Okkay

Like many people, I like Dominion but do wish that there was a bit more player interaction. I was excited to try Nightfall, but after playing it several times, I realized it just fell completely flat for me. While it fixes some issues with Dominion, in my opinion it introduces even more.

One of the core new mechanics that this game introduces is the color-chaining system, where the only way to play multiple cards on your own turn and on others’ turns is to chain the color of the card you want to play to one of the previous card’s chain colors. My main complaint (and the complaint of everyone I played with) is that this system felt more important than the card effects themselves. Rather than being able to formulate a strategy of card combos, the only important thing was to make sure the deck you built had good color synergy, so that you were able to put out cards on both your turn and others’ turns. We only cared about the card text as an afterthought.

In addition, the cards have “kickers”, which cause more powerful effects if you can chain them off a specific color. While this sounded like a fun mechanic, in practice all it did was add more complexity to the color system, but again, the actual ability of the kicker wasn’t as important as making sure that the colors match what fits your deck.

There are lots of other interesting mechanics that this game introduced, like the drafting of your own personal archive, and the negotiation/politicking when it comes to deciding who to attack. The catch-up mechanic of the wounds was also something I liked. I do see that there was a good game to be found here, but having to wrap my head around the seemingly arbitrary complexity of the color-chaining system completely overshadowed any fun I had doing everything else in the game.

If the color-chaining system had been simplified to something easier to understand and strategize around, I might have been able to recommend this game. And for those who have the time to really study all the cards and figure out the intricacies of the color system, I can see how people could really like it. But for me, with limited time and a desire to play a wide variety of games rather than just this one, the time I would need to invest in order to appreciate this game is more than I can spend.

Dominion expansions seem to come out faster than I have time to play enough to get familiar with all the cards. Since I still had only been able to play Prosperty a handful of times, I was not planning on buying this expansion, but a friend bought it so we were able to play.

My takeaway is that, like most Dominion sets, we had a lot of fun seeing the new cards and figuring out how to use them in an optimal way. The theme of rewarding variety is an interesting new spin, and creates another slightly different path to victory, which is always nice. However, my feeling is that this expansion is by no means necessary to get, mainly for the reason that this is only a half- or mini-expansion, with only 13 new cards, but at 2/3 the price point of the full sets. There is no real game-changer like we got with Prosperity.

For those who have played out all the other sets, these new cards will of course inject some new replayability into the older cards. But for those who don’t play this game enough to have seen all the cards many times over, feel free to save your money and just continue to enjoy the older sets.

I love this game. I understand the critics who say that the game is too random, that there’s not a lot of room for strategy, and a lot of the time you’re just going with the flow and don’t have a lot of chances to affect the outcome of the game.

But regardless of all this, nearly everyone who we teach the game to ends up really liking the game and requesting to play it again. And after all this time, and probably 40-50 plays, the games are still interesting, we still have fun playing it, and the game has only gotten better with the Leaders expansion.

The randomness is also a Pro when playing with casual players, because no matter how good or how bad certain players are (and in my groups there are definitely some weaker players), everyone still will win some of the time, which keeps them coming back and wanting more. They don’t end up becoming frustrated from losing every single time. But still, again in my same gaming groups, you can also see certain players win more often than other players. Skill does matter, and it does affect the game, even if it doesn’t show in every single game due to the luck of the draw.

Of course the game isn’t without its flaws, but overall, the combination of the short play time, the ability to handle 7 players, the fact that everyone gets how to play after only playing it once or twice, and the way it appeals to both casual and more serious players at the same time, makes it a game that just always gets played. And I’m still always happy to play it.

I don’t know whether this was actually the game that invented the now popular game mechanic of having a leader vote for their favorite of all other player’s submitted entries. But it is certainly one of the most popular and well known games of this type, and for that, I give it a little bit of credit.

That said, this might be my least favorite of all the party games that I’ve ever played. The game system does not promote conversation like good party games should, since it’s usually in the players’ best interest not to show a rooting interest for or against any particular card. And the game works horribly with lots of players, because with so many choices available for the leader to choose, you end up spending most of the game miserable that your perfectly chosen cards are not picked.

Since these two elements (amusing conversation and the ability to handle large groups) are the cornerstones of most great party games, if you are missing them, you end up with nothing left to make this any sort of worthwhile game to play in a party-type atmosphere.

The best I can say is that in the absence of any other option, it can be better than doing nothing. There is still occasionally some amusement to be had. But if the situation ever arises for this game to be considered, give me pretty much any other game instead.