Rio Grande GamesDominion Base Cards

We really like Dominion, but the truth is, we prefer Ticket to Ride.Don't get me wrong, we do enjoy a game of Dominion but the majority of the extensions are either not appealing to us, or simply too expensive.The fact that Dominion is for only 4 players IS an obstacle...Enter the Base Cards, which provide 2 major improvements over Dominion.The Base Cards now allows you to play with up to 6 players with additional base cards: plenty of Copper (60), Silver (40) and Gold (30) as well as Estate (24), Duchy (12), Provinces (12) and curses cards(30). You even get 16 potions to increase the pile if you bought Alchemy.With 5 players, use 15 provinces/duchy and for 6 players, use 18 provinces. That's right, with this set, you have 6 extra cards so in theory, you could play with up to 8 players!You should however add 1 Kingdom card per player above 4 and ignore the "3 supply pile" rule.But each of these cards are completely redesigned with much nicer pictures so that they are more than just a big number, so I recommend that for 2-4 player games, you can just use the new cards.For me however, the biggest advantage to the game is the addition of 12 Colony (11g to buy, 10 victory points) and 12 Platinum coin (9g to buy and gives 5 gold).You can otherwise only get these 2 cards from the Prosperity expansion (for almost 3 times the cost of the base cards) and you can add them to ANY game of Dominion, not just those with Prosperity.I personally sleeve my cards but I managed to fit everything I might use in my Dominion box by putting the Platinum and the Colony in the randomizer cards spaces, and then, simply used an elastic to place the randomizer cards on top of the index column.I also placed the extra Gold, Silver, Etc... there.My base card box only has the extra curses (we don't like playing with the Witch) and Poitions (since we don't have alchemy).All and all, a great buy for a very low price.

I was uncertain whether this would be worth the money: sure, it's cheap, but it doesn't really let you do anything you couldn't before. In practice, I find it's surprisingly convenient. When we want to play with an expansion, now we just grab that expansion and the Base Cards, instead of lugging around the bulky base set box. The small size of the Base Cards box makes a huge difference.The new art is also a big draw. It's definitely an upgrade over the original; the potion is particularly beautiful. One drawback, though, is that it makes it harder to see (at a glance) the difference between card cost and value, both for victory and treasure. Take the Province: the original cards have a huge "6" on the front, but with the new cards, I've caught myself more than once counting them for 8 at game's end. We also had a new player try to buy a Gold for 3! These problems are minor (especially for experienced players), but they do pop up from time to time.Overall, the Base Card expansion is a surprisingly satisfying buy for Dominion lovers who have multiple expansions (we have all of them). That's the target demographic - if you're satisfied with just the Base Set and/or Intrigue, don't bother picking this up just for the new art.

My family loves to play Dominion! This is a must because it includes items from the base game while also times from particular expansions. OR, buy this and your preferred expansion since it has all of the base cards!

We originally played Dominion using the basic cards that come with the Dominion Big Box. The victory cards were somewhat dull but serviceable. The treasure cards, however, were a bit of a pain to use. All four treasures (copper, silver, gold, and platinum) had the same coin in the center of the card with a different number (1, 2, or 3) in the center. This made it difficult to differentiate between the three at a glance.The Dominion Base Cards set replaces all of the victory cards (estate, duchy, province, and colony), treasure cards (copper, silver, gold, and platinum), and curse cards along a trash card and a blank card. Although the improved graphics on the victory and curse cards are nice, it's the differentiated treasure cards that really sell this set. If you're a fan of Dominion, I highly recommend picking this up to improve your gameplay experience. You'll be able to tell instantly that a gold is gold, a copper is a copper, etc. This not only speeds up the game, but it also makes sorting your deck much easier at the end of the game.

I've been grabbing up every expansion as it comes out, so with both Dominion and Intrigue, I didn't really need more base cards. The lovely art on these cards, however, along with the reasonable price, convinced me to go ahead and upgrade, and I don't regret it at all.Beautiful new artwork for:CopperSilverGoldPlatinum (Introduced in Prosperity)Potion (Introduced in Alchemy)EstateDuchyProvinceColony (Introduced in Prosperity)CurseAnd a new Trash card to boot.The only issue was needing to acquire two packs in order to have enough for the 5-6 player variant introduced in Intrigue, but as that is a variant and not the core game, it's understandable. And again, the price was reasonable enough that I didn't mind. A great product for a great game.