Dominion and Androminion

Dominion is a deck building card game, putting you in the role of a Monarch, building and expanding your empire. Expanded many times, it really is a great game, and deserves all the accolades and awards that it has gained since its release in 2008.

There are a few places that you can play online with people from all around the world, but that is not the focus of this article. Androminion is what I will concentrate on, and then make a comparison to the actual game.

Androminon is a Android app for smart phones and tablets. I found it late one night, and it has taken many hours of my life so far. The really great thing about this app is that it is single player. You play against bots, not real people, so there are no worries of disconnects if its not going well for them. Each bot has its own characteristics, and will favour different strategy’s, but I have noticed that they will adapt to situations, to try and get the better of you. This is great, as whilst you can play against certain strategies if you need the practice, a curve ball will be thrown every now and then to keep you thinking on you feet.

Another great thing is that this game is not just the base set. It has expansions built in with it, 6 in total, them being Hinterlands, Seaside, Intrigue, Prosperity, Alchemy, Cornucopia as well as the base set. This gives a lot of playtime with this game. There are pre-set sets, and a option to randomize the cards, but sadly no option to choose your own sets. But coupled with the sheer amount of options you have, that’s not really a terrible thing.

Interface wise, its very simple, but effective. The buttons are big enough to touch, and small enough to fit them all on the screen at once.

The main problem with this game is that is not for beginners. There are no explanations to the game itself, neither the cards. I see this more as a training app for people who know how to play Dominion.

As a comparison to the actual game, however, this is where it slightly falls down. It is only single player vs the CPU, so no interaction with real people. Also the card shuffles do not seen that realistic, which may be the way how I shuffle my cards, compared to a algorithm in a program that shuffles cards.

The board game will always have a place compared to the Android version, which should be used to try new strategies out and general practice when people are not around. It has helped me immensely with my strategy, as games are very fast, allowing you to tweak your engines and strategies very fast.

All in all Androminion gets a solid 8/10 from me, which is the same as the actual game. Its just the way you use that will boost or diminish the score.