Many (good) articles have been written about engines. But even after reading quite a dozen, I didn't capture the necessity of
doing something special with my engine. It's really frustrating to trash, build a cool deck and watch your opponent pick VPs just to realize ... that you don't have a concrete target.
To avoid this, it's useful to know about the quality of different payloads - cards, which add some powerful effects, e.g. attacks.
There is no exact definition, and it's easier to define what is not supposed to be a payload, namely all cards which make the engine run: Cards that trash, draw, sift, give +actions or +buy.
I consider these cards to be "engine enablers", but not "payloads". I also ignore terminal money unless the amount is really big (say, $4 or more).
This article classifies the quality of different payloads, beginning with "mostly bad" ones, and ending with the supreme one. Onto the list:
Level 0: Deceptive payloadsRebuild might be a wonderful addition to any engine - unfortunately, your opponent will have trashed/grabbed all the VP's earlier.
Cultist is another card you would love to kingscourt - but when? With few cultists in your deck, additional cultists are stronger; and when the ruins are dealt, it is often stronger to go for money and VPs directly.
Fools Gold/engine is another kind of nombo: Doesn't it look sweet to draw your deck, and your FGs are guaranteed to meet? The downside is, that your opponent might have bought them all ... and if you mirror him from the start, it's mostly too late to build engines once the FG-race is over.
Level 1: Rarely strong payloads(Most) junk attacks (
Familiar, Witch, Young Witch, Mountebank, Marauder, Soothsayer, Sea Hag):
"Draw your deck and play a junk attack every turn" sounds like an awesome plan, but it's rarely realizable. If no decent trasher is available, your decks are frequently too crappy to turn them into a viable engine. And in the presence of decent trashers, by the time you have built an engine, your opponent might have done so as well - and the few remaining curses/ruins won't hurt him that much.
Sure, there are some edge cases like late junking or unmirrored junk attacks - but usually, an engine should look for other payloads.
Baron is also rarely a good payload, as you need those useless estates. Even if you were guaranteed to hit estates, both cards are just worth two silvers, with +buy instead of the action you used for baron.
Though, there are some edge cases,e.g. draw-to-X-engines; and if you can't trash your estates, it's nice to have $4.
Coppersmith ,
Masterpiece and
Bank can also be payload cards - if you can handle the big downside that engines usually don't like too many treasures.
Level 2: Occasionaly decent payloadsPoor House shines in treasure-less decks.
Saboteur and
Rogue are mostly weak cards. But if you can set up quickly a decent engine, you might have the time to trash down your opponent.
Death Cart as well needs a very stable engine. If available, with +5$, it can be the star of the show.
BM-Counters:
Noble Brigand, Pirate Ships and
Thief usually aren't terrible. But played repeatedly against BM, even Thief can shine.
Discard-for-benefit (
Vault, Storeroom, Secret Chamber): Those can shine with menagerie, with draw-to-X, and in the presence of abundance of draw, e.g. scrying pool or caravans.
(Some) peddler variants:
Baker, GrandMarket, Market, Treasury and
Peddler itself are more useful in the presence of good trashing.
Playing a single
Pillage each turn is often much better than any other discard attack although it is harder to pull off as you need to either purchase or gain a new Pillage each turn.
Level 3: Often decent payloadsM-discarders:
Milita, margrave, mercenary, minions nerf BM hard and are constructive in the same time.
Ghost ship does so, too, and it could even be the best of all handsize-reducers, if there weren't two big downsides: it stacks poorly, and it has many counters.
Rabble is not a handsize reducer, but can have a similar effect against decks containing green cards or junk.
Trash-for-benefit cards (including Governor, Mine, Taxman ...) are also a big plus for going engine. If you see all your cards at once, you can easily grab multiple provinces. Another option is to upgrade/remodel/expand[insert tfb-verb here]... a card and play the upgraded card in the same turn.
Cost Reduction (Bridge, Highway ...) stacks perfectly in an engine.
Merchant Guild is very similar to a card providing "cost reduction".
Knights and
Swindler are stronger than Saboteur/Rogue, if played repeatedly.
Monument is both viable for BM and engines.
And of course,
Conspirator loves engines.
Possession , too. Just be careful you are the one who profits the most of your deck.
With a trasher on board,
market squares can solve your economic task fast.
Level 4: Excellent payloadsFree Province gainers: There's basically three ways to get Provs without paying: Massive cost reduction to 0, reduce costs to 3/4/5 and use a gainer, and horn of plenty. In the presence of these megaturn options, engines are highly recommended.
As said, junking engines are difficult to set up, but there's a major exception:
ambassador can deal out curses, even if no other card did before.
Torturer, if stackable, is such a brutal attack, that going BM looks ridiculously weak - unless you will answer "no" to the question "Would you mind being dealt 10 curses within few moves?".
Level 5: GoonsGoons is the ultimative reason to go engine. It is the only card that extends the spendable time for engine building in two ways: First, the attack slowsdown BM concurrents as massively as the m-discarders do. And second, even if they manage to get seven provinces -and being permanently under fire, they will need an eternity- goons can score more than this in one single turn.
Even without having a village, goons are still excellent engine payload. Just imagine a card saying "+card, +action, +buy, each opponent discards down to three cards". This is significantly stronger than market, and probably a powerful $6-card by itself. Now imagine, this card is followed by an improved monument which gains one VP per card you buy - and here we go: Playing a single goons is like playing these two cards in a row. Amazing.
Beyond any levels ...
Only few excellent cards help building engines which don't need any of the described payloads. Scrying pool, Wharf and hunting party are strong enough on their own, and a draw-to-x-engine can be viable if there is enough disappearing money.
To build or not to build an engine?To answer this question, the most important aspects remain, how strong your engine components are, and how challenging the best non-engine-alternative would be.
But if the decision is close, payload strength is mostly an important tie-breaker. Example given, if goons are out, you might even consider a lousy engine based on shanty-town with moats. Otherwise, if none of the above mentioned payloads fits into your plan, a simple BM-strategy with reasonable terminal draw is often better.
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Looking forward to get some feedback of all kinds
I am interested in your opinions about it. By the way, i apologize if you find mistakes or strange phrases - i am not a native speaker.