Components
There are 500 cards:
- 130 Treasure Cards (60 copper, 40 silver, 30 gold)
- 48 Victory Cards (24 Estates, 12 Duchies, 12 Provinces)
- 30 Curse cards
- 32 Randomizer cards
- 7 blank cards
- 1 Trash card
- 252 Kingdom cards
The Supply
Prepare the supply:
Place the 3 treasure piles in a row on the table.
Next to them, place the victory cards:
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For two players: Place eight of each of these Victory cards in the supply.
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For three or four players: Place 12 of each of these victory cards instead
Place also 10 curse cards to the place for a two player game, 20 curse cards for three players and 30 curse cards for four players.
Finally, choose 10 Kingdom cards and place then in the Supply. It is useful to arrange them in ascending order of purchase cost.
Players may also use the Randomizer cards as placeholders. Put all unused Victory cards back in the box.
New Players
It's recommended that new players use the following 10 Kingdom cards: Cellar, Market, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Smithy, Village, Woodcutter, and Workshop.
Read also this guide to get better in Dominion.
Setup
Each player starts with 10 cards: 7 copper and 3 estates as a starting deck. The estates come from the remainder in the box.
Each player shuffles their deck, draws five cards and the game can start.
Game Play
At random, the starting player is choosen. When multiple games are played, then the starting player will be the player left of the last winner. If there was a tie, the again a random player will be choosen.
A turn consists of 3 phases:
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Action
The player may play one action card from his hand.
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Buy
The player may buy a card in a pile on the table.
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Cleanup
The player must discard all played and unplayed cards back to the discard pile and draw again 5 new cards.
Action Phase
The player may play one action cards. These are the Kingdom cards that say: "Action" at the bottom of the card.
Players don't start with any Action cards, so during the first 1 turns no Actions can be performed.
Normally a player can play only one card, but some action cards allow the player to play more cards.
To play a card, the player lays the action card face-up in his play area. He announces which card he is playing and follows the instructions written on that card from top to bottom.
The player may still play the Action card even when he is not able to do everything listed.
Any action cards played remain in the player's play area until the Clean-up phase of the turn unless otherwise indicated on the card.
The action phase ends when the player cannot or chooses not to play any more Action cards.
Buy Phase
The player can gain one card from the Supply by paying its cost. The cost of a card is found in the lower left corner.
Any card in the Supply maybe be bought, but the player may not purchase cards from the Trash Pile. When a player played a certain card in his Action phase, its possible that he is allowed to buy more than one card.
The player places the purchased card from the Supply pile face-up on his Discard pile. The ability of the purchased card may not be used when he just gain the card.
The treasure cards remain in the play area until the Clean-up phase. Treasure cards will be used multiple times during the game. Treasure cards are a source of income, not a resource that is used up when played.
Coppers are worth 1 coin, Silvers are worth 2 coins and Golds are worth 3 coins.
Clean-up Phase
All cards gained are already in the player's discard pile. The player places also all his cards (played and unplayed) to this pile.
The player now draws a new hand of 5 cards from his Deck. If there are not enough cards in his Deck, he draws as many as he can.
The player shuffles then his Discard pile to form a new face-down Deck, and then draws the rest of his new hand.
Once the player has drawn a new hand of 5 cards, the next player starts his turn.
To speed up play, players may begin their turns while the previous players are completing their clean-up phases, but when someone plays an Attack card, the players must complete their Clean-up phases first in order to resolve the Attack.
End of the Game
The game ends when the last Province is bought, or when 3-4 piles are empty. The players will count their victory points in their decks and the player with the most points wins.
If there is a tie, then the player with the fewest turns wins.
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