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Next, we’ll give an introduction to a series written by Polk5440, about games of Dominion with more than two players. While most advise in articles you’ll see here is specific to games with two players, the articles you’ll see coming up will explore the changes you’ll make in a game with more players. As the articles in this series are still being edited at this stage, feedback on what you’d like to see in this series is welcome as well.

Over the course of a few weeks we’ll explore how the number of players affects not only the rules of the game, but the relative strengths of the cards, and the best deck-building strategies.

While Online Dominion primarily hosts two player games, Dominion is a flexible game that can handle anywhere from two to six players, though the sweet spot is two to four players. In fact, before Intrigue, Dominion was billed as two to four players only. If you have a party of 5 or 6, while you might have a better social time all participating in the same game, a better Dominion experience may be had by splitting the table up into two separate games, each playing with their own kingdom. For the second game of the night, just change seats; no new kingdom set-up is required!

Part I: The Rules

If you are reading this, you are probably the one setting up the game at home and explaining the rules, so let’s review what changes based on the number of players.

The Setup

The number of cards that go in each supply pile vary. Note that playing Dominion with three or more players requires two or more friends.

Number of Cards to Put in the Supply Pile

When playing with 5 or 6 players, double the Copper, Silver, and Gold piles.

Interestingly, the number of cards per player is not constant. When more people play, fewer kingdom cards per person are available to gain. Most supply piles have a fixed number of cards (usually 10), but this relationship of card per player also holds true for the Victory card piles. For example, there are 4 Provinces per person for 2 and 3 player games, but only 3 Provinces per person for 4-6 player games. There is one big exception: more players equals more junk per person. There are 5 Curses and 5 Ruins per person in a two player game, but this scales up to over 8 Curses and 8 Ruins per person for a 6 player game! The changing number of cards available per person can affect both how a card plays in practice and the overall deck building strategy one undertakes.

The End

The game ends when Provinces, Colonies, or any three supply piles are empty. When there are 5 or 6 players, the game ends when Provinces, Colonies, or any four supply piles are empty.