Dominion

1 Game Overview

Dominion invented the deck-building genre. You start with a weak 10-card deck and use it to acquire better cards - actions that give you special powers and gold to buy even more cards. Victories point cards clutter your deck but are needed to win.

Each game uses only 10 of the 25 Kingdom card types, making every game feel different. The player who accumulates the most Victory Points when the game ends wins.

2 What's in the Box

• 500 cards: 25 Kingdom card piles (10 cards each), plus basic cards
• Basic cards: Copper (7 to each player), Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, Curse
• Trash pile marker
• Victory Point tokens (some sets)

3 Setup

1. Choose 10 Kingdom card piles and place 10 of each in columns. Set out Supply piles of basic cards (Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province).
2. Each player takes 7 Coppers and 3 Estates, shuffles them, and draws 5 to start their hand.
3. The youngest player goes first.

4 How to Play

Each turn has three phases:

Action Phase

You start with 1 Action. Play Action cards from your hand (if you have them) by placing them face-up in front of you. Some Action cards give you more Actions - you can chain them. Each card you play says exactly what it does.

Buy Phase

You get 1 Buy per turn. Play Treasure cards from your hand to get coins. Buy one card from the Supply costing no more than your total coins. Put it in your Discard pile.

Clean Up Phase

Put everything you played and all remaining cards from your hand into your Discard pile. Draw 5 new cards (shuffle Discard to form new deck if needed).

5 Winning

The game ends when the Province pile is empty OR any 3 Supply piles are empty. Players count their Victory Points (Estates = 1, Duchies = 3, Provinces = 6, plus any card with VP icons). Highest total wins. Ties go to whoever took fewer turns.

6 Strategy Tips

• Silver first, then Gold. Early economy is crucial. Buying Silvers and Golds before actions usually wins.
• Avoid Coppers. Once you have enough economy, stop buying Coppers - they clutter your deck. Trash them if you can.
• Watch the pile counts. The game ends when 3 piles are empty. Watch for this, and don't let an opponent trigger it when you're behind.
• Province at 8 gold. Provinces cost 8. Build your economy to reliably hit 8 coins per turn as fast as possible.
• Read cards carefully. Every word on every card matters. Re-read before playing when you're new.