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51

2012 / Re: Final Voting: 2012 Kingdom Design Challenge

« on: February 04, 2013, 01:07:12 pm »

I also picked #7 - it's the one I would like to play myself the most.
It looks like there's plenty of options and it also looks like it wouldn't give me too much headache while playing.

52

2012 / Re: Final / Third Place Match livetopic

« on: February 04, 2013, 12:43:11 pm »

Perhaps an "unpopular" set to balance things out?

Pearl Diver
Treasury
Outpost
Explorer
Farmland
Feast
Navigator
Nomad Camp
Stash
Laboratory

(Trading Post removed because it did make it into a final set, despite only being in 3 submissions; Black Market dropped from the eight way tie because the BM deck might include popular cards!)

This set could use an unpopular village ... maybe Walled Village?

53

Dominion Articles / Re: [WIP] The five engine components

« on: January 29, 2013, 03:59:50 am »

(Yay, more off-topic payload discussion)

When I use the term, I mean something that gives the engine its kick. It's a very broad definition. On one board, it could just be a ton of money for multiple double-Province or double-Colony turns. On another, it could be a combination on devastating attacks. On yet another, it could be a megaturn.

So this kind of ties into jomini's definition: I don't consider the payload to be the actual Victory points, but rather, it's how your engine is going to beat your opponent's deck. So obviously at some point it has to deal with Victory points.

(Or, it could also mean, "what would I play with my King's Court?")

I totally agree. For me the payload is whatever ultimately allows the engine to come out ahead. This usually comes down to how you are going to afford victory cards or gain VP chips or vice versa deny victory points from your opponent.

For example in a Conspirator chain it's the Conspirators that generate loads of money.
In a megaturn engine it might be the Bridges or maybe HoPs.
Monument could be the payload if you're winning with loads of VP chips.
Vault in a double Tactician deck.
Or a reliable Ghost Ship every turn to deny your opponent victory points.
Or multiple Saboteurs played every turn to destroy your opponent's deck.
...

54

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Random city question

« on: January 29, 2013, 03:37:00 am »

Haha, science guys vs. normal people.
I myself start counting at 0 like real men do. 

55

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $4 cards (Part 1/5)

« on: January 26, 2013, 02:09:15 am »

The card I'm surprised not to see down here is Armory. It's like Talisman: How many $4 and under cards do you want, and how many do you really want on top of deck? Workshop and Ironwork's best use is in Gardens/Silk Road games, and Armory is actually worse there. That means it has to really pick up the slack in other cases you want a cheap card gainer - when you want lots of cheap components and the like, and I'm still not convinced it's much better than IW in those cases.

WHAT?
Armory is by far the best gainer for engines. Top-deck an additional village? Or whatever you need at the time to kickstart your engine?
Add highway or similar cards and it gets awesome - then throw in Kings Court and it just gets crazy.
I love the endless turns where you just keep top-decking additional Kings Courts and Armories and drawers. *drool*

56

Game Reports / Re: Sad Scout Is Still Worse Than CR, Silver, and Nomad Camp in This Duke Game

« on: January 23, 2013, 05:04:05 am »

Yeah, Scout is the WORST. 

57

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: January 22, 2013, 02:31:43 pm »

What's your favourite flavor of ice cream?

58

2012 / Re: 2012 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 22, 2013, 02:56:58 am »

... even if you simply draw cards mid-turn, they don't say what cards you drew.

This pretty much kills it. Masq alone wouldn't be that bad.

59

2012 / Re: 2012 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 21, 2013, 12:14:38 pm »

For most Iso logs it should also be possible to backtrack the deck states as long as there's no crazy stuff going on.

"Crazy stuff" is only Masquerade currently, right?

Yeah, I think so.
And for other stuff it doesn't matter much although it might sometimes be interesting - like in what order was the rest of your deck before you played Chancellor?
When stuff is trashed I think Iso always writes what you trashed, so there shouldn't be a problem.

60

2012 / Re: 2012 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 21, 2013, 11:58:37 am »

Still, some sort of "replayer" functionality as some of you may know from various Poker software would have been an awesome Iso feature.
Maybe Goko? 

Oce Goko logs contain really all information about the game (some is still missing, but those are mostly bugs) it should be possible to make an external replayer that, fed with game log, shows how it went.

Well, that's definitely a project I could see myself using my moderate programming skills on. After implementing about a third of the cards I got tired of my own Dominion implementation. But I could use the code base to implement a replayer. For most Iso logs it should also be possible to backtrack the deck states as long as there's no crazy stuff going on.
Of course it would still be cool to finish all the cards at least for "hot-seat solitaire" play so you could take over at any point in the replay and try stuff.

On a more on-topic note I'm already very excited to see which of these fine gentlemen is going to take the win.

61

2012 / Re: 2012 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 21, 2013, 03:58:37 am »

Note that we are guaranteed a Europe vs US final.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

EU! EU! EU! EU! EU!

62

Dominion Articles / Re: Noble Brigand

« on: January 15, 2013, 04:28:42 am »

I think that the opponent opened Silver and you buy a Noble Brigand with your first hand, which does 2 things:

1) It causes your opponent to re-shuffle, making his Potion that he might buy on turn 2 miss the shuffle. That doesn't seem like the biggest deal as it's only a small 6-card shuffle and by getting the Noble Brigand you're setting yourself up to be late on the Potion as well.
2) It has a decent chance to hit the Silver that he just bought, which would set your opponent behind considerably.

63

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What to do here...?

« on: January 13, 2013, 03:01:55 pm »

In the absence of +Buy I might just go Venture, Hoard BM.

64

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Stupid Pet Tricks

« on: January 09, 2013, 12:20:51 pm »

Here's a fun situation that happened to me twice today in a Colony game with Feodum, Watchtower and Rebuild.

• Opponent plays Militia, I discard so I only have Watchtower + Rebuild + Something in hand.
• I play Rebuild trashing a Feodum, topdecking 3 Silvers with Watchtower, replacing it with another Feodum, which I trash with Watchtower, topdecking 3 more Silvers.
• I then play the Watchtower drawing 6 Silvers and buy a Colony.

I kept the other 4 Feodums for myself after having gained so many Silvers.

65

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Slow playing

« on: January 08, 2013, 03:17:13 am »

Hm, I never get why people do that.

66

Dominion General Discussion / Re: You play too much Dominion when...

« on: January 04, 2013, 02:21:26 pm »

... you dream about Dominion: The Movie.

67

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: January 02, 2013, 01:43:42 pm »

Congratulations to MrEevee. You played really well.
I also think I didn't have my best day because I made some really embarrassing decisions like ignoring the engine in game 4 - ufff.
Hopefully we can play again soon, I liked that we played one more just for fun.

68

Dominion Articles / Re: Rebuild

« on: January 02, 2013, 01:00:44 pm »

I disagree with the point about wanting to name Province most of the time. When playing a Rebuild strategy the most important thing is always going to be winning the Duchy split. Thus you always want to have at least one Estate in your deck and name Duchy (unless you have all your Estates in hand) until Duchies run out. This also means holding out on the Provinces until the Duchies are gone (otherwise you might burn through the Provinces, which can be useful at a later point when you're ahead).

On the other side, when fighting a Rebuild player with a conventional Strategy your first order of business should be getting at least 4 Duchies while building an economy. Why? Well, with 4 Duchies of his own your opponent is only ever going to get 4 Provinces. And while he has to burn trough his Duchies to get there you can hold on to your Duchies and buy the remaining Provinces. You still need a pretty fast strategy to beat them because then they'll start burning through the Provinces which you need at least 2 of (if you held on to all 4 Duchies).

If your opponent doesn't contest the Duchies however, I agree with your advice to name Province.
Of course this all gets blurry when Rebuild isn't the main focus but just used as an aside.
Also with alt VP on the board this will not always be true obviously.

Overall Rebuild is pretty hard to beat without utilizing a single Rebuild yourself. In the ~15 games I've played a 2 or 3 Rebuild strategy yielded 4 Provinces in 13 turns or less - easily beating BM+X. Unlike BM it also has no problem with choking on the green because you just start burning through the Provinces when you run out of Duchies.

69

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: Ruins

« on: January 01, 2013, 02:32:27 pm »

I was one of those who have Survivors on top. The main reason is that from my experience in Ruins games you tend to have a lot of crap in your deck and Survivors almost always helped in the games I've played.
I have Ruined Market at #3 because the +Buy just never seems to come up in a hand where it's actually useful.
Abandoned Mine as #2 because, well it's stlll just a copper and simply doesn't compare to possibly eliminating 2 bad cards from your next hand.

70

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition

« on: December 31, 2012, 10:07:59 am »

Yay, I finally submitted my ranking via the web form.
Is there a way to obtain my own rankings as a list for future reference?

71

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 25, 2012, 08:43:46 am »

How come I'm put up against the highest seeded player in round 3 after beating the 2nd highest seeded player in round 2? That doesn't seem fair.
By beating Lekkit, I should have taken over his seed.

It's the punishment for not leaving Lekkit to me.

72

2012 / Re: Chapel Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 21, 2012, 03:46:01 am »

I just played my round 3 match against DWetzel, resulting in a 4-0 victory

I just checked all 4 logs and I have to admit I'm blown away!

73

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 21, 2012, 02:57:01 am »

Lekkit, I'm coming for you!

... Even if you're coming for me, there's no way you can beat me ...

... he said not knowing that he was already on a path to obliteration. 

74

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Playing with DA

« on: December 21, 2012, 02:36:17 am »

When I started playing DA only, there was always some whacky combo in the kingdom. Sometimes it would give me headaches just resolving all the actions played (in real-life Dominion that is).
For me personally it was just too much at once to properly evaluate the power of the new cards.

Then we started to do completely random setups usually ending up with 1 or 2 cards from DA. That works much better for me, now i finally get to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the new cards when they come up in an otherwise somewhat familiar setup. Now I really love the DA cards because they enable some sort of engine in almost every game.

75

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 20, 2012, 05:02:04 am »

I would like to share the results of my Round 2 match against Powerman.
I didn't really care about veto mode, starting hands etc. so I let Powerman decide and we played with Veto Mode on, Point Tracker on and Random Starting Hands.
It was a very close series that went the whole distance with an interesting twist in game 6.

Match result: Powerman (seed 71) 3-4 PitzerMike (seed 173)

Game 1: Powerman 53-43 PitzerMike
The first game most notably featured Baron, Border Village, Bishop and Tactician. I have to admit I was a bit lost on this board and didn't immediately see the potential of double Baron turns. We both got an early Baron and Tactician and then added a Bishop and Border Villages. While I kept trashing the BVs for VP, Powerman mostly got rid of his coppers and then was able to play double Tactician with two Barons effectively buying a Province every turn at the end. The VP from the Border Villages was not enough.

Game 2: Powerman 61-73 PitzerMike
A Colony game with Pawn, Watchtower, Walled Village, Mountebank, Goons, Fairgrounds. Here I got the more lucky draws in the early game blocking Powerman's Mountebank(s) several times with my Watchtower while his Watchtower didn't do too much for him. The early lead eventually won me the Walled Village split and got me a quick first Platinum. From there Powerman could only hope to empty the Provinces or three-pile but I didn't overbuild and quickly bought 3 Colonies and then closed it out by emptying Fairgrounds.

Game 3: Powerman 39-60 PitzerMike
This one had Cache, Counting House, Crossroads, Harem, Merchant Ship, Native Village, Thief, Silk Road. Powerman went for Cache + Counting House while I picked up 2 Merchant Ships with early 5s and a Crossroads and then only bought Harems and Provinces for the rest of the game. I think with the Crossroads + Harem synergy Counting House just wasn't ever going to be fast enough.

Game 4: Powerman 42-24 PitzerMike
An interesting board with the following cards: Chapel, Develop, Embargo, Explorer, Hoard, Militia, Remake, Scheme, Trading Post, and Vault. Initially I wasn't really sure if I wanted to open Chapel and was considering a BM + Vault strategy. Then Powerman opened Chapel / Vault and I wasn't really sure what to do with my 3 / 4 opening so I followed him with Chapel / Militia hoping to slow him down with Militia. Well it turns out, in a trimmed down deck Hoard is much stronger than normally, as Powerman kickstarted his economy with early Duchy buys with Hoard in play. With double Vault he didn't have any trouble closing it out on Provinces. I myself just got stuck with too many terminals and a Chapel that didn't do what I wanted.

Game 5: Powerman 36-14 PitzerMike
Adventurer, Ambassador, Border Village, Cartographer, Courtyard, Duke, Mint, Mountebank, Philosopher's Stone and Smugglers. Mountebank wasn't really an option, so I opened Cartographer / Courtyard into double Ambassador as a response to Powerman's double Ambassador opening. After adding another Cartographer I felt like I was in good shape to win the Ambassador war but somehow I never could hit 6$ for the important Border Village + Cartographer buy. Powerman did, so was able to get ahead and start to reliably draw his deck and play 2 or 3 Ambassadors per turn. As usual there was no coming back at this point. To add insult to injury Powerman added a Mountebank later on to completely flood my deck with crap. I just sat it out to the end - thinking about my mistakes in the past games.

Game 6: Powerman 14-18 PitzerMike
Game 6 had a very interesting setup with Alchemist, Ambassador, Counting House, Fishing Village, Golem, Horn of Plenty, Ill-Gotten Gains, Nobles, Venture, and Village. Although there were Ambassadors I thought I could do well with an IGG opening if I just added an Ambassador on turn 3 or 4. Also I thought with the economy from IGG I could grab early Nobles and paired with the cheap villages it would allow me to draw large portions of my deck and Ambassador my opponent to death - figuratively. It turned out quite differently. The IGGs did indeed help me gain Nobles, but the additional Coppers just clogged me up too much. So while I was sitting ducks AGAIN Powerman cleared out his deck with Ambassadors and added Alchemists in the process. At the point where he passed me Curses and Estates in threes per turn I was all but dead and Powerman clearly felt like he had the upper hand too. He overlooked the Nobles, Estates and Curses running out. At the end I was able to empty the last Estates and Curses by Ambassadoring Estates without returning any and buying Curses. Powerman had a really good deck but too little economy to react in time. Puh, I got away with a black eye there - so the last game would decide.

Game 7: Powerman 26-33 PitzerMike
The final game had Baron, Council Room, Forge, Fortune Teller, Harvest, Margrave, Monument, Tribute, Watchtower, Young Witch and Wishing Well as the bane. I don't know why, but I felt that Monument / Wishing Well was a good opening here. I did get really lucky with my shuffle on turn 4 where I wished for a 5th copper and together with Monument that made 7$ for a very early Forge against Powerman's Young Witch opening. At this point I was already smelling victory. After misclicking two Forge plays (one minor) it got closer than it should have been but I was able to pull through.

Overall I think we both had our bright moments and then again some horrible blunders - I hope Powerman doesn't mind my saying that. I think we were about equally skilled and I was the luckier player this time around. I did really enjoy our series and I hope we will play again someday.

Lekkit, I'm coming for you!