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Messages - qdread

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1
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Strictly Better
« on: June 18, 2019, 02:22:22 pm »

2
Also, if the decision is between Gold and Bandit Camp, they're equally vulnerable to Knights. At least if your Bandit Camp gets trashed you might still have a Spoils or two lying around, but if your Gold is trashed you're screwed! Not to mention that the Bandit Camp can be upgraded into a Province by Graverobber during the endgame which is a huge advantage over Gold.

3
As for Question 3, I think Gold is not necessary. It's much better to get three or four Bandit Camps. The Spoils provide great economy and don't slow down your draw since they disappear from your deck after being used. Also, the constant influx of Spoils will provide trashing fuel to play a Mercenary almost every turn and keep your opponent pinned down. That's probably a more effective attack than Knights, which are slow to get off the ground. Of course if one player goes for Knights the other cannot afford to ignore them.

4
Dominion General Discussion / Re: New Player-Strategy Question
« on: April 25, 2019, 03:25:27 pm »
One thing I'm not great at is playing with Lurker. I think given the strong kingdom here, and the ability to load up early on with cheap and powerful $3 cards like Fishing Village, Swindler, and Forager, I would be tempted to skip Lurker and go straight for those. You can buy the key $5 cards outright fairly easily with those cards. However, there is the possibility of an "arms race." If one player skips Lurker, the other player can play a single Lurker on his or her turn to trash a key $5 without fear that it will get snapped up, then pick it up for free a turn or two later. If you end up with only one Lurker in hand but are worried about the opponent having one for the following turn, you are forced to trash a less powerful card. So on this board given how powerful the early $3 buys are, I'd be tempted to skip Lurker but maybe that would be a mistake? Anyone else have thoughts?

If you have the draw and buys to support playing 2 Lurkers a turn (which you do with Wharf), then it's a free action gain every turn at the cost of not drawing, which I think is good enough here because there are so many good $5 actions, you definitely won't run out of targets. Also it increases your 3 pile threat. I don't think you want Lurker early, you want it more towards midgame (early on you should be focusing on Fishing Village with your $3 buys)

The other things pushing towards Lurker here are:
* Swindler is going to be trashing actions and you want Lurker as defense (to take them back) / offense (to steal them before they can take them back)
* If you get a Haggler early enough, it's easy to pick up Lurkers on a $3 buy.

Yeah that sounds reasonable. I was just worried about the opportunity cost of passing up a few powerful $3 cards early to buy Lurkers, but I guess getting them with spare buys once you already have a Wharf or two would be best.

5
Dominion General Discussion / Re: New Player-Strategy Question
« on: April 25, 2019, 01:33:48 pm »
One thing I'm not great at is playing with Lurker. I think given the strong kingdom here, and the ability to load up early on with cheap and powerful $3 cards like Fishing Village, Swindler, and Forager, I would be tempted to skip Lurker and go straight for those. You can buy the key $5 cards outright fairly easily with those cards. However, there is the possibility of an "arms race." If one player skips Lurker, the other player can play a single Lurker on his or her turn to trash a key $5 without fear that it will get snapped up, then pick it up for free a turn or two later. If you end up with only one Lurker in hand but are worried about the opponent having one for the following turn, you are forced to trash a less powerful card. So on this board given how powerful the early $3 buys are, I'd be tempted to skip Lurker but maybe that would be a mistake? Anyone else have thoughts?

6
Almanac and Measurement! . . . and those annoying level 6 cities like Dublin that you can auto-win by getting Glory, Repute, and a Flag just for melding. I effing hate those.

7
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Border Village/Duchy?
« on: March 27, 2015, 02:30:49 pm »
Sure, lots of times, but usually only while aiming for a three-pile... BV is often depleted and the pile can be easily emptied, so you pick up Duchies on the side.

8
Yeah I kept getting that with certain browsers (Chrome and Firefox). Now I use Opera for it, which made the problem go away. Not sure why.

9
Well #15 could also be Dook + Shanty Town given the squalid conditions of students wasting their parents' hard-earned tuition money waiting for basketball tickets while living in a tent city!

(disclosure: I went to school at UNC-Chapel Hill)

10
Innovation Game Reports / "Rainbow" achievements?
« on: February 26, 2015, 09:31:34 am »
A few days ago I played a game where I managed to achieve a card from each of the three expansions, as well as some standard achievements. I also took two Decrees so I had six different colors in my achievements at the end of the game. It would be really cool if someone ever got all five Decrees plus a single achievement from each expansion. In a nine-achievement game, you could have each achievement be a different color! Anyhow I was wondering if anyone had ever gotten more than 6 colors in their achievements. I will post the log to my game when I get the chance.

11
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Legacy
« on: February 25, 2015, 11:16:49 am »
To Awaclus
You point out a lot of good idea (especially Extortion one-shot nerf) and I thank you so much for your effort.
-After some thinking, I agree that Fencer is maybe a bit OP if it is non-terminal, maybe let it be terminal is better, then you will need an insane numbers of +Actions to pin your opponents, again this is likely possible. Maybe I'll figure something out for this card later.
-Extortion is now a one-shot
-Warlock is now a 'Copperer' (I did think that the Copper will stay there if you get Moated, but maybe it's unnecessary as a text)
-I give Cicerone a silly nerf, may be it sounds too lazy, but should do fine for now
-I tripped up at Philanthropist, fixed now
-I did make the 2nd text of Taskmaster so you can't get rid of him. Which hurts you in long term, but it also can protect the hand from being destroyed by another Taskmaster, Is that the issue?

What happens if a Copper goes on top of Sir Martin?

I haven't play with Knights much so I forget that case exists.
I would say the cost is the same as the randomizer card. So $5.

You could always put tokens similar to Embargo on top instead of coppers, then you could still see the top card of the deck. If anyone buys a card from the pile, instead the token is removed and they gain a copper.

12
Wasn't Full English Breakfast a MtG combo deck with Necropotence, Donate, and Illusions of Grandeur?

13
Game Reports / Re: Easy Duke Board?
« on: January 21, 2015, 11:31:07 am »
If you want Dukes, Lookout will only weaken your deck by trashing coppers. With Duke you will usually have such a low average treasure value with all the early greening that you would rather keep the coppers. Trader is superior because it increases the money density way more when you trash an estate.

14
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: January 21, 2015, 11:12:14 am »
qdread ties AJD 2-2

Unfortunately I needed a win to tie Antony for first in the standings, but could only manage a tie. I thought these games were a lot of fun though, especially the first two. Both of those were a little like chess matches in which we kept anticipating the opponent's next move, staying one step ahead, and took a large number of turns, which was fun. The base game in particular involved a lot of tactical shares and cards kept getting returned to deny the opponent a tech-up, I ended up taking that one. In the echoes game we both had lots of splays and echo effects, but I tried to rely too heavily on Clock which never really did much for me. In the third game I got taken to the proverbial woodshed, as AJD used the early age powerhouses, executing tactics perfectly. In the final game I used an early-scoring strat with Metalworking - I am appreciating its effectiveness with endorsement more and more - and Currency to build an early lead of achievements including Monument. Then I used a motley assortment of blue tech-up cards (Hangzhou and Ben Franklin) to get to level 7 and pick up the rest of the needed achievements.

base (qdread 6-4)  http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/20/game-20150120-132713-2a2523e4.html
echoes (ajd 7-4) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/20/game-20150120-134737-a2cf52e0.html
EF (ajd 8-2) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/21/game-20150121-070056-3d6862c3.html
EFC (qdread 10-5, got 2 at once with Nobel) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/21/game-20150121-071950-2c305569.html

It was great playing with you all, let's do it again sometime!

15
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: January 15, 2015, 07:50:19 am »
qdread 4-0 markusin
Games 2 and 3 showcase the power of abusing Noodles, in game 2 to score a truckload of points, and in game 3 to draw figures while scoring, then get Expansion to splay yellow and further abuse a three-echo stack in the midgame. In fact, games 1 and 4 were a lot better, game 1 showcased the best of base set with a lot of back-and-forth due to the crown-stealing mechanic in many different ages, and game 4 was one of those slogs where everyone tries to build a giant tableau of 1's to be able to rack up achievements later.

Base: qdread 6-4 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-171515-0adae349.html
Echoes: qdread 7-0 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-172929-8ac97bdd.html
EF: qdread 8-3 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-175102-d0e81cfa.html
EFC: qdread 9-5 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-182156-ac9cb43c.html
I am looking at the record of game 4, which ends with "qdread inspires green, draws and melds chopsticks... and wins by achievements".
I can't figure out what happened, do you remember?
Yes, I remember because I wasn't sure what happened myself. qdread had a white flag on the red stack, and inspired Bartholomew to remove my Gunpowder in order to have a larger red stack and gain the white flag achievement. The log doesn't show the Gunpowder being removed and the white flag achievement that was earned.

I believe it is technically correct not to show Gunpowder being scored, since the white flag becomes the 9th achievement the moment Gunpowder is removed from the red stack but before it is scored. It's still a little confusing, though.

16
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: January 14, 2015, 09:28:55 pm »
qdread 4-0 markusin
Games 2 and 3 showcase the power of abusing Noodles, in game 2 to score a truckload of points, and in game 3 to draw figures while scoring, then get Expansion to splay yellow and further abuse a three-echo stack in the midgame. In fact, games 1 and 4 were a lot better, game 1 showcased the best of base set with a lot of back-and-forth due to the crown-stealing mechanic in many different ages, and game 4 was one of those slogs where everyone tries to build a giant tableau of 1's to be able to rack up achievements later.

Base: qdread 6-4 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-171515-0adae349.html
Echoes: qdread 7-0 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-172929-8ac97bdd.html
EF: qdread 8-3 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-175102-d0e81cfa.html
EFC: qdread 9-5 http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/14/game-20150114-182156-ac9cb43c.html

17
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: January 06, 2015, 08:47:21 pm »
qdread beats MTom 3-1.

Game 1 (base): MTom wins 6-3 by achievements. I fell behind early and tried to get a few standard achievements as spoilers but he got a special or two and stayed ahead in points.
Game 2 (echoes): qdread wins 7-0 by achievements. It was a lucky victory for me, where I milked the best early-age power cards to win.
Game 3 (echoes/figures): qdread wins 8-7 by achievements. What a great game! It was neck and neck. We both had huge score piles. MTom stole a lot of points with elevator and was about to win by using Industrialization for Monument. I managed to scrap out a factory advantage to prevent it. Just as he was poised to take the final standard achievement (level 8), I did a forced share to try to pull a Supremacy achievement out of my behind, but managed to draw Robert E. Lee and meld him to automatically achieve due to having 7 leaves.
Game 4 (the works): qdread wins 9-2 by achievements. Log http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201501/06/game-20150106-171627-ead33f64.html This game snowballed early since I just spammed endorsing Linguistics and Noodles. Due to unlucky icons MTom had no way to meet the pace of endorsements or counter any of my power cards. I was already at 7 achievements before I started exploiting a huge foreshadow pile full of 4's. Pretty lucky cards, leading to a one-sided win for me.

18
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: January 04, 2015, 09:50:52 am »
Mtom and I have played the first three games (with real-life cards)! I am ahead 2-1 and we will play the final game of our match shortly.

19
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 16, 2014, 11:36:24 am »
Round 2 (jimkam wins 7-2 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/15/game-20141215-070630-656764a0.html: I got mowed down by a huge hand from which he repeatedly Soaped me.

In fact you will be in better shape if you do not Kobukson me on turn 12, as I can never dig the soap out

Yes, I made some mistakes with the stealing/attack cards in those games, mainly by not paying close enough attention to icon count. Lesson learned.

20
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 16, 2014, 11:35:36 am »
I always wondered whether it is actually that bad to open a 2/3 bonus.  Sure, you can run into Candles, but I think this is less bad than losing it to Flute, because you can always have a little luck later and catch back with Archery or Perfume (or at least keep developing your age 1 board), whereas losing your second card to Flute just sets you back a LOT in development.
Of course, what we'd need to answer that is to see stats of games where Candles jumps to age 3 vs games where Flute hits a bonus at trick one...

This should go into an own thread.

Also, the games should be corrected for the general merit of Flute over Candles vs Puppet/Plumbing. I think two 2 x 2 tables for Flute and Candles should be built, and the Odds Ratioes of "Dogma Effect kicks" vs "win/loss" should be compared.

Plus, you are hamstringing yourself if you meld the base set card since it will take you at least 2 turns to get rid of the echo in your hand and draw more age 1 echoes cards.

21
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 15, 2014, 01:06:25 pm »
Yes, it was another (fun) tie. Jimkam probably feels more robbed than I do, since I won the only close game we had and the others were basically blowouts. Here is a brief report.

Round 1 (qdread wins 6-1 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/15/game-20141215-065906-5b11f716.html: Nothing to report, very standard and one-sided coin flip, er I mean base game.
Round 2 (jimkam wins 7-2 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/15/game-20141215-070630-656764a0.html: I got mowed down by a huge hand from which he repeatedly Soaped me.
Round 3 (qdread wins 8-7 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/15/game-20141215-072508-3f8d1955.html: The only close game we had! Interesting late play where I used Jeans to draw a base-set 6, getting Industrialization on the table. I also had Almanac with a echo 9 in the forecast. Thinking I could end the game with Almanac, Jimkam decreed War removing my 3 (Almanac). However I had a non-bonus 9 and ended the game by picking up specials with Industrialization. Whew!
Round 4 (jimkam wins by score, achievements were 6-4 in favor of jimkam) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/15/game-20141215-074013-d027a2ee.html: I got slaughtered, again by a huge hand. He melded the whole thing with Leonardo, then Measuremented up to 9. I had no chance after that against such a massive card advantage and tech level.

22
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 14, 2014, 11:33:53 am »
It just goes to show how difficult it is to beat anyone 3-1 across all the different expansions! I am impressed with those who did.

23
Innovation Game Reports / The most undeserved win ever?
« on: December 10, 2014, 10:05:47 am »
http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/09/game-20141209-132207-a5214da5.html

This game was played to 10 achievements (all expansions + 1 extra) and I was getting slaughtered. The opponent had 9 achievements and could have gotten a 10th in no time. On my final turn I melded Thermometer from my forecast and activated it shared, just to see what would happen. Somehow it chained my opponent's yellow card from a 7 to an 11! The game ended on points but the bonus I melded with Thermometer had put me ahead 38-37, giving me the luckiest and least-deserved win I remember getting.

24
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 10, 2014, 09:57:29 am »
Third-round match: A hard-fought match between moomoo and qdread ends in. . . yet another tie! Very exciting and enjoyable games.

round 1 (moomoo wins 6-0 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/09/game-20141209-175530-d9e26e36.html: A six-nil shellacking where moomoo exploited Clothing, Wheel, and Masonry early on while I was stuck teching up with Math, ending up with the useless board of Feudalism and Printing Press. Moomoo made short work of me with Agriculture scoring.

round 2 (moomoo wins by score, achievements were 6-5 in favor of qdread)
http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/09/game-20141209-182119-aec1c66a.html
: I was frustrated by this one, as I scored a lot of points early on with Clothing and Perspective which also got me Monument. However, I could not quite get the 7th achievement. Moomoo built a giant forecast with Glassblowing, accessed it with Math, then teched up big time with Slide Rule, but I was able to equal the tech levels with Piano. At the end I was forced to try some desperate gambits with Thermometer and Hot Air Balloon to try to end the game on points, but all that ended up happening was me giving Moomoo Databases, which eviscerated my score pile, leaving the road open to quickly empty the 10's pile.

round 3 (qdread wins 8-6 by achievements) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/09/game-20141209-184905-685cdaf7.html: This was a very back-and-forth affair. I tucked many cards early then set Moomoo back with a War decreed by Tigernmas. I had two inspiration effects in yellow so I kept milking them to tuck cards, luckily giving me Monument. Moomoo achieved the early standard achievements, and I inadvertently put Almanac on Moomoo's board. I was falling behind, but then teched up with Printing Press to level 8. We traded a few achievements and then Moomoo went on a binge with Watermill to get up to level 7 as well. Luckily I was able to cash in 3 achievements in one turn to win because my board was so built up by that point, but it was definitely a come-from-behind win.

round 4 (qdread wins by Radio Telescope, achievements were 6-3 in favor of qdread) http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/09/game-20141209-191547-801ec34d.html: This was a truly ridiculous game, which I have come to expect with all three expansions in play. We began by frantically melding and drawing cities. Moomoo teched up quickly with Lever, while I built a big board by endorsing Deodorant and took a few early achievements. Moomoo used cities to tech up even higher while I tucked cards and decreed Expansion. After Moomoo scored Monument with a big Suburbia, I pulled some major shenanigans: I activated Palampore to splay purple right and expose the echo of the card that again came up huge: Piano! I shared Clock with Moomoo to draw an 8 with the echo, which ended up being Radio Telescope, and got Catherine the Great as a sharing bonus. Moomoo started to meld 10's and got a big points lead, but I melded Radio Telescope and Catherine the Great. This gave me so many lightbulbs that I even had to voluntarily return Atomic Theory from my board to drop me from 39 bulbs to 33. If I had not, I would have lost on points by activating Radio Telescope. As it was, I activated it once to draw 16 cards, meld A.I., and sleaze out a victory!

25
Innovation General Discussion / Re: Tournament! (results thread)
« on: December 06, 2014, 10:32:17 am »
Yes, Games 3 and 4 were very good games. I think the 2nd game showed the only flaw of the usually broken Almanac-based strategy: it does not draw any new 3 cards (or any cards at all, for that matter) into your hand, so if you keep activating it while the opponent has already teched beyond 3, you get stuck at level 3. Then you cannot make use of your large forecast or take any of the achievements besides Destiny despite a high score. It is very tempting, though.

Our game 2 log: http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201412/04/game-20141204-121325-b6b11272.html

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