Dominations is a game where you are free to choose your own path to victory. In order to make this experience as rich and enjoyable as possible, we've provided you with a wealth of different components. The core of the game is mixing them as you see fit into new and exciting combinations that will (hopefully) lead your nation to victory.
Despite having been as thorough and clear as we can with the rules, it's impossible to cover every possible situation that could arise without turning this rule book into a rule grimoire!
With so many moving parts, you may come across rare cases during a game which has not been explained within these pages.
In these situations, we recommend using common sense to determine the best course of action. If you can't come to an agreement, then players should vote on it. Failing that, flip a coin to determine how to proceed.
Once again, these situations should be very rare and, for the majority, should be easily resolved. In any case, don't let a small rules quirk hold up your game!
In the meantime, however, here are some of the questions that get asked the most.
Why Produce and Gain?
Why these two terms? You may have noticed that certain cards allow you to gain more resources based on those you generate through tile placement. In order to avoid an infinite loop of Knowledge generation, we chose to define these two methods of Knowledge creation separately.
As a reminder: Land tile placement and City activations are the only way to Produce Knowledge. Everything else Gains you Knowledge. Therefore, Gain effects cannot combo off of other Gain effects.
For example: The Fishing Mastery card Gains you Knowledge at the start of your turn. The Agriculture Mastery card Gains you additional Knowledge depending on how much you Produce.
As the Fishing Mastery card has a Gain Knowledge effect, it cannot benefit from the bonus granted by the Agriculture card. However, the Livestock Mastery card increases the Knowledge Produced by your Camps. As this is a Produce effect, it can benefit from the Agriculture bonus.
Why Cities and Citv Levels?
Each civilization has it's own vision of what an accumulation of civilization should look like. For some, it was great centers of power overflowing with life, whilst others favored a more nomadic lifestyle of smaller encampments.
In order to differentiate between these notions in game and, once again, offer you more strategic depth; we included the notion of Cities and City levels.
When building your Cities over the course of the game, you can choose to cover more terrain by building many Cities, building fewer but more powerful cities, or anywhere in between. Of course, this choice brings with it different effects such as Influence, positioning, Reserve levels and so on.
Note that many cards and effects will ask you to differentiate between Cities and City levels. As a reminder:
A "City" is present on any tile where at least one City token has been placed down, whether that City be level 1, 2 or 3.
"City Levels" are the number of City tokens that make up your Cities.
A good example of the difference between these two is the Warfare Mastery card. The base effect of this card gains you influence based on the number of Cities you control - whereas its Advanced effect gains you influence based on the number of City levels you control.
This makes it a great card for gaining an Influence advantage early on in the game, before transitioning into a strategy involving big level 3 Cities later on.
Mastery/monument Level Cards and Timing
Cards destined for your Civilization Tree take effect as soon as they are added. However, as they are placed, different things happen: effects go off, Victory points or Influence are gained, Nodus are formed, etc. Some of these changes may activate other effects in turn.
All these changes are considered simultaneous and may be resolved in the order of your choosing.
For example: The Templars Mastery card Gains you Influence for each Religion Nodus in your Civilization tree. However, by placing this card you may be creating one or more new Religion Nodus.
As the effects of the card and the creation of the Nodus are simultaneous, these new Nodus count towards the Influence gaining effects of the card.
In the case of multiple Mastery cards being acquired one after the other, you must resolve the placement and effects of each card in turn, not at the same time.
Start of Age Effects and Timing
Any rules which are stated as taking place at the start of an Age take effect as soon as the End of Age phase of the previous Age has been completed. Just like above, all of these effects are simultaneous and may be resolved in the order of your choosing.
Vestigium Knowledge and Black Numbers
Black numbers shown on Mastery cards, Monument level cards, etc. are Vestigium Knowledge. This is essentially a joker resource and can count as a Domain of Knowledge of your choosing.
In the cases where the amount of Knowledge Gained is higher than 1, You may Gain Knowledge from the same Domain or split it between multiple Domains, as you wish.
Please note: Certain cards whose effect reduces the cost of an action (such as developing a Mastery card or building a City) feature a black number. In these cases, the cost of the action must still be paid in Knowledge points of the relevant Domain type.
Additionally, you may end up producing Vestigium during your Growth phase. Once you have chosen the Domain for this Knowledge, it counts as Produced Knowledge of that Domain, and can benefit from Production bonuses given by certain Mastery cards (see Why Produce and Gain? above).
Adjacency
In the case of Land tiles: a tile is considered adjacent to another if it shares one of its straight edges with it. Tiles which touch "diagonally" via their corners are not considered adjacent.
In the case of Cards: a card is considered adjacent to another if it shares one of its straight edges with it. Cards which only touch "diagonally" via their corners are not considered adjacent.
In the case of Cities: A City is considered adjacent to another if they are on Land tiles which are adjacent to one another.
Connected
Adjacent Cities controlled by the same player are considered connected. These Cities can form a chain of connected Cities. Any abilities which state that they effect connected Cities effect all Cities that are part of this chain.
Stacking Reserve Limits with Multiple Cities
Building bigger Cities allows you to increase your Knowledge Reserve limits. Level 1 Cities increase it to 10, Level 2 Cities increase it to 15 and Level 3 Cities increase it to 20.
However, your maximum limit for each Domain is determined by the largest City you possess of that Domain, not the number of Cities, and their effects do not stack.
Having 3 Level 1 Cities does not count as a Level 3 City.
Having 3 Level 1 Cities does not increase your Reserve limit by 3x5 = 15.
Having 3 Level 1 Cities of a Domain will leave you with a Reserve limit of 10. You can increase that to 15 by Upgrading one (or more) of these Cities to a Level 2, then to the maximum of 20 by upgrading one (or more) to Level 3.
Running out of City Tokens
In some games, a player may run out of City tokens. The number of City tokens available to players was purposefully capped at 15 (or one per turn) so if this does happen it's perfectly normal.
The player in question can no longer build Cities but should turn their attention to Monuments as a way of scoring points during the Build phase if they find themselves in this situation.
0 Cost
Through reductions provided by their Mastery cards and other effects, players may find that performing a certain action will cost them zero or negative Knowledge.
In both these cases, the player may perform the action at no cost. They gain nothing in the case of a negative cost, however.
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