Split pile

Encampment, the top card of a Split pile.

Plunder, the card under Encampment.

Split piles are those containing more than one differently named card, in a particular order. This is in contrast to Knights and Ruins, which are shuffled at the start of the game. Typically, the cards in a split pile have some particular synergy with each other. Split piles were introduced in Empires and revisited in Allies.

List of Split pile cards

Piles are sorted by the cost of the top card (which is shown on the randomizer card for the pile].

Encampment/Plunder, Patrician/Emporium, Settlers/Bustling Village, Townsfolk
Castles, Catapult/Rocks, Gladiator/Fortune, Augurs, Odysseys, Wizards
Sauna/Avanto

Randomizers

• 

  Encampment/Plunder

• 

  Patrician/Emporium

• 

  Settlers/Bustling Village

• 

  Castles

• 

  Catapult/Rocks

• 

  Gladiator/Fortune

• 

  Sauna/Avanto

• 

  Augurs

• 

  Odysseys

Official Rules

Empires

• Five Kingdom Card piles in Empires have two cards in them, with 5 copies of each - Catapult / Rocks, Encampment / Plunder, Gladiator / Fortune, Patrician / Emporium, and Settlers / Bustling Village.
• The Randomizers for those piles show both cards. During set-up, always put the cheaper card on top, e.g. Patrician (cost ) above Emporium (cost ).
• To mark the pile, turn the bottom half sideways. That way players remember that the other card is there. Turn it back when those cards are uncovered.
• Players may only Buy or Gain the top card of a pile; players have to work through the top 5 cards to get to the bottom 5.
• Players can read the covered card to remember what it does, but cannot buy it or gain it until it is uncovered.
• If the card is covered back up somehow - for example Encampment can return to its pile - then once again players cannot Buy or Gain the covered cards, until again uncovered.
• Returning cards to a pile, such as with Ambassador (from Dominion: Seaside), can also result in the pile being in an unusual order; an Ambassador could return a Plunder to the Encampment/Plunder pile on top of an Encampment.
• Some cards refer to the cost or types of a pile as if it is just one card. In these cases go with what is on the Randomizer card, which usually matches the top card.
• Some things refer to cards from a particular pile; these things work on both 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 + when playing a card from that pile. The token can be put on the Catapult / Rocks pile, despite Rocks being a Treasure; and the token causes both Catapult and Rocks to produce an extra when played.
• Emptying the top half of a split pile does not count as emptying a pile, for the game end condition or cards that refer to empty piles. The entire pile needs to be gone for the pile to be empty.
• One Kingdom Card pile in Empires has 8 different cards - the Castles. They behave similarly to the other split piles; only the top card can be bought or gained, they go in order by cost with Humble Castle on top, and so on. This pile is treated as a Victory - Castle pile, as per the Randomizer, despite the top card being a Treasure - Victory - Castle. In 2-player games, use one of each Castle; with more players, use all 12 cards.

Trivia

Preview

So how do these work exactly? The top cards are paired with the bottom ones. Each pile has 5 copies of the first (cheaper) card, then 5 copies of the second (more expensive) card. You can only buy/gain the card on top; if you want the other card, you have to dig it out. There are special randomizers for these piles, that list both cards and have art showing both things. You will see those when the set comes out; the six actual cards will have to do for today. And uh some things in the game care about stats for a pile, and well they go by the randomizer, which usually matches the top card. Young Witch can have Gladiator/Fortune as its bane (and then both cards will do the trick), Training lets you put your + token on the Catapult/Rocks pile (and then both cards give +), and so on.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Empires Previews #2: Split Piles

Split piles are back! Only this time they rotate. Also they have four different cards in them. Let's see one to better talk about this. It's: Augurs.
So the pile starts with 4 copies of Herb Gatherer, then 4 copies of Acolyte, then 4 copies of Sorceress, then 4 copies of Sibyl. And you can only buy/gain the top card. But, the first card lets you "rotate" the pile. This puts all copies of whatever's on top onto the bottom. If the top has three Herb Gatherers and then Acolytes etc., rotating it puts all three Herb Gatherers on the bottom. If it was just one Herb Gatherer and then Acolytes, that one Herb Gatherer goes on the bottom. If the pile has different cards left in it, then rotating it will uncover a different one. It gets you through the pile.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Allies Preview 2: Split piles

Secret History

One day Jeff Boschen complained that one of the Debt cards (an earlier version of City Quarter) was dominating games, that in particular you could always get all the copies you needed, even in a 2-player game. And I thought, hmmm, I could have piles that were only 5 cards. And then from there went immediately to, wait, 5 cards, then 5 of another card. And I tried some cards like that and it seemed pretty cool. You get to tie together the cards somehow. A big issue was making sure you would get through the top 5 often enough; not necessarily every game, but you know, not as some rare thing. So three are cheap cantrips, and Gladiator eats its own pile for you.

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

Why are split piles 10 cards?

I would certainly consider 6/6 if doing them again, but what that does varies with the pile. I want to make sure we get to the 2nd card sometimes, so that's a downside/limitation.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Expansion Theories