Review: Dominion - Intrigue

Dominion: Intrigue is both an expansion to the original Dominion and a stand-alone version of the game allowing the game to (officially) be playable for 5-6 players together or 7-8 players separately.  (The rules explain how you should play with those numbers, but I think it's possible to play with up to 8 players in one game with a few house rules).

In both Dominion and Dominion: Intrigue, players start with a 10 card deck made up of money and victory points.  The object of the game is to have the most victory points in your deck at the end of the game.  The trick is that victory point cards (typically) don't serve any purpose during the game, so filling your deck with too many of them makes your turns less effective.  Each turn, the player draws 5 cards, can play one Action Card (unless the actions say otherwise), places down how much coin they want to spend (using Treasure Cards), and buys one (unless their played actions say otherwise) card from the supply pool shared between all players.  There are a limited number of each card, so players are competing with each other to purchase the more useful actions and Victory Cards.  The game ends when either all the Province Victory Cards (the cards that give the most points) are gone or a set number of stacks of cards (determined by the number of players) are gone from the supply pool.

What Intrigue adds to the mix is a lot more options.  It adds three type of Victory Cards that are also Action Cards, so they are now doubly useful.  There are a few cards that give you a choice of how it works when you use it (e.g. Choose 2 of the following: +1 Card; +1 Action; +1 Buy; +1 Coin).  I also learned that with some cards there is a big difference between something being optional (saying you may do something) and not.  There is one card that has some good effects, but you must trash (permanently discard) one card with it and possibly not gain anything in return.  The upside of all this is it makes your turns more strategic and flexible.  The downside is that it can make some turns take a lot longer for the more strategic players.  If you have played Dominion and find yourself with more than 4 people wanting to play at once, I would recommend you get this game.  If you have not played Dominion, I would recommend getting that first because it's simpler and easier to learn with.