Empires

Empires
Info
Type	Expansion
Icon
Cards	300
Kingdom	242 (24 sets)
Randomizers	24
Other Card(s)	13 Events 21 Landmarks
Additional Material(s)
Tokens	40 Debt tokens 24 1  tokens 12 2  tokens 20 5  tokens
Theme(s)	Debt Split piles   tokens Landmarks
Release	June 8, 2016
Cover artist	Martin Hoffmann and Claus Stephan
Official Rulebook	PDF

Empires is the tenth expansion to Dominion. The box contains 24 sets of Kingdom cards. It introduces the Debt mechanic, Split piles, Gathering cards, and Landmarks. It also reintroduces   tokens and Events.

Contents

Kingdom cards

There are 12 Castles (2 copies each of Humble Castle, Small Castle, Opulent Castle, and King's Castle; 1 copy each of the rest), 5 copies of each half of each split pile (pairs of cards separated by a slash), and 10 copies each of the rest.

• : Engineer
• : City Quarter, Overlord, Royal Blacksmith
• : Encampment/Plunder, Patrician/Emporium, Settlers/Bustling Village
• : Castles, Catapult/Rocks, Chariot Race, Enchantress, Farmers' Market, Gladiator/Fortune
• : Sacrifice, Temple, Villa
• : Archive, Capital, Charm, Crown, Forum, Groundskeeper, Legionary, Wild Hunt

Split pile cards (5 of each):

• : Encampment, Patrician, Settlers
• : Catapult, Gladiator
• : Rocks
• : Bustling Village, Emporium, Plunder
• : Fortune

Events

• : Triumph
• : Annex, Donate
• : Advance
• : Delve, Tax
• : Banquet
• : Ritual, Salt the Earth
• : Wedding
• : Windfall
• : Conquest
• : Dominate

Landmarks

21 cards, 1 of each: Aqueduct Arena Bandit Fort Basilica Baths Battlefield Colonnade Defiled Shrine Fountain Keep Labyrinth

Mountain Pass Museum Obelisk Orchard Palace Tomb Tower Triumphal Arch Wall Wolf Den

Additional materials

Tokens

The English releases use metal tokens; some foreign releases provide cardboard tokens instead.

• 40 tokens
• 56   tokens:
  • 24 1  tokens
  • 12 2  tokens
  • 20 5  tokens

Additional rules

Durations

Empires has Duration cards, which previously appeared in Dominion: Seaside and Dominion: Adventures.

• Duration cards are orange, and have abilities that affect future turns.
• Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do [on a future turn]; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.
• Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as [Throne Room, Scepter, Mastermind, Specialist or Flagship], that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times.
• Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines (older cards and this turn's cards).

Events

Empires has Events, which previously appeared in Dominion: Adventures.

In a player’s Buy phase, when a player can buy a card, they can buy an Event instead. Buying an Event means paying the cost indicated on the Event and then doing the effect of the Event.

• Events are not Kingdom cards; they sit on the table and provide an effect you can buy. There is no way for you to gain one or end up with one in your deck.
• Buying an Event uses up a Buy; normally you can either buy a card, or buy an Event. If you have two Buys, such as after playing [Ranger, Villa, Sanctuary, Sack of Loot, or Fishmonger], you can buy two cards, or buy two Events, or buy a card and an Event (in either order).
• The same Event can be bought multiple times in a turn if you have the Buys and available to do it.
• You cannot play further Treasures that turn after buying an Event.
• Buying an Event is not buying a card and so does not trigger cards like [Haggler^†, Swamp Hag^†, or Charm^†].
• Costs of Events are not affected by cards like [Bridge or Flourishing Trade].

Flavor text

The world is big and your kingdom gigantic. It's no longer a kingdom really; it's an empire. Which makes you the emperor. This entitles you to a better chair, plus you can name a salad after yourself. It's not easy being emperor. The day starts early, when you light the sacred flame; then it's hours of committee meetings, trying to establish exactly why the sacred flame keeps going out. Sometimes your armies take over a continent and you just have no idea where to put it. And there's the risk of assassination; you have a food taster, who tastes anything before you eat it, and a dagger tester, who gets stabbed by anything before it stabs you. You've taken to staying at home whenever it's the Ides of anything. Still overall it's a great job. You wouldn't trade it for the world - especially given how much of the world you already have.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games

Cards gallery

Kingdom cards

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Split pile cards

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Castles

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Events

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Landmarks

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Impact

Empires was the first "normal-sized" 300-card set since Hinterlands, and yet managed to introduce the most unique cards (and card-like objects) of any set until then, due to Split piles, Events and Landmarks. This, along with its heavy theme of and   tokens, makes it probably the most complex set released in Dominion. As Adventures before it was intended as a Seaside sequel, Empires acts as a Prosperity sequel, and like its predecessor, offers a great deal of tools for engines and Alt-VP strategies.

Like the increasingly complex sets that came before it, Empires broke new ground in terms of card effects and properties, such as a few new costs (including a and a ), a Duration that stays out for three turns, a card that returns you to your Action phase from your Buy phase, a handsize attack that makes you discard down to 2 cards in hand, an Attack that changes how your opponents' cards work, a way to prevent yourself from being able to buy anything for the rest of the game, a way to bid, sources of negative   other than Curses, and the first Action-Treasure in the game.

Debt

The Debt mechanic allows players to buy certain cards and Events earlier than usual, while spreading the cost across future turns. This can shake up openings, though most of the Debt cards are not particularly useful early in the game. They are, however, almost all quite powerful in the mid- to late-game, and players ignore them at their peril.

Victory tokens

In Prosperity,   tokens were introduced via three fairly simple cards, but there was still a fair amount of design space left to use with them. Empires takes the idea and runs with it, with almost half the set using   tokens in one way or another. These cards give players many more options to victory other than simply working towards Provinces, adding much more variety to the game than the simple addition of more Kingdom cards.

Split piles

While the idea of more than one different card in a pile is not new, having been used in Dark Ages, the Knights and Ruins piles were each essentially variations on a single theme. Split piles, with two completely different cards in a pile, adds a new dynamic to the game. Having only 5 copies of a potentially key card adds competition, particularly in games with more than 2 players, and having to get through half the pile before being able to access the typically more powerful bottom cards also livens things up.

Landmarks

Where Adventures added Events, buyable effects not tied to cards in your deck, Empires adds Landmarks, allowing new scoring rules to be added to the game. While some can be innocuous, simply adding a few   here and there, others, in particular the penalizing Landmarks, can drastically affect gameplay, and how players choose to go about their strategies.

Engines

Empires adds quite a lot of cards and Events that are friendly to engines:

• Engineer - gains engine components and can later remove itself
• City Quarter - a powerful drawing village
• Overlord - can emulate most engine pieces, and can be acquired early
• Royal Blacksmith - the most powerful static terminal draw in the game
• Encampment - an incredibly cheap Lost City
• Patrician - does well in high-cost engines
• Emporium - rewards engine building
• Bustling Village - gives the highest consistent number of Actions of any village
• Chariot Race - does well in high-cost engines
• Fortune - arguably the most powerful card in the game, able to double the output of an engine
• Sacrifice - a powerful soft terminal trasher
• Temple - a good trasher that also gains  
• Villa - allows for all sorts of engine shenanigans
• Archive - allows an engine to function with little to no trashing
• Capital - allows the early purchasing of expensive engine pieces
• Charm - allows the gaining of multiple like-costed engine pieces, particularly ones costing
• Crown - flexible, and allows for multiplying on more boards
• Groundskeeper - functions best within an engine
• Wild Hunt - decent draw that also gains  
• Triumph - rewards engines that gain many things per turn
• Donate - arguably the most powerful Event in the game, can get an engine going extremely quickly
• Advance - allows the early gaining of expensive engine pieces
• Salt the Earth - allows a player that is ahead to end the game quickly
• Windfall - rewards an engine that can draw your entire deck
• Dominate - only realistically achievable with an engine
• Colonnade - rewards engines that rely on multiple copies of an Action
• Labyrinth - rewards engines that gain more than one card per turn
• Orchard - rewards engines with multiple copies of different Actions
• Tomb - rewards trashing, which is usually essential for an engine
• Tower - rewards engines that three-pile
• Triumphal Arch - rewards engines with multiple copies of different Actions

Big Money

Empires has a few Big Money enablers:

• Plunder - can help a Big Money player get an extra edge in  
• Crown - having in your hand instead of means you have to forgo Gold, but Crown is never a bad buy for Big Money.
• Legionary - a brutal Attack that rewards you for having Gold
• Delve - makes Silver easier to get
• Wedding - makes Gold easier to get
• Conquest - rewards you for getting Silver
• Aqueduct - rewards gaining lots of Silver and Gold, then greening early
• Fountain - rewards having extra Copper
• Palace - rewards having extra Silver and Gold

However, Empires also has a couple Landmarks that actively penalize Big Money strategies:

• Bandit Fort - penalizes having Silver and Gold
• Wall - penalizes bloated decks that don't trash

Theme

Empires is in some respects conceived as a sequel to Prosperity and shares many of the same structural themes: like Prosperity, it includes Victory tokens, a large number of Kingdom Treasure cards, several relatively expensive cards, and relatively few Attack cards.

• 6 Debt cards: Engineer, City Quarter, Overlord, Royal Blacksmith, Fortune, Capital
• 9 Victory token cards: Plunder, Emporium, Castles, Chariot Race, Farmers' Market, Sacrifice, Temple, Groundskeeper, Wild Hunt
• 6 Split piles: Encampment/Plunder, Patrician/Emporium, Settlers/Bustling Village, Castles, Catapult/Rocks, Gladiator/Fortune
• 7 Special Treasures: Plunder, Humble Castle, Rocks, Fortune, Capital, Charm, Crown
• 5 off-theme cards: Enchantress, Villa, Archive, Forum, Legionary

There are also 13 Events:

• 5 use Debt: Triumph, Annex, Donate, Tax, Wedding
• 6 use Victory tokens: Triumph, Ritual, Salt the Earth, Wedding, Conquest, Dominate

There are also 21 Landmarks:

• 1 uses Debt: Mountain Pass
• 10 use Victory tokens: Aqueduct, Arena, Basilica, Baths, Battlefield, Colonnade, Defiled Shrine, Labyrinth, Mountain Pass, Tomb

Trivia

Official box art.

Donald X. stated a couple weeks before release that Empires has a Roman flavor in terms of theme. It was the first set to be released in the second edition layout style.

In other languages

• Dutch: Keizerrijken
• Finnish: Keisarikunta (lit. Empire - singular)
• German: Empires
• Japanese: 帝国 (pron. teikoku)
• Polish: Imperium (lit. Empire - singular)
• Russian: Империи (pron. impyerii)

There are currently no plans to release Empires in French, despite there being French translations for every previous set.

Roman theme

This expansion has a Roman Empire theme despite the Roman Empire as we think of it not being medieval. It had come up for Adventures, I made a list of themes, and Roman Empire had a lot of good names. I mean that was it; a theme with a lot of good card names. And it seemed like an okay fit otherwise, for the mechanics. So, the set isn't just named Dominion: Rome or whatever, it tries to get in later periods that overlap with medieval times, and also have medieval things, but the Roman stuff I just let be Roman.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

I think the ancient Rome stuff sits next to the medieval stuff and doesn't look so out of place. The Roman empire lasted a long time past its heyday, and they weren't so far behind in technology from the dark ages. Modern stuff would clash in a way that Rome didn't.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

I think the Renaissance is the cut off for me for this medieval game; if I had to do e.g. Wild West it would be a spin-off. I don't think it's so bad the other direction, and there's Empires to prove it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019

Pre-teaser

A couple days before the teaser (which itself would come a couple days before actual previews), Donald X. dropped some news on changes in layout of cards.

Well this is unprecedented, but I'm not made of stone. Here are some spoilers about card layout.

• A bigger font is used on cards that don't have lots of text.
• "They" is used instead of "he."
• +'s in the body of text are now in bold.
• Card texts are more carefully centered than ever before.
  —Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Empires Announced!

Teasers

Dominion: Empires has:

• 76 pieces of card art.
• 60   symbols.
• 16 red hexagons.
• 10 uses of "Setup."
• 2 Duration cards.
• 2 ways to trash cards from the Supply.
• An Action-Treasure card.
• An Event costing .
• A way to double your money.
• A way to bid.
  —Donald X. Vaccarino, Empires Teasers!

Secret history

One evening on a vacation, I paced around, the only one awake, thinking about what the future could possibly hold for Dominion. Was there anything great left to do? I jotted down some notes, then typed it all up when I got home.

Of the stuff I came up with, a few things went together, to make a kind of Prosperity sequel. It would have more   tokens, those seemed like they had a lot more life in them than just those 3 Prosperity cards. Some "bonus" cards of some sort would award   at the end of the game, like Kingdom Builder scoring methods. There would be giant expensive cards that you could pay for later. There would be cards that effectively didn't cost a Buy to buy. Special treasures could be a focus again. And there were three or so other ideas that did not actually make it. I like to tell the whole story, but who knows, I might need that stuff someday. Anyway you can only fit so much stuff in an expansion.

Initially the big thing I wanted out of   tokens was, cards you trash for   based on the game state. So, they would count things that conventional Victory cards can't, like how many Actions you managed to get into play at once. So I tried several of those and well in the end there's Emporium (which just checks a threshold) and Triumph (an Event). The original concepts didn't work out, but there are a zillion ways to make   in this set so it was not much of a loss. A key thing was to try to avoid "golden decks" - where you just make points every turn without pushing the game towards ending. So most of the   token stuff is tied to gaining cards, or trashing cards, or will run out some other way.

I didn't try the "bonus" cards for a while. When I finally got to them, they initially didn't matter enough, but it was easy to make them matter more and that all worked out. I made more and more of them and in the end there are 21. It could have been 20 Landmarks, 12 Events, 2 blanks, but I had the extra cards so in they went.

I had Debt from the start (and it had been in the ideas file for years). The first version though was a word on cards, "Debt," that meant you didn't need the to buy the card, but went into Debt. The Debt tokens worked the same way as they do now. One day I thought of using a symbol, and the cards changed to things like "When you gain this during your turn, take [red coin with a 10 on it]." They were like that for a while, before finally I put the symbol into the cost. With Debt a significant concern was that you could just buy the card turn one, and if that was good it seemed like the game could be too scripted. So the big Debt cards always tried to not be good turn one, although it took a while to really get there. Originally the cards could all be bought with , and in the end some have costs too.

And cards that gave you +1 Buy when bought, I made a couple and then it seemed like, that was plenty.

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.

I had no plans to have any Duration cards in this set, then somehow tried one, and then a couple more. The original one didn't make it but there are two Duration cards. The objection all these years was the amount of rulebook space Duration cards took in Seaside, but in Adventures that rulebook space was small enough to not seem so bad to repeat.

Dominion is a medieval game; ancient Rome is not medieval. I remained wishy-washy on that issue, not quite wanting to go full-on ancient Rome. In the end the set is called Empires and has a bunch of Roman things. Roman empires were around for a while in various forms, extending into medieval times, so there.

Late in the going, Scott Colcord took it upon himself to get all of the recommended sets played. The recommended sets don't always get much attention and well these ones did make it to a table or two.

Empires started out as a kind of Prosperity sequel. And ended up as one; it has super-spendy cards (though you can pay for them later), more Treasures than other non-Prosperity sets,   tokens, even a Treasure that makes and an Event that gets you 15 . One of Prosperity's less-obvious themes is player interaction; it ups the non-attack interaction to cope with having fewer attacks (which in turn was to make sure Colony was reachable in enough games). Empires has that too. There are again only three attacks, but the 3 Gathering cards are all interactive, plus Chariot Race and Gladiator, plus Castles in that way   piles can be; the split piles cause more competition for cards; and then some of the Events are interactive and many Landmarks are, and those don't even take up space in the usual 10 Kingdom cards.

I used every good Event idea that I had in Adventures. Still, why not try to make more?   tokens helped a lot, and I ended up with 13 new Events.

Originally the Landmarks were all "when scoring" except it took a while for me to add the actual words "when scoring" to them. The first "6 VP per player" cards started with 12 VP, and I tried a few at "4 VP per player."

• • • Outtakes ***

This time around I'm putting the outtakes in list form instead of paragraph form. I'm skipping some stuff mentioned above, and a few things that seem like I could maybe fix them up if I have to make more cards someday.

Regular card outtakes: - The first card in the file is a Witch variant that gives you +1 VP if the Curses have run out. That sounded nifty enough that it hung around for most of testing, though later versions triggered on buying a card. If you somehow got +1 Buy and then played it and bought two things, yeeha. Eventually the trigger started to seem bad, and then the whole card fell apart. And I replaced it with Enchantress, hooray, a happy ending.

- Village, you may trash this for +1  per 2 Actions in play;

- and +2 Cards, you may trash this for +1  per 2 cards in your hand. I liked the idea of cards you cashed in for  , but well, you would generally like to hold onto the card until the last minute, and we've already had that experience with Mining Village. They seemed like a good direction and then I fiddled with them and then they died.

- Right and a third one, a treasure worth , may trash it to pay any amount of for + . That one you cashed in of course, since you didn't want the big Copper. There were a couple versions; they were dominating and didn't seem worth pursuing.

- I tried several cards that cost a lot but let you go into , that tried to look impressive and in the end were too impressive. First up, a new extra-turn card. I also had double your in Fortune, and I felt like, double your , with +1 Buy, was like an extra turn but way way faster to resolve.

- One of the most significant outtakes was a treasure that gave +1 Buy and produced per Buy you had. So by default it made and a Buy. But with other sources of +Buys it made more . You could just play multiple copies of it and build up. If you think about it, it's like Bridge, but gives you the up front to divide how you want, instead of assigning per purchase. It turns out that's strong. For a long time the card seemed on the edge of acceptable; gradually I got sick of it. I put it in the Plunder slot and then killed it.

- There was a Witch that gave everyone else a Curse and +1 . It seemed cute; it's like giving them a Ruined Village, but they end up ahead a VP if they trash the Curse. So do you still even want to give them these Curses? Yes, you still do, but not as much as usual. I still like the idea but well it wasn't popular. Tower can give you that "Curses are just blank" feeling.

- A Knight-like attack trashed from the Supply if it missed. I decided Salt the Earth was enough of that. Yes and Gladiator.

- A couple attacks played around with playing cards you bought that turn; then I had a village that let you play a card from your hand when you gained it, and then I figured out how to do Villa.

- I tried a Reaction that gave you +VP when attacked. Man. You load up on them and then hope they attack you. Even at once per round I wasn't happy with it.

- I tried giving other players VP as a penalty. It's not pretty-looking but was around for a while.

- +1 Action, get the Silvers and another card from the top 4. Also you got +1  per Silver in play when you gained it (then, +1VP per 2 Silvers, then no  ). The top was crazy. I thought the bottom would survive somewhere in some form but it did not.

- Here's a Venture variant, discard N cards to play the treasures from your top N cards. I have a very vague memory of trying this.

- There was a card that made each card you bought come with a Silver. For a while I thought there would be a sub-theme of cards doing things when you bought other cards. Also I thought there would be a sub-theme of making Silver more exciting.

- Treasure, name a card, worth per copy of it you have in play (cost ). A super-Coppersmith; if you name Copper it's a Coppersmith treasure, but you can name something else instead. It looked classic and got a lot of chances.

- Treasure version of King's Court, with . A dud.

- A cantrip super-Remodel (up to +) that had you take equal to the amount you Remodel'd up. and Remodels are a poor combination, but I tried it multiple times anyway.

- Mine 3 times, with a cost. Then, trash a treasure to gain a treasure to hand - the same if you went Copper to Platinum, but usually weaker. It thought it had a shot, and spent some time in split piles.

- Remodel 3 times, with a cost. Debt? That's okay, I'm not going to be buying any more cards.

- In the same vein as Farmers' Market, I tried a Warehouse. You draw N cards then discard N, N being the number of tokens on the pile. And could optionally trash it to take the VP. Farmers' Market made the concept work.

- There were a bunch of treasures I tried briefly for split pile slots. A treasure version of Vault. A treasure that gained you a copy of a treasure in play. A treasure that played the Coppers from your 3 top cards. A treasure that made cards the previous player had gained cheaper. A treasure (worth ) you could put on your deck ala Treasury. A treasure worth per other differently named treasure you had in play. A treasure that let you trash a card when gaining or trashing it. A treasure you cashed in for two 's when you played it (that one goes back to Prosperity). A double Harem - and 4  for . You know it wouldn't have been embarrassing, but when its pile died I didn't miss it.

- There was a bigger Wharf with cost - +3 Cards this turn and next.

- Here's a Wishing Well where you just need to get the type right, not the card name. Man I don't remember trying this. And next to it a version that could get 2 cards if they both matched.

- There were cards called Barbarian, don't think there weren't. Here's one where they name a card, then trash their top card if it costs + and isn't what they named. Then immediately a version where they revealed two cards; revealing one has worked on a few attacks but tends to be too random. My memory is this attack just never hits.

- I tried another permanent duration; + each turn with the first Action card you play, with a cost. It was in the running for a big debt slot, it seemed potentially balanceable but was not as fun as the competition.

- I tried a few things in the Settlers slot, maybe not all in the file, but here's a 2-card Cartographer.

- Each other player reveals 2 cards from their hand, trashes one you choose, gains a replacement to their hand with the same cost, also your choice. Attacks are hard.

- Ah yes, so many cards tried out for Engineer's slot. Here's an Expand with on-use that tried to dodge Remodel/Debt issues by doing something different if you had any . A + Remodel that had you draw 2 cards when you gained or trashed it; I still like the idea of a Remodel that does something when gained/trashed. A + Remodel that, when trashed, gave you a . Yowza. Another one of these, gaining you a copy of a card in play with some limits to try not to go nuts. Another one with different limits, man. Okay here are 3 that involve putting   on the pile. One is just a Workshop that accumulates   you can trash it to get; one counts down, it's reset to 5  when a copy is gained, and when played gains a card for the number of   on the pile and then gives you a   from the pile, that was fun to try; and a Workshop that adds or takes   based on how much the card you gained cost. Finally, the one that held the slot for the longest out of these, a Workshop that turns into Remodel if a pile is empty. That seemed okay and like I could live with it if I couldn't do better, but I like Engineer better.

Landmarks outtakes:

- 1  per card costing wasn't very interesting;

- ditto 1  per card costing +.

- 2  per Attack seemed okay for a while but didn't survive. I then tried 2  per card with 2+ types. It feels like Obelisk covers "this random pile is worth points."

- 10  if you have at least 3 Curses; not the best way to use Curses.

- 5  if the game ended on your turn; that looks interesting but isn't really and could cause a stalemate.

- -1  per Duchy -2  per Province; what is there to say.

- If the Provinces are empty, 2  per Estate; that's a classic thing that didn't work out in Victory card form or here either.

- In a similar vein, 1  per empty Supply pile per Province you have.

- When "1  per " didn't work out I tried "take 2  from here when you gain Gold."

- There's one that gave you 2  for shuffling; it just doesn't make a difference.

- One gave +1  for starting your Buy phase with 6+ cards in hand.

- I tried a few versions of "At the start of your turn, you may gain a Copper, to take 2  from here." It's kind of interesting, but some players just always take the Copper, and sometimes you forget to take the Copper and are unhappy. I tried it with Curse; I tried it triggering on buying Treasures.

- When any player buys a Victory card, each player may discard a Victory card for +1 . Random and not so meaningful.

- When you buy a Victory card, reveal hand for +1  per Victory card. Grand Castles everywhere.

- -1  per copy you have after the first of each card. Then, -1  per copy after the 2nd. Then non-Victory cards only. The card to do was Wolf Den but I wasn't there yet.

- Reveal a hand of no duplicates at turn start to take 2 . Very easy to forget.

- At start of buy phase, if more Actions in play than VP tokens, +2 . You want more and more Actions. Not bad, except wait, it's no good in a game with any other way to make   tokens, and I was making a whole expansion of those.

Events outtakes:

- Pick your next hand. It turns out that's pretty good and also repetitive.

- A couple versions of, Expand your top card.

- Summon! It always was hoping to be a promo but was in the set for a bit.

- A Scheme variant. It's tricky to make it useful and not automatic.

- A Moat-in-advance. It's tricky to make it useful and not stop people from buying attacks.

- Various versions of, the player to your left gains an Estate and you get +3 . I couldn't give everyone an Estate and didn't want anything political.

- A few versions of a hot potato - you pay to give it to the player to your left, and it punishes whoever has it (the Event, sitting in front of them). Again politics was an issue, but also it just wasn't creating good times.

- A few Haggler variants that were too hard to get value out of.

- A few versions of, trash a card, get   if the trash didn't have it yet (phrased to not be Fortress tricks).

- It seemed like I could do "make anything a Nobles/Harem" and it would be reasonable. Pay , gain a card costing up to , get +2 . I could make it be worth doing, but entertainment-wise it was a dud.

- I tried giving Duchy an ability. It had to be a buy phase ability but that was fine; I tried +1 Buy + (but +2 Buys because you bought the Event). Discard a Duchy, get that stuff, cost . It sounded interesting and was supposed to make me consider getting a Duchy for the +Buy. It did sometimes, but didn't add enough to make the grade.

- Trying to make other giant Events like Donate and Dominate, I briefly tried "gain all Actions from a pile" and "gain the trash."

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

Recommended sets of 10

Empires only

Basic Intro [images]
	Castles			Chariot Race			City Quarter			Engineer			Farmers' Market
	Forum			Legionary			Patrician/Emporium			Sacrifice			Villa
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Wedding			Tower

Advanced Intro [images]
	Archive			Capital			Catapult/Rocks			Crown			Enchantress
	Gladiator/Fortune			Groundskeeper			Royal Blacksmith			Settlers/Bustling Village			Temple
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Arena			Triumphal Arch

Empires & Dominion

Everything in Moderation [images]
	Enchantress			Forum			Legionary			Overlord			Temple
	Cellar			Library			Remodel			Village			Workshop
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Windfall			Orchard

Silver Bullets [images]
	Catapult/Rocks			Charm			Farmers' Market			Groundskeeper			Patrician/Emporium
	Bureaucrat			Gardens			Laboratory			Market			Moneylender
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Conquest			Aqueduct

Empires & Intrigue

Delicious Torture [images]
	Castles			Crown			Enchantress			Sacrifice			Settlers/Bustling Village
	Baron			Bridge			Harem			Ironworks			Torturer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Banquet			Arena

Buddy System [images]
	Archive			Capital			Catapult/Rocks			Engineer			Forum
	Masquerade			Mining Village			Nobles			Pawn			Trading Post
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Salt the Earth			Wolf Den

Empires & Seaside

Boxed In [images]
	Castles			Chariot Race			Encampment/Plunder			Enchantress			Gladiator/Fortune
	Salvager			Smugglers			Tactician			Warehouse			Wharf
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Tax			Wall

King of the Sea [images]
	Archive			Farmers' Market			Overlord			Temple			Wild Hunt
	Corsair			Haven			Native Village			Pirate			Sea Witch
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Delve			Fountain

Empires & Alchemy

Collectors [images]
	City Quarter			Crown			Encampment/Plunder			Enchantress			Farmers' Market
	Apothecary			Apprentice			Herbalist			Transmute			University
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Potion			Colonnade			Museum

Empires & Prosperity

Big Time [images]
	Capital			Gladiator/Fortune			Patrician/Emporium			Royal Blacksmith			Villa
	Bank			Forge			Grand Market			Investment			Tiara
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			Dominate			Obelisk

Gilded Gates [images]
	Chariot Race			City Quarter			Encampment/Plunder			Groundskeeper			Wild Hunt
	Anvil			Collection			Mint			Peddler			War Chest
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			Basilica			Palace

Empires & Cornucopia & Guilds

Zookeepers [images]
	Groundskeeper			Overlord			Sacrifice			Settlers/Bustling Village			Wild Hunt
	Ferryman			Menagerie			Jester			Remake			Shop
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Pile for Ferryman Villa			Annex			Colonnade

Cash Flow [images]
	Castles			City Quarter			Engineer			Gladiator/Fortune			Royal Blacksmith
	Baker			Carnival			Herald			Infirmary			Soothsayer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Baths			Mountain Pass

Empires & Hinterlands

Simple Plans [images]
	Catapult/Rocks			Enchantress			Forum			Patrician/Emporium			Villa
	Border Village			Cauldron			Haggler			Stables			Wheelwright
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Donate			Labyrinth

Expansion [images]
	Castles			Charm			Encampment/Plunder			Engineer			Legionary
	Farmland			Oasis			Spice Merchant			Stables			Tunnel
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Battlefield			Fountain

Empires & Dark Ages

Tomb of the Rat King [images]
	Castles			Chariot Race			City Quarter			Legionary			Sacrifice
	Death Cart			Fortress			Pillage			Rats			Storeroom
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Ruins			Shelters			Advance			Tomb

Triumph of the Bandit King [images]
	Capital			Charm			Engineer			Groundskeeper			Legionary
	Bandit Camp			Catacombs			Hunting Grounds			Market Square			Procession
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Shelters			Triumph			Defiled Shrine

The Squire's Ritual [images]
	Archive			Catapult/Rocks			Crown			Patrician/Emporium			Settlers/Bustling Village
	Feodum			Hermit			Ironmonger			Rogue			Squire
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Shelters			Ritual			Museum

Empires & Adventures

Area Control [images]
	Capital			Catapult/Rocks			Charm			Crown			Farmers' Market
	Coin of the Realm			Page			Relic			Treasure Trove			Wine Merchant
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Banquet			Keep

No Money No Problems [images]
	Archive			Encampment/Plunder			Royal Blacksmith			Temple			Villa
	Dungeon			Duplicate			Hireling			Peasant			Transmogrify
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Mission			Bandit Fort

Empires & Nocturne

Luftschloss [images]
	Archive			Castles			Catapult/Rocks			Engineer			Temple
	Cemetery			Changeling			Exorcist			Fool			Shepherd
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Boons			Tomb

Pooka Pranks [images]
	Chariot Race			Forum			Groundskeeper			Sacrifice			Settlers/Bustling Village
	Faithful Hound			Ghost Town			Pixie			Pooka			Skulk
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Boons			Hexes			Banquet

Empires & Renaissance

Exploring the City [images]
	City Quarter			Farmers' Market			Groundskeeper			Sacrifice			Wild Hunt
	Cargo Ship			Experiment			Mountain Village			Priest			Sculptor
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Exploration			Battlefield

Navigating the Sewers [images]
	Chariot Race			Enchantress			Gladiator/Fortune			Patrician/Emporium			Villa
	Acting Troupe			Flag Bearer			Improve			Old Witch			Scepter
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Ritual			Sewers

Empires & Menagerie

No Money Down [images]
	Catapult/Rocks			City Quarter			Crown			Engineer			Villa
	Animal Fair			Cavalry			Sleigh			Stockpile			Wayfarer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Advance			Way of the Pig

Detours and Shortcuts [images]
	Enchantress			Overlord			Sacrifice			Settlers/Bustling Village			Wild Hunt
	Camel Train			Fisherman			Gatekeeper			Sanctuary			Snowy Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	transport			Triumphal Arch

Empires & Allies

Island Empire [images]
	City Quarter			Enchantress			Farmers' Market			Settlers/Bustling Village			Wild Hunt
	Contract			Forts			Specialist			Swap			Sycophant
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Orchard			Island Folk

Castle Wars [images]
	Castles			Catapult/Rocks			Charm			Crown			Patrician/Emporium
	Capital City			Carpenter			Clashes			Hunter			Importer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Triumph			Trappers' Lodge

Empires & Plunder

City Builders [images]
	City Quarter			Farmers' Market			Groundskeeper			Patrician/Emporium			Wild Hunt
	Abundance			Crucible			Frigate			Taskmaster			Tools
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Trait for Patrician/Emporium Nearby			Museum

Plenty [images]
	Charm			Crown			Enchantress			Gladiator/Fortune			Sacrifice
	Figurine			Landing Party			Mining Road			Rope			Wealthy Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Trait for Figurine Friendly			Prosper

Empires & Rising Sun

Summer Castles [images]
	Capital			Castles			City Quarter			Forum			Patrician/Emporium
	Aristocrat			Change			Rice			River Shrine			Snake Witch
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Museum			Kind Emperor

Swept Clean [images]
	Chariot Race			Charm			Crown			Overlord			Temple
	Artist			Kitsune			Mountain Shrine			Rice Broker			Root Cellar
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Sea Trade			Divine Wind

First Edition Kingdoms

Empires & Seaside 1E Boxed In [images] Castles Chariot Race Encampment/Plunder Enchantress Gladiator/Fortune Salvager Smugglers Tactician Warehouse Wharf Landscapes and Additional Cards Tax Wall This kingdom was unchanged between Seaside 1E and 2E. King of the Sea [images] Archive Farmers' Market Overlord Temple Wild Hunt Explorer Haven Native Village Pirate Ship Sea Hag Landscapes and Additional Cards Delve Fountain Seaside Second Edition Changes: out – Explorer, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag; in – Corsair, Pirate, Sea Witch Empires & Prosperity 1E Big Time [images] Capital Gladiator/Fortune Patrician/Emporium Royal Blacksmith Villa Bank Forge Grand Market Loan Royal Seal Landscapes and Additional Cards Platinum Colony Dominate Obelisk Prosperity Second Edition Changes: out – Loan, Royal Seal; in – Investment, Tiara Gilded Gates [images] Chariot Race City Quarter Encampment/Plunder Groundskeeper Wild Hunt Bishop Mint Monument Peddler Talisman Landscapes and Additional Cards Platinum Colony Basilica Palace Prosperity Second Edition Changes: out – Bishop, Monument, Talisman; in – Anvil, Collection, War Chest Empires & Cornucopia & Guilds 1E Zookeepers [images] Overlord Sacrifice Settlers/Bustling Village Villa Wild Hunt Fairgrounds Horse Traders Jester Menagerie Tournament Landscapes and Additional Cards Annex Colonnade Cornucopia & Guilds Second Edition Changes: out – Fairgrounds, Horse Traders, Tournament; in – Groundskeeper, Ferryman, Remake, Shop Cash Flow [images] Castles City Quarter Engineer Gladiator/Fortune Royal Blacksmith Baker Butcher Doctor Herald Soothsayer Landscapes and Additional Cards Baths Mountain Pass Cornucopia & Guilds Second Edition Changes: out – Butcher, Doctor; in – Carnival, Infirmary, Villa Empires & Hinterlands 1E Simple Plans [images] Catapult/Rocks Forum Patrician/Emporium Temple Villa Border Village Develop Haggler Ill-Gotten Gains Stables Landscapes and Additional Cards Donate Labyrinth Hinterlands Second Edition Changes: out – Develop, Ill-Gotten Gains, Temple; in – Cauldron, Enchantress, Wheelwright Expansion [images] Castles Charm Encampment/Plunder Engineer Legionary Cache Farmland Highway Spice Merchant Tunnel Landscapes and Additional Cards Battlefield Fountain Hinterlands Second Edition Changes: out – Cache, Highway; in – Oasis, Stables