Top 10 Games Like Dominion – Similar Games You’ll Enjoy
A great selection of card and board games like Dominion that may offer more than just the deck building mechanism in this roundup.
Out of the thousands of board games currently available, it’s hard to deny the impact that the classic deck-building game Dominion has had on the modern tabletop gaming hobby since it was released in 2008. After all, it’s the game that really pioneered the deck-building genre as we know it today, and this mechanism has continued to be borrowed and adapted into many different styles of modern games.
But apart from its deck-building mechanism – playing cards from a starting deck to buy new and improved cards in order to make your deck as powerful and efficient as possible – there are many subtle aspects about its gameplay experience that has managed to keep this game as successful as it has been over the years and attract gamers of all types back to it time and time again. If you are a fan of Dominion for one reason or another, and are wondering what to try next, here are games that capture similar feelings in their style of gameplay that you might want to consider checking out.
1. Wingspan – A Game with a Strong Sense of Progression
In Dominion, a turn at the beginning of the game and a turn at the end of the game will feel very different. In the beginning, you might play all the cards from your hand and buy a single card; at the end, you might play card after card after card, stringing multiple satisfying combos together as your hard work throughout the game finally pays off. If you find this sense of progression in Dominion to be satisfying, Wingspan is a game that really focuses on this aspect and is one you might enjoy.
| Game Type Animals, Card Game, Educational, Card Drafting, Dice Rolling, Drafting, End Game Bonuses | Play Time 40 - 70 mins | Skill/Complexity (2.5 - 5) Medium |
| Age 10+ | Publisher(s) Stonemaier Games and Others | Published 2019 |
| Categories Strategy / Family | Players 1 - 5 | Cost $59.99 approx |
| Our Rating 9.2/10 |
In Wingspan, players compete to build the best aviary by adding bird cards into their habitat from their hand in order to gain the most points by the end of the game mainly through cards, objectives, and eggs. Similar to Dominion, the bird cards in Wingspan all feature unique benefits and can help shape your strategy as the game progresses.
In Wingspan, players compete to build the best aviary by adding bird cards into their habitat from their hand in order to gain the most points by the end of the game……………..
As players place cards from their hand into their habitat, they add them to one of three rows. Each of the three rows also provides an action that a player can trigger (gain food, lay eggs, or draw new bird cards), and when they do so, they also can gain bonuses from each card in that row. At the beginning of the game, a player might get a single or no bonus when triggering an action, but toward the end of the game, they might get 3, 4, or even 5 bonuses each time they take a given action.
There is certainly a fair amount of strategy involved in trying to set up your bird cards to work together well and provide satisfying and powerful bonuses in each row. This may appeal to gamers who enjoy the combo-building involved in Dominion but prefer not to rely on the luck-of-the-draw to have their cards work together (though there is still luck in Wingspan in terms of drawing bird cards into your hand). All in all, Wingspan is an extremely popular card game that has managed to make its way into the mainstream, and certainly for good reason.
2. Valley of the Kings – A Game Where Timing is Critical
One of the main struggles players face in Dominion is one of timing – when is the right time to start buying VP cards to add to your deck? These VP cards are how you win the game, but in terms of actions and bonuses, they provide absolutely no benefit when they end up in your hand. If you add them too early, you might have less-than-satisfying turns where your hand is clogged with VP cards; yet, if you pursue them too late in the game, you might lose if other players manage to add more than you before the game ends. If this timing dilemma is an aspect to Dominion that you enjoy, another game in the deck-building genre that provides a similar feeling is Valley of the Kings.
Valley of the Kings at a Glance
| Game Type Ancient Theme. Card Game, Deck Building, Set Collection, Card Drafting | Play Time 45 mins | Skill/Complexity (2.5 - 5) Light - Medium |
| Age 14+ | Publisher(s) Alderac Entertainment Group | Published 2014 |
| Categories Strategy | Players 2 - 4 | Cost $59.99 |
| Our Rating 9/10 |
Valley of the Kings is a small-box deck-building game where, similar to Dominion, players attempt to gain the most VP by buying and adding new cards into their deck. The game rewards collecting cards of the same category, where the more cards of a certain category players have, the more each of those cards is worth.
Valley of the Kings is a small-box deck-building game where, similar to Dominion, players attempt to gain the most VP by buying and adding new cards into their deck.
On a player’s turn, they can play cards from their hand and use each card for their action or as money to purchase additional cards from a card-pyramid display available to all players. However, there is a third action players can take, and that is to entomb a card, which removes the card from the player’s deck and puts it into their tomb. The trick here is that only cards in a player’s tomb will count as points at the end of the game.
The fact that players have to remove cards from their deck – and lose its gold and action value – is the only way to score points in the game makes for some very excruciating decisions. When you purchase a high-valued card, the action it provides is usually very good. Yet, if you aren’t able to get it into your tomb in time before the game ends, it will do you no good in terms of actually winning the game.
Given its small box size, Valley of the Kings is a great game to travel with but one that still manages to feel like a “bigger” game.
3. Agricola – A Game with Highly-Variable Strategies
Dominion features a variable setup of cards, which leads to very different strategies from game to game depending on the cards that are available. The fact that these cards are all available at the start of the game allows players to formulate a long-term strategy early on in terms of how they plan to make all those cards work together to win the game. If you enjoy new combinations of options that are available to you at the beginning of a game that can change your long-term strategy to make each game feel different, Agricola might be a good next step for you.
If you enjoy new combinations of options that are available to you at the beginning of a game that can change your long-term strategy to make each game feel different, Agricola might be a good next step for you.
Agricola at a Glance
| Game Type Animal & Farming Theme, Economic , Advantage Token, Automatic Resource Growth, Card Drafting, Enclosure, Solo/Solitaire Game Turn Order: Claim Action, Variable Player Powers, Worker Placement | Play Time 30 - 150 mins | Skill/Complexity (3.8 - 5) Medium - Heavy |
| Age 12+ | Publisher(s) Lookout Games and others | Published 2007 |
| Categories Strategy | Players 1 - 5 | Cost $59.99 |
| Our Rating 9.2/10 |
Agricola, designed by the famous designer Uwe Rosenberg, is a classic worker-placement strategy game about farming. In Agricola, players take turns placing workers to gather resources in order to build up their farm – expanding or renovating their house and family, adding fences and farm animals, plowing fields, and sowing grain and vegetables – all to ultimately try to feed their family and gain the most points by diversifying in many areas of farm life.
At the beginning of the game, players will gain 7 occupation and 7 minor improvement cards (either at random or via a pre-game card draft) which provide special bonuses and powers and will ultimately shape their strategy and determine how to be most efficient at building their farm and feeding their family. Unlike other games that feature special bonus cards, the fact that players get these cards at the very beginning of the game in Agricola and do not draw anymore throughout the game means that players can really think things through in terms of how they wish to use the cards to their benefit.
These cards both change the game dramatically and provide players with new types of strategies to pursue that keep the game feeling fresh and different each time you play. Similar to Dominion, Agricola has a number of expansions that simply add new cards to make the game even more variable and replayable. Given the fact that the game was published in 2007 and still manages to be at the top of many gamers’ list of favorite games certainly speaks to its long-term replayability.
4. San Juan – A Game with Low Down-Time/Quick Turns
A benefit to Dominion that many players enjoy is the lack of downtime since the turns tend to move very quick – play actions cards, then buy cards and clean up. If you are looking for another game that has a quick pace but features a different style of gameplay, San Juan might be a game to look into.
San Juan at a Glance
| Game Type City Building, Economic, Action Drafting, Hand Management, Set Collection, Variable Phase Order | Play Time 45 - 60 mins | Skill/Complexity (2.3 - 5) Light - Medium |
| Age 10+ | Publisher(s) Ravensburger and Others | Published 2004 |
| Categories Strategy / Family | Players 2 - 4 | Cost $34.99 approx. |
| Our Rating 8.9/10 |
Based on the classic board game Puerto Rico, San Juan borrows many gameplay elements from larger, heavier Euro games and distills them down to a game consisting of a deck of cards and a handful of tiles. In San Juan, players attempt to gain the most VP by the end of the game by building cards into their tableau. Each card can provide ongoing benefits, like gaining additional goods (i.e., cards), discounts, or end-game scoring bonuses.
Players take turns selecting an available role, which will allow all players in clockwise order to perform a particular action, but will provide an additional benefit to the person who selected it. And this is exactly what makes San Juan a quick-moving game: the fact that on every player’s turn, each player will typically have something to do. The actions that can be selected are all quite basic, including building a building, trading goods, producing goods, or drawing cards. This ensures that the game moves along at a brisk pace and that players are never sitting for very long at all before there is something to do. Even the Prospector, the one role that doesn’t allow other players to perform the action, just allows the active player to draw 1 card.
When I’ve taught San Juan to new players, I usually get people who make comments at the end of a round along the lines of, “Wow, is the round over already?” This is usually a good indication to me that a game is not dragging along and keeping players engaged with very minimal downtime.
5. Trajan – A Game Full of Bonuses and Rewarding Turns
In a game of Dominion, it’s not uncommon for a player at some point in the game to be able to string together multiple action cards to draw more cards, perform additional actions, buy additional cards, get more money, or trash cards from their hand. When this happens, it can feel extremely rewarding and make you feel like you’ve pulled off something very clever. The #1 game that comes to mind that constantly rewards players with bonuses and combos is Trajan, a decently-heavy game by esteemed designer Stefan Feld.
The #1 game that comes to mind that constantly rewards players with bonuses and combos is Trajan, a decently-heavy game by esteemed designer Stefan Feld.
Trajan at a Glance
| Game Type Ancient & Political Theme, Area Movement, Card Drafting, Hand Management, Mancala Set Collection | Play Time 60 - 120 mins | Skill/Complexity (3.7 - 5) Medium - Heavy |
| Age 12+ | Publisher(s) Ammonit Spiele and Others | Published 2011 |
| Categories Strategy | Players 2 - 4 (4 Ideal ) | Cost $52.99 approx. |
| Our Rating 8.4/10 |
I sometimes jokingly refer to Trajan as “Slot Machine: The Board Game” because to me it provides a similar feeling of putting in a coin, pulling a lever, and seeing a bunch of pretty lights flash, making me feel like I am constantly winning even if that’s not the case. Stefan Feld is known for designing “point salad” games where players earn a lot of points for all sorts of things throughout the course of the game, and to me, Trajan is his quintessential game that made him famous for that.
In Trajan, players take turns moving tokens around an action rondel on their personal player board in a mancala fashion: pick up all the pieces at one spot, and drop off a piece on each space along the way until you finally end on a spot. Where you end determines the action you get to take, but each action spot on the rondel can also have bonus tiles that give you certain things if you have tokens of a specified color on the action spot where you end your turn. The game is made up of what feels like a bunch of mini games, each of which provide points, bonus actions, set-collection, and even the ability to make future bonuses more powerful on a permanent basis.
There are very few turns in Trajan where players don’t get points in one way or another, and it’s pretty incredible how final end-game scoring can be extremely close, even if players focus on very different things. The bonus actions you can pull off as well can be very rewarding. For example, you might trigger an action, which gives you a cool bonus, but then you have a bonus action token that lets you take that bonus a 2nd time, and this time that action gives you an immediate action for something else, which gives you points, and then you have a +1 token that lets you take that first action a third time, this time giving you a whole load of points. I’ve never felt so excited pulling off bonuses as I have when playing Trajan, and if this sounds like your idea of fun, you will definitely want to check this game out.
6. Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road – A Game All About Card Efficiency
It’s easy in a game of Dominion to accidentally let your deck get diluted with the wrong kinds of cards that don’t work well together and don’t allow you to achieve your objective of buying VPs to win the game. To do well in Dominion, you have to be good at being efficient – buying the right cards at the right time that work well together, and getting rid of the cards that don’t work for you. If you enjoy the efficiency puzzle that Dominion provides, you might want to consider taking a look at Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road, a game that is not quite a deck-builder, but has a very similar feel.
If you enjoy the efficiency puzzle that Dominion provides, you might want to consider taking a look at Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road………
Kashgar: Merchants of the Silk Road at a Glance
| Game Type Card Game, Economic Contracts, Deck Building | Play Time 45 mins | Skill/Complexity (2.4 - 5) Light - Medium |
| Age 12+ | Publisher(s) KOSMOS, Grail Games | Published 2013 |
| Categories Strategy | Players 2 - 4 | Cost $39.95 approx. |
| Our Rating 7.7/10 |
Instead of having a deck that players shuffle and cycle through, in Kashgar, players have 3 different piles of cards (i.e., caravans) that they cycle through continuously but never reshuffle. These piles of cards are displayed face-up in a row, and when you perform an action on a card, you move it to the back of the row; thus, it won’t become available again all other cards have been played in the pile and it works its way down to the front again.
The main goal of Kashgar is to get the most VP, and players achieve that by managing resources and purchasing additional cards to put into one of their 3 caravans. On a player’s turn, they select the front-most card from one of the 3 caravans, perform its action, and move it to the back of the caravan. Actions allow players to gain resources, purchase cards, and fulfill contracts in order to score points.
In order to be successful in a game of Kashgar, a player has to be very efficient, both in timing and with managing each of their 3 caravans. If they gain a card that provides a very powerful action, but the caravan they put it in has a lot of other cards, they may not be able to perform that action but once in the game. Also, if the cards in the caravan don’t allow the player to do the right things, they are less inclined to use the cards from that caravan.
Kashgar is an interesting twist on deck-building in the sense that you are building and managing 3 decks of cards, and you always know the order that cards will become available. It’s up to players to decide the order of which they will cycle through those 3 decks, and it can be a challenging efficiency puzzle, but one that can be very thrilling to pull off when you can make it work.
7. Cartographers – A Multi-player Solitaire Game with a Hint of Confrontation
Dominion is not necessarily a game where you will be playing super close attention to what other players are doing at every moment of the game. Instead, you might be more focused on what is going on in front of you and trying to figure out how you are going to piece together your deck to cash in on those 6-point VP cards. However, there is the slightest bit of player confrontation/negative player interaction involved with the curse cards, which provide other players with -1 VP that goes into their deck. This ability to ever-so-slightly mess up other players’ plans in an otherwise multi-player solitaire game is similar to a popular “flip-and-write” game, Cartographers.
This ability to ever-so-slightly mess up other players’ plans in an otherwise multi-player solitaire game is similar to a popular “flip-and-write” game, Cartographers.
Cartographers at a Glance
| Game Type Fantasy Theme, Territory Building, Bingo, Grid Coverage, Line Drawing, Paper-and-Pencil, Solo/Solitaire Game | Play Time 30 - 45 mins | Skill/Complexity (2 - 5) Light |
| Age 10+ | Publisher(s) Thunderworks Games and others | Published 2019 |
| Categories Family | Players 1 - 100 | Cost $24.95 |
| Our Rating 8.9/10 | Rules of Play Official Rules |
In Cartographers, players are trying to draw the best map by filling in squares on a grid on a sheet of paper with polyomino shapes. Each turn, a card is drawn, and players choose a shape and terrain type indicated on the card and draw it onto their player sheet. In the end, players are trying to get the most points by fulfilling points in various scoring categories that are evaluated at the end of each round. For the most part, this is a multi-player solitaire game with very low levels of player interaction, with one exception – ambush cards.
When an ambush card is drawn, players pass their map to the player on their left or right depending on the card drawn, and then players have a chance to draw monsters onto their opponent’s map. At the end of each round, any empty space next to a monster is worth -1 point.
While the ambush cards and monsters don’t completely derail the game with excessive levels of “take that,” they do provide just enough player interaction to potentially impact other players’ plans and make them have to re-evaluate where to draw shapes on their map to avoid negative points at the end of the round. These cards are fun and break up the game, adding in a small element of player interaction that isn’t commonly found in roll-and-write games.
8. Splendor – A Game with Simple Options/Focused Gameplay
Part of the reason why Dominion has very quick turns and downtime as mentioned above has to do with the fact that is has very simple options and focused gameplay. In Dominion, you don’t have a board with a bunch of different tracks to move up, or many different things to keep track of and manage. You are simply managing your deck by purchasing action cards from a display of 10 cards, money cards, or VP cards. From your hand of cards, you play 1 action card (and receive its bonuses), buy 1 card, and then clean up. At any given point in the game, there isn’t an overwhelming number of decisions to make. Splendor is another game that has very simple options with very focused gameplay that you might enjoy if you are a fan of Dominion.
Splendor is another game that has very simple options with very focused gameplay that you might enjoy if you are a fan of Dominion.
Splendor at a Glance
| Game Type Card Game, Economic, Renaissance, Card Drafting, Turn-Based, Resource Management | Play Time 30 mins | Skill/Complexity (2 - 5) Light - Medium |
| Age 10+ | Publisher(s) Space Cowboys and others | Published 2014 |
| Categories Family | Players 2 - 4 | Cost $30 - $40 |
| Our Rating 9/10 |
In Splendor (see review), players are trying to get the most points by collecting different types of gem tokens and purchasing gem cards, which in turn provide bonus gems on future turns. On a player’s turn, they have one of three options: collect gems, purchase a card, or reserve a card. When a player collects gems, they can draw 2 gems from 1 stack if that stack would have at least 2 gems left, or they can draw 3 gems from 3 stacks. When a player purchases a card, they select a card from the public display and pay its cost in gem tokens, but previously-purchased cards count as permanent gems. In other words, as the game progresses, players can make bigger and bigger purchases with fewer gem tokens. When a player reserves the card, they put that card into their hand (with a max of 3), and also take a gold token which serves as a wild gem type.
The goal in Splendor is simple: have the most points at the end of the game. Players get points from gem cards but also from fulfilling requirements on noble tiles at the end of the round by having purchased the correct gem cards. The first player to reach 15 points triggers the end of the game, but then the player with the most points at the end of that round wins.
Related – Board games like Splendor fans of the game may enjoy
There certainly is not a lot to keep track of in Splendor, and the goal is very focused and simple. This isn’t to say that the game is not engaging or tense. In fact, players can still pay attention to what other players are going for and try to ruin their plans by purchasing or reserving that one card they really needed. For this reason, Splendor continues to be a hit with casual gamers and hobby gamers alike, and is a great choice to bring to your next family gathering.
9. Carcassonne – A Game with Countless Expansions
There is so much content for Dominion. If you walk into a friendly local game store and look for Dominion, you’ll probably find at least a shelf or two of Dominion boxes of all colors. The possibilities seem endless in terms of how much you can add to the game to mix and match expansions to keep the gameplay experience feeling fresh! If you are someone who enjoys Dominion for its numerous expansions and content, Carcassonne is also a solid family-weight game that offers this same level of expandability.
The possibilities seem endless in terms of how much you can add to the game to mix and match expansions to keep the gameplay experience feeling fresh!
Carcassonne at a Glance
| Game Type Tile Placement City and Territory Building Medieval Theme | Play Time 45 mins | Skill/Complexity (2 - 5) Light |
| Age 8+ | Publisher(s) Hans im Glück and others | Published 2000 |
| Categories Family / 2 Player | Players 2 - 5 | Rules Manual Official Rules PDF |
| Our Rating 9.5/10 | Cost $24.99 + |
Carcassonne (see review) is a classic tile-placement game where players draw tiles and place them adjacent to other tiles to try and complete roads, cities, cloisters, and farms. When a player places a tile, they have the option to claim that structure with a meeple if there isn’t one already present, and when that structure is complete, they get their meeple back and score points accordingly.
At its core, Carcassonne is a very simple game, but it can definitely gain some depth by throwing in some of the expansions that are available. For instance, the Inns & Cathedrals expansion makes roads and cities worth more (but also potentially nothing if they aren’t completed by the end of the game). The Traders & Builders expansion adds a component of set-collection as players can gain resources of different types for completing cities with certain resource icons, which can gain a player bonus points at the end of the game. It also can make fields worth more, and allows players to build cities even quicker with the Builder. The Princess & The Dragon expansion adds some conflict and chaos by allowing players to move a dragon around the board to remove other players’ meeples, but having the Fairy can protect meeples from the dragon.
What’s great about the Carcassonne expansions is that you can throw in one of them to mix the game up, or you can throw them all in to make for an epic game! Each expansion on its own doesn’t complicate the game too much but adds in something unique to make the game feel distinct.
10. Blue Moon City – A Tense Race to the Finish
If you spend too much time not getting VPs in Dominion, you will likely fall behind once a player starts cashing in on those VP cards. It seems like once a player purchases the first 6-point VP card, other players take notice and start quickly trying to snag them before it’s too late. If you enjoy this tension that builds once all players start going for the same thing before the game ends, one game that is fairly under-rated that provides a similar feeling is Blue Moon City designed by Reiner Knizia.
Blue Moon City at a Glance
| Game Type Fantasy Theme, City Building, Area Majority, Grid Movement, Hand Management, Modular Board, Set Collection | Play Time 30 - 50 mins | Skill/Complexity (2.5 - 5) Medium |
| Age 14+ | Publisher(s) CMON Limited and Others | Published 2006 |
| Categories Family Strategy | Players 2 - 4 (4 is Ideal) | Cost $39.99 |
| Our Rating 8.1/10 |
In Blue Moon City, players work to rebuild a city after decades of warfare between alien races. Ultimately, players are trying to be the first to make enough offerings (depending on player count) to the obelisk by discarding crystals. On a player’s turn, they can move around the game board made up of building tiles, then they can use cards from their hand to make contributions to reconstruct the building where they ended their turn. If a dragon is present, they gain 1 dragon scale per dragon on the tile. Players can also use cards from their hands to perform certain actions, like changing the color of other cards, moving their player piece, or moving dragons.
In Blue Moon City, players work to rebuild a city after decades of warfare between alien races. Ultimately, players are trying to be the first to make enough offerings………
Once the supply of dragon scales is depleted, players can gain 6 crystals for having the most dragon scales, or gain 3 crystals if they have at least 3 dragon scales. Once a building has gained enough contributions, each player who contributed gets a bonus (i.e., crystals, dragon scales, cards, etc.), but the player who contributed the most gets an additional bonus. The tile is then flipped over and provides a neighboring bonus for adjacent buildings that are reconstructed in the future.
If a player ends their turn on the obelisk space in the middle of the board, they can make 1 contribution by discarding a number of crystals equal to the requirement of the lowest-available space on the obelisk and placing a token of their color on that space. As the game progresses, spaces become more and more costly and players contribute more tokens. The only way to win the game is being the first player to place all of your tokens (6 in a 2-player game, 5 in a 3-player game, and 4 in a 4-player game).
Once a player starts contributing to the obelisk, the tension in the game noticeably ramps up. The longer players wait to contribute, the more expensive the contributions will become, so it becomes a race to collect the right number of crystals to make it to the obelisk in time to get the best spots. In many cases, you can be 1 or 2 turns away from winning the game and then suddenly lose because another player beat you to it.
Like many of Reiner Knizia’s games, Blue Moon City is tense and fun with very easy simple to teach and understand.
– That’s about it for card and board games like Dominion category for now! We do an annual review of these to see what additions could be worth adding and any removals for better games.
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