Alchemy Bytes #26: WHEATON!!

Following a suggestion passed over a game of Dominion in my local gaming store, I decided to give Tabletop a whirl. I have to say, well worth a look, and I don't think that I recommend it highly enough.

Previously I have always thought of Tom Vasel, and The Dice Tower as my go to place for gaming info on Youtube. To be fair to Tom, he does put out good quality material on a regular basis, and if I am looking into a game that I may want to add to my own shelf, I'll probably still go there.

That said though, having now been exposed to the Tabletop, I find The Dice Tower somewhat laking. Wil Wheaton is a great showman, and his guests really seem to be having a blast. He's genuinely passionate about gaming and, the banter around the table rings far truer than the comparatively dry and clinical style of Tom Vasel. Speaking for seasoned gamers, I think that we can all agree that when a session really gets going, that inner-child evident in those gathered around the Tabletop in the video above is what really comes out.

Dominion Defies Decryption

Fiendish Forces At Work And Play!

This is not a good thing! So with that in mind I will preface this post by saying that reading on may spoil your enjoyment of Dominion. If you want to live in blissful ignorance, stop reading now. If you want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, read on.


I mentioned in a recent post of my plans to created a home brewed deck-construction game based loosely upon Dominion but, with a Dungeon Keeper theme.

Initially I planned to simply "re-skin" a few Dominion cards that seemed to fit the theme of their Dungeon Keeper counterparts (for example I would have used the Torturer as the Mistress) to see how the idea would actually look on the table and play out within the limitations of the theme.

Before taking the plunge however, I figured that I would have a little dig into the mechanics behind Dominion to see what made it tick and, to give me some idea of the thought processes of the designer. You might say that I was planning to go method on this one.

That's when the problems began.

I was working from the assumption that if I looked deep enough, there would be some underlying mathematical relation between the cost of a card and the effects that it brings into play.

There isn't! At least not one that I could find.

There are patterns that can be found amongst certain groups of card that would lead you to think there is but, this soon falls through when you try to apply those constants to the make-up of another card.

As an example, I compared the Bazaar, the Market and, the Festival to try and find some relation between card costs, compared to the effects of the card. They were perfectly suited to the task as all three had a cost of 5 to bring into your deck and, between them, they shared all the major values that I needed and wanted to work out (Actions, Buys, Cards and, Coinage).

Through an algebraic process of elimination I was able to determine that when costing a card, Actions, Buys and Coinage shared a common value that I labeled 1, while a Card would cost you twice as much.

So, A=B=2C=$, where A=Actions, B=Buys, C=Cards and, $=Coinage.

This was at least true of these three cards but as soon as I tried to apply these rules to other cards such as Village, Laboratory and, Smithy, it soon fell through. So, as the rule couldn't be applied to any card it was no good at all.

Carrying on with my experimentation I have not been able to find any formula to tie it all up, which leads me to believe that there very well may not be one. This is both good news and bad news, with a sprinkling of interesting.

The good news, from my point of view at least is that I can completely scrap Dominion as a model for my project. I can take away the ideas sure but, I have no interest in designing a game that is unbalanced... Which brings me nicely on to the bad news.

I had thought Dominion to be a relatively well designed game but, now looking over my results and some of the more glaring mistakes that I had previously not given any thought to, I have to accept that this is not the case and, well, it's kinda ruined the game for me. Not in the sense that I will never play it again but, more that when I do, I won't feel like I am playing a fair game and fairness is very important to me at the gaming table. This lack of fairness though is to say the least a little intriguing.

Knowing what I know, I will now not only be able to build a better game myself but also some more interesting preset combinations for Dominion itself. I can search through the cards, find the cards that are balanced and put them together!

So, inversely as much as I have ruined my game, I have also taken it up a notch! You gotta love maths!!

Alchemy's Workbench #7: A Couple Of More Design Ideas

Whilst in recent times I have not had much time to work on the projects that I already have on the go, it certainly hasn't stopped me coming up with more. As it should be!

My two most recent musings both revolve around cards. One simple.. One not so.

My simplest idea is simply to maybe produce a Top Trumps deck or two. There are a lot of legitimate sets and clones already out there, covering nearly every subject that you can imagine but there are a few themes that I would like to explore, the Dungeon Master Champions for instance or, maybe something a little more imaginative. Any which way I do this though, I don't ever see this becoming a commercial or even independent release. Just something spun off the home printer but, it should still be fun none the less.

The second idea that I am toying with is a revamp and re-skin of Dominion with a Dungeon Keeper theme. Again, something that'll never be a commercial release (and never see the light of day beyond my close gaming friends because licensing would likely be a nightmare!) but should be fun to work on.

Initially I plan to simply swap the art on existing cards that best fit the feel of room or what have you from Dungeon Keeper before addressing the more tricky aspects of new mechanics and new victory conditions. All being well, what comes out the other end won't look any more like Dominion than any other game that uses deck construction as a mechanic. At least that's the plan.. Or as close to a plan as I have for the moment, considering I only dreamed the project up yesterday.

Then there is of course the fact that I already have more than enough on the go at once. Still, I would value any input on the matter. What do you all think?

Alchemy Bytes #20: Tuck In!

Whilst not the greatest problem ever faced by gamers, safe card storage seems to be one that comes up quite often. Especially with the advent of games like Dominion.

These games involve a LOT of shuffling, which in turn leads to a lot of wear and tear on the game.  You almost certainly have to sleeve up every card (which close to doubles the cost of the game to do it right), which then leaves you with the problem of trying to fit your game comfortably back into the plastic inlay. Believe me, it's not going to happen.

So now what you really need to do is invest in tuck boxes, yet another hidden cost but, one I can help you virtually eliminate! Okay, not me but, Craig P. Forbes has just the website for you.

He has designed a virtual template that allows you to print off as many custom tuck boxes as you need at only the cost of some decent card stock and the ink in your printer. Way cheaper than the shops and, if you're feeling artistic, you could always print a design on the back of the template to really capture the contents of the tuck box.

If you're tucking away Dominion: Seaside, why not print a Pirate Ship on the back? Using the template to create a tuck box for your latest Magic: The Gathering deck, why not throw in a mana symbol or, piece of fantasy art?

Play Report: Dominion - Intrigue

Life can be a balancing act at the best of times and, I sometimes think that the life of gamer is far more hectic than most, with the only folks that juggle more tasks we do being CEO's and parents.. And I'm really not sure about the CEO's.

So between my various projects, new games coming in, new games coming out, following blogs, writing a blog and, the various other gaming pots I have on the boil, I haven't got around to too much actual gaming of late. So when I got an invite in on a shop demo of Dominion and Dominion: Intrigue (that is, me demonstrating the game with a few other folks to the public at large) at my local friendly gaming store I jumped on the opportunity.

It was a chance to game and, writing it up would make for a great post. ;0).

Perfect.

All-in-all and, due to a late start, we managed to get three games in and boy was there ever contrast between them.

The first game was played with the base game and the base set-up that includes the Witch, which played a large part in the game. Of all of the players around the table, I was the only one not to invest in a Witch card, instead opting for Villages and Laboratories to play a my usual strategy of a fast cycling deck.

This did bite me more than once but luckily the one Chapel I took came around often enough to dump a lot of the Curses from my deck, so with my opponents going Witch heavy (cards which become far less useful once the Curse cards are depleted), I would say that "speed cycling" was definitely the way to go. I also picked up a lone Thief that I managed to bring to bare often with my build that I found to be quite useful.

The end result of the first game was a victory for me, which frankly I was surprised at but, hey, I'm not complaining. Mostly because I'd need to save all the moaning I could muster for the next match and, I wasn't alone.

The second game was a completely random draw from the base box and, honestly couldn't have been much worse!

The problem arose from having the Chapel in play as the only option that could be purchased for 2 but, no Witch. So it was pretty much useless. This was exacerbated by the fact that too many players went Thief heavy too quickly, leaving a couple of players (myself included) with only 4 Copper in our deck on more than one occasion.

The situation was best summed up by a friend at the table as being "A War of Attrition", and he couldn't have been more right. The game crawled along at best, with no player really making any headway. It sucked.

It sucked big time!

Thankfully though, our third game was a massive redemption. With one of our new players having just purchased a copy of Intrigue (how's that for the effectiveness of shop demos) and, wanting to break it open, we happily switched sets, giving me my first look inside the box.

Combining my initial impressions from the first game I have played of Intrigue with my experience as a Dominion player, I honestly have to say that given a choice between purchasing the two, I would take Intrigue any day of the week!

In fact, if I came to play the standard set after playing Intrigue I would be quite disappointed. That's the magnitude of the difference between the two sets.

It's hard to pin down but, I think what makes the difference is that Intrigue has a lot more going on. It is the first set that I have played that contains split victory cards. So, no longer do green cards simply block up your hand. Now they offer, Treasure, Actions and, the ability to draw more cards. Sometimes several of these!

Some of the cards included also offer greater strategic depth too, such as Ironworks. You can use it to take any card up to value 4 but, depending on the type of card you take, the Ironworks will have a different knock-on effect. For example, if you take a Treasure card, it gives you an additional 1 to spend on a buy this turn. Other options offer you additional cards or Actions and, considering that some of the cards out there now, like the Great Hall are both Actions and Victory cards, you can trigger multiple effects at once.

So, as you can see, there is a lot going on and, if you can buy only one copy of Dominion, I'd make it Intrigue.

Alchemy Bytes #8: Board Game Arena

One of the greatest resources I have found for the solo gamer in the past year has to be Board Game Arena.

I initially came across them not long after purchasing Race For The Galaxy. I had read through the rules and, I was pretty sure that I had understood them but I figured it doesn't hurt to check and, popped over to Board Game Geek to see if I had made any glaring errors, figuring that if anyone knew, they did.

When reading through the resources however, I came across a link to Board Game Arena, a site that I could apparently play the game on freely against real opponents. No way was I going to pass an invite like that up and, I am so glad that I didn't.

The site was 100% on the level. Not only hosting the game I had been looking for but also Dominion (which is another favorite of mine) and a load more Rio Grande games besides. Best of all, the site is 100% free to join and, free to play!

Definitely worth a look.

Dominion: Winning your first game.

A bit about Dominion 

Amongst all the card draft games on the market, i think it's safe to say that the popularity of Dominion is second to none.

Well designed, beautifully executed and, with a wide range of ways to play it manages to offer both the depth that experienced gamers often desire without excluding newcomers to the scene.

Chances are though that if you're reading this you're no stranger to the game but, you may be having one or two problems bringing home your first win. That's okay though. By the end of this post you'll be on the fast track to victory, no matter the card set nor the scenario.

What makes a good card?

Whilst luck and timing play their parts in Dominion, most games will be won by building a superior deck (unsurprisingly). But what makes a good card? This will vary slightly from game-to-game but generally there are a few golden rules that won't steer you far wrong.

1: Card draw.

Any card that allows you to draw more cards is generally going to be a good thing. Firstly this will give you a greater chance of pulling the coinage out of your deck, thus giving you more freedom over the cards that you can purchase. Card drawing also has the secondary effect of pulling victory cards into your hand.. Which means you won't be drawing them next turn. This becomes particularly important towards the end of a game when drawing a handful of victory cards may leave you unable to do a lot on your turn.

2: Extra actions.

What's better than playing one card that allows you to draw more cards on your turn? Playing two or three of them!

Extra actions are effectively extra turns and, there is nothing to stop you chaining enough of these together to cycle through your entire deck every turn if you've got the cards. The Village in the "First Game" setup is a prime example of this effect, replacing itself by allowing you to draw another card whilst allowing you to take two further actions, one of which could be another Village.

3: Multi-buy.

Last of the golden rules is that any card that gives you an extra buy is generally a good thing (provided that you don't use those buys to fill your deck with junk).  A common problem that arises when playing Dominion (at least from personal experience) is that of generating 7 coinage on a turn when a Province costs 8.

An extra buy however will let you pick up an Estate and a Duchy for 7, only falling one short of a Province in victory points. It's probably not a good idea to do this too often however as you'll soon find that picking up all of those extra Estate's will begin to clog up your deck.

Turning the golden rules into a strategy.

Following the golden rules above will help you weigh up the value of a card with relative ease but, for those that have been playing for a while, i've probably not really told you anything that you didn't already know.

Well all being well that'll change in the next few sentences when i introduce the concept with which i approach all games, the buy list.

Coming from a background in CCG's deck construction is virtually second nature, with one of the lessons that i learned early on being that a fancy card here or there rarely does the trick. A good deck needs to be consistent and focus on whatever it has been designed to do.

Now whilst the obvious goal in Dominion is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of play, the strategy you employ to get there can be as varied as the cards at your disposal. The good thing is though that no matter the strategy, you can always use a buy list!

So what is a buy list?

All cards in play have a cost and a buy list allows you plan your whole game out from the word go.

The first thing to do is to take the time to sit down, read each card and, then decide how you will play your game. For each value (say all the cards that cost 3 coinage), choose the card that best suits your strategy, whatever it may be.

If you need the extra coinage, it may be a piece of silver, if you need the extra actions and some card draw, it may be the Village. At any rate and however you'll play, choose one card in each value. This is your buy list and, it really is that simple.

Stick to this strategy (and indeed your strategy) and you won't go far wrong. Once you manage you've claimed your first few Province's you may want to switch your "5 buy" to Duchy's but, only if you're opponent has pulled a couple of Province's themselves. This is probably the only judgment call you'll have to make and, once you get that one down you'll be winning games left, right and, center.

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