Dominion Board Game: Editions, Expansions and the Base Box

What the Dominion board game is

Dominion is a deck-building card game from Rio Grande Games. Deck-building means the deck you play with isn't fixed before the game. You build it while you play, adding cards as you go, so by the end everyone's deck is different. The expansion listings in our data name the mechanic directly: "deck-building."

The card types show up in the listings too. The Base Cards box lists Victory, Treasure and Curse cards. The expansions list new Kingdom cards, and Allies adds player mats. That tells you the shape of the game: money cards, point cards, a few cards nobody wants, and a changing set of Kingdom cards that do the interesting things.

Box facts for the base game, from the 2nd Edition listing:

Dominion 2nd Edition
Players	2–4
Age	13+
Play time	20–30 min
Co-op or competitive	competitive
Needs another box	no, it's the base game

How Dominion plays: what we can and can't tell you

A straight note. On every game page we write how it plays in our own words from the publisher's rulebook. For Dominion, we couldn't open the publisher's rules page; the publisher's site blocked us, and we don't work around that. So this page doesn't give turn-by-turn rules, card costs or end-of-game conditions. The rulebook in the base box has all of that, and it's the place to settle a question at the table.

What we can say, from the listings and the game's own name for itself:

• It's competitive. Each player builds their own deck. There's no co-op mode in any listing in our data.
• It's all cards. No board and no pieces to move. The listings count cards, not tokens.
• Every game can use a different set of Kingdom cards. That's why expansions exist: each one adds new Kingdom cards to choose from.
• It's short for a strategy game. The base listing says 20 to 30 minutes.

The idea behind any deck-builder is easy to picture. You start small. You add better cards. The deck you shuffle on your last turn isn't the one you shuffled on your first. The skill is choosing what goes in, and what you'd rather leave out.

Dominion editions on Amazon US

As of 2026-10-23, our data shows 11 Dominion listings on Amazon US, all from Rio Grande Games. The table on this page has all of them. They fall into four groups.

Base-game boxes

• Dominion 2nd Edition. The listing says 2 to 4 players, ages 13+, 20 to 30 minutes. It's the only listing in our data that states players, age and time together, and the one to start with for most tables.
• Dominion Big Box 2nd Edition. The listing says 2 to 6 players and 30 minutes. It doesn't list its contents in our data, so look at the box photos to see which sets are inside before you assume anything.

If you're buying a first copy, it's one of these two. The difference that shows up in the data is player count: 2 to 4 against 2 to 6.

The Base Cards box

Dominion Base Cards isn't a game on its own. The listing describes 250 Victory, Treasure and Curse cards, and says 5 to 6 players. Read together, that's the add-on for a bigger table: more of the basic cards, not new Kingdom cards. It does nothing without a copy of Dominion to add it to.

Expansions that say they need Dominion

These listings are marked as expansions, and each says the base game is required:

• Intrigue, 2nd Edition: 2 to 4 players, 30 minutes
• Seaside, 2nd Edition: 2 to 4 players, ages 14+, 30 to 60 minutes
• Nocturne: 2 to 6 players, 30 minutes, 500 cards including 33 new Kingdom cards
• Allies: 2 to 4 players, 20 to 30 minutes, 400 cards, 31 Kingdom cards and 6 player mats
• Rising Sun: 2 to 4 players, ages 14+, 300 cards in 25 Kingdom card piles

Seaside is the only one in our data that lists a longer top time, 60 minutes. Nocturne is the only expansion listing 2 to 6 players. Allies is the only one that lists player mats.

A math-teacher aside, because there's a division sitting right there. Rising Sun lists 300 cards and 25 Kingdom card piles. Split evenly, that's 12 cards a pile. The listing doesn't say the piles are even, and the box probably has other cards too, so don't hold me to it. But I did the division before I finished reading the line. I can't stop. My seventh graders have stopped asking me to.

Listings that don't say

Three listings don't say whether they need the base game:

• Plunder: 2 to 4 players and 500 cards, no expansion flag on the listing
• Prosperity 2nd Edition: ages 14+, nothing else stated
• Dominion Expansion: 2 to 4 players and 30 minutes, but the listing name doesn't say which expansion it is

For all three, read the box text in the listing photos before you buy one as a first copy. If it says it needs Dominion, it does. If it doesn't say, ask the seller before you wrap it.

How to read a Dominion listing

With 11 boxes that look alike on a screen, four fields do most of the sorting.

"Expansion" and "base game required"

This is the field that matters most. A listing that says it's an expansion and needs Dominion is not a first purchase. Five of the 11 listings in our data say exactly that. Two say they're base games. The rest don't say, and that's your signal to look harder.

Player count

Base Dominion lists 2 to 4. If you're usually 5 or 6, there are two routes in our data: the Big Box 2nd Edition, which lists 2 to 6, or the base game plus the Base Cards box, which lists 5 to 6. Nocturne also lists 2 to 6 among the expansions.

Age

The 2nd Edition lists 13+. Seaside, Rising Sun and Prosperity 2nd Edition list 14+. The rest don't state an age. Dominion is a game of reading card text and planning a few turns ahead, so the number is about that, not about small parts.

"2nd Edition" in the name

Five listings in our data carry "2nd Edition": the base game, the Big Box, Intrigue, Seaside and Prosperity. If you're adding to a copy you already own, check which edition is on your box and which is on the listing. We don't have data on what changed between editions, so we won't guess whether they mix; the box text and the publisher are the place to check.

Card count

Card counts appear on a few listings: 500 for Nocturne and Plunder, 400 for Allies, 300 for Rising Sun, 250 for Base Cards. More cards means a bigger box and more to sort. It doesn't mean a better expansion. A larger number mostly tells you how much shelf it needs and how long cleanup takes.

Which Dominion box to buy first

My one opinion for this page: get the base game to the table a few times before you buy an expansion. The reason is in the listings. Every expansion in our data that states it says it needs Dominion, and an expansion adds new cards and rules on top of a game your group is still learning.

Lucho's take: "A box that says expansion is a part, not a machine. Buy the machine first. Then buy parts."

A few quick matches, from the listings:

• A first copy for 2 to 4 players: Dominion 2nd Edition
• A first copy for up to 6: Big Box 2nd Edition, which lists 2 to 6
• You own the base and play with 5 or 6: Base Cards, which lists 5 to 6
• You own the base and want new cards: any listing marked as an expansion
• A gift for someone who already plays: an expansion, after you check which ones they own

That last one is worth a text message. A Dominion player with a shelf of expansions will thank you for a duplicate exactly once.

Who Dominion suits

Dominion fits players who like making a plan and watching it come together. In a deck-builder, a choice you make early shows up again turns later, when that card comes back around in your hand.

It suits groups of 2 to 4 best, going by the base listing, and the 20 to 30 minutes on the box means it fits a weeknight. Because the Kingdom cards can change from game to game, and expansions add more, it's a game a group can keep for years without it wearing out.

It also suits players who like a card game with little table talk. Everyone is busy with their own deck, so the room gets quiet. Some families call that peaceful. Some call it suspicious.

Who should skip Dominion

Skip it for kids under 13. That's the base listing's age, and three other listings say 14+. The game asks you to read a lot of card text.

Skip it if your group wants a board to look at and pieces to move. Dominion is all cards.

Skip it if your group mostly wants to talk and laugh. A party game will go over better.

And skip buying an expansion as a gift for someone who doesn't own the base game. Five of these listings say they need it, and a box that can't be played on its birthday isn't much of a present.

If you like Dominion, look at these

Chosen by what they share with Dominion: card play and planning ahead.

• Strategy board games: games that reward a plan
• Card games: the full card-game shelf
• 7 Wonders: a strategy game played with cards
• Splendor: a shorter strategy game for a small table
• Dune: Imperium: a longer strategy game for a group that wants more

Check the expansion line first. Then shuffle.