Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: teamlyle on May 22, 2018, 11:41:08 pm
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When do you do it? Besides "depends on the board," do you think it's a good idea in general to get the extra early tempo from having two 4-cost cards in your deck, or build a bit more long-term and have one Engineer and one 4-cost?
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Engineer is so damn good. It's flexible, you can get two $4s out of one use for only a bit of delay and you can hold onto it at least once, just to get even more value out of it. It's great at reaching out and snatching cards all at once, like those last two Wandering Minstels, or you can sack it when you don't need a Workshop anymore. And you can pay $2 now, $2 next turn for it as well. It's I think better than Ironworks. I like to trash it when I don't want it or when I have like $3 and don't want another Silver, so I just go ahead and buy another Engineer.
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Don't trash Engineer to gain a $3 cost and then buy a new Engineer, unless you care about piles, of course. I've actually seen that ("sure, I'll just take one debt for no reason") early in a game.
But yeah, in normal play, trash it whenever you no longer want to be using terminal space on a workshop, or when you really need one more copy of a key card.
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There are a good number of board where you don't trash the engineer at all and just use it as a Workshop. Even if you don't necessarily need more $4-costs, keeping it around gives you more pile control.
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Trashing Engineer is a no-brainer when you can't afford buying the second 4 and taking the difference in debt is better than not getting it this turn. And pile control in the end. That's it, as far as I can think of.
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I know this is a generalization that skips over a lot of nuance, but in real games you should trash it more often than not. It’s usually worth it to trash it and buy another vs keeping it, unless you have enough money for the card you would be gaining in-hand and would just buy another Engineer anyway.
If you want Engineer in your deck, but don’t have enough for one of your gains, trash it, buy another Engineer, carry a little debt, no big deal. If you don’t want Engineer in your deck anymore, of course you trash it, duh. So this covers most early game Engineer situations.
It’s generally better to carry a little debt in exchange for good cards in your deck sooner!
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The Secret History suggests it started out without a debt cost, but for me the key benefit of Engineer is in buying it with the $3 in a 4/3 or 3/4 split. On many boards, that can be a useful springboard.
When to trash it is highly situational but also, I've found, normally pretty obvious. I've never agonised over the decision, certainly.
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I played a game with Engineer and Orchard, and that provided some interesting play - finding the balance between trashing the Engineers to get copies of key cards versus keeping them for the points. I don't remember the exact kingdom but there were a few $3 and $4 Action cards and most of them wound up being split quite closely by the end of the game.
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I trash Engineer if either of these conditions obtains:
1 - I want the second gained card more that I want the Engineer
2 - I can pay down debt this turn and have a buy that I can't use on something that I want more than the second gained card, plus the Engineer pile is not empty
(1) normally means winning key $4 splits or just having no further use for the Engineer
(2) is true more often than not and will mean I trash and rebuy the Engineer. Too much debt or the need to get a $5 or Donate are the most common reasons this won't obtain
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It's the only way to trigger Labyrinth. Of course, do it earlier than later, before the VP tokens on it run dry.
Earlier to VP tokens on Aqueduct and Battlefield
May as well get +1 VP via Tomb
Avoid penalties via Wall and Wolf Den.
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I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that the engineer has an intrinsic cost of a terminal action each time you play it. If you are buying other terminals, even other engineers, this becomes a big indicator of when you should trash it.
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Several people in this thread have already talked about the case of trashing Engineer to gain a cheap card and then rebuying the Engineer. This usage makes Engineer work a little bit like Capital in that it effectively converts another card's coin cost into a debt cost.