When comparing Dominion vs Junk Art, the Slant community recommends Junk Art for most people. In the question“What are the best board games for beginners?” Junk Art is ranked 10th while Dominion is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Junk Art is:
The basic premise of Junk Art can be taught within a minute or two. The whole game revolves around stacking pieces and getting points from your structures. Each game has three rounds – three cities you must go to, which are either chosen or randomized at the start of the game. They are sort of like mini-games that each have their own rules – what must be built, what is the win/lose condition, etc. The goal of the game is to be the player with the most fans after three rounds. For example, Indianapolis makes players simultaneously flip the top card of their 10-card deck, find the matching piece, place it, and say “Done!” The last player to say it doesn’t place the piece. This is done until all cards have been played, the player with the most pieces gains the most fans.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Focus is more on having fun, and less on scoring
The victory point cards are part of your deck itself, so you won't really know exactly how many points you or your opponents have until the game ends and all the points are tallied up. This lets you focus on the game and have a great experience playing your cards, rather than doing math equations and constantly comparing your points to everyone around you. It allows the fun and thrill of the deck building aspect to take front and center.
Pro Games are fairly quick
A standard game can be played in about 30 minutes, even with 4 players.
Pro Starts very simple and grows in complexity over time
At the start of the game, each player is given 10 identical cards to begin their deck. Within these starter cards are some properties which are worth victory points (the player with the most of these at the end of the game wins) and some currency cards (used to buy new cards).
Your options will be pretty limited at first, however, as the game progresses you'll be spending your currency cards every turn to buy new cards and add to your deck. These new cards can include more property cards, action cards that let you earn additional currency, curses to slow down your opponents, and more.
As your deck slowly starts to become more expansive, the trick is juggling your limited currency and trying to buy cards that have synergy with the ones in your hand. Deciding whether to buy properties worth victory points or action cards that give you the opportunity to earn more currency leaves a ton of room open for strategy and deck management.
Pro Easy to start playing
The basic premise of Junk Art can be taught within a minute or two. The whole game revolves around stacking pieces and getting points from your structures. Each game has three rounds – three cities you must go to, which are either chosen or randomized at the start of the game. They are sort of like mini-games that each have their own rules – what must be built, what is the win/lose condition, etc. The goal of the game is to be the player with the most fans after three rounds.
For example, Indianapolis makes players simultaneously flip the top card of their 10-card deck, find the matching piece, place it, and say “Done!” The last player to say it doesn’t place the piece. This is done until all cards have been played, the player with the most pieces gains the most fans.
Pro Engaging
There’s almost never a dull moment while playing Junk Art because most of the time everyone’s playing at once. Every round will be different – some cities are time-based, others just require you to keep building, but all of them involve some sort of interaction between players – passing cards, swapping places, cooperating, etc.
Pro Silly
There are plenty of laughs to be had while playing Junk Art, be it funny creations, memories of someone’s tower falling apart, or a specific city.
There’s a sense of achievement when you manage to create something that looks cool and doesn’t instantly fall apart. Creations tend to get quite unstable, so there are going to be some intense moments where they wobble around a bit, but both outcomes are good – it falls, and everyone laughs, or it doesn’t, and everyone still laughs.
Some of the cities you’ll encounter in the game can also create hilarious and memorable moments. for example, Montreal, where you must choose one out of three cards, pass one to the player on your left, place the piece you received, and then swap places with the next person in the direction of play. Basically, you pass bad cards to your opponents, but if your opponent manages to place them, then that becomes your problem in just a few seconds.
Pro Good components
The game excels with truly high-quality components. The box itself is made of wood and works as a great storage for all the small pieces. The stackable pieces are either wooden or plastic, depending on which edition you’ve got. Either way, both materials are durable and do not feel cheap.
Many of the stackable pieces are unusual shapes – partially curved figures, dumbbells, flowerpots, etc. However, their centers of mass are very well-balanced, which means that no piece is better than another – it’s all situational.
Pro A lot of variety
You will never play the same game of Junk Art twice. Usually you’ll get different combinations of cities and your constructions will be unique every time. The base game comes with 12 cities (one of which requires the game “Flick ‘Em Up” to play) and 3 blank cards for custom cities.
The 12 cities are diverse – some require you to be the fastest, others make you compete in creating the highest structure, and there are even some especially interesting cards, for example, Montreal makes you swap places with other players, or Paris requires you to cooperate and create one structure together.
Cons
Con Expansion overload for newcomers
Since the game's release, it has put out over 12 expansion packs. This might be intimidating to some players who feel like they are getting into the game too late, or overwhelming for collectors who feel like they need to buy every single expansion.
Con Takes a while to setup
In the base game alone and not including any expansions you might be playing with, there are 500 cards that need to be organized into specific piles and arranged by card type. This includes currency cards, estates, provinces, curses, and more.
Con Player interaction is very limited
While you are in direct competition with your opponents to gather the most properties (victory points), you'll most likely be more concerned with managing your own deck rather than what your opponents are doing. There are a few attack cards that allow you to force opponents to discard or unable to draw new cards, but other than those rare exceptions, there is very little actual interaction.
Con Not for people with shaky hands
It’s no surprise that dexterity games require steady hands, otherwise creations risk falling. Some cities allow room for errors, but in others the round ends as soon as someone drops a piece or two, which is fine occasionally, but if it happens too often because of trembling hands it kind of ruins the gaming experience with an abrupt ending.
Con Expensive
Junk Art is quite a pricey game due to the components – there’s a lot of them and they are of high quality wood or plastic. The version of the game with wooden pieces sells for $40-60, whereas the plastic version goes for $25-40.
Con Environment dependent
Junk Art is a game that requires you to stack pieces together – this demands a completely even surface, so the tower won’t fall over, and some room for every player, so they don’t accidentally elbow each other. Moreover, this game can’t be played outside or next to an open window very well because a gust of wind might ruin your construction.