Dominion: Allies
Dominion: Allies Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
400 cards
- 250 Normal Kingdom cards
- 10 each of Barbarian, Bauble, Broker, Capital City, Carpenter, Contract, Courier, Emissary, Galleria, Guildmaster, Highwayman, Hunter, Importer, Innkeeper, Marquis, Merchant Camp, Modify, Royal Galley, Sentinel, Skirmisher, Specialist, Swap, Sycophant, Town, Underling
- 96 Split pile cards
- 4 each of Acolyte, Archer, Battle Plan, Blacksmith, Conjurer, Distant Shore, Elder, Garrison, Herb Gatherer, Hill Fort, Lich, Miller, Old Map, Sibyl, Sorcerer, Sorceress, Stronghold, Student, Sunken Treasure, Tent, Territory, Town Crier, Voyage, Warlord
- 31 Randomizer cards
- 23 Ally cards: Architects' Guild, Band of Nomads, Cave Dwellers, Circle of Witches, City-state, Coastal Haven, Crafters' Guild, Desert Guides, Family of Inventors, Fellowship of Scribes, Forest Dwellers, Gang of Pickpockets, Island Folk, League of Bankers, League of Shopkeepers, Market Towns, Mountain Folk, Order of Astrologers, Order of Masons, Peaceful Cult, Plateau Shepherds, Trappers' Lodge, Woodworkers' Guild
6 Favors mats
35 Coin tokens
1 Plastic organizer tray
1 Organizing Inlay
1 Rule Booklet
Preparation
Before the first game, remove the four sets of cards from their wrappings and place them in the card tray. The included inlay suggests a way to organize the cards.
Dominion: Allies includes 31 randomizer cards (one for each Kingdom card pile). Players will need the Treasure cards, Victory cards, Curse cards, and Trash mat/card from either Dominion or Base Cards (or older editions of Intrigue) and the rules from Dominion to play with this expansion. As with previous Dominion games, players must choose 10 sets of Kingdom cards for each game. If players choose the random approach for choosing sets, they should shuffle the randomizer cards from this expansion with those of any other Dominion games they choose to play with.
In games using one or more Liaison cards, give each player a Favors mat and deal out a single Ally card. The Ally cards are a separate deck, not combined with Events and so on. Each player gets a single Favor token to start with (or five tokens in games with Importer).
Allies
Allies are landscape cards that give Favor tokens a use; Liaisons are kingdom cards that provide a way to get Favor tokens. In games with a Liaison, deal out a random Ally to use that game. Only use one Ally per game, even with multiple Liaisons. You can still have as many other landscape cards (Events, Landmarks, Projects, Ways) as you otherwise would have.
Coin tokens are used for Favors; they go on a Favors mat to distinguish them from Coffers and Villagers (from other expansions), which have their own mats. When a card gives you +1 Favor, add a token to your mat; when spending a Favor, remove the token from your mat.
Favors may be used starting with the first turn of the game; they may not be used prior to that turn. Spending Favors is always optional. Spending Favors can only be done once per time an Ally ability triggers, unless it says, "Repeat as desired."
Split Piles
Dominion: Allies has six split piles, that have four different cards in each of them. The cards start the game in order by cost. For example, the Augurs pile starts out with 4 Herb Gatherers on top, then 4 Acolytes, then 4 Sorceresses, then 4 Sibyls. This order may get messed up by cards like Swap; that's fine. As with the split piles in Dominion: Empires, only the top card of a split pile can be bought or gained. You can look through the cards in a split pile at any time, without changing the order.
The top card of each split pile has an ability that can "rotate" the pile (or with Battle Plan, any pile). Rotating a pile means taking the top card, and all copies of it directly under it, and putting them on the bottom. For example, if three Herb Gatherers were at the top of the Augurs, followed by Acolytes, you would put those three Herb Gatherers on the bottom, and Acolyte would now be on top.
Some cards refer to information about a pile as if it's just one card. In these cases, go with what's on the Randomizer card, which usually matches the top card. Some things refer to cards from a particular pile; these things work on all cards from a split pile. For example Training (from Dominion: Adventures) lets a player put a token on an Action pile, which causes them to get +1 coin when playing a card from that pile. The token can be put on the Odyssey pile, and then Sunken Treasure will also make +1 coin when played.
Durations
Allies has some Duration cards. Duration cards are orange and have abilities that affect future turns. Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something. Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as Specialist, that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times. Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines.
Kingdom Card Notes
Barbarian: For example, if a player trashes Contract to this, they could gain a Royal Galley, as they share the Duration type, or a Silver, as they share the Treasure type, or a Sycophant, as they share the Liaison type. If the trashed card costs 3 coins or more, they have to gain a cheaper card if they can; if there are no cheaper cards that share a type, they simply fail to gain a card. The attack hits each other player in turn order, starting with the player to your left; this can be important.
Bauble: Choose two of the four options; the first three options are simple +1's, and the last is everything else. So for example you could choose to take +1 Buy and "this turn, when you gain a card, you may put it onto your deck."
Broker: For example, if you trash an Estate, which costs 2 coins, you could choose to get +2 Cards, or +2 Actions, or +2 coins, or +2 Favors. If you trash a card with a red octagon or a blue potion symbol in the cost (from other expansions), you get nothing for those symbols.
Capital City: First draw a card and get +2 Actions. Then decide if you want to discard 2 cards for +2 coins. You may choose to do this even with fewer than 2 cards in hand, and will discard what you can, but you only get +2 coins if you actually discarded 2 cards. Then decide if you want to spend 2 coins for +2 Cards. The 2 coins can come from discarding to Capital City, or some other source, e.g. a Barbarian you played earlier in the turn. You don't get to play Treasures here to make the 2 coins though.
Carpenter: First see if there are any empty Supply piles. If there are none, you get +1 Action and gain a card costing up to 4 coins; if there are one or more empty piles, instead you trash a card from your hand and gain a card costing up to 2 coins more than the card you trashed.
Contract: If you set aside a card, then Contract stays in play until the Clean-up of your next turn; if you don't set aside a card, Contract is discarded the same turn in Clean-up. If you set aside a card, you have to play it at the start of your next turn. The set-aside card is face up.
Courier: First discard your top card, shuffling if needed. Then look through your discard pile, and you may play an Action or Treasure from it.
Emissary: First draw 3 cards; then see if drawing those cards caused you to shuffle. If it did, you get +1 Action and +2 Favors. It only counts as shuffling if at least one card was in your discard pile.
Galleria: What matters is how much a card actually costs when you gain it. If, for example, cards cost 1 coin less due to Bridge (from Intrigue), then gaining Silver would not produce +1 Buy, but gaining Duchy would.
Guildmaster: If an Ally ability triggers on gaining cards, e.g. Band of Nomads, you can use the Favor you just got on it.
Highwayman: You draw the 3 cards even if Highwayman can't be discarded from play; for example, if you Throne Room a Highwayman, you'll only discard it once but will draw 6 cards. Discarding Highwayman happens first, so it's possible to even draw that Highwayman with the +3 Cards. The attack stops each other player's first Treasure from doing anything, each turn; if they take extra turns, every turn is affected. For example, if their first played Treasure is Copper, it produces no coin. This isn't cumulative; if multiple players play copies of Highwayman, or one player plays multiple copies of it, still only one Treasure per turn does nothing. The Treasure does nothing even if it's also an Action, e.g., Crown (from Empires). This stops the Treasure from doing what it does when played, but doesn't stop abilities below a dividing line, like Capital's (from Empires). If the Treasure is also an Action, a Way (from Menagerie) can still be used on it, and Enchantress (from Empires) can still work on it; the player who played the Treasure decides which effect applies.
Hunter: From the three cards, choose an Action, then a Treasure, then a Victory card. Cards with multiple types can be chosen for any matching type. For example, if the revealed cards were Stronghold, Copper, Silver, you would have to take Stronghold as the Action, would choose between Silver and Copper as the Treasure, and would get no Victory card. Then you would discard the unchosen Treasure.
Importer: At the start of the game, each player gets five Favors instead of one. Importer doesn't provide a way to get any more Favors during the game.
Innkeeper: First get +1 Action and choose which option you want, then do it. You either get +1 Card, or get +3 Cards but discard 3 cards, or get +5 Cards but discard 6 cards.
Marquis: Even if you were unable to draw the full amount, you still discard down to 10 cards in hand afterwards.
Merchant Camp: If you have multiple Merchant Camps in play, you can choose how many you want to put on top of your deck.
Modify: First trash a card from your hand. Then, choose whether to take +1 Card and +1 Action, or to gain a card costing up to 2 coins more than the trashed card.
Royal Galley: Playing a non-Duration Action card via this is optional. If you do play one, you resolve the card completely, then set it aside. If it moved elsewhere somehow (for example, if it trashed itself), you fail to set it aside, and Royal Galley is discarded that turn normally. If you do set the card aside, then Royal Galley stays in play with this turn, and at the start of your next turn, you play the card again. Royal Galley and the card are both discarded that turn. Playing a card via Royal Galley does not use up an Action play (though playing Royal Galley itself does).
Sentinel: Shuffle as needed; if you don't have five cards even after shuffling, you look at all of them.
Skirmisher: When played, Skirmisher sets up an ability for the rest of the turn; any time you gain an Attack card, each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. Revealing Moat when Skirmisher is played stops the attack; you can't reveal Moat when an Attack card is gained later.
Specialist: First you may play an Action or Treasure card from your hand. If you did, then after completely resolving playing that card, you choose to either play it again, or gain a copy of it. You can play the card again even if it left play. You can choose to gain a copy even if there are no copies left; you won't gain anything though. This can only gain cards from the Supply.
Swap: First you get +1 Card and +1 Action. Then you may return an Action card from your hand to its pile; this is optional. If you do, then gain an Action card from the Supply costing up to 5 coins, and put it into your hand. The card you gain can't have the same name as the one you returned. Returning the card isn't trashing it, and won't trigger "when you trash this" abilities; gaining the card is gaining it, and will trigger "when you gain this" abilities.
Sycophant: You can play this regardless of how many cards are left in your hand. When you play this, if you have at least three cards left in hand, you discard three and get +3 coins. If you have one or two cards, you discard them and get +3 coins. If you have no cards, you don't get the +3 coins. When you gain or trash this, you get +2 Favors; you can immediately spend them, for example on the ability of City-state.
Town: You simply choose to either get +1 Card and +2 Actions, or +1 Buy and +2 coins.
Underling: Playing this simply gives you +1 Card, +1 Action, and +1 Favor.
Split Card Notes
Acolyte: Both abilities are optional; you may do either or both or neither. You only gain a Gold if you actually trashed an Action or Victory card from your hand; you only gain an Augur if you actually trashed Acolyte. Gaining an Augur will give you whichever Augur is on top of the pile currently, even if that's another Acolyte.
Archer: The players go in turn order if they care. Each other player, if they have 5 or more cards in hand, chooses one to keep secret and safe, and reveals the rest. You choose one of the revealed cards for them to discard.
Battle Plan: First you get +1 Card and +1 Action, then you may reveal an Attack card from your hand to draw a card, and finally you may rotate any Supply pile. Many piles won't do anything meaningful if you do this. It can be relevant though for split piles, or for the Castles from Empires, or the Knights or Ruins from Dark Ages.
Blacksmith: You either draw until you have 6 cards in hand, or draw 2 cards, or draw one card and get +1 Action.
Conjurer: This will keep returning to your hand each turn as long as you keep playing it.
Distant Shore: Gaining an Estate isn't optional. If the Estate pile is empty you still get +2 Cards and +1 Action.
Elder: You can play an Action card with no "choose" ability; it will simply do what it normally does. If you play one with a "choose" ability, you may take an extra choice, but don't have to; for example, when playing Count (from Dark Ages), you could choose to only get one thing from the first "choose" ability, but two from the second. If you choose multiple things, you do those things in the order listed on the card; for example, if you use Elder on Blacksmith and choose "draw until you have 6 cards in hand" and "+1 Card and +1 Action," you first draw up to 6, then get +1 Card and +1 Action. If you use Elder on Courtier (from Intrigue), you get one extra choice, not one extra choice per type. Elder doesn't affect all choices, just ones that say "choose" and have a list of options; for example Workshop gives you a choice of what card to gain, but Elder playing Workshop doesn't do anything extra.
Garrison: This can only have tokens on it if it's in play; if it leaves play, it has no tokens. You can use coin tokens for this; on Garrison they have no other meaning, they're just tokens on Garrison. If you Throne Room Garrison and then gain 3 cards, it will get 6 tokens total, and you'll draw 6 cards next turn, not 12, as you can only remove the tokens once.
Herb Gatherer: Putting your deck into your discard pile does not trigger "when you discard this" abilities like Tunnel's (from Hinterlands). Playing a Treasure from your discard pile is optional, as is rotating the Augurs.
Hill Fort: First completely resolve gaining a card costing up to 4 coins; then choose whether to put it into your hand or get +1 Card and +1 Action. If the card is no longer where it was gained to (normally your discard pile) then you will fail to put it into your hand if you choose that. If it's been covered up in your discard pile, you can still put it into your hand.
Lich: Skipping a turn means that the next time you would take a turn, you don't; nothing happens for that turn: no "start of turn" abilities, no phases. Play continues with the player to your left as usual. You can skip an extra turn, like one from Voyage. Skipped turns still count for the tiebreaker however they would have if taken. If you play multiple Liches you will skip multiple turns. When you trash Lich, you put it from the trash into your discard pile, which does not trigger abilities that care about gaining cards; then you gain a card costing less than Lich from the trash, which does trigger such abilities. Gaining a cheaper card is mandatory if possible.
Miller: If you have fewer than four cards (after shuffling), you just look at what's left.
Old Map: Everything happens in the order listed: first you get +1 Card and +1 Action; then you discard a card; then you draw a card; then you choose whether or not to rotate the Odysseys.
Sibyl: If after drawing your deck has no cards in it, the first card you put back will become the top card of it.
Sorcerer: Each other player names a card and reveals the top card of their deck. If it doesn't have that name, they gain a Curse. Whether or not it does, they return the card to the top of their deck. So, if you play Sorcerer twice in a turn, they will probably know the card for the 2nd play.
Sorceress: Name a card; if the top card of your deck has that name, each other player gains a Curse. You put the card into your hand whether or not it had the name you chose.
Stronghold: If you choose +3 coins, Stronghold will be discarded that turn; if you choose the +3 Cards next turn, Stronghold will stay out until that turn's Clean-up (and if you choose both via Elder, it will stay out).
Student: Rotating the Wizards is optional, but trashing a card is mandatory. If you trash a Treasure, you get +1 Favor and put Student onto your deck: that's mandatory. You might draw that same Student again that turn and play it again. If you trash a non-Treasure, Student stays in play, and is discarded in Clean-up like other cards.
Sunken Treasure: If there's no such Action in the Supply, you don't gain one.
Tent: If you have multiple Tents in play, you can choose how many you want to put on top of your deck.
Territory: For example, if you have 3 Estates, a Province, and a Territory, Territory is worth 3 victory points. If gaining Territory causes the Clashes pile to be empty, that counts for how many Golds you get.
Town Crier: First choose either to get +2 coins, or to gain a Silver, or to get +1 Card and +1 Action. Then, no matter what you picked, choose whether or not to rotate the Townsfolk pile.
Voyage: This doesn't stop you from playing cards that aren't in your hand; for example, if the third card you play is Golem (from Alchemy), it can still play its two cards, which are set aside. On a Voyage turn, if you Throne Room a card, both Throne Room and that card count as plays from your hand, but Throne Room replaying the card does not. This limits plays of all types of cards, including Treasures like Copper.
Warlord: This doesn't stop players from playing cards that aren't in their hands; for example, Golem (from Alchemy) can still play its two cards, which are set aside, no matter how many copies of them are in play. With Warlord affecting you, Throne Room can't play a card from your hand that you have two copies of in play; but Throne can play a card you have one copy of in play, and then can replay that card, even though now you have two copies of it in play. This only affects Action cards; it doesn't affect Copper, for example.
Allies Card Notes
Architects' Guild: This only works once per gain but can trigger off of itself; you could gain a Province, spend 2 Favors to gain a Gold (cheaper than Province), spend 2 Favors to gain a Laboratory (cheaper than Gold).
Band of Nomads: What matters is how much the card costs when you gain it, not how much it normally costs. This only works once per gain; you can spend a Favor, and then get your choice of +1 Card, +1 Action, or +1 Buy.
Cave Dwellers: At the start of your turn, you may spend a Favor; if you do, you discard a card and then draw a card. Then you can spend another Favor to discard another card and draw another card, and so on, until you stop spending Favors. You draw a card even if you failed to discard one.
Circle of Witches: After you completely resolve playing a Liaison, you may spend 3 Favors to have each other player gain a Curse. This can include Favors you just got from playing that Liaison. This is not playing an Attack card and cannot be blocked with Moat.
City-state: If you gain an Action card in your Buy phase (such as by buying it), City-state can still let you play it then; if it gives you +Actions, that won't let you play more Action cards in your Buy phase, and if it draws you Treasures, you can only play them if you haven't bought anything yet. City-state can only play a card that's still wherever it was gained to (normally the discard pile) but can still play a card in your discard pile if it was covered up by other cards. City-state only works during your turns.
Coastal Haven: For example, you could spend two Favors to keep a Copper and a Silver in your hand, discard the rest of your hand and all of your cards from play (as usual), then draw a new hand of five cards and add it to the Copper and Silver. If for some reason you aren't drawing five cards (for example due to Outpost, from Seaside), Coastal Haven doesn't get you around that; you draw however many cards you were otherwise supposed to draw, with the kept cards not counting against that.
Crafters' Guild: The card is gained directly onto your deck.
Desert Guides: After discarding your hand and drawing 5 cards, you may spend another Favor to do it again, repeatedly.
Family of Inventors: This can't put tokens on Victory piles. It can put tokens on split piles that have Victory cards in them, if the randomizer isn't a Victory card; this means it can put tokens on the 6 split piles in Allies, but not on the Castles pile from Empires. The effect is cumulative; two tokens on a pile means that cards in that pile cost 2 coins less. This does not reduce costs below 0 coins. This makes cards cost less at all times for all players, not just for the player placing the token.
Fellowship of Scribes: You can only do this once per time you play an Action card. Completely resolve the Action card; then if you have 4 or fewer cards in hand, you may spend a Favor for +1 Card.
Forest Dwellers: You can only do this once per turn.
Gang of Pickpockets: At the start of each of your turns, you choose to spend a Favor or not, and if you didn't, you discard down to 4 cards in hand. It's okay if you already only had 4 cards or fewer. This is not an Attack card being played and cannot be blocked with Moat.
Island Folk: This can never let you take a 3rd turn in a row.
League of Bankers: You don't spend Favors to use this; you just get +coins based on the number of Favors you've accumulated.
League of Shopkeepers: You don't spend Favors to use this. After each time you play a Liaison, you get +1 coin if you have 5 or more Favors, and +1 Action and +1 Buy (in addition to the +1 coin) if you have 10 or more. In games with multiple Liaisons, all of the Liaisons get the bonus, even if only one of them was used to get the Favors.
Market Towns: Fully resolve playing the Action card before deciding if you want to spend a Favor to play another one.
Mountain Folk: You need the full 5 Favors to use this.
Order of Astrologers: Each time you shuffle, you can spend Favors to look through the cards and pick one card per Favor spent to go on top. Shuffle the other cards normally. You can't look through your cards unless you spend at least one Favor. You can look at any to-be-drawn cards while making this decision; for example, if you're shuffling at end of turn and had two cards left, you can look at those, then decide whether or not to spend Favors and what cards to put on top. After spending a Favor and looking at the cards, you may still spend more Favors. Note that Emissary and Underling can cause you to shuffle before giving you Favors; the Favors you don't have yet can't be used on that shuffle.
Order of Masons: Each time you shuffle, you can spend Favors to look through the cards and pick up to two cards per Favor spent to put into your discard pile. Shuffle the other cards normally, but don't shuffle in those cards. You can't look through your cards unless you spend at least one Favor. You can look at any to-be-drawn cards while making this decision, as with Order of Astrologers. After spending a Favor and looking at the cards, you may still spend more Favors. Note that Emissary and Underling can cause you to shuffle before giving you Favors; the Favors you don't have yet can't be used on that shuffle.
Peaceful Cult: Spend the Favors all at once; then choose all the cards to trash; then trash them; then resolve things that happen due to trashing those cards, in any order.
Plateau Shepherds: For example, if you have five Favors, two Estates, and a Moat, you can make three pairs, for 6 victory points.
Trappers' Lodge: If your deck is empty, the card becomes the only card in your deck.
Woodworkers' Guild: This can gain an Action of any cost, including Actions with a red octagon or a blue potion in the cost. You only gain an Action if you trashed one.
Recommended Sets of 10
Players can play Dominion with any set of 10 Kingdom cards, but these sets have been specially picked out to be entertaining and show off card interactions and strategies.
Allies alone:
Decisions, Decisions: City-state, Bauble, Courier, Highwayman, Hunter, Innkeeper, Marquis, Merchant Camp, Modify, Royal Galley, Townsfolk
Foresight: Order of Astrologers, Augurs, Barbarian, Carpenter, Emissary, Galleria, Sentinel, Skirmisher, Specialist, Town, Underling
Allies & Dominion:
Allies for Beginners: Crafters' Guild, Broker, Capital City, Galleria, Odysseys, Sycophant, Gardens, Harbinger, Market, Remodel, Vassal
Warring Shopkeepers: League of Shopkeepers, Clashes, Emissary, Guildmaster, Royal Galley, Town, Bandit, Laboratory, Merchant, Moat, Moneylender