The award-winning card game Dominion is back with another expansion called Dominion: Alchemy. A new resource type – potions – is added to the mix, and your battles against fellow land-grabbing monarchs has just become more complicated. With the power of Alchemy in your hands, you are now able to access new powers such as possession, transmutation and golem-making. Things just got a whole lot more explosive in your quest for Dominion!

Dominion has been a best-selling card game since its debut in 2008 and winning the prestigious Spiel des Jahres and Deutscher Spiele Preis awards the year after. It has acquired more and more fans every time an expansion was released. We’ve had the chance to submerge ourselves in a bit of Intrigue and had a few naval battles on the Seaside, and now we get to dabble in some Alchemy.

The gameplay is shaken up when a new treasure resource is added to the mix, and powerful cards are introduced that can manipulate your decks to a greater degree, and even manipulate other players’ actions! If you want to know more about how the base game is played, please read our Dominion review. This review focuses on the Dominion: Alchemy expansion, which requires either the base Dominion game or the standalone Intrigue expansion to play.

As the name implies, Alchemy introduces cards that revolve around alchemical powers and mysterious experiments. More importantly, these powerful cards need more than good old coin to buy. They need a new resource: potions. Not only will you need enough coin in your hand to buy these cards (the most expensive of which cost 6 coins), but you need to have a potion card in hand as well. Interestingly enough, there are still no cards that cost 7 coins as of this expansion.

Since potions cost 4 coins apiece, and you are still limited to a base draw of 5 cards a turn, the old cost structure of the game will have to be thrown out the window. You will have to develop a new strategy on how much coin and how many potions you want to buy. It all depends on how heavily you want to focus on potions and the powerful new Alchemy cards.

So what are these new cards? Only some of the most game-changing cards to be introduced into the game. One example is the Vineyard card which costs just one potion. Each Vineyard is worth 1 Victory Point for every 3 action cards in your deck. Now you can’t laugh at those action-heavy decks because they have become a great way to produce cool abilities as well as earn VPs! You may ask why there are vineyards in the Alchemy expansion. How else will the alchemists get their inspiration and motivation?

There are also powerful deck-management cards such as Transmute. This card lets you turn any victory card in your hand into gold, or any action into a Duchy, or any treasure into another Transmute. There is also the Golem card that lets you go through your deck and play the first 2 actions you see. And there’s the Herbalist who lets you place a treasure card you just used back onto the top of your deck ready for your next turn. Plenty of fun to go around!

The star of Dominion: Alchemy will have to be the Possession card. Costing a hefty 6 coins and 1 potion, this card basically lets you take control of another player! You get to use their hand and play their actions, and any card that you gain from this possession goes to you and not them. There’s also the Philosopher’s Stone card which is worth 1 coin for every 5 cards in your deck.

Some people have complained that this expansion has slowed down the game unnecessarily, especially with cards like the Philosopher’s Stone that make you keep counting the cards in your deck, or the Possession card that doubles the length of your turn. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, as turns go by so fast as it is anyway, that the game seems like a speed and reflex game. Either way, Dominion: Alchemy has managed to inject lots of new flavor and new mechanics into the game, keeping it fresh and explosive!

Complexity:  3.0/5.0  
Playing Time:  30 to 45 minutes
Number of Players:  2 to 4 players (up to 6 with the Intrigue expansion)

You can read more about Dominion: Alchemy at http://www.ageofboards.com/dominion-alchemy.html

The world of Dominion is about to get way darker and more sinister in Dominion: Intrigue, the first standalone expansion for the hit card game that took the world by storm. Mingle with shady conspirators, torturers and swindlers. Meet your contacts in the secret chamber or the shanty town. Make sure everyone knows who’s in charge around here. As they say, nice guys finish last. And the race for Dominion is about to get really dirty!

Dominion: Intrigue is a standalone expansion for the award-winning Dominion card game that shook the gaming world in 2008. Being a standalone expansion, it can be played together with the base game, but it can also be played just as well on its own. This review focuses on the Dominion: Intrigue expansion. If you want to know more about how the base game is played, please read our Dominion review.

As the name implies, the theme in Dominion: Intrigue is all about underhanded dealings and mysterious agents using covert tactics to help you achieve control. A large number of the cards in this set support that theme, actively tampering with your opponents’ hands and decks, and forcing them to trash valuable cards. A new card type is also introduced: cards that act as both victory cards as well as either treasure or action cards.

There are a number of dangerous-sounding cards in the set, with names like swindler, minion, saboteur and torturer. They also have dangerous abilities to match. The Saboteur is able to force opponents to trash an expensive card and replace it with something cheaper. For the same cost as a Silver, the Swindler lets you swap a card from opponents’ decks with another card of your choosing, in addition to providing you with 2 coins. The Torturer forces opponents to either discard 2 cards or draw a curse card, in addition to letting you draw 3 cards! These action-attack cards are just a few examples of the cards that will make life really difficult for your opponents. Some people have complained that Dominion is like a game of solitaire where you just focus on your own deck. Well, it’s evident that there’s going to be a whole lot more interaction in this expansion!

There is also a new type of card that was introduced in this expansion, or more accurately a new combination of card types. There are now cards that are a combination of a victory card and either an action or treasure card. Previously, players were hesitant (with good reason) to buy victory cards early, as drawing too many of them would mean you wouldn’t be able to play or buy anything. These new cards solve that problem. The Great Hall gives you an extra card and action in addition to a victory point, while the Harem gives you 2 coins and 2 victory points. These cards are a bit more expensive than comparable cards, but that’s the price you have to pay for flexibility!

There are plenty of other interesting cards in the set, including the Duke who is worth more victory points the more Duchies you have. There is also the Coppersmith that doubles the value of coppers, and the Bridge that makes every card cost 1 less. There is also the Wishing Well that rewards you if you can correctly guess the top card of your deck, and the Masquerade card that makes players give cards to each other. Plenty of fun to go around!

It is great to see Dominion grow with expansions like this, adding new themes and mechanics to an already-strong core game. The theme idea is really nice, allowing players to roleplay their quest for dominion, whether it be via open war or through subterfuge and stealth. There are also more thematic expansions coming our way; as of mid-2010, the Seaside and Alchemy expansions are available, and the Prosperity expansion is just round the corner.

Being a standalone expansion set with so many new game-changing cards, Dominion: Intrigue is awesome for both beginners and experienced players alike. You don’t need the base game to play it, but mixing the cards here with the core cards gives you so many more game variations and opens up very interesting strategies. And last but by no means least, this expansion allows up to 6 players to play the game!

Complexity:  2.5/5.0  
Playing Time:  30 to 45 minutes
Number of Players:  2 to 6 players

You can read more about Dominion: Intrigue at http://www.ageofboards.com/dominion-intrigue.html

One of the first card games I ever played, and one of the simplest games, was Old Maid. (War is probably simpler, but that’s another story.)

For those who have never played Old Maid, here are the rules using a store-bought deck of Old Maid cards. This deck consists of multiple pairs of matching cards and one Old Maid card.

One player shuffles the cards and deals them one at a time around the circle of players until all of the cards have been dealt. It doesn’t matter if some players have more cards than others. Each player looks at his cards and removes any matching pairs of cards, placing them face-up on the table.

Then the players take turns playing, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and moving clockwise around the circle. On your turn, take a card, unseen, from the first player to your right who has cards left to play. If that card matches a card in your hand, place that pair of cards on the pile of matches. If you run out of cards, you stop taking turns. You simply observe for the rest of the game.

Keep playing until the last pair of cards has been matched. The player left holding the Old Maid loses the game.

You can play Old Maid with a standard deck of playing cards. Just add a Joker, which takes the place of the Old Maid.

You can shorten the game if you remove cards from the deck. A store-bought Old Maid deck is usually smaller than a deck of playing cards. So you could remove the 2′s, 3′s, 4′s, and 5′s.

You can also control the length of the game based on how you match cards. If you match by rank and color (the Six of Clubs matches only the Six of Spades), the game is longer. If you match by rank alone (the Six of Clubs matches either the Six of Spades or the Six of Diamonds or the Six of Hearts), the game is shorter. And if you match by rank and opposite-color (the Six of Clubs matches either the Six of Diamonds or the Six of Hearts), the game is an in-between length.

You can also play without the Joker. You can remove a Queen from the deck so that the unmatched Queen becomes the Old Maid, or you can remove a King so that the unmatched King becomes the Old Bachelor. Or you can remove some other card. You can even remove a card so that the players don’t see which card has been removed.

You can remove specific multiple cards. You can remove a King, a Queen, and a Jack.

Or you can remove multiple cards without the players seeing them. For instance, remove five random cards. If there are no pairs in these cards, there are five Old Maids. If there is one pair, there are three Old Maids. If there are two pairs, there is just one Old Maid. Nobody knows which cards are Old Maids or how many Old Maids there are.

However you play, Old Maid is still a game of random selection. You select a card randomly from another player. There is some skill involved in matching cards, but not as much skill as is used in most other card games.

So how about a change in the rules? How about playing Old Maid so that on your turn you pass a card to another player?

The new rules are as follows. The cards are dealt as in Old Maid. Each player still looks at her cards and removes any matching pairs of cards, placing them face-up on the table. And the players take turns playing, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and moving clockwise around the circle. But before regular turns begin, the dealer picks a card from his hand and places it face-down on the table near the player to his left.

On your turn, look at the card that was passed to you. If that card matches a card in your hand, place that pair of cards face-up on the pile of matches. Otherwise, place the passed card back face-down on the table. Pick a card from your hand and lay it face-down by the first player to your left who has cards left to play. Then pick up the card that was passed to you and put it in your hand.

The rest of the game is played just like Old Maid. The player who ends up with the Old Maid loses the game. But there is more room for strategy. You can keep track of the cards that you passed and the cards that were matched. You can use that knowledge to help you choose which card to pass.

And Old Maid is still a simple card game.

Looking for a casino with a hotel. I want to surprise my boyfriend and alot of user reviews are from years ago, so I’m asking the people what they know! Thanks!

I notice that a lot of people are searching the internet for free card games.  Tens of thousands of people.  I’m guessing that most of these people are looking for interactive computer card games such as Hearts which comes standard with Windows on PC computers.

But there is an alternative source.  Just follow a few simple steps to find free card games the old fashioned way.

STEP 1.  Find a deck of playing cards.

There may be a computer application that is equivalent to a deck of playing cards, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.  I’m talking about a standard deck of 52 playing cards, the kind you can hold and shuffle and deal.

You could buy a deck of cards in a store, but it wouldn’t be free.  So I would start by looking in your junk drawers and storage boxes.  A deck of cards might have found its way into one of them at some time or another.

Or ask relatives, Mom and Dad and Brothers and Sisters and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, if they have an extra deck of playing cards that they can spare.  Or you can ask your friends the same question.  You might offer to show your appreciation by playing a card game with them sometime soon.

Or offer to do some work in exchange for a deck of playing cards.  Offer to mow a lawn, or paint a fence, or rake some leaves, or wash a car.  It might take several lawn mowings to earn a deck of playing cards.

(If all else fails, you can always ask for a deck of playing cards as a birthday or a Christmas present.)

STEP 2.  Find the rules of a card game.

Go to your local library and find a book that contains a collection of card game rules.  Check the book out, and find a game that interests you.  Look for a card game played by two or more players.  You can hand-write the rules.  This is virtually free, just the cost of ink and paper.  You could also copy the rules using a copy machine, but this would cost you money.

Or ask friends and relatives if they have a book of card game rules that you can borrow.  If so, borrow the book, find a game that interests you, and record the rules.

Or go online to look for card game rules.  If you don’t have internet access at home, ask friends or relatives if you can use their computer for a little while.  Or you might be able to access the internet for free at a local library or school.  If you can get online, go to a search engine and search for ‘CARD GAME RULES’.  Or just go to a website featuring card game rules such as ‘www.pagat.com’.  Once again, find a game that interests you, and record the rules.

(If all else fails, ask a friend or relative to teach you a simple card game that you don’t know or that you have forgotten such as Crazy Eights, Fan Tan, I Doubt It, or Oh Pshaw, or even Go Fish.)

STEP 3.  Get some people together.

You will now have to find people to play cards with.  That means asking friends or relatives if they would be free some evening or sometime during an upcoming weekend to play cards.  If so, set the date.

If you experience resistance, try a little begging.  Try to cry if you can.  That works sometime.

(If all else fails, wait for a family gathering and bring your playing cards and rules.  You might be able to play a card game with someone there.)

STEP 4.  Then with the cards and the rules and the people, you play a card game.

Seat the players around the table, and place the cards and anything else necessary to play the game (maybe a pen and a score pad) on the table.  Then, referencing the rules that you recorded, play cards.

STEP 5.  Evaluate the card game.

Was the card game fun?  Would you like play it again sometime?

At the same time you should ask yourself one other thing.  Did you enjoy playing cards with friends/relatives?  Playing cards is like playing board games or playing video games or playing parlor games like charades with other people.  There’s a lot of interaction.

You can find out what’s new, and what books people have read and recommend, and how the weather is.  You can smile when you have succeeded in choosing the right cards to play.  You can offer some praise when someone else has scored some hard-earned points.  That’s what the PC game of Hearts lacks.  You can’t turn to Sally and ask, “What’s your favorite TV show?”, and expect a reply.

If you didn’t like the card game, follow the above steps to pick another card game and get together with friends or relatives and play that game.  And if you did like the card game, then gather some friends or relatives together sometime soon and play it again.  Free card games.

Huh, kinda oddly lame title…

遊戲名: → Digimon World Digital Card Battle (1999年) 若要轉貼請加上以下資料: HKDMC forum.hkdmc.org (亞寶加利獸/Leomon cut片) 看完請投票最好那個開場片段… ↘↘↘↘↘↘↘↘↘↘ forum.hkdmc.org

Ryan Davis gives the final word on Phantasy Star Online Episode III: CARD Revolution. “Though players who have already cut their teeth on other collectible card games will likely get the most out of the game, there’s a chance that fans of turn-based strategy games will find something to like about PSO III as well.”