Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Puzzles and Challenges => Solo Challenges => Topic started by: Schneau on February 25, 2017, 09:44:37 am

Title: Embargo x100
Post by: Schneau on February 25, 2017, 09:44:37 am
I remember enjoying solo challenges back in the day on Isotropic. They were a fun way to try out something challenging not just theoretically, but in practice.

Now, we have Shuffle iT, which can link to full game playthroughs, as well as many more cards and events than we did then! Here's a new solo challenge, if people are interested in trying it!

The Challenge: You must put 100 Embargo tokens on the Province pile. Whoever does this in the fewest turns wins.

The Rules:
- Solo mode on Shuffle iT
- You can choose the Kingdom
- You may have up to 2 Events/Landmarks
- Bonus points for buying a Province to drain the Curses
- Post the game number here so we can look at your log -- this isn't a theoretical challenge, you have to actually do it!

This puzzle is similar to some (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2487.msg40172#msg40172) that have been given (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5449.msg135039#msg135039) in the past. But, at the time of those challenges, I don't think it was actually possible to give out 100 Embargo tokens like it is now.
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: AdrianHealey on February 25, 2017, 11:12:36 am
So... Lurker, king's court something?
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Qvist on February 25, 2017, 01:14:29 pm
Is there a deadline? Are we supposed to submit the best result or just post here?

Anyway I did it in 11 turns with 112 Embargo tokens and emptying the Provinces. See game #1508938

Probably easily beatable.
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: SirPeebles on February 25, 2017, 01:46:01 pm
Wouldn't there be zero Curses in a one player game?
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: singletee on February 25, 2017, 02:00:19 pm
Is there a deadline? Are we supposed to submit the best result or just post here?

Anyway I did it in 11 turns with 112 Embargo tokens and emptying the Provinces. See game #1508938

Probably easily beatable.

I did it in 10 (#1510698), but I'm having problems loading these games. Trying to load yours gives "Internal Error", while trying to load mine gives "Not enough players", even though it won't let me add more players.
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Qvist on February 25, 2017, 02:37:08 pm
_8_ turns with infinite Embargo tokens and VP tokens #1511253 (took an already existing awesome solution from this forums, of course I haven't played it out, I'm not crazy) (saved the log because I can't load the games either, will post later if no-one can beat it)
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Schneau on February 25, 2017, 03:01:36 pm
Is there a deadline? Are we supposed to submit the best result or just post here?

I'd just post them here; no deadline. Unless people want to turn these into a more regular competition, I think its fine to iterate on each others' solutions.

It looks like Shuffle iT is broken for loading of 1-player logs. I posted a bug report here: http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=1575.0

My first un-optimized attempt:
16 turns. Log 1505394. Cards: Chapel, Lurker, Embargo, Stonemason, King's Court, Bridge, Council Room, Fishing Village, Scrying Pool, Villa, Borrow, Pathfinding.
I barely used Stonemason, Council Room, Fishing Village, and Borrow. I'm sure I could do much better by just replacing those with some better gainers. Also, not sure if Chapel is the best trasher here.
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Qvist on February 25, 2017, 03:39:20 pm
Okay, with the help of singletee I got it down to infinite Embargo tokens and infinite VPs in _6_ turns (1512831, but I forgot to include Monument and I'm to lazy to redo it, but instead of playing Watchtower twice, it's Monument and Watchtower)
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Qvist on February 25, 2017, 04:08:54 pm
Sorry for the doublepost, but I got it even better now and now I think it can't be beaten.

infinite Embargo tokens and infinite VPs in _5_ turns, see game 1513603

Edit: That was a really fun challenge, thanks for that.
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Schneau on February 25, 2017, 07:36:59 pm
Turns out there's a workaround for loading solo games. You have to create a normal table with 1 player, then under "options" tick the checkbox labeled "load game". Thanks Watno!

http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=1575.0
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: jonaskoelker on December 27, 2017, 02:36:56 am
I think it can't be beaten. infinite Embargo tokens and infinite VPs in _5_ turns.
I think I can do the same number of Embargo tokens in a smaller number of turns, but with fewer VP tokens.


Shuffle luck required: opening 5/2

Turn 1: Travelling Fair, topdecking 2xLurker using Baker token.
Turn 2: gain a King's Court, buy Donate.
Turn 3: (hand: KLL) KC a Lurker to trash a KC; gain a KC; and trash a Cultist (drawing KC). Then KC the other Lurker to trash KC; gain KC; trash Overlord.

Turn 4: starting hand is KKKLL with Overlord in the trash.

KC a KC, KC'ing 2xLurker and the third KC.
The lurkers gain 3xOverlord (including the one already in the trash), then trash a Cultist to draw 3xOverlord. (Hand: OOO)
Off the third KC (we have three tripled actions), first play Overlord as Feast gaining Beggar then 2xBridge.
Then play Overlord as Feast gaining KC, Lurker gaining itself back and then Lurker trashing Cultist, drawing KC and 2xOverlord. (Hand: KBOO)

As the last tripled action, play King's Court; now we have three tripled actions.
The first one is Beggar, gaining 9xCopper to hand.
The second is Overlord as Feast gaining KC, then Lurker gaining itself back, then Lurker gaining the other Overlord back from the trash.

Hand: Overlord, 9xCopper; discard: King's Court, 2xOverlord. We have one tripled action.

From here the loop begins:
Play Overlord as
1. Tragic Hero, drawing 2xOverlord and one other card, trashing itself and gaining gold.
2. Lurker gaining itself back
3. King's Court
Then, with 2xOverlord in hand and Overlord+Gold in the discard, play Overlord as
1. Embargo
2. Lurker gaining itself back
3. King's Court
Now you have one Overlord in hand, with 2xOverlord and one other card in the discard pile, and one tripled action. That is, we're in the same situation as the start of the loop, except with one treasure gained effectively to hand, and one embargo token added to a pile of your choice.

Repeat this as often as you want.

Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: jonaskoelker on December 30, 2017, 03:35:58 am
I think it can't be beaten. infinite Embargo tokens and infinite VPs in _5_ turns.
I think I can do the same number of Embargo tokens in a smaller number of turns, but with fewer VP tokens.
I take that back: I think I can get the same number of VP tokens as well.


The kingdom in my original solution would be as follows (by cost):

2: Beggar, Embargo, Lurker
4: Bridge, Feast
5: Baker, Cultist, Tragic Hero
7: King's Court
<8>: Overlord
Events/Landmarks: Donate, Travelling Fair

The loop generates infinite money and buys. To translate this into infinite VP, play a Goons and have Trader in hand, then for each VP you want, buy a Curse (or anything else) and reveal Trader to gain a Silver instead. (You probably won't gain the Silver because the pile will be empty by then, thanks to Tragic Hero.)

To play Goons and have Trader in hand, buy them from the Black Market deck. To have room in the kingdom for Black Market, put the Baker in the Black Market deck.

You still buy Donate in turn 2 and never pay off the debt, which means you can't actually buy anything from the Black Market deck until you pay off the debt. To solve this, go to your buy phase in turn 4, pay off debt, and return to your action phase by buying a Villa.

To make room in the kingdom for a Villa, add Young Witch to the Black Market deck with e.g. Embargo as the bane.

A detail: the loop alternates between having one and two Overlords in hand. Once you've iterated the loop enough times, stop when you have two Overlords in hand. What I haven't spelled out super clearly in my previous post is that you also have a King's Court in hand that's just sitting there.

So, let your last tripled action go to waste (ending the loop), go to the buy phase, pay off debt, buy Villa. Then play a KC'd Overlord as Black Market, buying Goons, Trader and nothing. Play the second Overlord as Lurker trashing Cultist, drawing the Goons and Trader. Play the Goons. Go to your buy phase. Repeatedly buy whatever and reveal Trader. (One card in the loop is Lurker which gives +1 action, so you definitely have enough actions for all of the above.)

Some much easier ways of getting infinite VP, which require the use of a third event/landmark, are Salt the Earth, Triumph, Wedding, Conquest and Tomb. We can get a finite number of arbitrarily large Triumphs; the rest we can trigger an arbitrary number of times, gaining a positive—non-zero—number of VP each time. But, eh, I prefer the recommended-kingdom solution.

Last I checked, the online Dominion doesn't support cards with setup in the Black Market deck, so my infinite VP solution can't actually work. Having 3+ events/landmarks is against the OP's rules, so that also doesn't work. And I haven't actually played out my solution, so technically this post contains a sketch for a solution to a slightly different challenge but not the challenge as stated. I think my first solution works, though.

(Note also: the Trader/Goons solution relies on a lot more shuffle luck.)

I think I can omit Travelling Fair and free up space for e.g. Tomb at the cost of delaying my megaturn by one turn. That would make my solution work in the online game and produce infinite money and VP in turn 5, i.e. as fast as Qvist's solution.


By the way, Qvist, is your solution the "empty the supply in 5 turns" solution you've made a video of?
Title: Re: Embargo x100
Post by: Qvist on December 31, 2017, 05:31:45 am
Can't remember. I think that sparked from that. Keep in mind that this was pre Nocturne.