Hireling

Hireling
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Claus Stefan
Card text
At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game: +1 Card.

Hireling is an Action-Duration from Adventures. It permanently increases your handsize for the rest of the game, but you get no benefit on the turn that you play it.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• After playing this, you draw an extra card at the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game.
• Hireling stays in play for the rest of the game to track this.
• If you use Disciple (or a similar card, like Throne Room) to play Hireling twice, you will draw two extra cards each turn, and Disciple will also stay in play for the rest of the game.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you play Hireling at the start of your turn (e.g. with Piazza or Mastermind), you will draw a card immediately.
• If you put an Adventures token on this (with e.g. Teacher), the token will only take effect when you play a new Hireling for the first time, not every turn when the Hireling effect activates.
• If you reduce the cost of Hireling with Ferry, you can play it with Band of Misfits. If you do, Band of Misfits stays in play for the rest of the game. And if you play a Necromancer that plays a Throne Room that plays a Hireling twice, the Necromancer will stay in play for the rest of the game.
• If you remove a Hireling from play (e.g. by calling a Royal Carriage and replaying the Hireling as Way of the Horse), you'll have to remember Hireling's effect for the rest of the game (and the Royal Carriage will get discarded from play during Clean-up). You can create a similar scenario with Royal Galley, Band of Misfits, and Ferry.

Strategy

Hireling is a Duration card that permanently increases your start-of-turn hand size. The card is expensive at and provides no immediate benefit when played, while taking up terminal space, so it is most likely to pay off when you can get it into play quickly, when draw is otherwise difficult to come by, and in long games where you’ll benefit from its effect on many subsequent turns.

If you can construct a reliably drawing deck without Hireling, it’s unlikely to be the best investment due to its high opportunity cost. Instead, Hireling’s main use case is as a source of consistent supplementary draw, supporting either money strategies that can use the increased handsize to more reliably hit pricepoints and green or other sources of draw which appreciate a large starting handsize. The increased starting hand size is particularly beneficial for engines that otherwise lack reliability, e.g. when thinning is weak or you need to collide certain cards in your starting hand, such as Shepherd with Victory cards or villages with terminal draw. Hireling’s value is also greater than usual if you will be taking extra turns (especially with Outpost, where the relative benefit of start-of-turn draw is particularly notable), since this gives you more chances to benefit from its effect. Because Hireling draws a card at the start of each turn, it also somewhat counteracts the effect of discard attacks. Conversely, Hireling plays less well with some draw-to-X engines and other cards that can benefit from a smaller hand, such as Diplomat.

Because it is so expensive and slow, but plays as a one-shot with a permanent benefit, Hireling becomes more attractive in the presence of effects that let you get it into play earlier than usual. For instance, cost reduction that is available early in the game (e.g. with Ferry or Quarry) can allow you to pick up copies much sooner than you otherwise would. An early Hireling can also sometimes be obtained using Advance, especially in a Shelters game. Alternatively, effects like Innovation enhance Hireling’s desirability by getting it into play immediately and without requiring terminal space; to a lesser extent, topdecking effects (such as Way of the Seal) can also help with this when you are lacking in draw.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game: +1 Card (This stays in play.)	Adventures	April 2015
		At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game: +1 Card (This stays in play.)	Adventures (2016 printing)	August 2017
		At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game: +1 Card.	Adventures (2022 printing)

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Huursoldaat
Finnish	Palkollinen (lit. menial)
French	Recrue (lit. recruit)
German	Gefolgsmann (lit. liegeman)			Immer zu Beginn deines Zuges: +1 Karte (Diese Karte bleibt bis zum Spielende im Spiel.)	(2015)
	Gefolgsmann (lit. liegeman)			Zu Beginn von jedem deiner Züge für den Rest des Spiels: +1 Karte. (Diese Karte bleibt im Spiel.)	(Nachdruck 2021)
	Gefolgsmann (lit. liegeman)			Zu Beginn von jedem deiner Züge für den Rest des Spiels: +1 Karte.	(Nachdruck 2022)
Japanese	雇人 (pron. yatoinin)			ゲーム終了まで、あなたのターンの開始時に +1 カードを引く。 (これは場に残り続ける。)
Polish	Najemnik				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Наёмник (pron. nayomnik)

Trivia

Official card art.

With pre-errata versions of Bonfire, it was possible to activate a potentially infinite number of Hirelings by using Bonfire on Hireling, then a card like Graverobber or Lurker to regain the trashed Hireling. The player could potentially draw huge numbers of cards without any actual cards in play to track the effect.

Preview

Hireling is a Duration card that lasts forever. You put it out, and then that's that, you have an extra card on every turn for the rest of the game. That seems good. They're cumulative of course; with three of them out, you'll get three extra cards each turn. You get the card at the start of your turn, rather than when drawing your hand, which means it doesn't suck vs. Militias. may seem cheap for this ability and well there's playtesting, you know, the costs aren't just random.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Adventures Previews #3 - Amulet, Swamp Hag, Hireling

Secret History

What about a Duration card that never goes away? I playtested a version of this in Alchemy. It seemed fine but needed a playmat so it didn't happen (I did Alchemist instead). Here it was going to go on the Tavern mat, but Matthew pointed out it could just be a Duration card. It started out conservatively costing .

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures

Donald X.'s opinion

So far Hireling appears to be the most overrated-power-level-wise card in the set. You can find people saying it's crazy broken (e.g. on Amazon). An extra card every turn! I do not think it's crazy broken. I buy it some, but not always.

One point of comparison is, when you're drawing your deck every turn, Hireling gets you a card a turn, but so does Lab. Hireling helps you not fizzle at the start, and draws you more cards relatively when you aren't drawing your deck every turn. Lab meanwhile never used up an action and is cheaper and works the first time you draw it. I mean they are different all the ways they are different, but you know.

It's certainly good to have a Hireling. I don't think I've gotten more than three; I think typically I left it at one.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Hireling

Comparison with Alchemist

In fact the premise of Alchemist was Hireling. I tested "one-shot, +1 hand size" for Alchemy; it would have required a mat and couldn't have one (and at the time duration cards were confined to Seaside). I turned it into Alchemist. But there we were in Adventures, it was no mystery that Hireling was a relative of Alchemist, and it seemed fine to do anyway. And that experiment has played out fine too, people love Hireling, when they don't think it's broken. Maybe they would have loved the + card too; I personally don't feel like I missed out there.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.