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3301

Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: Getting in on the action

« on: January 16, 2012, 01:19:20 pm »

Visual quality is outstanding.  As is the game itself.

Is it better to have multiple, scattered YouTube channels, or one DominionStrategy channel?  I wanted to centralize it so that it's easier for people to find stuff, but it is a hassle to have everyone send me things to upload and honestly I would love nothing more than for various people to all be uploading their videos.

Maybe WW and jonts and etc. should just set up their own channels, send me links, and all the good games I will add to a playlist on the DominionStrategy channel.

3302

Dominion General Discussion / Re: News on forthcoming expansions

« on: January 15, 2012, 12:23:57 pm »

I'm confused.  Does this mean Guilds is coming a year from now, and Dark Ages is coming this fall, thereby skipping this spring's expansion?

3303

Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: My first video!

« on: January 14, 2012, 12:37:12 pm »

The original video quality was actually superb, since I used Camtasia on high settings.  What's frustrating is that when I try to record over it with Adobe Premiere, the quality just turns to crap.  What's going on here?

3304

Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: My first video!

« on: January 14, 2012, 09:40:06 am »

Thanks, all.

I don't think I can record any more videos until I go back to the US, so that'll be several months at least.  But hopefully this inspires some more people to make videos.  And maybe if this laptop can run Adobe Premiere, it can run Camtasia or something.

@WW: I'm consciously forcing myself to speak at roughly 25% of my normal speaking pace.  The annotation was slightly tedious but not terribly.  I recorded this retrospectively, not live.  I thought that helped me a lot, because I could plan what to say and not miss anything by mistake.

@Geronimoo: Feast was clearly the losing mistake.  I'm not sure that Lighthouse is the right response, since if you get hit while Lighthouse is in your hand on Turn 3 or 4 you're done for.  Smugglers, though, is a nice counter to Militia, assuming you can predict how good his hand is.

Also, the video is super quiet because I recorded it all with headphones on, before realizing how much quieter it is without headphones.  I recommend headphones.

3305

Dominion Videos and Streams / My first video!

« on: January 14, 2012, 07:22:08 am »

Here's my first attempt at an annotated video a la WanderingWinder.



Let me know what you think.  Specifically, as I was commentating, I realized that there are many things that I am thinking that I have no time to put into the video if I want to keep up with the turns.  As is, the video is already quite longer than the game was. Should I:

1) Try to keep the videos shorter and more real-time, with more terse commentary
2) Add more commentary, at the cost of bloating the video length out

3306

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 13, 2012, 02:59:06 pm »

Good question.  I didn't actually even plan for a Bronze game, but it could be a nice seeding mechanism for the next tournament we host (i.e., 1-2-3 get pre-seeded or something).

Probably random kingdoms.  I'm going to release the entire list of kingdoms and our comments afterwards anyway, so it's not like there's a huge benefit to seeing more kingdoms.  But I can be persuaded either way. 

3307

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 13, 2012, 02:17:48 pm »

Hence why I'm doing it with rrenaud: he is the engine representative on the committee and I am the BM rep.

FWIW, I think you can have interesting kingdoms where some kind of money strategy is best.  But obviously there will be no trivial solutions.

One question I cut out of the interview was whether you preferred BM or engines.  First, it's largely inferrable from the "favorite" and "least favorite" cards question, and second, people might be hesitant to answer truthfully.  And as Magnus Carlsen tells us: "Having preferences means having weaknesses".

Currently, there is really nothing to base your vote on other than posts or ranking. I've only played RisingJaguar and manzi once each, and both have sub-25 post counts here, so I don't really know anything about them. Maybe after the interviews (or maybe even if there was a set of "highlights" of the games they played in the tournament thus far), it will be easier to make a slightly more informed vote.

You can change your vote at any time.  I considered doing "highlights", but alas, it turns out "Dominion SportsCenter" might just be the single least interesting thing in the world.

3308

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 13, 2012, 01:30:02 pm »

His lead is shrinking.  For a while he was polling over 70%.

3309

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Deadly Border Village

« on: January 13, 2012, 11:44:05 am »

Solution 1:
Sarah has used quarries making BV cost 2, coppers & curses are gone, and the and the board consists of gardens, fairgrounds, transmute, apothecary, golem, scrying pool, bank, embassy, kc, and border village. 

Sarah is forced to take an embassy which gives her opponent his first silver and brings his total VP up by 21 points (gardens & fairgrounds) as he was at 29 cards.

This can also work with Noble Brigand.

3310

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What's the difference between a level 30 and a level 40 player?

« on: January 12, 2012, 04:22:14 pm »

I think Tahtweasel hits on a really good point: identifying when good cards are bad and when bad cards are good.  It's easy to assume that Chapel is always strong and Bureaucrat is always weak, but as I think we've seen lately, ironclad rules rarely work out well in Dominion.

Of course, ironclad rules can get you pretty high, and are good for strategy articles (else every single article would be "it depends!"), but you gotta depart from it sooner or later.

Theory's articles will tell you that Smugglers is a very bad card. This is a white lie to help new players, who fall for it as a trap card.

Whoa, I never said that.  Maybe you're mixing me up with chwhite, who appears to really loathe Smugglers.  I like it quite a bit actually, as a psuedo +Buy, when the conditions are right (no great terminals, not getting $5 or $6 isn't a death knell).

3311

Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: Annotated game logs vs game videos?

« on: January 12, 2012, 02:13:03 pm »

One advantage to videos is that it can be a passive experience.  The need to participate in the annotated game might be immersive, but it could also be annoying.

An alternative is to record videos without commentary, and then re-record afterwards with the commentary.  This allows you to speak more confidently and fill up time more naturally than when you do it live.

3312

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What's the difference between a level 30 and a level 40 player?

« on: January 12, 2012, 11:42:06 am »

I think the key lies in your playstyle.  Captain Frisk proved you could reach top 10 pretty easily if you did nothing but always win against really bad players.  I'm not as capable of doing that (e.g., I have doubts about my ability to beat the average level 10 98+% of the time), and instead raised my rank by being able to consistently achieve or slightly exceed 50/50 parity with the top players.  Either approach is a legitimate approach to raising your rank.

That having been said, I do believe that there is a concrete skill gap between the 40's and the 30's, and that it's not entirely (or mostly) explainable due to strategic opponent choice.  In my experience, I had about 50/50 parity with most 40+ players (certain players excepted), but usually achieved 60/40 or better against players that were stuck in the 30's. 

3313

2011 / 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

« on: January 11, 2012, 06:31:57 pm »

2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships: Final Four

Over the next several days, we'll be posting interviews with each of the Final Four, gathering their thoughts on Dominion, boardgaming, strategy, and their most feared opponent(s).

3314

Dominion General Discussion / Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $4 cards Part 2/3 posted

« on: January 11, 2012, 03:26:20 pm »

Tactician/Coppersmith is the easiest way to abuse Coppersmith, especially if you have Warehouse/Cellar.

3315

Game Reports / Re: Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry

« on: January 11, 2012, 02:25:22 pm »

That reminds me of Annotated Game #5, where DG crushes me with KC + Quarry + Pawn.  It's a pretty great strategy, I think, but totally not in my playstyle, and definitely has a ridiculously high time/turn ratio.

3316

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: How do you Develop a $4 card into two $5's?

« on: January 11, 2012, 02:10:11 pm »

I don't have the rulebook on me, but I believe it costs an Action to play an Action card only if you're playing from the Action card from your hand.

3317

Puzzles and Challenges / Perfect shuffling?

« on: January 11, 2012, 01:55:26 pm »

Chancellor and Treasure Map. You could do quite well with "poor shuffling", if you can make it believable enough. Or Philosopher's Stone and you're really bad at counting.

Thought experiment: suppose you could cheat and be able to shuffle any way you like.  Is Treasure Map the dominant strategy?

EDIT: Puzzle #1 provides one answer.  What if there are opponents?  Or if the Kingdom doesn't include the necessary components for Puzzle #1 (e.g., Chancellor)?

3318

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Unlucky seating position?

« on: January 11, 2012, 12:47:11 pm »

Don't laugh at him.  I'm permanently stuck on IE7 / FF3.5 at work. 

3319

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Alchemy cards in Random Set selection

« on: January 11, 2012, 03:45:13 am »

Valve Time

3320

News and Announcements / Re: BoardGameGeek Microbadges

« on: January 10, 2012, 01:43:25 pm »

There should be a PM in your GeekMail inbox titled "Happy Holidays" or something.  It contains coupons for three free microbadges.

If you don't have those coupons, and also don't have GeekGold, you can PM me on the forum (I'm also 'theory' there) and I'll be happy to gift you the 8 or 16 GG you need to buy the badge(s).

3321

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results, Part II

« on: January 10, 2012, 01:27:32 pm »

Good idea.  I'm going to wait for manzi v. Turambar (the last Division Finals) to wrap up, and then start making some new topics for the Final Four

3322

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Promo sales limitations!?

« on: January 10, 2012, 12:51:50 pm »

It might even give me an excuse to open up the cornucopia box that has been sitting in my office for months ;P.

I guess this might no longer be relevant after Isotropic dies, but I wonder how Donald X. would feel about your proposal of not buying any more expansions and just sending him $40 checks directly?

3323

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interpreting CouncilRoom stats: Huge 'Effect With(out)'

« on: January 10, 2012, 11:38:51 am »

Not that many in that particular situation.  So given that you hate Woodcutter, it'd make sense that your numbers for when you do buy Woodcutter are extreme.

3324

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Discuss: etiquette for leaving games early

« on: January 10, 2012, 11:16:50 am »

I think anyone can resign at any time they wish.  They take a loss, you get the win, but don't get to keep playing.  Which is sad, but they have their reasons for resigning.  No one begrudges a chess player because his resignation prevented his opponent from going through the motions of the mate in 5.

Maybe the way to resolve this is to allow you to keep playing solitaire after everyone else resigns.

3325

News and Announcements / BoardGameGeek Microbadges

« on: January 10, 2012, 10:19:13 am »

If you check your BoardGameGeek PMs, you all should have coupons for new microbadges.  Why not show off a couple of these DominionStrategy microbadges, designed by our very own Matt Arnold?
 
Here's the microbadge for DominionStrategy and CouncilRoom:

http://boardgamegeek.com/microbadge/22772
 
We can't use the Gold 3 image because it's already taken by another microbadge.  Grr.
 
Here's the microbadge for the DominionStrategy.com Championships:

http://boardgamegeek.com/microbadge/22771
 
Intended for those who competed, but you know, no one's really going to discipline you if you didn't actually compete in the tournament but bought the badge anyway.  Like rrenaud and me.