Dominion: How to Play

[@aquapony]

Thank you very much for this. I sat down today to learn this with my 5 year old and we struggled a bit with the concept. We understood the rules well enough, but the reasoning behind the play eluded us. This 13 minutes I have just spent has probably saved a few hours. Now I can reread the rules with a clear understanding of what is going on. I would rate your presentation as excellent.

[@Khorlith]

+aquapony Awesome! Happy gaming.

[@MrMessengerPig]

I just found this game on Tabletop Simulator. The person I was playing with explained most of the rules to me, but your video was much easier to follow and remember. Thank you!

[@Khorlith]

The songs are: The Mystical Way (Denis Gorodetskiy) Braveheart (Henry Gorman) Air Castle (Wojciech Panufnik) I list the songs in the description of the video.

[@MrSoundofmusic]

I've played this game before, and you showed me that I've been doing it wrong all along! Thank you this really makes more sense now! I can't wait to share this game with my kids!

[@Khorlith]

Dunno if you’ve been doing it all wrong, but I’m glad my video helped. Happy playing!

[@Kindlesmith70]

Holy crap, Tanto Cuore is so much like this! From all that's been said up to 7:15 I already know how to play Dominion never having touched it before all because of how closely Tanto Cuore is to it. That being said, Tanto Cuore has a different mechanic which places cards out of deck, generally used for scoring points at the end of the game but sometimes also providing other benefits or drawbacks. This is a well presented video. Thank you for the insight into the game.

[@punchb]

You have several mistakes: 1) You forget to mention that ALL Victory piles get 8 cards in 2-player games (for instance Gardens). 2) The value of your Treasure cards does not break ties! That would seriously alter the game. Rather the tie breaks in favor of the player who had the fewest turns. If it's the same number of turns, they share the victory. 3) You say that Reaction cards "thwart" the attack, but this is only strictly true for Moat. 4) As others have noted, none of the players in your sample game have a correct opening deck of 7 coppers and 3 estates. 5) You should always include Curses. Some cards may make you want to buy a Curse, or choose Curse for some reason (like Swindler in Intrigue) and you should never limit a choice that a player might make that maybe you didn't even think about. In later expansions this will be more important. 6) This only matters for later expansions (starting in Prosperity), but you don't get coins from "cards in hand". You have to PLAY the Treasure cards to produce the coins.

[@petercram427]

Very well done tutorial. I understand it much better than the instructions that come with the game. Thanks a lot.

[@whatever678]

Our first few games involved the 10 suggested "starter" cards, which are pretty bland. We've since added other cards in and are starting to see the way they play off one another and how you can start planning strategies. Thanks for your response.

[@alamnash]

Great job on the explanation. Thanks so much. Got Dominion for Christmas, can't wait to play.

[@Khorlith]

Glad you liked it!

[@ModernJillian]

This was amazing, very informative for learning the first time. Thank you for taking the elaborate time to compile this.

[@crasher303]

First class job, yet again. I wish you had done this last month, when I played my first Dominion. Easy to learn ,but hard to master.

[@GibloxCrumb]

Great video!! It really helped how you showed the first couple of rounds.

[@BeefcakeMoney]

Great video. I was thinking about buying this game but was a bit put off by other videos I watched. This video made the game simple and easy to learn. I may have to pick it up!

[@artjury7564]

You are superman! Thank you sir! Plan to play this afternoon, thanks!

[@Art3ga]

Unfortunately there is a mistake in the sample game. Every player should have 3 estate cards and 10 cards total. Over two hands of 5 cards each, your players only get 2 Estates each.

[@Spukky007]

He used a copper to much, it's very noticeable in player 1s turn. he has 5 copper turn 1 and 3 copper and 2 estates turn 2. 1 gold to much.

[@sdoroudi]

Nice video, with a very small error. At around 8:30, when you show the players drawing hands after their initial purchases, player 1 discards a 5 copper hand (used to purchase Mine) and then draws a 3 copper hand; similarly, player 3 has a 3 copper hand on turn 1 (used to purchase Village) followed by a 5 copper hand on turn 2. The total number of coppers in the first two hands (when playing with only Base + Intrigue + Seaside at any rate) should always add up to 7. Thanks for the video.

[@GusScottExley]

Great video. This is my first game if this type so found the instructions a little hard to follow. Your video provides much more info and is way more helpful.

[@Khorlith]

The problem with buying lower value victory cards is that they block your hand during play, making it difficult to get money and action card, that prevent you from acquiring higher valued victory cards. As for interaction, that depends on the action cards that were selected for the 10 stacks. Some attack cards are downright nasty so planning defenses and strategies to block those becomes very important.

[@Khorlith]

Early in the game, getting 5 coins in a hand is difficult. In this case, getting 5 copper cards is entirely based on luck, which you should not depend on as a strategy. Using those coins to buy cards that allow you to consistently get more money per hand will ensure that you can buy duchies and provinces. Also, the victory cards don't help during the game so getting them early makes it more likely that you will draw them rather than cards you can use on your turn.

[@AlexSem6]

Great. After 15 minutes I already know how to play it (it will take some time to memorize a number of cards to set up though).

[@asmodeusblint1427]

Great work there really clear and well explained ! the démo must have been a llong job but it was worth it. Im going to order a copy and YOU GOT A NEW FOLLOWER!

[@d.j.k.9515]

Clear and complete explanation. I am very curious: what program did you use to make the video with?

[@ShawnJepson]

Thanks for this. Much easier than figuring it out from the instructions.

[@Khorlith]

Good afternoon Gentlemen, I interpreted it to mean the official Dominion page on the Rio Grande website. I've added that link in the description. Thanks again for the feedback.

[@chain-wallet]

robot lecture activate.

[@BigPopaGamer]

Wow this video is awesome. Thanks, the game makes so much more sense now.

[@hellwroughtangel]

Wow, great video. I know how to play it, but can't teach how to play it so this helps a lot. :)

[@Khorlith]

hellwroughtangel Awesome!

[@CodeDreamer68]

Nicely done. Thank you for donating your time and skill. It is appreciated.

[@AndyMorgantarheel]

Thank you for this helpful video, the games makes a lot more sense to me now.

[@MrTheGadfly]

What did you use to make the video? Thanks for the tutorial though, we were lost :)

[@jacobbennett4074]

Okay question for anyone who can help me! Does anyone know the first answer to the question to sign up for the Dominion tournament. The question is,"In a typical division, how many matches against separate opponents will you play in a given season?" I know there are 6 generally six players in typical division.

[@tomcmapl]

Why there's RIFT loading screen at the start of this video?

[@Mister.Psychology]

I have this game, unpacked. And you can play it online. But I still haven't figured it out.

[@TonyGonzales]

Extremely helpful, thanks for taking the time to put this together. =)

[@neweragaming7526]

Thank you the book is pretty complicated

[@mineralisk]

Good tutorial thank you

[@MartinBraonain]

terrific run through

[@nolanspeller283]

very good video. Thanks for the easy to understand instructions!

[@Chertograad]

Awesome vid! I will use this to show some friends how Dominion plays if they're clueless :P Can you make a vid about the different expansions, your take on them and which of them you'd suggest for new players. The order, the benefits, the amount of content etc. Anything you can think of. I just ordered the base game and I don't find it awfully hard since I've played MTG in the past and play a lot of competitive PC games. I checked some vids of Dark Ages and although many said that'd be the hardest to understand, I totally comprehended the new mechanics. But yea I'd love to hear your thought on which expansion has the best bang for your buck and which do you think are nigh essential :) After dwelling through the interwebs, it seems most people name Prosperity, Seaside and Dark Ages as the top 3. Some say Hinterlands and Cornucopia. It seems that the only one that's left without some love is Alchemy (most likely because of the new Potion resource mechanic, I'd wager). Thanks again! :)

[@FlyingDutchMan753]

really good tutorial! gonna buy it tomorrow :D

[@Khorlith]

Excellent! Enjoy!

[@longtimeninerfan1309]

Excellent. Thank you!

[@GianlucaCasu]

Thank you for this tutorial, It cleared me a lot of things. One question though, Since avaerything revolves ariund Victory point, why did player three not buy the +3 card?

[@eamonbloomfield8498]

Superb job, well done. More power to your elbow!!

[@JetSetAlchemyst]

great job explaining it but next review please put in a website link. thank you good day.

[@michaelh4819]

Thanks for posting your video 😊

[@Khorlith]

You're welcome.

[@TheLoudFox]

i have an odd question... whats the name of the song in the background?

[@jroberts29576]

Wow man. Thanks for such an informative video!

[@ZzzMajinzzZ]

I am trying to learn this game. What is the "spoils pile"?

[@Khorlith]

luomlds wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Spoils

[@trencher7]

Hey one thing the rules didn't seem clear to me on. Is the Garden card one of the 10 Kingdom cards or do I play with 10 Kingdom cards + the garden card? Want to know if I should play with one less Kingdom card stack if Garden counts as one.

[@Khorlith]

+trencher7 The Garden is a Kingdom card. It ls clearly identify as such here: wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Gardens. So, as you initially stated, it is 10 kingdom cards, including the Garden.

[@mynametrehavebasketballgam9494]

What do you do with the kingdom cards during the ABC phase?

[@Khorlith]

Oops. You are correct. I wonder how that slipped in there.

[@timwollman8090]

So you can't use Estate cards until the end? Doesn't that make you have 4 cards in a hand essentially and the Estate is just a placeholder?

[@Khorlith]

Victory cards are almost all place-holders until the end of the game. The challenge is balancing Victory cards with useful cards. If you collect many lower valued victory cards in the early game, you'll find it difficult to draw 5 cards later on that adds up to anything significant enough to buy higher valued victory cards.

[@boomtaplive]

This is a great game.

[@Seliathas]

shouldnt players draw more estate cards on there 2nd turn becouse now they only had 2 estate cards in there deck?

[@Khorlith]

There are 3 estates in the starting deck of 10 cards. If the first hand had one estate, the second hand will indeed have 2.

[@Serginjo5]

Yes. At 8:00 he says that every player starts with 7 copper and 3 estates. Player 1 started with no estates, and on 2nd turn he should have 3 estates, since he had none in the first turn, but instead he has only 2. Player 2 started with 1 estate and on 2nd turn he should have 2 estates in his hand, but has 1. But player 3 started with 2 estates, and should have 1 estate in his hand, but instead he has none. Yes, he messed up all three players.

[@affanabid121]

Thanks a bunch!

[@TaiChiKnees]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@GilesRitter9]

The voice...haha. Back to you on the studio, Karen.

[@Khorlith]

How very odd. I just reviewed the on-line .pdf files for Dominion and they state that the player who took the fewest turns wins and if all both too the same number of turns, they both win. I'm certain I saw different tie breaking rules somewhere. If I find it, I will let you know.

[@santiagorf77]

great tutorial!!!

[@Khorlith]

You're very welcome.

[@MikeSouthliberty]

Thanks for commenting, but next comment please tell us what website you are talking about having him link to. Thank you good day as well.

[@brunopriex10]

Thanks for the video.

great video, thanks!

[@owenhainesb]

very good game

[@Khorlith]

Thank you very much.

[@whatever678]

I've played this game a few times now and don't see how it's fun....to me (and my friends who were playing) it just seems like a ton of sorting and constant reshuffling of cards without much player interaction or strategy at all. Why not just always buy victory cards when you can? Nobody knows how many points the other players have so any choices you make all seem really arbitrary. Are there layers to this game we aren't seeing?

[@korpacz9912]

this is not a tutorial for new players. The video starts with getting lost in the mechanics.

[@mark_midmark]

I have never played this, but I watched this tutorial in conjunction with 2 other shorter quick how to play videos and feel that the example rounds are very useful in explaining how cards can combo into each other.

[@Khorlith]

Mission Accomplished!

[@joshconklinmusic3856]

great vid

[@PokemonFan0111]

Dominion reminds me of the TF2 economy.

[@acaledus]

player 1 has 8 copper and only 2 estates in the beginning

[@7rgh7]

You have the tie break rules wrong!

[@jaydenwarburton3329]

I have dominion second edition

[@Khorlith]

You're welcome.

[@whatever678]

I've played this game a few times now and I don't e how

[@BryanBortz]

Thanks for the help! This allowed me to quickly show my girlfriend how to play without confusing her :)

[@benn1181]

nice catch, but I don't think it really matters for tutorial purposes.

[@Al0neStillAlive]

Good guide but this game doesn't really seem very fun to me. Sad.

[@nigelmunro6779]

Go prosperity

[@Khorlith]

It should have been done a month ago. So many distractions... ^_^;;

[@mihaitoader8947]

Great man, i trully undersatood, mother russia hey hey hey

[@ciscoc.2758]

legendary is sooooo much better

[@Abtogen]

The music is annoying.

[@siprus]

Mistake!!! the player one can only draw to coins after discarding his 5 copper hand!!!!!

[@espirite]

This is so badly explained and dull to watch. Sorry.

[@roykaminski4181]

this made no sense, you move along so fast it's annoying.

[@scally2112]

This is a horrible way to learn a game, sorry. Boring and too fast.

[@immaculateboy]

On the contrary, too much fluff doesn't keep me engaged like a quick tutorial does. This was perfect for me.

[@trenthogan4212]

Yeah, way too fast|!