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Topics - jimjam

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1
Puzzles and Challenges / Exception to the rule
« on: May 24, 2012, 02:39:02 am »
Usually tradering a silver into a silver is pointless. When isn't it? There is one obvious solution and one less obvious one, that I can think of.
(I think this puzzle hasn't been done before, with a quick search)

2
Puzzles and Challenges / One-Shot Deck
« on: April 01, 2012, 09:36:40 pm »
Here's a challenge that bends the standard rules:
At your cleanup phase, trash all cards in play.
How many substantially different ways can you get to Colony, with perfect shuffle luck? Here are two simple examples:
$4->Treasure Map
$0->Copper
$4->Treasure Map
Treasure Map->4 Golds
$12->Colony

$2->FG
$2->FG
$2->FG
$0->Copper
$11->Colony

What's the next fastest way to do this?
It involves Mandarin, most likely

edit: fixed, thanks.

3
Puzzles and Challenges / Paired Attack
« on: March 24, 2012, 09:33:55 pm »
You have Militia and Witch in hand, and two actions left. Usually you would want to play Witch first, since you don't want to draw anything dead. When would it be better to play Militia first?

4
Variants and Fan Cards / Card renames/nicknames
« on: March 03, 2012, 11:28:21 pm »
Dominion, like many games, is quite thematic. For the most part, the names accurately reflect the function:
Villages gives +actions, implying that you need people to carry out orders
Conspirator makes sense, you need a lot of them to be useful.
Etc.
As pointed out before, Minion and Pawn aren't too good for names. It's hard to see how they line up with the function.
JoaT makes sense in that it does a little of everything, but as the recent DS article points out, chances are you go doublejack (or some other simplistic BM-type strategy) or skip it entirely. Maybe it should be called Master at One?

What nicknames would you give to the cards (perhaps some derisive ones for Familiar)?
Or, if you were given a whole set and decided to base it around a different theme, what would it be?

edit: Ah, what a coincidence, somebody recently posted a retheme.

5
Puzzles and Challenges / What's missing?
« on: February 11, 2012, 09:22:45 pm »
Inn, Ill-gotten gains, Jack of All Trades,...

6
Game Reports / Man I hate Saboteur
« on: February 10, 2012, 03:40:59 am »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/10/game-20120210-003736-bdd33615.html

Trashing down to just 2 Silvers in the supply. I think my opponent's Saboteur opening was incorrect, though the game was very luck-based, to say the least.

7
Puzzles and Challenges / Equilibrium
« on: February 04, 2012, 10:32:58 pm »
Finally, a puzzle that doesn't involve a bunch of counting! Hopefully it hasn't come up before.

What kinds of situations can you think of that involve both players endlessly playing the same moves over and over again?
Don't worry about the likelihood of them actually getting there.

For example: KCx2, Monumentx3: Both players are getting 9 VP a turn. Unless some other power cards are around, nobody wants to break it.

Or, all the coppers are trashed, and nobody has treasure or gainers.

Or, Highway, KC,Smugglers, and Colonies, plenty of draw, and no + buy.

There are surely many more subtle ones.

8
Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion: Battlegrounds
« on: February 01, 2012, 06:25:37 pm »
The theme of this expansion is deck control, since in warfare, maneuvering is everything. The reason I'm making it is
mostly a thought experiment on balancing new cards, so please comment on whether the pricing/mechanics seem fair. I apologize in advance for way too many Victory cards/VP gainers involved. Also apologies if some of these cards have been invented before, since some of them are rather elementary.

Guerrilla
$3 Action-Attack
+$2
For each other player, you may choose a card from their discard pile.
They shuffle it into their deck.

Pillager
$3 Action-Attack
+$2
Each other player must gain a curse, or reveal their hand and discard all Victory cards.

Comments: Useless in some games.


Collapsed Mine
$4 Victory-Treasure-Reaction
$1
2 VP
When another player plays an attack, you may discard this.
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase you may reveal it.
If you do, trash a treasure from your hand. Each other player gains a copper.

Horse
$4 Treasure
$2
When you discard this during your Action phase, you may reveal it.
If you do, play it immediately.

Comments: Just for laughs, since it combos with Horse Traders and Stables.
Also it passes the Silver test :P

Consolidate
$4 Action-Duration
+1 Action
Set aside any number of victory or curse cards from your hand.
At the start of your next turn:
Draw a card for each card you set aside.
When you clean this up, discard the set-aside cards.

Comments: Like a Cellar, but if you can time the reshuffle this is good.

War-torn Village
$4 Action-Reaction
+1 card
+2 action
Discard a card

When another player plays an Attack card, you may set this aside from your hand.
If you do, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card and return this to your hand.

Comments: Horse Traders variant, obviously. I'm afraid it may be OP without the discard, though now it may be a little weak.


Stockpile
$5 Victory
Worth 1 VP for each card name you have at least 5 of.

Comments: Likely very situational.

Counterfeit
$5 Treasure
+$1
The player to your left reveals their hand. If they reveal any treasures,
choose one, +$x where x is half the value of the chosen treasure, rounded up.

Comments: A venture variant. Silver, Gold, and Platinum give their proper value.
The dependence on the opponent's strategy may make this too unfavorable.

Retreat
$5 Action
+$2
You may trash an Action card from your hand. If you do, +2 VP tokens.

Comments: Likely to thrive in the same environment as with Vineyard.

Fortification
$5 Victory, Green-backed
4 VP
When you reshuffle, you must place Fortifications on top.
If a card is played that will reveal this from your deck,
you may place this in your discard immediately.

Comments: Late game Duchy alternative. The last condition might make the
drawback too weak in practice.


Siege(v1)
$5 Action-Duration
+1 card
+1 action
Next Turn: +1 VP token. During clean-up, if you played a Siege this turn, you may leave this in play.

Siege(v2)
$5 Action-Duration
+1 card
+1 action
Next Turn: +1 VP token. Whenever you play a Siege, +$1.

Comments: The idea is to pace your sieges. Which one do you like better?
Should it be $6 in either case? If one gets a slick engine with a majority of these, time will run out fast for the other players, which is thematically correct but of course that's no excuse for making it OP.


Strategic Position
$6 Victory
When you gain this, +3 VP tokens
1 VP

Capital
$6 Victory-Action
Set a Victory card from your hand onto the Island mat. If you do, +1 VP token.
2 VP

Comments: I guess it's kind of like taking Bishop and tacking on 2 VP, like Nobles and Harem.
You won't want as many though. If it's too weak, maybe:
Set a card on the Island mat: If it's a Victory card, +1 VP token
If it's a Treasure, gain a Silver
If it's an Action, gain an Action card costing at most $1 more than it.

9
Game Reports / Epic Thief Comeback
« on: January 29, 2012, 07:04:47 pm »
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120121-180345-3da5ed61.html

This game is fairly suboptimal, but I managed to catch up after being behind by 40 points. My opponent probably did not realize that his slick remade deck had not that much treasure, and neglected to repair the damage from thief and greening. I don't know if thief was really the correct choice, but as it was, some luck and my opponent's lack of response won the day.

10
Puzzles and Challenges / Dominion broke my mouse
« on: January 23, 2012, 09:57:48 pm »
This is probably the most ridiculous counting puzzle of them all.
Do stuff on your turn. Buy 1 card. How many clicks on isotropic can you take during the buy phase?
Rearranging and clicking checkboxes don't count, but clicking done does. End turn also doesn't count.
You may not reveal trader when gaining a silver.

11
Puzzles and Challenges / BIG money
« on: January 19, 2012, 10:22:42 pm »
Here's another counting-style puzzle:

You and your friends are discussing the merits of engine decks vs BM decks. So, one of your friends, quite fond of engines, asks:
"How much money can you get in a turn without playing any actions?"
The BM advocate thinks for a bit, and says, "well, I have a hand with 1 venture and 4 banks. If I play the venture and hit 9 more ventures and then a bank, that's a cool $65. Never mind the plus buy, that's plenty money"

You think to yourself: Hmm, this question is ill-posed. It doesn't preclude, for example, having played Tactician or Wharf the previous turn, even though that's clearly a violation of the notion of BM.
So how much money can one actually get, in a 2 player game, with isotropic-style setup (otherwise Philosopher's Stone value is unbounded), and without playing any actions on that turn?

12
Puzzles and Challenges / Tunnel Vision
« on: January 12, 2012, 07:51:20 pm »
Here's a challenge: How many turns would it take, in a solitaire game, to empty the Gold pile (30) only by using the tunnel ability?
What if you had an opponent who helped, but was not allowed to buy/gain Golds or Tunnels?
Perfect shuffle luck, 3 pile ending, Possession/Outpost count as full turns, etc.

I don't have a solution, so have a useless gold burning engine (much too powerful for the puzzle)
4 Farming Village, 1 Watchtower in hand
FV->discard 8 tunnels, trash all of the golds. Draw Envoy
Envoy->Draw 5 FV, discard one.
FV->discard 8 tunnels, drawing a FV
play 7 more Farming Villages, trashing golds each time and drawing nothing.
72 golds trashed with no cards above $4

13
Variants and Fan Cards / Pricing Question: "Unfamiliar"
« on: December 12, 2011, 06:42:03 pm »
How much would you price this at? It's kind of a strange card but I'd like to compare it with Lab, Governor, Council Room.

Unfamiliar
Action-Attack
+1 Card
+1 Action
Each other player with more than 3 cards in hand discards a card.

$5 seems too low, perhaps $6 with +1 Buy?
$3p might also be good, though it would be inferior to familiar.

14
Puzzles and Challenges / Some what's missings
« on: November 02, 2011, 08:19:49 pm »
1. Governor, Masquerade, +3 more cards
2. Mountebank, Ambassador +2 more cards
3. Mountebank, Ambassador +4 more cards (Honorable mention Saboteur)

They're all very similar in style.

edit: correction for part 1,3.

15
Dominion Articles / Gardens and Embargo
« on: October 03, 2011, 09:07:13 pm »
Let's say you have gardens and embargo in the set. The four plausible enablers of a gardens rush (I would put Market, Hoard as mid or late game gardens, and card such as hamlet and pawn are not enough for rushing) would be Workshop, Ironworks, Woodcutter, and Baron. It's debatable whether the $4s can actually be used effectively on their own.
Anyways, if it is the case that you are gardens rushing with the first two, then embargo may work to your benefit:
Obviously one may choose to embargo $5-8 kingdom cards (and gold and province), but perhaps the most important to embargo may be gardens.
Because your opponent will presumably get less gardens, and is aiming for a cleaner deck, they will be slowed down by garden buys much more than you will, especially if you are using workshops or ironworks as the primary way to get gardens. Moreover if you (or they) have played more than one embargo you may be able to count on curses being emptied if they do choose to buy gardens.
The opponent's usage of embargo might be workshops, coppers, or estates.
The first is not too effective, since you can just gain them with workshops.
The second one is more problematic, since you may not want to take on a large amount of curses early on. In that case it is probably best to not buy coppers, and count cards near the end.
The third is also not so effective. If the opponent does it late game you may have bought enough estates that a couple of curses will not affect much; if they do it early game then you might switch to buying embargoes, which should lead to a fast three pile ending (gardens, embargoes, curses). Of course, they could embargo the embargoes...

I haven't tested this out, unfortunately. Thoughts?

16
Puzzles and Challenges / Big hands [lol]
« on: August 30, 2011, 03:42:26 am »
The objective here is to obtain the largest hand (or attempt to draw as many cards as possible) in a turn possible without playing any actions on that turn. Duration cards are an obvious contributor, what else? How many can you get? The game will still end on 3-piles, but for simplicity assume if you have no cards you may add infinite blank cards to your deck at any time. It is a 2 player game and your opponent will help you achieve your goal.

17
Puzzles and Challenges / Fun with Ironworks
« on: June 24, 2011, 05:32:47 pm »
Starting with 9 ironworks in hand, and nothing in discard/deck, get a Colony and a Province in this one turn.
Related: How many VP can you get with 8 ironworks?


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