Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: nopawnsintended on September 13, 2013, 09:04:30 pm

Title: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: nopawnsintended on September 13, 2013, 09:04:30 pm
Games like this make me go ARRRG.

Going back to my roots (I am the pirate ship economist), I saw this board and thought "Hey, I can do some kind of Scrying Pool-Pirate Ship - Hermit -Farming Village with Workshop to pull it all together."  And, if I could do that on this board, that would be pretty cool.  Anyway, my opponent quickly gets a Soothsayer, and for obvious reasons, my deck is taking a while to build. I'm behind 15 points (15-0) on my turn 14, but I line up a solid turn to start building my Pirates with Farming Villages (thanks Madman). 

After I play my first of 3 Pirate Ships, he immediately resigns.  Why?  If it was obvious that I was going to win, I don't see it.  No extra source of +buy, and at the time, my Pirates had very few tokens.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1379119836827.txt
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: ragingduckd on September 13, 2013, 09:54:24 pm
It's not obvious to me either. I think he's winning.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: SCSN on September 13, 2013, 10:12:55 pm
You were going to be playing 2-3 Pirate Ships per turn, with Scrying Pools ensuring that a Gold or Silver is on top at least once. It wouldn't take that long for you to Province every turn while he'd be praying to be able to afford a Duchy.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: ragingduckd on September 13, 2013, 10:38:34 pm
You were going to be playing 2-3 Pirate Ships per turn, with Scrying Pools ensuring that a Gold or Silver is on top at least once. It wouldn't take that long for you to Province every turn while he'd be praying to be able to afford a Duchy.

Have we actually found a spot where you would resign and i wouldn't?? :D

I'm not sure that nopawns is really going to be playing 2-3 Pirates per turn. He still has 8 non-actions and no way to trash them. Seems like he'll need more than 4 Scrying Pools to pull it off, and there's no +buy.

His opponent already has 5 Silver, 2 Gold, 1 Harem, plus a Soothsayer and 2 Beggars, so his premium treasure is going to last for a while even if nopawns uses all his Pirate ships for attack. And no number of Pirate Ships can stop a horde of Beggars from picking up Duchies. Seems like nopawns is going to have to stop his opponent before he gets two more Provinces or plan to make up the difference in Harems.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: nopawnsintended on September 13, 2013, 10:54:30 pm
You were going to be playing 2-3 Pirate Ships per turn, with Scrying Pools ensuring that a Gold or Silver is on top at least once. It wouldn't take that long for you to Province every turn while he'd be praying to be able to afford a Duchy.

Have we actually found a spot where you would resign and i wouldn't?? :D

I'm not sure that nopawns is really going to be playing 2-3 Pirates per turn. He still has 8 non-actions and no way to trash them. Seems like he'll need more than 4 Scrying Pools to pull it off, and there's no +buy.

His opponent already has 5 Silver, 2 Gold, 1 Harem, plus a Soothsayer and 2 Beggars, so his premium treasure is going to last for a while even if nopawns uses all his Pirate ships for attack. And no number of Pirate Ships can stop a horde of Beggars from picking up Duchies. Seems like nopawns is going to have to stop his opponent before he gets two more Provinces or plan to make up the difference in Harems.

This was my thought.  I figured it was an ill-conceived move to go the route that I went, but I wanted to see how close it would be to pull it off.  On that turn, I had more Pirate Ships and actions in hand than I otherwise would because it was a Madman turn.  I likely wouldn't have that kind of success in future hands.  For that reason, I'm not so sure I would play so many Pirates in the future turns, but I sure was going to try.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: SCSN on September 14, 2013, 06:25:12 am
You were going to be playing 2-3 Pirate Ships per turn, with Scrying Pools ensuring that a Gold or Silver is on top at least once. It wouldn't take that long for you to Province every turn while he'd be praying to be able to afford a Duchy.

Have we actually found a spot where you would resign and i wouldn't?? :D

Haha, I don't think I'd ever get into this spot; I once tried (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=8692.0) ignoring Scrying Pool in favor of a BM approach, it didn't work out, so I'm not likely to do that ever again :P

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I'm not sure that nopawns is really going to be playing 2-3 Pirates per turn. He still has 8 non-actions and no way to trash them. Seems like he'll need more than 4 Scrying Pools to pull it off, and there's no +buy.

Yeah, but if he gets the rest of the Farming Villages with his Workshops (which I'd have done before getting more than one, maybe two Pirate Ships) and two or so more Scrying Pools, he should be drawing large chunks of his deck each turn.

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His opponent already has 5 Silver, 2 Gold, 1 Harem, plus a Soothsayer and 2 Beggars, so his premium treasure is going to last for a while even if nopawns uses all his Pirate ships for attack. And no number of Pirate Ships can stop a horde of Beggars from picking up Duchies. Seems like nopawns is going to have to stop his opponent before he gets two more Provinces or plan to make up the difference in Harems.

I think the Beggars are terrible for him, actually. Gaining two Silvers, the best one of which is likely going to be trashed, isn't a great compensation for playing with a 4-card hand.

In addition to his decent but not great amount of treasure, he has 5 "dead" cards that will hurt him alot w.r.t. getting to Provinces: 2 Beggars, a Soothsayer (which b.c. of Hermit helps you more than it hurts you), a Workshop(?) and a Pirate Ship(?? this one also helps you a ton).

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Seems like nopawns is going to have to stop his opponent before he gets two more Provinces or plan to make up the difference in Harems.

Yes, and i think he will have very little trouble doing so. His opponent might be able to get a 3rd Province relatively quickly, but a 4th will be quite difficult already, and once he starts buying Duchies and/or playing his Beggars he is just done: his money variance will start decreasing so rapidly that he will never get to 8 again.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: ragingduckd on September 14, 2013, 08:42:54 am
After I play my first of 3 Pirate Ships, he immediately resigns.  Why?  If it was obvious that I was going to win, I don't see it.

Have we actually found a spot where you would resign and i wouldn't?? :D

Haha, I don't think I'd ever get into this spot ...

AI: Your honor, I call "schenanigans."
Judge: Sustained. Mr. SayNo, I must direct you to answer the question.

Yeah, but if he gets the rest of the Farming Villages with his Workshops (which I'd have done before getting more than one, maybe two Pirate Ships) and two or so more Scrying Pools, he should be drawing large chunks of his deck each turn.

This is definitely the right plan. The question is how long it will take. At present, 20 of nopawns' 30 cards are non-cantrips. Of the remaining 10 cards, only the 4 SPs draw more than replacement. It'd be quite easy for nopawns to lose a turn or three to draws like [Workshop, 2 Hermit, Copper, Potion] before gaining the FVs and SPs his engine needs to become really reliable.

I think the Beggars are terrible for him, actually. Gaining two Silvers, the best one of which is likely going to be trashed, isn't a great compensation for playing with a 4-card hand.

In addition to his decent but not great amount of treasure, he has 5 "dead" cards that will hurt him alot w.r.t. getting to Provinces: 2 Beggars, a Soothsayer (which b.c. of Hermit helps you more than it hurts you), a Workshop(?) and a Pirate Ship(?? this one also helps you a ton).

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Seems like nopawns is going to have to stop his opponent before he gets two more Provinces or plan to make up the difference in Harems.

Yes, and i think he will have very little trouble doing so. His opponent might be able to get a 3rd Province relatively quickly, but a 4th will be quite difficult already, and once he starts buying Duchies and/or playing his Beggars he is just done: his money variance will start decreasing so rapidly that he will never get to 8 again.

Activate Beggar with a $4- hand, then buy another Beggar or Silver. That neutralizes the damage a 2-3 Pirate turn will do. Save the Beggar instead with $5+ and buy a Province.

I agree that the PS is just bad, but the SS and Workshop will buy some time too. Drawing Beggar + $5 or similar twice before being crippled by Pirates isn't much to ask. Drawing three such hands locks in the win.
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: Davio on September 14, 2013, 09:57:52 am
Shouldn't you simply choose not to react with Beggar and use its +3 Copper in hand ability to get Duchies?
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: nopawnsintended on September 14, 2013, 11:05:10 am
In addition to his decent but not great amount of treasure, he has 5 "dead" cards that will hurt him alot w.r.t. getting to Provinces: 2 Beggars, a Soothsayer (which b.c. of Hermit helps you more than it hurts you), a Workshop(?) and a Pirate Ship(?? this one also helps you a ton).

I was awfully puzzled by the Pirate Ship buy, too.  By the time he made the purchase, it was already clear I was going Scrying.

The most disappointing thing about his resignation is that he resigned before the game got interesting.  Maybe he had a non-Dominion reason to resign?
Title: Re: The Intimidating Pirate?
Post by: Warfreak2 on September 14, 2013, 11:40:48 am
Does this mean that "family emergency" is now an edge case? These forums will never be the same again.