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201

Dominion General Discussion / A rule of thumb on three-piling

« on: May 01, 2012, 05:07:52 pm »

If you are winning, don't make buys just to set yourself up for a three-pile on a future turn.

I've made this mistake too many times. "I'm ahead by a lot, I've played a bunch of wharves this turn, and I'm up by 4 points - let's just buy 4 estates [pearl divers] and end this for good next turn."

Don't do it. Yes, the probable result is that you'll win the game in a turn. But two things can happen: your opponent can get unrealistically lucky with his junk deck and terrible strategy, and buy those last four estates and a province for himself, or your four wharves can draw all the bad cards in your deck, giving your opponent a turn to catch up. Unlikely? Yes, but you're exchanging a definite slow win (which a province buy would give you) for a very likely fast win. People who complain about luck often make this mistake.

This is just a rule of thumb. Below is an exception, I'm sure there are more. (I don't count it as an exception when setting up the three-piling is also significantly helping your score relative to anything else you could buy, e.g., if you've played a bunch of goons.)
Exceptional scenario - your opponent's deck will become overwhelmingly dominant in a few turns, but has no chance of becoming so in the next turn or two. Maybe your opponent just bought a potion and will be able to possess you regularly once he gets possession. Or maybe his scrying pool deck is all set to draw itself every turn but doesn't have enough money yet.

202

Puzzles and Challenges / In which Sarah buys a duchy

« on: April 28, 2012, 04:01:45 pm »

Sarah's hand's pretty boring in this two player game: Copper, copper, copper, silver, estate. She plays her money and buys a duchy. Her score goes up. What's the most it can go up? What's the least?

My answers (no explanation under spoilers, just numbers - better answers may be possible):
Least: Sarah can lose as many as seven points by buying that duchy.
Most: Sarah can gain at least forty eight points by buying that duchy.

203

Variants and Fan Cards / Tournament nerf

« on: February 10, 2012, 11:24:08 pm »

Same card, never gives +1 coin, always gives +1 card (so opponents don't reveal provinces.)

204

Dominion General Discussion / What is the worst card in Dominion?

« on: February 08, 2012, 02:00:34 am »

Rules:

1. "Worst" means bad at causing you to win, not annoying or unenjoyable.

2. Consider the price of the card as part of its set of advantages/disadvantages.

3. You are not allowed to bring up any standard complaint about card rankings!

4. Polemics and angry defenses encouraged.

5. Kingdom cards only. Leaving a comment saying "curse" is permitted, but not clever.

edit: to be clear - the cards in the poll aren't all even in my bottom twenty, they're just cards I think people will be likely to vote for. If you vote 'other', post your vote, and I'll make it a poll option.

205

Game Reports / forcing careful reshuffles.

« on: February 07, 2012, 02:00:28 pm »

I think my opponent's strategy (mono-bishop) is probably better on this board, but I got to do something cool tactically in this game that I've never seen before. There's xroads + great hall, and we get to the point where my deck will buy a province whenever I start with an xroads in hand and will give me basically nothing when I don't. That's when I realize that at the end of a good turn, I can use horsetraders to drop two xroads, and great hall to force a reshuffle. Thus I start each turn with an xroads.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/07/game-20120207-105645-ba611eff.html

206

Game Reports / Abusive Gardening

« on: February 03, 2012, 11:31:21 pm »

I got a little lucky on turn 5, where, by "a little," I mean that if it was my opponent that had gotten this lucky, I would certainly have ragequit, perhaps even without a perfunctory "gg."

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/03/game-20120203-202913-ee7140c7.html

Still, I think this is a cute board with lots of interactions.

207

Rules Questions / What is the "lose track" rule?

« on: January 26, 2012, 01:07:45 am »

(I'm not asking for an official wording- just an expository account and some examples.)

208

Game Reports / Duchess is great in this game!

« on: January 22, 2012, 03:56:17 pm »

As second player, I lose the scrying pool split, but it's not too brutal thanks to scheme. I have plenty of extra actions and I'm drawing my deck anyway, so I prefer duchess to silver, and even to navigator (just for the cheapness - the friendly spy is a mild drawback in the scrying pool game, although not really, as my opponent's drawing his whole deck as well.)

Then to top it off, the duchess lets me three-pile the game while still buying enough victory points to overcome my opponent's defensive province buy, something it's typically very hard to do as second player.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120116-154340-4a9b58fa.html

209

Game Reports / What does Jack long for?

« on: January 19, 2012, 11:31:03 pm »

I lose a game with Jack/Hunting Party/Bishop on the table.

When my opponent opened bishop, I thought he was throwing the game. Not so much! He's ahead the whole game. I get a lucky turn 3 hand of silver copper copper copper copper, then throw a copper to one of his bishop's and buy a hunting party. I suspect that this was my mistake; Jack might want me to trash coppers a little, but he really doesn't care if I hunt or not, and he really wants me to buy a turn 3 gold.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201201/19/game-20120119-202812-71b3336f.html

210

Help! / Crushed!

« on: January 16, 2012, 05:53:14 pm »

What would y'all do with this board? (Including the veto strategy! I want to veto... all the cards.) I was a little unlucky to miss the potion on the first shuffle, but after that there was a little while I thought I was ahead. But then PerdHapley saw the Silk Roads (which were invisible to me) and it wasn't even close.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201201/16/game-20120116-145036-dcc6d351.html

211

Dominion General Discussion / Combo: ridiculous card + scheme + outpost

« on: January 15, 2012, 11:24:36 pm »

the two candidates for ridiculous card are menagerie and scrying pool.

212

Puzzles and Challenges / MIT Mystery Hunt Dominion Puzzle

« on: January 15, 2012, 04:34:34 pm »

Pretty fun! You may need a password to log in for the next few hours. (I am giving away a little when I say it's a Dominion puzzle, but it would not have taken any of you very much time to figure that out...)

(new link posted in post below)

213

Variants and Fan Cards / Team Dominion

« on: January 10, 2012, 06:00:36 pm »

We tried this IRL last night. Your partner sits across from you and there are 4 players. All rules exactly as in Dominion, except the win condition is that your combined score should exceed the opposing teams' combined scores (same tiebreaker rule.) Pretty good game; the problem is that it's not so different from Dominion (though there are many cases like Swindler, Pirate Ship, where the strategy is quite different). The most interesting thing is the strategy discussion - what are you willing to tell your partner?

214

Puzzles and Challenges / In which Sarah king's courts a golem

« on: January 03, 2012, 12:08:19 am »

Sarah is behind by just one point in a colony game, two piles are empty, and there's only one duchy left. This is good news for Sarah, because it's the beginning of her turn, and her hand (thanks to some Council Rooms) is

Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum Platinum King's Court Golem.

There are just two cards in Sarah's deck, and no cards in her discard pile. Out of habit, she king's courts the golem. Some stuff happens, none of which requires anybody to make any choices. Now it's her buy phase, and no matter what she buys, the game will be over and she loses. What were the two cards? 

215

Dominion General Discussion / Frustrating Hands

« on: December 14, 2011, 10:03:08 pm »

OK, certainly Baron Copper Copper Copper Copper and a king's court without a lover. But what about:

Menagerie Explorer Explorer Shanty Town Silver?

216

Game Reports / Great board

« on: December 12, 2011, 11:12:39 am »

I lose by a lot, but it's a really interesting board. King's Court, cards that go well wtih king's court, young witch, tunnel, and chapel. How much gold do you want??
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/12/game-20111212-081142-5fc8827a.html

217

Puzzles and Challenges / Buying the last province

« on: December 11, 2011, 04:02:54 pm »

In a 2 player game, Daniel is ahead of his opponent by x points, and it's his turn. His hand is gold silver silver copper province, and there's only one province left. What is the maximum value of x such that buying this last province can cause Daniel to lose the game? (My answer, a number with no explanation, is below spoiler tags - I can't guarantee that no one will find a higher number!)


20

218

Dominion General Discussion / When should you use Fool's Gold's reaction ability?

« on: December 11, 2011, 03:57:17 pm »

Actually, there's very little to say here that's not already in the title. I almost never use it, but won a game using it this morning when my opponent bought a province early and I had three in hand. Usually it causes me a little angst, then I decide not to use it, because hey, I've committed to this fool's gold strategy. But I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't totally wrong.

219

Game Reports / familiar

« on: December 01, 2011, 10:28:38 am »

Just lost a colony game with familiars where I opened potion/steward and my opponent opened treasure map / steward, foregoing alchemy entirely. I thought he was toast on turn 3, but I wound up losing. Looking at the log, my third familiar should have been an apothecary and my expand should have been a gold. Anything else I could do? Was my opening just wrong?

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/01/game-20111201-072540-55de9425.html

220

Dominion General Discussion / Tiny note on duchess

« on: November 11, 2011, 06:32:07 pm »

The duchess's spy ability is slightly more likely to help your opponent than you, as it's more likely that your opponent has some means of drawing his top card during his next turn than that you do during this one (since you've played a terminal action) and there's a general principle in dominion that the sooner something good happens, the better*. This should not normally affect anyone's decision of whether or not to buy/gain duchess.

221

Dominion General Discussion / Ill-Gotten Gains + Counting House

« on: November 07, 2011, 04:38:17 pm »

Normally, this is a bad idea, because the IGG and curse piles run out simultaneously, and you don't want to be messing around with bad cards like counting house when you're supposed to be winning the race to eight duchies.

However, occasionally there is asymmetrical cursing, e.g. if your opponent opens sea hag and you decide to buy IGGs, or due to watchtower. Then the curse pile will empty, but, if there are, say, 3 IGGs left, that second pile is very unlikely to empty, and the probability of a quick three-pile is the same as in an ordinary sea hag game. In this event, counting house goes really well with the IGGs after the curse pile is gone, the point being that you can have your cake and eat it too with the extra coppers. Agree/disagree?

Related question: I don't think there's consensus yet on which cursers can be skipped for IGG (my wild guesses: skip sea hag, don't skip mountebank and familiar, otherwise ??).

Basically, I don't understand IGG at all. Say anything helpful.

222

Dominion General Discussion / Very Specific Tactics Question

« on: November 05, 2011, 10:24:00 pm »

My deck has plenty of junk and green cards in it, and some money and pawns and familiars.

My hand is

Farming Village Cartographer Cartographer x x

where I don't remember the x's, but they're bad (let's say copper curse). What order do I play the actions in?

223

Dominion Isotropic / Minor Governor Bug

« on: October 22, 2011, 11:19:12 pm »

In the next to last turn of this game, my opponent plays governor and I trash king's court to gain a province. The king's court appears to stay in my hand, but disappears at the start of the next turn. Weirdly, when the same thing happens during my opponent's next turn, the king's court goes away at the right time.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201110/22/game-20111022-201634-a4ae2237.html

224

Dominion Isotropic / Ill-Gotten Gains + Grand Market

« on: October 17, 2011, 08:05:09 pm »

I think the computer incorrectly plays my coppers automatically when I have 6 w/o copper (via ill-gotten gainses).

225

Dominion General Discussion / Is border village a trap?

« on: October 16, 2011, 03:44:29 pm »

Two banal observations:

1. Times one certainly buys border village: there's a card that costs less than 6 which you would prefer to gold if border village weren't on the board. Example: late game duchy, minion (often), wharf (often). Barring unusual circumstances (e.g. fear of emptying a pile), you'll always buy border village in these cases.

2. Times one certainly doesn't buy border village: there's no card on the board costing 5 or less such that you prefer (that card + village) to gold.

These are obvious.

The "trap" I'm referring to is for "in between" fives: cards you'd never consider taking over a gold, but might consider taking if they come with a free village. I've lost about a billion games within the span of the last day just by failing to compute which cards are worth picking up over gold (with a free village) and which aren't.

Any rules of thumb? My limited games so far suggest that in essentially all of these borderline cases, the free village isn't worth it, i.e., you shouldn't buy border village unless you're in case 1 above (buying something you'd already take over gold.)

Anyone want to argue a counterexample? This is a card that costs under 5, which you typically wouldn't buy over gold, but that you would buy over gold if it came with a free village.