How to Play

Dominion

2-4 players 30-30 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players start with identical small card decks and compete to expand their kingdoms. The core mechanic involves purchasing new cards from a shared marketplace to build your deck during play. Victory comes from efficiently acquiring the most victory points by game's end through strategic deck construction and card play.

Published 2008

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Gather required materials

Obtain any Dominion base game, the twelve Hexes from Nocturne, two copies of Deluded/Envious, two copies of Miserable/Twice Miserable, and ten tokens of any kind

Set up standard supply

Arrange Copper, Silver, and Gold piles as usual, with ten Curses and eight Estates

Use expanded victory cards

Place twelve Duchies and twelve Provinces instead of the standard eight each

Remove cards based on kingdom

Consult the recommended kingdom list to determine how many Duchies and Provinces to remove from the supply

Prepare player starting decks

Each player takes seven Coppers and three Estates

Ensure balanced starting hands

When shuffling your first hand, guarantee either three Coppers and two Estates, or four Coppers and one Estate

Position the automa

Set up the automa to the right of the starting player, between both human players

Create automa Hex deck

Shuffle the twelve Hexes face-down in a pile

Create automa treasure deck

Take six Coppers and six Silvers from the supply and shuffle them into a face-down pile

Place state cards

Position the copies of Deluded/Envious and Miserable/Twice Miserable near the automa

Place attack tokens

Set ten tokens near the supply to track negative points for the automa

Select a kingdom

Choose from the playtested kingdoms, which specify Province and Duchy counts

Note empty pile rules

If the Duchy pile starts empty, it counts as an empty supply pile from the beginning

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Take normal player turns

Both human players take standard Dominion turns following regular rules

Execute automa turn after each round

After both players have taken a turn, the automa takes its turn

Skip first round automa action

At the end of round one, the automa does nothing

Resolve even round automa actions

The automa draws from its Copper/Silver pile and places it face-up, then takes a Duchy from supply (or Province if Duchies are empty)

Resolve odd round automa actions

The automa draws a Hex and places it on its discard pile, then resolve the Hex as if an attack card reading "Each player receives the next Hex" was played

Give tokens when playing attacks

Whenever a human player plays an Attack card, move one token from the supply to the automa regardless of whether the attack affects the other player

Handle Locusts special rule

If Locusts causes you to trash a Victory card, you may instead move it to your discard pile and gain a Curse without additional effects

Track automa information

You may look through the automa's discard pile and count remaining face-down cards, but cannot look at face-down cards

Understand automa limitations

The automa is not a player, cannot be affected except as described in rules, and cannot affect you except as described