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26

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Disciple vs. Teacher

« on: January 08, 2016, 02:26:30 am »

The big issue with those Traveler cards in general is the opportunity cost early on. Sure, with a 5/2 you might as well get a Page or Peasant, but with a 3/4, sacrificing one of your early economy or trashing buys for some bad $2 is quite an investment. Even after your second shuffle you often want to get things going instead of getting stuff you don't really want at this point. However, that's often when I get Page/Peasant myself - after trashing and with the remaining $2. But I have no idea if that's good or if you'd rather get one on turn 1/2 (sure, it depends on the board, but there has to be a default line).

As for Teacher/Disciple: The great thing is, contrary to the Page carreer, you can really a bunch of those Traveler cards, since Disciple is such a great card that it's often worth the effort. Teacher on the other hand is REALLY slow and you have to make sure you REALLY need its effect. If you actually need it, I can also see cashing in more than one Disciple for Teachers (if you can profit from both, say, +$ and +card), since it's ususally not worth it to play one Teacher twice.

27

Dominion General Discussion / Re: KC is far more skippable than people think.

« on: January 07, 2016, 10:02:53 am »

Even if these things are true, that does not excuse the way he was treated in this thread.

He was treated exactly the same as everyone else, the only difference was how he responded to it.

As someone who is also mostly lurking and only posting occasionally (i.e. I'm somewhat more of an 'outsider' than most in this forum), I feel I should say something on this whole issue.

First, about this forum in general: I think this is a very open and 'liberal' forum with lots of intelligent posts and a very calm and polite tone. Especially considering the very light moderating, which I really enjoy here. From my experience most other forums are either more rigidly moderated or WAY more offensive and unpleasant in terms of manners. As for the content, I feel things get a bit overanalyzed sometimes, but hey, many poeple love to overanalyze and it's a forum. And of course there are casual to silly threads, and OF COURSE there are casual to silly statements in serious threads, but that's all balanced quite well I think. Sure, the call for more seriousness in serious threads is understandable, but a really clean forum would require a very rigid moderating, which would (at least for me) destroy much of what I like about this forum.

Ok, on to this very thread: First, as a mostly-lurker I don't feel repelled by this thread at all. Why should I? What happened here is that someone didn't react well to the - admittedly slightly boorish (is that a word?) - responses of the other users. Maybe the OP is a bit sentimental, maybe he has some personal issues currently, maybe he just doesn't react well to criticism, maybe he's just young. Who knows. And sure, maybe some of the comments by some users were a bit off, but that's the internet. People WILL respond to what you write, and sometimes you won't like it. This forum here is a rather nonchalant environment (in a positive way) - not overly so, but still. If you enter such an environment, you have to live with some nonchalant comments. I don't enter a biker bar and expect to be treated as if it were a posh restaurant. This might be exaggerated, but in essence I think it's true.
On the other hand, if after some dozen postings it is quite clear that the OP is offended or hurt by any of the comments (justified or not), I would just advice to let it go and not repeat the same loop of comment-response-react over and over again.

But as I said, I generally feel that this forum has a very good balance of 'being cool' about stuff while not being offensive. So yeah, in the end I myself probably wrote a posting about an issue I don't really think is worth discussing in great length. But now that it is written anyway, I can just post it as well.

EDIT: Btw, I don't think at all the OP is trolling or whatever. I just think he doesn't react well to criticism, for whatever reason.

28

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Amulet

« on: January 07, 2016, 09:17:35 am »

I've said this many times, some people have disagreed, some of those people are pretty good at Dominion. My opinion has not changed.

Steward is more often than not a much better card than Amulet. It is a better trasher because in most cases it trashes faster than Amulet (because it misses less shuffles) which offsets the slight flexibility you get by trashing one card from two different hands. The drawing option is stronger on most boards than gaining a silver because more boards are engine boards than slog boards.

After 3 games with Amulet (not a lot, I know) I tend to agree with this. Among the cheap trashers I think Amulet belongs to the bottom half, although most cheap trashers are good in general.

Sure, you can add more to a deck than Stewards in terms of terminal space, but it also trashes less effectively. Its advantage is that you can trash and still buy stuff for your deck (which is something most weaker trashers have in common), but missing shuffles, especially early on, is a hugh drawback here. Ideally Steward has trashed 4 cards after your 2nd shuffle, Amulet often has trashed only 2.

So I think it's good, but there's no way it's better than Steward. It might turn out with more experience that the two cards are more similar than I think they are today, but currently I lean towards Adam's oppinion here.

29

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Artificer

« on: January 07, 2016, 07:17:44 am »

I guess Artificer is a mediocre card in most cases, and a very good card if the board is right. It should be good in decks that are based on cheapish action cards (usually 3s and 4s) and with no (or few) other competing power 5s. On top of that, if there are ways to play multiple Artificers per turn, and/or you can profit from the decreased handsize (i.e. draw-to-x, menagerie, ...), it can become REALLY good. Of course you need Villages for most of those cases. And sure, it has some endgame potential, but I think you usually don't buy the card because of that.

So yeah, it's quite situational, but in contrary to other situational cards Artificer is almost never really BAD (like Counting House for example). So overall it's a fine card I suppose.

30

Goko Dominion Online / Re: What is the main problem with Playdominion now? (v2.0.43)

« on: October 27, 2015, 03:22:06 am »

I don't think "prefer on" would be useless, but whatever; Dominion, the game Dominion, has no point counter. If people tend to have no point counter in online Dominion, that's good, that's the game as intended. The point counter is there to be friendly to people who want it. If you can force it on or off then everyone who cares is happy, and no-one is harmed by having a "prefer on" option available.

I wasn't clear in my previous post, but I was trying to compare to a 3 option solution. My argument is that the proposed 4-option solution effectively works the same as the 3-option solution.

In my opinion, the canonical 3 option solution is for the options to be: yes, no, don't care. The default is "don't care". Players whose choices for "yes" and "no" differ won't be matched with each other. If I remember correctly, this is what isotropic used, where if two "don't care"s were matched it was random whether they had counter on or off. But let's say that if two "don't care"s are matched, that the counter is off, for sake of discussion.

Pros:
- Everybody who cares always plays with the setting they want.
- Everybody who doesn't care or keeps the default can be matched into a game with anybody (making their matchmaking better/faster, hopefully).
- All players, no matter what choice they made, can be matched with players using the default option.
Cons:
- People who have a mild preference for yes must select "yes" or most of their games will be non-counter, but then they can't be matched with people who dislike the counter so strongly that they select "no".

As I see it, all your Pros also apply to Donald's proposal.
1. Always on / off work the same as in your solution
2. People who don't care stick with "prefer on/off" and they still can be matched with anybody
3. Since default would be some "prefer" ("off" probably) it's still the same.

Additional Cons:
- You should have some bias as the default option. Dominion was designed w/o counter, so the bias should lean to that.
- Most people do have a preferences, but maybe not strong ones. I don't think there are many players who are absoultely neutral on that matter
- For two "don't care"s matched against each other, a coin flip would need to happen, even if both players were actually leaning to the same option.
- Without "prefer"s there is no way for you to give a preference, but still can be matched to anybody.

31

Help! / Re: Some league matches

« on: January 22, 2015, 06:52:19 am »

In Game 1 (Embassy/Tunnel) there was a point where you had 9 cards in your draw pile, with both of your Embassies in it (it was turn 10 I think). There you had $4 and bought another Tunnel. While I think Tunnel at this point is not very good in general (Silver would have been better), I would have seriously considered a Nomad Camp here to keep both your Embassies for the following shuffle.

Overall, quite some rough luck in some of those games.

32

Rules Questions / Re: Wandering Minstrel, draw/discard mechanics

« on: October 23, 2014, 07:33:31 am »

They go to your regular discard pile (you have only one) and you can draw them just as you can draw other cards after reshuffling.

yea. your office mate has some strange ideas here. there is no card in dominion that uses a secondary discard pile. there is only an exile, and that only applies if the cards are "set aside" somewhere.

Well, there sort of is, for revealed cards if you play something like Golem for example. Of course it's not a discard pile, but maybe this is the background of OP's question.

33

Dominion General Discussion / Re: silverspawn's Design Rankings

« on: October 23, 2014, 01:40:31 am »

While on the subject, any particular reason it doesn't pick up Curses?  Just not something you thought of, or was the idea not really to clean up your next hand but pull in dull-type cards mostly?

It just wasn't part of the concept for the card.

In general it is not a good idea to try to satisfy every demand anyone could ever have of a card, until all cards are unplayably complex. It's fine that Scout doesn't get Curses. It has no obligation to get them. It's not making the difference any which way. No regrets there.

I guess I was asking what the concept of the card was. I guess since it doesn't pick up curses ( which would only add two words) the idea wasn't "clean up your next hand", but probably "build a deck around dual type cards".

Well, he's a scout. He's looking for trails, exploring lands, including Colonies, Provinces, Duchies and even private Estates. He's clearly too focussed on geography to even bother about abstract things like curses.

34

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: October 02, 2014, 03:24:36 am »

Hope this hasn't been done...

epic

35

General Discussion / Re: World Cup - Brazil 2014

« on: December 04, 2013, 03:23:52 am »

Group1: Seeded Teams
Brazil
Argentina
Columbia
Uruguay
Spain
Germany
Belgium
Switzerland

Group2: UEFA, CAF and Conmebol
France
Chile
Ecuador
Ghana
Cameroon
Ivory Coast
Nigeria
Algeria
USA

Group3: CONCACAF and AFC
Japan
Australia
Iran
South Korea
Costa Rica
Honduras
Mexico

Group4: UEFA
Netherlands
Italy
Bosnia-Herzegovina
England
Portugal
Russia
Greece
Croatia
France

This is not entirely correct.

Currently Group 2 consists of only 7 teams (France isn't in there) and Group 4 of the remaining 9 European teams.

At the beginning of the final draw one team from Group 4 is drawn (randomly) and added to Group 2. Then this last Group 2 European team gets drawn to one of the four non-European teams in Group 1, in order to avoid later rules clashes (no two teams from the same continent - except 2 max. from Europe - may end up in one final group). From then on everything happens as usual.

EDIT:
So for the US, quite nasty things can happen, like Brazil, Italy and the Netherlands. Or Argentina, France and Italy. In fact, with Group 3 being the 'weakest' on paper, hardly any outcome would be very pleasant for the US...

36

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What to buy for $3?

« on: October 08, 2013, 03:02:04 am »

With no +Buy Conspirator is probably ignorable. BM would have probably done well on this board.

The missing +buy certainly hurts, but I would try it anyway. Open Warehouse/Moneylender, get Warehouse for <4, Treasury or Conspirator at <8, 1-2 Platina at >8, and Peddlers if it comes up. Probably no Gold.

The thing is without +buy you probably don't want to build too much and green as soon as you hit 11 for the 2nd time or so. You also want to invest more into reliability than in raw power (i.e at some point probably Warehous > Conspirator at <5), because there is no point in getting huge hands with only 1 buy.

Embargo can change things though, so you have to keep that in mind at least.

37

GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 7 Discussion Thread

« on: September 28, 2013, 12:26:24 pm »

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380374365516.txt
Secret Chamber, Scheme, Death Cart, Envoy, Marauder, Plaza, Treasure Map, Bandit Camp, Torturer, Grand Market
Torturer game. I open with Marodeur which he ignores. Instead he builds up a drawing engine with several early Schemes to support it. It goes back and forth for a while but in the end his superior engine prevails. He nearly threw it away in the end by emptying the Ruins, which would have meant a win for me if I were able to buy the last Duchy. Well, I wasn't (only had $3 plus 1 Token), so it didn't matter. I guess his approach was a bit better, but I do like my early Marodeur. Maybe Marodeur/Scheme would have been a better opening?


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380374824559.txt
Fortune Teller, Hermit, Village, Conspirator, Explorer, Festival, Haggler, Mint, Mountebank, King's Court
Nice engine board with Hermit, Conspirator, Haggler, King's Court, and Mountebank. Interesting enough. He doesn't hit $5 after the first shuffle, which gives me a nice headstart. Moreover, he doesn't keep his Hermits but deals them in early for Madmen, which I think is a mistake. You actually want those Hermits to grab tons of Villages to support the engine and trash stuff on the way. I hit him hard with my Mountebanks and finally end it on piles with a win.


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380375660651.txt
University, Death Cart, Nomad Camp, Remodel, Golem, Bandit Camp, Junk Dealer, Merchant Ship, Mystic, Venture
Colony game with Golem/Mystic being the main thing here and Junk Dealers to get things going. I'm not entirely sure how, but I get my deck together way faster and very soon have a big lead in Colonies. Ultimately he gives up and ends it himself with a loss.


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380376430571.txt
Fool's Gold, Black Market, Fortune Teller, Armory, Rats, Silk Road, Taxman, Cartographer, Merchant Guild, Fairgrounds
Probably the most interesting board. There is Black Market/Fairgrounds. There is Silk Road (but only Armory to really support it). And there's Fool's Gold. I don't know what I would have done with a 3/4 opening, but with my 5/2 I tried to outrace his Black Market plan by going for Merchant Guild/Fool's Gold. I probably made the mistake to also buy VP cards other than Provinces, which somewhat prolongs the game. In the end it's very close, and I think he would have had good chances to win this. Unfortunately he misread the score and ends the game with a loss by buying the last Province.

38

GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 7 Results *ONLY*

« on: September 28, 2013, 12:04:23 pm »

kn1tt3r defeats 2.71828..... 3:1

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380374365516.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380374824559.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380375660651.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130928/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1380376430571.txt

39

Simulation / Re: Feodum vs. Duke?

« on: September 27, 2013, 02:38:43 am »

Both strategies seem better than big money.  That's always a good sign that they are decently coded.

DuchyDukeWarehouseEmbassy vs BigMoney

DuchyDukeWarehouseEmbassy : 62.46 percent of the time.
BigMoney: 35.65 percent of the time.
Ties: 1.89 percent of the time.

FeodumDevelop vs BigMoney

FeodumDevelop won: 72.77 percent of the time.
BigMoney won: 25.36 percent of the time.
Ties: 1.87 percent of the time.

Well, it's kinda hard to find a strategy that performs worse than Big Money. The thing Duke and Feodum have to compete with is not BM but Embassy/BM, which is damn strong on its own (maybe you've done that though and only called it plain Big Money?)...

The tricky part is how much you want to build up before going green. Probably like 2 Embassies and 1 Gold, but that largely depends on what your opponet's doing. I feel that this can compete with both alternative strategies - maybe even a bit better against Duchy/Duke, which is a bit more predictable, and you can very well live with 3 Duchies and still be fine I guess (you probably want a 3rd Embassy if it comes to that).

40

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #3: Dark Ages

« on: September 26, 2013, 03:05:02 am »

Raid
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $3
Choose one: Play and trash up to 2 Action cards from your hand; or gain any number of Action cards from the trash costing up to $3 and play them in any order.
When you trash this, each other player gains a Ruins.

Way too powerful for $3. This is like a Throne Room effect. Sure there's a slight chance they steal your good actions, but okay, this is just too good I tihnk at $3.

But Throne Room almost works at $3. The $3 restriction on card gains should have an effect on how this plays out, no? Also, lining up Throne Room with an action can be hard enough. This has to line up with 2 actions to make full use of the first choice.

I really think the card is quite weak and deserves the $3 cost.
1. Aligning it with 2 Action cards is nothing you can take as a given.
2. You have to trash those Actions.
3. You can only get the weaker Actions back from the Trash.
4. Your opponent can do the same thing.

I mean, it probably could cost $4, but what would be the point? You certainly don't want to open double Raid...

41

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #3: Dark Ages

« on: September 24, 2013, 10:56:17 am »

Cultivate
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Choose one: Trash a Victory card from your hand and gain a Treasure card costing up to $1 more; or trash a Treasure card from your hand and gain a Victory card costing up to $2 more.
This is worth 3 VP if there are at least 4 differently named Victory cards in the trash; otherwise it's worth 1 VP.

So the restrictive combination of Upgrade and Remodel. I mean, it's neat, but it's basically a combination of exisiting things, and it's a bit wordy.

Cemetery
Types: Victory
Cost: $5
Worth 2 VP plus 1 VP for every 2 differently named Action cards in the trash.
When you gain this, trash a card from your hand other than a Cemetery.

I don't understand the reason for the "other that Cemetary", but well, this is probably quite weak. You have to buy two of them to get it equal to a Duchy, and after that you really have to commit for it. Buy actions, just to trash it, possibly only with Cemetary buys... a niche card at best.

Patrol
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
Discard any number of cards. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand.
When you discard a card from your hand other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, either trash that card, or put it on top of your deck.

So the action is ok. A bit on the weak side, but ok. The reaction is interesting however, so you can actually use it as a trasher or to draw the cards back right away. I guess I like it.

Model Village
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +2 Actions.
When you trash this, you may trash a card from your hand. If you do, gain a card costing up to $2 more than it.

The remodelling village... it's quite good with T4B, especially in the endgame, and just a normal village otherwise... I feel it functions quite similar to Fortress, but I'm not sure.

Tribal Man
Types: Action
Cost: $5
Gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action card. Choose one: Put the card into your hand; or play the Action, trash it, and gain a card costing less than it.
When you trash this, gain an Action card costing at most $5 that is not a Tribal Man.

It's probably fine, but what I don't like is that it's basically a combination of known ideas. Simple Spoils gainer, digging reverse Procession, and better Catacombs bottom part.

Disciple
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Look through your discard pile. You may reveal a Treasure from it and put it into your hand. You may trash this and another copy of Disciple from your hand. If you do trash two Disciples, gain a Savior from the Savior pile.

Savior
Types: Action
Cost: 0*
+1 Action. You may put your deck into your discard pile. Look through your discard pile and put a card from it into your hand. You may return this to the Savior pile. If you do, play an Action card from your hand three times. (This is not in the Supply.)

All around very interesting, but either I don't understand it or it's damn confused regarding thematics.

Renovate
Type: Action
Cost: $4
Trash a card from your hand. You may gain a card costing up to $1 more than the trashed card, putting it into your hand. If it is an Action card, play it.

This feels a bit strong, but can lead to some nice plays. Intriguing.

Brick
Types: Treasure
Cost: $5
Worth $1. When you play this, trash a card you have in play. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.
When you trash this, gain a Copper, putting it into your hand.

Clarification: Under normal circumstances, you will be able to trash the Brick you just played.

A bit like the trashing part of Counterfeit, but without being limited to Treasures. I guess it's fine, though it might be a bit too simliar to Junk Dealer - basiaclly it's a combination of Junk Dealer and Upgrade. I think I like it.

Bricklayer
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Trash any number of differently named cards from your hand. +1 Card per card trashed.

Intersting. So most times it's either "Trash two card, +2 Cards" or "Trash one card, +1 Card"... It's probably fine, though it might even work with a lower cost.

Deathmonger
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
Trash the top card of your deck. You may trash the top card of your deck.
When any player (including you) trashes cards, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, that player puts the trashed cards into his hand.

The reaction thing I like a lot. What I don't really understand is why the action part is mandatory for the first time and optimal for the second time... Maybe I just don't see the point.

Carpenter
Types: Action
Cost: $5
Trash a card from your hand and gain a cheaper card, putting it into your hand. +$ equal to the cost in coins of the gained card.
When you trash this during your Action phase, +1 Action.

Quite board dependend, but interesting. The big thing is probably to trash Gold during endgame to possibly gain Duchy + Province/another Duchy.

Necromancy
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $5
Choose one: Gain an Action or Treasure card from the trash, putting it into your hand. Play it immediately. At the end of the turn, trash that card; or each other player reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, trashes one of them costing from $3 to $6, and discards the rest.
When you gain this, you may trash a card costing up to $6 from the Supply if there is not a copy of it in the trash.

Quite wordy and too similar to Rogue for my taste.

Ravage
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $5
You may discard a card. If you do, +1 Action. Each other player with 3 or more cards in hand reveals his hand and discards the card with the highest cost in coins (you choose in a tie). If he discarded a Victory card, he gains a Ruins, putting it into his hand.

I guess I like it.

Junkyard (A)
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $5
+1 Action. You may gain a Ruins, putting it into your hand. Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded. +1 Card per Action card discarded. You may trash this.
When you trash this, +2 Cards.

Well, I don't really think it's worth it to spam yourself with tons of Ruins. But I could be wrong...

Mortuary
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Look through your discard pile. You may trash a card from your discard pile or hand.
While this is in play, when you trash a card costing $2 or more, +1 Card.

Hm... I'm not so sure if a simple non-terminal one-card trasher is a bit weak for $5. Probably it's fine...? Either way, it's not terribly exciting.

Pact
Type: Treasure
Cost: $2
Worth $0. When you play this, trash it. For each Pact in the trash, gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile, putting it into your hand.
When you buy a Pact, each player gains a copy of it (you get 2 copies total).

One big problem of the card (apart from balancing, which is hard to judge) is multiplayer games. With 4 players the pile is empty by just buying 2 of those.

Ferret
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may trash this. If you do, +$ equal to the cost in coins of an Action card in the trash that you choose.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a Ferret from the Supply or trash.

I suppose it's ok. I might even like it.

Incendiarist
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $5
You may trash a card from your hand. If it is an… Action card, each other player gains a Ruins; Treasure card, gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile; Victory card, each other player gains a Curse.

Neat idea... I guess it's fine.

Priestcraft
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $5
+$2. Choose one: Trash a card from your hand; or choose a card in the trash and each other player gains a copy of that card, putting it on top of his deck.

Another nice one.

Miser
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose two: +$2; gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile; gain a Silver. (The choices must be different.)

Not too exciting, but in terms of balance it's fine I guess.

Charter (A)
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +1 Action. Trash the top card of your deck. You may gain a card from the trash.
When you trash this, +2 Cards.

I like the idea, but this looks too strong. Cantrip trasher for $4 with no downside, but instead a bonus if you have spammend them... yeah, too strong.

Robber Baron
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
You may discard a Ruins. If you do, +$3 and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. Otherwise, gain a Ruins.
When you gain this, gain 2 Ruins.

What I don't like here is that it's again a combination of other cards (Baron, Death Cart). It could probably work, but I just don't like its 'free riding' feel.

Sacrifice
Types: Action
Cost: $5
Trash a card from your hand. If you do, +$2 and gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.

I don't think the "if you do" clause is necessary. Otherwise just not terribly exciting. I mean, not all cards have to be fancy, but Treasure Chest cards should have at least something special to them IMO.

King of the Slums
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $5
Look at the top 3 cards of the Ruins pile. Gain any number of them, putting them into your hand. Put the rest back in any order. Choose up to 3 Ruins from your hand. Play the first one three times, the second one twice, and the third one once.

I have the feeling that mostly it's not worth it. This is basically a 3-5 shot superstar+self-spammer... And it can be quite random. But yeah, I like the idea.

Astral Conqueror
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $5
+$2. Each other player gains a Curse and a Ruins Each other player gains a Spoils from the Spoils pile. This cannot cause a player to gain the last Curse or Ruins in the Supply.

Probably fine.

Smelter (A)
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
+1 Action. Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card of equal cost, putting it on top of your deck.
When you would gain a Silver, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, instead, gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.

Terribly weak I suppose.

Junkyard (B)
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $5
Choose one: Trash a card from your hand; gain up to 2 cards from the trash with a total cost of up to $5 and trash this.
Worth 1 VP for every 3 Victory cards in the trash.

The top part is quite weak, so you probably get this for the bottom part? But that's also quite weak and it might scale badly in multiplayer.

Alehouse
Types: Action
Cost: $3
When you trash a card this turn, +1 Action, discard a card, +1 Card, and you may gain a card costing less than the trashed card. Trash a card from your hand or from play.

Uh, this one is confusing. So the when trash only works for future trashings, not for the one the card does? Similar to the Urchin trigger? I guess I don't understand the card very well...

Ignoble Brigand
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
+$1. You may trash a Treasure from your hand. Each other player may discard a Treasure. If he doesn't, he gains a Ruins.

Probably ok?

Junkyard (C)
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it, putting it into your hand.
When you trash this, trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $1 less than it.

The on trash effect is interesting in terms of self-synergy... and the card itself is fine probably... not that we need another terminal trasher for $3-$4, but it probably works.

Heretic
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $5
Trash a card from your hand. Choose one: +1 Card per $ it costs; or +$ equal to its cost.
When one of your cards is trashed, you may trash this from your hand. If you do, put the trashed card into your hand.

Looks balanced to me.

Iron Maiden
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
+$2. Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards a card. If it is an…
Action card, he gains a Copper; Treasure card, he gains a Ruins; Victory card, he gains a Curse. He puts the gained card into his hand.
When you trash this, you may trash up to 2 cards from your hand.

This looks quite strong. Discard plus Junker plus terminal Silver for $4...? yeah, probably overpowered.

Satan's Workshop
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $5
Gain a card costing up to the number of Fire tokens in your Satan Pit. Each other player may reveal a hand with 2 or fewer Treasures. If nobody does, put a Fire token in your Satan Pit. Each other player gains a Copper, putting it into his hand.
When you would trash this, set it aside. If you do, at the beginning of your next Buy phase, +1 Buy, +$1 per token in your Satan Pit, and put this into the trash.

Setup: Each player puts 2 Fire tokens in his Satan Pit.

I honestly don't like those ideas with new elements and tokens and stuff. Also quite wordy.

Bargain
Types: Reaction
Cost: $1
When you would gain a card, you may discard this. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.

Looks neat.

Soldier
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $3
+1 Card. +1 Action. Each player trashes a Copper card from his hand (or reveals a hand without Copper). You may trash this. If you do, gain a Mercenary from the Mercenary pile if there are 4 or more Treasues in the trash; or gain a Madman from the Madman pile if there are 2 or more Soldiers in the trash.

Clarification: If there are 4 Treasures and 2 Soldiers in the trash, you choose whether to gain a Mercenary or a Madman.

Very interesting thematically. I kinda like it and how it uses existing non-supply piles.

Archaeologist
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. You may trash the top card of the Ruins pile.
While this card is in play, when you play an Action card, play a copy of the top card of the Ruins pile.

I like the idea, but what happens with the Ruins after it's being played? Have you acutally gained it or just played it 'virtually'?

Stronghold
Types: Victory
Cost: $6
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Spoils in your deck (rounded down).
When you gain this, gain 3 Spoils from the Spoils pile.

3 Spoils ain't bad, but i really doubt you want to buy this for its VP benefit. $6 is just quite expensive.

Garrison
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
Trash a card from your hand. For each $2 that it costs (rounded down), gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.
When a player trashes a card, you may reveal this from your hand and gain the trashed card. If you do, discard this.

Clarification: If multiple players reveal a Garrison, the Garrison of the player who trashed the card gets resolved first, the other players follow in turn order. Later players can't gain the card due to losing track; Garrison can only gain the card if it is still in the trash.

Looks quite weak, and I feel it might even work for $2. Fine otherweise.

Raid
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $3
Choose one: Play and trash up to 2 Action cards from your hand; or gain any number of Action cards from the trash costing up to $3 and play them in any order.
When you trash this, each other player gains a Ruins.

On first glance this looks overpowered. But I guess that 1. you need to have 2 actions to play in hand to use its entire effect, 2. those actions are trashed, and 3. you can only get the weak actions back. I acutally don't think that Ruins is its main use. Just playing good $2 and $3 costs is probably the stronger effect of it. Now, it's hard to judge whether it's balanced due to the opponent interaction and some insane Highway edge cases, but I like the idea.

Surveyor
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $4
+1 Action. You may trash a Victory card from your hand. If you do, gain two Treasures each costing exactly $1 more than it, putting one on top of your deck.
When another player buys a Victory card, you may set this aside from your hand. If you do, at the start of your next turn, return this to your hand and gain an Estate, putting it into your hand.

The big question is: Is it ever worth it to buy Duchies (or Provinces in Colony games) just to transform them into Golds? Maybe against Duke strategies? I guess it's a very good opener, which gets extremely weak during midgame and gets a slight boost once greening has startet. I actually kinda like it.

Smelter (B)
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
You may trash a card from your hand. If you trash an… Action card, +2 Actions; Treasure card, +$2; Victory card, +2 Cards.
When you trash a card you may discard this from your hand. If you go, gain a card costing less than the trashed card.

Looks fine.

Condottiero
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
+2 Buys. +$2. Each player (including you) may discard a Treasure. If he does, he puts his deck into his discard pile and immediately reshuffles. Each other player gains a Ruins.
When you trash this, look through your discard pile. You may trash up to 2 cards from your discard pile or hand.

Clarification: Each other player gaining a Ruins is not contingent on whether or not he discards; it just always happens after the discard and shuffling effects.

Probably fine as well. Quite strong for $4, but not overly so.

Angry Mob
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
+1 Action. +1 Buy. Each player gains a Ruins, putting it into his hand.
While this is in play, when you buy a Ruins, you may trash this. If you do, gain a Mob Boss from the Mob Boss pile.

Mob Boss
Types: Action
Cost: $0*
+1 Buy. Reveal your hand. For each Ruins revealed, +1 Card and +$1. You may return a Ruins from your hand to the Supply. If you do, +1 Action. (This is not in the Supply.)

This can lead to crazy games I suppose. I'm not sure yet what to think of it...

Charter (B)
Types: Treasure – Attack – Looter
Cost: $5
Worth $2. When you play this, each other player gains a Ruins, putting it into his hand.

Silver Plus for $5 ist common, but here the Plus is really quite strong. On the other hand, the junking is delayed by one shuffle, so it's probably still fine? I guess?

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

Uhm... so you can only gain this card without buying it. Otherwise it's like a Silvers and some $2 cost? This is probably ok-ish on its own (board dependend though), but the main action is really really strong. Maybe I'm wrong, but this feels overpowered if it's usable.

Garderobe
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $2
+1 Action. +$2. Gain a Ruins, putting it into your hand. You may play an Action card from your hand costing up to $3.

This is probably decent once the Ruins pile is empty, but otherwise the self-junking is just too bad to justify a sorta-Silver for $2...

Drug
Types: Action – Victory – Looter
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. +$1. You may gain a Ruins. If you do, +1 Card. You may gain a Ruins. If you do, +1 Action.
Worth –3 VP if every other player has fewer Ruins than you.

Thematically it's neat: Doing drugs can make you feel great, but it 'Ruins' you in the long run. Probably fine as a Peddler variant.

Street Sweeper
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $4
+2 Cards. +1 Action. Trash a card.
When you trash this, gain a Ruins.

Much too strong, and the bottom part probably very seldom happens.

Blood Feud
Types:
Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
Choose one: +1 Action, +$1, and each player (including you) gains a Ruins, putting it in his hand; or reveal up to 3 cards from your hand, play the revealed Action cards in any order, then trash all the revealed cards.

Interesting... so you want a bunch of those I guess. Gain the Ruins and trash it right away. Looks quite good, and I think I like it.

Barrister
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. Each player (including you) reveals the top 2 cards of his deck; you may choose a revealed Treasure for him to trash. He discards the rest. You may gain a Treasure from the trash.
Setup: Replace one of each player's starting Coppers with a Claim.

Claim
Types: Treasure
Cost: $0
Worth $1. When you play this, look through your discard pile. You may trash a Claim from your discard pile or hand. If you do, gain a Gold, putting it into your hand.

Clarification: In a 6-player game, the starting player does not replace a Copper with a Claim.

I honestly don't think Dark Ages needs another replace for starting cards... I mean this thing could probably work, but I just don't like the idea.

Mendicant
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $2
+1 Card. +1 Action. Gain a Ruins, putting it into your hand. You may play any number of Ruins from your hand. If you played two or more, +1 Card.

Again, I don't think you want to flood yourself with junk, just in order to play the junk... I'm not sure, but this probably doesn't work.

42

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Why Guilds is only for English Language people

« on: September 19, 2013, 10:00:17 am »

Some, more subtle, mistakes in the German translations were due to the creative approach to explain the rules in a more understandable way. For example, about the difference between 'gain" and 'buy' the base set rulebook says something like "GAIN happens during your action phase, BUY happens during your buy phase". Hey, that easy!

They kept holding on to that until Hinterlands (ignoring rules issues with some Prosperity cards for example), when they teeth-gnashingly submitted a rules revision (or something like that) explaining the "new" meanings of 'gain' and 'buy'. They must have felt like being betrayed by their own wits.

43

GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 6 *RESULTS ONLY*

« on: September 18, 2013, 02:45:53 am »

Important:

I've just PM'd Kirian that the pairings are probably wrong for this round, since at least my score is most likely off. In round 5 I've somehow gained 4 points, where I've actually tied the match against MarkowKette.

I don't know how much the rest of the pairings are affected by that, but, if not too late, you maybe want to sit tight for the moment to wait for what Kirian's saying about it.

FROM KIRIAN:  Yeah, at this point the pairings have been posted for too long; I'm going to go ahead and leave them as-is.  My apologies; the 4 key is right next to the 1 key on the keypad.

44

Dominion Articles / Re: Plaza

« on: September 17, 2013, 09:44:58 am »

Plazas can be weak when combined with other discards. This covers many many cards but plazas can work badly against militia attacks, with stables, with vaults, with cellars, with horse traders, etc. Rather obviously the plaza isn't great with cards that work on copper, such as mine, bank, or loan, but articles do need to state the obvious.

Well... 'bad' and 'weak' in the sense that it's a usually a normal Village in those cases. Sort of like Fortress without TFB.

45

Dominion Articles / Re: Plaza

« on: September 17, 2013, 07:31:22 am »

What's important about Plaza is considering reshuffles. Say you are likely to cause a reshuffle during your turn, you probably want to think twice about discarding Coppers. All those Coppers in the discard can stop a nice action chain abruptly, which wouldn't have happend if they were still sitting in your hand.

46

GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 5 Discussion Thread

« on: September 17, 2013, 03:43:45 am »

MarkowKette vs. kn1tt3r - 3:3

Game 1
Advisor, Coppersmith, Militia, Scout, Wandering Minstrel, Cache, Journeyman, Mint, Saboteur, Soothsayer
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379346287938.txt
Video:
I happen to have a 5/2 start, which is probably an advantage with Soothsayer out. However, my first SS then misses the reshuffle and collides with my second right away. From there on we both choose somewhat different paths. MarkowKette goes for a WM/Journeyman engine, which never really goes off (maybe a bit unlucky, but also not terribly so given all the Curses and Golds flying around). I basically go straigth Big Money, which succeeds in the end. Probably I should have bought a Journeyman at some point, but it worked out nevertheless.

Game 2
Native Village, Coppersmith, Horse Traders, Moneylender, Remodel, Silk Road, Baker, Horn of Plenty, Rogue, Nobles
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379347321970.txt
Video:
We both do the same thing here, which is a NV/Nobles engine with several decent supporting trashers. Horn of Plenty looks interesting here, but it never happened. Now, I win the Nobles split 5:3, which makes my opponent change gears and heavily go for Duchies. Just before he can end it on piles, I have my deck together right on time to gain 2 Provinces and buy the last Duchies for the win.

Game 3
Stonemason, Great Hall, Oracle, Storeroom, Tunnel, Feast, Nomad Camp, Plaza, Ill-Gotten Gains, Pillage
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379348418420.txt
Video:
Storeroom/Tunnel into IGGs. Yeah... I make a foolish T2 Nomad Camp buy (hoping to get an early IGG), but that never happened, and my NC was never much more than a dead card. MarkowKette can collide his Storerooms and Tunnels nicely, and cruises to an easy win.

Game 4
Transmute, Herbalist, Tunnel, Watchtower, Wishing Well, Coppersmith, Militia, Bazaar, Ghost Ship, Vault
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379349071308.txt
Video:
Tunnel again, this time with Vault. Now there is also Ghost Ship, which shakes things up a bit. I open Militia, which turned out to be a mistake, and went straight for Vault after that. He ignored Vault for some time and went for Ghost Ship with Tunnels purely as defence and reaction to my Militias and Vaults, which worked out extremely well for him. In the end he has tons of Golds and wins quite handily. I'm not so sure about the correct approach here with that many anit-self-synergizing cards and probably some stone-scissor-paper thing going on, but obviously mine was the wrong one.

Game 5
Lighthouse, Lookout, Menagerie, Sage, Tunnel, Farming Village, Ironworks, Band of Misfits, Witch, Hoard
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379350079680.txt
Video:
Another one I probably screwed up. So there is Witch/Lighthouse, which is most certainly the dominant thing here. I also see some Tunnel/Farming Village thing here, which of course never happened. So those are some bad buys by me, which probably made the difference in the end.

Game 6
Beggar, Forager, Familiar, Feodum, Sea Hag, Wandering Minstrel, Apprentice, Cartographer, Hoard, Nobles
Log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.505c84d751c3249282789115.1379351180809.txt
Video:
Very tense and interesting final game. We both start Sea Hag/Forager, but after that follow very different paths. I more or less try to build up some engine around Minstrels and Nobles I never got until late though. So my approach sort of fails for most of the game, probably also due to some Cartographer/Minstrel misplays. My opponent goes for Feodum, which I didn't see here at all. So he buys some Feoda, trashes some with Forager, and tries to run out piles before I manage to do my thing (and/or increasingly powers up his Feoda). I ultimatly manage to get to 3 Provinces just in time before he empties the last pile. Unfortunately for him he miscounted and forgot about the Curse he still had in his deck. So we tie on points, and I win on turns.

47

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #2: Hinterlands

« on: September 14, 2013, 11:21:16 am »

Travelling Salesman
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $5
Discard any number of Treasure cards from your hand. +2 Cards per card discarded.
When another player gains a Victory card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a card costing less than the gained Victory card.

I like the Action, but don't like the Reaction. The ability to gain Provinces in response to game-ending Colony buys seems too swingy to me and it's on a card that isn't bad to begin with.

Edit: Maybe the bottom part would be better like "When another player gains a Victory card, you may reveal this. If you do, gain a Copper, putting it into your hand" to make it more thematic and a bit weaker.

I love this suggested change (though the wording right now lets me gain the Copper pile). "When another player gains a Victory card, you may set this aside from your hand. If you do, gain a Copper, putting it into your hand. At the start of your next turn, put this into your hand." Would be better wording.

You're perfectly right of course.

48

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #2: Hinterlands

« on: September 13, 2013, 04:17:40 am »

Travelling Salesman
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $5
Discard any number of Treasure cards from your hand. +2 Cards per card discarded.
When another player gains a Victory card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a card costing less than the gained Victory card.

Okay, this one also interests me. Top part: if you have:
2 coppers - moat with filtering. (which is also how you'd describe Adventurer)
3 coppers - smithy with filtering. Not bad (compare Journeyman)
4 coppers - you get the idea.
Of course, you can also pitch other treasures, but you get the ballpark idea here, and I don't think it's unreasonable. So then there's the bottom. The bottom is fine, it's sorta interesting, it obviously makes the card better, since it's not compulsory AND you get to see the opportunity cost at every stage, and... I don't really like it? I mean, it's quite a strong reaction, totally messing with your opponent's ability to come back, mostly. They have to worry about buying the last province, because you just react this and get a duchy, and now you're ahead. Or you react 3 of these and get 3 duchies.... So I don't like that, and I don't think the card needs it anyway.

If feel like the reaction part is a bit overvalued. I mean, you have to discard a good $5 cost for the effect, so that's quite a trade-off. Sure, it tensens endgame play, but so does Governor trashing for example, or Smugglers, especially together with TR/KC. I agree though that the reaction is probably not really necessary.

49

Rules Questions / Re: Embargo token on Farmland with Trader

« on: September 10, 2013, 10:15:04 am »

How is Goko handling things like that?

I have never been asked by Goko to choose an order of events, at least not that I remember...

I tried this on Goko, and you gain the curse before deciding what to trash with Farmland.

Goko knows what the player wants.

50

Rules Questions / Re: Embargo token on Farmland with Trader

« on: September 10, 2013, 10:04:08 am »

How is Goko handling things like that?

I have never been asked by Goko to choose an order of events, at least not that I remember...