Disclaimer: I purchased the game myself, and the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.Overview:
In Dark Domains each player takes on the role of a city leader attempting to expand the frontier of Harrows into the hinterland.
The players are secretly evil to the core and in the thrall of a Necromancer. Once away from the bustling city and the oversight of the courts, these overlords create domains that outwardly appear to be beacons of light and hope.
Eventually however, their true colours will come through and those upstanding pillars of the community will retreat to their lairs as the masquerade ends and their lands begin to decay into wastelands overrun by foul monsters and nefarious henchmen.
Rules & Setup:
Set up takes around 10-15 minutes as you need to sort a LOT of different tokens and cards out for both the players and the general supply. It takes slightly more to pack away as these resources & cards need sorting back out again.
The rules aren’t overly complicated but for me the rulebook needed to be set out in a much more ordered way, as it seemed to us that rules weren’t really in an order that made sense or followed on from one thing to another.
There also needs to be an official player aid for the game, as this would help with the symbology used, of which there is a lot.
Theme:
As outlined above the game is a fantasy themed one, and reminds me of Mourners Call – Court of the Dead, in the way numbered action spaces are dotted around the board, which you complete during one part of the round structure.
Gameplay:
Players each have a group of ‘minions’ which you take turns in placing on action spaces shown on the board which allow you get various in game resources / cards to enable you to take further actions and combat the potential threat coming from the adventurers stationed at two Inns based in the land, called the Torin Company, and they will either attack a building if it is on the Dark side, or possibly make a pilgrimage to it if is the chosen building and it is still on it’s light side.
Each round begins with event cards being drawn from a deck made up at the start of the game, and rounds continue until the DEATH event card is drawn at which point the end of game sequence is triggered.
Once the event cards are dealt with each round sequence begins again, with players selecting action spots on the main board, or by placing a minion on a light building on their own domain player board.
At the start of the sequence where minion actions are taken in number order (all action spaces are numbered) any light buildings in each players own domain will be flipped to their dark side, and will stay like this, unless an event or other similar thing instructs you to turn it back to the light side. You cannot choose to flip it back yourself.
Once buildings are flipped to their dark side they can also have monsters etc. placed onto them, which increases their defence total if they are attacked during any future combat / attack sequence, as only buildings that are dark can be attacked, and this is determined by the highest numbered building of a specific type, which in turn is determined by the leader card in each Inn. Every building has a unique number printed on them for determining stuff during certain parts of the game.
One of the turn phases is Production of resources, and these are again shown on each of your buildings, or on specific spaces where you have placed your minions on the main game board.
These resources are also spent to buy new buildings and play spell cards. Spell cards come in 4 different types and they show a symbol which matches the phase of each turn they can be played.
The aim of Dark Domains is to collect ‘evil’ tokens and the person with the most evil tokens at the end of the game is the winner.
Buildings, action spaces and playing some spell cards can earn you evil points, as well as successfully defending / repelling an attack from the Torin Company should your dark building be the target of one of the 2 potential attacked each round.
Artwork and Components:
The artwork and components are of a very good standard / quality, with a very dramatic game board showing all the locations / action spaces.
The Good:
At first glance the game looks as if it is going to be complicated and fiddly, but the round tracker ensures you follow the correct sequence each turn, and everyone completes all their actions for each of these sequences before moving on to the next one, and mostly these are done in player turn order. It is one of the better games at doing this that I have played, and the designers have really done an excellent job, both in the rules and the production of the game and components.
The Other:
As I mentioned earlier, the rulebook jumps around a little too much for me, and could do with a rejig. There could also be a more thorough explanation of the cards, some are explained but not all, even if only released as a file you can print out and keep in the box.
An official player aid for the symbology would also be great.
A decent insert would have also been useful, maybe one that could be lifted straight out of the box as there is a LOT of different tokens to place on the table.
Final Thoughts:
Dark Domains drew me in when I read the description of the game on BGG and I’m glad I purchased a copy, and it is a game my gaming friends and I hope to play again soon.
We played 4 player but hope to go to the full 5 player next time to see what affect it has on the game as more action spaces will be used on the main board each turn, meaning a lot less of what you need to get each round.
We each thought Dark Domains was a very good game, and played easier than it looked during set up, and I thoroughly trying it out if you get the chance.
Disclaimer: I purchased the game myself, and the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
