Rio Grande Games Dominion: Renaissance

This review is for the Renaissance expansion, as the Renaissance was listed together with the Second Edition base Dominion set.Dominion: Renaissance is great. It balances adding some clever mechanics that promote interesting and varied strategies while still remaining very approachable and fun to play. It will be equally fun for both high-level and casual play.Renaissance is quite possibly the best expansion created yet. It's easy enough to be a first expansion as well. If you have any interest in Dominion and are looking for more, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one (even over Prosperity and Seaside). I have a personal love for Adventures, Empires and even most aspects of Nocturne, but they are slightly more complex (especially Nocturne).The mechanics:The coin and action saving tokens (collected on your Coffers and Villagers mats, respectively) are great to use. Coffers return from the Guilds expansion. Having the ability to smooth out your purchasing power across turns or even save up for a big turn is very powerful and strategic. The Villagers can really get you out of a bind when you draw actions you couldn't otherwise play. They even allow you to use more cards that don't give +Action in your deck than you otherwise would. The provided cards also dole them out in interesting ways.The Artifacts are passive ability-granting cards that you hold on to that stay out of your deck. There is only one copy of each and players fulfilling certain conditions on the corresponding Kingdom card can take it away for themselves. Flag Bearer in particular seems to get stolen a lot, as the person holding it basically gets a 6 card hand instead of 5. They are fun and provide a interesting form of player interaction aside from Attack cards, though there are only 4 Kingdom cards that use Artifacts.This expansion is light on attack cards: there are only 2, which isn't really a problem due to the Artifacts.The Projects provide an extra ability for the rest of the game after you buy them, and are often very useful. Sometimes it comes down to when you should buy them, not if. Some are very fun, such as Citadel, that's like an automatic Throne Room at the start of each turn. There are 20 in total and you'll want to include 1 or 2 in every game you play, whether or not you use the other Renaissance cards in a given game.There are also a fair number of Kingdom cards that don't use any of the new mechanics. Some use parts of mechanics from prior sets (e.g. Duration cards from Seaside, when-trash abilities from Dark Ages, and when-gain abilities from Hinterlands, cost reduction from Intrigue, etc.). These are also well put together and interesting without being overly complex. Even the most complex cards, (possibly Improve, Research and the Capitalism Project) aren't that hard to understand.The components:The only slight issue is here are some slight printing coloration issues where the tint of the card fronts doesn't always match that of prior expansions - they are generally lighter. The backs are ever so slightly different as well, but not enough to notice unless you're looking. It hasn't been an issue in my play group yet. The other components (mats, tokens, and wooden project tracking cubes) are high quality and look nice.

I love this expansion pack, it is an expansion pack so make sure to have a base set, but I love the new cards that allow for saving up money or actions so you dont have to feel like your hand is waisted when you have all actions that dont allow for more actions. I also love the artifact cards they give special actions.My husband and have played a few times from the set suggestions in the instruction book and a time or two mixing it up and just fanning and pulling 10 cards.

Fast shipping. Expertly boxed. Dominion is a classic and this is one not to be missed.

Pro: I like the new expansion. It adds some nice new options to an already full game.Con: The closest thing I have to a problem with this is that there are fewer cards than a box this size needs, so the extra "cost" involved is for the metal tokens, which a) although good quality, are the same tokens as were included in other expansions except for a few wooden cubes, and b) one could use a handful of mixed coins or other stuff found around the house just as easily.As of the writing of this review, the game is on sale at a discounted price, and that price (16% off) I feel is a more accurate value, due to there being fewer cards. Still, over all, that does not bring the review down a full star, and I would not have felt cheated if I had paid full price.

We love to play Dominion! This expansion offers unique varieties for play.

This expansion is one of the best. Adds several exciting and interesting wrinkles, that make games more fun (as opposed to just tedious or complex). Great quality components, boards, etc.If I have one complaint, it's that the card print quality is way off for my "Cargo Ship" card. Instead of orange, like the other duration cards, my cargo ship is beige, like the "tavern mat" cards.10/10 Pure Class

great! tnx a lot

I've never felt like a Dominion set has openly power-creeped previously released cards until Renaissance. There are just a lot of very strong cards for all player types. I loved every game of this that I played; however I felt like some cards from the past were going to be outright forgotten unless randomized in when taking this set into account.It's a great expansion, low on gimmicks and high on well designed cards.