This is the fifth and final preview by Donald X. Vaccarino, introducing the next Dominion expansion: Dark Ages. The community is discussing these new cards in the Dark Ages Preview subforum.

Here they are at last, the Shelters. In an all Dark Ages game, your starting deck is 7 Coppers, Necropolis, Overgrown Estate, Hovel. When mixing sets up, the rule for using Shelters is similar to the Platinum / Colony rule.

Shelters may not be worth the 1 VP of an Estate, but they are way better to have in your deck. Necropolis lets you go a little heavier on terminals from the get-go. Overgrown Estate gives you an extra little treat if you ever manage to trash it. And Hovel has a built-in way to get rid of it – you move out of that Hovel, and into a nice Duchy or something.

You can’t buy Shelters, but they cost $1. That’s just to shake up how various cards interact with them. A Remodel doesn’t take you as far as it used to. And with only one being a Victory card, that Crossroads doesn’t go to as many places. Baron doesn’t know what to do with these. And an Ambassador can’t even give them away, since they have no piles to return to. On the other hand, they are fine places to get animals for your Menagerie. And how much exactly can you build Fairgrounds up to now, in games without Black Market? Man. A lot.

Even though I previewed 15 cards, only 9 of them were kingdom cards. There are 26 kingdom cards left that you haven’t seen. That’s as many as a whole set! It’s like there weren’t any previews at all. And yet they’re over. Someone will no doubt post the card list after the set comes out at GenCon next week, and I will post a Secret History shortly afterwards.