Dominion: How to Play

Tutorial introducing the rules to play the Card game Dominion.

Background music:
The Mystical Way (Denis Gorodetskiy)
Braveheart (Henry Gorman)
Air Castle (Wojciech Panufnik)

Note: The video forgets to explain the Treasure / Victory cards, available in the Intrigue expansion.

During the buy phase, they are worth coin.
At the end of the game, their Victory value is used to determine the winner.

[aquapony]

Thank you very much for this. I sat down today to learn this with my 5 year old and we struggled a bit with the concept. We understood the rules well enough, but the reasoning behind the play eluded us. This 13 minutes I have just spent has probably saved a few hours. Now I can reread the rules with a clear understanding of what is going on. I would rate your presentation as excellent.

[MrMessengerPig]

I just found this game on Tabletop Simulator. The person I was playing with explained most of the rules to me, but your video was much easier to follow and remember. Thank you!

[MrSoundofmusic]

I've played this game before, and you showed me that I've been doing it wrong all along! Thank you this really makes more sense now! I can't wait to share this game with my kids!

[petercram]

Very well done tutorial. I understand it much better than the instructions that come with the game. Thanks a lot.

[Kindlesmith]

Holy crap, Tanto Cuore is so much like this! From all that's been said up to 7:15 I already know how to play Dominion never having touched it before all because of how closely Tanto Cuore is to it. That being said, Tanto Cuore has a different mechanic which places cards out of deck, generally used for scoring points at the end of the game but sometimes also providing other benefits or drawbacks.
This is a well presented video. Thank you for the insight into the game.

[GibloxCrumb]

Great video!! It really helped how you showed the first couple of rounds.

[alamnash]

Great job on the explanation. Thanks so much. Got Dominion for Christmas, can't wait to play.

[punchb]

You have several mistakes:

1) You forget to mention that ALL Victory piles get 8 cards in 2-player games (for instance Gardens).

2) The value of your Treasure cards does not break ties! That would seriously alter the game. Rather the tie breaks in favor of the player who had the fewest turns. If it's the same number of turns, they share the victory.

3) You say that Reaction cards "thwart" the attack, but this is only strictly true for Moat.

4) As others have noted, none of the players in your sample game have a correct opening deck of 7 coppers and 3 estates.

5) You should always include Curses. Some cards may make you want to buy a Curse, or choose Curse for some reason (like Swindler in Intrigue) and you should never limit a choice that a player might make that maybe you didn't even think about. In later expansions this will be more important.

6) This only matters for later expansions (starting in Prosperity), but you don't get coins from "cards in hand". You have to PLAY the Treasure cards to produce the coins.

[ModernJillian]

This was amazing, very informative for learning the first time. Thank you for taking the elaborate time to compile this.

[asmodeusblint]

Great work there really clear and well explained ! the démo must have been a llong job but it was worth it. Im going to order a copy and YOU GOT A NEW FOLLOWER!

[Khorlith]

The songs are:
The Mystical Way (Denis Gorodetskiy)
Braveheart (Henry Gorman)
Air Castle (Wojciech Panufnik)

I list the songs in the description of the video.

[artjury]

You are superman!   Thank you sir!   Plan to play this afternoon,   thanks!

[BeefcakeMoney]

Great video. I was thinking about buying this game but was a bit put off by other videos I watched. This video made the game simple and easy to learn. I may have to pick it up!

[crasher]

First class job, yet again. I wish you had done this last month, when I played my first Dominion. Easy to learn, but hard to master.

[GusScottExley]

Great video. This is my first game if this type so found the instructions a little hard to follow. Your video provides much more info and is way more helpful.

[ShawnJepson]

Thanks for this.  Much easier than figuring it out from the instructions.

[AlexSem]

Great. After 15 minutes I already know how to play it (it will take some time to memorize a number of cards to set up though).

[CodeDreamer]

Nicely done. Thank you for donating your time and skill. It is appreciated.

[hellwroughtangel]

Wow, great video. I know how to play it, but can't teach how to play it so this helps a lot. :)

[whatever]

Our first few games involved the 10 suggested "starter" cards, which are pretty bland. We've since added other cards in and are starting to see the way they play off one another and how you can start planning strategies. Thanks for your response.