Author Topic: Dominion Ruling Disagreement  (Read 5006 times)

Dragon

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Dominion Ruling Disagreement
« on: December 20, 2011, 20:05:52 »
Hey guys, I'm just posting this here so that we can clear up some rules for the next time we play Dominion, not to try to take away Caralee's victory.

When we were playing Dominion on Sunday, Caralee had a card that was allowing her to get extra cards (or money, I can't remember exactly which) for each different card that she had "in play."  At the time, I had asked about it because you (Charles and Chris) were encouraging her to play her treasure cards during her action phase so that they would be "in play" to be counted. After reading through a section of the basic rule book again and considering the affects of some other cards, I again disagree with your ruling on how the cards were played. Here is why:

The basic rules state that under normal circumstances, only Action cards can be played during the action phase, except when a card is being played as a Reaction. You mentioned the Black Market as your evidence of why Treasure cards were allowed to be played during the Action phase, however, those are played in reaction to the affects of the Black Market.

Also, other cards such as the Library and Jack Of All Trades (from Hinterlands) allow the player to draw up to a certain number of cards in their hand. If a player was allowed to play Treasure cards at any time during their turn, a player could simply play all of their treasure cards and then draw a new handful of cards.
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Wyldwing

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Re: Dominion Ruling Disagreement
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2011, 22:09:51 »
The card in question is Horn of Plenty.   Dragon, I see what you are saying, but on this one, I believe you are incorrect...

"In Play"  is a defined term that didn't need to be defined until Seaside, thus the definition isn't in the basic rules.  

Per the Seaside Rules:

"In play" -- Action cards and Treasure cards played face-up in a player???s play area are in play until they are moved somewhere else - usually until they are discarded during a Clean-up phase.  Only played cards are in play; set aside cards, trashed cards, cards in the supply, and cards in hands, decks, and discard piles are not in play. Reaction abilities like Moat's do not put those cards into play.

Also, the Horn of Plenty is a TREASURE CARD...thus...wouldn't you play it AFTER ALL THE REST OF YOUR TREASURE?

Thus, my conclusion is that the card was played correctly.

The Horn of Plenty can be viewed here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1009190/dominion-cornucopia?size=original

Also...check this out...this explains it better than I ever could...

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/678478/how-to-actually-use-horn-of-plenty
« Last Edit: December 28, 2011, 22:19:45 by Wyldwing »

TylerChuit

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Re: Dominion Ruling Disagreement
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2011, 23:07:36 »
I think that BGG thread clears up that question nicely, but I just wanted to clear up the bit about when to play treasure cards in a specific order.

Treasures are actually only allowed to be played during the buy phase.  They are played in any order the player chooses, but only during the Buy phase.  This mostly became important in the Prosperity expansion since there are Treasure cards in there that affect your buying abilities.

For example, when you play the Contraband card from your hand, the player to your left designates a card that you can't buy from the supply for the rest of that buy phase.  If you had multiple buys, you would not want to play Contraband until after you bought the card you really wanted.  

Similarly, the Grand Market card cannot be bought if you have any Copper in play.  So with multiple buys, you'd want to get your Grand Markets first by spending your other Treasure Cards, then play any Coppers toward your remaining buys.

The Black Market card is an exception to the rules as it allows you to, in effect, have an extra "mini-buy phase" where you're only able to buy from the Black Market.  

So I was wrong to site Black Market as an example, but the point was moot, since neither the Horn of Plenty or any other Treasures were being played during the action phase of that game anyway.  On the occasion you mention, Caralee had played her Horn of Plenty as her first and only treasure during her Buy phase, since she didn't have enough coins to buy anything else.  We were encouraging her to play her copper as to count as another unique card.
« Last Edit: December 28, 2011, 23:16:49 by TylerChuit »
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Dragon

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Re: Dominion Ruling Disagreement
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2011, 23:25:26 »
Sounds good to me. Being unfamiliar with the card that was being played (and I couldn't even remember the name), I just assumed it was an Action card, not a Treasure card, based on what was going on at the time. Thanks for the clarifications guys.
"Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? ... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes." - Roy (The IT Crowd)