Dominion Online

Overview

Dominion is a card game designed by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande games. Since it's release its 2008 it has gained notoriety in the board game world and won the German game of the year competition in 2009. Dominion challenges players to compete in order to build the greatest Kingdom using cards from the supply pile. Games can be very different from each other, as the ten cards in the supply pile are randomly chosen from a set of over one hundred.

History

The game has inspired a number of digital versions, often with the unofficial blessing of its creator, including a relatively successful Android game called Androminion, and a website specialising in multiplayer called Isotropic. There was also an unofficial iOS version of the game, which used the actual card images, and was eventually removed from Apples app store. In 2012 game developer Goko made a deal with Rio Grande games to digitally release a number of there games, including Dominion. Goko are building a number of in browser games using HTML5, which they claim will allow them to easily port there games to iOS, Android and Facebook.

Goko originally tried to launch Dominion after a huge PR blitz in August 2012, but they failed to keep up with server demand and were faced with a number of technical difficulties, so moved the site back into a closed beta within 48 hours of the launch. In November 2012, Goko moved from a closed to a public beta - and released a version of Dominion which is playable exclusively through there website.

Gameplay

The vast majority of the rules to Dominion Online are identical to the physical card game.

The game begins with each of up to four players having a small basic ten card deck, known as their Kingdom. Each turn, a player begins with a hand of five cards drawn from their deck which will consist of a mixture of Action, Treasure and Victory cards. A player may proceed to play at most one action card and buy at most one thing with the treasures that they have drawn. A turn usually ends, with the player discarding their hand, everything they have played and everything they have bought that turn, and drawing a new hand of five cards. If a player does not have five cards in their deck, they shuffle their discard pile, and this then becomes their new deck. However, some action cards will allow the player to do more on their turn. For example, the card Market permits the player to draw an additional card, play an additional action card that turn, and buy one more card at the end of their go. It also gives them one additional coin to spend that turn.

The objective of the game is to earn victory points, which are most commonly found in the form of the three victory point cards, Estate (1VP), Duchy (3VP) and Province (8VP). The game's dichotomy lies in the fact that victory point cards are generally useless during the game, and just serve to weaken your hand - yet in order to win you need more of them than your opponents. Focussing on buying the more expensive, high value victory point cards is a good rule of thumb for doing well in the game.

Games of Dominion typically last about 10 minutes, and each game can vary quite wildly from the last, as the ten action cards which are available to buy each turn can be chosen from a selection of hundreds. Different combination of cards can open up a wide selection of potential strategies for players to adopt - and most of the skill in Dominion is in assessing the board at the start in order to determine what approach is likely to dominate.

Dominion Online differs from the real life version in one respect. It offers a handicap system, where some of the players may be given slightly stronger or weaker opening hands in order to balance the game. Because writing a decent Dominion AI is considered to be tricky, (the Androminion AI was quite poor, especially in understanding how to effectively play action cards found in the expansion packs), this handicap system helps to keep the AI competitive against experienced players.

In addition to offering ranked multiplayer matches and customisable single player games against the AI, Dominion Online also features an Adventure mode. This presents players with a series of increasingly difficult games against the AI, (usually 2 player matches). The cards in the supply piles are pre-chosen, and new cards are introduced quite slowly, in order to allow new players to become familiar with the basic concepts before presenting them with more advanced strategies.

Micro-transactions

Dominion Online is free to play - and gives new players access to all the cards found in the original base game. Currently, the expansions; Intrigue, Seaside and Prosperity are available for 70 Gokoins each. The more recently released Darkages is 110 Gokoins.

A Gokoin in a currency which can be used to make purchases in all of Goko's games, and are currently available to purchase at the following rates:

20 - $2

54 - $5

110 - $10

230 - $20

590 - $50

1,200 - $100

In addition, the promo cards, Envoy, Govener and Walled Village are available to redeem as prizes using one of the two different in game currencies. Whereas the promo card Black Market, and the expansions Alchemy, Cornucopia and Hinterlands have yet to be released.

Gokoins can also be used to purchase some of the in game currency and Zaps. A Zap is a token which allows you to modify either your own or your opponents starting hand in single player, in order to gain a small starting advantage. A cynic may be inclined to argue that the later levels of Adventure mode have been designed to give the AI such an overwhelming advantage, purely to convince the player to purchase Zaps.