Dominion: Prosperity
Ah, money. There's nothing like the sound of coins clinking in your hands. You vastly prefer it to the sound of coins clinking in someone else's hands, or the sound of coins just sitting there in a pile that no-one can quite reach without getting up. Getting up, that's all behind you now. Life has been good to you. Just ten years ago, you were tilling your own fields in a simple straw hat. Today, your kingdom stretches from sea to sea, and your straw hat is the largest the world has ever known. You also have the world's smallest dog, and a life-size statue of yourself made out of baklava. Sure, money can't buy happiness, but it can buy envy, anger, and also this kind of blank feeling. You still have problems - troublesome neighbors that must be conquered. But this time, you'll conquer them in style.
This is the 4th addition to the game of Dominion. It adds 25 new Kingdom cards to Dominion, plus 2 new Basic cards that let players keep building up past Gold and Province. The central theme is wealth; there are treasures with abilities, cards that interact with treasures, and powerful expensive cards.
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What Is It About? – An Overview of the Expansion
The fourth Dominion expansion, Prosperity invests in a wide portfolio of Treasure cards. The twist here is that the Treasure cards actually do something when in play, besides just giving Coin.
What Do I Get? – The Components in the Box
Returning to the larger expansion box, 300 cards are included, making up the typical 25 unique Kingdom cards but also adding new basic cards: Platinum and Colony, 12 of each. As a dependent expansion, it will need the basic cards (Victory, Coins, Curses, and Trash) of a base set.
Similar to Seaside, this expansion includes cardboard play mats to help organize the collection of metal coins and the newly introduced metal victory tokens. These tokens are VPs that you collect without bogging down your deck. They are in denominations of 1 and 5 VP.
What Does it Add? – Impacts to the Base Game
The focus is on Treasures with nearly 1/3 of the sets devoted to this card type. A handful of the Actions cards also support the use of the Treasures or generate more Coin. The sub-theme is gaining more Victory Points, but not through adding cards to your deck. So your score goes up without sacrificing efficiency.
With most of the Treasures now doing something, the game adds another level. Instead of simply counting money, certain things can be done, such as – gaining extra cards, getting them for a discount, putting the gained cards on top of your deck, revealing more treasure from your deck, etc. The basic effect is either a “cheap Gold” that is less than 6-Coin to buy but still generates 3-Coin with some penalty. Or an “expensive Copper / Silver” that costs more than 0- or 3-Coin to buy, but generates the standard 1- or 2-Coin now with an added bonus.
Two new basic cards are added, incrementally upping the ante on both Treasures and Victory cards. There is a 9-Coin Platinum that generates 5 Coin and an 11-Coin Colony that gains 10 VP at game end. They are added to the game randomly when Prosperity cards are used. The only change is that depleting the Colony deck will end the game in addition to Provinces running out.
The balance of the cards is the standard mix of Action cards, a few new Attack cards, and a new Reaction card. Trashing and discarding play a minor role in this set. Revealing cards from your deck is also strongly present. Since these cards are looking for specific things, there is a greater cycling of the cards, making bloated decks less ineffective.
What Is the Target Audience? – Who Should Get This
For those who like to buy and buy often, this is their expansion. This gives “Big Money” a new meaning as Coin generated per turn can be upwards of 20 or 30 coins. This is also an expansion for those who hate the dreaded “Dominion 7” – those times you end up with 7 Coin in a turn and can’t afford a Province, but don’t want to “waste” the purchase on another Gold – there are four 7-Coin cards just begging to be purchased!
While this is a must buy for any Dominion player, it is advisable to not include it in games with brand new players. They may walk away with the wrong impression that money is plentiful and be let down with “normal” games that don’t include a Prosperity mix, especially with Colonies and Platinum missing.
What Do I Think? – Final Thoughts
This is my favorite expansion as it tends to make everything more epic. Things cost more but much more Coin is produced. King’s Court is a beefed up Throne Room. Gold and Provinces can be upgraded to even more useful cards. No longer is the “Dominion 7” an unfortunate thing.
Venture and Vault are fun ways to get more money on the table. Counting House makes Copper-heavy decks even more attractive as it pulls all of your discard Coppers back into play once more. If you have a Counting House coming up, spend extra buys stocking your discard pile with pennies. Quarry and Talisman pair nicely with each other. The former discounts all Action cards by 2-Coin while the latter lets you get a 2nd copy of a purchased Action or Treasure if it costs 4-Coin or less. So quarry the costs down and get an extra copy of an expensive Action card. City is an expensive Village at 5-coin for the same basic +1 Card and +2 Actions. But it grows into an additional +1 Card once a Kingdom set is empty and then a +1 Coin and +1 Buy when a 2nd set is emptied. At that point it is a more-powerful version of Market for the same price.
In the greater hierarchy, I would obviously place this first of all expansions (ahead of Hinterlands). More than any other expansion, this set really opens up the field. There is more money, more buys, more cards and a lot more fun. Even when I am losing, I am just happy to see all the Coins getting played to the table. It is very satisfying to buy 2 or 3 Colonies in one turn; it is even more satisfying to do that with all Coppers!
For those familiar with the game but not owning it yet, I would even consider just getting this expansion and the Base Cards set that turns any expansion into a stand alone game.
What Else? – Other Expansion Reviews
Dominion (base game)
Intrigue
Seaside
Alchemy
Cornucopia
Who doesn’t want to be the wealthiest guy in town? Who wants to be a destitute noble? Don’t be a loser! Come on, join the ranks of the prosperous. Get Prosperity!
The gist of this expansion:
You’ve probably read it before if you have read anything about Prosperity, it’s all about the big money. You really do need the big money to win with this expansion in play. This set really does invalidate the old big money of just grabbing silvers until you can get gold and then provinces.
Replay Value:
Just like the basic Dominion, replay value is huge. Trying out the massive new combination of cards will take a while. Playing quick matches online is probably the only way to get through any number of the possible iterations.
Components:
Just like all dominion boxes, this one is put together well. I am not a huge fan of all the extra bits other than the cards that you have to use sometimes, but I suppose they have to come up with new little tweaks to keep the game fresh. I do wish that they would make the print on the front of the randomizer cards different than the actual cards somehow. (a border maybe)
Easy to Learn:
Getting through all the numbers of new cards, including cards that utilize extra components will probably take a while. Learning is easy, mastering is difficult. And just like a game such as Magic the Gathering , the validity of certain cards will change with new cards that come out in future sets.
Conclusion:
The big boon of the prosperity set is the large amounts of money allow for more strategies involving a variety of expensive cards as you build up your deck. There was nothing more frustrating in the older game when you had some cool card combos that you wanted to try out, but they were just too slow since the cards were too expensive. You’d have the rounds where you couldn’t even afford a 4 cost card for a nice combo. This set really opens up more strategic possibilities and gives the chance for a longer game with the more expensive Colony cards.
Prosperity is the fourth expansion for Dominion, and really ups the ante with more powerful cards and more power to attain with them. This set competes with Seaside for my favorite, and probably wins that fight.
The first big addition in this set is the upgrade to both Treasures and Victory cards, adding a Platinum and a Colony to the mix. Before, players would agonize that they had 7 coin yet again, and had to buy something that was not a Province. Now that there are a couple more cards that cost 8, the Platinum is 9, and the Colony is 11, players will agonize that they have 10 coin yet again, and have to buy something that is not a Colony. In short, 10 is the new 7.
Also, nearly half the Kingdom cards in this set are Treasures, meaning not only that you’ll have a lot more options to stockpile money, but these Treasures also have abilities similar to action cards, that take effect when you play them in the Buy phase. So now, what coins you play, and the order you play them, can be something to pay attention to.
This set is designed to ramp up the power to help people hit 9 and 11 more easily, and so there are a few cards that feel like amped-up versions of older cards, e.g. King’s Court is a Super-Throne Room, or Expand is a Super-Remodel. All told, this can make for some very fun combinations.
This is a must-have set for any fan of Dominion; the cards are a lot of fun and if you have a good mix of cards, you can create some really crazy combinations.
This might be the best expansion in the Dominion line. Why?
1) COINS. You can get victory points in the form of metal tokens. These tokens aren’t in your hand and are visible to everyone as you collect them. This adds some spice!
2) Colony Cards: These cards are similar to Provinces (if you’ve played with them). The game is over when one of the piles of Colonies or Provinces is gone.
3) VERY Powerful Cards: The cards cost more, but do more… which gives you the ability to catch up if you’ve been saving to get them. This adds a layer of strategy.
IMO The base game is great, but Prosperity makes the game “different” . It’s not as balanced or elegant, but it’s nice to add a little brute force to an otherwise mellow game.
The cards in Prosperity cost much more, but also allow you to amass more wealth and points. Two new base cards this set includes are platinum pieces and colonies. In fact, the platinum pile is also small enough that it CAN run out during a game! Platinums cost 9 and are worth 5 coin. Colony cards cost 11 and are worth 9 points. A new rule is that the game also ends when the colony pile is empty.
There are many exciting new cards in this set, especially for those players who love fun, powerful action cards or action-chaining. You’ll see some of your old favorites redesigned to be bigger and more powerful. For instance, King’s Court replaces Throne Room, costing 7 to buy and allowing you to play an action card three times!
When Prosperity came out, I started feeling like Dominion was getting too many expansions released and too close together, but it is still such a fun game to play and one of my favorite expansions to the game.
I love playing huge chains of cards to build up tons of cash and extra buys! This set is all about that. Big money, big prizes, I love it!
The set adds two new basic cards, the Colony, a victory card worth 10 points, and Platinum, a money card worth 5 that extend the main goal of the game a little farther. In addition, there are a bunch of great kingdom cards that all deal with the theme of opulence.
The only downside: I felt the inclusion of all the mats and coins for use with the Trade Route card to be a little unnecessary and would rather they had spent their resources making more kingdom cards or including the common (money, victory) cards to make it a standalone set.
There are many expansions out for Dominion now, and if you are on a shoe-string budget and have to limit yourself, you absolutely should grab Prosperity. This expansion adds the most bang for your buck, by far. The new mechanics include:
This set plays great with the other expansions as well, so don’t feel like you can’t mix and match the expensive Prosperity cards with cards from other sets. Any fan of Dominion should have this expansion, plain and simple.
This is a great expansion. I’ve mostly only played it in combination with Intrigue, but there are times when I’ve been wanting to try out some of the cards from the original Dominion game. We’ve been teaching this version of the game to people who have never played Dominion before, and it’s still easy to pick up (although we typically leave out the Trade Route card).
Pros: I like the new treasure cards and the faster accumulation of money. I also like the new victory point tokens, and the ways that you can get them.
Cons: It’s not easy to randomize with other expansions and the base games because you DO need some of the special Prosperity cards if you’re going to be able to afford the 11-cost Colonies.
I’m going to have to say that it’s pretty much a tie between Prosperity and Intrigue for my favorite Dominion sets. Okay, maybe Prosperity edges out Intrigue just barely (sweet platinum). Prosperity plays fastest of all the Dominion sets due to its focus on high value hands, and Colonies as well as action cards that give victory point tokens make for high point totals at the end of the game.
Best part about Prosperity? Add a few Prosperity cards into a game with any other set (I’m looking at you, Alchemy) and you’re almost guaranteed a quicker, more satisfying game. We play with the added Prosperity base cards with every game we play now.
Also: look at all the cards that cost 7 COINS! Finally something to buy with 7!
Dominion is an amazing game, and the Prosperity expansion just makes it that much better. In Prosperity, everything costs more, so there are higher value Platinum cards as well as higher cost Actions and Victory cards. Like the sets before, Prosperity also adds a new mechanic: treasure cards can now be actions or give extra benefits. Some of the treasure cards are actually my favorite cards!
Just like you hated getting a total of 7 gold before, now you will loathe getting to 10. I have a tough time playing Dominion and not adding this expansion in!