Hinterlands

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Hinterlands
Hinterlands.jpg
Hinterlands2.jpg
Info
Type Expansion
Icon Hinterlands icon.png
Cards 300
266 (26 sets)
26
8
Theme(s) On-buy/gain effects
Release October 2011
Official Rulebook PDF

Hinterlands is the 6th Dominion expansion, released in October 2011. The basic theme of the set is cards that either have or cause effects when you buy or gain them. Hinterlands is a popular expansion, offering a nice balance of engine, BM, and alternate VP cards.

Contents

Contents

Basic Supply Cards

  • Hinterlands is only an expansion, so no Basic Supply Cards are included.

Kingdom Cards

$2 CrossroadsCrossroads.jpg, DuchessDuchess.jpg, Fool's GoldFool's Gold.jpg
$3 DevelopDevelop.jpg, OasisOasis.jpg, OracleOracle.jpg, SchemeScheme.jpg, TunnelTunnel.jpg
$4 Jack of all TradesJack of All Trades.jpg, Noble BrigandNoble Brigand.jpg, Nomad CampNomad Camp.jpg, Silk RoadSilk Road.jpg, Spice MerchantSpice Merchant.jpg, TraderTrader.jpg
$5 CacheCache.jpg, CartographerCartographer.jpg, EmbassyEmbassy.jpg, HagglerHaggler.jpg, HighwayHighway.jpg, Ill-Gotten GainsIll-Gotten Gains.jpg, InnInn.jpg, MandarinMandarin.jpg, MargraveMargrave.jpg, StablesStables.jpg
$6 Border VillageBorder Village.jpg, FarmlandFarmland.jpg

Goko Half-Sets

Faraway Lands

$2 CrossroadsCrossroads.jpg
$3 OasisOasis.jpg, OracleOracle.jpg, TunnelTunnel.jpg
$4 Jack of all TradesJack of All Trades.jpg, Noble BrigandNoble Brigand.jpg, Silk RoadSilk Road.jpg
$5 CartographerCartographer.jpg, EmbassyEmbassy.jpg, HighwayHighway.jpg, InnInn.jpg, MargraveMargrave.jpg
$6 FarmlandFarmland.jpg

Foreign Coins

$2 DuchessDuchess.jpg, Fool's GoldFool's Gold.jpg
$3 DevelopDevelop.jpg, SchemeScheme.jpg
$4 Nomad CampNomad Camp.jpg, Spice MerchantSpice Merchant.jpg, TraderTrader.jpg
$5 CacheCache.jpg, HagglerHaggler.jpg, Ill-Gotten GainsIll-Gotten Gains.jpg, MandarinMandarin.jpg, StablesStables.jpg
$6 Border VillageBorder Village.jpg

Additional Materials

  • None

Flavor Text

The world is big and your kingdom small. Small when compared to the world, that is; it’s moderate-sized when compared to other kingdoms. But in a big world like this one - big when compared to smaller worlds anyway, if such things exist; it’s moderate-sized when compared to worlds of roughly the same size, and a little small when compared to worlds just a little larger - well, to make a long story short - short when compared to longer stories anyway - it is time to stretch your borders. You’ve heard of far-off places - exotic countries, where they have pancakes but not waffles, where the people wear the wrong number of shirts, and don’t even have a word for the look two people give each other when they each hope that the other will do something that they both want done but which neither of them wants to do. It is to these lands that you now turn your gaze.


Impact of Hinterlands

The release of Hinterlands is perceived as having pushed the strategic center of gravity of Dominion away from the heavily streamlined small-deck Action engines promoted by Alchemy and Prosperity, toward strategies based on navigating bulky decks: it emphasizes sifting and Silver-gaining, and has no cards that can trash more than one card at a time.

Hinterlands also emphasizes the diversity of Kingdom card types: it is the only expansion to contain more than one Treasure, more than one Reaction, and more than one Victory card among its Kingdom cards.

Engines

Hinterlands introduced a number of cards which are popular in building engines. Some of these include:

  • SchemeScheme.jpg - Allows you the ability to top-deck actions played last turn.
  • HighwayHighway.jpg - The BridgeBridge.jpg-effect encourages megaturn strategies.
  • CrossroadsCrossroads.jpg - The card is a cheap source of +Actions.
  • Border VillageBorder Village.jpg - Allows you to gain both a village and a power $5 card.
  • HagglerHaggler.jpg - Acts as a pseudo +Buy, giving you a cheaper extra card (perhaps a Cantrip or village) to go with your main purchase.
  • CartographerCartographer.jpg - A Cantrip which allows you to sift through your deck to ensure you hit your key cards.
  • InnInn.jpg - A village which is particularly good when much of the deck is discarded, to play multiple actions in the same turn.

Big Money

The expansion offered three cards which are relatively effective for BM strategies.

  • Jack of all TradesJack of All Trades.jpg is a solid BM card because of its ability to both gain SilverSilver.jpg and trash your starting Estates or Curses.
  • EmbassyEmbassy.jpg offers a combination of both large draw and sifting ability.
  • OracleOracle.jpg offers weak draw, but offsets that somewhat with its attack and sifting ability.

Rushes

Hinterlands has two cards which will often lead to rush strategies.

Silver

There seems to be a consensus in the Dominion community that Hinterlands increased the importance of SilverSilver.jpg relative to the other expansions.

  • Jack of all TradesJack of All Trades.jpg - Displayed the power of gaining silver for simple BM strategies.
  • TraderTrader.jpg - Showed the potential of flooding one's deck with Silver.
  • Silk RoadSilk Road.jpg - A way to easily gain Silver is often all that is needed to enable a Silk Road rush.

"Fixes"

Hinterlands introduced cards that can, in a broad sense, be considered "better" versions of earlier cards - that is, an attempt was made to "fix" what seemed to be problems with the original cards.

  • Noble BrigandNoble Brigand.jpg - A "better" ThiefThief.jpg, since it doesn't trash CopperCopper.jpg (and in fact distributes them), and gives $ - however, it cannot gain more exotic Treasures
  • Spice MerchantSpice Merchant.jpg - A "better" MoneylenderMoneylender.jpg, it is more flexible, both in what it can trash, and what it does after trashing, though it does not field as much $
  • CartographerCartographer.jpg - A "better" ScoutScout.jpg, it discards from your deck instead of drawing Victory cards, and also draws a card, though it costs more
  • HighwayHighway.jpg - A "better" BridgeBridge.jpg, it brings costs down much more easily given its cantrip nature (and thus is much better for tricks requiring cost-reduction), but is more expensive and does not give +Buy

Hinterlands Theme

Game designer Donald X. offered some insight into some themes of the set here.

  • 9 Effects when gained/bought: Noble Brigand, Nomad Camp, Cache, Embassy, Ill-Gotten Gains, Inn, Mandarin, Border Village, Farmland
  • 4 Other interaction with gain/buy: Duchess, Fool's Gold, Trader, Haggler
  • 7 Victory/Treasure/Reaction: Fool's Gold, Tunnel, Silk Road, Trader, Cache, Ill-Gotten Gains, Farmland
  • 4 Interact with Victory cards: Crossroads, Duchess, Fool's Gold, Silk Road
  • 8 Card filtering: Oasis, Oracle, Jack of all Trades, Cartographer, Embassy, Inn, Margrave, Stables

Trivia

Secret History

Originally, there were just some cards. One day I split up the cards into a main set and two expansions. I divided the expansion cards by themes; the first expansion got one-shots, decision cards, and cards with two types, while the second expansion got cards that did something on your next turn and cards that did something when you gained them.



When I showed the game to RGG, I had five expansions. During development of the main game, I briefly tried out the expansions in 16-card versions. As part of doing this, I split up the second expansion into two expansions - one for the next turn theme, another for the right now theme. Both themes seemed good enough to support an expansion. Later, when I turned everything back into 20-card expansions (which became 25 during work on Intrigue), I kept those two themes separated. The next turn theme came out as the actual second expansion, Seaside, and now finally we have come to the when-you-gain-this expansion.

A few of these cards date back to 2006, and the original expansion with both themes. More are from when I split up the themes, then more got added to get back up to 25, and of course some cards are more recent, due to the usual process of getting rid of duds and trying new things.

For most of its life, this has been an ordinary expansion. For a while there though, I was thinking maybe it would be good to do another standalone. There are various virtures to standalones; someone else can talk them up, as I know there are other people who will argue against them. Anyway it seemed good to me. And so for a bit I focused on trying to make sure the set wasn't as complex as the couple sets before it. It gets some simplicity from the when-gain theme, although some of those cards still look complicated because they need text for both the normal and when-gain abilities. This focus helped protect a few of the simpler cards, and then late in the going Jay decided it would be a normal expansion after all. So the set is 300 cards, with no tokens or anything, and had that extra push towards simplicity, which is nice. And for those of you who were wondering, this is also why the rulebook has an unprecedented number of recommended sets of 10.

Some of you are thinking, simplicity lol. No really; whatever strategic complexity the set has, it does have some simple, easy-to-play cards; it's simpler than Prosperity but more complex than Seaside. You can sit a new player down with Nomad CampNomad Camp.jpg and CrossroadsCrossroads.jpg and so forth and while they may not know what they're doing, they won't be confused by their cards.

The when-gain theme was always the focus of the set. A few of the cards are when-buy instead; this was necessary, as I will explain for those cards. I have a few cards that latch onto when-gain from different angles, rather than just doing something when you gain them. And then, when-gain abilities are good fits for victory cards and treasure cards, so the set got three of each. Some of the victory cards died and were replaced by other ones without when-gain abilities, but there are three, see for yourself. With three victory cards and three treasures it seemed cool to have three reactions, and towards the end I managed to squeeze in a third one.

Some of you who are word people or have internet access may note that one meaning of "hinterlands" is, the land behind the coast. So even the flavor is a complement to Seaside.




Recommended Sets of 10

Hinterlands Only

Introduction [images]
Cache Crossroads Develop Haggler Jack of all Trades
Cache.jpg Crossroads.jpg Develop.jpg Haggler.jpg Jack of All Trades.jpg
Margrave.jpg Nomad Camp.jpg Oasis.jpg Spice Merchant.jpg Stables.jpg
Margrave Nomad Camp Oasis Spice Merchant Stables
Fair Trades [images]
Border Village Cartographer Develop Duchess Farmland
Border Village.jpg Cartographer.jpg Develop.jpg Duchess.jpg Farmland.jpg
Ill-Gotten Gains.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg Silk Road.jpg Stables.jpg Trader.jpg
Ill-Gotten Gains Noble Brigand Silk Road Stables Trader
Bargains [images]
Border Village Cache Duchess Fool's Gold Haggler
Border Village.jpg Cache.jpg Duchess.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Haggler.jpg
Highway.jpg Nomad Camp.jpg Scheme.jpg Spice Merchant.jpg Trader.jpg
Highway Nomad Camp Scheme Spice Merchant Trader
Gambits [images]
Cartographer Crossroads Embassy Inn Jack of all Trades
Cartographer.jpg Crossroads.jpg Embassy.jpg Inn.jpg Jack of All Trades.jpg
Mandarin.jpg Nomad Camp.jpg Oasis.jpg Oracle.jpg Tunnel.jpg
Mandarin Nomad Camp Oasis Oracle Tunnel

Hinterlands & Dominion

Highway Robbery [images]
Cellar Library Moneylender Throne Room Workshop
Cellar.jpg Library.jpg Moneylender.jpg Throne Room.jpg Workshop.jpg
Highway.jpg Inn.jpg Margrave.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg Oasis.jpg
Highway inn Margrave Noble Brigand Oasis
Adventures Abroad [images]
Adventurer Chancellor Festival Laboratory Remodel
Adventurer.jpg Chancellor.jpg Festival.jpg Laboratory.jpg Remodel.jpg
Crossroads.jpg Farmland.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Oracle.jpg Spice Merchant.jpg
Crossroads Farmland Fool's Gold Oracle Spice Merchant

Hinterlands & Intrigue

Money for Nothing [images]
Coppersmith Great Hall Pawn Shanty Town Torturer
Coppersmith.jpg Great Hall.jpg Pawn.jpg Shanty Town.jpg Torturer.jpg
Cache.jpg Cartographer.jpg Jack of All Trades.jpg Silk Road.jpg Tunnel.jpg
Cache Cartographer Jack of all Trades Silk Road Tunnel
The Dukes Ball [images]
Conspirator Duke Harem Masquerade Upgrade
Conspirator.jpg Duke.jpg Harem.jpg Masquerade.jpg Upgrade.jpg
Duchess.jpg Haggler.jpg Inn.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg Scheme.jpg
Duchess Haggler Inn Noble Brigand Scheme

Hinterlands & Seaside

Travelers [images]
Cutpurse Island Lookout Merchant Ship Warehouse
Cutpurse.jpg Island.jpg Lookout.jpg Merchant Ship.jpg Warehouse.jpg
Cartographer.jpg Crossroads.jpg Farmland.jpg Silk Road.jpg Stables.jpg
Cartographer Crossroads Farmland Silk Road Stables
Diplomacy [images]
Ambassador Bazaar Caravan Embargo Smugglers
Ambassador.jpg Bazaar.jpg Caravan.jpg Embargo.jpg Smugglers.jpg
Embassy.jpg Farmland.jpg Ill-Gotten Gains.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg [[File:Trader

.jpg|200px]]

Embassy Farmland ill-Gotten Gains Noble Brigand [[Trader

]] !!style="border-left-width:0px; width:20px; text-align:right; "|

Hinterlands & Alchemy

Schemes and Dreams [images]
Apothecary Apprentice Herbalist Philosopher's Stone Transmute
Apothecary.jpg Apprentice.jpg Herbalist.jpg Philosopher's Stone.jpg Transmute.jpg
Duchess.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Ill-Gotten Gains.jpg Jack of All Trades.jpg Scheme.jpg
Duchess Fool's Gold Ill-Gotten Gains Jack of all Trades Scheme
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Potion
Potion.jpg
Wine Country [images]
Apprentice Familiar Golem University Vineyard
Apprentice.jpg Familiar.jpg Golem.jpg University.jpg Vineyard.jpg
Crossroads.jpg Farmland.jpg Haggler.jpg Highway.jpg Nomad Camp.jpg
Crossroads Farmland Haggler Highway Nomad Camp
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Potion
Potion.jpg

Hinterlands & Prosperity

Instant Gratification [images]
Bishop Expand Hoard Mint Watchtower
Bishop.jpg Expand.jpg Hoard.jpg Mint.jpg Watchtower.jpg
Farmland.jpg Haggler.jpg Ill-Gotten Gains.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg Trader.jpg
Farmland Haggler Ill-Gotten Gains Noble Brigand Trader
Treasure Trove [images]
Bank Monument Royal Seal Trade Route Venture
Bank.jpg Monument.jpg Royal Seal.jpg Trade Route.jpg Venture.jpg
Cache.jpg Develop.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Ill-Gotten Gains.jpg Mandarin.jpg
Cache Develop Fool's Gold Ill-Gotten Gains Mandarin

Hinterlands & Cornucopia

Blue Harvest [images]
Hamlet Horn of Plenty Horse Traders Jester Tournament
Hamlet.jpg Horn of Plenty.jpg Horse Traders.jpg Jester.jpg Tournament.jpg
Fool's Gold.jpg Mandarin.jpg Noble Brigand.jpg Trader.jpg Tunnel.jpg
Fool's Gold Mandarin Noble Brigand Trader Tunnel
Traveling Circus [images]
Fairgrounds Farming Village Hunting Party Jester Menagerie
Fairgrounds.jpg Farming Village.jpg Hunting Party.jpg Jester.jpg Menagerie.jpg
Border Village.jpg Embassy.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Nomad Camp.jpg Oasis.jpg
Border Village Embassy Fool's Gold Nomad Camp Oasis

Hinterlands & Dark Ages

Far From Home [images]
Cartographer Develop Embassy Fool's Gold Haggler
Cartographer.jpg Develop.jpg Embassy.jpg Fool's Gold.jpg Haggler.jpg
Beggar.jpg Count.jpg Feodum.jpg Marauder.jpg Wandering Minstrel.jpg
Beggar Count Feodum Marauder Wandering Minstrel
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Ruins
Abandoned Mine.jpg
Expeditions [images]
Crossroads Farmland Highway Spice Merchant Tunnel
Crossroads.jpg Farmland.jpg Highway.jpg Spice Merchant.jpg Tunnel.jpg
Altar.jpg Catacombs.jpg Ironmonger.jpg Poor House.jpg Storeroom.jpg
Altar Catacombs Ironmonger Poor House Storeroom

Hinterlands on DS.com and F.DS.com

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