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1776

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Challenge: Hypothetical Exception to the Rule

« on: May 27, 2012, 03:24:34 am »

This thread is a great example of how you can methodically explore the design space.  Galzria's suggestion is a very natural twist on Great Hall that fits well into Village-based draw engines.  Perhaps it could handle having the condition relaxed to at least one action, which still works for the puzzle and allows it to function with cantrip draw.

1777

Game Reports / Re: If you want a really amazing highway game...

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:10:53 pm »

You're underselling it slightly:

— nii2's turn 15 —
nii2 buys a Platinum.

   — Wolphmaniac's turn 15 —
   Wolphmaniac plays a Smugglers.
   ... gaining a Platinum.

— nii2's turn 16 —
nii2 plays a Smugglers.
... gaining a Platinum.
   
   — Wolphmaniac's turn 16 —
   Wolphmaniac plays a Smugglers.
   ... gaining a Platinum.

1778

Help! / Re: Got beat by a Horse Trader, Hoard, Scout, Duchy strategy

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:03:24 pm »

I find the notion of an "early" Hoard slightly bizarre.  If you want Hoards, you want to be buying them as soon as possible.  I'm not sure what Gold instead would be for: if it would let you get a Province, then you're happy to spend your $7 on another Hoard, and if it's to let you get a Hoard ... ?

1779

GokoDom / Re: IsoDom 5: Sign-Up Thread

« on: May 25, 2012, 02:55:04 pm »

I'd like to take part.

1780

Dominion General Discussion / Re: An Ambassador engine: when to pick up the Curse?

« on: May 25, 2012, 02:39:30 pm »

Point taken all!

The log is intended to be taken as an example of good Ambassador play by WW, not good counterplay by me.

1781

Dominion General Discussion / Re: An Ambassador engine: when to pick up the Curse?

« on: May 25, 2012, 05:06:45 am »

As someone who increasingly passes over Ambassador, I'll reiterate what's been said a couple of times above: taking the Curse is a good way to penalise opponents who aren't equipped to play tennis.

This game helped clarify my thinking on Ambassador.  There's not much to do here with a trimmed deck, and Gardens and Vault are both good ways to handle bloat, but Fishing Village is enough to turn Ambassador into a devastating Cursing machine which WW uses to severely punish me for my decision to go more or less straight BM/Vault.

1782

Dominion Articles / Re: request - possession

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:53:53 am »

Explorer I can see as it would gum up the Possessor.  I'm not so sure about Mine or Mint, as gaining the improved Treasure could be useful for them (even though Mine hurts the Possessed hand).

1783

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Overrated and Underrated

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:50:47 am »

Yes, Oracle is brilliant.

This thread is interesting because where most people are fairly well calibrated it's 50-50 whether you view a card as under- or overrated.  Alchemist and Lab are a couple of examples where we have people taking both sides.

I'll add my voice to the chorus saying Ambassador is overrated.

1784

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dominion: Dark Ages on Rio Grande Games' Website

« on: May 25, 2012, 04:10:09 am »

"+1 Buy"?

There's no reason $1 cards can't work: it's more design space to be explored.

1785

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Getting discouraged with the game

« on: May 25, 2012, 03:43:31 am »

Almost all of those answers are "Silver is clearly worse than Gold: except it has a different name".  So if you're used to the puzzles, the question becomes nearly equivalent to "What cards care about differently named cards?", which is something that might be useful to know if you play Dominion.  The specific question is so particular as to be useless though: you'll have a negligible effect on your win rate if you always take the Gold.

I'm not sure how much you have to play before you pick these things up.  Perhaps more useful are helpful ways of thinking about cards, and they're something that you can pick up by reading this site.  ("Horse Traders helps me hit an early $5", for instance.)

EDIT: To not confuse future readers.  Thanks ycz6.

1786

Dominion Articles / Re: The truth about Jack of All Trades

« on: May 24, 2012, 04:21:09 am »

I think of an engine as anything that has parts that fit together to achieve a specific purpose.  That could be chaining Minions, Fishing Village/Rabble to draw Treasure, or Scrying Pool/Market/Peddler.  BM/Wharf is not an engine, nor is BM/Cursing Attack.  There's definitely room for Jack if you plan on building a serious draw engine.

1787

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card Idea: Investment

« on: May 24, 2012, 04:14:57 am »

To put two Hamlets on the mat is going to cost you two $6 buys that you subsequently have to trash, so it's not so cheap. 

From the wording I'd expect it not to stack.

1788

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ruins and Shelters

« on: May 23, 2012, 06:02:28 pm »

Duke is not a building.  Nor is Silk Road.

Ruins should probably be "you may", which makes it better and keep people honest.  Your proposed attack sounds plausible.

Shelter doesn't feel very thematic: it feels like it should offer you some sort or protection, rather than compensation for loss.  "Shelter" is also quite a weak name that wouldn't fit a strong action like gaining a Province.

1789

Help! / Re: I need help learning how to Torture people

« on: May 23, 2012, 05:47:41 pm »

Perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear: that's an ordered list of preferences, not something you should cycle through.  You absolutely want to load up on Villages, and will only pass them up for Torturers.  The Silvers aren't relevant if the Village doesn't cost $4.

Joking or not, O has it right: the game will usually be decided before VP buying begins.

There is an element of caricature to the above, but it's a good guide much of the time.

No, I understood that.  But what if you somehow manage to repeatedly hit $5 or more?  Do you just keep on buying Torturer, and never dip into Village?  At some point, you should probably prefer Village to Torturer.

It's unlikely to happen, as dead-drawing Torturers will reduce your spending power.  But if you found yourself with 3 Torturers to one Village you might well want to pass up on a Torturer for an extra Village.  At that point you probably need more detail than the sketch can provide.

1790

Help! / Re: I need help learning how to Torture people

« on: May 23, 2012, 05:19:28 pm »

Perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear: that's an ordered list of preferences, not something you should cycle through.  You absolutely want to load up on Villages, and will only pass them up for Torturers.  The Silvers aren't relevant if the Village doesn't cost $4.

Joking or not, O has it right: the game will usually be decided before VP buying begins.

There is an element of caricature to the above, but it's a good guide much of the time.

1791

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: House Rule: Making all alt - VP strategies available?

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:10:16 pm »

Could you expound on the "interactions between the cards" that you said was a flaw in the pick and stick setup? 

If there are Silk Roads and another Victory card in the Kingdom, then you have to make a call about what you want to prioritise.  If it's Gardens, you probably want to focus on the Silk Roads, but if it's Duke then you might want to plan around those.  This isn't really an argument against what you're suggesting: that would have it's own strategic decisions to make too, and there's nothing to stop you playing both ways if you want to.

1792

Help! / Re: I need help learning how to Torture people

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:01:07 pm »

To answer the question implicit in the title:

The basic Torturer plan is to open Silver/Silver (or equivalent), then always buy Torturer > Village > Silver.  Do not deviate until you've either won or lost the game.

The Silver is important to let you buy more Torturers.  Schemes aren't so useful because you want to be playing lots of Torturers in one turn, not one Torturer every turn (in addition to the downsides listed by ehunt).

1793

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dominion: Dark Ages on Rio Grande Games' Website

« on: May 23, 2012, 03:25:24 pm »

I think this sort of mechanic is plausible for accessing the cards that you can only get via other cards.  I guess for theming purposes it would have to be restoring things rather than being trained up.

1794

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: House Rule: Making all alt - VP strategies available?

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:47:00 am »

With so many VP cards, Silk Road is going to be very strong.  The "pick one and stick with it" could work, but it denies you the pleasure of seeing the interactions between the different cards.  If you want to see more alternate VP strategies, just make sure you put one or two in the Kingdom, as suggested by WW.

1795

Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Hamlet/Talisman/Fool's Gold

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:42:57 am »

This has the advantage that the Talisman and Hamlet each function well independently, so not colliding is not an instant disaster (it only costs you a single Fool's Gold).  But in the best case scenario you only pick up one extra Fool's Gold, and have to put up with a Talisman in your deck.  This is probably OK if you want the Talisman for something else anyway, but isn't a huge step up over just buying Fool's Gold if that's your only interest.

1796

Game Reports / Re: Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry

« on: May 22, 2012, 04:46:08 pm »

Dear Schtroumpf, I am sorry you thought I was a novice who only had a lucky draw. throneroom/feast is indeed a thing that can turn around a game. Though, so is opening throneroom/swindler and hitting my opening 5 card on T5.

That was a bit of a rollercoaster.

Opened Throne Room/Swindler...
They missed the reshuffle...
Together!
Hitting Copper/Cartographer!

1797

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Interaction Idea: Shared Tokens

« on: May 22, 2012, 01:39:21 pm »

Well, we already have one form of shared tokens - Trade Route

That's what I was expecting the first time I saw this thread, but I think the idea is that you have your own personal tokens, but that they're shared between multiple cards.

1798

Game Reports / Re: Hamlet + Stables engine (aka: u mad, bro?)

« on: May 22, 2012, 03:35:42 am »

Thanks for taking the time to put together such a detailed game report!

I'm not entirely convinced by the potential of Stables/Hamlet/Bridge.  You rely heavily on your opponent's Bishop, and if you'd both gone Witch then the game would have been much slower and nastier.  18 turns is a quickish Colony game, but you had a lot of help from pete26.

1799

Solo Challenges / Re: Request - Maximalist Garden

« on: May 21, 2012, 02:44:48 pm »

--with or without King's Court/Throne Room (can you even buy the last card of every pile on your last turn without KC?)

That's certainly possible: Highways, Markets and Grand Markets would be one way to do it.

1800

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan card that needs a price and name

« on: May 21, 2012, 02:38:50 pm »

Not being able to play multiple KCs or GMs is a huge brake on its power.  It can be a strong card, but it's just as strong for everybody.

Masquerade quirks can be tempered either by an act of god (send the card back from wherever it ends up) or by not having the card enter your hand, but playing the Swing as the card instead (with the downside of making the card less interesting).  I like the first option better.

Shrinking the deck could be a good idea, as 10 cards is a lot of flexibility.  There's a roughly 50% chance that the best card in the game would be in the Swing deck if it's the same size as the Kingdom, which is likely to be over-centralising.