Complete set of Dominion: Seaside cards available!

Rio Grande Games has posted the complete set of rules for Dominion: Seaside here. On page 3, there are images of all 26 of the new Kingdom cards. Exciting.

The kingdom cards from Intrigue have not had as much play by us as it seems to increase play time in our group. These ones look like they will not have that issue.







My copy is on reserve and I pick it up Friday. Can't wait!

Race For The Galaxy losing its shine....

Managed to play a couple rounds of Race on Wednesday night. I still quite enjoy the play of the game but the subtleties have stopped emerging for me. That night I did well the first round and won the second but I always just end up playing the colours game. First round I got New Sparta so I just started collecting more and more military. Got the military bonus cards and scored pretty big. Second round got some green planets with shipping so I just started collecting green bonuses with the contact specialist. Won that one, too, thanks to some huge green 6-dev cards.

I dunno. I seem to have hit a wall with this one. It's fun so I'll happily play it but I find so much depends on the cards you draw and I think I had a lucky night. Or maybe we're just hooked on Dominion now and RFTG has lost its glow (although they are pretty different).

LATEST DOMINION: INTRIGUE STRATEGY: Loving the Scout card. It lets you pick up Great Halls to keep and play them. Also awesome when combined with the Secret Chamber or the Cellar from the old deck...

First plays of Dominion: Intrigue...

So I made the friends we always play Dominion with buy the copy of Intrigue. Makes sense that they would own it so we could play at either place. We got three games in the other night and I must say that despite its issues, it is quite the improvement!

I love the choices the new cards give (see here to take a look at the new cards) . Play of the hand is much more subtle and enjoyable but still relatively fast-paced. The interaction is much stronger and way more vicious which makes for a great game. The Saboteur is brutal beyond words and the Swindler seemed pretty nasty as well. So the new action cards really jack up the nastiness (although the Torturer seemed pretty weak). As well, there are now victory cards that double as action cards so suddenly you aren't filling your deck with useless crap when you buy points. I like that. The Great Hall seems like a must buy no matter what.

There are some issues, though. Certain cards seem like original Dominion action cards for the same price but with a slightly better action. Take for instance the Ironworks. It's basically the Workshop with a bonus of card, action, or coin. This means if we combine both sets and these two come out, the Workshop will be useless. I don't like that. This is only the second expansion so you'd expect the card choices to still be fairly distinct from the originals.

Will probably give more details as more rounds are played. I definitely went to sleep that night thinking of the possible card combos. Can't wait to play some more...

Latest Dominion: Intrigue Strategy: Watch the player to your left. If they are buying lots of action/victory cards like the Great Hall, buy Tributes. You will get both bonuses if they flip up the dual cards....

Ticket To Ride Online, or How I wasted away the hours....

As I mentioned previously, I am finishing up my Master's thesis this week and although it is going well, I find I need to take a lot of short breaks away from writing. One of my great reliefs and/or distractions has been TTR Online. I am a massive fan of the board game, having 5 editions, and love that I can play a round online in 10-20 minutes.

Many people don't realize that if you own a TTR edition there is a code in the rules book that let's you sign on and play for free. I just can't seem to get sick of this game, live or online. The only drawback to online is that they don't have my two favourite maps, Germany (Marklin) and the Nordic Countries. Maybe they'll bring in Nordic soon as it's such a great 3-player game.

I'm wondering if I'm actually prepping a bit for my visit home with Mom. She LOVES Ticket To RIde and I imagine we'll be playing a few games of her copies when I'm back in August...

Sidenote 1: Played Le Havre finally. Good game but quite long. Easy to explain, hard to figure out. I imagine it will grow on me quickly.

Sidenote 2: Dominion: Intrigue out today! Oh, it's gonna be a long night....

A very dry summer....

I am in the final throes of my master's thesis (one week to go!) and not only am I not playing many games but I can't really afford to buy many games. Ugh. I walked into my FLGS and stared longingly at the 63 dollar "Le Havre" box knowing I only had enough to purchase "Wits & Wagers" for 30. Sigh. I have a dinner party to go to tomorrow so that's a reasonable excuse, I guess, to buy yet another game.

Thank goodness my neighbors are buying Dominion: Intrigue. Don't think I could wait until my new job starts in September to buy and play it... On the plus side, I'm heading home to BC the beginning of August and I always bring an empty suitcase when I go. The majority of my old collection (including Union Pacific and Samurai) is stored there in a friend's basement so I always come back to Ontario with a suitcase full of great games just aching to be played again.

People must be excited....

Looks my blog numbers have taken an upturn and I've tried to figure out why. Looks like the last post with pictures of the new Dominion: Intrigue cards is getting all the hits. Glad I'm not the only one obsessively waiting for this. Sadly, you can probably expect even more posts/session reports/etc. about it when the game arrives on our doorstep.... Less than a month!!!

All the new Dominion: Intrigue cards are out!

Alright, Rio Grande Games just posted all the rules for Dominion: Intrigue and you can see them here. But you're most interested in, I'm sure, are the new action cards. Well, here they are...




Gotta say, I'm excited about the victory cards that also provide actions with them (Harem, Nobles, Great Hall). Should add a ton to the game....

Magda, expect to play a lot of this when you arrive!

New Dominion: Intrigue info...

The geeks are talking. Supposedly some images of the box covers have come out and people are already translating the images. Check out the discussions here and here.

New cards include the Harem, Henchmen, and Great Hall. Judging by the excitement online, this game is gonna sell out very fast. Haven't played the original Dominion in over a month. I dunno, we just seemed to find other things to do (including playing the shit out of Boom Blox 2 - so awesome.) Maybe this weekend we'll get a chance to pull the old cards out and deal a round....

More Dominion cards!!!

In my never ending quest to obsess as much as possible about this game, I am happy to say that my two bonus cards, Envoy and Black Market, are now in the mail. Talk more about them when they arrive...

Also, an article on a french boardgame site describes three cards from the new Dominion: Intrigue coming out mid-year:

Ironworks lets you gain a card worth a value of up to four. As well, if you gain a action card, take another action. If you gain, a coin, add +1 for your buy. If you gain a victory point card, then you get to draw another card. Um, very cool and adds some more decisions to the play of the game.












Each Duke (much like the Gardens) is worth the same number of points as there are Duchys in your deck at the end of the game. Hmmmm... These could be worth more than provinces if played right. Interesting.













Ah yes, and the coolest/weirdest one so far, the Masquerade. The player of the card draws two cards then EVERYONE passes a card to the left. After that the player of the card may trash one card in their hand. Oh this will be fun with Curse cards from the Witch!!!










Okay, getting excited for the new set of cards. As you can see and so we have heard from the playtesters, the new set provides a lot more decisions with each action card and of course can be combined easily with the original. I think we'll be playing this game for years to come. The only thing I'm worried is the Romanian taking even longer with his turns. Oh well, it'll be worth it.

On the radar (i.e. soon to be bought...)

Not too much to mention at the moment so I'll just tell you what is currently on my wish-list...


Castle For All Seasons is a cross between Stone Age and a game like Race For The Galaxy. Except the roles interact like Cathedrals. Um, sounds REALLY good to me and this one is actually already available. I'm just waiting for a paycheque....


Excape (a reprint of Exxtra) is a push-your-luck game with dice. And it's invented by Reiner Knizia. Yeah, pretty much guaranteed to be really, really good. Also now available (MONEY! I NEED MONEY!!!)


Also, Days of Wonder has a new release this year, Small World, a remake of the game Vinci which I have never played. I have, however, thoroughly enjoyed History of The World which is a similar game. Unfortunately, HOTW takes 4-5 hours. Small World should give you the same feeling in about 60 minutes. And expect the amazing components that come in every Days of Wonder game (they are the publishers of Ticket to Ride.)

Oh yeah, and Dominion: Intrigue. 'Nuff said.