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Topics - tolenmar

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Game Reports / Finally went pro...I lost.

« on: March 03, 2014, 12:12:48 pm »

But I did better than I expected, I thought I had a chance right up until the end.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140303/log.50c7ef2fe4b01531d0686840.1393866459689.txt

Goko Dominion Online / I love the bots sometimes...

« on: February 07, 2014, 04:38:42 pm »

Just played the bots at Dominion online. Possession, Scrying Pool, Tournament, Herald are the key cards and it's a Colony game.

The computer plays possession on me. Gets lots of money with my hand, buys a herald and overpays, then topdecks all of the cards he would like to draw next. Apparently he forgot he was playing my hand, because he's topdecking my scrying pools and tournaments for me...

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140207/log.50c7ef2fe4b01531d0686840.1391808755022.txt

I saw the setup, thought he would ignore possession ('cause the bots generally do when I play). I was disappointed when he got one early. I had no clue how to play against it. If I build a scrying engine, he'll just take it. But when I saw him do that..I just started laughing out loud.

Of course, it was only villager bot...

Goko Dominion Online / All day long, nothing but black...

« on: January 29, 2014, 08:35:43 pm »

Yep, they are definitely working hard to fix things!

I got to play one game today. Just one. Every other time, black screen. Bots, adventures, everything.
I paid forty bucks for this?

Goko Dominion Online / Wishing well bug on goko?

« on: December 22, 2013, 10:12:52 am »

Has anyone else encountered this?
Just played a game on Goko with wishing well in the kingdom, and every time the bot played it, it revealed two cards. That's not right. I ditched the game, with that happening, he was too far ahead.

I didn't buy wishing well myself, so I can't tell you if it would work for me or not.

Goko Dominion Online / Problems with logs

« on: December 22, 2013, 09:26:45 am »

I couldn't figure out a proper place for this, so I started my own thread. I am using an extension (the one that has the point tracker on all the time, and supposedly cleans up the log of the game).

Lately, when I try to pull up logs in the 'log prettifier', all I get is the message "loading 1", I don't get the rest of the log. Every once in a while, I pull off a clever move and would like to show off, but can't because my logs go nowhere.

Further, when I go to drunken sailor, none of my game show up after my last game with my son last month. (I play through my facebook account, where my name is Chris Rebman.)

I think the two issues are related, since they started around the same time, when my hard drive crashed and I had to re-install everything.

Can some guru's here help me figure out the problem?

Dominion General Discussion / Good day for me, or bad for him?

« on: September 12, 2013, 09:15:43 am »

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.50c7ef2fe4b01531d0686840.1378959720943.txt#Game%20Setup

I'm one of those people who has a rough time playing the bots. Really. Most of the time they just make me feel stupid, and I don't understand how I lost so quickly and early. When I do win (and it isn't often), the scores are much closer together.

Last night, I played against Conqueror bot. I beat him by more than 2 to 1. This is not normal. So, I figured I would ask here for advice. Was I having a really good day? Or was Conqueror just having a bad one? and why?

What did I do right, what could I have done better?

Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion Draft Style

« on: August 24, 2013, 11:06:35 am »

Obviously, Dominion is not the only game I own. Other games have other interesting mechanics, and once in a while, I wonder how things might change if we transplanted some of them into Dominion. Nothing official, of course, just alternative ways to play once in a while for a change of pace. In this case, the rules were lifted from Nightfall, another deck builder.

Shuffle the randomizers, deal out four to each player.
Each player looks at the four he was dealt, chooses one, and places it face-down in front of himself.
Then the remaining cards are passed to the player on the left.
Each player looks at the three he was passed, chooses one, and places it face down in front of himself.
The remaining cards are passed to the player on the left.
Each player looks at the two cards he was passed, chooses one, and places it face down in the center of the table.
The remaining cards are set aside.
Deal enough randomizers face down on the center of the table until there are 8 cards.
All of the other randomizers (including the ones from earlier) are returned to the box.
Turn over the randomizers, and set out the appropriate kingdom cards as normal.
After the kingdom piles have been set out, take up the randomizers and use them, as normal, to determine if shelters or colonies will be in play. Return the randomizers to the box.

The piles in the center of the table are available to buy by everyone. Normal Dominion rules apply.
The piles in front of each player are available only for that player to buy.
Any three piles emptied (including piles in front of players) will still end the game.

******************************************************************
In this way, everyone gets to control the setup of the kingdom to a degree, and having some cards available to you that aren't to anyone else changes the game. There are still also many random cards still in the kingdom. Mirror matches become more unlikely. Yes, it does mean that each player might have the chance to grab a particular power card and prevent his opponents from using them (well, aside for the effects of masquerade or ambassador), but as a lark or an alternative, it is an interesting way to play.

Dominion General Discussion / How many total cards are there?

« on: June 27, 2013, 10:31:48 am »

I'm too lazy to do the math right now, but I want to sleeve my set.
To that end, I need to know how many cards are in my set so I can start to budget for it.
I have all of the expansions, including Guilds, plus a set of Base Cards.
How many cards is that? We don't have to count the randomizers.

Dominion General Discussion / Possession...

« on: June 19, 2013, 12:51:21 pm »

I hate this card with a passion rivalling the fury of the sun. just thought you would like to know.

I never get it first in a game, no matter how I play. When I do finally get it, I get crap out of their hands, they get province when they play it on me.

Don't get me wrong, It sounds like a fun card, and I know it is popular. But for me.... I just want to rage quit when I see it.

Ok, rant over. You can go about your business.

Dominion: Guilds Previews / So when do the rest of us get ours?

« on: June 18, 2013, 10:00:40 am »

I pre-ordered this set through my favorite online vendor.
The idea being that I don't have to slog through post after post here about a set of cards I don't have yet. I knew I wouldn't be at origins. But there is no information at all about when it's going to be released, aside for a possible 21st as listed on Amazon.

Rio Grande won't even update their page with the info.

I'm really cheesed off right now, when is it 'officially' going to release? And why can't they put that date on their webpage?

Dominion General Discussion / Promo's are fun, Black Market is a pain to use...

« on: May 31, 2013, 02:19:50 pm »

Just got my order of all five (current) Promo cards. It was an enjoyable game throwing all of them in there, but man, using black market with an entire set takes a lot of time to set up and take down again.

I will likely limit the number of cards or sets available when we play with it again, just to speed things up. The only one we didn't buy was stash, and I think it's because no one (I certainly didn't) wanted to give away any of that information. I was doing well enough that I could afford to trash a couple of gold's to buy mints. That was fun, not that it had much to do with Black Market.

How do you guys limit the number of cards in Black Market?

Dominion General Discussion / KC/Goons/Masquerade Pin, Help me out here...

« on: March 27, 2013, 08:32:18 am »

From the Dominion Wiki:

The key to the combo is that you trash down to a four-card hand of King's Court, King's Court, Goons, and Masquerade. Playing King's Court – King's Court – Goons reduces your opponent to 3 cards; now, playing a (Kinged) Masquerade forces him to pass you a card. But since you have no more cards in hand, you can’t pass him anything, but you can still trash the cards he gives you. Three times.

I don't get it. With Masquerade, there is no point where you have no card in hand to give your opponent, because of masq's +2 cards. The extra draw is before you hand cards to your opponent, so how is this supposed to work?

Game Reports / IRL I opened with Mint...

« on: March 17, 2013, 10:12:35 pm »

And I had to think long and hard about doing it, too. I knew it was a gamble, a big gamble.
But, by the time my opponent could afford a mint, I had gained, cloned, and trashed past silver into platinums.

Beat him by 2 points, we split the colonies, bought a province each, still had our three estates, and I had a duchy where he had a great hall.

That was a fun gamble. I probably won't be brave enough ever again...

Dominion General Discussion / Just out of curiosity (Guilds)

« on: March 04, 2013, 08:01:17 pm »

Any word on when we might be able to pre-order Guilds?
Everything I see says it's due out in the Spring, and that's coming up pretty quick.

Game Reports / What a lackluster kingdom this was...

« on: February 04, 2013, 11:56:53 am »

http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130204/log.50c7ef2fe4b01531d0686840.1359996783120.txt

No 5 or 6 cost cards, no curses to trash, no extra buys...
Not much to say about this one, except to ask for pointers for the future. It was a pretty easy win, and boring.

Dominion General Discussion / When to NOT buy anything...

« on: February 03, 2013, 04:20:05 pm »

When I've played lately (mostly in bot mode on goko), I've noticed games where multiple times will come around where, aside for enough for provinces, I have enough coin in hand to buy any of several items, but feel that my deck is tuned well enough that buying things would ruin it (or at least not help). So occasionally, I'll play a hand as if it were a dead hand. Sometimes this happens when I feel it it too early to start greening, in part because I fell that it will trigger the opponent into starting his greening.

Does this happen to anyone else? How often?

Game Reports / I was just an irritating munchkin...

« on: January 31, 2013, 08:37:12 pm »

Just finished showing a couple of my friends Seaside. I started the embargoes on Provinces. By the end of the game Gold, Silver, Estates, and Duchies each had an embargo counter, and the Provinces had two. Even Embargo got embargoed.

That didn't stop me, I just kept going to feed my Ambassador...

Game Reports / Got seaside!

« on: January 31, 2013, 09:29:52 am »

Seaside just came in. Now I have two (count them, two!) whole sets to play with at the table.

First, I love the little silver and gold coins. Most other places would have cheaped out and put more cardboard in. I was really surprised.

So I played a couple of games from the book with my son. We started with High Seas, and I won. Those duration cards are really an interesting change to the game. I was cycling my deck so, sooo much faster with them in it. I should have bought more islands. I love how you can now thin the deck without giving up the points. My son pulled a pirate ship and had it up to +4, but we embargoed the pirate ships, putting an end to his buying them. I bought a couple of wharfs, and then embargoed them. No one got any curses, we just avoided buying the embargoed cards. I didn't need them once I got my deck going, and my son...I don't know what his strategy was. But then again, I don't think he knows either, he's just a very intuitive player.

Now, normally, he only likes to play one game and then go find something else to do. But he's also competitive. So when he lost the first game, he wanted another set up so he would have a chance to win. So we set up Buried Treasure. (Except when I unpacked everything, I accidentally swapped Treasury with Treasure Map, so we had Treasuries instead...)

I lost that one. I just couldn't get things moving fast enough to catch up with him. I know what I did wrong, though: I succumbed to 'new toy' syndrome, and did like I used to do. Which was to buy OMG ONE OF EVERYTHING! TOO COOL! So I got to play with Lighthouses (One of my current favorites), caravans, wharf's, Tacticians, and Outposts (among others). I almost got a double tactician off. At least until my son pointed out that if you play one tactician, you have to discard the other before you get the benefits. Duh. I'll claim it as a senior moment.

And for the record, last nights games were the first ever where I managed to buy two provinces in one turn. That felt really cool.

Game Reports / Let the learning begin...

« on: January 25, 2013, 10:55:32 am »

I just played Drab Emordnilap on Iso. I lost.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/25/game-20130125-074544-ebbdc76d.html

This does not bother me, though, as I do not have access to all of the cards, so I do not know them well enough to put together much of a plan. This board had a lot of cards that I've never played before, and I thank Drab Emordnilap for his patience.

Now, as far as my own commentary, aside for not being too familiar with the cards, I did not get my economy going very well at all. Plus, thanks to his minions I didn't often get much of a chance to buy anything good. By the time things started to work, I was already behind. Yes, I bought the penultimate Province, but I just didn't see anyway to catch up, and he was at work, so I didn't want to try to drag things out.

So...comments? Just, be gentle. =)

Dominion General Discussion / Base vs. Expansions (Here we go again...)

« on: January 21, 2013, 01:55:54 pm »

How does the game change once you have more than the base set? I only have the base set at home (and I really doubt I'll spend real money on Goko...), so in real life, I can only play base against my friends or my son.

I have played a couple of iso games, but since I am only starting out, I don't know much about all the other cards that are available. So I'm curious about how, in general terms anyway, the game changes once you have more than that core box available.

Right now, it seems like it's all about luck of the draw. If that were truly the case, I doubt his board would exist. I get so irritated with this game sometimes. I mean, I know I can't win them all, but when I look at other games I play, I don't lose 70+% of those games. When I lose, I ask them "What do you do?" and I get mostly "I just grab the cards I like, and get lucky."

I don't believe that, not for a minute...

Game Reports / I am surprised that worked!

« on: January 19, 2013, 09:22:23 am »

Just a little while ago, I finished playing on Goko, with the basic set.
I don't remember the entire layout, but of course there were witches, labs, markets...
There were no 3 point cards aside for silver, and only the cellar for 2 points. And there were gardens.

Of course, I draw 3 copper for my first hand, buy a silver. My opponent spends the first few turns buying throne rooms and witches. I start grabbing gardens. I just can't seem to get more than 4 coins together at a time, which as you know only gets worse with every green card I buy. I figure, if I'm going to get hit with a ton of curses (I hate throne room/witch), I may as well try to get some advantage from it. So whenever I can't afford anything, or have multiple buys, I also grab coppers.

It worked. I'm still not sure how it worked. I ended the game on three piles, with 8 curses, and 6 gardens worth 6 each. Total score 60 points vs. 19. The computer had an engine running pretty quickly, but never seemed to get it going on the provinces.

I even took a screenshot of the scoreboard, I was so surprised. Normally, I only win about 1 in 3. I thought this was going to be one of my losses.

--------------------------------------------------------
Having said all of that, I wish I could get better at this game. I love it, I have fun, but I just can't seem to pull a win. Well, not often, you know what I mean. I've played, a lot. I've read what advice I can find here and other places, I even try what everyone suggests I try and it still seems like I'm going nowhere.

Of course, part of the problem is that the advice is almost always written for people who have multiple sets. I only have the base set, so telling me to grab watchtowers or watch out for Goons (as examples) does me no good. I do plan next week to finally get Intrigue, but over on Goko...well, I don't do "Pay to play" so that will always be basic set.

I taught my son to play the day Dominion arrived at home. Even he walks all over me 75% of the time. I just don't get it...

Dominion General Discussion / Help! Something seems hinky here...

« on: December 20, 2012, 08:40:55 pm »

I've been playing for a few weeks, love the game. All I have is the base set. One of my friends was so impressed he went out and bought the game.

He just texted me to tell me he just scored 191 victory points against his brother. Now, he says they went until almost all of the cards were gone (most piles had one left), so gardens must have been worth a lot, but he says he got 9 of them. There just aren't that many vp cards in a two player game. Or am I missing something?