Dominion FundamentalsBy: Dan Brooks
There are a lot of great articles on f.ds and I've been meaning to write one for a while now. The focus is less on particular card interactions and more on developing, selecting, and evaluating plans. This is followed by some practical tips on deck tracking and learning from previous games. I hope that you enjoy the read!
Have a PlanFirst and foremost, have a plan.
As a simple example, consider a board with Hunting Party and terminal actions. Here, you might open Militia/Silver, pick up a bunch of Hunting Parties and a Gold before hammering the Provinces.
This type of deck only wants one terminal and the choice of terminal might depend on how the game plays out. Facing a library opening, for example, Monument might be better than Militia.
Selecting a PlanThere are many possible plans for each board of Dominion. Sometimes one plan is clearly stronger than the others, and some cards are strong enough that they will work themselves into whatever plan you elect to play.
Even in these games, marginal decisions arise on how to open, which cards to buy, and when to start greening. For these spots, I propose the following principle:
When in doubt, maximize payloadPayloadLoosely defined, payload is anything that your deck does. This includes +coins, +buys, gains, attacks and durations, with draw and +actions as enablers.
There are a multitude of benefits from adding payload.
High payload decks grow exponentially and can rapidly adapt their buys to the current state of the game. Going into the endgame, they have pile control and threaten to pick up a large number of points in a single turn.
The fewer players in a game, the more important endgame control becomes. So, in two player games, playing a high payload deck is especially critical.
Building the EngineDraw as much of your deck as possible First, take a look at the board and identify the most powerful actions. In the early game, trashing and junking are particularly important.
Consider the most expensive action that you would like to pick up. Build the thinnest deck that can reliably purchase that action, picking up a Silver if necessary.
When in doubt, favor the actions that were votest strongest by the Qvist rankings:
http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/List_of_Cards_by_Qvist_RankingsAfter you've purchased a powerful action or two, draw as much as your deck as possible. The traditional method for doing this is trashing aggressively. Going straight for draw can also be viable, particularly powerful draw like Wharf or Lost Arts/Smithy.
In any case, maximize the fraction of the deck that you see each turn. Often this means cycling through the deck while minimizing stop cards. Warehouse, for example, gets you three cards closer to the relevant actions, whereas a silver leaves you one card farther.
Then, grow exponentially Once you are able to draw deck, continue to add payload - coins, buys, gains, attacks, along with the necessary draw, until you reach the endgame.
The EndgameThe goal of dominion is to end the game, either by emptying provinces or piles, while you have a point lead.
Payload helps greatly with pile control, so it's generally desirable to build for as long as possible before greening.
Piles running low (or the VP pile running low!) are generally triggers to start thinking about greening.
The key questions are:
1. Can I win this turn?
2. How do I prevent my opponent from winning next turn?
3. Can I threaten a win for next turn?
4. How do I best set up for future turns?
Deck TrackingMaking good decisions, particularly during the endgame is contigent on having clear information.
The simplest method for deck tracking is to note changes to your deck, then use the supply and trash to keep track of your opponent's.
For example, "this will be my second village, there are 7 in supply and none in the trash, so my opponent must have 1."
With a little bit of practice, you can use this method to count coins and buys in the end-game, as well as tracking deck composition to fine tune the building phase.
On MoneyIn additional to draw-the-deck engines, dominion features money decks, which aim to hit 8 to buy provinces, and slog decks which aim to buy alt-VP over an extended number of turns.
On some boards, these decks have favorable matchups against engine. For example, on a board without +buy, a money strategy might be able to outrace engine on provinces. And if strong alt-VP like Duke is on the board, a slog might outlast the money deck.
However, on boards with trashing, draw, alt-VP, and attacks, engine has a lot of options against money. Commonly, the engine builds as the money deck picks up a few provinces. Then, the engine adds a few attacks as the money deck stalls on green. Finally, the engine dips into alt-VP to generate points in a few swoops before ending the game on piles with a small point lead.
For this reason, draw-your-deck engines tend to have favorable matchups against money, unless a key component is missing. Sometimes this means there's not enough trashing to build a consistent engine. Other times, a village might be missing or terminal draw.
When selecting a strategy, first look for the highest payload deck. Then, look for decks that might compete with itAfter the GamePostmatch discussion is a great way to learn about the game. Consider questions such as:
-What was my plan?
-What as my opponent's?
-How were they executed?
-Any surprises during the game
-How would I play the board next time?
Game logs are are also a great resource for review, and are available at
http://gokosalvager.com/logsearchWin or lose, maintaining a positive attitude can help keep you interested and engaged after the game
The same goes for interacting with great community over at f.ds
Thanks for reading! I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on dominion fundamentals.
