You are a monarch, like your parents before you - a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of
rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes...dreams! You want
a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers, and a wider variety of trees. You
want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums - all small bits of
land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to
these unfortunates, uniting them under your banner.
But wait. It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact
same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible while you
can, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct
buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill the coffers of your treasury. Your parents
wouldn't be proud, but your grandparents, on your mother's side, would be delighted.
This is a game of building a deck of cards. The deck represents your Dominion. It
contains your resources, victory points, and the things you can do. It starts out a small
sad collection of Estates and Coppers, but you hope that by the end of the game it will
be brimming with Gold, Provinces, and the inhabitants and structures of your castle
and kingdom. You win by having the most in your deck when the game ends.
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