1
Dominion General Discussion / basic set, second standard setup: "big money"
« on: June 28, 2013, 07:08:26 am »
Inspired by this post, I wonder if it is also possible to build an engine that consistently beats big money strategies in the second standard setup. This setup is called "Big Money" (to make things confusing) and it contains the following cards:
Chancellor
Feast
Mine
Market
Laboratory
Bureaucrat
Chapel
Throne Room
Moneylender
Adventurer
The adventurer helps big money decks and they can go for laboratories or maybe a market when they have $5. The moneylender is okay for a big money opening, I guess.
So I wonder, is it possible to build an engine out of these cards that consistently beats such a big money deck? At first sight it looks promising, with laboratories, throne rooms and a chapels being present. But in practice I found it surprisingly difficult to get such an engine to work well. The problem is to generate enough money in the beginning to start buying labs. When you just stripped down your deck with a chapel, you first need some silver, then you need to buy more stuff to increase your income.. before you know it, you're too slow. Once your engine runs, adding a bureaucrat does work out nicely because it not only slows down your opponent(s), but you'll probably be able to play a lab afterward to pick up the silver and then you can mine it into a gold right away. But again, it tends to take just a little too long for me to get the engine running that well.
So I wonder if anyone has good ideas on how to do better? The main problem is what to do in the first turns. What do you buy with your $4? A silver, a moneylender, maybe even a feast? Also when do you start buying Throne Rooms and how many of them?
I do realise you can throne room a feast to gain two $5 engine pieces at once, maybe it's possible to exploit this in a big way?
Chancellor
Feast
Mine
Market
Laboratory
Bureaucrat
Chapel
Throne Room
Moneylender
Adventurer
The adventurer helps big money decks and they can go for laboratories or maybe a market when they have $5. The moneylender is okay for a big money opening, I guess.
So I wonder, is it possible to build an engine out of these cards that consistently beats such a big money deck? At first sight it looks promising, with laboratories, throne rooms and a chapels being present. But in practice I found it surprisingly difficult to get such an engine to work well. The problem is to generate enough money in the beginning to start buying labs. When you just stripped down your deck with a chapel, you first need some silver, then you need to buy more stuff to increase your income.. before you know it, you're too slow. Once your engine runs, adding a bureaucrat does work out nicely because it not only slows down your opponent(s), but you'll probably be able to play a lab afterward to pick up the silver and then you can mine it into a gold right away. But again, it tends to take just a little too long for me to get the engine running that well.
So I wonder if anyone has good ideas on how to do better? The main problem is what to do in the first turns. What do you buy with your $4? A silver, a moneylender, maybe even a feast? Also when do you start buying Throne Rooms and how many of them?
I do realise you can throne room a feast to gain two $5 engine pieces at once, maybe it's possible to exploit this in a big way?