Some kingdoms are just better than others. Some kingdoms utilize more kingdom cards in interesting ways, use unusual card combinations, or have no obvious dominant strategy or straightforward path to victory. While judging the kingdom design challenge, several themes came up over and over again among the judges; what makes a kingdom interesting? What makes it balanced? Is it fun? Is it unusual? Is it replayable?
I thought I would share some of that discussion with you.
Interesting Engines
An engine that has everything it needs is less interesting than an engine that is lacking something. Some people go to great lengths to set up a kingdom that hands an engine on a platter including a plethora of + Card, + Action, and +Buy in addition to strong trashing and a payload of some sort. Those types of games are not as interesting as the engine using Expand for +Buy, or the engine with only Tactician for +Card, or the engine with no Village, or the engine with no trashing. Putting limitations on a kingdom enhances how a player thinks about and ultimately responds to a given kingdom. It forces them to think about the trade-offs and viability of the strategy and ultimately is a harder test of skill to pull off successfully.*
“Engine” versus a “Non-Engine” Strategy
It is difficult to match an action-heavy “engine” strategy against a treasure-heavy “money” strategy and end up with a balanced kingdom. There are several reasons for this.
Cards can be used in multiple capacities. Sometimes strong money cards are also strong engine cards. For instance, Counterfeit and Wharf are great cards for money decks and engine decks. It’s easy to forget that players will not go out of their way to bucket a kingdom into different strategies when evaluating a kingdom at the start of a game. They will evaluate all the cards to find the best strategy (if one’s there).
Often, alt VP cards can provide an alternate path to victory and a distinct, competing, balanced strategy. However, it is often the case that alt VP cards simply enhance the engine. Having more options to score often lets a mirroring engine player who falls behind keep building and go for the big finish at the end. This is especially true if the engine player who is ahead greens too early.
Players’ Skill
When talking about balance, it’s important to note that balance is CONDITIONAL UPON PLAYERS’ SKILL. If a kingdom is balanced for good players, the engine may win 70 percent - 30 percent among very good players but lose 20-80 among mediocre players. This mostly comes from the fact that money strategies are usually easier to play optimally than engine strategies. It’s important that the balance is right for the skill level of the players involved.
Building a kingdom that attempts to balance engine versus money is a good exercise in improving play of engines, too. Engine wins? Weaken it by swapping out some cards with weaker ones (e.g. Trade Route for Forager). Play the engine again. Try to make it win.
The Balancing Act
So, how should one balance an action-heavy strategy against a money-heavy strategy? Playtest! Playtesting engines, especially, makes it easier to gauge their speed and ability to control the endgame. Be sure to playtest without explaining your intentions. Let players find what they think is best. They may “mix” cards in ways you didn't intend. If the kingdom is unbalanced, swap out a card or two and play it again. If you are unsure, play it again. It’s a designed kingdom – if it’s interesting, it should be fun to play multiple times, right?
For complex kingdoms, even the best players have a hard time seeing exactly how some games will play without actually test driving them. One interesting outcome of our play testing sessions for the Kingdom Design Challenge was that when we sat down to put together a list of finalists, the judges’ favorite kingdoms tended to be ones they had personally playtested.
Using All of the Cards
To me there is nothing less fun in Dominion than robotically playing a Rebuild + X board. They come up more than enough in uniform random kingdom generation. When building kingdoms, take the opportunity to include cards that go well together that don’t play that often, encourage strategies that utilize lots of kingdom cards, or relate to some kind of theme. Try to use the cards to provide multiple paths to victory (taking the above points into consideration when doing so).
However, there is a problem with trying to make use of all the kingdom cards: It often creates a scenario where the designer has put the players “on rails”. This often happens when a power card is clearly the focus of the kingdom (e.g. Goons). Power cards are power cards because they dominate the kingdom. If all 10 cards are useful, it might be because they all support an obvious-to-build Goons engine. Sometimes build order is interesting, and sometimes building big engines where you can’t go wrong with any buy can be fun; however, it can be a negative for the kingdom, especially for top players.
A corollary of this is that dead cards can make a kingdom interesting. If there are two distinct, balanced strategies that each potentially makes use of 3 cards each, then that’s an interesting 6 card kingdom. Don’t ruin it by adding cards that beef up one strategy at the expense of the other. Having “two strategies” with one strategy obviously dominated is not very interesting. They may as well be random dead cards. The best kinds of dead cards are “temptations”. These are cards that related to a strategy, and tempt you to go for them, but their inclusion would actually make the strategy worse off. Or maybe they are obviously dead cards, but fit the theme of the kingdom, so it’s fun to see them on the board anyway.
There is a tension here: why design when a lot of cards are going to be unused, anyway, unless you just want to try out a particular combo? I prefer when I can see a potential use for all the kingdom cards, or at least a temptation to use them. But I can also see the argument that when there are balanced, competing strategies of a few cards each, to just leave it at that.
Two Players, Three Players, or More?
Strategies can be balanced for different numbers of players. This is particularly true when there is an engine that requires a lot of cards.
Suppose you see this 5 card kingdom: Village, Bridge, Jack of All Trades, Junk Dealer, Tactician.
Double Jack is a powerful money strategy and Junk Dealer can help here, too. But Tactician, Village, Bridge, Junk Dealer is a more powerful engine with very high end game control. Uncontested, a player can build until he can empty the remaining Provinces and enough Duchies to win on one mega-turn. So, Jack alone is tempting, but going for the Bridge mega-turn dominates.
If there is one best strategy, anticipate a mirror. In the mirror, HOW you play will change; what strategy you play should NOT change. This is why engine mirrors in two player games can take more turns to play out then big money games. If the engine is best, an engine player will defeat the big money player. If both players go engine, then the players are competing for the same pieces and three piling becomes a concern preventing players from picking up all the pieces they need. That can slow the decks down a lot; however, it’s not better to deviate and play big money because the player that gets uncontested access to the engine pieces will win outright.
Suppose the 5 card kingdom above was a three player game and players 1 and 2 go for the bridge mega-turn strategy. What’s the third player going to do? Mirror and make the engine even worse? Or go for an alternate strategy, like Double Jack? In this example, Double Jack can give the contested engine a run for its money. Maybe all three players will go Jack-Village-Bridge-Junk Dealer and ignore Tactician, or use all 5 cards. Whatever happens, it seems interesting to me! (As an aside, I think randomly drawn kingdoms are better balanced for three and four player games, because Donald did more testing with 3 and 4 players rather than 2.) Having dead cards or live cards change depending on who plays can make a kingdom interesting.
One Last Thought
Engine versus money, competing strategies, build order decisions, using all of the cards, tactical tricks, tricky endgames, multiplayer dynamics. All these things make a kingdom interesting. But the biggest tip-off that I’ve found that signals a kingdom will be interesting is when I look at the board and say, “I have NO IDEA what to do!” Then I know it’s going to be a great game!
* Edit: added shark_bait's interesting engine comments to the start of article.
