Dominion Gardens, Rushes, and Three-Pile Endings

Most Dominion plans try to build a good deck. A rush does the opposite. It builds a big, clumsy deck on purpose, scores points by size, and ends the game on piles before the other players are ready. In the base set, the rush is Workshop and Gardens, and it is worth knowing from both sides of the table.

How Gardens scores

Gardens costs $4 and is worth 1 point for every full 10 cards you own at the end, rounding down. At 39 cards, each Gardens is worth 3. At 40, each is worth 4. The pile has 8 copies with 2 players and 12 with 3 or 4.

A normal deck of 20 to 25 cards makes Gardens worth 2, which is less than a Duchy. A deck of 40 or more makes it worth 4, which beats a Duchy and comes from a $4 card.

The Workshop and Gardens rush

Workshop costs $3 and gains a card costing up to $4. It is the engine of the rush: every Workshop played adds a card without spending money. The plan, in rough order:

1. Buy and gain Workshops early.
2. Once you have plenty, gain Gardens with every Workshop and buy Gardens with $4.
3. When Gardens run low or out, take Estates, and Coppers when nothing else is useful.
4. Aim to empty three piles: Workshop, Gardens, and Estates.

With 2 players, those three piles hold 26 cards: 10 Workshops, 8 Gardens, and 8 Estates. A rush that takes most of them, plus Coppers along the way, ends with a big deck and the game over.

A simple two-player simulation of this plan against plain Big Money, with no other cards in play, has the rush winning most games, ending in about 18 turns with a deck of about 40 cards. Simple bots are not real players, and your results will vary, but the lesson holds: in a kingdom with Workshop and Gardens, Big Money alone is not enough.

How to spot a rush

Watch the discard piles and the Supply. A player who buys a Workshop, then another, then a third on a $4 hand, is probably rushing. When the Workshop pile drops fast, start counting.

How to stop one

• Take Gardens yourself. Each Gardens you take is one the rusher does not get. Even if it is worth only 2 to you, it may cost them 4.
• Do not empty piles for them. Avoid buying the last cards of a low pile unless that wins you the game.
• Green earlier. Against a rush, the game will be short. Start Duchies sooner than you would against money, and buy Provinces whenever you can.
• Know what your attacks do to them. Militia helps less than usual, because a Workshop needs only one card to work. Witch helps less too. Each Curse costs the rusher 1 point, but it is also one more card for their Gardens. With 8 Gardens, 10 Curses would cost 10 points and add up to 8 back through the Gardens, so the damage is small.

Counting piles in any game

The three-pile ending is not just for rushes. In any game, keep a running count:

• Which piles are empty? One empty pile is a warning. Two means any turn could end the game.
• Which piles are low? A pile with two or three cards left can empty in one turn with +Buy.
• Who benefits? If you are ahead, an ending on piles is your friend. If you are behind, you want the game to go on.

The Curse pile counts. In a two-player Witch game, all 10 Curses can be gone by the midgame, and that empty pile brings a three-pile ending closer. With 5 or 6 players, the rulebook raises the bar to four empty piles.

Poacher, a $4 card in the base set, gives +1 Card, +1 Action, and +$1, then makes you discard one card per empty Supply pile. In a long game with piles emptying, it gets weaker.

Ending it yourself

When you are ahead and two piles are empty, look for a turn where +Buy lets you take the last cards of a third. Count the score first: you must be strictly ahead after your buy. If you tie, the tiebreaker goes to the player with fewer turns, and if you went first, that is not you. The endgame lesson has the full tiebreaker math.

Rushes are rare in random kingdoms, but they decide games when they appear. Once you have seen one coming, you will never ignore the Workshop pile again.