Classic strategy and tactics from the inventor of Settlers of Catan

  

Game: Domaine

Designers: Klaus Teuber

Publisher: Mayfair Games, 2003

Age Range: 12 & up

Number of Players: 2 or 4

Game Time: 90 min (+)

Mechanics: Territory control; Hand Management

Complexity: 3

Challenge: 6

 

            The sheer volume of games available to those of us in a gaming group in Wilmington, NC dictates that a lot of games don’t get to the table. In fact, there are still more games that we, as a group, haven’t played than ones we have. There’s also a group of games that some of us own that while good, just haven’t gotten the playing time they deserve. Domaine is one of those games and when it was brought up as a possibility recently, there was enough interest to actually get it out onto the table and have at it.

            Some of us at the table needed a refresher course in the rules, including yours truly, even though I own a copy. It’s a game by the designer of Settlers of Catan, Klaus Teuber, though it’s nothing like that game, which made Teuber and the game itself famous. It’s more of a ‘perfect information’ game than Settlers; no random elements like dice, although there are a few random cards to deal with. You’re working on a modular board, made up of puzzle-like scoring border and nine, randomly-placed landscape tiles (a specially designated center tile, though, is always in the center of the 3 X 3 grid of placed tiles).

            Thematically, you’re a duke, or an earl or some such landowner and you’re attempting to establish a domain, or set of domains on the board landscape. To start, each player places three castles and three knights (one at a time, in turn order) at random locations. At this point, turn action begins to center on the placement of ‘fences’ (border markers, they’re called in the rules) around those castles and knights, defining individual domains. Each time you completely encircle one of your castles with a series of border markers, you score points associated with the landscape of your domain. If your domain encloses the Royal City (in the center) you receive 5 points. If you surround any other village, you get 3 points. Surrounding a forest (or set of forest tiles) nets you 1 point per forest tile.

       Surrounding any of a set of mines in a domain (gold, silver, copper and diamond) earns you money (ducats) at the beginning of a subsequent round. If your domain (or set of them) surrounds a single mine you get a ducat. If you surround four, you get 4 ducats and if you own a set of three or four of one type of mine, you get 5 points for being in possession of a mine monopoly. Money is important because you can use it to buy cards that have been discarded into the Chancery. You might, at a critical juncture in the game, want to place two borders to complete a domain and not have the action card that allows that activity. The ability to purchase the card you need for a specific action is important.

            Rounds continue until one player reaches a point level associated with the number of people playing – 30 for four-player, 40 for three and 50 for two.

            It gets tricky when you discover that your private little domain can, in fact, be invaded. On your turn, you can expand your domain by removing elements of an adjacent domain of an opponent. When you do this, if the expansion ends up surround point-worthy opponent territory, points are deducted from your opponent’s score and added to yours immediately. To avoid this, on your turn, you can place extra knights into a domain as protection. You cannot be invaded by an adjacent domain with equal to or less than the number of knights in yours.

            All of this activity – placement of border markers, placement of knights and invasion of other domains - is controlled by action cards. You receive three at the start and as you use them, you replace them from either a draw deck or, as noted before, from the Chancery, where you can either purchase or discard cards. While some cards will have single actions, showing, for example, that with a given card, you can place two border markers on the board, others will have two options, like adding knights or expanding your domain, of which you may choose either. There is a card option known as the Deserter, which allows you to change the knight balance in two adjacent territories. If you and an opponent with an adjacent domain have two knights each in your domains, this card will allow you to remove one of your opponent’s knights from his domain and place one of yours in your own; in essence, a knight has deserted one ruler and joined another. There is also an Alliance option card, which allows you to turn a border marker between two adjacent domains so that the adjacent domain cannot expand into your territory. This is a permanent and unassailable alliance.

       So much time had elapsed since I had played this, that I had forgotten much of its strategic depth and tactical moves. One of the players, in spite of conventional wisdom to the contrary, immediately ‘set up shop’ in the center of the board, claiming 5 points for the Royal City. He made it small, barely surrounding his own castle and single knight, but turn by turn, he expanded it, collecting more and more points along the way. I spent a lot of time trying to establish a large domain nearby, in the hopes of collecting a lot of points when I completed the enclosure and then expanding to capture the Royal City away from him. I tended, therefore, to ignore my other two domain locations and watched as the three other players kept scoring points in other parts of the board. Not only that, but my desire to create a large domain at the start kept me from scoring points until I had completely surrounded it, which I failed to do until it was too late.

            That said, though, as the board started to fill up with ever-larger domains, I found myself in a situation where domains created by opponents were creating opportunities for my other domains. The blue player, for example, was creating a domain in the southwest corner, as the red player was doing likewise in the southeast corner. I had a castle and knight between them and as these two players started creating borders, they were essentially creating the east-west border of my domain in the middle. This didn’t improve my position much, but it was a development that I thought might do with some added analysis.

            I got trounced, ending up last among four with about 6 total points and I wanted a second crack at it immediately, which speaks well of the game, IMHO. There are a lot of things I’d do differently, given another chance. I’d stay away from the middle. I’d look to create smaller domains initially and look to expand them, rather than attempt (as I did this last time out) to create larger domains which take longer to establish.

            Domaine, which, by the way, is a re-implementation of a previous Tueber design called Lowenherz (some say better, others disagree), is more of an abstract strategy game than a lot of the resource acquisition and development games that are so much a part of the “Euro” phenomenon. Not so abstract that it’s burning brain cells the way chess might, but definitely enough to require some sense of space relations as they apply to control of board territory. It’s got a touch of Go to it in that way – surrounding territory by careful placement of pieces – but it’s far less analytical in actual play. Being restricted by the action cards available to you at each turn, there are only so many things you can do. Go, on the other hand, has only one possible action on each turn, though the possibilities for that placement are ‘brain burn’ endless, at times.

            Domaine is recommended for those with a natural feel for abstract strategy and tactics and a desire for something just a little less complex than the standard, two-player classics, like chess and Go (as examples). It has the added advantage of being able to be played by four at a time, which adds sociability to it, while at the same time, increasing its complexity a little. It’s ranked # 158 on The Geek, based on about 2000 ratings, with an average of 7.26 on the 1 to 10 scale. There are, of course, a few detractors in the crowd, who discuss a ‘cash flow’ imbalance and the existence of a little too much luck and randomness in the action cards. If you’re unlucky and keep getting action cards that don’t allow you to do what you need to do to stay in the game, things could go from bad to worse, because not only do you get behind, but with fewer territories, everybody else is going to pick on you and invade. In general, though, I think the random-card issue tends to balance out and I found it to be more than engaging enough to get it back out onto the table soon.

 

For more info: www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5737; www.mayfairgames.com