Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: pitythefool on September 16, 2018, 06:06:52 pm

Title: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: pitythefool on September 16, 2018, 06:06:52 pm
The kingdom contained Mint, Noble Brigand, Tactician, and mostly uninteresting action cards.
It was a Platinum, Colony kingdom.
Events were Wedding and Borrow.

I reasoned that I wanted to get Mint as early as possible after getting a Gold.  Tactician was probably going to be the quickest way.  The Noble Brigand didn't interest me, as offensively, it is rather weak.  And it was worthless against Platinum and I expected to be minting a lot of those.
I had a 3/4 split.  I bought a Silver, then with my four coin hand, I went for Borrow and bought a Tactician.
Due to Borrow, I only drew four cards for my next hand, and I couldn't believe my amazing luck:  Tactician plus my 3 Estates.  Obviously play the Tactician.
This allowed me to draw all of my treasure into my next hand.  One Silver and 7 Copper yields 9 coins and two buys.
And this is where I execute a brilliant strategy.  I buy a Mint and a Wedding!
Now my deck is just Tactician, Mint, 3 Estates, and a Gold.
I'll be minting Gold till my debt is repaid and then I'll buy a Platinum and start minting those.  With Tactician hands filled with Platinum and Gold, I'll surely kick ass.
It is now turn five and I draw my entire deck other than my Gold.  Well, that's unlucky since I won't be able to mint a Gold this turn, but this will only delay my victory by a turn.  I was convinced that I was going to win.
Then my opponent buys a Noble Brigand.
I resign.

(The Noble Brigand nicks my Gold leaving me treasureless and still in debt from Wedding.  I cannot even buy Copper.  It is impossible to win.)


Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: vishwathg on September 16, 2018, 08:03:11 pm
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: pitythefool on September 16, 2018, 10:10:35 pm
Thanks, I edited my post.  Don't know why Royal Wedding stuck in my brain.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: Chris is me on September 17, 2018, 07:23:30 am
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)

If you think the best Donate play on a Wall board is to trash down to just an Estate, I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. Even in a donate money game, you should easily be able to end the game with a positive point score greater than 1. Even if that was somehow impossible, why wouldn't you keep all three Estates if you're going to commit to a completely empty and useless deck for the rest of the game?
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: markusin on September 17, 2018, 08:50:20 am
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)

If you think the best Donate play on a Wall board is to trash down to just an Estate, I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. Even in a donate money game, you should easily be able to end the game with a positive point score greater than 1. Even if that was somehow impossible, why wouldn't you keep all three Estates if you're going to commit to a completely empty and useless deck for the rest of the game?

Indeed. It's not even like you can only use Donate on the first 5 turns. If you completely locked yourself out of the game by donating down to Estates, the other playing can just buy money and provinces, and on the second to last turn, Donate down to a 5 card hand of just Golds and Silver, then buy the last Province. They end the game with a Province worth of points to your 3 or less Estates. Or they just Donate at the beginning for a Donate+money strategy, increasing their score so long as at most every fifth card is a Province, which is more than reasonable to expect. See this article for analysis on the rate Big Money gains Provinces: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9512.msg297468#msg297468 (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9512.msg297468#msg297468).

One can also go the "starvation" route and buy a 4th Estate before buying Donate and be locked out the game while having the most points.

Anyway, Wall only starts working after the 15th card.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: crj on September 17, 2018, 09:32:26 am
I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.
Agreed that Empires really isn't the first set to start someone with!

I still think Base is the way to start, and it exists for a reason. Let people get a bit of a feel for the game, then include Chapel in the third kingdom they play and let the penny drop. Donate is far from the worst part of Empires to inflict on a new player, but it's way more subtle and extreme than Chapel, so there's no need to introduce it early on!
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: Awaclus on September 17, 2018, 09:49:55 am
Donate makes it a very different game from what it usually is.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: vishwathg on September 17, 2018, 02:28:36 pm
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)

If you think the best Donate play on a Wall board is to trash down to just an Estate, I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. Even in a donate money game, you should easily be able to end the game with a positive point score greater than 1. Even if that was somehow impossible, why wouldn't you keep all three Estates if you're going to commit to a completely empty and useless deck for the rest of the game?

Note that my opponent had already used Donate to trash all of the cards in his deck.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: Awaclus on September 17, 2018, 03:17:39 pm
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)

If you think the best Donate play on a Wall board is to trash down to just an Estate, I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. Even in a donate money game, you should easily be able to end the game with a positive point score greater than 1. Even if that was somehow impossible, why wouldn't you keep all three Estates if you're going to commit to a completely empty and useless deck for the rest of the game?

Note that my opponent had already used Donate to trash all of the cards in his deck.

Even then, you wouldn't have won that game, since you would have been unable to end it.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: vishwathg on September 17, 2018, 03:23:22 pm
My opponent bought Donate T1, trashing his whole deck. This was my second or third game? I was reluctant to trash my cards, which led to me getting negative points through Wall. I lost 0 to -7.

I've always assumed it was his idea of a joke...

Back then, I didn't realize the best play was to Donate all my cards except one Estate. I also didn't realize that Donate (or probably Empires in general) is a very bad way to introduce someone to Dominion.

(By the way, it's called Wedding.)

If you think the best Donate play on a Wall board is to trash down to just an Estate, I'm not exactly sure what to tell you. Even in a donate money game, you should easily be able to end the game with a positive point score greater than 1. Even if that was somehow impossible, why wouldn't you keep all three Estates if you're going to commit to a completely empty and useless deck for the rest of the game?

Note that my opponent had already used Donate to trash all of the cards in his deck.

Even then, you wouldn't have won that game, since you would have been unable to end it.

Hmm...really? I thought the player with more victory points wins in such a deadlock situation.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: Awaclus on September 17, 2018, 03:46:38 pm
Hmm...really? I thought the player with more victory points wins in such a deadlock situation.

The official rule is that you keep playing until you starve to death.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: vishwathg on September 22, 2018, 05:18:52 pm
Hmm...really? I thought the player with more victory points wins in such a deadlock situation.

The official rule is that you keep playing until you starve to death.

You mean I put down my Estate and pick it back up until I starve to death.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: Kirian on September 23, 2018, 03:43:03 pm
Hmm...really? I thought the player with more victory points wins in such a deadlock situation.

The official rule is that you keep playing until you starve to death.

You mean I put down my Estate and pick it back up until I starve to death.

Don't forget to shuffle it in between turns.
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: terminalCopper on September 24, 2018, 05:46:30 pm
I can' t see why the fact that someone dies should have an impact on the nature of the game ...
Title: Re: Quickest turnaround?
Post by: GendoIkari on September 24, 2018, 06:12:20 pm
I can' t see why the fact that someone dies should have an impact on the nature of the game ...

"Keep playing until someone staves to death" does not necessarily imply that the game ends after someone starves to death.