Dominion: Hinterlands

[BubbleBoy]

The cards from the new Dominion expansion, Hinterlands, are now available for play online at dominion.isotropic.org!

The Hinterlands rules are also available here.

I'm pretty sure this is my absolute favorite Dominion set so far (Even though Tunnel is totally OP). The theme is cards that have effects immediately when you buy them. So far, Mint is the only card that has done something like this, so this set adds a whole new level of strategy to the game.

[TimMierz]

I've played with Hinterlands on Isotropic quite a bit the last day or two, and it's got some neat stuff. One of my favorite cards is the silly Jack of All Trades, which lets you gain a silver, spy the top card of your deck, draw up to 5, and trash a non-treasure. Oh, and Trader is absurd and awesome! (Trash a card, gain a number of silvers equal to its cost. As a reaction, whenever you would gain a card, you can gain a Silver instead.)

[The Schaef]

I'm not sure why Tunnel is OP - if anything, it's a great counter to cards like Militia, Ghost Ship, Pirate Ship, Tribute, etc, which are all powerful attack cards.

Our test games saw a lot more action with Mandarin than most other cards, especially when combined with Royal Seal.

[BubbleBoy]

One of my favorite cards is the silly Jack of All Trades, which lets you gain a silver, spy the top card of your deck, draw up to 5, and trash a non-treasure.

Yeah, I laughed when I saw that card. Still haven't played with it yet, though.

Oh, and Trader is absurd and awesome! (Trash a card, gain a number of silvers equal to its cost. As a reaction, whenever you would gain a card, you can gain a Silver instead.)

Definitely absurd. Actually drained a Silver pile one game. Not the most fun card IMO though.

I'm not sure why Tunnel is OP - if anything, it's a great counter to cards like Militia, Ghost Ship, Pirate Ship, Tribute, etc, which are all powerful attack cards.

Tunnel would be good enough just as a 3-cost 2-VP card. Yet it can also get you GOLDS, not only when you are attacked by any of a number of cards, but also when using simple cards like Cellar and Warehouse and a lot of the cards from Hinterlands. (By the way, Tribute is not technically an attack.)

Our test games saw a lot more action with Mandarin than most other cards, especially when combined with Royal Seal.

Mandarin + Royal Seal can be a hoot, but I haven't found Mandarin to be all that useful in most scenarios. Every once in a while, it can be nice to put your Gold and Silver back on your deck to get a prov next turn, but that's about the best use I've found for it.

Also, just played a game with Scheme, and I totally dig it.

This set is a lot like Seaside, except instead of cards that do things later than usual, we have cards that do things earlier than usual.

[The Schaef]

(By the way, Tribute is not technically an attack.)

But that's exactly why it's so difficult to defend against - because it's not classified as an attack card, a lot of the cards you would normally play in response are no use against it.  That makes it worse in some ways than a regular attack.

[BubbleBoy]

Which makes Tunnel that much better.

[The Schaef]

rrrright.... which is why I included it on that list... and then you started to nitpick... so I'm wondering where you're going with this.

[BubbleBoy]

The nitpicking was by no means meant to be the focus of my post. You just referred to Tribute as an attack card, and I attempted to correct that. But the main point of my comment was to illustrate the power of Tunnel. Apologies if I was unclear.

[The Schaef]

It is not a strict attack type card but the only reason for that is that the game defines attack cards strictly as those that affect all other players, whereas cards like Tribute and Possession only affect one other player.  The point was that there are cards other players use against you and that Tunnel is a good defense against that.  The exact classification of Tribute doesn't change that point at all.

There are lots of cards that put coins in your deck and I would imagine a lot of people who grumble about the "silver strategy" would also grumble about Tunnel.  But going coin-heavy leaves you vulnerable to other cards as well.  I haven't really seen this card result in runaway games when played, is all I'm saying.