null1024 wrote:We usually skip the cards that take more than 5 seconds to read and understand [so, just about all of Alchemy is excluded] so we can bring in random people to play, and they usually get the rules and how to play around their third turn or so.
My problem with Alchemy is the potions. They add more luck to the game because they need to appear (or not appear) in combination with other cards. If Familiar is the only good potion card on the board (which costs $3 plus a potion), getting a hand with $2 plus a potion usually results in a wasted turn. Likewise, getting $6 plus a potion in the late game is pretty bad when you're going for Provinces. It's probably not as bad if you're just playing with Alchemy cards, but I've never done that.
Anyway, for new players, it's probably worth mentioning that Donald X. considers Chapel, Thief, Witch, and Gardens to be the pillars of the base set, meaning that their presence changes the way the game is played.
Chapel teaches the value of trashing coppers and estates.
Witch teaches how strong curse attacks are.
Gardens rewards you for adding a lot of filler to your deck (usually a very bad thing), and downplays the importance of Golds and Provinces, which are usually key. However, Gardens generally needs support from something like Workshop to be a viable strategy, whereas Chapel and Witch are usually good no matter what other cards are available.
Thief... I'm not sure why this is a pillar. It's usually a pretty bad card in 2-player, although it gets better with more players. I guess it teaches you how to build a deck to mitigate opponents' attacks (in this case, relying more on actions to get money instead of treasures)?
gct wrote:I have to stop playing with my sister though, she always threatens to ragequit when we use attacks, so every game just becomes a race to grind money to buy properties faster...
One unfortunate thing about the base game is that ignoring action cards is sometimes viable strategy. This turns some people off because it makes the game seem too simplistic... why build cool card interactions when you can just win by buying treasure, victory cards, and maybe a Smithy or two?
Some attack cards really do make the game less fun, though. Personally, I hate Saboteur and Possession. Saboteur is annoying, demoralizing, and really just makes the game drag. Luckily, it's usually not that great of a card, so experienced players don't buy it very often. Possession is really expensive and sometimes doesn't pay off, like when you take over your opponent's turn and they just have two coppers and three victory cards. But when an opponent plays King's Court -> Possession, I think punching them in the mouth should be fair game.
This is probably the best indicator of which cards people hate overall:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=594.0
Ever since I started playing on Isotropic, my girlfriend and I don't play that much since we're no longer evenly matched.
