Actual play: Eminent Domain
The Good: Elegant deck-building mechanics that allow lots of permutations from a mere five cards. Without technology cards, there’s practically no learning curve.
The Bad: There are a lot of technology cards to keep track of. And if you play with technology included and ignore research, you’re likely to lose.
Verdict: A fast-paced mix of Dominion and a simpler Race for the Galaxy, this will delight fans of both games and please fans of either.
I just played the board game “Eminent Domain” last night. It’s like a fast-paced fusion of Race for the Galaxy and Dominion, with the added element of purchaseable technology cards that change game mechanics. It took us substantially longer than the 45 minutes it said on the box - an hour and a half, more like - for our first game, but a lot of that was trying to figure out the strategies that were appropriate and not knowing what all the technology cards did. Also, we have a player who is very much the hemming and hawing kind. I love him, but it’s the truth.
It combines the action-card approach of Dominion with the “role-choosing” element of Race for the Galaxy, using the same five cards to represent both actions and roles. The design is very clever.
The production quality is nice, as well - homeworlds have tiles instead of cards, for example, and there are differently-sized space fighter miniatures representing military power. It comes with its own small plastic bags and a small box to store all the moving pieces in, and so on. Very self-contained.
If you like Race for the Galaxy and/or Dominion, I highly recommend it.
