Dominion: Prosperity

I just finished playing this tonight with a friend and our kids. We're pretty quick and vicious players of Dominion. If you've never played Dominion or don't have the base game, skip this review and go directly to Dominion or Dominion Intrigue, read all the rave reviews and buy one (or both) of those. Then later, come back here for this and other rave reviews and buy THIS game. :-)

Quick note on strategy this addition to the Dominion family: The cards in this set lead to wealth dominance (as opposed to attack cards or more subtle manipulations). But then, that figures from the title. I found myself twice amazed to pick up a hand with nothing but 5 treasure cards with enough points to buy an 11 point card with change left over... and no second buy! We played the first suggested set of cards with 5 players and, despite having all new cards and a large group, we finished in about an hour. (Those experienced players of Dominion know a certain frustration in waiting on new players as they absorb the significance of each card.)

As with my review of the original Dominion game, I give this high marks for educational value, not for knowledge gained which is the usual measure of educational games, but rather for its value in learning and exercising critical thinking skills. Every time you play a game of Dominion, you're forced to examine the interaction between cards and invent new winning strategies on the fly. On my first time to play using "Dominion Prosperity," I realized about half way through that I was using entirely the wrong approach to a play strategy. I shifted gears and wound up tying for first with a whopping 66 VPs.

At this point, I'm done with my 5-star review of the game. But now to the negative bit: the price. I have Amazon Prime and thus I buy a lot of things via Amazon that I would typically get from a brick-and-mortar store simply because Amazon gives me both great prices and -- thus far -- good service. However, even with the free shipping, $55 is $7 more than I can get Prosperity locally after taxes. Then, it's a must to have sleeves for the cards and therefore a must that Amazon should carry them directly. But via Amazon, count on $5.50 for 100 sleeves ($2 + $3.50 shipping) and you'll need 300 sleeves. Now we're over $70 for the add-on. As a consequence, I ordered this item elsewhere, 600 sleeves (I wanted extras) and shipping included and I spent just $50. The base Dominion and Dominion Intrigue games are priced on Amazon more-or-less at the street price. I would encourage you to get Dominion Prosperity but only when Amazon has the price closer to the street price.

Dominion: Prosperity is the most recent expansion to the Dominion series. You will need Dominion or the Dominion Intrigue base set to play Prosperity.

Dominion: Prosperity is an absolutely stunning addition to the Dominion card game series. Prosperity not only adds incredibly interesting new cards and strategies, but this expansion revitalizes the original Dominion set, the game we all know and love. A decent number of the original Dominion kingdom cards have added purpose and strategic value and many are, at the least, nice, low cost cards that compliment Prosperity's high priced actions and treasures. If you do not yet know and love Dominion, I see three strong possibilities: 1) You are reading the wrong review, 2) You have yet to purchase the original Dominion game (link above), or 3) You have played Dominion to death and are bored with it, thus confirming the "know" arena much too well and replacing the "love" relationship with "love-hate". Regardless of where you fall, here are some of the basics (spoilers ahead).

The most noticeable additions to the game are the new larger treasure and victory card, the Platinum and Colony cards, respectively. Instead of making the Platinum worth 4 treasure, we find it worth 5 with a cost of 9, and the Colony worth 10 victory points, costing 11. To win the game, there are now three standard conditions available: the Colonies pile is diminished, the Provinces are diminished, or 3 (/4) kingdom card piles disappear (2-4 players, /5-6). Beyond that, it adds 25 new kingdom cards that are beautifully illustrated, well balanced, and, for the majority, not overly complicated, which is an amazing feat in and of itself. Several of these are new treasure cards that are not placed among the base Treasure (like the new Platinum or the Potion in Alchemy) but are included in the 10 kingdom cards chosen for play. These creative treasure cards include an "action" of sorts (but do not cost an action to use), adding the strategic element of playing treasure cards in a particular order to reap the maximum benefit. Another major addition is that of the victory point "mats" along with a few different opportunities to gain victory point tokens throughout the game, represented by numbered metal shields. These tokens remain on the mats until the game conclusion when they are counted along with all of the victory points in hand. Lastly, now there are action cards costing more than 6 available for purchase on the table. Bigger cards, bigger money, bigger victory points. What could be more fun?

Other subjective bonus horrahs: only one card dealing directly with curses, a couple of great attack cards, excellent kingdom card artwork, nice metal tokens, thorough turn example in the rulebook. Quibbles: Victory token mat artwork recycled and oddly cropped, base Treasure cards (including the new Platinum) are all the same "gold" color in U.S. versions, victory token mats do not fit well in the box. Neutral thoughts: Potentially longer gameplay time. All in all, it is hard to objectively find anything bad to say about it. Note: MSRP is $45.

If you simply cannot wait to find out what the cards are, you can find the complete description list on boardgamegeek. To do the cards justice, though, you really must see and touch them. I highly recommend it.

Of all the Dominion expansions, I'd say:

Prosperity >= Seaside >> Alchemy

The new money cards are quite interesting. I initially thought that the extra points (gained in the form of tokens) were a gimmicky, but they extend the game naturally, providing new ways to win without taking the game too far away from it's origins.

There are few, if any, dud cards in the set and quite a few all-stars, including Forge, Bank, Bishop, Goons, Venture, and others.

Alchemy shook my faith in Dominion a little, but Prosperity set it right and I'm looking forward to what comes next.