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[Donald X.]

Speaking of shipping times, how does it work?
I'm still waiting for the 2nd edition of Seaside/Prosperity/Hinterlands and their update packs.
I think it takes around 3 months from an expansion is released until I can buy it here in Sweden and that time seems to have been consistent for many years now, although this time it seems to be over 4 months.
The actual effect is that I get to be excited about every expansion three times (when it is announced, when I see the previews, and when I get it) with enough time to forget about it in between to make the excitement bigger for each step.

Based on what I see on this forum obviously some people get access to new Dominion stuff immediately when it's released but which parts of the world are they in and why is the difference in time so long until it reaches the rest of us?

Please note that this is not intended as a complaint. I'm just curious to understand how the shipping works.
Is it logistics involving boats across the oceans that is slow, is it that production can't keep up with demand the first months, or is it just difficult to get deliveries through the hoards of vikings around our coasts?

I don't have any specific information for your particular country / product combination. Foreign editions are up to foreign publishers, who make their own schedules. I usually don't hear anything about those releases, unless they are the same time as the English release and Jay happens to mention it to me.

Cards are currently printed in Germany. And assembled, the box of stuff put together. They could thus come out faster in Europe... but RGG makes them wait until the cards are also in the US. They sit around in a warehouse waiting for a boat. Then they come over by boat, then wait for customs, then move around in trucks. In the US, Jay ships stuff first to the farther-away places (from Wisconsin), so that everyone will get it at around the same time.

The pandemic slowed everything down, and it's hard to say how much that effect still applies.

Plunder is printing Nov. 3... unless that date slips somehow. I'll know around that week if it actually got printed. Then Jay will find out when the boat actually leaves, then at some point a boat will arrive and he'll know that, then the cards will get to him and he'll know that. I update people, to the degree that I can.

When we have a good guess for an earliest-possible release date in the US (probably around when the boat leaves), I'll schedule previews for the last week that the cards won't possibly be out. And I'll tell people; the news always gets out.

[flynd]

Speaking of shipping times, how does it work?
I'm still waiting for the 2nd edition of Seaside/Prosperity/Hinterlands and their update packs.
I think it takes around 3 months from an expansion is released until I can buy it here in Sweden and that time seems to have been consistent for many years now, although this time it seems to be over 4 months.
The actual effect is that I get to be excited about every expansion three times (when it is announced, when I see the previews, and when I get it) with enough time to forget about it in between to make the excitement bigger for each step.

Based on what I see on this forum obviously some people get access to new Dominion stuff immediately when it's released but which parts of the world are they in and why is the difference in time so long until it reaches the rest of us?

Please note that this is not intended as a complaint. I'm just curious to understand how the shipping works.
Is it logistics involving boats across the oceans that is slow, is it that production can't keep up with demand the first months, or is it just difficult to get deliveries through the hoards of vikings around our coasts?

I don't have any specific information for your particular country / product combination. Foreign editions are up to foreign publishers, who make their own schedules. I usually don't hear anything about those releases, unless they are the same time as the English release and Jay happens to mention it to me.

Cards are currently printed in Germany. And assembled, the box of stuff put together. They could thus come out faster in Europe... but RGG makes them wait until the cards are also in the US. They sit around in a warehouse waiting for a boat. Then they come over by boat, then wait for customs, then move around in trucks. In the US, Jay ships stuff first to the farther-away places (from Wisconsin), so that everyone will get it at around the same time.

The pandemic slowed everything down, and it's hard to say how much that effect still applies.

I forgot to specify that I was referring to the English edition. (I generally avoid translations if the original language is one I understand.)

I always assumed the delay was due to the game being shipped from another continent. It's strange that shipping withing Europe would take several months.
Or could it by some weird logistical or economical reason be that the distributor that imports games to Sweden actually receives them from a warehouse in the U.S. so the games are shipped twice across the Atlantic instead of getting them directly from Germany?

[Donald X.]

I always assumed the delay was due to the game being shipped from another continent. It's strange that shipping withing Europe would take several months.
Or could it by some weird logistical or economical reason be that the distributor that imports games to Sweden actually receives them from a warehouse in the U.S. so the games are shipped twice across the Atlantic instead of getting them directly from Germany?

I hope not.

[Karpeth]

I just spoke to asmodee nordic today. It sounds like they ship from the USA. Sweden has had an extremely subpar delivery of these, My flgs got theirs today, and they ordered them the day they were announced.

Spelexperten.se is the only one who got "many", and they got them just a few days ago.

[Karpeth]

Are there plans for more second editions, or are we done?

Since you skipped the small expansions - and card counts go up to 500 - Guilds, cornucopia and Alchemy don't have enough material to work in as a single big box second edition?

[LastFootnote]

Are there plans for more second editions, or are we done?

Since you skipped the small expansions - and card counts go up to 500 - Guilds, cornucopia and Alchemy don't have enough material to work in as a single big box second edition?

Second editions can't come out until the first edition of that set has sold through. And announcing a Second Edition could (theoretically) prevent that first edition from actually selling through. So this is a question that cannot satisfactorily be answered.

And Dominion second editions aside, it's generally up to the publisher to make announcements about upcoming products.

EDIT: Also Guilds and Cornucopia have already been combined into a large set, sometimes labeled "Mixed Box". Putting all three small expansions together would mean raising the price above a normal large box expansion I think, since it would be 450-ish cards, plus Coffers mats and coin tokens.

[Tmanchester606]

I’ve seen attempts made by other people (some fairly successful and some not so much), but have you ever considered creating an official solo / automa variant rule set for Dominion?

As a semi-unrelated follow-up, what “typically multiplayer” game do you think provides rules for the best solo experience?

[Donald X.]

I’ve seen attempts made by other people (some fairly successful and some not so much), but have you ever considered creating an official solo / automa variant rule set for Dominion?

As a semi-unrelated follow-up, what “typically multiplayer” game do you think provides rules for the best solo experience?

I haven't put any thought into solo-Dominion.

I don't have an answer for the second question either. I don't play board games by myself. I guess, with D&D you spend time making maps and filling them with stuff, and with Magic you spend time building decks, and those are solo experiences for a multiplayer game. But you know. Not really what you were looking for.

Probably there's a co-op with quarterbacking that solo play works fine for.

[Joshua]

IIRC Plunders print date was the 3rd of November. Do we know when the release is or when the previews start or are we still waiting other things like printing and shipping

[Donald X.]

IIRC Plunders print date was the 3rd of November. Do we know when the release is or when the previews start or are we still waiting other things like printing and shipping

We do not know those things.

Plunder has printed, and has been loaded into one or more containers. There still may be shipping delays; we won't know until the boat shows up and the trucks are loaded. But currently we expect the set to be out in early December.

As always the plan is to have previews in the last week before we can't rule out the set coming out. I'll pick a date (and then stick to it even if shipping then slips) once we have a better idea of when that will be.

[J Reggie]

If it's on a cargo ship, it'll arrive at the start of your next turn. Your opponent might be taking a really long turn though...

[infangthief]

If it's on a cargo ship, it'll arrive at the start of your next turn. Your opponent might be taking a really long turn though...

... though if they are intentionally taking a really long turn in order to delay the arrival of Plunder, you might choose not to play with them again.

[Will(ow|iam)]

If Plateau Shepherds had been in an expansion that featured Landmarks, would it have been both an Ally and a Landmark?

[Squidd]

If Plateau Shepherds had been in an expansion that featured Landmarks, would it have been both an Ally and a Landmark?

The only thing that would do is allow you to include it in a game without a Liaison.

[Will(ow|iam)]

If Plateau Shepherds had been in an expansion that featured Landmarks, would it have been both an Ally and a Landmark?

The only thing that would do is allow you to include it in a game without a Liaison.

That could be rulebook'd, and more importantly it would turn the background part-green.

[mxdata]

If Plateau Shepherds had been in an expansion that featured Landmarks, would it have been both an Ally and a Landmark?

The only thing that would do is allow you to include it in a game without a Liaison.

That could be rulebook'd, and more importantly it would turn the background part-green.

Yeah, but what would a Plateau Shepherds Landmark do? The only thing I can think of is giving an automatic 2 VP for all $2 cards, but if you did that, then the Favors wouldn't do anything, so the Ally part would be meaningless

[Gherald]

Seems the idea isn't to change what the landscape does, but rather satisfy the notion that if something gives you VP at end of game it should be of type "Landmark", because well that's what half the Landmarks do.

But the answer to the question is no, an Ally is an Ally and a Landmark is a Landmark, there is no reason for a particular landscape to have both types unless you also wanted it to be usable both ways, which you don't for something that's per favor.

Theoretically you could imagine a Landmark that changes the game somehow without directly interacting with VP at all (and without being bought like events/projects, and without using favors like allies). That's just not the flavor they were made with.

[Jeebus]

Landmarks and Allies are actually exactly the same thing functionally except for the setup rules.

[Imrahil3]

Landmarks and Allies are actually exactly the same thing functionally except for the setup rules.

Could you elaborate?

I see they are the same except for the part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom and also use a brand-new currency common to all of them to manage access to their benefits… at which point I think, if anything, Allies are closer to Events than Landmarks.

[Awaclus]

I see they are the same except for the part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom and also use a brand-new currency common to all of them to manage access to their benefits… at which point I think, if anything, Allies are closer to Events than Landmarks.

The part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom is the setup rules that Jeebus mentioned.

The fact that Allies use Favors is a concept thing, not a rule thing. Donald X. could release an Ally that didn't do anything with Favors, and while that would undermine the concept somewhat and likely be godawful design in general, nothing about the game's functionality would break — the rules that already exist in the game would cover that just fine. And with the exception of the setup rules, it would be identical to how Landmarks behave, i.e. they just sit there and effectively add a new rule to the game that affects all players. If there was a Landmark that had the exact text of an existing Ally, it would work exactly the same as the Ally does (except you probably don't have a way to get any Favors in the kingdom because the setup rules of Landmarks don't make sure that you do), and if there was an Ally that had the exact text of an existing Landmark, it would work exactly the same as the Landmark does (and then you would have at least one Liaison in the kingdom and nothing to do with those Favors).

Events are different, they are things you can buy and they give you a one-shot effect when you do, which is not just a fun fact that they all have in common, but actually what the rules say about them. If there was an Event with the text of an Ally (or the text of a Landmark, for that matter), the rules would tell you that you can buy it by using a +buy and paying the cost in your buy phase to get its effect, and that would contradict the fact that it does not have a cost. An Ally with the text of an Event would be equally nonsensical.

[Jeebus]

Landmarks and Allies are actually exactly the same thing functionally except for the setup rules.

Could you elaborate?

I see they are the same except for the part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom and also use a brand-new currency common to all of them to manage access to their benefits… at which point I think, if anything, Allies are closer to Events than Landmarks.

The "prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom" is a setup rule, and as I said the setup rules are different.

The rules for "Favor" (Favor tokens and the meaning of "+1 Favor") are given in the rulebook, and both Allies and Liaisons refer to Favors. So although all Allies use Favors, technically there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that refers to Favors is an Ally" or anything like that; just as there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that gives VP tokens during the game or VP at the end of the game is a Landmark". Functionally, Allies and Landmarks are landscape cards that don't have any specific rule associated with them (again, except for setup) except the rule that the abilities on them are available at all times for all players.

Events, on the other hand, also have the rule that their ability can be bought by spending a buy and paying the given cost, immediately triggering it.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

[Imrahil3]

Thanks for explaining! I’m going to be up all night having an existential crisis over that. As much as I’d like to, I can’t find any fault with your reasoning.

[josqvin]

Landmarks and Allies are actually exactly the same thing functionally except for the setup rules.

Could you elaborate?

I see they are the same except for the part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom and also use a brand-new currency common to all of them to manage access to their benefits… at which point I think, if anything, Allies are closer to Events than Landmarks.

The "prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom" is a setup rule, and as I said the setup rules are different.

The rules for "Favor" (Favor tokens and the meaning of "+1 Favor") are given in the rulebook, and both Allies and Liaisons refer to Favors. So although all Allies use Favors, technically there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that refers to Favors is an Ally" or anything like that; just as there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that gives VP tokens during the game or VP at the end of the game is a Landmark". Functionally, Allies and Landmarks are landscape cards that don't have any specific rule associated with them (again, except for setup) except the rule that the abilities on them are available at all times for all players.

Events, on the other hand, also have the rule that their ability can be bought by spending a buy and paying the given cost, immediately triggering it.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

This is only true for those Allies for which you don't spend favors to activate. I think it's pretty clear that those Allies for which you have to trigger by spending a currency DO have an additional rule (i.e. you must spend favors to activate) compared to Landmarks or to those Allies which are not triggerable.

[GendoIkari]

Landmarks and Allies are actually exactly the same thing functionally except for the setup rules.

Could you elaborate?

I see they are the same except for the part where Allies have an entire card type dedicated to them which are a prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom and also use a brand-new currency common to all of them to manage access to their benefits… at which point I think, if anything, Allies are closer to Events than Landmarks.

The "prerequisite for their inclusion in the kingdom" is a setup rule, and as I said the setup rules are different.

The rules for "Favor" (Favor tokens and the meaning of "+1 Favor") are given in the rulebook, and both Allies and Liaisons refer to Favors. So although all Allies use Favors, technically there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that refers to Favors is an Ally" or anything like that; just as there is no rule saying that "any landscape card that gives VP tokens during the game or VP at the end of the game is a Landmark". Functionally, Allies and Landmarks are landscape cards that don't have any specific rule associated with them (again, except for setup) except the rule that the abilities on them are available at all times for all players.

Events, on the other hand, also have the rule that their ability can be bought by spending a buy and paying the given cost, immediately triggering it.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

This is only true for those Allies for which you don't spend favors to activate. I think it's pretty clear that those Allies for which you have to trigger by spending a currency DO have an additional rule (i.e. you must spend favors to activate) compared to Landmarks or to those Allies which are not triggerable.

Lots of landmarks are triggerable... Arena, is optionally triggerable just like Allies; about half the others automatically trigger when you do certain things.

*Edit* You don't spent favors to activate an ally. Allies trigger automatically at certain times, and when they trigger they give you the option to spend 1 or more favors to get the effect. Compare the wording on Market Towns to Arena. They both trigger at the start of your buy phase; and they're worded exactly the same. The only difference is that one allows you to discard an action for a benefit, and the other allows you to spend a favor for a benefit.

[Joshua]

Have you ever considered starting your own youtube channel where you would share your thoughts on cards, strategies and combos players might not know,  more history about the origins of the cards or even play some online games? Or do you generally prefer people to figure strategies and combos on their own?