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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
Times have been hard. To save on money, you have moved out of your old castle, and into a luxurious ravine. You didn't like that castle anyway, it was always getting looted, and never at a reasonable hour. And if it wasn't barbarians it was the plague, or sometimes both would come at once, and there wouldn't be enough chairs. The ravine is great, you get lots of sun, and you can just drop garbage wherever you want. In your free time you have taken up begging. Begging is brilliant conceptually, but tricky in practice, since no one has any money. You beg twigs from the villagers, and they beg them back, but no one really seems to come out ahead. That's just how life is sometimes. You are quietly conquering people, minding your own business, when suddenly there's a plague, or barbarians, or everyone's illiterate, and it's all you can do to cling to some wreckage as the storm passes through. Still, you are sure that, as always, you will triumph over this adversity, or at least do slightly better than everyone else. This is the 7th addition to the game of Dominion. It is 500 cards but is not a stand-alone. It adds 35 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, plus new bad cards you give to other players (Ruins), new cards to replace starting estates (shelters), and cards you can only get via specific other cards. The central themes are the trash and upgrading. There are cards that do something when trashed, cards that care about the trash, cards that upgrade themselves, and ways to upgrade other cards.
Product Description
RGG481 Dominion: Dark Ages Expansion
By Rio Grande Games
Times have been hard. To save on money, you have moved out of your old castle, and into a luxurious ravine. You did not like that castle anyway; it was always getting looted, and never at a reasonable hour. And if it was not barbarians, it was the plague or sometimes both would come at once, and there would not be enough chairs. The ravine is great, you get lots of sun and you can just drop garbage wherever you want. In your free time you have taken up begging. Begging is brilliant conceptually, but tricky in practice, since no-one has any money. You beg twigs from the villagers, and they beg them back, but no-one really seems to come out ahead. That is just how life is sometimes. You are quietly conquering people, minding your own business, when suddenly there is a plague, or barbarians, or everyone is illiterate, and it is all you can do to cling to some wreckage as the storm passes through. Still, you are sure that, as always, you will triumph over this adversity, or at least do slightly better than everyone else.
This is the 7th addition to the game of Dominion. It is 500 cards but is not a standalone. It adds 35 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, plus new bad cards you give to other players (Ruins), new cards to replace starting Estates (Shelters), and cards you can only get via specific other cards. The central themes are the trash and upgrading. There are cards that do something when trashed, cards that care about the trash, cards that upgrade themselves, and ways to upgrade other cards.
By Rio Grande Games
Times have been hard. To save on money, you have moved out of your old castle, and into a luxurious ravine. You did not like that castle anyway; it was always getting looted, and never at a reasonable hour. And if it was not barbarians, it was the plague or sometimes both would come at once, and there would not be enough chairs. The ravine is great, you get lots of sun and you can just drop garbage wherever you want. In your free time you have taken up begging. Begging is brilliant conceptually, but tricky in practice, since no-one has any money. You beg twigs from the villagers, and they beg them back, but no-one really seems to come out ahead. That is just how life is sometimes. You are quietly conquering people, minding your own business, when suddenly there is a plague, or barbarians, or everyone is illiterate, and it is all you can do to cling to some wreckage as the storm passes through. Still, you are sure that, as always, you will triumph over this adversity, or at least do slightly better than everyone else.
This is the 7th addition to the game of Dominion. It is 500 cards but is not a standalone. It adds 35 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, plus new bad cards you give to other players (Ruins), new cards to replace starting Estates (Shelters), and cards you can only get via specific other cards. The central themes are the trash and upgrading. There are cards that do something when trashed, cards that care about the trash, cards that upgrade themselves, and ways to upgrade other cards.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
151 of 155 people found the following review helpful
By W. baron
Amazon Verified Purchase
Durability:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First thing you'll notice when you get this expansion is just how HUGE it is. Each base set comes with 25 distinct kingdom cards. The average expansion (other than the horrid Alchemy and the rushed Cornucopia) provided 25. This set comes with 35 distinct kingdom cards (one of which-- knights-- is a stack of ten unique cards that are played as a single kingdom stack), three alternatives to the three starting estates, and three cards that act like kingdom cards but are only accessed via other cards. This expansion feels mind-blowingly large because it is. For reference, here is a chronological list of expansions and the number of kingdom cards that they came with:
Dominion had 25kingdoms (2008)
Intrigue had 25kingdoms (2009)
Seaside had 26kingdoms (2009)
Alchemy had 15kingdoms (2010)
Prosperity had 25kingdoms (2010)
Cornucopia had 13kingdoms (2011)
Hinterlands had 26kingdoms (2012)
Dark Ages has 35kingdoms (2012)
The set introduces a few new types of cards
Shelters - these function as alternatives to the three estate cards that players normally start with in their deck. They are slightly less detrimental because they each do something small (some are +action, some give you things for trashing them, etc). There are three different types
Ruins - these are like shelters in the fact that they are under-powered cards. They function somewhere between [estates] (which give a small victory point reward but clog up your hand) and curses (which both hurt you and clog up your hand). They clog up your hand slightly, don't award victory points, but have some powers in the game. They are usually under-powered compared to kingdom cards in the supply so they don't hurt as much as a curses but water down the power of your deck. Usually you give them to other players when you pillage or ransack them, but sometimes (like the [Death Wagon], they come with another kingdom card.
Knights- these act like a normal kingdom cards in that they are put out in a stack of 10, but only the top card is visible and each card in the stack is unique (each has its own name e.g. [sir michel]and power). Basically its just ten different kingdom cards stacked as one to add more variability to the game.
[Rats]- these are traditional action cards in every way except that they self-replicate, eat through your deck (make you trash a card) and there are 20 instead of 10 of them.
[Hermit]/[Madman]- When you have [Hermits] in your game, you will also pull out a pile of [Madman] cards. When you use a [Hermit] and fail to buy a card that turn, the [Hermit] turns into a [Madman] (you trash the [Hermit] and get a [Madman] from another stack ([Madman], [Mercenary] and [Spoils] are all action or treasure cards that can only be acquired via other cards and don't count toward the 10 kingdom limit or game-end conditions. Its an interesting mechanic where hermits can go mad and madmen go out in a blaze of glory.
[Urchin]/[Mercenary] - When/if you play with the [Urchin] card, you also pull out a stack of [Mercenary] cards. [Mercenaries] are not part of supply and can only be acquired via an [Urchin]. The gist is that if an [Urchin] aims high (takes on multiple tasks/actions in a single turn] then he becomes a [mercenary] (trash the [Urchin] and get a {mercenary]
[Spoils] - these are not in the supply and can only be acquired by cards that pillage or ransack others. [Spoils] are basically a single-use [gold]. Pillaging means that other players discard cards and you put a [spoils] card in your discard pile. Ransacking means you give every other player a Ruin card and you gain a [Spoils]. When the [Spoils] appears in your hand, you use it for +3 coin and instead of discarding it to your discard pile, you discard it back to the [spoils] stack from whence it came.
When trashed - many of these cards have a power that is only used when the card is trashed (whether voluntarily as a strategy or involuntarily). This adds a lot of interesting strategy particularly with Hinterlands and Seaside.
Trash as power - [Death Cart] is an extremely powerful card that requires you to trash an action card. If you don't, you trash it at the end of that turn. Cards like [Procession] allow you, amongst other things, to use an action card twice (a la [throne room], but if you double an action, you trash that card. Both are examples of trash "powering" or "powering up" cards.
So is it fun? Yes it is. We played three games with Dark-Ages-only sets and two games with sets mixed with Dark-Ages cards last night (after getting it via two-day shipping and we had a blast. The game plays very well with itself, and played interestingly with other cards. On one of the games, the mix wasn't optimal because we had many cards to put things into the trash, but nothing to trash them or get them out of the trash. Overall, the cards are very versatile for almost every setup, and its far from the harshly-limited alchemy expansion, but you will want to play with at least one card that causes players to trash cards (from any expansion) and at least one that benefits from being trashed. Pulling cards from the trash is optional, but makes for a fun dynamic.
The good
+++You get a TON of variety here and a TON of content
++Cards feel unique and fun
++As with almost all Dominion sets, the card name, card art and card mechanic all work flawlessly together
++Unique expansion feel (poverty, destruction, underground and rebirth)
++interesting new mechanics introduced
++great art
+It actually helps make some of the less-viable Cornucopia cards more viable
The bad
-some cards aren't as fun without being matched with others (which could be said about almost any set). It's far from the train-wreck that is Alchemy.
-Some cards are a little less inspired
-Some games felt a little "impoverished" and bogged down. We didn't have a lot of money or our hands were filled with under-powered ruins. It fits the expansion feel well, but I tend to favor the power-play games rather than the games where everyone scrapes along toward victory-- this is totally subjective.
Overall, the cards are great, but just a notch below Prosperity, Seaside and Hinterlands. There is just so much variety and content, though. If it was a smaller set like Conucopia, I'd put it at the bottom of the list with Cornucopia. As it is, this is the single biggest expansion to date and introduces so many new ideas that the sheer quanitity of original content makes up for the quality of some of the cards.
1) Intrigue (the better base set)
2) Prosperity (the highest quality expansion set)
3) Dark-Ages (the expansion with the most new ideas)
4) Seaside (the second best in terms of quality)
5) Hinterlands (the quirkiest and most bizarre but often overpowered)
6) Cornucopia (a little blah and TINY)
and just skip Alchemy altogether. It's bad. You'll never play it.
Dominion had 25kingdoms (2008)
Intrigue had 25kingdoms (2009)
Seaside had 26kingdoms (2009)
Alchemy had 15kingdoms (2010)
Prosperity had 25kingdoms (2010)
Cornucopia had 13kingdoms (2011)
Hinterlands had 26kingdoms (2012)
Dark Ages has 35kingdoms (2012)
The set introduces a few new types of cards
Shelters - these function as alternatives to the three estate cards that players normally start with in their deck. They are slightly less detrimental because they each do something small (some are +action, some give you things for trashing them, etc). There are three different types
Ruins - these are like shelters in the fact that they are under-powered cards. They function somewhere between [estates] (which give a small victory point reward but clog up your hand) and curses (which both hurt you and clog up your hand). They clog up your hand slightly, don't award victory points, but have some powers in the game. They are usually under-powered compared to kingdom cards in the supply so they don't hurt as much as a curses but water down the power of your deck. Usually you give them to other players when you pillage or ransack them, but sometimes (like the [Death Wagon], they come with another kingdom card.
Knights- these act like a normal kingdom cards in that they are put out in a stack of 10, but only the top card is visible and each card in the stack is unique (each has its own name e.g. [sir michel]and power). Basically its just ten different kingdom cards stacked as one to add more variability to the game.
[Rats]- these are traditional action cards in every way except that they self-replicate, eat through your deck (make you trash a card) and there are 20 instead of 10 of them.
[Hermit]/[Madman]- When you have [Hermits] in your game, you will also pull out a pile of [Madman] cards. When you use a [Hermit] and fail to buy a card that turn, the [Hermit] turns into a [Madman] (you trash the [Hermit] and get a [Madman] from another stack ([Madman], [Mercenary] and [Spoils] are all action or treasure cards that can only be acquired via other cards and don't count toward the 10 kingdom limit or game-end conditions. Its an interesting mechanic where hermits can go mad and madmen go out in a blaze of glory.
[Urchin]/[Mercenary] - When/if you play with the [Urchin] card, you also pull out a stack of [Mercenary] cards. [Mercenaries] are not part of supply and can only be acquired via an [Urchin]. The gist is that if an [Urchin] aims high (takes on multiple tasks/actions in a single turn] then he becomes a [mercenary] (trash the [Urchin] and get a {mercenary]
[Spoils] - these are not in the supply and can only be acquired by cards that pillage or ransack others. [Spoils] are basically a single-use [gold]. Pillaging means that other players discard cards and you put a [spoils] card in your discard pile. Ransacking means you give every other player a Ruin card and you gain a [Spoils]. When the [Spoils] appears in your hand, you use it for +3 coin and instead of discarding it to your discard pile, you discard it back to the [spoils] stack from whence it came.
When trashed - many of these cards have a power that is only used when the card is trashed (whether voluntarily as a strategy or involuntarily). This adds a lot of interesting strategy particularly with Hinterlands and Seaside.
Trash as power - [Death Cart] is an extremely powerful card that requires you to trash an action card. If you don't, you trash it at the end of that turn. Cards like [Procession] allow you, amongst other things, to use an action card twice (a la [throne room], but if you double an action, you trash that card. Both are examples of trash "powering" or "powering up" cards.
So is it fun? Yes it is. We played three games with Dark-Ages-only sets and two games with sets mixed with Dark-Ages cards last night (after getting it via two-day shipping and we had a blast. The game plays very well with itself, and played interestingly with other cards. On one of the games, the mix wasn't optimal because we had many cards to put things into the trash, but nothing to trash them or get them out of the trash. Overall, the cards are very versatile for almost every setup, and its far from the harshly-limited alchemy expansion, but you will want to play with at least one card that causes players to trash cards (from any expansion) and at least one that benefits from being trashed. Pulling cards from the trash is optional, but makes for a fun dynamic.
The good
+++You get a TON of variety here and a TON of content
++Cards feel unique and fun
++As with almost all Dominion sets, the card name, card art and card mechanic all work flawlessly together
++Unique expansion feel (poverty, destruction, underground and rebirth)
++interesting new mechanics introduced
++great art
+It actually helps make some of the less-viable Cornucopia cards more viable
The bad
-some cards aren't as fun without being matched with others (which could be said about almost any set). It's far from the train-wreck that is Alchemy.
-Some cards are a little less inspired
-Some games felt a little "impoverished" and bogged down. We didn't have a lot of money or our hands were filled with under-powered ruins. It fits the expansion feel well, but I tend to favor the power-play games rather than the games where everyone scrapes along toward victory-- this is totally subjective.
Overall, the cards are great, but just a notch below Prosperity, Seaside and Hinterlands. There is just so much variety and content, though. If it was a smaller set like Conucopia, I'd put it at the bottom of the list with Cornucopia. As it is, this is the single biggest expansion to date and introduces so many new ideas that the sheer quanitity of original content makes up for the quality of some of the cards.
1) Intrigue (the better base set)
2) Prosperity (the highest quality expansion set)
3) Dark-Ages (the expansion with the most new ideas)
4) Seaside (the second best in terms of quality)
5) Hinterlands (the quirkiest and most bizarre but often overpowered)
6) Cornucopia (a little blah and TINY)
and just skip Alchemy altogether. It's bad. You'll never play it.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Durability:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Educational:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just played this with my wife and son last night. It is a lot of fun, with more complexity than previous expansions. The quality of the artwork in this expansion is very good, and you get a lot for your money. I would not recommend this to someone new to Dominion, but if you have played the game a lot, this is a must buy. A couple observations based on our initial experience.
1) To get maximum enjoyment out of this deck, I think you have to carefully choose kingdom cards that complement each other. I would not recommend using the randomizer deck to pick Kingdom cards.
2) There is more interaction among players with this expansion than in some other sets. Your opponents will try to force you to trash good cards while clogging your hand with weak cards.
3) Because players will continually be weakening each others' hands, games with this expansion can last a bit longer.
4) A few cards, like Death Cart, are extremely powerful and it is a good idea to include them in kingdom card sets used for individual games, or games could really drag on.
5) We liked the concepts or shelters and ruins, and the focus on the trash pile. They add new dimensions to the game.
6) The functions and capabilities of individual cards are well-linked to the titles of the cards. I think this expansion is more thematic than previous expansions -- you are really struggling to accumulate those victory points in impoverished "dark ages."
1) To get maximum enjoyment out of this deck, I think you have to carefully choose kingdom cards that complement each other. I would not recommend using the randomizer deck to pick Kingdom cards.
2) There is more interaction among players with this expansion than in some other sets. Your opponents will try to force you to trash good cards while clogging your hand with weak cards.
3) Because players will continually be weakening each others' hands, games with this expansion can last a bit longer.
4) A few cards, like Death Cart, are extremely powerful and it is a good idea to include them in kingdom card sets used for individual games, or games could really drag on.
5) We liked the concepts or shelters and ruins, and the focus on the trash pile. They add new dimensions to the game.
6) The functions and capabilities of individual cards are well-linked to the titles of the cards. I think this expansion is more thematic than previous expansions -- you are really struggling to accumulate those victory points in impoverished "dark ages."
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Durability:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Educational:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fun:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dominion: Dark Ages is the 7th and penultimate expansion for the deck-building game Dominion. Dark Ages is NOT a standalone expansion, meaning you will need Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, or Dominion: Base Cards to play with this set. That being said, Dark Ages is a very robust expansion with lots to offer. It includes 35 new kingodm decks (34 are actions, and 1 is victory), making it the biggest expansion of the series. The theme of this set is a bit more doom and gloom than previous releases. As much as Dominion: Prosperity is about wealth and good fortune, this set is about the dregs of society and the squalor it thrives in. Many of the cards' names fit well with this theme: Beggar, Death Cart, Graverobber, Hermit, Junk Dealer, Rats, Scavenger, Vagrant, etc.
As far as new mechanics and new twists to the original game, Dark Ages has plenty of them. First off, it includes Shelters, which are cards that replace the Estates in your starting deck. They're worthless in terms of victory points, but give you little bonuses that can come into play during the game. For the first time in any set, none of the cards hand out Curses. Instead, a few cards hand out Ruins, which are essentially dead cards in your deck that provide the smallest of benefits. Also, some cards gain you Spoils, which are essentially one-time-use Golds.
Looking at the new kingdom decks, the big theme here is the Trash. Some trash your own cards, some trash your opponents' cards, some trash themselves, some allow you to get things out of the trash (a first in Dominion), and some give you a benefit when they get trashed. Obviously, if you like trashing cards in Dominion, you'll love this set; if you don't like the trashing concept, steer clear of this expansion.
What else is new? Well, one of the kingdom decks - Rats - includes 20 cards, making it the only kingodm deck to include more than 12 cards. Another kingdom deck - Knights - is made up of 10 unique cards. A couple other kingdom decks allow you to gain cards from their own special non-supply piles. This has been done before with Tournament from Dominion: Cornucopia, but the special piles in Dark Ages are full 10-card decks.
In short, Dark Ages provides a wealth of variety, mechanics, strategy, and tactics to an already deep game system. If you like Dominion and its expansions, you'll no doubt like Dark Ages as well. If you're new to Dominion, this may not be your best choice for getting deeper into the game. Due to its trashing effects and sheer size, its learning curve is a bit steeper than other expansions.
As far as new mechanics and new twists to the original game, Dark Ages has plenty of them. First off, it includes Shelters, which are cards that replace the Estates in your starting deck. They're worthless in terms of victory points, but give you little bonuses that can come into play during the game. For the first time in any set, none of the cards hand out Curses. Instead, a few cards hand out Ruins, which are essentially dead cards in your deck that provide the smallest of benefits. Also, some cards gain you Spoils, which are essentially one-time-use Golds.
Looking at the new kingdom decks, the big theme here is the Trash. Some trash your own cards, some trash your opponents' cards, some trash themselves, some allow you to get things out of the trash (a first in Dominion), and some give you a benefit when they get trashed. Obviously, if you like trashing cards in Dominion, you'll love this set; if you don't like the trashing concept, steer clear of this expansion.
What else is new? Well, one of the kingdom decks - Rats - includes 20 cards, making it the only kingodm deck to include more than 12 cards. Another kingdom deck - Knights - is made up of 10 unique cards. A couple other kingdom decks allow you to gain cards from their own special non-supply piles. This has been done before with Tournament from Dominion: Cornucopia, but the special piles in Dark Ages are full 10-card decks.
In short, Dark Ages provides a wealth of variety, mechanics, strategy, and tactics to an already deep game system. If you like Dominion and its expansions, you'll no doubt like Dark Ages as well. If you're new to Dominion, this may not be your best choice for getting deeper into the game. Due to its trashing effects and sheer size, its learning curve is a bit steeper than other expansions.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
fun for future rulers of the world
Game is fun to learn and challenging for older kids and adults. Some cards are more useful for strategy than others, but you can pick and choose.
Published 4 days ago by queenofmydomain
5.0 out of 5 stars
great addition
This is a great ADDITION to a great game. Don't go buying it expecting the full Dominion game, though. It's an addition to the main game. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Christina
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good expansion
This was a very fun expansion! I would recommend this product to anyone who has played the other Dominion expansions :)
Published 15 days ago by Marna
5.0 out of 5 stars
REVIEWS DON'T LIE!@#!@ AMAZING!@#!
This is an amazing expansion! You won't be disappointed! Coming from a 26 yr old hippie.... I F-ING LOVE THIS EXPANSION!@#@!!!! BLARG!@#!
Published 17 days ago by Andrew
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another well done expansion
As with the other expansions it adds a new dimension to the game and makes it all fresh again. I'd still have to say Prosperity is my favorite expansion, followed by Seaside. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Matt Accola
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best....
....of what are all good expansions actually. I had no Dominion products until recently and this was one of the first expansions I picked up. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kevin Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much fun
Love it! Makes a great addition to my dominion set. I like the victory point coin bits even though i can't seem to win with them.
Published 1 month ago by Kristina
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Price for a Great Game Expansion
Dominion is an awesome game. Have all the expansions so far. This one os the latest an has some very interesting twists to it. I recommend it to anyone who has Dominion.
Published 2 months ago by C. Fearnow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great addition!
Our family now has 5 Dominion boxes! We have the base, Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity and Dark Ages. Dark Ages is a great mix to add to the base or Prosperity. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lorie B
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best expansion to date!
I love the new ways of play. Only 1 or 2 useless cards. Opens up lots of great strategies. Thanks for a fab game and expansions.
Published 2 months ago by gadgetmom52
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