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[Watno]

Casimir III, greatest of the Polish kings, came into power in 1333. He took a country in ruins, and brought prosperity to it, while doubling its size, in part by claiming the Duchy of Halicz. Since I am previewing Dominion cards though, that's all pretty irrelevant.

Guilds is the 8th Dominion expansion. Man. That's a bunch of expansions. People always ask about a 9th expansion, and I always say, well who knows, but there are good reasons for stopping. You can go read them in some other thread, I am busy previewing a card here, I will get to it any second now. Guilds itself only exists because I needed a small expansion to go in-between Hinterlands and Dark Ages. Base Cards ended up showing up there instead, but I'd already made Guilds, so why not release it.

Guilds has two main mechanics, as you can see in the terse sentences that accompany the flavor paragraph. One of them is coin tokens. And here today is a card that uses them.

The coin tokens are those metal things in Seaside and Prosperity. Guilds has cards that give you some, and then they're yours, they don't belong to some Pirates or anything. The significance of a coin token is, in your buy phase, before buying cards, you can cash in any number of coin tokens for +$1 each. That's it, that's all there is to know. They're money you can spend later. The turn you play Baker, you get a coin token; you can cash it in that turn, but you can also hold onto it.

Guilds is the most skill-based expansion, and coin tokens are a big part of that. There you are with $5 some turn; you could buy a card for $5, or maybe a cheaper one. There are a certain number of options. Coin tokens increase your options; with just one coin token, you can now consider cashing it in and getting a card for $6 instead.

Baker has another special twist, which is, it gives players a coin token at the start of the game. You only get one coin token then, not one per Baker in the pile, why is anyone even asking that. You get the coin token even though no-one has a Baker yet and possibly no-one will end up buying one. It's a free sample.

That starting coin token drastically shakes up the opening two turns. You can get a $3 and a $5 no matter what your starting draw is. If you got $2/$5, you also have the option of $2/$6; if you got $3/$4, you have the option of $4/$4. You can also save that coin token for later and live with your draw.

That's the preview, I'm here all week.

[Geronimoo]

Card text please for all of us who can't access bgg site from our work place.

[Gveoniz]

Baker -$5
+1 card
+1 action
Take a coin token.
---------------
setup: Each player takes a Coin token.

[Mr Anderson]

I love the introduction 

I guess this card has a really high effect on the opening Buys, you are guaranteed to be able to buy Witch/Mountebank/Whatever in the first turn (of course, only with Baker in the Setup). This changes much, but it balances these boards (the person with 5/2 does not win automatically). Otherwise, I like the concept of coin tokens, also an interesting way to avoid to have 7$ all the time. This card seems to be a nice peddler variant.

[DStu]

On play a pretty standard Peddler+ for $5, nevertheless interesting and probably also powerful.

The extra coin at start is probably game changing.

[Watno]

Coin tokens work exactly like I predicted. (well, except you can't spend them during your action phase).

The setup effect of this is pretty cool. And there we were thinking that Hinterlands messed with the opening turns.

I think the coin you get at the beginning will be very useful for opening 3/5, which will make for pretty awesome stuff. Could be pretty bad if one player gets to open 2/6 with Goons on the board though, but i think that's the only case where it increases swinginess. Also it will probably help emptying the supply on turn 3, especially if there's another opening modifying effect in this expansion.

The card itself didn't seem that strong to me on first sight, but then i realized it's not a nonterminal copper, but a cantrip copper. WTF that's better than Peddler (not strictly though, Black Market edge case here^^). And wasn't the consensus that that would be a $4 i f it wasn't to boring. Then I realized it doesn't cost $3 as I had thought at first, but $5. That's the right prize point I think. It's not that good then. a $5 peddler where you can save the coin for later. I think the really useful thing about those coin tokens is not that you stockpile them to save up for a big purchase, but rather that it works a bit like the putting back from courtyard (which actually makes it stronger than smithy in some cases). It allows you to distribute money better around turns. Instead of having $7 twice, you can have one $6 and one $8 turn.  I like this

[Emeric]

I love the introduction 

I guess this card has a really high effect on the opening Buys, you are guaranteed to be able to buy Witch/Mountebank/Whatever in the first turn (of course, only with Baker in the Setup). This changes much, but it balances these boards (the person with 5/2 does not win automatically). Otherwise, I like the concept of coin tokens, also an interesting way to avoid to have 7$ all the time. This card seems to be a nice peddler variant.

The person with 5/2 will open Goons + Hamlet (or other $2 village), and will win

[Jimmmmm]

I wonder how often you'll find yourself opening Baker.

[soulnet]

Could be pretty bad if one player gets to open 2/6 with Goons on the board though,

Opening Goons/Embargo can be pretty game wrapping.

[Watno]

Also the expansion sybol are compasses.. That's a bit surprising I think. I see scientists incoming, and probably an architect or Builder.

I don't think Baker will be a common opening. It's not a power card, and I don't think I'd spent my coin token for it. Chapel/Baker might be good though, allowing you to save up while trashing down.

[Jimmmmm]

Could be pretty bad if one player gets to open 2/6 with Goons on the board though,

Opening Goons/Embargo can be pretty game wrapping.

As in, this game is in the bag?

[Watno]

depends on the board.

[Jimmmmm]

I don't think Baker will be a common opening. It's not a power card, and I don't think I'd spent my coin token for it. Chapel/Baker might be good though, allowing you to save up while trashing down.

Yeah I think you're right. Just interesting that (edge cases aside) it's the first $5 card that you have guaranteed access to in the first two turns. I think people will buy it just for that reason.

[soulnet]

As in, this game is in the bag?

No, but getting the Goons early will make it difficult for the other player to get one, and if they are embargoed, it will make it more difficult to make a good engine around it so the advantage you make at the beginning will end up mattering more. I think Goons/Chapel may be even more important, because Chapel/Militia is already a pretty good opening.

[Jimmmmm]

Seems like it would combo nicely with Hermit/Madman.

[SCSN]

Baker/Chapel sounds very powerful indeed.

I'm also delighted that it's finally possible to open Adventurer!

[Watno]

I don't see the Hermit combo really

[shark_bait]

In itself, it seems like a rather weaker $5.  Compare to other similar $5 cost cards like Market, Bazaar, Treasury, etc.  How often would you actually want to save the coin token rather than spend it.  Even other cantrips seem more powerful and significant like Scheme or Caravan. 

Early game, you would almost always spend it as the power increase from $4 to $5 and $5 to $6 is too large to ignore.  I suppose late-game is where it would shine in evening out money for VP cards, but then again, if you've been using up your tokens early game, you may not have the most stored up in the vault (pun intended).

[Jimmmmm]

I'm also delighted that it's finally possible to open Adventurer!

Or Peddler.

[DStu]

I wonder how often you'll find yourself opening Baker.

I doubt it is a good opener.  At 5/3 with Baker/Silver, it's worth $21/11 the first shuffle, so that's even worse than Silver, and there are usually enough cards that are better than Silver for the first turn.  That it's non-terminal is not that much of a help for the first shuffle, because most interesting cards at $3 are non-terminal, too.  It will be stonger than Silver eventually (usually pretty fast), but the first shuffles are the important ones, and you usually have better options at $5.  I guess like Market/Lab/HuntingParty you are happier to pick it up in the second shuffle and have some terminal $5 for the first shuffle, which usually act  more instantly...

[jsh357]

Chapel/Baker sounds craaazy.  Get a big string of Bakers, gain like 5 tokens a turn, cash them all in with some megaturn (assuming you have Buys).  Love the setup rule.  Cool card.

[Jimmmmm]

In itself, it seems like a rather weaker $5.  Compare to other similar $5 cost cards like Market, Bazaar, Treasury, etc.  How often would you actually want to save the coin token rather than spend it.  Even other cantrips seem more powerful and significant like Scheme or Caravan. 

Early game, you would almost always spend it as the power increase from $4 to $5 and $5 to $6 is too large to ignore.  I suppose late-game is where it would shine in evening out money for VP cards, but then again, if you've been using up your tokens early game, you may not have the most stored up in the vault (pun intended).

I'd say you'd probably save it for a $3 instead of a $4 more often than not.

[RTT]

The nice thing about that card is that it will even effect the game if nobody buys it.

the setup rule is just spectacular

[Watno]

I don't think it's particularily good for mega-turns. I think it takes too long to set up.

[Watno]

I'm also quite confident that my Gypsy Camp will be in the expansion (+2 actions, + 1 coin token)