Dominion is the game that made deck building famous, and it won the Spiel des Jahres along the way. Everyone begins with the same small, weak deck. On your turn you play a hand of cards, use the money in it to buy one new card, and put everything in your discard pile. When your deck runs out, you shuffle and draw from the cards you bought. Your deck gets better as you play, and the cards that win the game are the ones that clog it.
This lesson covers the rules of the current second edition from Rio Grande Games, using the rulebook’s terms.
What is in the box?
The box holds 500 cards and a Trash mat.
- Treasures: 60 Copper, 40 Silver, and 30 Gold.
- Victory cards: 24 Estates, 12 Duchies, and 12 Provinces.
- Curses: 30 of them, worth minus 1 point each.
- Kingdom cards: 26 different cards: 10 copies each of 25 of them, plus 12 Gardens.
- Randomizer cards: one of each Kingdom card, with a blue border on the back. Keep them separate from the playing cards.
Costs and money show as a coin with a number. We write them as $1, $2, and so on.
How do you set up?
- Each player takes 7 Coppers and 3 Estates, shuffles them, and puts them face down. That is your deck.
- Lay out the 7 Base piles, face up: Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, and Curse. Together with the Kingdom piles, these make the Supply.
- Use every remaining Copper, Silver, and Gold. Use 8 Estates, 8 Duchies, and 8 Provinces with 2 players, or 12 of each with 3 or 4.
- Use 10 Curses with 2 players, 20 with 3, and all 30 with 4.
- Choose 10 Kingdom cards and put out 10 copies of each. A Victory Kingdom card such as Gardens uses 8 copies with 2 players, or 12 with 3 or 4. For your first game, the rulebook names this set: Cellar, Market, Merchant, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Smithy, Village, and Workshop.
- Put the Trash mat near the piles.
- Pick a first player at random. Everyone draws 5 cards from their own deck.
Sorting the Kingdom piles by cost makes them easier to read across the table.
What do you do on your turn?
Three phases, in order. The rulebook calls them ABC.
A: Action. You may play one Action card from your hand. Put it in front of you and do what it says, top to bottom. Some cards give +1 Action or +2 Actions, which let you play more Action cards this turn. Finish the card you are playing before you start the next one. You never have to play an Action.
B: Buy. Play any number of Treasures from your hand: Copper gives $1, Silver $2, Gold $3. Add in any money your Actions gave you. Then buy one card from the Supply costing that much or less. The card goes into your discard pile, not your hand. A card with +1 Buy lets you buy one more card and split your money between them. You may also buy nothing.
One timing rule matters: play your Treasures first, then buy. You cannot add more Treasures after you buy.
C: Clean-up. Put every card you played and every card left in your hand into your discard pile. Then draw 5 new cards. Unused Actions, Buys, and money are gone; every turn starts fresh.
When do you shuffle?
Only when you need a card and your deck is empty or too small. If you need 5 cards and only 2 are left, shuffle your discard pile, put it under those 2, and draw. Do not shuffle early, even if your deck is down to one card.
This is the heart of the game. Every card you buy waits in your discard pile, then joins your deck on the next shuffle.
What do the card words mean?
| Text | What it does |
|---|---|
| +1 Card | Draw a card right away |
| +1 Action | You may play one more Action card this turn |
| +1 Buy | You may buy one more card this turn |
| +$1 | One more coin to spend this turn |
| Gain | Take a card from the Supply, to your discard pile unless the card says otherwise |
| Trash | Put a card on the Trash mat. It is out of your deck for good |
What are Attacks and Reactions?
In the First Game set, Militia is an Attack: it gives you +$2, and every other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. Moat is a Reaction. When another player plays an Attack, you may reveal Moat from your hand first, and the Attack does not affect you. Moat stays in your hand, and on your own turn it plays as +2 Cards.
How does the game end?
The game ends at the end of a turn if the Province pile is empty, or if any three Supply piles are empty. Every pile counts: Kingdom piles, Curses, even Copper.
Then gather all your cards, from your hand, deck, and discard pile, and count points:
- Estate: 1 point
- Duchy: 3 points
- Province: 6 points
- Curse: minus 1 point
Most points wins. If players tie, the tied player who took fewer turns wins. If they took the same number of turns, they share the win.
That is the whole game. If you want the bigger picture of where deck building came from, our explainer on deck building games tells the story.
Next lesson
How to Teach Dominion
Next, the ten-minute teach. You get a host script in the order you would say it, so the whole table learns at once.
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Learn Dominion, teach it in ten minutes, and turn seven Coppers and three Estates into a deck that buys Provinces on time. Free, one short lesson at a time.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with Rio Grande Games. Dominion is a trademark of Rio Grande Games.