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Messages - Axe Knight

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151
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make up your own card?
« on: June 17, 2011, 02:24:16 pm »
While we're on the topic, how does one print these cards?  I was thinking of using custom labels and adhering them, but that may make those particular cards heavier.  Does anyone have an any experience using their home printer to print directly to the cards? 

152
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: June 17, 2011, 01:24:56 pm »
Any time you have a competitive environment, there's going to be trash talkers and a-holes.  Get used to it.  Luckily, they seem to be few and far between on isotropic.  I can only remember one time that I was really ticked off by what someone said. 

My favorite interactions between myself and other isotropic players are always after a good game with a lot of good play where we talk about what we did, what we could have done differently, and sometimes, play again.  I don't ever expect it, but it's quite nice. 

153
The card I hate above all else is Torturer.  It's a powerful card that leads to really unfun games if your opponent gets his/her chain off first, and I'm actually very bad at constructing Torturer chains, so that happens a lot.

I feel the same way about Ghost Ship.

154
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What would you like to see in Dominion?
« on: June 17, 2011, 11:26:58 am »
A $6 victory card worth 1 VP for each silver in your deck might be interesting - though that might be a little too powerful, as putting 10 silvers in your deck and spamming those would be a bit much.

A $6 worth 1 VP for every 2 silver seems a little weak next to fairgrounds (I'd normally rather have 15 different cards than 12 silvers), but a silver heavy hand would have no problem buying them all up quickly either.

There's scope for a VP card based on the number of treasures in your deck - A fairgrounds-like 'worth 2VP for every 5 treasures' would encourage silver collecting without focusing on silver directly.

I was thinking something like:

Silver Service $4

1VP

Worth 1 additional VP for every 3 Silver in your deck. 

155
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Pirate Ship in 3+ player games.
« on: June 17, 2011, 11:21:29 am »
I've slowly become more and more convinced that the various card powers in Dominion are actually best balanced for a 3-player game,
I can't say if this is true, but it's definitely the intention. Ideally any card is balanced regardless of the number of players. When a card varies in power level noticeably with the number of players (but is still worth making), it typically either gets better with more players or gets worse with more players. So the way to make it as balanced as possible is to balance it for 3 players (yes we supported 5-6 but those games aren't typical).

That said, Pirate Ship would not be my example. I do not think there is a number of players that makes it overpowered.


Welcome, Donald X.!  Glad to have you here.

156
Smugglers does not bother me that much, as I try to time buying an important $5 or $6 card with when it's coming up in their deck, and, even if they get it, it doesn't usually hit well that often.

Possession is extremely annoying.  I lost to a level 0 player by one point after being ahead 3 Provinces when they King's Courted Possession.  I felt like I was being punished for having an efficient deck (or just being punished for failing to account for the possibility that KC + Possession could cause a huge swing, but that's another point).  And if both players have Possession and the kingdom cards are such that they're sabotaging their deck to prevent the other player from getting a big turn, well, that's not a whole lot of fun, is it? 

I'd have to go with Treasure Map.  I'd play with any of the other cards mentioned any day over Treasure Map.  When Treasure Map is in play, it brings back memories of games like Phase 10, where I'm praying for that Wild card to come along to complete my run.  Yes, sometimes there are cards in play that can help you make trashing two copies go quicker, but I'd rather just leave it out entirely.   


157
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What would you like to see in Dominion?
« on: June 17, 2011, 02:09:15 am »
I'd love to see the final two turns of the championship game of the World Series of Dominion.  :P


158
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What would you like to see in Dominion?
« on: June 17, 2011, 01:46:30 am »
I do have a feeling that some "cares-about-having-silver" card is coming. The weird option on trusty steed, some comments Donald X. made in the recent secret history about cards that were scrapped, Bureaucrat, Explorer (when do you NOT want to reveal the province? Why is it "may"), and a couple other things. Plus Silversmith just sounds cool, and I think it would be awesome.

You SO beat me to saying this.  I would love to see cards that make Silver more interesting.  But would Silversmith have to be, "When you play this card, Silver is worth $X during your Buy phase", to follow Coppersmith?

I had a few ideas that would give you VP for certain Silver in your deck, or cards that gave you certain attributes based on a number of Silver you discarded.  Unfortunately, while these were half interesting in theory, they were even less interesting in practice.  I had another card, a non-terminal action where you would reveal cards from your deck until you revealed a Silver.  I wanted it to somehow be able to draw more than one Silver in a turn based on certain conditions, but could not get it to work. 

159
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Is Golem worth it ?
« on: June 16, 2011, 11:45:04 pm »
I like to think of Golem as having some properties of the Throne Room, as it allows you to gain +Actions without using them right away.  In a game with no cards with +2 Actions, the Golem can be a good way to get this, just play Golem with enough non-terminals and you're there.  It  is also a good way to cut through the clutter in a game without good trashing, or even a way to speed up reshuffling of your deck.  If you hit a card that gives you +Cards first, even better.  This is something that can only happen with TR/KCing a TR/KC---draw cards with a terminal action, and still have an action to play.  I've even experimented buying Counting House, a card that I never would otherwise buy, with the Golem in play.  It's also not a bad counter against hand-reduction attacks, or building up your deck after playing an Outpost.   Now, there are some actions that conflict.  In addition to what you mention, cards that force you to trash something late in the game come to mind, such as the Trade Route or worse, the Trading Post.  You may also get stuck playing a Sea Hag with no curses.     


160
It certainly would make that whole KC + KC + Masquerade more wild...

161
Introductions / Re: Who am I? Why am I here?
« on: June 16, 2011, 05:28:49 pm »
I am probably the least math savvy person on these boards - I'm a former English/Theatre major in the process of applying for PhD programs in Literatiure. I was taking a year to make sure it was what I really wanted to do and now I'm going to try to leap into full time academia. I might end up taking another year though - right now I work in an awesome coffee shop and spend my off-time dancing, playing music in bars, and playing dominion. I also love super-complex fantasy flight games, when I can find people to play them with me.

A friend of mine brought Runewars to a game group meeting one night.  Looked interesting, but unfortunately he decided to wait until 11PM...

162
Introductions / Re: Who am I? Why am I here?
« on: June 16, 2011, 05:26:57 pm »
Things my friends have called me:

Board Game Geek (speaks for itself)
Band Geek (piano and trumpet)
Crazy Runner (cross country and track)
Mad Scientist (chemistry major)

Funny, my friends have all called me those things at some point!   ;D

163
My strategy with Horns of plenty in action heavy games usually goes like this:
1.Buy 1 Horn of plenty
2.Use it in the early game to gain one or two more
3.Trash them all at the end for whatever you can get - Duchies, Provinces, even Estates.
Alternately, if your engine relies on lots of three and four cards, it can help you build it up faster. But most of the time I think it's a pretty good source of last-minute tie-breaker points that your opponent can't mimic unless he or she has also been buying Horns of Plenty. I've won a few games that way.

Never gotten it UP TO ELEVEN though. That's impressive.

I presume you mean in draw heavy games, for without being able to draw well, Horn of Plenty is not as powerful.  Otherwise, I agree with you completely, having several in my deck at the end of the game has been a great tiebreaker.  Another thing I like is that it's certainly better to play a card like Smithy with a Horn of Plenty than without; if I don't have any extra actions, I'm probably trying to draw treasure, and even if I don't draw enough, I'm still getting $1/differently named card.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

164
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Tournament + Black Market
« on: June 16, 2011, 03:17:12 pm »
Some cards just take on a whole different character with the Black Market.  Tournament and Tactician are good, but consider some other cases.  There was an "in-person" game I played recently where there were both a Remake and an Upgrade in the Black Market when there was no trasher in the primary set of 10.  I got both.  Guess who won?
It's basically never worth getting a black market just to pull a single card out of it. And actually, those trashers sorta weak, so I'm quite surprised that you were able to win against good opposition with them. Two cards, you need a weak kingdom. You usually need 3-4+ for it to be a good strategy, and in a strong kingdom, it's just never going to be worth it.

I wouldn't say I was going out of my way for them, and they're not the only reason I won, but it certainly did not hurt that I was the only one who could trash anything.

165
Game Reports / Re: University of City-building
« on: June 16, 2011, 01:28:22 pm »
It's a nice game, but some very questionable play by your opponent.   ;)

That being said, multiple Universities are a no-brainer when there are so many dominating $5 cards.  This is especially true in the case of Wharf , which only leads to drawing more Universities, which in turn leads to playing more Wharves.  Even $4 cards like Caravan combine well.  Donald X certainly met his goal when he wanted action cards from Alchemy to be worth going out of your way for on their own. 

166
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Tournament + Black Market
« on: June 16, 2011, 01:02:46 pm »
There certainly exist Black Market strategies; Black Market/Tactician being a good example.

This is what I was going to say, too.  Some cards just take on a whole different character with the Black Market.  Tournament and Tactician are good, but consider some other cases.  There was an "in-person" game I played recently where there were both a Remake and an Upgrade in the Black Market when there was no trasher in the primary set of 10.  I got both.  Guess who won?

Also, consider a card like the Trade Route.  If you're the only one with the Trade Route, you don't have to worry about the caveat of extra victory cards purchased causing other players to gain the bonus as well.  Possession also comes to mind.  It is certainly difficult to purchase with a Black Market deck, but if you do, your opponent can't counter by also obtaining one.  They probably also haven't prepared for it as well. 

Conversely, there are not some cards that perform as well in the Black Market.  The Young Witch is a good example, especially if there are other curse givers.  Theory also pointed out some of the downsides to having Tournament in there; by that point, a Prize may not be as advantageous. 

This can apply to practically any card with a major attribute that is not present in the normal set of 10. 

167
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Card Counting Strategies
« on: June 15, 2011, 11:58:11 pm »
I suggest keeping track of your opponent's power cards.  It can be helpful in the late game to know that so-and-so can't buy the last Province because all his Golds are already in the discard.

I agree with this 110%, and I've always done the same thing.  It's led to some very judicious use of cards like Scout and Apothecary when I know that a Saboteur or Possession is coming up.   :)

168
Other Games / Re: What other games do you enjoy playing?
« on: June 15, 2011, 11:45:55 pm »
My game group and I have been playing a lot of Notre Dame lately.  The game has many criticisms, but it is not bad as a warm-up as an exercise in simple game mechanics.  There seems to be an upper bound on the number of points possible (assuming you have perfect draws), and as soon as you figure out an optimal strategy, it is not difficult to get to 70-80 points or more regularly.  The expansion in the Alea Treasure Chest makes things slightly more undetermined with respect to strategy, but not by much.

I'm also still getting mileage out of the original Starcraft, and haven't quite gotten around to Starcraft II yet, but hopefully will soon.

If you're into non-strategy party games, you should try Say Anything, if you haven't already done so.  It's like Apples to Apples meets Loaded Questions and is an absolute riot.


169
I was a Mathematical Statistics major, and have tried to derive what you did, but got stuck.  Would love to see the workings of your proof.   :)

170
Introductions / Who am I? Why am I here?
« on: June 15, 2011, 05:05:22 pm »
Hello, all.  I didn't see an introduction thread, so I thought I'd start one.  I just thought it'd be nice to have a space to say as much or as little (but not too much ;)) about ourselves as we'd like.  Maybe who we are, how long we've been playing Dominion, what we do, and what other stuff we like, etc. 

I'll start.  Axe Knight is both my forum name and my isotropic name, derived from the old Enix game, Dragon Warrior.  I've been playing Dominion for about a year now.   I also like too many other things to list here, but mainly music (both playing my piano and listening), and photography.


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