The Ludarium · Teach sheet
Teach Dominion in ten minutes
2 to 4 (5 or 6 with the Base Cards set) players · About 30 minutes
The goal: Build a better deck as you play, then use it to collect the most victory points by the end.
On your turn
- Action: you may play 1 Action card. +Actions let you play more.
- Finish each card, top to bottom, before you play the next.
- Buy: play any Treasures, then buy 1 card costing up to your total.
- Bought cards go to your discard pile. +Buys let you buy more.
- Clean-up: discard your hand and every card you played.
- Draw 5. If your deck runs short, shuffle your discard pile under it.
Three tips for your first game
- Buy a Province whenever you have $8.
- Early on, Silver beats a cheap Action card you have no plan for.
- Without Villages, one or two Smithies is plenty.
Setup
- Each player shuffles 7 Coppers and 3 Estates face down as their deck.
- Lay out the 7 Base piles: Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, Curse.
- Estates, Duchies, Provinces: 8 each for 2 players, 12 each for 3 or 4.
- Curses: 10 for 2 players, 20 for 3, 30 for 4.
- First game: Cellar, Market, Merchant, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Smithy, Village, Workshop.
- Put out 10 of each Kingdom card (Gardens: 8 for 2 players, 12 for 3 or 4).
- Put the Trash mat nearby.
- Pick a first player at random. Everyone draws 5 cards.
Scoring
- Copper is worth $1 to spend, Silver $2, Gold $3.
- Estate 1 point, Duchy 3, Province 6. Each Curse is minus 1.
- At the end, count every card you own: hand, deck, and discard.
- Most points wins. A tie goes to whoever took fewer turns.
Game end: The game ends after any turn in which the Province pile is empty or any three Supply piles are empty.