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1

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Hoard in Colony games

« on: October 18, 2012, 08:27:19 am »

Hmm maybe I'll make a house rule to the house rule- that you don't play with platinum/colony if hoard is selected. And when I get more expansions I might expand that rule to include other cards that are worthless with colonies (like Explorer, Tournament, etc.)

I think that is a slippery slope, but I'm fanatical about naturally occuring combinations like that. I think that playing with colonies even without prosperity cards open up some fascinating new strategical avenues. But always playing with colonies closes off just as many, even with cards where it is not immidiately obvious that their role has been diminished or changed. I'd advocate, as already suggested in the thread, playing 50/50.

2

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Would Dominion Benefit from a Doubling Cube?

« on: October 12, 2012, 03:27:38 am »

I understand what you're saying, but I think the example given is nonetheless mistaken. Doubling early is bad because you might fall behind and get redoubled. (Even leaving out redoubling, it could be bad because you might fall behind and be playing for double stakes.) Doubling early is not bad because you might get further ahead and lose the chance to force an undoubled resignation.

I think we're pretty much saying the same thing: Doubling early is bad because it gives your opponent control over the doubling cube.

A doubling cube in Dominion can be a very interesting addition, but it has to be used in matches over several games or in money games. In a practical sense, it could be used with a leaderboard as a doubled game could double the points gained or lost for a single match. Obviously, this may lead to "gaming" the system, but that's an issue that is very hard to address properly. Still, if there are people willing to go out of their way to be #1 for some silly game on the internet, let them, it's their loss.

Offering extra points for games won or lost by an X amount of VP is a very bad idea. I'm not sure how to deal with ties. I think it's best to let it have no effect on the leaderboard at all, whether the game was doubled or not.

I think it is definitely necessary to use it for match play. I think money play with ladder points at risk is too intangible for most players. Very few would really deeply consider whether to resign a game to lose a bit fewer latter points, rather than play on and try to win. They would play on because they want to play, or resign because they don't want to play.

I'm not sure it would fit well within the ISO context.

3

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Would Dominion Benefit from a Doubling Cube?

« on: October 11, 2012, 04:14:37 am »

It even 'costs' equity to double, in that having the option to double later is worth something. For instance, one province to go, you are up by <6, and you figure your opponent only has a 20% chance to get it, while you have 100%. It's the end of your turn... your probability of winning the game is 80%, but if you double right now, your opponent won't accept, increasing your equity to 1. Lesson: don't just double all willy-nilly at the start of the game.

This doesn't seem right unless I'm missing something. Obviously it's better to have the option to double here (equity = 1) compared to not having the option (equity = .8 ), but it's better than either to have already doubled, in which case your match equity is 1.6.

What you're missing is that equity must be viewed at the point where the double happens. If you double at the start of the game, your match equity is only slightly in your favor AND your opponent has the chance of exploiting the cube to change his later 1.6 to 2.

In other words, an early double is poor because a late double can be good, and with an early double, your opponent gets exclusive access to the late double. You need to put out doubling until your advantage from the double exceeds his advantage from getting control of the cube.

Also, I think doubling cube dominion would be VERY interesting. I think the doubling cube should be offered right before your turn (so you know your hand, but not any draws from tactician, caravan etc.). That way, the unknown information goes both ways. You offer without knowing your opponents hand, but he must decide without knowing yours. You may be able to make him drop a game while you are holding a hand of curses and victory cards.

4

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Bishoping VP Cards

« on: October 11, 2012, 03:59:38 am »

Also, depending on what your opponent is doing, the trashing benefit can be a lot less.  The obvious example here is Gardens/SR/Duke/etc., but there are many other decks where this is the case.  CR is down right now so I have no data, but if your opponent uses Chapel (and doesn't go Golden Deck), your bishop will be very unlikely to help them.  Likewise, if they buy a Baron, Counting House, Moneylender, or any number of cards, they won't want to trash out the initial estates and coppers.

But all of these examples seem to assume faulty play from the opponent. I would never base my deck around chapel, gardens or dukes against a bishop strategy.

An opponent who relies on free trashing to build engines that would otherwise not be feasible is a much greater risk. Usually, getting 8 provinces is hard. It can get easier if your opponent is helping you grease the engine.

I like bishop too, mostly because it usually gives interesting games, particularly if only one player goes for them.

5

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Will Goko have a way to deal with problem users?

« on: October 10, 2012, 03:36:27 am »

I'm just wondering how you played Scrying Pool on Goko.

Oops, wasn't clear. That game was on Iso, but it got me thinking about how Goko will handle it. Iso doesn't need to handle it because it's a free unofficial version.

If it isn't a crushing problem for Iso, there seems to be no reason to assume up front that it will be for Goko.

6

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Nombo of the day: Rats / most things

« on: October 08, 2012, 11:02:51 am »

Rats don't take up space because of the +1 card / action, and their trashing ability compounds.  (On your 3rd shuffle, you could be trashing up to 4 cards)

1 + 2 + 4 = 7 > 6 which is what you could trash if you used steward to full trash every time.

But you want to stop trashing, so they take up space once you are done doing that. On your third shuffle, you COULD be trashing up to 4 cards, but would you ever want to? By the third shuffle, most of your Rats will be just as dead as the cards they trashed.

Technically, Rats is a cantrip and a trasher. In reality, the forced trash and the requirement to re-trash means that your deck isn't thinned. See my calculations above: The total number of cards played or lost from hand by using junk dealer via rats is exactly equal to the amount drawn plus one, just as it is with junk dealer. The number of junk dealer plays required to reach the desired deck state (which I assume does not include rats) is also unaltered by going via Rats.

Rats probably provides some very minor deck-cycling, but that benefit is unlikely to get you to your target faster than Silver->Junk Dealer.

So I stand by my point: Rats should not be treated as a 'fast trasher'. The main benefit of rats, (sans TFB, benefits-when-trashed cards or cards that benefit from the action type), is that it allows you to exchange dead card draws now for live card draws later. Whether that small benefit is worth the cost and the risk of drawing dead rats is an open question, but the benefit is pretty small either way.

7

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Nombo of the day: Rats / most things

« on: October 08, 2012, 09:18:39 am »

Rats is a very fast trasher, much faster than Junk Dealer. If you simply take one, you don't lose so much time.
The idea is simply to trash the coppers and estates ASAP and then trash the rats before they destroy your deck.

How is rats a fast trasher? The number of cards in your deck after playing rats is exactly the same as the number of cards in your deck before.

Barring special circumstances (Watchtower, empty Rats pile, etc.), Rats does not act as a trasher at all.

8

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Nombo of the day: Rats / most things

« on: October 08, 2012, 04:57:07 am »

Rats + Junk Dealer is decent, even if probably rarely the best strategy on the board.

I'm still not sure how big the benefit actually is. Playing a rats, then junkdealing has the net result of -3 cards, +3 cards, trash one card. That seems to be about the same net result as one junk dealer (-1 card, +1 card, trash one card).

There is a marginal benefit to ratting estates/shelters for no significant card loss, to replace them with a card that gives +1 card when trashed later in the game (-2 cards, +1 card now; -1 card, +2 cards, trash one card later). I am unsure if this marginal benefit is ever going to beat silver. My guess would be that opening silver instead, to improve the odds of getting the junk dealer on the second shuffle, gives better results overall.

9

Game Reports / Re: Apothecary = Best leapfrog to Tournament?

« on: October 02, 2012, 03:44:17 am »

Wishing Well/Coppersmith is the canonical "I want to buy a Province ASAP" opening. Wishing Well/Death Cart looks solid too. Actually Death Cart/Silver  is probably even better than anything with Baron.

Dunno. I've been bitten bad by the on-gain of Death Cart. Two ruins in the early game is quite a handicap.

10

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Nombo of the day: Rats / most things

« on: September 30, 2012, 03:08:52 pm »

They are good with death cart as well.

I thought that too, but in practice, it turned out way too slow when I tried it. Getting two ruins when you buy DC gets you a deck that is junked enough that you rarely get to trigger more than one death cart, which doesn't get you that much buying power for the effort invested.

11

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Goko is making me forget how to play Dominion!

« on: September 22, 2012, 04:22:28 am »

I had the opposite problem on isotropic for the longest time, and still do to some extent. On the other hand, I make mistakes IRL that I wouldn't make on isotropic. It seems my 'feel' doesn't carry across very well.

Goko feels much closer to the actual card game. I actually have a feel for my deck state here, something that I still lack on isotropic.

12

Dominion General Discussion / Re: kingdom selection methods

« on: September 20, 2012, 10:06:03 am »

Once Dominionizer gets updated again, I (electronically) pick three random sets, then pick 10 cards randomly from within those three sets.

I then flip a coin to see if colony/plat goes in, regardless of whether prosperity cards are in the set or not. Most likely, I'll be doing the same with shelters.

13

Rules Questions / Re: Need confirmation about Embargo + IGG

« on: September 13, 2012, 04:53:22 am »

Another player plays Saboteur and hits your Cultist, which you are now forced to trash. You have Market Square in your hand. Cultist says "When you trash this, +3 Cards" and Market Square says "When one of your cards is trashed, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, gain a Gold" so you choose which one to resolve first. Lets say there are less than three cards left in your deck after trashing the Cultist. This means there will be a reshuffle when you draw the 3 cards. So if you reveal Market Square before drawing the cards, the Gold will be shuffled in (along with the Market Square itself).

Which also means that the Cultist-trashing draw can cause you to draw a market square, which can be revealed in response to the cultist trashing.

Or did I miss something?

14

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Nombo of the day: Rats / most things

« on: September 13, 2012, 04:39:11 am »

Mister Alex hits the nail on the head: so far I haven't found any use for Rats (except as a comical, thematically flavorful, hey-look-my-whole-deck-got-eaten-by-Rats! thing) that does not involve trash-for-benefit.

Scrying pool?

15

Rules Questions / Re: A few stumpers, really looking for an expert to help me out here :)

« on: September 11, 2012, 08:18:30 am »

...
For Embargo / Noble Brigand, two things happen when you buy a card. This creates the question, "does Noble Brigand count as happening to you or what," and my ruling is, yes, just the "when you" part by itself is enough to involve you in it.

Makes sense. Thank you!

16

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Is There Ever Something NOT Missing?

« on: September 11, 2012, 07:13:57 am »

I'll admit I deliberately left out the least obvious ones. 

My shot:
Honorable mention: Young witch
Tournament
Mountebank
Duchess
- Cards where the other players choose if (or how) they want to be affected

17

Rules Questions / Re: A few stumpers, really looking for an expert to help me out here :)

« on: September 11, 2012, 06:57:55 am »

Turn order-based timing.

And this is different from the Noble Brigand case where you could choose between simultanous triggers, one of which affected others, because the trigger for Moat is not a card that 'belongs' to you?

So, each time a trigger happens, you resolve any effects that relate to you (such as the urchin trashing or the embargo token cursing), then each other player in turn resolve any effects that relate to them (such as reactions). But because 'resolve the when-gain effect of the card you just bought' is considered to relate to the buyer, the buyer of an embargoed Noble Brigand can choose to resolve that effect first. Did I get that right?

18

Rules Questions / Re: A few stumpers, really looking for an expert to help me out here :)

« on: September 11, 2012, 04:07:33 am »

Urchin is trashed before Moats.

Because of turn order, or because the players can choose to reveal the moat last?

19

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Villages!

« on: September 07, 2012, 09:22:08 am »

I don't especially like that you propose to make a pile of cards that don't all have the same cost.

There is precedence for that in the Knight stack though.

20

General Discussion / Re: Dvorak keyboard

« on: September 07, 2012, 04:18:57 am »

Is Dvorak actually that much better than QWERTY?  Last time I looked into it, there was a lot of conflicting research and most sources were biased.

I can't give you any research per se, but try picking 10 random words and see how the fingering pattering would look on Dvorak vs. Qwerty. My guess is that about 7 of them will be visibly more accessible on Dvorak, and the last 3 would be equal.

In other words: I can't back it up scientifically, but yes, it's better by a large margin.

21

Rules Questions / Re: Need confirmation about Embargo + IGG

« on: September 06, 2012, 06:41:22 am »

You can choose in what order to receive your Curse and your Copper when you get Mountebanked. This probably doesn't matter unless you're Watchtowering them to the top of your deck.

And now you've got me trying to come up with a situation where a player would want to top-deck both the curse and the copper, and would care about the order...

22

Rules Questions / Re: Need confirmation about Embargo + IGG

« on: September 06, 2012, 04:46:46 am »

But do the embargo token and the buy effect of pseudo-IGG count as 'one ability' or 'multiple cards resolving at the same time on your turn'?

23

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Scavenger + Stash

« on: September 06, 2012, 04:42:51 am »

If anything you should go through my posts and take away upvotes. Not sure how I even got this many. I've been assuming elaborate practical joke.

You'll be stuck at 999 forever!

24

General Discussion / Re: Dvorak keyboard

« on: September 06, 2012, 04:35:48 am »

- If I need to give variables a name I often give them English names.
- If I'm writing a comment, I often do it in English.

Dude, always. 

Still, you do not have sentence structure. Like, most common English words, like "the" or "is" are not the most common words, the most common letters probably aren't the most common letters.

Still, a staggering proportion of words are more easily written on dvorak than qwerty. 'Qwerty', of cause, being the obvious exception.

25

General Discussion / Re: Dvorak keyboard

« on: September 04, 2012, 12:20:29 pm »

By the way, how fast do you all type?  http://www.typeracer.com

When staying at a comfortable pace, I do 70 with dvorak. I can probably write as fast with qwerty, so I'm not using dvorak for the speed. It is a matter of comfort and, well, effortlessness that makes me use dvorak.

Of course, that might be because I write dvorak blind, the 'right' way, while my qwerty was always some self-learned bastard-technique. And that is probably the main reason I'd recommend the switch: It is THE best way to ditch all of your bad typing habits in one fell swoop, and using a superior layout afterwards is just a nice bonus.