an official card

Gamekeeper
I would remove the optionalness of Exiling; you're buying this for the points, not for a cantrip or a Moat.

Robber Baron
This feels like a weak Throne Room. By the time you don't have Coppers to discard the Copper gaining won't help, and not doubling $5s is a huge downside. It could cost $4.

Seneschal
By now I've seen so many variations on choose one vanillas that they've gotten unexciting. One of the things that makes Liaisons cool is that they al provide favors differently. Playing with e.g. Bauble, Syncophant, Student, Underling, or Emissary makes Favors feel like a different resource each time. Your cards just give them automatically. Commune, this, and Majordomo all feel redundant.

Waresmith
I think you underestimate how terrible a +1 Action card is. If you're getting +1 Action with this, you shouldn't have bought it! That choice doesn't add to this card. So many of these cards feel like random vanilla bonuses tacked onto choose ones and conditions.

In general, my feedback for the Action cards is simply to make more unique cards, where there is a simple, concentrated idea behind them, instead of variations on the same idea where each card doesn't really have a core identity.

Treasures

Beer
Great card. Simple and effective. A few problems though: (1) don't draw cards in your Buy phase. It's no fun to draw Action cards dead with unspent Actions. You can remove the +1 Card and this is still fine. (2) Putting it on the Tavern mat doesn't need to be optional. You're almost always going to gain a card, so you can call it this turn if you want it back for some reason. If you think that's too weak, make it +2 Buys.

I suggest "+$1. Put this on your Tavern mat. / When you gain a card, you may call this for +1/2 Buy(s)."

Compost
Wow, this is cool. Only problem is that Exiling from the trash could be unbalanced in games where Provinces end up in the trash (Barbarian/Locusts).

Hearth can put the card in your hand at end of turn instead of the start of your next turn.

Keg
Cards in Buy phase = bad! Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine.

Scarecrow
You won't be gaining Curses. This is a weak Stockpile.

Waterwheel and Viaduct look like Silver and Gold respectively.

Brooch, Keg, top of Salt, Scarecrow, Scythe, Wheat, Wine, are all very repetitive. They're more vanilla stuff with choose ones/conditions. They don't add much to the game.

Victory cards

Chateau is fine, but do you really need two identical overpays in the same expansion, one of which is a plain 2VP?

Granary looks weak. $7 for a Duchy, $10 for a Province, $15 for a Colony. Maybe the flexibility and trashability makes up for it; it looks interesting for sure.

Plantation's card does not match your comment. With one empty pile, the card says you'll get 4VP, but your comment says 7VP, and you'll always have at least one, so this looks super weak to me as what's written on the card. If I go by the comment, then it looks interesting.

I've made a card that's the same as Wasteland, but with an on-gain effect. I like it, so I like Wasteland.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2024, 09:45:29 pm by Tiago »
Logged

segura

  • Torturer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1667
  • Respect: +1601
    • View Profile
Re: Dominion: Agraria
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2024, 05:55:32 am »
+3

This is a massive achievement and I think that there are a lot of great cards in this. Overall it is a bit too vanilla-ish for my taste.

WAYS
Way of the Wolf is the only Way I know that makes an Action strictly better than the original non-Way version.
I think that this is a dubious design choice.

ALLIES
Border Kingdom could use a clearer wording (or a simpler version) but is easily my favourite Way.

Lord of Manor and Merchant Convoy don't need the "per 1 unspent" wording; you can just write "you may spend a Coin and a Favour for".

ACTIONS
Grange and Oxen are very cool splitters.

Waresmith
is stronger and cheaper than Monument.

TREASURES
Beer and Wine are both Treaure Markets and thus too strong / cheap.

Keg is basically a TreasureDoublePeddler for $4. Sure, it is balanced by the 'first copy you play each turn is a splitter' thingy so you can most likely not mindlessly run a Keg only deck. But I nonetheless think that this needs to be nerfed or higher priced.
Logged

grrgrrgrr

  • Duke
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 360
  • Respect: +495
    • View Profile
Re: Dominion: Agraria
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2024, 06:50:56 am »
0

Nice effort! Cards that differ per game always intrigued me, even though it is usually ill-advised to design a card this way. So I'm going through the cards that use Ways as a means of making them Druid variations.

Woodland Sages: This is far away the best Ally that uses this concept, and I can see this being interesting with most of the Ways. The fact that it has 3 ways increases the chance that there is an interesting Way in there, and the limitation to one per turn prevents the chance of it being overbearing. It is still kinda weird to design an Ally this way, as you need to go through 2 layers of randomness to get this Ally in the first place.

Oxen: I see this being even worse than Farming village in that its enhanced part will matter extremely infrequently. It is not going to make getting Duchies more appealing any time soon, as turning dead cards into weak terminals is generally not worth it. It also doesn't help that several Ways, like Way of the Chameleon or Way of the Frog, are completely pointless for this. Playing Duchies is a messy concept; the payoff has to be worth it.

Farmhand: As Tiago said, the "Choose one: +1 Action" part is completely pointless, and if you let the abilities completely depend on the used ways, this card is going to be dreadful far too often. The concept has potential, just replace the "+1 Action" part with something meaningful. The easiest option is to go for "Trash 2 cards", making it a variation on Steward. You can also go for "+1 Card, +2 Actions" making it similar to Town.

Estate Manager: You want to get rid of Estates, not turn them into very weak cards that take up your precious terminal space (at the expense of 2 hard earned Favors, mind you). This will certainly be able to pull its weight on Import games, in which the opening turns become far better than usual. But with any other Liaison, this is very likely going to be ignored, even without Estate trashing. (And it also makes the FAQ of Inheritance even longer than it already is).

Beast masters: This and Woodland Sages look like drafts for the same cards; something I see more often in your expansion. I far prefer Woodland Sages though, as this can got out of hand very easily with Underling, as you can trigger the Way after two Underling plays. With Way of the Otter, Underling becomes a superlab every two plays! Enabling an effect to trigger after any Action card is also rather uninteresting; it's far more interesting to go for a Fellowship of Scribes-esque approach.

Animalistic: It is kinda cool, but there is a reason why there are no Traits like this in Plunder: discarding outside of Clean-up is not that common! And even then, it's probably more interesting to just play the card itself normally than as a fixed Way. (or maybe not use it as a Trait but apply it to an actual Kingdom card)
Logged

Udzu

  • Young Witch
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 148
  • Respect: +186
    • View Profile
Re: Dominion: Agraria
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2024, 11:08:51 am »
0

This looks like a lovely expansion!

Minor typo in the docs (I think): there are 33 traits (not 32), and 85 total landscape cards (not 82).
Logged

Udzu

  • Young Witch
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 148
  • Respect: +186
    • View Profile
Re: Dominion: Agraria
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2024, 11:35:34 am »
0

Couple of Ally card phrasing comments:

Border Kingdom isn't quite grammatical ("2 or more Favors than every other player" logically means "either 2 Favors or more Favors than every other player", not "2 or more Favors more than every other player"). Here's a suggested rephrasing: "At the end of your turn, if you have at least 2 Favors more than every other player, +1VP. If you have at least 5 more, +1VP."

Brigands: do you want to allow spending no Favors to gain a Copper and/or a Curse? If not, rephrase as "at least one Favor".

Similarly, League of Porters currently lets you discard a card without spending any Favors. If you want to prevent that, you could rephrase as "At the end of your Buy phase, you may spend at least one Favor to discard a card. If you did, Exile that many cards from your hand".
Logged
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.052 seconds with 20 queries.