That is why Nocturne has been placed all the way up at the top here. Nocturne is a crazy set. Many games attempt to do day and night cycles.
Games that I truly love, like the blood moon expansion in Talisman 4th Edition revised. This basically expands the amount of parts to a turn. At night there are no limits to actions and that is really fun to do. It also makes me feel mischievous doing things in the darkness to screw over the other players.
It takes the concept of Intrigue and blows it out of the water with theme and mechanics. There are also boon cards in this set that are activated by using bards that can be purchased from the purchase decks. The game plays with three of these and though they are activated via the bard, they play similar to events in other sets. Hex cards that you can give players can result in state cards that do all sorts of damaging effects to your fellow players like reduce their victory points, or stop a player from buying things on a turn.
The hexes are really fun and still fit with the overall dark theme of the box. The theme of the game is also just super fun to play. It introduces zombies and vampires. The night time feature is crazy fun to, just having the extra step with your turn after the buy phase where all the gloves come off makes this a joy to play.
Be sure to pick this copy up, my table has so much fun with this expansion and it comes out several times a year. We will be ranking this set after we have had a chance to play through several games now that this set has released. Based on your play style it might be different from our list and that is awesome! Let us know your ranking of these expansions in the comments below. At the end if the day, Dominion is a fantastic game, if you have not gone out and given it a try please do.
Well pick it up already and start playing! Be sure to check back here once for news on New Dominion Expansion in Be sure to check out our other content on the site and let us know if there are any other lists expansions or games that you want us to do.
Thank you for subscribing! If there is any content that you would like covered you can reach out to us at [email protected]. Powered by Squarespace. Privacy Policy Contact Us. Articles Find articles on fantasy related news events! Dominion: Menagerie We will be ranking this set after we have had a chance to play through several games now that this set has released. Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage Review.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Review. Talisman Reaper Expansion Review. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Dune Board Game Review. Medium Review. Now, almost 10 years later, the game has seen many expansions and re-releases, some worthwhile and some easily skippable. Each expansion interacts with the rest of the series in different ways, resulting in a huge number of potential combinations.
This makes Dominion an eternally replayable beast that will continue to feel fresh long after being unwrapped. An unfortunate side effect, however, is that it can be difficult for newcomers to sift through the enormous pile of cards the franchise has to offer.
The obvious starting point, the Dominion base game includes everything up to four players need to jump in. The base game cards are simple and provide the ideal experience for learning how to build decks and how cards can interact with each other. It should be noted that there are two versions of the base game. The one that new players should seek out, and the one that is most readily available, is the Second Edition. This version cleans up some rules confusion of the original printing and replaces some cards that were counterintuitive to the learning process.
If you already own the original you can purchase a cheapy update pack to upgrade your game to the Second Edition. Something of an anomaly, and a possible cause of confusion, is Dominion: Intrigue.
In it was re-released as Dominion: Intrigue Second Edition , a more standard-sized expansion that requires the original Dominion to play and drops all the unneeded duplicates of the base game cards. This assortment includes the second editions of both base Dominion and Intrigue, and has the added bonus of including the extra cards needed to expand the game for up to 6 players. More Board Game Goodness!
Here are the best of the best. What it lacks in theme, it makes up for in technically-sound cards. Fear the night! Vampires and werewolves are coming to your Dominion. Nocturne adds some very thematic elements that are perfect for a spooky night.
The rule changes in Nocturne really make the expansion shine. It introduces an entirely new phase called the Night phase. Night comes after your action and buy phases and you can play any number of Night cards in your hand. This is where all your creepy crawlies can be used to really wreak havoc on your game. Nocturne also adds some new events, but keeping with the theme calls them Boons, Hexes, and States. They play basically like any other event, and the States when played on you stay in front of you for a few turns and alter your turn by adding some extra coins or canceling your entire buy phase, stopping you from gaining any cards that turn.
I personally like to play Nocturne by itself or with Dark Ages. I have a tendency to get bogged down when there are two expansions with drastic rule changes fighting for attention. As a standalone expansion, I absolutely love Nocturne. I do not like mixing it with too many of the other rule-heavy expansions.
Spin straw into gold or spin your servants into gold. Alchemy is a small expansion. As you can imagine, it uses the lore of alchemical mythology. The only major rule change is the introduction of Potions as a treasure card. Certain cards have a small blue potion icon and can only be purchased by using a Potion card. They work just like any other treasure.
As a standalone expansion, Alchemy adds some interesting elements, but never quite stands up on its own. Potions add a bit of flair to the game and can really change up the strategy, but no other expansions use it, and with that alone in mind it seems to limit the combinations that can be done with the expansion. The cards that you do get do offer some variety, however.
There is a dark shadow fallen over the court in your Dominion. Poisoners and conspiracy lurk in every shadow. Trust is rare and you never know if your friends are your enemies or if your enemies are super enemies. Note: The Second Edition of the game is an expansion. There is only one major rule change from Core Dominion and Intrigue. Intrigue introduces several cards with variable effects.
The Pawn, for example, gives players the option to choose 2 different bonuses from the following. Intrigue does introduce one other new game mechanic. Intrigue introduces victory cards that actually do things besides offer end-game points. The Harem card is worth 2 points at the end of the game and during the game can be played for 2 treasure. It does change up when players start buying victory cards and they do count as part of the supply pile for ending the game.
The Second Edition has been released with a lot of clarification and streamlining. With literally years of Dominion expansions on the market today, it might be hard to find the right one for your gaming group.
Dominion is such an incredible game with a ton of replayability. Not only do you get an entirely new set of cards, but they all can be combined to play off the strengths of several expansions. My favorite combo is Prosperity and Dark Ages. With a nearly endless set of card combinations, these games have a staggeringly high number of options.
Get out there and seize your Dominion! What expansions have you played? What are your favorite combos? Drop a comment below and let us know what you think! Yahtzee Review. Monopoly Christmas Review. Your email address will not be published. Privacy Policy.
The 1 site for board game enthusiasts. Best Dominion Expansions Ranked and Reviewed. By Bryan Truong. Table of Contents. Dominion: Adventures Each new expansion offers something new but Dominion: Adventures really takes the cake. Adventures comes with upgradeable cards that become stronger every time you use them. Dominion: Dark Ages Dark Ages throws a lot of attack cards into the mix.
The main components are attack cards and trash cards that turn the vanilla rules upside down. The additions are a welcome change to the game, which happens to be one of my favorite expansions. Money and victory cards come in higher values than before and card combos can be chained almost indefinitely. Prosperity adds more of everything I love about Dominion. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand. You may trash a non-Treasure card from your hand.
This is just a typical Hinterlands card. Dominion Alchemy is a solid expansion, albeit our least favorite one. Its main selling points is that it introduces Potions , which are a form of currency in addition to money. What we do like about Alchemy is that introduces some of the most powerful cards in all of Dominion.
These cards remain balanced because you need to buy Potions, and the draw your Potions before you can actually buy them. A good example of this is University, which gives you two actions and a card costing up to five. This is insanely strong, but it actually has a fair price at 2 money and a Potion.
Readers sometimes still have questions after reading our Dominion expansion ranking. In this section we try to answer these questions to give our readers the tools to choose their own best Dominion expansion. Dominion Seaside is the first Dominion expansion you should buy. This balance between simplicity and strategic depth is splendid, especially for beginners. Yes, Dominion is very fun with 2 players! And to keep Dominion fun with 2 players, we recommend getting one of the expansions we ranked highly in this article.
Prosperity is especially great for 2 players because it forces both players to consider whether they want to empty out the Provinces or Colonies in the end game. Dominion Intrigue is a stand alone game, which means that it can be played by itself. But, in fact Intrigue is stand alone as it contains all the Victory Point cards and Treasure cards that the normal base game also contains. After reading our ranking you may wonder how it came about. To choose the best Dominion expansion, there are three main questions we considered.
This implies that the cards are all easy to understand and execute. Ideally you buy the Dominion expansion pack that adds the most interesting cards to your collection. Fortunately, most of the Dominion expansions add mostly well designed cards that make for interesting games.
These are the expansions that we want to avoid. For us the most important selection criterion for Dominion expansions is how well they combine with other sets. Dominion really thrives off the interactions that arise when you combine the cards of different expansions. We place heavy emphasis on this in our ranking, because this way adding one expansion can revitalize how new all your other sets feel.
How well an expansion combines with other sets partly depends on how interesting its cards are. As you read in our reviews, some Dominion expansions are able to alter the normal flow of the game by adding only a few cards. We hope that our Dominion expansions ranked review helps you pick the best Dominion expansion for you. If our recommendations and suggestions leave you with any unanswered questions, please reach out to us through our contact form.
We would love to incorporate the answers to your questions in our ranking, so we can help future readers decide which Dominion to get even better. Skip to content. Seaside Seaside is simple yet tons of fun. We recommend Seaside as the first Dominion expansion you should buy. Prosperity Prosperity makes Dominion strategically deeper, and yet more beginner friendly.
That's why it's our favorite expansion by far. Menagerie Menagerie adds multiple interesting mechanics that take time to master. It's our top pick for more advanced Dominion players.
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