A great tournament as usual by Elestan. There were a number of new attendees there this year, several of whom were pretty good. As always, the kingdoms were crazy, and the tournament ran completely smoothly. I ended up playing all the kingdoms except for one. My thoughts on them are below:
Set 1: [Triumphal Arch, Alms], Pearl Diver, Amulet, Tunnel, Vassal, Poacher, Secret Passage, Villa, Wild Hunt, Royal Seal, King's CourtHere I basically built a huge King's Court thing that played Royal Seal and bought a Villa in order to topdeck stuff midturn. My eventual payload was Wild Hunt. I built a lead and drained piles. This was a super tricky board to play cleanly -- most turns you can reasonably plan 5 or more card plays in advance. Against an opponent who also has their deck up and going, executing cleanly would be huge.
Set 2: [Shelters], [Orchard, Advance], Beggar, Embargo, Peasant, Gear, Menagerie, Miser, Pirate Ship, Hunting Party, Prince, OverlordI bought quite a few Overlords here, and only three Hunting Parties, as they were split between all three players. The real trick that I was able to use was to put my +1 action token on Overlord. Most of the time I played Overlord as Miser, but making it non-terminal meant that I could more easily activate Menageries and also control what my Hunting Parties found. Once I got my +Buy token on Menagerie, it was pretty easy to get enough money and buys to pile out.
Set 3: [Tower, Pathfinding], Beggar, Squire, Hermit, Patrician/Emporium, Magpie, Messenger, Rats, Remake, Trader, MountebankWhat I did here and what I now think is the right thing to do here are very different. I built an ugly deck that bought most of the Patrician pile and put the +1 card token on it. What I should have done is to hit Trader heavily. With opponents playing Mountebank, it seems fairly easily to empty the Silver pile for huge Tower points, and a deck full of silvers can buy Provinces pretty easily as well. You probably want some Beggars with your Trader, not only to get three Silvers off a Beggar play (revealing Trader), but also for Beggar's reaction. Alternatively, you could pick up some Rats early and Trader those, which could be faster, not sure. Emptying the Copper pile also seems possible (but not at the same time), especially when opponents are helping you out by playing Mountebank. And while the Tower points from Copper are even crazier, I think the deck full of Copper doesn't score enough points to catch up with the Silver deck.
Set 4: [Mountain Pass, Bonfire], Encampment/Plunder, Fool's Gold, Gladiator/Fortune, Transmogrify, Crown, Legionary, Treasure Trove, Capital, Hunting Grounds, CityThis board was fun. You Crown Capital and then double it with Fortune for 18 net coins on each Capital (and 24 on the turn you're piling out). There's a few ways to support it. I went City/Hunting Grounds.
Set A: [Aqueduct, Dominate], Candlestick Maker, Crossroads, Ambassador, Secret Passage, Silk Road, Walled Village, Artificer, Counting House, Patrol, StorytellerIn retrospect, I don't think my strategy here was good. I built a little-bit-of-everything engine that hit Dominate 4 times. But I think now that a strategy with Candlestick Maker, Artificer/Secret Passage, and Counting House is extremely hard to beat. Playing Ambassador against it only helps, in addition to giving away free Aqueduct points. With Candlestick Maker, you can use the buys to grab extra Coppers. Artificer/Secret Passage makes sure you get the Counting House at the right time in your deck, and even if the timing isn't perfect, the coin tokens can help make up the difference. I wouldn't be surprised if Counting House could get up to double Dominate here.
Set B: [Museum, Save], Lighthouse, Enchantress, Bishop, Diplomat, Crown, Bridge Troll, Merchant Guild, Swamp Hag, Goons, OverlordThis board was a little crazy, as the +actions and draw are both limited, but Museum points are very important, due to a few crucial piles being contested early. It's extremely important to get a Lighthouse out every turn, and the Diplomat reaction is key. I was able to win the split on Diplomats, which let me build a multiple-Goons deck that drew itself most turns. The Goons points were the difference, but it would have been hard to win without having quite a few Museum points as well.
Set C: [Bandit Fort, Conquest], Caravan Guard, Catapult/Rocks, Caravan, Feodum, Jack, Messenger, Taxman, Trader, Embassy, King's CourtStill kind of sad about this one. So obviously non-Silver/Gold payload is extremely limited here. All three of us hit the Catapults and Caravans early. I thought that I would have time to grab enough Feoda to offset the Bandit Fort penalty, but I forgot how quickly Messenger could empty piles. My lovely wife (
nana-king on f.ds) used Messenger to pile out while I still had a negative score.
Set T: [Dominate, Donate], Encampment/Plunder, Castles, Market Square, Crown, Lost City, Gladiator/Fortune, Artisan, Border Village, Hireling, Hunting GroundsThat put me in a 4-player tiebreaker game for the finals. Donate/Market Square is definitely the thing to do here. But there are a few different ways to support it. I donated twice and got a Hunting Grounds. When four Gladiators were gone, I bought Gladiator/Fortune, which I still think is the right call, but I'm not sure (as it gives other players easier access to Fortune). I actually missed a pileout on my first Fortune turn, but my lead kept anyone else from ending the game before my next turn, and I was able to end the game then. The player who built using Encampment, Plunder, and Artisan was actually able to get a huge turn as well once he got his Fortune, but he started out a little bit behind from trashing down too much at the start. I'd be curious to replay this and see what support is actually best.
Set F: [Defiled Shrine, Summon], Native Village, Chariot Race, Farmers' Market, Wishing Well, Jack, Secret Passage, Villa, Haunted Woods, Wild Hunt, ForgeThe finals board had a couple of tricks, the biggest being Jack/Villa (which gets totally shut down by Haunted Woods) and also a number of Secret Passage combos. If you're feeling ambitious I guess you could try to do Jack/Villa multiple times per turn, I only did it once per turn when my opponents didn't have Haunted Woods out. I also had a few Haunted Woods myself, which was extremely helpful for reliability.
I'm still not sure what the best combo with Secret Passage is. I'm tempted to say Native Village (which I skipped), since getting green cards out of the deck is really important for the Jack/Villa trick. Wishing Well is also nice since it's tough to get through the whole deck without it. But the points from Chariot Race are also really nice in a tight game. Anyway, I ended up Forging Province into Province a few times to solidify my lead and help get cards out of my hand for the Jack/Villa trick. And eventually I was able to get to a Province pileout.