So thanks to my QT3 Secret Santa Tracy and an unmarked gift, I got Ascension early for Christmas. I had a chance to play it with my brother this past weekend over Thanksgiving and we absolutely loved it.
Background: I own Dominion and Dominion Intrigue and like both quite a bit. I’m by no means an expert Dominion player, but I’m not bad and it’s something we break out on occasion. That being said, the common complaint with this game is the lack of direct conflict and lackluster theme. Ascension addresses both of these issues.
The best way to describe the game is take Dominion’s deck building and resources and condensing them, as well as adding a random factor. There are only 2 resources in the game, Runes (for buying) and Power (for combat). There is no limit on the number of actions you can take per turn, or how many buys you can make per turn - the only limiting factor is that you only have 5 cards in your hand. There are only 3 types of cards in the game: Heroes, Constructs, and Monsters. All card “purchases” are made from 6 random face up cards (each of which is immediately replaced from a deck) or 3 fixed piles of cards: 2 heroes (lots available) and 1 monster (unlimited quantity). All cards (other than the fixed ones I just mentioned) have a victory point value on them, which you use in your total score at the end of the game. Just like Dominion, cards that are purchased go into your discard pile, and the discard pile is only shuffled when the draw pile is depleted.
Victory points are comprised of a visible and semi-hidden component. As you defeat monsters and play some cards, you earn “reward” tokens, which is a fixed pile of cool looking plastic-gems that you pull from as you play. Usually you get these for defeating monsters, and they count as victory points at the end of the game. When the fixed pile (size varies on number of players) runs out, everyone gets one more turn and then the game is over. You then total your reward tokens plus the victory point values of all cards in your deck for a final total.
Heroes make up the bulk of the cards, and cost Runes to recruit. These give you Runes to buy other cards or Power to fight monsters when playing them, and often extra abilities. For example, a card may say “Gain 2 runes, discard 1 card, and draw 2 cards.” Runes (and Power) accumulate as you play them and can be spent as an aggregate on any number of cards. Some hero cards get more fancy (Gain 1 power OR 1 Rune) or situational (Counts as +2 power against X type of Monster).
Monsters make up a good percentage of the deck as well and are what you spend the Power resource on. For defeating a monster (which you DO NOT recruit, it goes into a discard pile) you almost always get some reward tokens as well as often a special ability of some kind. There was one where upon defeat, you could banish (put into discard pile) another face up card as well as gain some reward tokens, for example.
Constructs are like heroes that stick around. Think of these like Magic the Gathering Artifacts or Enchantments. They do things like let you draw a card when you use a certain type of hero, make other heroes cheaper to recruit, etc.
And that’s all there is to it. The game has a very Magic feel in its theme (mix of fantasy and some technology) and mechanics. While not nearly as complex as MtG card interactions, I like that it is often beneficial to stick to recruiting one faction’s cards as they often have synergistic abilities. I’m also a big fan of the randomized card availability. Dominion often feels like experimenting until I find a magical combination of the available pool of cards, whereas Ascension keeps throwing new surprises at me. Overall I’m extremely happy with the game and looking forward to playing again soon. Honestly, I don’t see myself breaking out Dominion any time soon.
The set supports 2, 3 or 4 players and seems like it’ll scale nicely for any of those options. I look forward to some expansions for more cards, although there’s a pretty good selection already.
Thanks again, Tracy!
