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Messages - jaybeez

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1
Reminds me of a time when I was at a friend's place, and a group of us were watching some movie, I forget what, but it was from the '60s or '70s and it was directed by Orson Welles.

When the director credit came up at the end, my friend's roommate said, very seriously, "No.  Orson Welles died in 1957."  Nothing we could say could dissuade him from this opinion, not even when I pulled up IMDb on a laptop (this was early 2000s) and pointed out that Welles had, in fact, died in 1985.

2
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best Dominion moments 2017
« on: April 27, 2017, 07:17:00 pm »


I lost the game on the next turn.

3
Runner-up is Tax. I so rarely buy Tax. But I like how Tax changes the starting setup, so I like having it in the game even when I don't buy it.

Totally agree, to me Tax feels like what Embargo should've been all along.

I still haven't bought Ritual yet.  Anybody ever use that one to good effect?

4
While I have never struggled with those two cards your post reminded me that I sure do hate Contraband. My opponent is always a mind reader and I clearly do not have ESP.

Contraband is super easy to play with.

Step 1: don't buy it.
Step 2: if your opponent buys it, always deny the most important card.

"Step 1" is wrong (Contraband is good sometimes, although admittedly it usually isn't), and your "Step 2" analysis is basically a tautology ("just deny whatever card you should be denying at that particular moment" is pretty much what you're saying, given that "the most important card" is an entirely situational definition).

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, homeslice.

EDIT: re: Minion, I think a helpful principle to keep in mind when you're playing that card is, if you're playing a Minion stack, you're playing an engine, and in terms of combos and tactical play, it works mostly like a draw-to-X engine.  The one big difference is that your "draw" also has a discard effect, which can change how you manage shuffles.  I don't know how helpful that'll be to other players, but I think that helped me improve my Minion game, fwiw.

5
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best Dominion moments 2017
« on: April 19, 2017, 01:58:38 pm »
There isn't a Worst Dominion Moments thread, so this will have to do:

Opening hand: CCEEE
Turn 1: Buy Chapel; draw CCCCC
Turn 2: Buy Relic; reshuffle, draw CCCEE
Turn 3: Buy Vassal; draw CCCCE
Turn 4: Buy Talisman; reshuffle, draw Chapel, Relic, Vassal, Talisman, and Cooper

Total cards trashed, turns 1–7: one


6
Other Games / Re: Game recommendations for a Dominion fan
« on: April 12, 2017, 12:46:45 pm »
Thank you everyone for the thoughtful comments.  Looks like there's a whole bunch of games I need to try out!

Confidential to Donald: yes, I did think of that, but I neglected to mention that in the first post, sorry.

7
Other Games / Game recommendations for a Dominion fan
« on: April 10, 2017, 03:18:41 pm »
I want to try some new games, and I'm looking for some recommendations.

Let me start by saying that Dominion is my favorite game of all time, by far.  It has everything I loved about Magic back when I played that (around 1993-1995) and nothing about Magic that I didn't like.  I love that the rules are so simple.  I love that the game's skill and luck components are well-balanced (at least I think they are).  I love that all the resources available to you over the course of the game are right there in front of you at the start of the game--nothing is hidden, no prior knowledge is required to formulate your plan.  I love that it's a little bit different every time you play.  Most of all, I love the building aspect of the game, the way you can lovingly craft your deck and see your plan come to fruition.  And the way you combine cards in novel ways, and all the different kinds of fun combos and interactions that facilitates, I find the that very enjoyable.  I guess what I'm saying is that the creative aspect of the game is what has really held my interest over the years.

So I'm interested in games that feature:
- relatively simple rule set
- some degree of variance (doesn't have to be a lot, but I generally don't like zero-variance games that much)
- a building process that features some creative input from the player

If it helps, here's some of my other likes/dislikes when it comes to games.

Games I like:

7 Wonders - I like that this accommodates 5 or more players.  I like that you're combining elements in novel ways and building.  But I do feel that your strategic decisions are influenced by luck to a great degree, perhaps more than I'd like.  It just doesn't feel like you can really formulate a complete plan at the start of the game and then follow that all the way to the end like you can with Dominion.

Merchants & Marauders - a little on the complex side for me, and I've only played this a couple times, but I like it so far.  I like that you can pursue either the merchant or pirate tracks, or you can also blend them to some degree, they're not rigidly defined.  I like games that use maps (see below).  I like how the building works, as you have to balance trading and raiding to get capital against paying for upgrades and repairs, and banking your gold.  Reminds me of Dominion, how you formulate your plan, but then based on your draws you have to improvise along the way and sometimes that means changing your plan a little, sometimes a lot.

Carcassonne - simple and breezy, great party game.  Rules can be taught very quickly, but has enough depth to keep it interesting.  I also love watching the map come together over the course of the game, something about maps just really resonates with me.

Star Realms - I like it for all the same reasons I like Dominion, I just don't like it nearly as much.  I think the fact that you get new cards from the ever-changing Trade Board rather than from a predefined and (mostly) static Supply is a negative for me.  But hey, it's a fun game.

Games I don't like:

Flashpoint - something about the cooperative play style turns me off.  I prefer to compete against other players, not against a set of criteria that can feel somewhat arbitrary.

Settlers of Catan - not bad as a party game but I hate the political aspect.

Race for the Galaxy - I feel like I should like this game, because it has a lot of the elements of Dominion that I enjoy.  I just can't seem to wrap my head around it though, I've played it a bunch of times and still feel completely lost every time I play it.  Maybe it's too deep/complex for me?  I'm not sure.

Anyway, I'd love to hear any suggestions any of you may have, based on this info.  Thanks.

8
Game Reports / Re: The Ultimate Swindle
« on: March 31, 2017, 11:46:39 am »
Forgot to save the log but I Swindled my opponent's Champion into a Gold in a game yesterday.  Everything comes full circle.

9
Game Reports / The Ultimate Swindle
« on: February 22, 2017, 02:09:34 pm »
jeebus plays a Procession.
jeebus plays a Swindler.
   jaybeez trashes a Swindler.
   jaybeez gains a Silver.
jeebus plays a Swindler again.
   jaybeez trashes a Champion.
   jaybeez gains a Gold.
   
Me in the chat at the start of the game: "I have a bad feeling about Swindler+Travellers".

True story.

10
Game Reports / Re: Salvager or Moneylender?
« on: January 31, 2017, 05:02:19 pm »
For the $5 probabilities you have to factor in the other draw too.  I mean, SEEE plus your trasher means you don't hit $5 that turn, but are guaranteed to hit $5 your other turn before the second shuffle.  There are a lot of permutations and you'd have to consider which of them allow you to hit $5 but not trash and how much that hurts vs. not hitting $5.  I don't know how to calculate all that and I'm too lazy to look it up.

Another thing I considered is that Salvager runs out of stuff to trash that'll give you economy faster.  Since $5 and $7 are the key price points, more early economy is better I think.  So yeah I feel more confident now that Moneylender was the right play.

And oh yes, I got a Salvager before the third shuffle and trashed my Moneylender and my Silver.  I did get a Rogue too, but wasn't really able to hit my opponent's deck too hard, even with KC.  I think you'd need 2-3 Rogues for that and your deck would fill up with crap fast, which you'd need a decisive Minion split and plenty of KCs to pull off and if you've got that you don't need to kill your opponent's deck.  I think Rogue was better as a gainer for Salvager fuel, as Dingan suggests, especially because I needed every play of Salvager I could get for the +Buy.

11
Game Reports / Salvager or Moneylender?
« on: January 31, 2017, 02:15:45 pm »
Just played a game with this kingdom:
Harbinger
Moneylender
Salvager
Minion
Rogue
Cartographer
King's Court

And three other cards of course, but I didn't save the log and now I forget what the remaining cards were.  They didn't factor in, neither of us bought them, but I do remember that they were weaker cards, and none of them gave +Buy, and none of them were trashers.

Obviously the backbone of a winning deck is going to be Minions and KCs.  My opponent opened 5/2 and went Minion/- which I think is right.

I opened 3/4.  I got one Silver, because I knew I would need to hit $5 early and often.  But then I wasn't sure about Moneylender or Salvager.  I knew I'd want a Salvager eventually, to trash my Estates and to give me +Buy.  On the other hand, I thought Silver/Moneylender would give me a better chance of hitting $5 before the second shuffle, and also a better chance of spiking an early KC.

My plan worked and I won the game pretty handily, but any thoughts on the opening?  I could see Silver/Salvager being better, to make sure you have that Salvager that you know you'll need eventually.  But is it worth the added risk of missing $5 before the second shuffle?

12
Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Naming cards
« on: January 27, 2017, 05:26:21 pm »
Just lost a game because of this.  Played Wishing Well, and I knew the top card was Warrior.  If I had been able to name Warrior, I would have been able to hit $8 and buy the last Province.  Instead I hit $7 for the turn, bought a Duchy, and eventually lost.

I don't expect this implementation to be perfect from the get-go, but I do expect that it should allow you to, you know, play the game as defined by the rulebook.

I mean Jesus H. Christ you guys.

13
Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Do bot games affect ranking?
« on: January 27, 2017, 04:52:56 pm »
Oh, okay.  I guess I hadn't noticed that we'd played each other inordinately often lately.

14
Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Do bot games affect ranking?
« on: January 27, 2017, 02:44:21 pm »
Of course this could be avoided with Good Match, but that has its own set of pains (long wait time, don't play new players very often, etc.).

For me, "Good Match" is "wait until jaybeez comes online" match. Jaybeez is great, but I'd like to be matched up against someone even when jaybeez isn't around! (The rating criteria should be adjustable!)

I'm both flattered and confused by this post.

15
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Band of Misfits and Gear
« on: August 17, 2016, 08:16:03 pm »
This is why I'll never design a game.  I get to this point in a rules discussion and the conclusion I inevitably come to is "You know what?  I don't think I care anymore."

16
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Band of Misfits and Gear
« on: August 17, 2016, 08:06:09 pm »
Okay.  So if you play an Outpost on your Outpost turn, not only do you not get another Outpost turn, both your duration Outpost and your played-this-turn Outpost get discarded because the played-this-turn Outpost "isn't doing anything"?  I guess that makes sense.  Thanks.

17
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Band of Misfits and Gear
« on: August 17, 2016, 08:00:54 pm »
I actually didn't know the official ruling about setting aside zero cards with Gear/Haven.  Why does it work that way?  I don't get the reasoning behind that ruling.  To me that seems to contradict the "do as much as you can" principle (i.e., why don't you keep Gear/Haven out, then try to put the set-aside cards into your hand at the start of your next turn, but fail to do so because there are no set-aside cards?)  Note that I'm not arguing that the ruling should be different, I'm just confused as to why that ruling is the way it is.

18
Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: "Features" threads
« on: July 08, 2016, 05:21:22 pm »
Just going to add a random thought to the pile.  Remember how Goko Salvager had a kingdom builder that supported a standard syntax so you could specify parameters, including controlling the likelihood of a card or cards being included in the kingdom?  Having something like that would be great.  Maybe something simple like, you have a general setting interface for all cards, where you can specify "more often" or "less often" for a given card, with "neutral" being the default.  Then, if all players "agree" on a card (i.e., have the same setting selected), then the parameter could be applied to the kingdom selection for that game.  I mean, I for one would love to be able to force Possession, Swindler, Governor, Rebuild, Cultist, etc. to appear in kingdoms less often if I'm matched up against a like-minded person.  Or vice-versa for cards that I find more fun/interesting.

19
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card
« on: July 03, 2016, 05:18:18 pm »

20
How have your thoughts on Adventures changed since you first saw the spoiler (or first played with the set, if you're a non-spoiler kind of person)?

Coin of the Realm - didn't think much of it at first, mostly because you can't use it for +Actions the turn you play it.  But wow, this turned out to be a really powerful village.  Like, I'm starting to think one of the best even?  One of the most flexible, for sure.  Only downside really is you can't move your +1 bonus tokens to its pile.

Travellers - no clue at first.  These are both crazy powerful though, especially the Page line.  Teacher is massively game-warping, totally changing the way engines are built.  But it doesn't really affect money or slog or rush-type decks because Disciple and Teacher are both majorly engine-focused in terms of application.  Champion might be the most game-warping card yet though, someone I played a game with recently (forgot who) said that once you get the card into play the game doesn't really feel much like Dominion anymore and I kinda agree.

Amulet - I was one of the foolish people who thought this looked strong.  It's not.  It's not bad at all and can be nice as a Silver gainer, but I think it's only a little better than Trade Route as a trasher.

Transmogrify - looked amazing; is amazing.  It's not the greatest opener because you have to get lucky to both play and call it before the second shuffle, but still, it's often a good option, and it's a card that can trash and help you hit $5 on the same turn, like Junk Dealer, but also in that process gains you a $2 or a $3 for that Estate.  And later in the game it can really save your ass too: turn a Silver into a $4 village to turn a late-game dud hand into a Province-buying turn.  Only downside is that it can't actually thin your deck.

Caravan Guard - looked terrible; is terrible.  The on-play effect is a joke and the reaction ability is nice and all but it's just a Peddler, and there are literally no attacks that it helps mitigate.  Even against Bridge Troll, a reacted Caravan Guard is no better than just a Peddler in hand in place of the CV.

Mission - looked interesting at first.  Now I think it's really really good and maybe even broken sometimes.  Mission + Torturer is bullshit of the highest order.

21
Just wanted to say that I installed this, played around with it for a couple minutes, and so far I think it's my new favorite Dominion randomizer.  Nice work, and thanks for sharing!

22
Game Reports / Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
« on: June 07, 2016, 02:23:49 pm »
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160607/log.0.1465323369364.txt

If I refrained from played my final Farming Village on T17, I would probably have won this game.  I wanted to share this as an instructive example of the importance of shuffle management.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go slap myself in the face a few times, weep quietly for a few minutes, and then commit suicide.

23
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Early Adventures Impressions
« on: May 07, 2016, 02:03:29 am »
King's Court + Haunted Woods is amazing to build an engine around.  I mean, KC makes so many things amazing.  But with HW, if you can KC one every turn you can pretty much guarantee not having a dud hand, ever.  And you mostly just have to line up KC and HW once to get going, provided you have at least one other KC and one other HW to play the next turn.

Edit: I was thinking, which is stronger, KC+HW or KC+Wharf?  My gut tells me Wharf because of the +Buys but man, drawing 9 cards at the start of your turn, well that's equivalent to... three Princed Smithies!  That's pretty great right?

24
Dominion General Discussion / Re: When did you start playing Dominion
« on: April 15, 2016, 01:15:49 pm »
I first played Dominion at a game night in I think November 2011.  We played Base only, with way too many people (seven, I think) but it didn't matter, I loved the game immediately.  When we finished the second game of Dominion and decided to move on to another game, I said "I'm buying this one.  And soon."  The host of the game night said something to the effect of, "Yeah, you're going to be one of those people that analyzes all the game statistics and stuff and knows every combo and we'll never beat you again."  I said, "Oh no, I'm not going to do that."

I bought the Base set that Christmas, and Intrigue maybe a month later.  Then I started playing on Isotropic and registered for this forum in early 2012.  And here I am.  My friend was right after all, although it's not true that my play group can't beat me now, we usually play 4P and I win <50% of the time.

25
Help! / Where did I go wrong?
« on: March 30, 2016, 01:47:34 pm »
https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160330/log.0.1459359942020.txt

In the early part of this game I felt like my opponent made some big mistakes.  Opening Spice Merchant/Silver instead of Urchin/Urchin was totally baffling to me, and I also thought his second Witch didn't make sense, considering I already had a Mercernary at that point.  The only thing I see that he obviously did better than me on is he won the Nobles split.  How he did that is a bit of a mystery to me though.

So what happened?  Were those actually smart plays by my opponent, or did I play badly or get unlucky or what?  I can't even tell.

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