Code Jutsu

The storyline, the game mechanism, and design are the three main elements in determining the quality of a board game. If a board game has an interesting background story, a creative game mechanism, and proper design of the board game certainly is a very interesting board game to play and unfortunately for us not miss (too good not to be Played). The author will discuss three very popular board game and pity to miss: Pandemic, Agricola, and Dominion.

Check out the first part of this trilogy that discusses Pandemic games and the second part that discusses the game Agricola.

Too Good Not to be Played (3): Dominion

At one time, there lived a king with a mammoth task. He must keep his empire from the neighboring kingdom of attack and at the same time he also must be able to prosper the whole people. Various supporting facilities should be constructed and the role of assistant principal should be able to optimize it for any attempt to expand his territory to be successful. He also had to be extra careful because of the spy and the witches at any time can ruin every plan.

What will happen when we were treated to a role as the King? An interesting challenge course. All of the above is the background story of card games (some also call it a board game): Dominion, a game that is very interesting and love to pass away (too good not to be Played).

Component

Dominion is a card game (card games) is unique, the main component consists of 500 playing cards with outstanding design interesting. Kelimaratus-card hand is then divided into 31 sets of different cards. Each set of cards designed by an illustrator Dominion specifically so as to display the illustrations are very detailed and so beautiful just like a miniature painting. From the aspect of packaging (packaging), Dominion deliberately formed as a board game – so the entire set of cards can be perfectly arranged in a neat and attractive box.

Background story interesting and the perfect design and enriched by the presence of an innovative game mechanism. Mechanisms that are served Dominion game simple enough so everyone will be able to understand in less than 15 minutes. Simple mechanism that does not make the Dominion as a boring game, even on the contrary, the Dominion is one game that can deliver a different variation every time played.

Of the 31 sets of 25 cards that are available include the royal cards (Cards Kingdom), which became the core of the game. In each game, only 10 of the 25 royal cards are used. Every time we use a different set of royal card, then the flow of the game and the set of strategies available to be changed and this makes very interesting Dominion.

Game Mechanism

Dominion also referred to as a deck-building card games – in which each player tries to build a stack of cards with the highest score. Dominion has 4 main types of cards: cards treasure (gold, silver, bronze), card points (1,3,6), card kingdom (10 species), and the curse of the card.

At the beginning of the game each player gets 7 cards treasure (bronze) and 3 card points (worth 1), and this is a pile (decks) beginning of each player. The players then determine the 10 sets of royal card to be used and placed in a place easily accessible by all players. Each set of cards gives royal additional action for every player who uses it. Such actions, if used appropriately, can produce a chain of action is very important to win the game.

At the beginning of the game each player shuffle / shuffle the deck earlier that he had then taken 5 cards on top. The five cards are active card sets that he could play. With the current set of cards that he had every player can then perform the following three phases in sequence:

1. Action phase, in which each player can take advantage of the royal cards he has to perform certain actions.
2. Purchase phase, where each player can buy a card empire, treasure cards, and card points are available then pay by card active treasure he has. Each card is purchased and then kept open and form a special deck discard
3. The final phase, in which each player discard remaining active set of cards that are not used to discard decks and take 5 pieces of new cards from the deck that previously had been his initial random. When all the cards in the deck early runs out, players then shuffle / shuffle the deck and then discard the deck early.

When a player has finished the final phase, then the next player gets a turn and do the same three phases. The game ends when three sets of points cards run out or if the three sets of royal card had expired. Each player then calculates the value of the cards the points he had, the player with the highest points card a winner.

Dominion is Dominating

With all the advantages it has, in the year 2009 and the Dominion has managed to dominate the board games and other gaming cards. This is evident with the election of the Dominion as the best game in various prestigious awards, including: Spiel des Jahres, Deutscher Spiele Preis, and the Japan Board Game Prize.

Dominion Domination in various prestigious awards and then continuing on Dominion dominance in the market board games and card games world. Domion domination become increasingly attractive because of the fact that the Dominion is the first work of Donald X Vaccarino, the designer, which was published.

Before the Dominion published, Donald X Vaccarino was one fan of the card game Magic: the Gathering as well as fans of board games made by Reiner Knizia. The combination of mechanisms Euro board games and card games Magic is very thick we felt the Dominion. This shows a level of creativity that Donald X Vaccarino able to integrate the best elements from two very different things and produce an extraordinary creative work.

Dominion is one very interesting game and unfortunately for us not miss, not only from the aspect of background story, the game mechanism, and design – but also because Dominion is a proof that creativity is the most valuable exchange rate at the moment and board games can be one of the best medium to show the creativity of our most precious.

Epilogue

Third series of articles Too Good Not to be Played deliberately structured to give some idea of what a board game is a valuable creative works. With the various limitations of its boardgame capable of displaying a variety of game variations are endless.

More than that boardgame also has a variety of great potential as a medium of learning a very effective catalyst for the growth of the industry (gaming) other extraordinary media campaign, is also a valuable commodity.