Vineyard, Lighthouse, Develop, Smugglers, Herald, Noble Brigand, Nomad Camp, Cultist, Fairgrounds, Harem
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150103/log.516d48d9e4b082c74d7b7db9.1420309194859.txtI opened with Lighthouse (then got a couple more) to keep a mild protection against Cultist, and that
really paid off. The other player won the split and was chaining them like crazy, but I ended up with only 3 Ruins in my deck.
At some point I realized that Heralds aren't bad as a mild defense against Looters, and then I remembered that Ruins can power up Vineyards, and actually there's all sorts of subtle synergies here, and holy crap this board is amazing for Fairgrounds!
I started collecting one of each -- even buying a Curse to reach that elusive 20-named-cards mark where Fairgrounds are worth 8VP.
(...Just ignore turn 12, where I idiotically overpay for Herald and forget that the only card in my discard is a Ruined Market.)
I had a lot of fun with this game, but still... 27 turns isn't that impressive, is it? Did we both get distracted by all the shiny stuff and failed to see a faster, more straightforward strategy?