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Game Reports / Question on Worker's Village/Highway/Vault/Tactician board
« on: May 15, 2015, 04:16:51 pm »
So this not really a game report, but is in the spirt of one.
This was the Reddit Kingdom of the Week (KoTW) this week:
Obviously a massive engine, albeit one limited somewhat by the meh draw. An active discussion has broken out over exactly how to approach this kingdom, since in a real game you expect a WV/Highway mirror possibly transitioning (if there is time) into Double Tac with Vault to support if you need it.
Pretty obviously, you don't want to lose the Highway split, but assuming you compete halfway reasonably for highways, it strikes me that Worker's Villages are almost as important, since you want to be the person with 8 to 10 buys so you can end this right away on your terms. Unless you are playing a Bot (and the Bots lose this board 100% of the time; I think it is the epitome of a bad 'bot board) this basically *has* to be a three-pile ending. Bots lose this by scores like 82-8 in 13 or 14 turns, which suggests to me that this can three pile in like eleven turns if you somebody can grab the buy advantage.
So what this all gets down to, is whether a 4/3 opening should be WV/Masquerade, Silver/Masq, or I guess something else. My initial inclination was Masq/Silver, since that guarantees no dead draws on Masq, and makes it a bit easier to hit $5 early. However...WV/Masq gets you one of the many WVs you need and seems to be slightly better for circulation, as well, as making it easier to say yes to embargo on a $2 hand, which often ends up being a "disappearing Silver" on a turn where you buy Highway.
Comments or opinions?
This was the Reddit Kingdom of the Week (KoTW) this week:
Code: [Select]
Embargo, Masquerade, Warehouse, Caravan, JackOfAllTrades, Pirate Ship, Worker's Village, Highway, Tactician, Vault
Obviously a massive engine, albeit one limited somewhat by the meh draw. An active discussion has broken out over exactly how to approach this kingdom, since in a real game you expect a WV/Highway mirror possibly transitioning (if there is time) into Double Tac with Vault to support if you need it.
Pretty obviously, you don't want to lose the Highway split, but assuming you compete halfway reasonably for highways, it strikes me that Worker's Villages are almost as important, since you want to be the person with 8 to 10 buys so you can end this right away on your terms. Unless you are playing a Bot (and the Bots lose this board 100% of the time; I think it is the epitome of a bad 'bot board) this basically *has* to be a three-pile ending. Bots lose this by scores like 82-8 in 13 or 14 turns, which suggests to me that this can three pile in like eleven turns if you somebody can grab the buy advantage.
So what this all gets down to, is whether a 4/3 opening should be WV/Masquerade, Silver/Masq, or I guess something else. My initial inclination was Masq/Silver, since that guarantees no dead draws on Masq, and makes it a bit easier to hit $5 early. However...WV/Masq gets you one of the many WVs you need and seems to be slightly better for circulation, as well, as making it easier to say yes to embargo on a $2 hand, which often ends up being a "disappearing Silver" on a turn where you buy Highway.
Comments or opinions?