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So, I finally got to try Dominion. Now I have to figure out if I should risk trying to play against the fanatics on BSW or try to hold out until a Sunday random gaming session. I definitely want to try it again soon, though.
When I first heard of Dominion it was innacurately described to me as a CCG-like game that wasn't actually collectible because you bought all 500 cards at once in one box. In fact, what actually happens is that everyone starts with identical 10-card decks, and over the course of the game you add new cards to your deck until the game ends, and then you check to see whose deck has the most victory points in it. So there is no deck-building session prior to the start of the game as there would be in a CCG, but everyone does end up with a customized deck at the end of the game.
For my first game, I decided to be a bit ambitious and converted all 3 of my starting victory points into more money/buying power that I hoped to use to buy significantly more victory points in the later phases of the game. There was a horrible moment when I discovered I'd misunderstood the game end conditions, and thought I was going to end the game at 0. But thankfully we didn't rush to the end as quickly as I thought we would, and I clawed my way back up to 33, which put me just barely behind the winner who was at 34. The other two players got 23 and 16, so I think I did pretty well for a first outing. I'm still somewhat baffled by the strategy of the guy who got 16. His turns mostly consisted of trying to slow the rest of us down, but it was at the expense of his own progress as well. I'm not sure what part of his plan went wrong for him, but obviously something went askew. He had played before, so it wasn't just a case of him misunderstanding the rules.
Dominion still seems to be riding the latest-cool-thing wave of popularity - there were 3 copies of it at the game meetup. = )
I also got to try Pandemic, and I'm pleased to report that we actually managed to cure all of the dreadful diseases in time, and were not responsible for letting all of humanity sicken and die. It was damned close, though. Had we not won when we did we would have automatically lost at the end of the turn. It certainly isn't a game that can drag on and on for hours - after about an hour you've either contained the plagues or you're toast. Icky, disease-ridden toast.
When I first heard of Dominion it was innacurately described to me as a CCG-like game that wasn't actually collectible because you bought all 500 cards at once in one box. In fact, what actually happens is that everyone starts with identical 10-card decks, and over the course of the game you add new cards to your deck until the game ends, and then you check to see whose deck has the most victory points in it. So there is no deck-building session prior to the start of the game as there would be in a CCG, but everyone does end up with a customized deck at the end of the game.
For my first game, I decided to be a bit ambitious and converted all 3 of my starting victory points into more money/buying power that I hoped to use to buy significantly more victory points in the later phases of the game. There was a horrible moment when I discovered I'd misunderstood the game end conditions, and thought I was going to end the game at 0. But thankfully we didn't rush to the end as quickly as I thought we would, and I clawed my way back up to 33, which put me just barely behind the winner who was at 34. The other two players got 23 and 16, so I think I did pretty well for a first outing. I'm still somewhat baffled by the strategy of the guy who got 16. His turns mostly consisted of trying to slow the rest of us down, but it was at the expense of his own progress as well. I'm not sure what part of his plan went wrong for him, but obviously something went askew. He had played before, so it wasn't just a case of him misunderstanding the rules.
Dominion still seems to be riding the latest-cool-thing wave of popularity - there were 3 copies of it at the game meetup. = )
I also got to try Pandemic, and I'm pleased to report that we actually managed to cure all of the dreadful diseases in time, and were not responsible for letting all of humanity sicken and die. It was damned close, though. Had we not won when we did we would have automatically lost at the end of the turn. It certainly isn't a game that can drag on and on for hours - after about an hour you've either contained the plagues or you're toast. Icky, disease-ridden toast.
