Seaside

Seaside
Info
Type	Expansion
Icon
Cards	300
Kingdom	262 (26 sets)
Randomizers	26
Blank Card(s)	12
Additional Material(s)
Mats	6 Island mats 6 Native Village mats 6 Pirate Ship mats
Tokens	25 Coin tokens 15 Embargo tokens
Theme(s)	The next turn (Duration cards)
Release	October 2009
Official Rulebook	PDF

Dominion: Seaside, is the second expansion to Base Dominion released by Donald X. Vaccarino in 2009 by publisher Rio Grande Games. The box contains 26 Kingdom Cards, 3 types of mats, a set of gold tokens, and a set of Embargo tokens.

Contents

Basic Supply Cards

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

Kingdom Cards

Embargo, Haven, Lighthouse, Native Village, Pearl Diver
Ambassador, Fishing Village, Lookout, Smugglers, Warehouse
Caravan, Cutpurse, Island, Navigator, Pirate Ship, Salvager, Sea Hag, Treasure Map
Bazaar, Explorer, Ghost Ship, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Tactician, Treasury, Wharf

Goko Half-Sets

Ports and Beaches

Haven, Lighthouse
Fishing Village, Lookout
Island, Navigator, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag, Treasure Map
Explorer, Ghost Ship, Merchant Ship, Tactician

Ships and Sailors

Embargo, Native Village
Ambassador, Smugglers, Warehouse
Caravan, Cutpurse, Salvager
Bazaar, Outpost, Treasury, Wharf

Additional Materials

• 15 Embargo tokens
• 25 Pirate Ship tokens
• 18 mats:
  • 6 Island mats
  • 6 Pirate Ship mats
  • 6 Native Village mats

Additional Rules

• This expansion introduces Duration cards. These cards are orange, and say "Duration" on the bottom line, i.e. "Action – Duration." A Duration card does something after your turn. Leave the card in front of you until the Clean-up Phase of the last turn in which it does something (discard it before drawing for the following turn). So if the card says "Now and on your next turn," discard it during the Clean-up phase of your next turn.
• If you play or modify a Duration card with another card, that other card also stays in your play area until it is no longer doing anything. For example if you play Throne Room on Merchant Ship, both cards stay in play until the Clean-up phase of your next turn. The Throne Room stays in play to remind you that you are getting the effect of Merchant Ship twice on that next turn.
• If multiple cards resolve at the same time on your turn (for example, Duration cards that do something “at the start of your next turn”), you choose what order to resolve them. A card that affects multiple players during your turn still resolves in player order, affecting you first if it affects all players and then proceeding clockwise.
• In order to keep track of which Duration cards are discarded during the current Clean-up phase and which Duration cards remain in play, place Duration cards in a separate row above the other Actions and Treasures played. When a Duration card has its last effect, move it to the row of cards that will be played and discarded during the current turn.
• Players may look at face-up set-aside cards of any player. Players may count face-down set-aside cards (both their own and those of other players).
• Some cards give a player a choice between two or more options (Pirate Ship, Native Village). You may pick any choice offered, even if you cannot do what it tells you to, but once you make a choice, you must complete as much of it as you can. Specific examples of this rule are given in the descriptions for cards on the info sheet.
• Some cards are both Victory cards and another type as well (e.g. Island). These cards are both types for all purposes. Island can be played like a normal Action and at the end of the game, it contributes to your score. When a card refers to a type of card, it means any card having that type; so, for example, Library can be used to set aside an Island.

Flavor text

All you ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. And someone who knows how to steer ships using stars. You finally got some of those rivers you'd wanted, and they led to the sea. These are dangerous, pirate-infested waters, and you cautiously send rat-infested ships across them, to establish lucrative trade at far-off merchant-infested ports. First, you will take over some islands, as a foothold. The natives seem friendly enough, crying their peace cries, and giving you spears and poison darts before you are even close enough to accept them properly. When you finally reach those ports you will conquer them, and from there you will look for more rivers. One day, all the rivers will be yours.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, the Seaside rulebook

Impact of Seaside

Seaside is one of the most universally well-liked Dominion expansions, and a frequent answer to the "What should be the first expansion I buy?" question. This may be because Duration cards provide a noticeably different gameplay experience than anything that's available in the base set or Intrigue, while still having effects that are relatively straightforward and easy to understand.

Seaside is often perceived to be a "power creep" expansion; certainly it contains several cards that are very strong for their cost in comparison to the average card in Intrigue or base Dominion. Sea Hag and Ambassador are two powerful junking attacks for less than , making them very strong openers; Ghost Ship is one of the most punishing handsize attacks to be hit by; Lighthouse on the other hand provides some of the best protection from Attacks available in Dominion; and Fishing Village, Caravan, Tactician, and Wharf have very strong next-turn effects that can allow an engine to function with extremely high reliability. Fishing Village and Wharf are often described as the most powerful village card and the most powerful non-Attack card, respectively.

Seaside has no cards costing , and more cards costing than any other expansion. This is a deliberate move on Donald X. Vaccarino's part to compensate for the range of costs in the upcoming Prosperity, which has no cards and a lot of cards costing or more.

Seaside Theme

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

• 8 Duration: Haven, Lighthouse, Fishing Village, Caravan, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Tactician, Wharf
• 9 Top of deck: Native Village, Pearl Diver, Lookout, Navigator, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag, Treasure Map, Ghost Ship, Treasury
• 3 Other other-turn: Embargo, Smugglers, Island
• 6 Off-theme: Ambassador, Warehouse, Cutpurse, Salvager, Explorer, Bazaar

Trivia

Secret History

At first there were just a bunch of cards. One day I decided, okay, these are the main set, these are the first expansion, these are the second expansion. I divided everything up based on mechanical themes.

Originally the 2nd expansion had two themes. Both themes had so much potential that I broke the set up into two sets, expanding the themes. Seaside got the "next turn" theme. It may be a couple years before you'll get to see the expansion I made out of the other theme.

For much of its pre-development life, the set was 20 cards. It briefly visited 16 cards, when I tried that out for everything, but mostly it was 20. But going into development it was of course 25; I knew that Intrigue had ended up 25, so naturally this set would be 25 too. My expectation was that cards would be used for the playmats and counters, which is how it worked during development. But at the end of development, it turned out we'd be using playmats and counters, and that left some empty space. So the set went up to 26 cards.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Seaside Cards

Retrospective

The biggest thing here is, the set has two cards that hand out junk that cost less than . Cards like that tend to dominate games, since people buy them turns 1-2 and start playing them fast, so it's bad to have two of them in one set, even though when they're in the same game the one defends against the other. I just don't want heavy-Seaside games to always have one of those cards. So either Ambassador or Sea Hag should be a more powerful card for . Ambassador looks more innocent so probably I would change Sea Hag.

Originally the set did not have tokens. Embargo put itself on a pile; Pirate Ship kept one treasure per attack and counted them; Pirate Ship and Native Village did have mats, but they were card-sized (when that changed I got to add Haven back in). If I had known the set would have counters, I would have tried to get more use out of them, just as I made two more   token cards to go with Monument.

Again some people complain about various other cards but I am having none of it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, What Donald X. Might Do With a Dominion Time Machine

Recommended Sets of 10

Seaside Only

High Seas [images]
	Bazaar			Caravan			Embargo			Explorer			Haven
	Island			Lookout			Pirate Ship			Smugglers			Wharf

Buried Treasure [images]
	Ambassador			Cutpurse			Fishing Village			Lighthouse			Outpost
	Pearl Diver			Tactician			Treasure Map			Warehouse			Wharf

Shipwrecks [images]
	Ghost Ship			Merchant Ship			Native Village			Navigator			Pearl Diver
	Salvager			Sea Hag			Smugglers			Treasury			Warehouse

Seaside and Dominion

Reach for Tomorrow [images]
	Lookout			Sea Hag			Ghost Ship			Treasure Map			Cutpurse
	Cellar			Spy			Council Room			Village			Adventurer

Repetition [images]
	Pearl Diver			Pirate Ship			Treasury			Caravan			Explorer
	Outpost			Workshop			Chancellor			Militia			Festival

Give and Take [images]
	Fishing Village			Salvager			Smugglers			Haven			Island
	Ambassador			Market			Moneylender			Witch			Library

Seaside & Hinterlands

Travelers [images]
	Cutpurse			Island			Lookout			Merchant Ship			Warehouse
	Cartographer			Crossroads			Farmland			Silk Road			Stables

Diplomacy [images]
	Ambassador			Bazaar			Caravan			Embargo			Smugglers
	Embassy			Farmland			Ill-Gotten Gains			Noble Brigand			Trader

Seaside & Dark Ages

Watery Graves [images]
	Count			Graverobber			Hermit			Scavenger			Urchin
	Native Village			Pirate Ship			Salvager			Treasure Map			Treasury

Treasury Peasants [images]
	Death Cart			Feodum			Poor House			Urchin			Vagrant
	Fishing Village			Haven			Island			Lookout			Warehouse
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Ruins