Customer Reviews

Dominion: Alchemy

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dominion: Alchemy is an expansion to the Dominion card game series. You will need Dominion or Dominion Intrigue in order to play Alchemy.

Dominion: Alchemy is the smallest expansion to date, bringing 12 new kingdom cards and a new treasure card to the table. Alchemy brings a new theme and some very interesting cards to the table, but it can feel awkward to integrate Alchemy cards into a "normal" game without a keen understanding of the cards and a sound strategy. Specifically, the "Potions" resource is implemented, the crux of this expansion. The Potion is a treasure card, costing 4, necessary to purchase most Alchemy cards. Whenever a Potion appears in hand, it nearly forces players to purchase an Alchemy card, and, without extra buys, players often waste treasure purchasing them, as they cost very little but require a potion in addition to the treasure cost. Since Potions have no other benefits, they can easily become worthless cards cycling through the deck.

On a positive note, the majority of the artwork for the Alchemy cards is beautiful. Having been disappointed with many of the illustrations in Seaside, particularly, Alchemy brings some redemption to the aesthetic appeal of Dominion. For those who may be concerned with the content of this specific Dominion theme, it should be known that a few of the cards, whether the art or indicated by the card name, are dark in nature. The cards in question can be, in my opinion, easily avoided (in gameplay with children, for example) or discarded, if you so desire.

In my experience, playing with Alchemy cards makes for a longer game, especially if you are playing with those new to Alchemy. Alchemy lends itself to advanced players and should be avoided in play with newcomers to Dominion. Beware; an Alchemy game may conclude and you might feel as though you only pursued bunny trails the entire time. Is it any surprise though, since the art of alchemy lead to a lot of nothing? Though intriguing, Alchemy is probably the most superfluous of the Dominion series. My opinion is that many will buy this expansion more out of excitement or for a sense of completion for their collection.

Got Dominion: Alchemy for my birthday today.

Have played a couple rounds with it so far and if my opinion changes on the game I will update this review.

Dominion is me and my wife's favorite game and was thrilled to get this present.

I really enjoyed the potion as a new type of treasure card and like the complexity of the new cards like Possession (where you get to play the next player's turn on the left).

However, I would get Dominion first. Since it is the basic game and has the simplest cards. Then Dominion: Seaside which plays well on its own and has more fun cards then Intrigue. And then Dominion: Intrigue since it lets you play with 5-6 players well and interacts especially well with Seaside.

As far as Dominion: Alchemy goes I would wait until you are an experienced player and have played the first 3 sets quite a few times and would like a challenge.

This is definitely an more advanced group of 12 action cards (plus Potion - a new treasure card) and I suggest it for advanced players only.

But if you have heard good things about Dominion - and want to try it I would start with regular Dominion and work from there.

Edmund

Two of my favorite cards in the three Dominion games that I own (Base, Intrigue, and Alchemy) are in this series. I absolutely love the Philosopher's Stone card - a treasure that increases in value the more you increase the number of cards in your deck. I love the Vineyards victory card, which opens up a brand new strategy for winning Dominion games. In addition, many of these cards pair very well with Intrigue and Dominion base cards, which to me is what Dominion is all about: Finding strong pairings early and building quickly on a sound strategy.

Because of the uniqueness of this set of cards and the extra decision you have to make with buying a potion card that does little for you unless there are "must purchase with potion" action/treasure/victory cards out there that you want to buy (or a remodel that converts it to a gold), this set can't help but give you more exciting strategies for winning games.

My DH and I play at least one round of Dominion nearly every night, and we have every expansion now. Alchemy is a neat little addition to the Dominion world. You can tell that the makers of the game enjoy Eragon (Inheritance) and its sequels from the names they use. :)

Fans of Dominion will have long since acquired Alchemy and learned all about it from [...], but for those new to Dominion, let me say that you WILL need either Dominion or Dominion:Intrigue to play with Alchemy.

Dominion is part board game, part card game -- since there's no "board," -- played with Treasures, Victory cards, and other cards that help you gain the Victory cards called "Kingdom" cards. And each set of 10 cards you use in a game determines different strategies you can use to gain the Victory cards. And for those who have not yet played Dominion, you won't understand the rest of the review. :)

Alchemy adds two Treasure cards, one Victory card, and about 10 action or action/attack cards to the game. Like Dominion:Seaside, these cards add a distinctive twist to the games you play with them.

My DH and I enjoy Alchemy. Some aspects of it lengthen 4-player games interminably. And the Potion treasure card would be nearly useless if you played a game with fewer than 3 potion kingdom cards in it. That said, it adds tremendously to the types of strategy you can use with Dominion, and we really enjoy it.

I'm a fan of Dominion, it opened up the door for me to other non CCG card games, and it is on regular rotation at our monthly Game Day events. Alchemy, however, is almost never included anymore, as the concensus seems to be that it just isn't worth it. It isn't a bad expansion, but it really isn't worth it to mix with other sets (for the most part, I wouldn't use less than 60% Alchemy cards). The big problem being that, to use the cards, you have to have an additional card in your hand (Potion) that is completely useless with other sets. Thankfully there are some serious card drawing engines here that make getting and using said Potions easy, but this just feels more like a standalone product then the other sets. I guess that isn't necessarily a bad thing; its still fun, it just doesn't add much to the other sets so much as cards from other sets benefit this particular expansion.

If you're new to the game and want to get all the available sets, I would suggest Amazon's big box edition, Seaside and Intrigue (in that order) or Dominion, Prosperity, Seaside, Intrigue and Alchemy (also in that order).

I've spent a lot of time playing Dominion and its expansions. Dominion: Alchemy is a smaller expansion set and introduces the Potion treasure card. I recommend (and I believe the rules recommend) playing with 3-5 cards from this expansion with the base set or Intrigue set. It is a ton of fun when played that way. However, if one randomizes everything and only 1 or 2 Alchemy cards are used then the fun level goes way down. This is probably the weakest expansion set for Dominion so far, but the game is still outstanding no matter what. This set is worth owning if you're going to have any expansions for Dominion at all.

I'm a huge fan of Dominion and have all of the expansions. Alchemy to me was one that fell short, as there's only around 12 new cards instead of the other expansions, which had around 25 each. That in itself wouldn't be so much of a problem, however, Alchemy introduces a new currency card that can only be used to purchase cards from the Alchemy set; so in order to make it worthwhile, one normally has to play with at least three cards from the Alchemy set every game that one wants to use the Alchemy expansion.

Alchemy does not include the starting cards that one needs to play Dominion (Providences, Golds/Silvers/Coppers, etc,) and is just an expansion.

I've been playing Dominion for a little over a year now on a pretty regular basis and it's really nice that they are putting out new expansions to keep the game fresh, though it never really got stale since the overwhelming potential combinations even just from the base game are staggering. Anyway, out of the expansions so far I like Alchemy the least because of the new potion mechanics, but once you get into it it's still fun. I would say I prefer Seaside and Intrigue as expansions though, so if you're looking for a good expansion check those out before trying Alchemy. Also keep in mind that Alchemy is a slightly smaller expansion with less cards and combinations as Intrigue and Seaside. Happy Dominioning!

I am fairly new to Dominion and Alchemy was the first expansion I bought. After reading through some of the other reviews, I saw things written that I don't really agree with. Mainly that Alchemy ultimately serves only as a rabbit hole that doesn't lead anywhere. I just don't get that. Again, I'm new to Dominion and I'm not sure I understand the nuances of the game's strategy, but to me it seems that in the game's beginning you buy action cards as opposed to Victory points in order to acquire more money in each hand as the game progresses, enabling you to then buy higher dollar Victory points. There are a lot of money making cards in Alchemy (Apothecary comes to mind, Philosopher's Stone, ...) that have no point BUT to give you big money. Thus enabling you to buy more Victory points. This actually makes for SHORTER games in my opinion. Although, there are some cards that do require you to for instance count your entire deck (actually, that's Philosopher's Stone) which slows down game play, but it can lead to bbiigg money. Which enables you to buy more Victory cards, which is the ultimate point of the game. Potions can pollute your deck if you buy a lot of them, so just buy a couple!

All this said, this is just an expansion to add different cards to the existing game(s). If you are happy with the existing games as they are or are looking for a completely different feel and experience, this expansion might not be for you. But if you want to just mix it up a little and add some interesting elements to the game, like Potion treasures and Possession of other players, this is a great addition for only $30 (less on Amazon). For what it is, I really like it. For what it is, 5 stars.

My wife and I have a similar play style in that we don't often use "attack" cards and so we got this expansion kit. It's good for what it has. What others said about potion is true; it can get in the way (just like the 1 point VP cards) of cards you need.
Due to the lack of +money on the cards, the addition of the Stone card, and the fact that this expansion pack needs a bit more thought about strateghy, games can take a bit longer, and by a bit, I mean 75+ minutes per game if using the pre-suggested combinations. When combined wisely with Dominion (original), the games are fun and have more variety (Festival, Adventurer, and Throne Room are good ones to use with Alchemy), but when heavily biased with cards that don't promote monetary gain (ie, the opposite of "Big Money" card set, the game will drag on.

Based on the re-playability factor, I would mostly recommend it especially when playing with 3 or 4 people if you like to have more strategy based gameplay without all the attacking of Intrigue, but I would like to see it cost $5-10 less for the amount of cards in the set.