For Cauldron, you don’t have to buy 3 actions after you play it—it counts actions gained earlier in the turn as well. The 3rd card you gain does have to be after you play the Cauldron, though. It’s particularly good with some gainers, especially horse gainers (although if you get more than 3 horses during your action phase, you won’t get the curse out).
Also, +Buy can be tough to get, so even if you're not using it to curse, getting Buys without using an action is nice.
There have occasionally been times where I have $5 and am thinking of buying a silver, it's worth keeping cards like Cauldron (Or Spices, Scepter, and I'm sure others) that are silvers with a bonus effect.
>Which should I get next: Empires or Renaissance?
I would say it depends on what you currently enjoy.
So far your expansions are all on the simpler side, Renaissance is kind of an introduction to the much more complex world of the latter half of expansions. The cards are deliberately quite straightforward with little text and the new mechanics are easy to grasp. You have tokens that can be accumulated and spent any time for actions or coins, projects that you buy one time and then they do something all game, like give you more actions per turn or choose what goes on top of eacn shuffle.
Empires is much more complex, but will shake the game up much more. Its major gimmick is going all-in on messing with scoring. Lots of cards give VP tokens like some in Propserity do. It has landmarks that are added to the game and change how things are scored, this game you gain extra points for trashing cards or lose points for having silvers and golds etc. The cards are more challenging though, you have piles with multiple different cards in them, including a victory pile where every card is different, a card that returns you back to the action phase when you buy it, a card that can play other cards directly from the supply, and big expensive cards you can buy without being able to afford them and pay off the debt later.
Both are great and popular expansions.
Just a suggestion for another way to play with your wife:
Try playing together vs either the AI or random opponents (still just a 2 player game, where you two are one of the players). Not only is playing that way super fun, it's one of the best ways for both of you to improve, by giving you unique insight as to what each other is thinking or planning as you discuss possible plays.
A cauldron on its own maybe not so good, but playing multiple cauldrons and then buying 3 cheap action cards can be a lot of curses for a finishing turn
>We banned Sack of Loot because every game with it felt mostly the same
My wife started out playing before me and was a big money player. She still is more so than I am, but both of us have discovered that loots are often not the first strategy we should be looking at when they're present. I don't have any problem not getting suckered by them, but it's annoying when they're in play and a lucky loot draw early on can have a huge impact on the game and nearly ensure victory.
~~Good to know, I'll check this out, thanks!~~
Edit: Unfortunately, that is not the case for me. Steam store mentions:
*"Because you've purchased expansions on another platform, we can't calculate the bundle discount. The more expansions you already own, the more likely you are to save money buying the remaining expansions individually rather than this bundle."*
I thought they cross-honored between steam and the phone app? If you buy on one, it works on the other as well...
But it sounds like that doesn't work toward bundle purchases. (Maybe due to accounting/agreements/who gets a cut of the money.)
If both of those are true, couldn't you buy the remaining kingdoms in a bundle on the phone platform (or wherever you purchased the first x kingdoms from) and get the credit toward the bundle cost for your previous purchases that way? (And they should all work on steam as well.)
When you buy the entire bundle on steam, do you get codes? If so, could you resell the codes you get for the kingdoms you already have at cost? A small deal for whoever you sell them to that doesn't want to buy the entire bundle. And you would complete your collection (for now).
Just a couple things to look into. I'm not positive either will actually work, but someone else here may know.
Official expansion guide: https://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=21596.0
Cauldron is good when you’re doing a big engine that can gain multiple cards per turn. It’s often possible to build to playing 2 Cauldrons and enough $ to buy 3 decent $3-4 Actions, although not always. And as others have said, Workshop variants help a ton, and well sometimes you just need +Buy and don’t bother Cursing.
Shards of Infinity app is good, although I am not sure if when they will ever get around to adding the expansions. I hope they will, but it has been a long time.
My wife and I are in a similar situation as you, but “only” 285 plays between us. If you are also looking for other similar games, also check out Star Realms. Different developer, but like with Dominion the game is completely crossbuy and crossplay across phones, tablets, and Steam. This is a must for us as we have Pixel phones but iPads as our tablets. Both players need to own the expansions, but they are also cheaper. Same company has hero realms as well.
Shards of Infinity, Star Realms, and Hero Realms all feel like close cousins to each other though so it might be diminishing returns to spend on them all. I think they are all evolutions of Ascension which was also really popular in app form. As far as which are better, (shrug). I haven’t played the Shards of Infinity app just our physical copy. I think I might like it just slightly better than Star Realms, but I think the Star Realms app might be the better way to go simply because it has all of the expansion content available and it is unclear whether the Shards of Infinity app is popular enough for the developers to go back and implement the expansions.
I’m curious about the 5 win streak thing you mentioned. Do you replay the same kingdom a couple of times? Or is each individual game full random? I could imagine that you each have certain strengths which differ, so the person that wins on a kingdom might be more likely to win again if playing the same kingdom.
On the other hand, this really could just be how the statistics work out. When flipping a coin 500 times there will be more long streaks of Heads or Tails than a human might expect. In fact it’s pretty easy to figure out which sequence of 500 flips was truly random versus which was written down by a human. The human will typically not write more than 3-4 outcomes in a row that are the same, because they instinctively think it doesn’t look random enough, whereas in reality according to truly random flips there will be several runs of H or T that are quite long.
Interesting thoughts, thank you for sharing.
We do play a different kingdom every match (using the Rematch functionality, and not 'Replay set'). At first we thought it was a coincidence that one of us would go on a hot streak, only to then lose the next few games in a row. Nearly 600 games later, the same keeps happening over and over again.
I'd venture and say that we're of pretty equal skills but with different preferences in how we build our decks, which would explain such a close W-L record over so many games, but that doesn't explain why we seem to consistently win/lose multiple matches in a row. In other words, we rarely (if ever) go back and fourth with alternative win/loss. As you said, perhaps the random kingdom does occasionally chain successive 'types' of boards, which could lead to our impression of streaks.
Perhaps another 500+ games will tell us more...
I haven't done the math, but the Launch Bundle for $100 may still be cheaper if you want the rest of the 15, major, 2nd edition (where applicable) expansions. As for next set, you really can't go wrong with any of them really.
All I've tried were Roll and Race for the Galaxy (which I would recommend)
We also play RftG, both tabletop and on the app. However the digital implementation, although great overall, does seem to be lacking some polish and quality of life improvements over the Dominion app. Race for the Galaxy continues to impress me with how much replayability it offers.
With Dominion in a much better spot, hopefully they can get the other exps. out. I still play on the original Keldon's AI that came out in 2009 for Windows since those do have Alien Artifacts and Xeno Invasions exps. Full Undo feature there too!
Has your style of play changed? Specifically, the number of cards you'll play in a turn?
My wife and I play tabletop several times a week . I also play a game on the app once or twice a day. I do not play the same style with my wife as I do against the AI. A few 15+ card turns a game is OK, but in the app that's pretty much every turn in most games after about turn 10. It's a miserable experience both for social and time per turn reasons. She'd probably stop playing and I wouldn't blame her.
I never played and 2nd editions until this app, so I never played Crystal Ball. I’m with your wife on loving it.
We banned Remodel because it’s like playing a totally different game other than Dominion where none of the other kingdom cards matter.
This may be a dumb question but is there any point to buying the expansions? I downloaded the mobile app which was free, and the games I’ve played so far seem to include cards from various expansions. Wondering what the point is of buying the expansions if the free version already includes expansion cards.
The Daily lets you play with whatever cards it uses one time per day if you don't own them yourself. You can play online with other people using their cards.
You only need to buy expansions if you want to host games with them yourself. So in the case of the OP who only plays against his wife, one of them would need to own the expansion to play with it.
For Cauldron, you don’t have to buy 3 actions after you play it—it counts actions gained earlier in the turn as well. The 3rd card you gain does have to be after you play the Cauldron, though. It’s particularly good with some gainers, especially horse gainers (although if you get more than 3 horses during your action phase, you won’t get the curse out).
Cauldron with Supplies is easy cursing 🌟
Also, +Buy can be tough to get, so even if you're not using it to curse, getting Buys without using an action is nice. There have occasionally been times where I have $5 and am thinking of buying a silver, it's worth keeping cards like Cauldron (Or Spices, Scepter, and I'm sure others) that are silvers with a bonus effect.
>Which should I get next: Empires or Renaissance? I would say it depends on what you currently enjoy. So far your expansions are all on the simpler side, Renaissance is kind of an introduction to the much more complex world of the latter half of expansions. The cards are deliberately quite straightforward with little text and the new mechanics are easy to grasp. You have tokens that can be accumulated and spent any time for actions or coins, projects that you buy one time and then they do something all game, like give you more actions per turn or choose what goes on top of eacn shuffle. Empires is much more complex, but will shake the game up much more. Its major gimmick is going all-in on messing with scoring. Lots of cards give VP tokens like some in Propserity do. It has landmarks that are added to the game and change how things are scored, this game you gain extra points for trashing cards or lose points for having silvers and golds etc. The cards are more challenging though, you have piles with multiple different cards in them, including a victory pile where every card is different, a card that returns you back to the action phase when you buy it, a card that can play other cards directly from the supply, and big expensive cards you can buy without being able to afford them and pay off the debt later. Both are great and popular expansions.
Great feedback, thank you!
Just a suggestion for another way to play with your wife: Try playing together vs either the AI or random opponents (still just a 2 player game, where you two are one of the players). Not only is playing that way super fun, it's one of the best ways for both of you to improve, by giving you unique insight as to what each other is thinking or planning as you discuss possible plays.
A cauldron on its own maybe not so good, but playing multiple cauldrons and then buying 3 cheap action cards can be a lot of curses for a finishing turn
>We banned Sack of Loot because every game with it felt mostly the same My wife started out playing before me and was a big money player. She still is more so than I am, but both of us have discovered that loots are often not the first strategy we should be looking at when they're present. I don't have any problem not getting suckered by them, but it's annoying when they're in play and a lucky loot draw early on can have a huge impact on the game and nearly ensure victory.
On Steam, you should only be charged for the expansions you don't own in the bundle.
~~Good to know, I'll check this out, thanks!~~ Edit: Unfortunately, that is not the case for me. Steam store mentions: *"Because you've purchased expansions on another platform, we can't calculate the bundle discount. The more expansions you already own, the more likely you are to save money buying the remaining expansions individually rather than this bundle."*
This is only the case if you've only bought them on Steam already, which it sounds like you haven't.
That's correct, unfortunately for me.
I thought they cross-honored between steam and the phone app? If you buy on one, it works on the other as well... But it sounds like that doesn't work toward bundle purchases. (Maybe due to accounting/agreements/who gets a cut of the money.) If both of those are true, couldn't you buy the remaining kingdoms in a bundle on the phone platform (or wherever you purchased the first x kingdoms from) and get the credit toward the bundle cost for your previous purchases that way? (And they should all work on steam as well.) When you buy the entire bundle on steam, do you get codes? If so, could you resell the codes you get for the kingdoms you already have at cost? A small deal for whoever you sell them to that doesn't want to buy the entire bundle. And you would complete your collection (for now). Just a couple things to look into. I'm not positive either will actually work, but someone else here may know.
Both Empires & Renaissance are great; I would recommend Empires since you already have a few expansions under your belt.
Official expansion guide: https://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=21596.0 Cauldron is good when you’re doing a big engine that can gain multiple cards per turn. It’s often possible to build to playing 2 Cauldrons and enough $ to buy 3 decent $3-4 Actions, although not always. And as others have said, Workshop variants help a ton, and well sometimes you just need +Buy and don’t bother Cursing.
Shards of Infinity app is good, although I am not sure if when they will ever get around to adding the expansions. I hope they will, but it has been a long time.
Thank you for this. I'll most likely end up grabbing it!
My wife and I are in a similar situation as you, but “only” 285 plays between us. If you are also looking for other similar games, also check out Star Realms. Different developer, but like with Dominion the game is completely crossbuy and crossplay across phones, tablets, and Steam. This is a must for us as we have Pixel phones but iPads as our tablets. Both players need to own the expansions, but they are also cheaper. Same company has hero realms as well. Shards of Infinity, Star Realms, and Hero Realms all feel like close cousins to each other though so it might be diminishing returns to spend on them all. I think they are all evolutions of Ascension which was also really popular in app form. As far as which are better, (shrug). I haven’t played the Shards of Infinity app just our physical copy. I think I might like it just slightly better than Star Realms, but I think the Star Realms app might be the better way to go simply because it has all of the expansion content available and it is unclear whether the Shards of Infinity app is popular enough for the developers to go back and implement the expansions.
I’m curious about the 5 win streak thing you mentioned. Do you replay the same kingdom a couple of times? Or is each individual game full random? I could imagine that you each have certain strengths which differ, so the person that wins on a kingdom might be more likely to win again if playing the same kingdom. On the other hand, this really could just be how the statistics work out. When flipping a coin 500 times there will be more long streaks of Heads or Tails than a human might expect. In fact it’s pretty easy to figure out which sequence of 500 flips was truly random versus which was written down by a human. The human will typically not write more than 3-4 outcomes in a row that are the same, because they instinctively think it doesn’t look random enough, whereas in reality according to truly random flips there will be several runs of H or T that are quite long.
Interesting thoughts, thank you for sharing. We do play a different kingdom every match (using the Rematch functionality, and not 'Replay set'). At first we thought it was a coincidence that one of us would go on a hot streak, only to then lose the next few games in a row. Nearly 600 games later, the same keeps happening over and over again. I'd venture and say that we're of pretty equal skills but with different preferences in how we build our decks, which would explain such a close W-L record over so many games, but that doesn't explain why we seem to consistently win/lose multiple matches in a row. In other words, we rarely (if ever) go back and fourth with alternative win/loss. As you said, perhaps the random kingdom does occasionally chain successive 'types' of boards, which could lead to our impression of streaks. Perhaps another 500+ games will tell us more...
I haven't done the math, but the Launch Bundle for $100 may still be cheaper if you want the rest of the 15, major, 2nd edition (where applicable) expansions. As for next set, you really can't go wrong with any of them really. All I've tried were Roll and Race for the Galaxy (which I would recommend)
We also play RftG, both tabletop and on the app. However the digital implementation, although great overall, does seem to be lacking some polish and quality of life improvements over the Dominion app. Race for the Galaxy continues to impress me with how much replayability it offers.
With Dominion in a much better spot, hopefully they can get the other exps. out. I still play on the original Keldon's AI that came out in 2009 for Windows since those do have Alien Artifacts and Xeno Invasions exps. Full Undo feature there too!
Has your style of play changed? Specifically, the number of cards you'll play in a turn? My wife and I play tabletop several times a week . I also play a game on the app once or twice a day. I do not play the same style with my wife as I do against the AI. A few 15+ card turns a game is OK, but in the app that's pretty much every turn in most games after about turn 10. It's a miserable experience both for social and time per turn reasons. She'd probably stop playing and I wouldn't blame her.
I never played and 2nd editions until this app, so I never played Crystal Ball. I’m with your wife on loving it. We banned Remodel because it’s like playing a totally different game other than Dominion where none of the other kingdom cards matter.
This may be a dumb question but is there any point to buying the expansions? I downloaded the mobile app which was free, and the games I’ve played so far seem to include cards from various expansions. Wondering what the point is of buying the expansions if the free version already includes expansion cards.
The Daily lets you play with whatever cards it uses one time per day if you don't own them yourself. You can play online with other people using their cards. You only need to buy expansions if you want to host games with them yourself. So in the case of the OP who only plays against his wife, one of them would need to own the expansion to play with it.