Dr Lave wrote:
We bought Dominion and on the whole I would say that Dominion: Intrigue is the better game (Both excellent mind). And as they are both stand alone (as well as working together) I would recommend anyone to jump on board with Intrigue.
The recieved wisdom I've heard is that first Dominion is the easiest for new people, as Intrigue involves much more interaction and not as many +card +action type stuff. But I wouldn't know as I don't have any expansions yet. How many peopel are you playing with?
Of course, really people should just SHUT UP AND BUY BOTH ALREADY and then play the game with them both. (Says the person who doesn't own Intrigue, and technically doesn't own Dominion..)
Quote:
We also got Thunderstone: Dragonspire! Which appears to be Dominion + Magic: The Gathering. You build a deck of heroes and equipment and spells and use it to trash up a dungeon. Not played it yet mind. Again this is a stand alone expansion - and Boardgamegeek seems to recommend this as the jumping on point.
Thats 2 board games this year. Glad I'm not tracking boardgames in WongaWatch, that said the GF will split the cost of board games - so it isn't too bad.
I have no idea what a WongaWatch is but it sound sordid. Anyway, without trying to one up you, I've bought two this week alone. CRY for my addiction and bank balance.
edit: Re Reviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ENsEhRbVIM - Base
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbYsjNbDOiU - Intrigue
I've always found an easy way to describe the game (and also used when teaching new people) is the ABCD mantra.
Gameplay goes clockwise around the players, with each player doing their ABCDs.
A - Action cards.
You have one +action to play, though action cards may generate you more actions. For each +action you have play an action card from your hand. Read the card aloud from top to bottom and do as it says. examples of things cards do: tell you to draw more things from your deck into your hand, give you free bonus money for this round only, other crazy shit. If the card is generous enough to give you +actions, then you can continue to play more action card. Keep playing actions until you run out of +actions or you no longer have any action-cards in your hand.
B - Buy phase.
You have one +buy phase, buy action cards played in your A phase might give you more.
For each +buy you can buy one card from the stock and put it on your discard pile. The cost of the card is paid for by the bonus money from action cards + any treasure cards you currently have in your hand.
C- Cleanup
Pick up all played action and treasure cards (from the action and buy phases, respectively) and put them on your discard pile. Put any cards that remain in your hand on the discard pile.
D- Draw.
Draw 5 cards from your draw deck into your hand. If at any time your draw deck depletes, simply shuffle your discard pile and use it as your new draw deck.
Just keep saying ABCD to new players and they'll pick it up dead quick.