Dominion Expansions Question

[Tyrant]

My sister has a copy of Dominion and seems to really enjoy it. I bought her the Intrigue expansion last year. I'm likely going to buy her one of the other expansions for Christmas this year. So, I am seeking advice/convincing arguments as to which ones are best to consider (and hopefully why). Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

As a totally separate question, do most people use the "scenarios" (pre set groups of cards) in the instructions or do they cook up custom configurations?

[Tvtyrant]

Prosperity because it introduces platinum. Seriously it makes the game dramatically better.

Avoid Seaside and Dark Age, they are heavily attack card focused and it makes the game less fun.

We pick three boxes and then randomly select cards from each ti make the kingdom. It helps keep the game more focused on a few mechanics and makes cleaning up easier.

[Tyrant]

Prosperity because it introduces platinum. Seriously it makes the game dramatically better.

Avoid Seaside and Dark Age, they are heavily attack card focused and it makes the game less fun.

We pick three boxes and then randomly select cards from each ti make the kingdom. It helps keep the game more focused on a few mechanics and makes cleaning up easier.

Prosperity was the one I was leaning towards because of the Platinum and the higher point victory card. To be clear, I am saying that with only skimming what a few of them actually add to the game. Can you elaborate on why you think Platinum improves the game?

I will avoid Seaside and Dark Age. Thanks for the heads up.

Do you go truly random or do you try to cover multiple purchase values on the cards? My sister seems to focus on that when she just throws together combinations. I haven't played it enough times to know if that really matters.

Thanks for the advice.

[Rynjin]

Prosperity is the best to own if you only get one, IMO.

Seaside is also one of my personal favorites. Lots of really cool cycling stuff you can do with it. Like cycle your whole deck twice in a turn kind of stuff if you set it up right.

[Tvtyrant]

Prosperity was the one I was leaning towards because of the Platinum and the higher point victory card. To be clear, I am saying that with only skimming what a few of them actually add to the game. Can you elaborate on why you think Platinum improves the game?

I will avoid Seaside and Dark Age. Thanks for the heads up.

Do you go truly random or do you try to cover multiple purchase values on the cards? My sister seems to focus on that when she just throws together combinations. I haven't played it enough times to know if that really matters.

Thanks for the advice.

Truly random. You don't actually need that big of a split in costs, lots of strategies can be all big or all small cards.

The thing we most wanted to avoid was Black Market because it slows the game down, and too many village type cards because "draw a card gain an action" decks are stale and too good at what they do.

[thirsting]

-- Like cycle your whole deck twice in a turn kind of stuff if you set it up right.

Yes, it's really fun to wait for someone else to spend ten plus minutes on their turn. Every turn. :p

Dang, now I'm bit bummed Seaside is our only expansion..

[Glimbur]

Every expansion has a different main mechanic, pick one you like. Dark Ages will make you think differently about trashing and lets you hurt your deck for short-term gain. Prosperity makes the game longer and has victory tokens so you can get points that are not tied to cards in deck. They're all fun, Alchemy is my least favorite and I like Empires the most. It's probably not a good first expansion though because its news rules are weirder.

[Tyrant]

Every expansion has a different main mechanic, pick one you like. Dark Ages will make you think differently about trashing and lets you hurt your deck for short-term gain. Prosperity makes the game longer and has victory tokens so you can get points that are not tied to cards in deck. They're all fun, Alchemy is my least favorite and I like Empires the most. It's probably not a good first expansion though because its news rules are weirder.

Can you elaborate on why you like Empires and dislike Alchemy? I'm leaning towards getting her Prosperity, but I'm still curious about the others.

Truly random. You don't actually need that big of a split in costs, lots of strategies can be all big or all small cards.

The thing we most wanted to avoid was Black Market because it slows the game down, and too many village type cards because "draw a card gain an action" decks are stale and too good at what they do.

When she and I have played we have tried to only have a couple village type cards. I think they can be fun when you string them together but they can slow things down.

[Glimbur]

Empires has both Events and Landmarks. Events are things you can buy with a one-time effect but do not go into your deck. This is interesting design space. Landmarks are just present and change the rules in some way. Bandit fort means you lose 2 points for each silver and gold in your deck at game end. Fountain gives you 15 points at game end if you have at least 10 copper in your deck.
Both types of things let you have more variety in games beyond the 10 kingdom cards, which is good once you get a little tired of the current set up. They also make the game more complicated.

Alchemy adds a new treasure that you have to buy in order to buy many of the cards from that set. It's just a strange mechanic I do not like, partially because it allows the Possession card which I dislike because my wife usually buys it and beats me with it.

[Tyrant]

Empires has both Events and Landmarks. Events are things you can buy with a one-time effect but do not go into your deck. This is interesting design space. Landmarks are just present and change the rules in some way. Bandit fort means you lose 2 points for each silver and gold in your deck at game end. Fountain gives you 15 points at game end if you have at least 10 copper in your deck.
Both types of things let you have more variety in games beyond the 10 kingdom cards, which is good once you get a little tired of the current set up. They also make the game more complicated.

Alchemy adds a new treasure that you have to buy in order to buy many of the cards from that set. It's just a strange mechanic I do not like, partially because it allows the Possession card which I dislike because my wife usually buys it and beats me with it.

Empires sounds interesting. I may have to look into it down the road. For Alchemy, does that resource ever pop up in other expansions or is it only for cards in the Alchemy set?

[Glimbur]

The resource only shows up in alchemy. It'a called Potion, costs 4 and is worth one Potion. Some cards cost Potion in addition to a money cost, and a few cards interact with it in other ways (let you draw it from the deck, let you return a specific action on top of the deck instead of discarding at cleanup, probably more.) It's an ok idea, maybe I just think the set is too small to explore it well.

[The Hellbug]

The potion mechanic is extremely parasitic and feels bad once you start mixing expansions regularly. In a game where you're running three or less sets of equal inclusion, Alchemy can be lend some fun cards to mix, but, due to its nature as a small set, as soon as you just start randomly pulling stuff there just isn't enough support to buy the potions that many of the cards require for acquisition.

[Tyrant]

So I have another question. Do the expansions generally have everything I would need in them? What I mean is, if there is a mechanic that is introduced in say, Seaside, will a later expansion like Empires have what I would need to utilize that mechanic if it is also present in Empires? Those two expansions were chosen at random.

I'm asking because it is looking unlikely that I will be able to get ahold of the Prosperity expansion before Christmas. So I may have to get one of the others. Having said that, any more suggestions? Anything I should absolutely avoid?

[Rynjin]

So I have another question. Do the expansions generally have everything I would need in them? What I mean is, if there is a mechanic that is introduced in say, Seaside, will a later expansion like Empires have what I would need to utilize that mechanic if it is also present in Empires? Those two expansions were chosen at random.

I'm asking because it is looking unlikely that I will be able to get ahold of the Prosperity expansion before Christmas. So I may have to get one of the others. Having said that, any more suggestions? Anything I should absolutely avoid?

All Expansions are standalone, as far as I know.

[Avaris]

I have Dominion 1st edition and several expansions for it (Dark Ages, Alchemy, Cornupopia, Hinterlands Guilds iirc). Is it worth picking up the 2nd edition? Or any of the more recent expansions?

[Aresneo]

I have Dominion 1st edition and several expansions for it (Dark Ages, Alchemy, Cornupopia, Hinterlands Guilds iirc). Is it worth picking up the 2nd edition? Or any of the more recent expansions?

If you already have first edition you are probably better off picking up the 2nd edition upgrade pack if you can still find it than buying a whole new base set.

[Tyrant]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and answers. I ended up going with Empires. I was going to go with Prosperity but none of the stores around me have a copy in stock and Amazon only has second hand sellers. I'll tell my sister that she needs to keep an eye out for Prosperity, or I will already know what to get her for Christmas next year.