A Mixed Bag

I was late onto the scene of cooperating games. I remember trying out Lord of the rings back in the day but while it was cute its premise didn't make much sense to a young mind. "How is a game where there are no real opponents a game, who will check that we're following the rules even? This doesn't make much sense." I thought and yeah, I was young but the sentiment kept with me while my family and various other playing groups tried out games like  Pandemic  or Hanabi and the likes . I was glad that they were having fun but it just wasn't board gaming to me. The issue with the rules checking was a real one even when I got older. When every player is an opponent to each other everybody has an incentive to make sure that the rules are followed properly so the playing field stays leveled - when your opponent is only the game itself, why would anyone care if you make some rule details easier for your group? Would the "green disease" of Pandemic get mad? ...

Disclaimer: The board game Dominion is not an ordinary game to me. It's one of my longest obsessions to date and this is not a "review" - it's more of a place for me to ramble on about this wonderful world of a game without having to direct my "recommendation" anywhere in particular.  First: The starkest beauty with this game is that within the space of Dominion, there is room for such a surprising amount of different "subgames" if you will. The basic rules, as I hope you are aware of already, are very simple. You are each turn able to play a card from your deck (via your hand of five cards) and buy a new card to your deck from the kingdom and the object is to make your deck as efficient as possible in reaching a state that will win the game - what that state is may change from game to game, but regardless of specifics, it's always about amassing victory points in some form.  The kingdom is where the beauty, and the complexity, is to be found b...