Capital
| Capital | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Treasure |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Empires |
| Illustrator(s) | Marco Morte |
| Card text | |
 +1 Buy When you discard this from play, take  , and then you may pay off  . | |
Capital is a Treasure card from Empires. It provides the largest static amount of 
of any card (and gives +Buy to make use of it)—but only temporarily, as the Capital gives you equal to its value when it is discarded.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you discard this from play (normally, in the Clean-up phase of the turn you played it), you get , and then get an extra opportunity to pay off with , right then.
- You do not get the if you did not discard it from play - for example, if you trash it due to Counterfeit (from Dominion: Dark Ages).
- You only get per copy of Capital discarded; for example if you use Crown to play Capital twice, you still only get when you discard it from play.
Other rules clarifications
- Even if Capital is subject to the Highwayman attack, making it have no effect when you play it, you still take the when you discard it from play.
- Rising Sun updated the rules for debt, allowing you to pay off debt at any time during your turn, making the text in the card specifying paying off debt during clean-up redundant.
Strategy
Capital generates no on net, instead effectively offering you a loan: you get 
to spend but must pay off at the end of your turn and/or during your next Buy phases. Therefore, this Treasure should not be regarded as directly increasing your deck’s -based payload, except on your final turn. Before that, it has various other uses:
- to invest in adding deck control or payload that will quickly pay dividends on the incurred
- to smooth out your across turns, or spike a large amount of on a particular turn
- as a source of +Buy
Capital would be an expensive and inconvenient option if used solely for the extra Buy, but fortunately this combines well with its other functions.
Smoothing may be especially helpful when you can’t reliably draw your deck and your hands generate variable amounts of , e.g. in a money strategy. For instance, you could use 
plus Capital to buy a Province, taking a net 
; then, if you generate 
next turn, you can pay off the and still afford another Province. Even if you have a reliable engine, the produced by Capital can be used to carry spare over between turns in a similar way to Coffers. Spiking, in contrast, is helpful when you need a lot of on a single turn for a high-value one-off purchase (e.g. Inheritance), when this will accelerate your deck’s capabilities and is worth a subsequent turn spent mainly paying off . At the end of the game, Capital does contribute true payload: for instance, you might use it to help you buy the last three Provinces even though your deck can only sustainably afford two per turn, since that you take on your final turn never has any negative effect.
Some cards allow you to extract more from Capital than the amount of it produces. This can be achieved by playing Capital twice while discarding it from play only once (with Crown, which generates 
for the same as usual) or not at all (with Counterfeit, which generates a one-off and no ). Another synergy is with Crypt, which can repeatedly set Capitals aside instead of discarding them, producing no . Finally, the removed card Mandarin let you avoid the by putting Capitals back on top of your deck, constituting a powerful combo.
Capital can also work well in kingdoms with Possession, where burying yourself in might hurt your opponent, who must pay it off before buying anything whenever they Possess you. Conversely, it has an anti-synergy with Black Market: unless you pay off all your at the end of the turn you play Capital, you can’t buy anything from the Black Market on your next turn as you cannot pay off until the next Buy Phase.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
+1 Buy When you discard this from play, take , and then you may pay off . |
Empires | June 2016 |
|
 |
+1 Buy When you discard this from play, take , and then you may pay off . |
Empires (2021 printing) |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Kapitaal | +1 Aanschaf Als je deze kaart vanuit het spel aflegt, neem , en daarna mag je afbetalen. |
(2016) | ||
| Finnish | Pääoma | error in the upper corners: instead of
| |||
| French | Capital |  |
+1 Achat Lorsque vous défaussez cette carte de votre zone de jeu, prenez , puis vous pouvez rembourser . |
||
| German | Vermögen (lit. wealth) |
 |
 |
+1 Kauf Wenn du diese Karte aus dem Spiel ablegst, nimm , dann darfst du beliebig viele tilgen. |
2. Edition (2021) one or more other versions listed here |
| Japanese | 元手 (pron. motode) |
+1 購入 これを場から拾て札にするとき、 を得る。を払ってもよい。 |
|||
| Polish | Kapitał |  |
+1 zakup Kiedy odrzucasz tę kartę z gry, weź . Możesz natychmiast spłacić . |
(2017) | |
| Russian | Капитал (pron. kapital) |
Trivia
Preview
use it in a cost. Capital is one that does something different. It's a Treasure that loans you . It's a nice hunk of change, but you have to pay it all back. At least there's no interest. And hey maybe you aren't getting another turn anyway.Secret History
For strumphf's 2022 advent calendar, Donald X. went in-depth on the development of Capital.
and gave all cards "debt" for the turn, for 
. It was neat but scary. The final version costs more, doesn't use an action, and doesn't give any net - you are just borrowing.
