Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: Anon79 on September 28, 2011, 04:20:05 am

Title: The Three Forges
Post by: Anon79 on September 28, 2011, 04:20:05 am
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201109/28/game-20110928-002343-c4ea8165.html (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201109/28/game-20110928-002343-c4ea8165.html)
Apprentice, Colony, Farming Village, Forge, Golem, Harem, Hoard, Hunting Party, Library, Market, Navigator, Platinum, and Potion

Forge has always been one of my favourite cards. In the absence of other trashers, Forge can drastically change the pace of a game from "slow" to "fast", as the first person to get a Forge starts trimming down a 20-card deck, and all those Estates, Coppers and Silvers are suddenly replaced by Golds, Forges, Provinces, Platinums and Colonies.

This game, though, is an illustration of Forge in a fast deck, accelerated by Hunting Parties. I seldom pass over Apprentices when they are available, but in this case there's no room once I got my lucky Turn 5 Forge.

Smurfing as TrailMiner (having connection issues lately, and I wanted to be able to resign when my connection got bad without compromising my rating), I mirrored my opponent's Silver/Navigator opening but that was the last time that our decks would look even remotely similar. I went exclusively Hunting Parties, Forges, Platinums and Colonies; opponent went for a Market and 3 Hoards, going green-gold thereafter. It wasn't even close; I was lucky and managed to get 3 Forges while retaining 2 Estates, and the resolution into a 2xPlatinum+Copper hand was straightforward.

Opponent's playing wasn't optimal, but the mass-Hoard strategy I think never stood a chance here. This is a Colony game and one really wants Platinums in addition to Golds. Ordinarily Apprentice would be a good enabler to Hoard, but to me it always felt like Forge would be the stronger trasher, especially with Hunting Parties on the board so one doesn't need Apprentice to draw cards.
Title: Re: The Three Forges
Post by: biopower on September 28, 2011, 12:22:24 pm
With any lab-like drawer other than Hunting Party, a combination of the two strategies probably might work better. Using Forge on boards with Hoard and +Buy is awesome in that Hoard gives you free valuable material to Forge. Buying an Estate with a Hoard gives you enough material to forge a Province, for example, and buying a Duchy gives you enough for a Colony. +Buy lets you buy more Victory cards which means more material to forge.