Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: Sopenas on September 06, 2011, 03:25:05 am
-
Hello,
Yesterday at four player home-game we played the following board:
2 - Pearl Diver
3 - Chancelor
4 - Pirate Ship
4 - Sea Hag
4 - Gardens
4 - Feast
4 - Caravan
4 - Throne room
4 - Treasure map
5 - Ghost ship
(no Colony/Platinum)
The winner of that game bought Pirate Ship on first turn, then on third turn and started pirate - shipping everyone till he get 8 coins. To easy himself a task he bought throne room which had helper him a few times. Everyone was without money in their hands at that time. Then every pirate ship hand he bought province or double province if throne room was in hand with pirate ship.
Other two players also bought pirate ship, but only one, not two like winner. They also bought sea hag, but that did not change anything. One of them had 5 coins worth loot and started buying duchies (he finished second), the other one had four coins pirate ship loot and bought gardens, he finished third.
Is there any other comparable or better strategy on this board? Is double sea hagging possible?
Thank you
-
Double Province? What a cheater :) There is no +buy on the board
-
Yes, now when you said that, I think that was misunderstanding, he could buy only one province ???. but he would won anyways :)
-
I did a few simulations and Pirate Ship is probably the dominant strategy here (don't try this at home, because I changed the Pirate Ship code). Anything I tried with Sea Hag just failed because that deck is too reliant on money.
This is the strategy that will probably give you the best chance to win (if all the others are also going for Pirate Ships! If not, buy more Silver):
Open Pirate Ship/Silver
with $8 Buy Province (or Duchy when <8 Provinces left)
with $4-$7 Buy Pirate Ship or Throne Room (you should always have 3 Pirate Ships more than Throne Rooms)
with $2-$3 Buy Pearl Diver (no Silver!)
Try to build up your Pirate Ship to 4 or 5 (4 is good if you have Throne Rooms, but 5 will also allow Province buys with some left over money)
-
The optimum anti-pirate combination might if just one player buys any pirate ships and two players buy sea hags. This seems unlikely and the pirates are a good choice here.
-
If three players went full pirate ship, while one went throne room/seahag, maybe that might work? It'll be tough for any single player to build up a powerful pirate ship, and the curses from sea hag will damage the pirate ship attack ability anyway. Throw in chancellors for money, and prepare for a big push with treasure maps when he has a sufficient density of pearl divers, caravans and so on.
-
The pirate ships help each other by stripping out the copper from each other's decks. This makes the decks cycle faster and the pirates are played more often. The thrones are more likely to be drawn with a pirate too. As the copper vanishes you need an action card that provides money - ooh look that's the pirate ship!.
There's also a tipping point in a two player game where the pirate takes income and it becomes safe for the opponents to buy treasures. In a four player game there's usually one unlucky pirate who has to keep on attacking until the end.
-
Throne Rooms and Chancellors!!!!!
(No, I don't have an actual suggestion for how to beat Pirate Ship on this board, and if you can't beat 'em...)
-
I would guess that 3 players playing BMU + chancellor would beat a single player playing pirate.
Or 3 players garden rushing?
-
But 2 players with Ships will trounce 2 players going for Gardens or straight treasure, so unless you're proposing explicit collusion...
-
-Edit-
Sim plays Pirate ships very badly.
-
Pirate Ship usually dominates a four-player game, because it rarely misses. With your set, there is no way to get rid of the Coppers in your deck except as booty, so pirates will keep going for a long time, probably until they reach 4 or 5. And there is no alternative source of money except Chancellor. Thus, with this set, there isn't much choice beyond going all-pirate.
-
Looking over the board again, I have to say even being the world's must stubborn non-Ship player (to the point that my "effect without" on CR.com is like minus a billion), I would play Pirate Ship even in a 2p game here. Probably I'm opening Sea Hag though before getting into the plunderin' business. Throne Room is likely to be a key card here.