Mountain Pass

Mountain Pass
Info
Type	Landmark
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Garret DeChellis
Landmark text
When you are the first player to gain a Province, each player bids once, up to , ending with you. High bidder gets +8  and takes the they bid.

Mountain Pass is a Landmark from Empires. It prompts a bidding event when a Province is first gained, where players take turns stating an amount of they'd be willing to take on, once per player, starting with the player to the left of the one who gained the Province. The winner of the bid gets +8 , and takes on the they bid. It is the only Landmark to involve , and the only card-shaped object in the game to involve bidding.

FAQ

Unofficial FAQ (2022)

• This only happens the first time a player gains a Province; it does not matter if the Province was bought or not, or if Provinces have left the pile earlier due to Salt the Earth.
• The player to the left of the player who got the Province bids first, then the player to their left and so on, ending with the player who got the Province.
• Each bid can be a pass, or a higher bid than the previous bid.
• Bids are in amounts of , from to ; a bid of cannot be beaten.
• The player who bid the highest (if any) gets +8  and takes the amount of of their bid.

Other rules clarifications

• If someone gains the first Province during a turn you are controlling with Possession (from Alchemy), "make all decisions" means you have control over how much the Possessed player bids. If that player wins the bid, they take the 8 , and you take the . In practice (at least in a 2-player game), you force them to bid , and you can take for 8 .

Deprecated official FAQ (2016)

This only happens the first time a player gains a Province; it does not matter if the Province was bought or not, or if Provinces have left the pile earlier due to Salt the Earth. This happens between turns; Possession (from Dominion: Alchemy) will not be in effect. The player to the left of the player who got the Province bids first, then the player to their left and so on, ending with the player who got the Province. Each bid can be a pass, or a higher bid than the previous bid. Bids are in amounts of , from to ; a bid of cannot be beaten. The player who bid the highest (if any) gets +8  and takes the amount of of their bid.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2016 2021)

End-game conditions are checked at the end of each player's turn. So if a player gains the first Province on the same turn a game-ending condition occurs (e.g. 3 empty piles), the Mountain Pass bidding effect will not occur. The exception is if any player has Fleet, which keeps the game going. If you gain the first Province on the same turn you buy Donate, you can choose the order of the effects of Donate and Mountain Pass.

Strategy

In the abstract, the   provided by Mountain Pass is fairly desirable, as it does not come with a stop card and 8  is more than that of a Province; however, its variable cost and the somewhat unpredictable nature of when the bidding will occur make its overall effect on Kingdoms complex.

As a starting point in considering how much to bid for Mountain Pass as the first bidder, you’ll almost never want to bid as little as the price of a Province, because winning the bid is almost strictly better than buying one. You can then adjust your bid further by looking at the total amount of   available in the Kingdom otherwise. If there is no other alt-VP, 8  will be proportionally more impactful. Conversely, if a card such as Groundskeeper is present, that amount of   is far less likely to matter. The overall game state is also important to consider. If your opponent is threatening a pileout, you may need to bid more to ensure they do not have a   lead while doing so. In some endgame scenarios, this may even necessitate bidding the maximum of , in which case you always win the bid. This dynamic does mean that you cannot buy the first Province to secure a   lead in the middle of piling out, as your opponent can always use the maximum bid to deny you said lead.

You should also consider how much you can afford to take on, which often depends on where you are in the building process, how much you can generate, and what kind of payload you have. If your opponent buys an early first Province and you’re still building up an engine, it’s likely not a good idea to bid a large amount, as that is probably better invested back into your deck, and temporarily losing the ability to build via buying can be highly detrimental. How long you’re stuck paying is directly tied to how much you can generate per turn, and so you usually won’t want to bid too much more than a couple of turns’ worth of . It may also not be a good idea to bid high if your payload is primarily cost reduction (as that cannot be used to pay off ), or if you are reliant on your ability to buy things (e.g., with Merchant Guild, Black Market, or Expedition). A more extreme example can be seen with Tournament: if your opponent is able to gain the first Province, you might have to bid a somewhat smaller amount, as you likely cannot take much without significantly delaying your own first Province. Conversely, if you have lots of gainers and can be productive while paying off , you can invest more in your bid.

Finally, it’s also worth considering the value of the   to your opponent, the effect the might have on them, and their deck’s capabilities relative to your own. For instance, if you know that your generation is better and more consistent than your opponent's, you may try to pick a larger amount of that is asymmetrically difficult for them to pay off.

In a two-player bid, the first bidder gets to set the price, and the second bidder gets to decide whether or not to take the by outbidding by one. This means that as the second bidder you can be more reactive, although you’ll still need to understand the impact of the   and on you and your opponent. For example, if your opponent makes a relatively large first bid, you can simply force them to take all of that , if you determine that they’re not in a good position to pay it off.

Statistically, as of 2018, typical winning bids are often around (source).

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		When you are the first player to gain a Province, after that turn, each player bids once, up to , ending with you. High bidder gets +8  and takes the they bid.	Empires	June 2016
		When you are the first player to gain a Province, at end of turn, each player bids once, up to , ending with you. High bidder gets +8  and takes the they bid.	Avoid having effects happen between turns Empires (2021 printing)	January 29, 2021 / February 18, 2022
		When you are the first player to gain a Province, each player bids once, up to , ending with you. High bidder gets +8  and takes the they bid.	Enable to pay off bidding Debt on the turn you gain the first Province	June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Bergpas			Als jij de eerste speler bent die een Provincie pakt, biedt iedere speler na afloop van die beurt eenmaal, met een maximum van , waarbij jij eindigt. De hoogste bieder krijgt +8  en neemt zoveel als hij heeft geboden.	(2016)
Finnish	Vuoristoreitti
French	Col
German	Gebirgspass			Nach dem Zug, in dem ein Spieler die erste Provinz genommen hat, bietet jeder Spieler reihum (beginnend beim linken Mitspieler) einmal bis zu 40 -Marker. Der Spieler mit dem höchsten Gebot erhält +8 -Marker und nimmt sich die gebotene Menge -Marker.	(2016)
	Gebirgspass			Wenn du der erste Spieler bist, der eine Provinz nimmt, bietet am Ende des Zuges jeder Mitspieler (beginnend bei deinem linken Mitspieler) einmal bis zu . Der Spieler mit dem höchsten Gebot erhält +8  und nimmt seine gebotenen .	2. Edition (2021) "...jeder MitsSpieler…" Note: rulebook FAQ 2021 for this card may be outdated
	Gebirgspass			Wenn du als erster Spieler eine Provinz nimmst, bietet jeder Spieler einmal bis zu , mit dir zum Schluss. Der Höchstbietende bekommt +8  und nimmt entsprechend seines Gebots.
Japanese	峠 (pron. tōge)			属州が最初に獲得されたターンの終了後、 獲得したプレイヤーを最後として、各プレイヤーは1回ずつ、を上限として競りをする。最高入札者は、+8 、 提示したを得る。
Polish	Przełęcz (lit. pass)			Kiedy jako pierwszy dodasz Prowincję, po zakończeniu tej tury rozpoczyna się licytacja. Gracze kończą na tobie, licytując kolejno, maksymalnie do . Zwycięzca bierze +8  i tyle , ile zaoferował.	(2017)
Russian	Горный Перевал (pron. gorny pyeryeval)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

At first it was when the first Province was bought, the buyer bid first, no limit, and the prize was 10 . Since the correct bid might be infinity, there's a limit, and hey why not the total number of tokens included. Gain felt better than buy; between turns dealt with Possession, man, that card. And eventually I lowered it to 8  to reduce the chance that you run out of tokens.

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

Retrospective

For sure Mountain Pass is not a set highlight. No-one ever knows what to bid, or always bids . I don't regret it though.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2021

Why it originally was an after-turn ability

There should not be stuff happening between-turns (except for determining whose turn is next, which Outpost etc. can safely mess with). Why is there? [...] Mountain Pass is between turns so Possession doesn't affect who makes the decision to take . But I later fixed that on Possession itself.

Will I ever fix Donate and Mountain Pass to not be between turns? Man, maybe. I don't need to make that decision today.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Mountain Pass and gaining Province during Donate, March 20, 2020

Errata

Since then, Mountain Pass has received errata to happen as soon as you gain the first Province.

Nothing should happen between turns except picking which extra turn happens next. Donate and Mountain Pass broke that...While Mountain Pass couldn't make anything else happen between turns (since nothing triggers on getting ), I decided to fix it too.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Why of the Errata, June 30, 2022