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1

Innovation General Discussion / Enterprise

« on: June 24, 2013, 11:24:45 am »

Enterprise is a strong card.  I have frequently been on the wrong end of it and it seems very difficult to overcome.  I'd appreciate learning how top players anticipate, exploit, and defend against Enterprise.

2

Innovation General Discussion / Re: Innovation Memes

« on: June 19, 2013, 05:16:24 pm »

In celebration of my daughter's first win against me, using Enterprise mainly.

3

Innovation General Discussion / Is Metalworking a trap card?

« on: June 19, 2013, 05:06:27 pm »

It seems to me lately that whenever I try to use Metalworking as an early scorer, I wish I hadn't.  If the scoring goes well and I get a lead in achievements, I still have a weak board and as often as not lose the mid-game.  If the scoring goes poorly, then I have the bad board and nothing to show for it.  Please help me out and discuss the best way to use this card.

4

Innovation Articles / Re: Coal

« on: June 13, 2013, 09:52:04 am »

Well I got a chance to use this last night and it worked exactly as advertised.  I got the first four achievements and began Coaling away my board.  My wife had Navigation and was clearing out my many 2s and 3s but Coal out-raced it and kept me able to achieve (it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't had gone in with such a big lead).  Eventually I tucked a 6 under two cards and was able to reveal it to enable the last achievement.  In another game, I used it once merely to tuck, splay, and add three factories but wasn't in a position to spam it.  Thank you for teaching me about this use of the card!

5

Innovation Articles / Re: Coal

« on: June 12, 2013, 03:01:17 pm »

It's really powerful when you're already ahead from having claimed the earlier achievements.  It's not feasible to try to rush this if your opponents took 1-4, for example, but if no one claimed 1-4 or if you did, then Coal is a punishingly fast scorer.

Thanks, that helps a lot.  I'll have to try this soon.

6

Innovation Articles / Coal

« on: June 12, 2013, 11:38:58 am »

I am surprised to see Coal so highly rated on theory's Age 5 blog post http://innovation.boardgamestrategy.net/age-5-tier-list/.  I'll admit that I've been hesitant to spam it for fear of becoming permanently behind in icons.  Clearly though you feel it's worth it to do so.  I'm having trouble though seeing how it doesn't run out of steam, leaving you with a crippled board. 

I see how draw-tuck-score eventually becomes draw-meld.  Looming on the horizon, though, are two problems.  The time will come when you've destroyed all your colors except red (which you can't without losing Coal) and now it's merely(!) a choice between meld a 5 or score a 5.  By then, your opponent will be sharing your Coal actions but with more board ammo to spend on it, and while your score pile is full of 5's and 6s he's now scoring two 7s 8s and 9s to your one (or four-to-one, if you need to spend a turn melding shares to be able to achieve) and can catch up to you.  Perhaps the good that Coal has gained you enables you to end the game before it over-extends itself like this?

I'm intrigued by the possibility and trust everyone's judgment, I'm just not seeing how it would work in practice.  Can anyone please share game logs that show Coal spammed effectively?

7

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Preview #3: Journeyman

« on: June 05, 2013, 09:32:27 am »

Name Copper with Counting House in your deck.  Needs help though, not least that Journeyman is terminal.

8

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Curser speculation

« on: June 04, 2013, 05:06:36 pm »

2. With the coin tokens floating around to ease purchases, maybe we'll see a 6-cost curser.  Would this be too strong?
cost: 6
Master Warlock
+1 card
+1 action
Each other player gains a curse.

The second one's biggest problem is that it's just the same as familiar, just with a different cost.

Yeah, realized that later.  Even so, the guess stands, that coin tokens might be enabling a 6-cost powerful curser.

9

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Curser speculation

« on: June 04, 2013, 04:59:27 pm »

Assassin $4
+1 Action
Choose one: Gain a coin token, or discard all your coin tokens and each other player gains a Curse per token discarded this way.

I think that any card that let's you give out more than one curse at a time without help like TR/KC is going to be too powerful.  But this:

Assassin $4
+1 Action
Choose one: Gain a coin token, or discard a coin token and each other player gains a Curse.

Would be more reasonable I think.  Or even,

Assassin $4 (or $5?)
+1 Action
+1 coin token
You may discard a coin token.  If you do, each other player gains a Curse.

One problem with these, though, is that they make the generic coin-token-gainer, which there has to be somewhere, also the curser of the set.

10

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Curser speculation

« on: June 04, 2013, 04:22:58 pm »

Two ideas.  I'm not experienced enough to accurately cost these thing so please be gentle on that account.

1. A card where you pay coin tokens to distribute curses.  This particular one, like Sea Hag, does not benefit you at all.
cost:4
Assassin
You may discard a coin token.  If you do, each other player gains a curse.

2. With the coin tokens floating around to ease purchases, maybe we'll see a 6-cost curser.  Would this be too strong?
cost: 6
Master Warlock
+1 card
+1 action
Each other player gains a curse.

11

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Weak cards you hope get re-done in Guilds

« on: April 02, 2013, 12:32:56 pm »

I've always liked Chancellor's "immediately put your deck into your discard pile" but it's trapped on a very weak card.  I'm hoping this idea gets another treatment in Guilds.

See http://www.dominiondeck.com/cards/scavenger

Oh, duh.  I haven't played with Dark Ages yet but still feel stupid.

12

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Weak cards you hope get re-done in Guilds

« on: April 02, 2013, 11:15:29 am »

Thief later got reincarnated as Noble Brigand.  Spy later was "done right' as Rabble.

I've always liked Chancellor's "immediately put your deck into your discard pile" but it's trapped on a very weak card.  I'm hoping this idea gets another treatment in Guilds.

13

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Types of cards that you hope exist

« on: March 29, 2013, 01:18:37 pm »

Here's another variation on over-paying: an action card that let's you spend more than one action on it.  Something along the lines of Diadem.  I'm too noob to know how one would price these.

Use X actions to play this.
+X Cards

Use X actions to play this.
+(X/2) coins, round down.

Use X actions to play this.
Trash a card from your hand costing exactly X coins.  Gain a card from the supply costing X+2 coins.

Use X actions to play this.
+X Cards, then discard X-1 cards

Use X actions to play this.
Discard your hand.
+X Cards

It's hard to come up with attacks using this mechanism that don't easily turn into pins.

This mechanic occurred to me as well. The problem is that you can't play it without a village on the board. Also, hoe does it work with Throne Room, etc?

Throning isn't a problem, you get two opportunities to pay X actions; X can be zero.

What to do on boards without villages is a problem.  You can't have a whole set or subset dependent on it.  Maybe there will be cards that let us accumulate Action tokens?  But then we're better off calling them some other kind of token specific to Guilds like suggested above..

14

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Types of cards that you hope exist

« on: March 29, 2013, 12:22:32 pm »

Here's another variation on over-paying: an action card that let's you spend more than one action on it.  Something along the lines of Diadem.  I'm too noob to know how one would price these.

Use X actions to play this.
+X Cards

Use X actions to play this.
+(X/2) coins, round down.

Use X actions to play this.
Trash a card from your hand costing exactly X coins.  Gain a card from the supply costing X+2 coins.

Use X actions to play this.
+X Cards, then discard X-1 cards

Use X actions to play this.
Discard your hand.
+X Cards

It's hard to come up with attacks using this mechanism that don't easily turn into pins.

15

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Cards with no optimal opening

« on: March 15, 2013, 11:17:05 am »

Outpost / Chapel is okay.  Outpost loves strong trashing.

16

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Outpost + Chapel

« on: January 25, 2013, 01:17:57 pm »

I had intended Chapel > Adventurer and Caravan.  I had an early 5, though, and tried Outpost on a lark.  I was pleasantly surprised and it expanded what I see in Outpost.  I'm a beginner and only play FTF so I'm learning slowly.

17

Dominion General Discussion / Outpost + Chapel

« on: January 25, 2013, 11:36:30 am »

Last night FTF I played a kingdom with Chapel and Outpost.  I discovered that with strong trashing Outpost helped me very quickly get an extremely high money density in my deck.  For about three turns in a row, once I'd Chapeled down to a small hand, I was getting two turns in a row buying Gold on the 5-card turn and Silver with my three-card turns.  This led to a straightforward BM win.

Did I get lucky?  Given strong trashing, does Outpost help BM, or is it not worth its opportunity cost?

18

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: The $6,327 hand

« on: March 31, 2012, 09:29:18 am »

-You take the 10 King's Courts and 10 Pirate Ships and 9 Grand Markets. 

...

You should end up with 10 Pirate Ships and 3 coppers in your hand with enough KC's still chaining to KC all the PS's. 

With only coppers, how are you buying your GMs in the first place?  You need to buy at least three silvers it seems to me.  In that case, you should have these in your final hand, not the three coppers.  So that's $3 more.

19

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which cards do and don't do what their name suggests?

« on: March 06, 2012, 11:45:47 am »

Can't believe no one has said Wharf yet.

20

Variants and Fan Cards / Scavengers - 3 - Action/Reaction

« on: February 21, 2012, 12:13:34 pm »

Scavengers – 3 – Action/Reaction
+1 Action
While this is in play, when you gain a card, you may put it on the bottom of your deck.
----------
When another player trashes a card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, gain the trashed card.

-or a more multi-player friendly version-

Scavengers – 3 – Action/Reaction
+1 Action
While this is in play, when you gain a card, you may put it on the bottom of your deck.
----------
When another player trashes a card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, return the trashed card to the supply and gain a copy of it.




I've lurked for a while, this is my first post.  Please tell me what you think about this card idea.  The inspiration is the Reaction, and the Action is just meant to fit the card name.

This Reaction is meant to be a soft counter to trash-for-benefit cards and a way to boost the trashing Attack cards.  It must disallow reaction to your own trashing or it would be broken.  I checked all the trashing Attacks and each is worded so that the attacked player is the one that does the trashing, so this strengthens these attacks (and they need it) instead of countering them.  So for instance, someone ahead in Provinces would be disinclined to Remodel one of them into another, or you can play Pirate Ship and get both the token and the treasure you stole.  Swindling a Province becomes, in effect, “gain a Province.”  It doesn’t unbalance the early game trimming, though, because who wants to gain those Coppers?

I’m wondering how much of a problem it is that only one player in a multi-player game can gain the trashed card.  I figure that the opportunity to gain the trashed card would go around the table from the player doing the trashing.  The second wording above is intended to address this issue.

The first Action I thought of was, “+1 Action, Put the top card of your discard pile on the bottom of your deck.”  The Fan Card Creation Guide killed that one, and I can see why.  What I have now is similar to Royal Seal, which when I compare it to Silver says that putting a gained card on top of the deck is worth $2.  I have a reaction, give +1 action but no money, and am putting cards on the bottom of the deck, so that’s how I came up with the 3 cost for the card.