Allies

This article is about the expansion. For the type of card-shaped thing used in the expansion, see Ally.

Allies
Info
Type	Large Expansion
Icon
Cards	400
Kingdom	346 (31 sets)
Randomizers	31
Other Card(s)	23 Ally cards
Additional Material(s)
Mats	6 Favors mats
Tokens	35 Coin tokens
Theme(s)	Allies Rotating Split piles Choices between different effects Recursion
Release	March 9, 2022
Cover artist	Lorraine Schleter
Official Rulebook	PDF

Allies is the 14th expansion to Dominion. It introduces Favors—tokens whose effect depends on an Ally card chosen at the beginning of the game—and revisits split piles, last seen in Empires.

Contents

Kingdom cards

There are 16 cards in each split pile (Augurs, Clashes, Forts, Odysseys, Townsfolk, Wizards) with 4 of each individual card and 10 copies of each of the rest:

• Bauble, Sycophant, Townsfolk
• Augurs, Clashes, Forts, Merchant Camp, Importer, Odysseys, Sentinel, Underling, Wizards
• Broker, Carpenter, Courier, Innkeeper, Royal Galley, Town
• Barbarian, Capital City, Contract, Emissary, Galleria, Guildmaster, Highwayman, Hunter, Modify, Skirmisher, Specialist, Swap
• Marquis

Split pile cards (4 of each):

• Town Crier
• Herb Gatherer, Old Map, Blacksmith, Student, Tent, Battle Plan
• Acolyte, Voyage, Miller, Conjurer, Garrison, Archer
• Sorceress, Sunken Treasure, Elder, Sorcerer, Hill Fort, Warlord
• Sibyl, Distant Shore, Lich, Stronghold, Territory

Allies

23 cards, 1 of each: Architects' Guild Band of Nomads Cave Dwellers Circle of Witches City-state Coastal Haven Crafters' Guild Desert Guides Family of Inventors Fellowship of Scribes Forest Dwellers Gang of Pickpockets

Island Folk League of Bankers League of Shopkeepers Market Towns Mountain Folk Order of Astrologers Order of Masons Peaceful Cult Plateau Shepherds Trappers' Lodge Woodworkers' Guild

Additional materials

Mats

• 6 Favors player mats

Tokens

• 35 Coin tokens

Additional rules

Allies

See the Ally page.

Split piles

See the Split pile page.

Durations

Allies has some Duration cards.

• 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.

Flavor text

It’s a celebration! People are dancing in the streets, and riding horses through the dancehalls. You’ve finally formed an alliance with the barbarians to the north. Instead of the streets running red with blood, they’ll run, well, the usual color, let’s not focus on what color the streets run. The point is, there’s peace. Sure negotiations were tricky. The barbarians are uncouth; they have no five-second rule and stick out the wrong finger when drinking tea. There are perks too though. They’ve given you skulls to drink mead out of, and spices to get rid of the skull aftertaste. And you’ve given them stuff in return: forks, mirrors, pants. It’s great for everyone. And with this treaty out of the way, you can get to work on your other neighbors. Soon, all the allies will be yours.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games

Cards gallery

Kingdom cards

Augurs

Clashes

Forts

Odysseys

Townsfolk

Wizards

Allies

Trivia

Official box art.

In other languages

• Dutch (release March 16, 2022): Bondgenoten
• German (release March 28, 2022): Verbündete
• Japanese (release announced for 2022 or later): 同盟
• Korean (release announced for 2022): 도미니언: 굳건한 동맹

Teaser

At long last, Allies previews start Monday, and as usual I have a teaser.

Word counts:

• favor(s) - 33
• turn - 30
• choose - 13
• rotate - 6
• curse - 4
• +1 card and +1 action - 4
• 10 - 2
• skip - 1

Type counts:

• actions - 45
• allies - 23
• liaisons - 9
• durations - 9
• attacks - 7
• treasures - 3
• victory cards - 3
• reactions - 0

Miscellaneous:

• a kingdom card that cares about shuffling
• a sorcerer and a sorceress
• a treasure Pawn
• a treasure-duration
• two cards with four types
  —Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Allies Teaser

Secret History

The year was 2020. Menagerie was coming out soon, and I had a lot of non-Dominion projects in motion. I was playing games with friends two nights a week. Eating in restaurants. Walking past strangers on the sidewalk without a care in the world.

When the pandemic hit, at first I just didn't work on games. I wrote some stories and novellas. Eventually my daughter Natalie started playing games with me. At the same time I typed up a few Dominion cards, in case external playtesters could somehow playtest them. One day in May I set up Dominion, which Natalie'd been resisting trying, and we played it and nothing bad happened. So after that, we played it a bunch. So I worked on an expansion! That's how they get you.

At first it was just some random cards. Ideas that we could totally test. I tried a few new VP token cards, maybe I'd revisit those (spoilers: those cards all left). I tried several new Victory cards; maybe I'd revisit that theme (I did not). And you know, just tried whatever cards I thought of. In June I tried out Favors: tokens that varied from game to game. I also tried some new Reserve cards, but Reserve cards overlapped heavily with Favors. And in July I tried a split pile with 4 different cards in it and away we go. There was also another new kind of landscape; I liked it but can only fit so much into one expansion.

The Favors / Liaisons always worked the same way. Initially nothing cost more than one Favor per use, and there wasn't anything that cared how many Favors you'd stacked up, or put them on piles. I gradually made more Liaisons and more Allies, and looked for less straightforward things they could do.

The split piles originally had a variety of mechanics to ensure that you could somehow get through the pile to the cards you wanted. Some piles had every card able to upgrade to a card from the pile, just like how Acolyte does. Two piles tried having the top card gain a card from the pile; two piles, including one of those, tried having the top card able to trash cards from its Supply pile. One pile had no trick but was all villages. In the end we have rotation. It gets you through the pile, provided that someone gets the top card. The upgrading and Lurker-ing meant we didn't get to play with cards from the piles as much, and the gaining was crazy. The first version of rotation just moved one card; then it got the word "rotate" and did what it does.

I had tons of cards. I took out a lot of cards, based mainly on what fit the set best; they are waiting around in case they get to be real boys someday. I ended up with two minor themes: choose ones and recursion. Late in the going I scrapped two split piles, which let me fit in three regular piles (which all ended up being cards from split piles), plus an ally.

Natalie only tested with me for so long. Matt Engel pushed playtesting on Tabletop Simulator, and we did some of that. Eventually dominion.games started adding cards in a secret version, so some people got some playtesting in there. And one day I knew enough vaccinated people that game nights resumed, hooray. And we went back to restaurants, but I still walk into the street to avoid people on the sidewalk. That part had a certain charm, I don't know what to tell you.

* Outtakes *

More than usual, there were cards that seemed good but which I just didn't have space for. Those stories will wait for another day, when they either make it into a set, or demonstrate that they really aren't making it.

There were a few more split piles. One pile split up into separate cards, then some got saved for the future. One pile was all treasures, and at one point all treasure-durations. It kept being impossible to make it through the pile; we liked the first card but it didn't rotate often enough. Then the first pile tried to be its own pile and turned out to be broken. It was a treasure that made $1 this turn or $2 next turn or $3 the turn after that, and so on. Man it seemed fine and fun and then it turned out, just buy them and a Woodcutter or something and let them pile up to 8 tokens. Some of the treasures that tried out for the pile may still make it out in the future, with more work. There was a villages pile; the first card was conditional which wasn't great, and then I split the pile up and worked on the cards and it doesn't feel like any survived, though Capital City is a relative of one. And there was the Crafts pile, which I dropped just because I was dropping the treasures pile and had to drop two split piles to make the numbers work out well. Plus it wasn't so clear that having 8 split piles was so great; in an all Allies game you'd frequently have 3, which is so many cards to read. But hooray, two of the cards from that pile are in the set, Carpenter and Marquis, and another is hoping to make it out someday.

Early on I tried doing more VP token cards. Some of those gave VP tokens when you gained them, and let you spend the tokens somehow. Others came with VP tokens via a formula; the effect was kind of like Triumph.

Also early, a Victory cards theme. There was a Treasure-Victory card worth VP per 5 Treasures you had. Natalie endlessly beat me up with that, as I weakened it and finally gave up on it. I also tried VP per copy of an Action card you choose, and VP per 3 Action cards you have from non-empty piles. The experience this gave was not really so fun. To go with the Victory cards, there was a card that drew all the non-Action non-Treasure cards from the top of your deck, plus one more card. There was also a new Goons, sans attack and triggering on gains.

When I tried revisiting Reserve cards, I had: call to gain to hand a copy of a Treasure you played; call when a pile empties to gain a Gold and Duchy to hand (there's a novel one); call when shuffling to not shuffle in 4 cards (turned into Order of Masons); call for +1 Card per Copper in hand (I also tried a Duration version of that one); and gain a $4 onto your mat, call to put a card from your mat into your hand (cool if Reserve cards manage to be a theme again).

The first card in the file is "Gain an Action card from a pile that isn't full." It was fun and then seemed too generous. The closest the set comes now is Sunken Treasure. Conjurer at one point was gain a $4, or a $5 if there's an empty pile. Another early card, ancient idea, was reveal your hand, +$ per type there. The set ended up generous on the types, and this card was just always nothing or crazy.

I though it would be cool to do a trasher that returned cards, but wasn't also an attack like Ambassador. Since sometimes Ambassador is interesting for the bit where it stops a pile from being empty. You know it just didn't come up enough to be worth the words. I also had an Expand that required the gained card to share a type with the trashed card. It only cost $4 and still wasn't exciting most games.

I revisited the one-card Ghost Ship. It did not have some twist to it that made it fun. I tried "reveal the top card of your deck, you may have each other player gain a copy of it." I was briefly a fan, but really you so quickly move to never attacking with it.

More random things. A Warehouse with the Merchant Camp bottom. Cantrip, with +$1 if you've gained or trashed this turn. +$2 +1 Favor, with +1 Action if it was your first play. There's still a certain mild charm there. +1 Action +$1, play up to 3 treasures, may buy a card to hand. A 2006 concept trying its luck again. One of the Town Doctors tried out for its own pile: a Salvager with +1 Action, that you could discard when trashing an action or treasure to gain it back. For the recursion theme, I tried a Smithy that you put into your hand next turn if you could reveal a Gold. Then it was a Smithy that went into your hand or onto your deck when you gained a Treasure.

Allies that did not make it included: versions of Pearl Diver and Scout; that Expand limited by type thing; when you gain a card, exchange it for one costing $1 more (popular but confusing, then I tried lots of wordings to preserve the concept); spend X favors to gain a card to your hand costing $X (Matt's suggestion); when you get +1 of something, get another +1 of it; when playing an Action, get +$3 instead of following its instructions (it's Way of the Sheep only bigger, and well, we already have Way of the Sheep); Scheme for cards with just one type (it had to be weaker than Scheme somehow, so that Underling wasn't just better than Scheme); and play an Action a 2nd time then trash it (crazy, would you believe).

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

Recommended sets of 10

Allies only

Decisions Decisions [images]
	Bauble			Courier			Highwayman			Hunter			Innkeeper
	Marquis			Merchant Camp			Modify			Royal Galley			Townsfolk
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	City-state

Foresight [images]
	Augurs			Barbarian			Carpenter			Emissary			Galleria
	Sentinel			Skirmisher			Specialist			Town			Underling
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Order of Astrologers

Allies & Dominion

Allies for Beginners [images]
	Broker			Capital City			Galleria			Odysseys			Sycophant
	Gardens			Harbinger			Market			Remodel			Vassal
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Crafters' Guild

Warring Shopkeepers [images]
	Clashes			Emissary			Guildmaster			Royal Galley			Town
	Bandit			Laboratory			Merchant			Moat			Moneylender
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	League of Shopkeepers

Allies & Intrigue

Dark Dealings [images]
	Broker			Contract			Courier			Hunter			Townsfolk
	Courtier			Lurker			Nobles			Secret Passage			Steward
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Circle of Witches

Pawns and Underlings [images]
	Innkeeper			Merchant Camp			Swap			Underling			Wizards
	Baron			Conspirator			Patrol			Pawn			Replace
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Plateau Shepherds

Allies & Seaside

Forward Thinking [images]
	Cutpurse			Native Village			Sea Witch			Tactician			Warehouse
	Guildmaster			Highwayman			Odysseys			Royal Galley			Sentinel
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Cave Dwellers

Treasure Hunt [images]
	Haven			Lookout			Outpost			Treasure Map			Treasury
	Emissary			Forts			Marquis			Swap			Town
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Market Towns

Allies & Alchemy

Recursion [images]
	Barbarian			Galleria			Importer			Merchant Camp			Modify
	Wizards			Alchemist			Apprentice			Golem			Scrying Pool
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Potion			Coastal Haven

Allies & Prosperity

Inventing Mania [images]
	Augurs			Bauble			Capital City			Carpenter			Importer
	Anvil			Expand			King's Court			Quarry			Rabble
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			Family of Inventors

Bank of Toadies [images]
	Broker			Marquis			Odysseys			Sycophant			Town
	Bank			City			Clerk			Investment			Vault
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			League of Bankers

Allies & Cornucopia/Guilds

Huge Collections [images]
	Clashes			Contract			Forts			Galleria			Sentinel
	Advisor			Fairgrounds			Hunting Party			Menagerie			Plaza
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Woodworkers' Guild

Forest Scouts [images]
	Augurs			Emissary			Innkeeper			Royal Galley			Sentinel
	Baker			Candlestick Maker			Farming Village			Jester			Journeyman
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Forest Dwellers

Allies & Hinterlands

Longest Tunnel [images]
	Bauble			Capital City			Carpenter			Contract			Innkeeper
	Haggler			Jack of All Trades			Margrave			Trail			Tunnel
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Fellowship of Scribes

Expertise [images]
	Barbarian			Highwayman			Specialist			Townsfolk			Underling
	Border Village			Crossroads			Highway			Inn			Spice Merchant
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Order of Masons

Allies & Dark Ages

Grave Business [images]
	Barbarian			Broker			Contract			Highwayman			Wizards
	Bandit Camp			Beggar			Forager			Graverobber			Poor House
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Shelters			Cave Dwellers

Rat Traders [images]
	Emissary			Importer			Skirmisher			Swap			Townsfolk
	Count			Death Cart			Knights			Rats			Squire
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Ruins			Shelters			Desert Guides

Allies & Adventures

Adventures in Pickpocketing [images]
	Augurs			Bauble			Innkeeper			Modify			Specialist
	Artificer			Duplicate			Lost City			Miser			Treasure Trove
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Mission			Gang of Pickpockets

Future Perfect [images]
	Forts			Marquis			Sentinel			Skirmisher			Sycophant
	Caravan Guard			Gear			Haunted Woods			Port			Transmogrify
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Seaway			Market Towns

Allies & Empires

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

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

Allies & Nocturne

Love and Death [images]
	Augurs			Bauble			Carpenter			Hunter			Sycophant
	Conclave			Den of Sin			Faithful Hound			Idol			Necromancer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Boons			Peaceful Cult

Play it Again Sam [images]
	Wizards			Swap			Royal Galley			Courier			Hunter
	Blessed Village			Leprechaun			Skulk			Tormentor			Tracker
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Boons			Hexes			Woodworkers' Guild

Allies & Renaissance

Production Line [images]
	Courier			Importer			Modify			Townsfolk			Wizards
	Experiment			Mountain Village			Patron			Spices			Treasurer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Exploration			Band of Nomads

Age of Scribes [images]
	Capital City			Galleria			Odysseys			Specialist			Underling
	Acting Troupe			Inventor			Old Witch			Research			Villain
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Sinister Plot			Fellowship of Scribes

Allies & Menagerie

Wise Owls [images]
	Barbarian			Marquis			Merchant Camp			Town			Wizards
	Animal Fair			Black Cat			Bounty Hunter			Hostelry			Hunting Lodge
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Way of the Owl			Architects' Guild

Mountain Kings [images]
	Broker			Courier			Forts			Guildmaster			Skirmisher
	Barge			Coven			Scrap			Snowy Village			Supplies
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Toil			Mountain Folk

Allies & Plunder

Shipmates [images]
	Broker			Forts			Innkeeper			Modify			Sycophant
	Crew			Flagship			Harbor Village			Sack of Loot			Shaman
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Trait for Sycophant Fawning			Cave Dwellers

Buried and Sunk [images]
	Courier			Highwayman			Merchant Camp			Odysseys			Skirmisher
	Abundance			Buried Treasure			King's Cache			Landing Party			Maroon
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Trait for Merchant Camp Shy			Bury