Top 10 (+1) Dominion Expansions
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Help Rahdo Run: / rahdo ❤️ Code of conduct: conduct.rahdo.com 🙂 And now...
A video counting down my favourite Dominion expansions. Spoilers below...
Website used for images: wiki.dominionstrategy.com
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11. Prosperity
10. Hinterlands
09. Seaside
08. Empires
07. Intrigue
06. Adventures
05. Dark Ages
04. Alchemy
03. Renaissance
02. Nocturne
01. Cornucopia + Guilds
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I'm one of the few that finds that Dominion has a strong theme. Every card and set makes sense if you live inside of a fantasy world. There can be witches and Vampires and pirate ships on whatever kingdom. Why are you stuck indire of some european fantasy? Every game you play is a fantasy kingdom with its own world. The cards do not represent the actions of a person, but the growth of a kingdom. You might have multiple cities and towns in a kingdom, and you may have more then one province, etc. I can create a story line for every game I play.
Oh, and I mix everything in. I never seperate my expansions, i like it as random as possible. I also put my cards in cheap sleaves that can hold all 10 of them and grab them out of the box at random. I have one tray for picking new packs, and a box to discard old pack. So that way, i never play the same cards twice until I went through the whole collection.
Just played my first game of Dominion on Saturday, I know, late to the party, but we all loved it. And now I want all of the expansions for it :-)
I really appreciate the honest reviews and unique perspective. And also the passion you have for the story and themes in the game. That is something that is often overlooked and under-appreciated. I really enjoyed the video!
4:44 - I'm glad he didn't talk about the base game of pandemic
Actually came to make this comment. Glad someone else did as well!
You’d be really fun to have at a game night. I couldn’t believe when you said you had only played D 50-100 times, as you’ve got your head around the game better than I have in many times as many games.
I don’t play anything purely for the competition, but rather, to expand both my mind as well as anyone who will play. Your video has done that too. Thanks for sharing!
"Dominion can tell a story, if you are willing to listen to it." (29:30) "I love the thematic consequences of mixing and matching [different expansions]." (42:37) Never really thought about Dominion as a thematic game, but Rhado brings up some great points in this regard.
I have taken a break from getting more expansions as I already have the first six, plus Cornucopia but now I'm a little inspired to pick up another one. Perhaps Nocturne. Thanks Rahdo.
Just starting Dominion and table top games in general. Great video! Subscribed.
It's pretty funny when @13:44 you say you wish Hinterlands had introduced mechanics that showed you had to travel and the card Highway is right next to your face.
Well at least you aren’t going to talk about the base game of pandemic today haha
I caught that too!
@@dallasuphold1745 so did i, eventually! :)
When I heard this error, i thought: the first comment is probably about this and look :D
Didnt knew about pandemic game, so these days this looked to me a paragnostic view:) Game of Pandemic Today o.0
@@rahdo don't know how to tag you in my comment but I left a comment directed at you
I've waited forever for this video.
Thanks heaps Rahdo - great list, going to have to give Dominion a go! And thanks to you I'm trying to save up for Aeon's End as well lol. Wish you were into Marvel Legendary as much as you are into Dominion. Man the later sets drops the competitive aspect of the base game that no one ever payed attention to and added absolutely amazing mechanics.
Thanks for the review! Still very relevant in 2021
Great list! I don’t have Nocturne, Alchemy or Renaissance yet, but I’m a tempted now. :) Still, we have sooo much still to explore with what we had already, and we always enjoy the game!
Thematic aspects can feel personal because sometimes a card connects with you and sometimes it does not.
For me the biggest reasons for my preferences are mechanics and card design. I think Nocturne almost feels too thematic in a way that does not generally exist or is expected from dominion and there is not the broader content to back it up. It ends up creating a disconnect. IN MODERATION - fantastic cards but an expansion i prefer to play online due to the fiddle.
I think mechanically Empires is top - Landmarks just add so much replayability and variety without reducing accessibility. It is no longer who knows how to play a combo best but who can adapt to what the current goals are best whilst still playing well. Then Debt is interesting, castles are interesting and more events is great
Dark Ages I think is awesome and is similarly high with Rahdo - I think it is such a great balance between theme, accessibility and interesting cards.
Its hard to compare the mini / smaller expansions - Guilds and Cornucopia are very solid although Cornucopia games tend to be "tournament" games as people play that mini game rather than anything else. One or two of the cards are a bit busted too. Guilds is very decent but feels unessential. I like Alchemy but it is an expansion I want to play maybe with 1 in 5 or so times I play.
Rennaisance gets knocks for somehow making the game feel too easy. I know that sounds strange as its equal but villagers and coffers kind of smooth things out too much. The buyable abilities are a fun element and its overall an excellent expansion.
I agree on Prosperity - makes the game longer, focuses on busted combos which can leave one player waiting around for ages and steers players to game breaking style combos rather than just getting vps.
Adventures is much better if you forget about Empires - events are fantastic but there is quite a bit of fiddle with some events and some other cards - Empires did it better and in a more accessible way but the fiddle and complexity are worth it here - fantastic stuff.
43:20, you forgot the action step 😂. Hilarious.
This is a very good video, dude! 👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏
I really enjoyed it and oriented my purchases on it.
you're the first person i saw being so excited about possession ^^ prosperity is #1 for me (i just know base - adventures)
Side note about Guilds and Cornucopia being smaller expansions: in the Steam/mobile app's free deck rotation, Guilds was paired with Renaissance (due to Coffers) and Cornucopia with Dark Ages... and for whatever reason, Alchemy with Seaside.
I also love the theme in Dominion and always imagine my kingdom growing with the cards I get. Don’t care fore Prosperity for exactly the same reason. I love Seaside though with it’s treasure maps and pirate ships! But! When I play Seaside I play mostly seaside cards to make it thematic and I always try to pick cards from boxes that kind of work thematically together. It just gotta feel right!
So much food for thought in this video. I really enjoyed it. I agree that Dominion is wonderfully thematic, but I also enjoy the inclusion of variety in its settings. I’d definitely love to hear your response to a couple questions:
1. Has the setting been established specifically as French aristocracy? (That’s the first I’ve heard that.)
2. Why do the changes of Place bother you but you embrace the changes of Time and even aspects of fantasy? It’s easy to imagine medieval European monarchs extending their dominion to foreign lands, but it would be impossible for them to visit alternate times or realities.
I love your idea of picking two or three expansions to include at a time, but that seems to lend itself nicely to the idea of playing in unique worlds/settings each time, rather than feeling limited to France or even medieval Europe all the time.
On a side note, I think I’ll introduce your idea of thematic storytelling as we take our turns the next time we play. Sounds fun!
1) wow, you're right, it's never been established to specifically be set in France. I think i just got its setting mixed up in my head with Castles of Burgundy, since they both very much feel like they're set in the same world. obviously, it is set up in a feudal, pre-industrial europe, but it doesn't have to be france necessarily. good point! :)
2) well i don't embrace the changes of time... empires including era of antiquities stuff into what is clearly a feudal medieval/renaissance era european monarchy game makes zero sense, which is why i ranked it lower. but the game has always included magic... in the base game there are witches that cast literal curses. so leaning more into the european mythos with vampires and golems and whatnot in later editions didn't bother me at all and seems completely consistent. the game has clearly always been set in a europe where the myths are real... for most of the time we've spent in this world, only occasional supernatural things (like ghost ships) showed up, but that doesn't mean that there aren't darker places in the world, where magic is more prevalent. i think i mentioned in this video that if i'm playing nocturne, i just imagine i'm not in france, but in transylvania :)
so my issue is always with cards that suddenly stick out like a sore thumb... like if i was playing agricola, and suddenly there was a marakesh spice market minor improvement card. i don't think anyone would argue that would be crazy out of place, but in dominion everyone ignore the incongruity.
if i'm going to ONLY play with seaside, then i think things are mostly fine... i just imagine that i'm literally in a new world colony (although there are issues there... pearl divers seems more indonesian, pirate ships feel more caribbean, etc.)
none of these issues make any of the expansions poor, they were just a way that i could rank things... i enjoy a thing more if its thematically consistent. it doesn't have to be so for me to enjoy it, but i likely enjoy it a bit less :)
great comparison, I am a big fan of D. from Poland, we have only 6 boxes on the market in PL, I agree with your opinion in Concuropia !
Feel like everything is about the theme, not the Mechanics,, lol
Just got the base game, and am thoroughly enjoying that experience.
It’ll probably be a little while until I buy my first expansion, but I came here for ideas.
Theme. That’s an interesting point I really didn’t consider. If the expansion gets so whacked off topic, say I’m playing on the surface of Tatooine with my drone buddies…
Yeah. That’s going to be a distraction to my experience. You bring up a valid point. At some level, the game needs to be cohesive.
Good video. 👍
Good overview of the various expansions, very helpful to decide which one to buy next. I do think that its a bit strange that you seem to be hung up on the "french aristocrat" these from the first set. Dominion never vlaimed to be strictly set in midevil france. Its a game about kingdoms and monarchies, not a game about one particular setting. So kingdoms in the middle east, or asia, or ancient rome aren't "off theme", they're simply expansions that explore kingdoms in other parts of the world in addition to the setting from the base set.
yes!!! theme!! Rahdo gets it!!
Fully agree on your Prosperty feelings, don't like that one also. I always get into the mode just buy any card that I don't need but I have much money to use. After some time deck is full of cards destroying my initial strategy.
To me I think it would be:
1- Nocturne
2- Empires
3- Adventures
4- Prosperity
5- Menagerie
6- Dark Ages
7- Renaissance
8- Seaside
9- Intrigue
10- Allies
11- Alchemy
12- Hinterlands
13- Cornucopia
14- Guilds
Let's see where Plunder fits in?
Yeah, I don't really play Dominion for the theme. I ranked the expansions this way. First, I counted all the cards I LOVE to put in my decks and then counted the cards that I think are useless duds (ignoring everything in the middle). I placed more importance on the cards I love rather than the duds and I also considered the new ideas that the set contained.
Here's the list:
#1 Prosperity 11+ 6-
#2 Intrigue 7+ 1-
#3 Adventures 8+ 3-
#4 Dark Ages 8+ 5-
#5 Seaside 6+ 5-
#6 Renaissance 4+ 0-
#7 Cornucopia & Guilds 6+ 4-
#8 Empires 6+ 8-
#9 Hinterlands 5+ 7-
I don't have Alchemy, Nocturne or Menagerie.
This is a pretty good review, but I kinda wish you’d talk more about the pros and cons of gameplay rather than theme, since some people are more interested in that aspect, but you did a good job.
Wow those are some controversial picks 😅
i yam what i yam :)
This is a great list, thanks for offering your opinions on all of them! Just seeing the card list for Nocturne gets me excited and I might just have to pick it up for Halloween!
Where do Menagerie & Allies rank in your updated list?
I haven't played Prosperity but the interesting thing you mentioned about it is the surplus of resources, generosity, and lack of obstacles/suffering. I think that perfectly matches the theme of Prosperity; thriving, excess, and opulence. Based on your metrics for theming, shouldn't this be ranked higher?
haven't played allies yet. i talked about menagerie here: th-cam.com/video/qvXlyC3OIR4/w-d-xo.html :)
@Rahdo - love your storage solution, what did you use for the sectioning inside the dominion big boxes for the individual rows once you tossed the insert(s)?
surpsingly, nothing! just keeping them all in the individual sleeves keeps them from shuffling sideways into teach other. you'll note i do have a couple of foam blocks to keep each row "full" though. i thought i would need something more to seperate them, but it seems fine as is :)
Love this way to store card games, same way i store Netrunner collection
The card sleeve storage solution is genius.
Rahdo I think they should hire you to write Dominion flavor text to go on the cards ;)
Hay Rahdo what card sleeve are those?
just some no-name ones i bought over a decade ago for magic cards. they're a bit larger than most sleeves i've seen over the years :)
* Pausing at 23:57 min *
I own six expansions. I've watched 11 through 6, and apparently I own at most 1 in the top 5 (Dark Ages if not omitted)... That's great, it means I have a lot left of good Dominion content to discover!
Pausing again 3 minutes later. There goes Dark Ages... So my six expansions are all out of the top 4. And I thought I chose well :) Now let's hear some fireworks about the remaining 4..
@@borreholic7238 that's quite a rollercoaster of emotion you took us on! :)
5:36 Honestly, you didn't lose me. You made a fan.
Prosperity has always been my least favorite Dominion expansion. So many of the cards are improperly balanced compared to the rest of all sets, and the super simplistic idea of "purge til pure free-victory engine exists" is really not enjoyable to do or play against. I won't use the set with my local friend groups.
glad to know i'm not alone! :)
I found this guide very helpful, I just wanted to point out it was really funny when you accidentally said pandemic in 4:49 end I was confused on what I have just watched for the past 5 minutes
This may be a better podcast topic, but if you were advising someone new to Dominion, what order would you recommend they consume the expansions?
what i'd actually do is refer them to this excellent thread from the designer of dominion giving all sort of recommendations for which expansions to go for if you're looking for X or Y or Z experiences :)
boardgamegeek.com/thread/2153312/donald-xs-guide-12-dominion-expansions
For me right now it's:
1. Empires
2. Renaissance
3. Seaside
4. Prosperity
5. Guilds & Cornucopia
6. Intrigue
Haven't played the others enough to give a fair ranking.
I couldn't help bit notice that you're using Thunderstone box bottoms. Hahaha. Definitely a unique storage solution!
And you just mentioned it in the viedo... hahah
@@sleepyazn15 yup, it turns out though i don't need them for the divider (as shown in the big box)
There's an interesting art aspect to Dark Ages as well. The Overgrown Estate is based on the newer Estate that was printed with the new edition of the base game. Several of the Ruins do the same sort of thing. I don't have my copy easily to hand, but I think the Market-type Ruin is a reference to the Grand Market :)
oh that's cool, i had no idea! :)
Alright, so I went and looked at it again:
Overgrown Estate art is the same as the new Estate art, but from a different angle.
Ruined Library is the Library in ruins.
Ruined Market is Grand Market in ruins.
Ruined Village is Walled Village in ruins.
Abandoned Mine is Mine in ruins.
and people say there's no theme in dominion!!! :)
@@gulgothica And what's further cool about this is that the Walled Village is a promo card. That's one of the promos I do like to include (along with Envoy & Governor), but others I could probably take or leave, though I'll still probably get for completion.
Rahdo, have you played Menagerie? If so, where does it rank in this list?
i covered it in the most recent roundup video: th-cam.com/video/809N0-hVaP8/w-d-xo.html :)
What size card sleeve holds 10 of these cards?
i'm using 66x91 sleeves and it's a tiny big snug but totally fine :)
4:40 Thank god that you didn't talk about all the cards in Pandemic 😂😂😂
I'm going to agree with Lavoye here. Everyone thinks of the thematics of the game differently. When I think of Dominion, I think of a whole different kingdom every game with its own people and cultures within, whether it is cosmopolitan or monothematic. Regardless of which way you like to play the game, I think it's pretty fun either way. Sometimes I'll build a kingdom and name it something new, even if I'm meshing 2-4 expansions together. 😉👍🏻
This really should have been labeled the top 10 thematic Dominion expansions. I prefer to rank mine by what they add to the mechanics and challenge of the game. I like all of the Dominion expansions but this was an interesting way to rank them.
theme only played into the standing of 3 of the 11 :)
@@rahdo Not sure about that. I thought the bottom couple were put there because they didn't match the theme of the base and a couple at the top were there because they did fit the French Aristocrat theme.
rickert566 yup, empires, hinterlands and seaside i ranked lower because of the thematic dissonance. those are the 3 i meant :)
@@rahdo So you didn't rank any of the higher ones because they fit with the French aristocrat theme? My memory must be faulty.
@@rickert566 yup, i only knocked things down because of dissonance. i didn't have any climb up becuase of consistency :)
To make Seaside more compatible with your thematic approach, why not to pretend that you decided to build your power by engaging in exploration of the New World and colonization, assuming Dominion is set in Renaissance Era Europe. That would explain all the Islands and Pirates.
that's pretty much the assumption one has to make, and it's "okay", but when you mix sets, it starts feeling wierd. if you play solely with cards from one set, then the feel is coherent, but i always mix 2 or 3 :)
Rahdo, love your content bud, you're my number one board game reviewer, slash tutorial guy. But I think you may be looking at it wrong. So let's think of it this way, in base game you're trying to capture as much local territory as you can, but for these far away lands expansions we can safely assume that you have the majority of france/England territory and that its no longer about these small stakes of land but rather you're now taking huge chunks of lands and when you're taking huge chunks of land that you're essentially taking risk style countries or that thats where your borders lie, you've conquered your home lands and you're at your borders edge which might be near sea or near the silk road. I dont know just my thoughts
yup, if i imagine i'm a abstracted enterprise it holds together better in some expansions, but 1) that's less fun to imagine and 2) an enterprise can't ride a horse in menagerie :)
good job explaining, but why you prioritize “theme” so much, rather than game mechanics, balance and less randomness?
i prioritize all of these things :)
The title in Hinterlands itself hints to countries far away. I guess.
Love this vid. But, I have a counterpoint about your Knight predicament.
Think of it this way. You get the services of a knight. They have a name, they are a real person. And they are helping your kingdom prosper. But... your rivals, they are being defeated by the exploits of your knights. So what do they do? They hire their own knights. Now, you have two gallant people, who are forced to meet on the battlefield in order to ensure their Kingdom succeeds. I think it's so interesting as a concept. The idea that if one person gets a knight, other kingdoms basically need to respond in kind to defend themselves!
It is super thematic and interesting. I love Knight cards. I love the story they tell.
i do agree that it's another great example of how thematic dominion can be! :)
Interesting. For me (and my family) theme isnt that important, but interactivity, so alot of attack and reaction cards is a goos thing imo. When we first played Dominion we instantly saw the potential, because we love build up games like Catan, but were a bit dissapointed that you couldnt really influence the others. Sure, there was the witch and the militia, but you soon realize that buying gold is simply the way to go and so we only did that and everyone played for themselves. When we got the first expansion, we made a point about focussing on interactivity, which is why our next decks had cards like torturer, trickster and masquerade. Especially trickster and masquerade are great in this regard, because they are a double edged sword. They do not only limit your deck, but they can give your enemies good cards or yourself bad cards. This is alot more interesting than just "let them have 3 cards less next turn" and not interactive.
What sleeves do you use to store the cards like that? 10 sleeved cards in another sleeve?
they're old sleeves i've had forever. no idea who makes them... they're fairly cheap. i just measured one and they look like 70mm x 94mm :)
maybe 69mm x 94... hard to say for sure, my old eyes aren't as good as they used to be
Thanks so much! Definitely appreciate you and for checking that for me! Be well!
I respect the prosperity take so much. Personally I’m not a massive fan of it relative to other expansions either. The games are just super long with the epic turns & I feel like I see the same strats every game.
i'm glad i'm not alone!!! :)
Could you give a top 10 of your best deckbuilder and solo deckbuilder? :)
well i don't play enough solo to say. i did a top10 deckbuilders a few years ago: th-cam.com/video/vN0o2BcPDCU/w-d-xo.html
if i were to update that video today, ausonia would definitely make the list (and it's great solo). lost ruins of arnack and endless winter too (but those are deckbuilder+other stuff).
In Dominion, there are two types of expansions : the good expansions and the very good expansions. Thanks to Donald X Vaccarino for this excellent game... Thanks for the video. The theme of diversity in Cornucopia is great. Tokens in Guild or Renaissance too. I like when the games change at turn 1 with heirlooms in Nocturne and shelters in Dark Ages... Landmarks in Empires... un bonjour du nord de la France.
Very helpful. If you only had a budget to own one of the following options below and no other Dominions which would you choose?
P.S. I sold my first edition Dominion thinking I'd get second edition someday, or an even better deck builder, but it's the best. I'll bring it back now.
A: Dominion 2nd Edition + Alchemy
B: Dominion 2nd Edition + Renaissance
C: Base cards pack + Intrigue + Alchemy
D: Base cards pack + Intrigue + Renaissance
E: Base cards pack + Renaissance + Alchemy
F: Base cards pack + Guilds & Cornucopia + Alchemy
well, 1) don't forget, most people view alchemy as the worst expansion. I strongly disagree, but that's worth rembering. Just about anyone beside me would suggest Dominion + Prosperity, but i mentioned in the video why i don't think pros is as awesome as everyone else says (it's still great though). of your choices, i'd probably go with D or F :)
but remember, there's a new expansion coming this year: Menagerie, which introduces lots of different animals...
Thank you :) The easy going money overflowing nature of Prosperity doesn't sound like an appealing challenge to me. Alchemy sounds like you have to work for it, which does sound good. You're right, those animals could be amazing. That now creates G and H :) G: Base cards + Intrigue + wait for Menagerie, or H: Base cards + Renaissance + wait for Menagerie.
I went for H, thanks again for the help.
@@rahdo We played Renaissance a couple of times (with the base cards set) and it's amazing. I'd rate it a 9.4. Dominion is in my top 10 now, it's so much better than the standard Dominion. Thanks :) I'll wait for your Menagerie runthrough before I decide to add Menagerie or Intrigue.
How dare you do prosperity dirty like that. ;)
I always felt like a weirdo for getting into the thematic elements of Dominion, but I actually like expansions like seaside and prosperity that broaden the scope of the theming more because in my mind it only diversifies and expands the kinds of stories the game is telling with the various associations I can make through, a pirate ship or caravan. I don't consider victory cards as owned land always. Sometimes it could be placed visited. Or if the land is owned you have port cities that have dl foreign visitors and fast reaching implications in the global economy. And like overall I just imagine these things happening inside your dominion, whether or not you have a direct hand in making it happen. Kind of like the world has its own personality. A fairly vanilla set with a random witch? Why are you playing off that witch? The sole presence of a supernatural card suggests something nefarious, but paired with a Vampire and ghost suggests the world is full of magic and might just be the way things are.
I actually think thematically speaking prosperity does theme well in a way that is alike (but in reverse) to dark ages. Whereas dark ages the economy is poor even for the nobility prosperity poses the situation of an economy where everyone is doing great, buying bigger things, and trashing/donating higher cost cards can reap even higher rewards. I can see how it’s not for everyone and like dark ages I wouldn’t introduce it to new players but I do think it was well thought out thematically.
oh a agree its very thematically solid! :)
Empires was not the first expansion with Events: Adventure did. Empires came out with Landmarks for the first time (which are awesome).
Rahdo, I feel like you're trolling us, it you're just cray cray
i don't deny i might be a bit cray
My most thematic moment in any board game is trashing the Peddler with the Bishop :D
LOVE IT! and this makes my point perfectly as well :)
Are you visiting Spiel this year? :)
nope, 'fraid not :(
@@rahdo :(
Well, hopefully next year. :)
Oof I just read another review that was basically his list but with cornucopia/guilds in last place
When the theme is more important than gameplay:
Isn't possession an attack card you shouldn't like?
i wouldn't really look at it as an attack. it's more that i simply get to take a 2nd turn, with your cards. it's not like i can trash your stuff or anything :)
I dunno, I see dominion as a vaguely european fantasy world and in that sense Hinterlands doesn't feel out of place to me since dominion doesn't actually represent a specific place in reality.
Like, alchemy doesn't exist in reality soooo
Hinterlands just got a 2nd Edition that nixed all the cards you chose to highlight 😆
how weird!
@@rahdo and as usual, Donald X. V. had humorous notes on how poor those turned out, and how his new slew of replacements are more mechanically desirable and consistent.
A lot of Reaction-types, as well as "when you trash or discard this" (in addition to "when you gain").
I see your seaside complaint about islands and such and raise you a French Guiana.
Am I the only one that finds this storage solution irksome? I'm glad it works for him, but I can't imagine doing it like that. 1. All my cards are sleeved. 2. I alphabetized mine so I can always find any given card, which means I don't have them sorted by expansion. 3. Just rubber banding the Lands and treasures seems like a pain... I DO use randomizer cards so this makes more sense if you ditch them, but I don't understand why limiting just 2 or 3 expansions at a time.
yeah, if i was using those randomizers of course i'd need everything alphabetized, but to me that's just an extra step... easier to just randomly choose stuff from the box, rather than shuffling randomizers and go find the cards. same randomness, but twice the setup time :)
I do appreciate the reduced set up time with that set up. I don't love having to search for 10 certain cards each game, even if they are alphabetized. But I DO like picking and choosing sometimes for set up. Does a kingdom need a trasher? More buys? It's easier to tailor the experience with them that way
Some thematic comments are really picky. French corsairs increasing your wealth as a French aristocrat? What could be more thematic? For me, you're not a person, you have a lot of people working for you, opening trading/colonial places all over the world. Works perfectly fine thematically.
yup, if you think of yourself more as an enterprise instead of a person, the scope certainly gets wider :)
@@rahdo I wouldn't expect an actual aristocrat to do that many things in person... rather his people doing it. :) I guess the only thematic issue is Dark Ages... It would seem this could be something like Legendary does - a separate standalone set, mixable with the rest. Yet, it is just an expansion...
@@mikolajwitkowski8093 menagerie is a lot less fun if i'm not imagining myself riding around on that horse :)
@@rahdo It seems horse riding would be the one activity that they could do in person. :) On another note - I just got my first copy of Dominion and first expansion, after playing dozens of other deckbuilders I find it really fresh and your video is a great guide as to where to go next. :)
i lost interest in dominion and sold my copy after we played seaside and i coulnd't stand it^^
also, it always seemed to me like you should be doing/building towards something more interesting than...just buying cards that give you points. you build your deck, you look for combos...and then you do nothing with it. i would like to get points another way, i think that would be cool.
that always felt unsatisfying to me, and is the reason why i switched to dale of merchants.
did you ever feel this way while playing dominion?
after that i never kept track of the expansions as they came out, but watching this video i see that they have added a lot of neat ideas over the years. and now i think i would like to play it again and try some of this 'new' stuff :-D
from your explanations, adventures, renaissance and cornucopia seem like they would fix a lot of problems i had with the base game.
but, the ultimate goal is still to buy point cards, so i dont know if that feeling would still be there anyway.
i know it's silly to ask you if you've never had this feeling, but any thoughts you might have would be much appreciated :-)
thank you for the video, i enjoyed every minute of it, and you're picks make total sense. having heard your thoughts on all of them, prosperity feels bland in comparison.
anyway, thanks again!
my love for dominion has never wavered, but that's in large part because it keeps reinventing itself with new mechanisms :)
@steveweber You should look at the Empires expansion if you're looking for other ways to score points. That introduced Landmarks which give extra VP in different ways - sometimes through VP tokens laid out or through another end-game condition. And a couple are even negative VP, which definitely changes your strategy when there's a constraint in play. And the Castles in that set are just a hoot.
@@jonathanhowe42
really? that would be perfect!
is empires the only expansion that does this?
since this video i have gotten the base game again and the mix box with alchemists and cornucopia, looks like empires might be next on the list^^
thank you for the tip! :-)
@@steveweber7142 Yes, so far that appears to be the case, but like the duration appearing again, perhaps more of these will also make a showing in a future expansion. I've become interested in playing more again since getting the app for my phone, but need to break out the real thing again soon. You're welcome! Glad I could help.
@@jonathanhowe42
nice, thanks again :)
Rahdo: Many of these expansion are low on the list because of their thematic doesn't feel cohesive to me.
Also Rahdo: My 2nd on the list is the expansion with Vampire, Werewolf, and Necromancer in it.
to me, it feels more thematic that a european aristocrat would have interactions with a vampire than a Caribbean pearl diver :)
Just teasing :D Thanks for the review.
@@rahdo i was about to ask what about if the european aristocrat is from Spain in the 16th century, since Spain had colonies in the caribbean, but then i remember that france also had colonies in some caribbean islands.
So I guess is historically accurate beign a french aristocrat from the 16th century dealing with caribbean pirates and a pearl divers, you just don't think that's thematic for some reason i don't understand.
@@naegling correct, it feels very disjointed to me because i envision myself as an actual character in this world going to places and interacting with things and people. i actually hide behind the moat, or talk to the moneylender or hire the blacksmith. so with that thematic framing in my mind, it doesn't make sense to do all of these "local" things, but then also find myself hanging out with a pearl diver in the carribean. how did i get there so fast? how am i getting back home so fast?
if i were imagining myself as some sort of broad business enterprise that has world wide dealings with all sorts, then that makes more sense, but business enterprises don't literally ride around on horses like in menagerie :)
What do you think about the 13th expantion: menagerie
talked about it here: th-cam.com/video/809N0-hVaP8/w-d-xo.html
Yeah your order is pretty much backwards. Seaside and Prosperity are my favorites along with Empires and Dark Ages.
I find it funny how thematic storytelling is your big attractor in these games, but then you dislike the Knights in the Dark Ages... one, it's the Dark Ages, and the Knights are clearly not as chivalrous as their titles, but two, if one Knight accidentally kills another, then why does the first one have to die? Code of honor, guilt of shame, or was the other his/her equal in combat and took the first one down with them?
I like that you are sticking to you guns that Dominion is thematic. I personally dont rate it the highest in terms of thematic games, but its definitely not the themeless game people make it out to be.
Best Dominion expansion ist a stand alone expansion called "Aeon's End".
For sure, you could sell sand to an Arab. One of your best lists that I've heard.
Hello, Mr. Ham. Can you confirm if this guy named John Chacon th-cam.com/video/Um5UT2NKhi0/w-d-xo.html IS the same voice-over actor who voiced Gabriel Logan in Syphon Filter series? I'll be very grateful for confirmation.
i never met john (wasn't present for the voice sessions on syphon). john garvin would know though, you can find him on twitter i think :)
@@rahdo Thanks! I'll give a try.
@@rahdo by the way, maybe you know: why Gabe's face was so heavy redesigned from SF2 to SF3? I always wondered, too bad that EmuGamer don't asked you about this.
@@FoxHand you'd have to ask john garvin that one (art director on syphon, now creative diredtor of sony bend) :)
How can you talk about theme, complain about pirates and far off lands and islands, and yet, embrace goloms, vampires, werewolves and all kinds of monsters? I love you dude but I'm calling BS
vampires, werewolves and golems are myths that have their roots in European folklore, so they fit right in, imo. it would be out of place to have Asian mythical stuff though, or Polynesian, for instance :)
Enjoyed the video and it whetted my appetite for dominion. However, please dont use the word schizophrenic in such a negative context (in section on alchemy). Cheers.
that's a good point, thank you. i'll take it on board!
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