1
Other Games / Re: Winter Kingdom
« on: March 31, 2020, 05:09:32 pm »
Kingdom builder is a great game for sure. I'm very excited about that new spin-off ! But surprised by the lack of interest on F.DS...
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
2
Dominion General Discussion / Re: nobody's talking about the hard things
« on: April 04, 2019, 01:45:31 pm »
I still miss coppersmith too. Its unexpected passing is the biggest tragedy in dominion history.
3
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Your reviews of the previews
« on: September 29, 2018, 05:29:31 am »
So we have finally seen all previews and that was a very exciting week.
In this thread I'm interested to read your opinions about all the previewed cards, and of course, I'll give mine.
This thread is not about discussing power level of the cards (it can be part of the discussion though). It's more about the design.
I think a perfect dominion card (kingdom or card-shaped) has to fulfill three criteria : creativity (new ways to think the game), fun, and depth. Also, simplicity is welcome because a complex card is not necessarily more interesting than a simple card, but adds unnecessary work for memory.
So here are my thoughts :
Moutain village : This makes the player really aware of what is in his discard pile. So you may want to order actions differently to make the best use of the dig-in-discard part. It rewards clever plays. A very interesting village variant ! Excellent.
Priest : With priest you can create degenerated deck that works. A lot of combo potential here : but having to play priest before the trasher is a constraint, so building the perfect priest deck seems not so easy. Excellent.
Seer : Seer also needs a particular deck to work at its best, but it's very versatile and can work even in non-optimized decks. With seer you may focus a little more on the 2-4 range and sometimes you may want to trash coppers before estates. So this is a nice lab variant and we needed more lab variants. Very good.
Scholar : While simple, this is a brillant card design. With experiment, it shows that there is still room for simple cards. Scholar plays differently than the library variants because you have to discard your whole hand first. This is often a benefit but it can hurts when you have other terminals (especially payload) you have to discard. So a deck with Scholar has to be built differently than a classical draw to x : with more action space, or with fewer terminals. So scholar use a known concept (draw to x), but with a different twist. Excellent.
Experiment : This is a very interesting lab variant and the tempo is crucial here. If you get experiments early, you will benefit from its natural deck-cycling and you will get $5+ more easily, but at the cost at losing experiments early. If you get experiments later in the game, losing the experiments hurts less and they are pretty much cheap laboratories. So, the most important about experiment seems to be gaining them at the right moment : very interesting decision. Excellent.
Acting Troupe : I like the villager concept and this is the the most simple way to use villagers. Villagers play differently than usual village, and that's good for the creativity aspect of the game. Very good.
Sculptor : The fact that you get the villager when gaining a treasure and not an action brings a very interesting constraint. This makes sculptor a very tricky gainer. I love the gain-in-hand concept : sculptor pushes it even further than Artisan. Excellent.
Recruiter : I love all tfb, there is no exception. They are all among the deepest cards of the game in my opinion. Recruiter was the obviously missing trash for actions, with villagers it can now exist. Love it. Excellent.
Villain : I love the fact that attacks are getting weaker now, but still strong enough to be useful in the right circumstances. While maybe a little too luck-based, the attack of villain is an interesting variant of the usual hand-reducing attacks. Good.
Ducat : I don't see the point of a candlestick maker treasure, although the discord did a good job at catching their differences. Disappointing.
Silk merchant : I was skeptical at first, but it turns out that the on-gain/on-trash abilities are very useful and leads to very interesting combos and tactical decisions. A very elegant way to use villagers and coffers. Excellent.
Flag bearer : I'm worried that the battle for the flag can turn games into ridiculous slogs, because it seems to me that even if you are getting more flag bearer than your deck can afford, the flag is too powerful to be ignored. The on-trash effect is very useful for that kind of situations. But what if we have no trashers ? Time will say. Anyway flag bearer a nice card that use the artifact mechanic in a very elegant way. Very good.
Swashbuckler : I'm not sure how often treasure chest is really worth it, to me it's not the most important part of the card. The most important seems to gain the coffers, and this is where the card gets interesting... but also a little bit too random for my taste. Good.
Treasurer : It seems to me that with treasurer players have two ways to play : either they fight for the key, or they trash coppers. Gaining from the trash is potentially interesting with tfb. Very versatile. But like flag bearer, the artifact seems strong, maybe too much. Good.
Fair : An interesting thing about projects is that they are limited to once per turn. So a game with fair as the only +buy means maximum 2 buys every turn. I like that kind of game, between no +buy and full +buy. If other +buy in the kingdom, deciding if it is the right move to spend $4 for fair is not so evident. The timing on when to get fair is, in both case, very important. It's a simple project that really adds something to the game. Excellent.
Silos : I like card that makes copper better (rip coppersmith). With silos, you often still prefer to trash your coppers but at least silos almost garantee a good starting hand. This is not the most interesting project to me but I think we needed more ways to play around coppers. Very good.
Citadel : The thing I like the most about citadel is the once-per-turn village potential. A recent game showed me that it can be a vast trap, but I think in the right situations it can work very nicely. Otherwise, citadel still seems to be an auto-buy almost always, it bothers me a little. Also there is the randomness about having the best card to throne in your hand. Good.
Star chart : This project is not so automatic, a well thinned deck usually doesn't need the power of star chart. I don't find star chart very exciting, but it's well balanced for its price. Good.
Sewers : I have to say sewers is very fun, but also too much an auto-buy with soft trashers like moneylender, spice merchant, etc. I find Plan (the event from adventures) more interesting while probably weaker. But anyway, sewers is fun. Very good.
Innocation : I love this new way to play actions during the buy phase and I did so many awesome things in just few games : With estate in hands I bought free barons, with golds in hand I got Governor for the remodel effect, I princed a candlestick maker... This one of the funniest and most creative cards of the new set. Might be too strong but I don't care. Excellent.
So overall I think this is a very promising expansion. I love the fact that cards are simpler than the cards from Nocturne and Empires. The new mechanics are not mind blowing, but very efficient. Of course after playing more, my opinion will probably change a little. But what I've seen so far woke up my love for Dominion. Thanks a lot to Donald X and playtesters for this awesome week of previews !
In this thread I'm interested to read your opinions about all the previewed cards, and of course, I'll give mine.
This thread is not about discussing power level of the cards (it can be part of the discussion though). It's more about the design.
I think a perfect dominion card (kingdom or card-shaped) has to fulfill three criteria : creativity (new ways to think the game), fun, and depth. Also, simplicity is welcome because a complex card is not necessarily more interesting than a simple card, but adds unnecessary work for memory.
So here are my thoughts :
Moutain village : This makes the player really aware of what is in his discard pile. So you may want to order actions differently to make the best use of the dig-in-discard part. It rewards clever plays. A very interesting village variant ! Excellent.
Priest : With priest you can create degenerated deck that works. A lot of combo potential here : but having to play priest before the trasher is a constraint, so building the perfect priest deck seems not so easy. Excellent.
Seer : Seer also needs a particular deck to work at its best, but it's very versatile and can work even in non-optimized decks. With seer you may focus a little more on the 2-4 range and sometimes you may want to trash coppers before estates. So this is a nice lab variant and we needed more lab variants. Very good.
Scholar : While simple, this is a brillant card design. With experiment, it shows that there is still room for simple cards. Scholar plays differently than the library variants because you have to discard your whole hand first. This is often a benefit but it can hurts when you have other terminals (especially payload) you have to discard. So a deck with Scholar has to be built differently than a classical draw to x : with more action space, or with fewer terminals. So scholar use a known concept (draw to x), but with a different twist. Excellent.
Experiment : This is a very interesting lab variant and the tempo is crucial here. If you get experiments early, you will benefit from its natural deck-cycling and you will get $5+ more easily, but at the cost at losing experiments early. If you get experiments later in the game, losing the experiments hurts less and they are pretty much cheap laboratories. So, the most important about experiment seems to be gaining them at the right moment : very interesting decision. Excellent.
Acting Troupe : I like the villager concept and this is the the most simple way to use villagers. Villagers play differently than usual village, and that's good for the creativity aspect of the game. Very good.
Sculptor : The fact that you get the villager when gaining a treasure and not an action brings a very interesting constraint. This makes sculptor a very tricky gainer. I love the gain-in-hand concept : sculptor pushes it even further than Artisan. Excellent.
Recruiter : I love all tfb, there is no exception. They are all among the deepest cards of the game in my opinion. Recruiter was the obviously missing trash for actions, with villagers it can now exist. Love it. Excellent.
Villain : I love the fact that attacks are getting weaker now, but still strong enough to be useful in the right circumstances. While maybe a little too luck-based, the attack of villain is an interesting variant of the usual hand-reducing attacks. Good.
Ducat : I don't see the point of a candlestick maker treasure, although the discord did a good job at catching their differences. Disappointing.
Silk merchant : I was skeptical at first, but it turns out that the on-gain/on-trash abilities are very useful and leads to very interesting combos and tactical decisions. A very elegant way to use villagers and coffers. Excellent.
Flag bearer : I'm worried that the battle for the flag can turn games into ridiculous slogs, because it seems to me that even if you are getting more flag bearer than your deck can afford, the flag is too powerful to be ignored. The on-trash effect is very useful for that kind of situations. But what if we have no trashers ? Time will say. Anyway flag bearer a nice card that use the artifact mechanic in a very elegant way. Very good.
Swashbuckler : I'm not sure how often treasure chest is really worth it, to me it's not the most important part of the card. The most important seems to gain the coffers, and this is where the card gets interesting... but also a little bit too random for my taste. Good.
Treasurer : It seems to me that with treasurer players have two ways to play : either they fight for the key, or they trash coppers. Gaining from the trash is potentially interesting with tfb. Very versatile. But like flag bearer, the artifact seems strong, maybe too much. Good.
Fair : An interesting thing about projects is that they are limited to once per turn. So a game with fair as the only +buy means maximum 2 buys every turn. I like that kind of game, between no +buy and full +buy. If other +buy in the kingdom, deciding if it is the right move to spend $4 for fair is not so evident. The timing on when to get fair is, in both case, very important. It's a simple project that really adds something to the game. Excellent.
Silos : I like card that makes copper better (rip coppersmith). With silos, you often still prefer to trash your coppers but at least silos almost garantee a good starting hand. This is not the most interesting project to me but I think we needed more ways to play around coppers. Very good.
Citadel : The thing I like the most about citadel is the once-per-turn village potential. A recent game showed me that it can be a vast trap, but I think in the right situations it can work very nicely. Otherwise, citadel still seems to be an auto-buy almost always, it bothers me a little. Also there is the randomness about having the best card to throne in your hand. Good.
Star chart : This project is not so automatic, a well thinned deck usually doesn't need the power of star chart. I don't find star chart very exciting, but it's well balanced for its price. Good.
Sewers : I have to say sewers is very fun, but also too much an auto-buy with soft trashers like moneylender, spice merchant, etc. I find Plan (the event from adventures) more interesting while probably weaker. But anyway, sewers is fun. Very good.
Innocation : I love this new way to play actions during the buy phase and I did so many awesome things in just few games : With estate in hands I bought free barons, with golds in hand I got Governor for the remodel effect, I princed a candlestick maker... This one of the funniest and most creative cards of the new set. Might be too strong but I don't care. Excellent.
So overall I think this is a very promising expansion. I love the fact that cards are simpler than the cards from Nocturne and Empires. The new mechanics are not mind blowing, but very efficient. Of course after playing more, my opinion will probably change a little. But what I've seen so far woke up my love for Dominion. Thanks a lot to Donald X and playtesters for this awesome week of previews !
4
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #4: Flag Bearer, Swashbuckler, Treasurer
« on: September 27, 2018, 05:39:21 am »
I wonder it there is a VP artifact.
Not sure how often in 2 player game it will be the right play to steal the opponent's artifact rith away they took it. This might make the game very boring and luck based
Not sure how often in 2 player game it will be the right play to steal the opponent's artifact rith away they took it. This might make the game very boring and luck based
5
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant
« on: September 27, 2018, 05:31:18 am »I like how, since Empires, most attacks are either not that powerful or self-limited.I think that this already applied in Adventures. I think it's one of the biggest improvements in the latest sets.
6
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant
« on: September 26, 2018, 09:35:30 am »
I just had a game where I trashed catacombs with stonemason, to get 3 silk merchants for the 3 +actions I absolutely needed for my winning end game turn. Very satisfying.
7
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant
« on: September 26, 2018, 03:44:57 am »
Slightly disappointing preview because I would have expected more creative uses of coin tokens (like we had with butcher and merchant guild).
Villain seems ok to me : in games with no fast trashing, it can hurt a lot in a hand with 3/4 coppers and no estates. This makes me think that with villain in the game, you may ocacasionnally want to trash coppers before estate.
The most important part of silk merchant seems to be the villager gaining. It will make gainers and trash for benefit better, I like the synergy potential there. But +2 cards is still sad and I guess too often you will skip the silk merchant and go straight for a +3 card draw instead.
I, too, dislike ducat for being too close (and stronger) than candlestick maker. Of course candlestick maker had the draw to x / conspirator / peddler / tokens synergy, but apart of that I think it's still pretty uncommon that you would take candlestick maker over ducat.
Villain seems ok to me : in games with no fast trashing, it can hurt a lot in a hand with 3/4 coppers and no estates. This makes me think that with villain in the game, you may ocacasionnally want to trash coppers before estate.
The most important part of silk merchant seems to be the villager gaining. It will make gainers and trash for benefit better, I like the synergy potential there. But +2 cards is still sad and I guess too often you will skip the silk merchant and go straight for a +3 card draw instead.
I, too, dislike ducat for being too close (and stronger) than candlestick maker. Of course candlestick maker had the draw to x / conspirator / peddler / tokens synergy, but apart of that I think it's still pretty uncommon that you would take candlestick maker over ducat.
8
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter
« on: September 25, 2018, 04:01:57 am »
All 8 cards we've seen from the preview are very interesting. This expansion looks very promising.
9
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Most hated attacks?
« on: August 18, 2018, 06:41:33 am »
I voted for Goons, Bridge troll and Mountebank but after thinking about it, i should have voted for urchin as well. But it all depends on context. The least fun attack games are those where it's obvious that you have to rush on the attack first and just hope you'll be luckier than your opponent. This can apply to most of the attacks, but more often with the most powerful ones, such as mountebank, goons, witch, familiar, ambassador, and urchinary although the attack is not the most important part for that one.
My hate for bridge troll is less based on rational arguments : it's just that i hate to endure the cost increase thing. And Bridge, Highway and merchant guild already exists so i feel Bridge troll has no reasons to exist.
Latest sets have done a great job on attacks, they are more situationnal than before therefore more interesting. I'm thinking about Swamp Hag, Haunted woods, Enchantress, Werewolf…
My hate for bridge troll is less based on rational arguments : it's just that i hate to endure the cost increase thing. And Bridge, Highway and merchant guild already exists so i feel Bridge troll has no reasons to exist.
Latest sets have done a great job on attacks, they are more situationnal than before therefore more interesting. I'm thinking about Swamp Hag, Haunted woods, Enchantress, Werewolf…
10
Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Dominion: Renaissance on RGG's website
« on: August 10, 2018, 09:07:04 am »
The most important thing for me is : will there be a coppersmith revival ?
"+1 coin token/coffer for every copper you have on play"
Wouldn't it be awesome ?
"+1 coin token/coffer for every copper you have on play"
Wouldn't it be awesome ?
11
Dominion General Discussion / Re: When are Travellers ignorable?
« on: March 23, 2018, 04:28:16 pm »
I recently lost a game when I did my best to get champion asap, using Changeling to get pages that turns into warior (side note : treasure hunter + changeling is really good). Warrior was the only draw, so it was pretty important.
Thing is, my opponent (lower level than me) played a more conventional Big Money thing, buying provinces early, one province per turn, and getting several heroes.
At the last 3 turns of the game, I had a very good deck that played a bunch of warriors, trashing his remaining silvers. The problem is that my opponent was flooding his deck with gold from his heroes, so trashing silvers eventually helped him. Even when attacking him with legionnary, he kept having 3 gold hand, and bought provinces while I was desesperately buying duchies… yes, because I forgot to say the major thing here : there were no +buy, so having hand that produce $16+ didn't help.
After the game I realized I could have Stonemason Gold into double duchies, but didn't think about that during the game.
So, in this particular case, Champion was not so great, though if I played more carefully and thought about the stonemason thing, I could have won rather easily.
Thing is, my opponent (lower level than me) played a more conventional Big Money thing, buying provinces early, one province per turn, and getting several heroes.
At the last 3 turns of the game, I had a very good deck that played a bunch of warriors, trashing his remaining silvers. The problem is that my opponent was flooding his deck with gold from his heroes, so trashing silvers eventually helped him. Even when attacking him with legionnary, he kept having 3 gold hand, and bought provinces while I was desesperately buying duchies… yes, because I forgot to say the major thing here : there were no +buy, so having hand that produce $16+ didn't help.
After the game I realized I could have Stonemason Gold into double duchies, but didn't think about that during the game.
So, in this particular case, Champion was not so great, though if I played more carefully and thought about the stonemason thing, I could have won rather easily.
12
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Semi-Interesting Dominion Moments Thread
« on: March 15, 2018, 06:27:38 am »
My opponent gave me a free prince with Lurker. It's terrific how even level ~50 tends to play lurker without thinking.
Later, I could have Princed a Farmer's market, which with a little skill (making sure that other famer's market would take the VP instead of the princed one) could work but I felt it was risky. So instead one of my heralds played Prince, and luckily I had another Herald in hand.
Later, I could have Princed a Farmer's market, which with a little skill (making sure that other famer's market would take the VP instead of the princed one) could work but I felt it was risky. So instead one of my heralds played Prince, and luckily I had another Herald in hand.
13
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What should Dominion do next?
« on: March 10, 2018, 01:22:28 pm »
I think with all these new cool expansions, base treasures are starting to be a little bit boring.
It would be nice to have more cards that cares about copper, silver or gold (like Explorer, Coppersmith, Noble Brigand or a few landmarks) or more cards that works like Black Market or Storyteller : you pay treasures during your action phase to get cool things. As engine players, we got the reflex to want to draw action first, and treasures at the very end. These kind of cards make having silver at the start of the turn a benefit rather than a painful "dead" card in hand.
It would be nice to have more cards that cares about copper, silver or gold (like Explorer, Coppersmith, Noble Brigand or a few landmarks) or more cards that works like Black Market or Storyteller : you pay treasures during your action phase to get cool things. As engine players, we got the reflex to want to draw action first, and treasures at the very end. These kind of cards make having silver at the start of the turn a benefit rather than a painful "dead" card in hand.
14
Dominion General Discussion / Your stories of unexpected comebacks
« on: March 09, 2018, 03:39:08 pm »
Post your stories of unexpected combacks here !
I want to talk about 3 recent games. I can't find the log so I'll explain by memory. In each of those game I felt I had no chance to win :
- Witch game, no trashing. Only village was Native village. There was nothing really exciting on the board. My opponent and I was playing the same strategy, which was basically "witch, native village, and some stuff", and I think part of the stuff was a $5 draw, maybe wild hunt. Anyway our deck weren't great. I think a big money strategy would have worked much better. The biggest difference however in our deck was that my opponent won the curse split 6 to 4 which meant his deck was strictly better than mine.
Then, several turns in a row, I put curses on my native village mat. There were something like 4 curses and few coppers. That was pure luck because there was no way to care about the top of the deck. Suddenly, my deck felt almost thin and I managed to get the last provinces to win by a few points.
- Witch game, no trashing, no villages. That was also a kind of sloggy game, where curses hit hard. There was still black market, so my opponent and I were hoping to get useful cards there. He got Apprentice out of the black market while I was overbuying terminal and was constantly collinding witch and black market. In the beginning I thought playing witch was more important for the curse split. Then I realized my deck was going nowhere and I started to play black market instead, hoping to get a village. Once there was a bazaar, but I didn't have enough money due to my stupid dead terminals.
Then miraculously appeared fishing village. That +2 actions in two consecutive turns came in handy. Playing fishing village only two times in the game allowed me to play consecutively two of my overbought terminals 4 times, to curse him hard and win somehow.
- Knight game, no villages. I was losing the knight battle quite hard, especially because my opponent got dame molly and sir Bailey, which were huge in this no-village game. So he managed to play several knights in a row while I couldn't. He also got Sir Destry.
What my opponent didn't understand however, is that Necromancer is pretty powerful in a knight game. I was rushing necromancers while he was destroying my economy. But at first it didn't work out, he had a huge province lead and my necromancers weren't very useful, I was essentially playing that spy zombie first. I couldn't find his knights and my deck was really weird. Then I had the opportunity to trash necropolis with the apprentice zombie, which gave me the opportunity to get at least one village per turn. With that help I managed to get few of his knights in the trash and my necromancers were going exponentially more powerful.
In the end I completely destroyed his deck, unallowing him to get any more vps.
I want to talk about 3 recent games. I can't find the log so I'll explain by memory. In each of those game I felt I had no chance to win :
- Witch game, no trashing. Only village was Native village. There was nothing really exciting on the board. My opponent and I was playing the same strategy, which was basically "witch, native village, and some stuff", and I think part of the stuff was a $5 draw, maybe wild hunt. Anyway our deck weren't great. I think a big money strategy would have worked much better. The biggest difference however in our deck was that my opponent won the curse split 6 to 4 which meant his deck was strictly better than mine.
Then, several turns in a row, I put curses on my native village mat. There were something like 4 curses and few coppers. That was pure luck because there was no way to care about the top of the deck. Suddenly, my deck felt almost thin and I managed to get the last provinces to win by a few points.
- Witch game, no trashing, no villages. That was also a kind of sloggy game, where curses hit hard. There was still black market, so my opponent and I were hoping to get useful cards there. He got Apprentice out of the black market while I was overbuying terminal and was constantly collinding witch and black market. In the beginning I thought playing witch was more important for the curse split. Then I realized my deck was going nowhere and I started to play black market instead, hoping to get a village. Once there was a bazaar, but I didn't have enough money due to my stupid dead terminals.
Then miraculously appeared fishing village. That +2 actions in two consecutive turns came in handy. Playing fishing village only two times in the game allowed me to play consecutively two of my overbought terminals 4 times, to curse him hard and win somehow.
- Knight game, no villages. I was losing the knight battle quite hard, especially because my opponent got dame molly and sir Bailey, which were huge in this no-village game. So he managed to play several knights in a row while I couldn't. He also got Sir Destry.
What my opponent didn't understand however, is that Necromancer is pretty powerful in a knight game. I was rushing necromancers while he was destroying my economy. But at first it didn't work out, he had a huge province lead and my necromancers weren't very useful, I was essentially playing that spy zombie first. I couldn't find his knights and my deck was really weird. Then I had the opportunity to trash necropolis with the apprentice zombie, which gave me the opportunity to get at least one village per turn. With that help I managed to get few of his knights in the trash and my necromancers were going exponentially more powerful.
In the end I completely destroyed his deck, unallowing him to get any more vps.
15
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Synergies within individual sets?
« on: February 26, 2018, 07:58:14 am »
Council room - Militia
Festival - Library
Bishop - Peddler
Farmland - Border Village
Procession - Fortress
Counterfeit - Spoils
Festival - Library
Bishop - Peddler
Farmland - Border Village
Procession - Fortress
Counterfeit - Spoils
16
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Favorite Expansions in 2018
« on: February 25, 2018, 06:39:44 am »QuotePhilosophers stone: your decks get pretty big, so this is a really good card.
Actually it's maybe the single worst card in Dominion, besides maybe Transmute.
Harvest begs to differ.1. Cornucopia : My love for cornucopia is a bit irrationnal. But this little set is very solid. With the exception of tournament, I like every single card in it.
Even Harvest?
Harvest!
I don't get the harvest hate really. Mainly, it's a very fun card to play with because the money you'll get from it depends on your deck building. It's a predictable random parameter and I like that.
I know that terminal money is very situationnal, but with some tricks you can make very clever uses of Harvest, discarding the crap out of the top of your deck.
It happens often that you have no cards to discard, but in this case, you just don't buy Harvest so this doesn't impact my whole appreciation of the card.
Yes, it's a weak card, but there is nothing wrong about that. However, it's no way as weak as transmute.
17
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Most unique cards amongst each set?
« on: February 21, 2018, 06:25:58 am »
Interesting topic. My list is less base on rationnal arguments than yours. To me, some mechanic are unique but just doesn't change the way to think and play the game. For example, Relic is the first attack-treasure, but is not very unique in my opinion : I don't remember games with relic as unique.
Base : Everything is new and kind of unique, but I would say Gardens and Witch are the cards that changes the game the most when they are bought.
Intrigue : Coppersmith, Wishing Well, Lurker
Seaside : Embargo, Tactician (the icon of durations IMO)
Alchemy : Possession
Prosperity : King's court, because it still plays very differently from Throne Room, and enable way more things.
Cornucopia : Horn of Plenty, Tournament
Hinterlands : Jack of all trades, Tunnel
Dark Ages : Rats, Knights, Fortress
Guilds : Butcher (the cards that interact with coin tokens in the most interesting way)
Adventures : Travellers, Storyteller
Empires : Villa, Donate
Nocturne : Necromancer, Crypt, Cursed Gold
Promos : Prince
Base : Everything is new and kind of unique, but I would say Gardens and Witch are the cards that changes the game the most when they are bought.
Intrigue : Coppersmith, Wishing Well, Lurker
Seaside : Embargo, Tactician (the icon of durations IMO)
Alchemy : Possession
Prosperity : King's court, because it still plays very differently from Throne Room, and enable way more things.
Cornucopia : Horn of Plenty, Tournament
Hinterlands : Jack of all trades, Tunnel
Dark Ages : Rats, Knights, Fortress
Guilds : Butcher (the cards that interact with coin tokens in the most interesting way)
Adventures : Travellers, Storyteller
Empires : Villa, Donate
Nocturne : Necromancer, Crypt, Cursed Gold
Promos : Prince
18
Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: Dan Brooks Dominion
« on: February 11, 2018, 08:38:51 pm »
I enjoyed a lot this stream, that luck accumulation was particularly hilarious 
19
Rules Questions / Re: Simple Rules Questions
« on: February 11, 2018, 06:03:21 pm »
Does the game ends after last player's night phase ?
20
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Favorite Expansions in 2018
« on: February 09, 2018, 08:36:35 pm »
Here is how I rank the expansions nowadays. My main criterias are :
- Creativity : expansions with cards that creates weird or counter-intuitives strategies that actually works will be ranked higher. Alt-Vp things and Trash-for-benefit are especially nice about creativity.
- Mechanic elegance : I tend to prefer simple things that works elegantly to more complicated things that involve more stuff. That's why I like Duration, Reserve and Night cards more than Split piles or Fates.
- Balance : Sometimes you know you are going to buy a card, at first glance, even without seeing the others. The edge cases are too uncommon. I usually like average/situationnal cards way more than must-buys.
- Tactical / on turn decision : A (very little) downside in Dominion (which is still my all time favorite game) is the predominance of strategy over tactic. Sometimes everything is scripted from turn 1. So, cards that adds touch of tactical decisions in the game get my preference.
So here is the list :
1. Cornucopia : My love for cornucopia is a bit irrationnal. But this little set is very solid. With the exception of tournament, I like every single card in it. Menagerie and Horn of plenty are easily in my top 5. The variety theme works very well for me, and brings lot of fun to the game.
2. Adventures : The +card/action/coin/buy tokens (+plan and ferry) are in my opinion one of the funniest things in dominion. The reserve mechanic is great too, it mitigates shuffle luck in a nice way. Those travellers are a little bit overpowered and inelegant, but I still like the Peasant line. Some cards are a little bit too similar too earlier cards, but i don't consider that in my ranking, because the release order says nothing about the inherent qualities of an expansion.
3. Dark Ages : It's a shame we have cultist and Rebuild (and Knights that turns almost every game into a knight battle) because the rest of the cards is absolutely awesome. Procession and Rats are two examples of how dominion can be fun and very complex at the same time. This is clearly one of the best expansions about creativity.
4. Hinterlands : I feel Hinterlands is little bit underrated. Overall it has a great balance : very few overpowered cards. There are maybe too many underpowered cards but in my opinion it matters less than the overpowered ones. It's also one of the very few sets that aren't too engine-friendly. Cards in this set are interesting and adds lot of subtle decisions.
5. Intrigue : With very simple ideas, this expansion brings the game to new thinking paths. Think about it : Conspirator, Baron, bridge, Duke, Coppersmith (still lives in my heart) all needs very different kinds of decks to work at there best. The 2nd edition is not particularly needed, especially considering we miss coppersmith, but still adds interesting cards.
6. Seaside : One of the most simple expansions, still with very different interesting concepts in it. Durations are very well designeed.
7. Base : Simplicity again. I would rank the 1st edition much lower though. The 2nd edition is almost perfect.
8. Guilds : I like a lot of the cards there too. Overpay is a nice mechanic but not enough used and not in the best way IMO. For example Herald would be fine without overpay. But coin tokens is a good mechanic.
9. Empires : On one side, I love Empires. Really. I feel bad it is so low on the list. The concepts are very, very interesting. But on the other side, I feel a lot of the cards ends up being uselessly complicated. Especially split piles. I like Fortune but not so much Gladiator. I like settlers but often don't have the opportunity to but a bustling village. Catapult/Rock is fun thematically but doesn't work that well in practice. Same for gathering. The events are not as elegant and interesting as in adventures.
I'm divided about landmarks : sometimes the game is very weird because of them, other times, they do add depth (and alternate paths of victory) to the game.
But I like the debt cards a lot : it's always hard to find the right moment to buy them.
10. Nocturne : I may rank it higher in the future but right now i'm simply not fond enough of neither boons nor hexes. That's randomness at it's most uninteresting way. And non-supply cards are just a little bit too much of design complexity for my taste. The rest is fine, Night cards are fun and Heirlooms add variety to the opening hands in a subtle way.
11. Alchemy : It's a fun engine expansion. My only problem is the overall balance and how attacks are devastating. But I still like possession.
12. Prosperity : Same here, Prosperity is the least balanced set in my opinion. Too much power-creep ruins the fun. I still enjoy Prosperity a lot, it's just that I like the rest more.
13. Promos : Again, we have too powerful cards. I learned to like governor though. Also, Prince and Summon are very fun.
- Creativity : expansions with cards that creates weird or counter-intuitives strategies that actually works will be ranked higher. Alt-Vp things and Trash-for-benefit are especially nice about creativity.
- Mechanic elegance : I tend to prefer simple things that works elegantly to more complicated things that involve more stuff. That's why I like Duration, Reserve and Night cards more than Split piles or Fates.
- Balance : Sometimes you know you are going to buy a card, at first glance, even without seeing the others. The edge cases are too uncommon. I usually like average/situationnal cards way more than must-buys.
- Tactical / on turn decision : A (very little) downside in Dominion (which is still my all time favorite game) is the predominance of strategy over tactic. Sometimes everything is scripted from turn 1. So, cards that adds touch of tactical decisions in the game get my preference.
So here is the list :
1. Cornucopia : My love for cornucopia is a bit irrationnal. But this little set is very solid. With the exception of tournament, I like every single card in it. Menagerie and Horn of plenty are easily in my top 5. The variety theme works very well for me, and brings lot of fun to the game.
2. Adventures : The +card/action/coin/buy tokens (+plan and ferry) are in my opinion one of the funniest things in dominion. The reserve mechanic is great too, it mitigates shuffle luck in a nice way. Those travellers are a little bit overpowered and inelegant, but I still like the Peasant line. Some cards are a little bit too similar too earlier cards, but i don't consider that in my ranking, because the release order says nothing about the inherent qualities of an expansion.
3. Dark Ages : It's a shame we have cultist and Rebuild (and Knights that turns almost every game into a knight battle) because the rest of the cards is absolutely awesome. Procession and Rats are two examples of how dominion can be fun and very complex at the same time. This is clearly one of the best expansions about creativity.
4. Hinterlands : I feel Hinterlands is little bit underrated. Overall it has a great balance : very few overpowered cards. There are maybe too many underpowered cards but in my opinion it matters less than the overpowered ones. It's also one of the very few sets that aren't too engine-friendly. Cards in this set are interesting and adds lot of subtle decisions.
5. Intrigue : With very simple ideas, this expansion brings the game to new thinking paths. Think about it : Conspirator, Baron, bridge, Duke, Coppersmith (still lives in my heart) all needs very different kinds of decks to work at there best. The 2nd edition is not particularly needed, especially considering we miss coppersmith, but still adds interesting cards.
6. Seaside : One of the most simple expansions, still with very different interesting concepts in it. Durations are very well designeed.
7. Base : Simplicity again. I would rank the 1st edition much lower though. The 2nd edition is almost perfect.
8. Guilds : I like a lot of the cards there too. Overpay is a nice mechanic but not enough used and not in the best way IMO. For example Herald would be fine without overpay. But coin tokens is a good mechanic.
9. Empires : On one side, I love Empires. Really. I feel bad it is so low on the list. The concepts are very, very interesting. But on the other side, I feel a lot of the cards ends up being uselessly complicated. Especially split piles. I like Fortune but not so much Gladiator. I like settlers but often don't have the opportunity to but a bustling village. Catapult/Rock is fun thematically but doesn't work that well in practice. Same for gathering. The events are not as elegant and interesting as in adventures.
I'm divided about landmarks : sometimes the game is very weird because of them, other times, they do add depth (and alternate paths of victory) to the game.
But I like the debt cards a lot : it's always hard to find the right moment to buy them.
10. Nocturne : I may rank it higher in the future but right now i'm simply not fond enough of neither boons nor hexes. That's randomness at it's most uninteresting way. And non-supply cards are just a little bit too much of design complexity for my taste. The rest is fine, Night cards are fun and Heirlooms add variety to the opening hands in a subtle way.
11. Alchemy : It's a fun engine expansion. My only problem is the overall balance and how attacks are devastating. But I still like possession.
12. Prosperity : Same here, Prosperity is the least balanced set in my opinion. Too much power-creep ruins the fun. I still enjoy Prosperity a lot, it's just that I like the rest more.
13. Promos : Again, we have too powerful cards. I learned to like governor though. Also, Prince and Summon are very fun.
21
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Card Lists 2017 Edition: $5 Cards, 3/3
« on: January 17, 2018, 05:15:23 am »
I don't get how Crown could be better than Royal Carriage really, the fact you can't RC a RC isn't enough to justify that difference in the rankings. Royal Carriage is way more flexible and more efficent to enable nice megaturns.
About the rest, well I'm overtaken by the new ranking standards. I remember once I asked how to rank good junker vs good drawers, I took the example of Wharf vs. Witch. At that time, everyone said it was obvious that witch should be ranked higher. Time has passed since...
Wharf at #1 doesn't shock me, but Junk dealer second I don't get. The main difference between Wharf and Junk Dealer is that Wharf is like always the best drawer in the board. You can't skip it. But Junk Dealer... it's so expensive and there are other very good trashers in the game, I'm thinking about Chapel, Forager, Steward, Remake, Bonfire, Forge (which is expensive but can trash a lot in one play)...
I think Vampire is overrated and is the same kind of trap as University. And the bat is simply not very good. With no other trashers in the board it's ok (but still comes late) otherwise it's a dead card in the deck.
Also I don't get Groundskeeper yet. I like the card a lot but I never had lot of VP with it. Wild hunt seems way better to me. Can someone explain me why groundskeeper is so good ?
About the rest, well I'm overtaken by the new ranking standards. I remember once I asked how to rank good junker vs good drawers, I took the example of Wharf vs. Witch. At that time, everyone said it was obvious that witch should be ranked higher. Time has passed since...
Wharf at #1 doesn't shock me, but Junk dealer second I don't get. The main difference between Wharf and Junk Dealer is that Wharf is like always the best drawer in the board. You can't skip it. But Junk Dealer... it's so expensive and there are other very good trashers in the game, I'm thinking about Chapel, Forager, Steward, Remake, Bonfire, Forge (which is expensive but can trash a lot in one play)...
I think Vampire is overrated and is the same kind of trap as University. And the bat is simply not very good. With no other trashers in the board it's ok (but still comes late) otherwise it's a dead card in the deck.
Also I don't get Groundskeeper yet. I like the card a lot but I never had lot of VP with it. Wild hunt seems way better to me. Can someone explain me why groundskeeper is so good ?
22
Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Nocturne Initial Impressions
« on: November 19, 2017, 07:58:05 am »
Devil's workshop : For the moment I simply dislike that card, it's just so weird, and I don't think it leads to interesting decisions. Imps are too easy to play, and rarely going to be bad anyway. I agree that you want to get it mainly for the imp, but a nonterminal workshop is a pretty good consolation prize. A strong card.
Necromancer : It's weird how if one key card get trashed by accident, suddenly necromancer become very strong. It once happened for me in a minion game. I think most of the time you should skip necromancer early, but mid-game it can be an interesting investment, trash your key $5/$6 card with zombie apprentice, then with +buy it become more profitable to get a few necromancers than that card. Not too much because you can't play the same trashed card more than once, but the zombies add flexibility options. I think this scenario could happen reasonnably often in weak engine games, where the key card I'm talking about is draw maybe.
All zombies are obviously weak but surprinsingly I find myself using often (again, in the very few games I played) the mason. I remember it hit my estates quite often but this is pure luck I guess. An interesting card design.
Shepherd : That's a strong card, because of pasture. I think without pasture it would have been way weaker. But shepherd can draw a lot, really, and pasture makes the starting victory points more important than usual. I mean more often than not I would keep my starting estates because of shepherd/pasture. But I see people on shuffleit overbuying shepherd, and drawing shepherd with no victory cards is very sad so be careful. It's a kind of sifter but paradoxically in games where the number of cards in hands is more important than the quality of the cards themselve, shepherd is awesome.
Very flavorful card, it works with victory cards, it makes estates better : I'm always wishing for more card like this. One of my favorite from the set.
Skulk : I read somewhere that Donald X didn't like saboteur because it's purely destructive. When you play it, you gain no benefit yourself. I'm surprised to see skulk (and, to a lesser extent, werewolf) because they are quite similar. Of course getting the gold is very good. I guess later in the game skulk can become a dead card but I had game where I was completely destroyed by multiple hexes. I don't get hexes completely yet.
Cobbler : I love in hand gains. Nice.
Crypt : One of the most puzzling cards for me. I like it.
Cursed village : Hexing yourself is not scary especially during the buy phase, and getting to draw (usually) 2 cards the first time you play it makes cursed village a very solid village that only suffer the bazaar syndrome. Hexes are a purely random thing especially on this card, because the majority of these are not going to affect you during the buy phase (or slightly) but a few (locust, war, plague) really hurt. I like self-hurting things but why are hexes/boon so random ?
Den of sin : Lab variant, variants are good, and as I already said, the few in-hand night gains (ghost town, guardian, and this) are really interesting for the tactical dimension of the game. Probably slightly weaker than lab.
Idol : One of the best $5 treasures. Still not awesome. I think this rank close to relic, but idol is way funnier to play with. And here I don't mind so much the luck dimension of boons, because unlike fool/bard, Idol is nonterminal so you know you are going to play it anyway. It's not like hesitating between playing fool and monument and getting useless boons, then lose lost in the wood right the turn after. And all boons are usually useful in the buy phase, even the one that give +action also give coins, so the boon is nearly always going to be good. The fact cursing doesn't stack is good. A well designed card.
Pooka : When discovering this card I didn't realize how often that card miss the shuffle. Drawing 4 cards seems to make shuffle miss significantly more likely than drawing 3. Of course it's a good starting card, and as expected it gets weird when the number of treasures in your deck decrease.
And Cursed gold is diabolic. Very interesting to play it, though it makes the opening buys sometimes very disappointing. In any case, you have to be very careful in pooka / cursed gold games.
Tragic hero : Me and other people have talked about the potential of mega-turn. I agree, though, that this is rarely going to happen, so overall it's a weak card. If it's the only +buy in the kingdom, it's might be hard to play around it. I like Tragic hero for the same reasons I like Rogue : you know, from the begining of the game, that at some point it can turn into real crap, but sometimes it's still worth it.
Vampire : A very powerful opening card. Probably a bit weaker at turn $3 or $4, because that $5 you gain come a bit too late. But gaining a $5 + hexing is as strong as it sounds. Bat is very good at trashing estates / curses especially considering that if you play bat by turn $6/$7 you are likely to draw them with another terminal draw card, say a $5 you gained via vampire. You may want to skip vampire/bat if you have quicker trash or economy building options, or if trashing copper quickly is particularly important. Otherwise a deck with Vampire/Bat can be very potent, especially at turn 8-9 right after you exchange bat for vampire again.
Werewolf : A self-synergic draw, I think it's weaker than wild hunt but I'm not sure. Giving 1 hex doesn't seem that good to me, but as said about skulk I already got destroyed by hexes. I was expecting something more exciting for werewolf so I'm slightly disappointed.
Raider : The attack part never did anything in the games I played with raider, but I really want to see that someday.
I will talk about the rest when they will appear in my future games. I remember the last card I discovered in Adventures was peasant, and in Empires it was legionnary. I'm curious to see which one it'll be now.
Necromancer : It's weird how if one key card get trashed by accident, suddenly necromancer become very strong. It once happened for me in a minion game. I think most of the time you should skip necromancer early, but mid-game it can be an interesting investment, trash your key $5/$6 card with zombie apprentice, then with +buy it become more profitable to get a few necromancers than that card. Not too much because you can't play the same trashed card more than once, but the zombies add flexibility options. I think this scenario could happen reasonnably often in weak engine games, where the key card I'm talking about is draw maybe.
All zombies are obviously weak but surprinsingly I find myself using often (again, in the very few games I played) the mason. I remember it hit my estates quite often but this is pure luck I guess. An interesting card design.
Shepherd : That's a strong card, because of pasture. I think without pasture it would have been way weaker. But shepherd can draw a lot, really, and pasture makes the starting victory points more important than usual. I mean more often than not I would keep my starting estates because of shepherd/pasture. But I see people on shuffleit overbuying shepherd, and drawing shepherd with no victory cards is very sad so be careful. It's a kind of sifter but paradoxically in games where the number of cards in hands is more important than the quality of the cards themselve, shepherd is awesome.
Very flavorful card, it works with victory cards, it makes estates better : I'm always wishing for more card like this. One of my favorite from the set.
Skulk : I read somewhere that Donald X didn't like saboteur because it's purely destructive. When you play it, you gain no benefit yourself. I'm surprised to see skulk (and, to a lesser extent, werewolf) because they are quite similar. Of course getting the gold is very good. I guess later in the game skulk can become a dead card but I had game where I was completely destroyed by multiple hexes. I don't get hexes completely yet.
Cobbler : I love in hand gains. Nice.
Crypt : One of the most puzzling cards for me. I like it.
Cursed village : Hexing yourself is not scary especially during the buy phase, and getting to draw (usually) 2 cards the first time you play it makes cursed village a very solid village that only suffer the bazaar syndrome. Hexes are a purely random thing especially on this card, because the majority of these are not going to affect you during the buy phase (or slightly) but a few (locust, war, plague) really hurt. I like self-hurting things but why are hexes/boon so random ?
Den of sin : Lab variant, variants are good, and as I already said, the few in-hand night gains (ghost town, guardian, and this) are really interesting for the tactical dimension of the game. Probably slightly weaker than lab.
Idol : One of the best $5 treasures. Still not awesome. I think this rank close to relic, but idol is way funnier to play with. And here I don't mind so much the luck dimension of boons, because unlike fool/bard, Idol is nonterminal so you know you are going to play it anyway. It's not like hesitating between playing fool and monument and getting useless boons, then lose lost in the wood right the turn after. And all boons are usually useful in the buy phase, even the one that give +action also give coins, so the boon is nearly always going to be good. The fact cursing doesn't stack is good. A well designed card.
Pooka : When discovering this card I didn't realize how often that card miss the shuffle. Drawing 4 cards seems to make shuffle miss significantly more likely than drawing 3. Of course it's a good starting card, and as expected it gets weird when the number of treasures in your deck decrease.
And Cursed gold is diabolic. Very interesting to play it, though it makes the opening buys sometimes very disappointing. In any case, you have to be very careful in pooka / cursed gold games.
Tragic hero : Me and other people have talked about the potential of mega-turn. I agree, though, that this is rarely going to happen, so overall it's a weak card. If it's the only +buy in the kingdom, it's might be hard to play around it. I like Tragic hero for the same reasons I like Rogue : you know, from the begining of the game, that at some point it can turn into real crap, but sometimes it's still worth it.
Vampire : A very powerful opening card. Probably a bit weaker at turn $3 or $4, because that $5 you gain come a bit too late. But gaining a $5 + hexing is as strong as it sounds. Bat is very good at trashing estates / curses especially considering that if you play bat by turn $6/$7 you are likely to draw them with another terminal draw card, say a $5 you gained via vampire. You may want to skip vampire/bat if you have quicker trash or economy building options, or if trashing copper quickly is particularly important. Otherwise a deck with Vampire/Bat can be very potent, especially at turn 8-9 right after you exchange bat for vampire again.
Werewolf : A self-synergic draw, I think it's weaker than wild hunt but I'm not sure. Giving 1 hex doesn't seem that good to me, but as said about skulk I already got destroyed by hexes. I was expecting something more exciting for werewolf so I'm slightly disappointed.
Raider : The attack part never did anything in the games I played with raider, but I really want to see that someday.
I will talk about the rest when they will appear in my future games. I remember the last card I discovered in Adventures was peasant, and in Empires it was legionnary. I'm curious to see which one it'll be now.
23
Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Nocturne Initial Impressions
« on: November 18, 2017, 08:03:36 pm »
Here are some thoughts about card-design and power level, after very few plays (not all cards) :
Druid - Some of the Nocturne cards has a very well thought flavor. Actually Druid and Faithful hound might be the most flavorful cards of this expansion. I think Druid is a very cool cards for the same reasons as pawn : each effect taken aside is really weak, but versatility makes the whole difference. Druid is probably weaker than pawn, because only 1 boon give +action.
Overall I love Druid, I think it's my favorite from the set, design-wise.
Faithful hound - Cute tricks to do with it, never awesome, more versatile than moat but obviously weaker at defending against attack. Below average.
Guardian - Some people there seems to hate the fact it's similar to lighthouse. I actually think this card is a very good addition to the game (we needed more defenses) and its existence is legitimate. Playing it right after buying it makes the whole difference, really. It's more subtle, more tactical. The fact it provides $1 like copper (while lighthouse is more similar to silver), makes you don't want to have too much of them. I think lighthouse is stronger, because the +$1 the turn you play it makes lighthouse more stackable, but I love guardian.
Pixie - This is another card I really love. The choice between receiving boon and playing pixie mitigates the luck element of boons (which I dislike) a lot. Very elegant card. Quite solid, too. You surely don't want to rush for it but for $2 it's nearly always a nice addition to your deck. I think you don't want to keep pixie too much, and I usually (after, as I said, very few plays) trash it right after the first useful boon.
About Goat : makes 4/3 slightly better than usual. It's fun to play around it. I dislike the fact that some cards always play with their assigned heirloom, in the case of pixie/goat, I think pixie would work fine alone.
Tracker - I don't know yet what to think about that one, but I guess it depends on the top-deck tricks you could do mid-turn. I have to play more with that one, but I guess I could like it a lot.
Fool - What an appropriate name for a card that does litteraly only random things. I don't see any reason to go for fool other than denying Lost in the wood to your opponent. Because, playing Lost in the wood several turn in a row is very powerful. But otherwise, there is nothing predictable about fool and you never take a fool in your deck for another particular reason. Randomness in all its glory. I don't like this card very much, but I have to admit it's a very unique one. (Someone compared fate cards to tribute, I think the comparison is very relevant, at least for fool).
Ghost Town - I think it's same power level as village. I know it's not exactly the same, but I can't find situations where the difference really matter (except about that on-buy in hand thing). It's not as obvious as shanty town / village. If both Ghost town and Village are in the kingdom, I will have a hard time to decide which one of those I would buy more.
Leprechaun - Funny card, also very flavorful. The 7-card challenge is menagerie-style, so it's a ton of fun to play. Really like it. Pretty solid card.
Blessed village - I said it, boons are just luck, most of the time you can't predict what will come, so it's hard to play with them with a long-term perspective. This is my main complain about the nocturne expansion, but I know it's already discussed here. So Blessed village, well, it's village+. I would rank it among the best $4 village but still weaker than plaza, wandering minstrel, and port.
Cemetary - It's very similar to the simplest victory cards. I find it particularly effective to trash curses late in the game for end-game points. The haunted mirror / ghost thing is a sub-game in the game, not very interesting strategically but fun to play. I like victory cards, I like cemetary. It's as simple as that.
Will continue tomorrow.
Druid - Some of the Nocturne cards has a very well thought flavor. Actually Druid and Faithful hound might be the most flavorful cards of this expansion. I think Druid is a very cool cards for the same reasons as pawn : each effect taken aside is really weak, but versatility makes the whole difference. Druid is probably weaker than pawn, because only 1 boon give +action.
Overall I love Druid, I think it's my favorite from the set, design-wise.
Faithful hound - Cute tricks to do with it, never awesome, more versatile than moat but obviously weaker at defending against attack. Below average.
Guardian - Some people there seems to hate the fact it's similar to lighthouse. I actually think this card is a very good addition to the game (we needed more defenses) and its existence is legitimate. Playing it right after buying it makes the whole difference, really. It's more subtle, more tactical. The fact it provides $1 like copper (while lighthouse is more similar to silver), makes you don't want to have too much of them. I think lighthouse is stronger, because the +$1 the turn you play it makes lighthouse more stackable, but I love guardian.
Pixie - This is another card I really love. The choice between receiving boon and playing pixie mitigates the luck element of boons (which I dislike) a lot. Very elegant card. Quite solid, too. You surely don't want to rush for it but for $2 it's nearly always a nice addition to your deck. I think you don't want to keep pixie too much, and I usually (after, as I said, very few plays) trash it right after the first useful boon.
About Goat : makes 4/3 slightly better than usual. It's fun to play around it. I dislike the fact that some cards always play with their assigned heirloom, in the case of pixie/goat, I think pixie would work fine alone.
Tracker - I don't know yet what to think about that one, but I guess it depends on the top-deck tricks you could do mid-turn. I have to play more with that one, but I guess I could like it a lot.
Fool - What an appropriate name for a card that does litteraly only random things. I don't see any reason to go for fool other than denying Lost in the wood to your opponent. Because, playing Lost in the wood several turn in a row is very powerful. But otherwise, there is nothing predictable about fool and you never take a fool in your deck for another particular reason. Randomness in all its glory. I don't like this card very much, but I have to admit it's a very unique one. (Someone compared fate cards to tribute, I think the comparison is very relevant, at least for fool).
Ghost Town - I think it's same power level as village. I know it's not exactly the same, but I can't find situations where the difference really matter (except about that on-buy in hand thing). It's not as obvious as shanty town / village. If both Ghost town and Village are in the kingdom, I will have a hard time to decide which one of those I would buy more.
Leprechaun - Funny card, also very flavorful. The 7-card challenge is menagerie-style, so it's a ton of fun to play. Really like it. Pretty solid card.
Blessed village - I said it, boons are just luck, most of the time you can't predict what will come, so it's hard to play with them with a long-term perspective. This is my main complain about the nocturne expansion, but I know it's already discussed here. So Blessed village, well, it's village+. I would rank it among the best $4 village but still weaker than plaza, wandering minstrel, and port.
Cemetary - It's very similar to the simplest victory cards. I find it particularly effective to trash curses late in the game for end-game points. The haunted mirror / ghost thing is a sub-game in the game, not very interesting strategically but fun to play. I like victory cards, I like cemetary. It's as simple as that.
Will continue tomorrow.
24
Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Nocturne Initial Impressions
« on: November 17, 2017, 05:12:55 pm »
The funny thing with tragic hero is, with a little trick, you can gain that treasure and draw it just after by another action, so it can enable nice megaturns.
25
Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Previews #2: Shepherd, Pooka, Cemetery
« on: October 24, 2017, 12:40:31 pm »
These heirlooms cards are awesome !
Having played a few games with them, Cursed gold in particular is a real headache when no good trashers are in the game.
Alm/Cemetary is very strong when you can discard a necropolis to get the ghost (which happened in my last game, opponent quickly resigned
)
Having played a few games with them, Cursed gold in particular is a real headache when no good trashers are in the game.
Alm/Cemetary is very strong when you can discard a necropolis to get the ghost (which happened in my last game, opponent quickly resigned
)