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76

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Battlegrounds

« on: February 01, 2012, 09:36:06 pm »

Hmm, I forgot about the principle of not normally being able to see the discard. Your solution is probably the best, though I imagine at some points you may have to guess which Victory cards they have in discard. It's thematically correct, though, since guerrillas need to know what they're attacking.

77

Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion: Battlegrounds

« on: February 01, 2012, 06:25:37 pm »

The theme of this expansion is deck control, since in warfare, maneuvering is everything. The reason I'm making it is
mostly a thought experiment on balancing new cards, so please comment on whether the pricing/mechanics seem fair. I apologize in advance for way too many Victory cards/VP gainers involved. Also apologies if some of these cards have been invented before, since some of them are rather elementary.

Guerrilla
$3 Action-Attack
+$2
For each other player, you may choose a card from their discard pile.
They shuffle it into their deck.

Pillager
$3 Action-Attack
+$2
Each other player must gain a curse, or reveal their hand and discard all Victory cards.

Comments: Useless in some games.


Collapsed Mine
$4 Victory-Treasure-Reaction
$1
2 VP
When another player plays an attack, you may discard this.
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase you may reveal it.
If you do, trash a treasure from your hand. Each other player gains a copper.

Horse
$4 Treasure
$2
When you discard this during your Action phase, you may reveal it.
If you do, play it immediately.

Comments: Just for laughs, since it combos with Horse Traders and Stables.
Also it passes the Silver test

Consolidate
$4 Action-Duration
+1 Action
Set aside any number of victory or curse cards from your hand.
At the start of your next turn:
Draw a card for each card you set aside.
When you clean this up, discard the set-aside cards.

Comments: Like a Cellar, but if you can time the reshuffle this is good.

War-torn Village
$4 Action-Reaction
+1 card
+2 action
Discard a card

When another player plays an Attack card, you may set this aside from your hand.
If you do, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card and return this to your hand.

Comments: Horse Traders variant, obviously. I'm afraid it may be OP without the discard, though now it may be a little weak.


Stockpile
$5 Victory
Worth 1 VP for each card name you have at least 5 of.

Comments: Likely very situational.

Counterfeit
$5 Treasure
+$1
The player to your left reveals their hand. If they reveal any treasures,
choose one, +$x where x is half the value of the chosen treasure, rounded up.

Comments: A venture variant. Silver, Gold, and Platinum give their proper value.
The dependence on the opponent's strategy may make this too unfavorable.

Retreat
$5 Action
+$2
You may trash an Action card from your hand. If you do, +2 VP tokens.

Comments: Likely to thrive in the same environment as with Vineyard.

Fortification
$5 Victory, Green-backed
4 VP
When you reshuffle, you must place Fortifications on top.
If a card is played that will reveal this from your deck,
you may place this in your discard immediately.

Comments: Late game Duchy alternative. The last condition might make the
drawback too weak in practice.


Siege(v1)
$5 Action-Duration
+1 card
+1 action
Next Turn: +1 VP token. During clean-up, if you played a Siege this turn, you may leave this in play.

Siege(v2)
$5 Action-Duration
+1 card
+1 action
Next Turn: +1 VP token. Whenever you play a Siege, +$1.

Comments: The idea is to pace your sieges. Which one do you like better?
Should it be $6 in either case? If one gets a slick engine with a majority of these, time will run out fast for the other players, which is thematically correct but of course that's no excuse for making it OP.


Strategic Position
$6 Victory
When you gain this, +3 VP tokens
1 VP

Capital
$6 Victory-Action
Set a Victory card from your hand onto the Island mat. If you do, +1 VP token.
2 VP

Comments: I guess it's kind of like taking Bishop and tacking on 2 VP, like Nobles and Harem.
You won't want as many though. If it's too weak, maybe:
Set a card on the Island mat: If it's a Victory card, +1 VP token
If it's a Treasure, gain a Silver
If it's an Action, gain an Action card costing at most $1 more than it.

78

Dominion General Discussion / Re: So what's it like to live in your Dominion?

« on: January 31, 2012, 10:20:27 pm »

inb4 awkward discussions of Harem (possibly worsened by Mine, Mint, Thief).

Anyways, I guess I'm a drunk, since I love Apothecary. If I can't win, I'll just drown my sorrows.

79

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Odds that olneyce has never played a Masquerade pin before

« on: January 30, 2012, 11:21:28 pm »

One possibility to consider is, for the fraction of games he plays in veto mode, of KC, Goons, Masquerade showing up, and whether olneyce and/or his opponent veto a component or not.

80

Game Reports / Epic Thief Comeback

« on: January 29, 2012, 07:04:47 pm »

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120121-180345-3da5ed61.html

This game is fairly suboptimal, but I managed to catch up after being behind by 40 points. My opponent probably did not realize that his slick remade deck had not that much treasure, and neglected to repair the damage from thief and greening. I don't know if thief was really the correct choice, but as it was, some luck and my opponent's lack of response won the day.

81

GokoDom / Re: IsoDom 3 Qualifier

« on: January 27, 2012, 05:12:16 am »

All games were played with identical starting hands.

FerrousWheel vs. jimjam, 4:3
Game 1: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-183856-11330797.html
4 to -2
I go first. My turn 4 is probably really the only thing that needs to be said about this match. I trash Bane Loan and 4 coppers with Mint, because I figure I can mint silvers quick and get Grand Market (a card that I overrate, any time I see it on the board I think of how I'm going to get it). It doesn't work out.

Game 2: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-184602-d34cd410.html
41 to 49
Ferrous goes for a Talisman Envoy/Farming Village Engine, while I go with a BM strategy: single Cutpurse. PPR holds for 5 turns as we run out Duchies, then I luckily manage to take the last two provinces.

Game 3: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-185503-02adbbac.html
33 to 20
The first Colony game! We get a 5/2 split. I go with Trading Post, Ferrous goes with Upgrade. He embargoes Duchy, I embargo Silver, he embargoes Gold, I embargo Peddler. Unfortunately I go too heavy on Upgrades and kill my deck. I should not have embargoed the Peddler, since I could have upgraded into Platinums, which would have at least somewhat justified buying so many Upgrades. He upgrades Provinces to do this but later he runs them out.

Game 4: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-190446-7c92de10.html
28 to 30
I mercilessly beat Ferrous down with Ambassador. How did it happen? Good shuffling? Looking at the logs on turn 5, he had an Ambassador, 2 coppers, a silver, and an Estate, but gives over 1 copper. Misclick, I guess. Still, he gets quite close in score, and unwilling to take any chances, I give him the last Province with Ambassador.

Game 5: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-192502-4e1e0d2d.html
38 to 24
Ferrous goes for a fairly straightforward Tactician/Mountebank deck. I, however, open Quarry/Hamlet, which sets up the grueling 31 turn slugfest. In retrospect Cartographer and Tactician may have made catching up with Rabble a poor choice, and of course I'm probably set back with regards to Mountebank (though in the end he ended up taking 6 curses). Moreover I neither get enough money playing terminal silvers, nor bother to pick up real silvers. At one point I don't buy as many Hamlets as I should for fear of Mountebank's discard option, but it turns out to bite me when I don't have enough +actions to run my engine (no, 9 Hamlets is not enough). Turn 25 to me is vindication: I grab double provinces (unfortunately Ferrous already has his 4). Turn 27, I set myself up to do it again...and end up with not enough actions, so I have to settle for 3 duchies. I then proceed to get crushed.

Game 6: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-193714-fe8f2b85.html
27 to 60
We both go for a Forge strategy. I find his turn 3 Loan buy rather strange. One mistake I think he made later was keeping around too much treasure; In the end I had a mere $13 in my entire deck, compared to his $23. But I was very lucky in that my first Forge draw coincided with the last turn's Caravans. That surely caused a ripple effect in the turns, and I didn't end up having to trash any Colonies.

Game 7: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120126-194324-284bb346.html
25 to 17
It's an IGG game. He opens B-crat, I open Coppersmith. We split the IGG evenly. However a combination of bad luck and also not bothering to count parity means that I get $7 on turns 12, 14, and 15. The problem comes down to this: IGG is worth $3 with Coppersmith, but that does nothing for getting Provinces unless I have two. Turn 19 I get $5 and Farmland, which is quite annoying. However, I definitely made two big mistakes this match: Overrating Coppersmith (I remember it had worked for me in an IGG game before), and buying 2 Goons in the late-game, drawing one once.

Overall, some fun matches. Except the first match when I started, the first player won each game, so it was definitely a very close and exciting tug of war. Look forward to hearing Ferrous' side of the matches.
Best of luck to him, and the rest of the contenders (unless it involves turn 5 unassisted Treasure Maps ).

82

GokoDom / Re: IsoDom 3 Qualifier

« on: January 26, 2012, 10:45:20 pm »

FerrousWheel beats jimjam 4-3, logs/comments coming later.

83

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Dominion broke my mouse

« on: January 25, 2012, 03:44:14 pm »

The other puzzle somewhat improves on my answer; I was thinking of Province as the bought card. Possession also allows for a weird trick, in which if you're buying while possessing someone, you can reveal your own Fool's Gold, and you have to click through those yourself. But Cache/Duchy is much better than Fool's Gold (man, try saying that in the strategy forum).

84

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Funny Things on Isotropic

« on: January 24, 2012, 07:31:15 pm »

There is one name I really love - "Sadly, she". Things like "Sadly, she plays a Witch" or "Sadly, she reveals a Province" (to your tournament) and of course "Sadly, she wins!" are hilarious.

I just met a guy named "It is you who accidentaly" (and there is also a guy without the last word). Also funny, but "Sadly, she" is better 

There are a couple of other versions of this approach that make me wonder if it is all the same person and is easily bored.  I've played against (I'm paraphrashing here, having not check my game logs) "X grins mischieviously and", as well as "X giggles uncontrollably and".  It was pretty amusing.

My favorite was "Your opponent smirks and"
I've played as "he pulls a card from his sleeve and", so I would guess there's other copycats.
Also good are those names like "Hunting Party Rock Anthem". Does anyone know what that's called? When you put two phrases together with a common word?

85

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Dominion broke my mouse

« on: January 24, 2012, 04:16:10 pm »

I mean for the puzzle to not count any clicks for playing actions or treasures. This is purely after you click buy on some card, and before you click buy on another card. I'm pretty sure my last statement wasn't ambiguous, but to be clear, it's in reference to one "on-buy" and all the subsequent "on-gains" associated with it.

of course if you wanted you could count the maximum click-length of one turn, but that just seems painful.

86

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Dominion broke my mouse

« on: January 24, 2012, 12:24:18 pm »

DrHades: That's what led to this puzzle
Chwhite: Do you mean how you have to click Grand Market twice? I guess that's permissible but GM isn't correct-no haggling BV's for one.

87

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: January 24, 2012, 01:04:15 am »

Oasis (alternate version)
$3 - Action

+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Get into a fight with your brother.

is there a story behind this one?


Lockout
$2 Action-Attack
Choose somebody in the room. He or she doesn't get to play next game (you may choose somebody who isn't currently playing).

Moneyspender
$4 Action
"Borrows" all the treasure in your hand. Doesn't give it back.

Fallowers
$0 Prize Duration-Action
When Fallowers is in play, other players may not receive more than +1 action for playing a card.
Now and your next turn:
-1 Action
+$3
Rusty Steed
$0 Prize Action
Choose 2: +1 card +1 action +$1 gain 4 curses, and put your deck into your discard pile

Remock
$4 Action-Attack
Do this twice: Choose a player. Criticize their opening buys.

Seller
$2 Action
+1 Action
Reveal the top card of your deck. Other players bid cards in their hand for it.

88

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Dominion broke my mouse

« on: January 24, 2012, 12:36:38 am »

I'm referring to the on buy effect of one card. Playing treasures doesn't count.

89

Puzzles and Challenges / Dominion broke my mouse

« on: January 23, 2012, 09:57:48 pm »

This is probably the most ridiculous counting puzzle of them all.
Do stuff on your turn. Buy 1 card. How many clicks on isotropic can you take during the buy phase?
Rearranging and clicking checkboxes don't count, but clicking done does. End turn also doesn't count.
You may not reveal trader when gaining a silver.

90

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: SMALL money

« on: January 23, 2012, 09:53:11 pm »

If I start the turn with no treasures and end with no treasures, is that permissible?

91

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: BIG money

« on: January 23, 2012, 09:50:24 pm »

First Trick:
Correct, but you don't need 10 Possessions. Better to have more treasures. Here's how to do it:
Your opponent Ambassadors out everything.

Assume you draw villages before whatever you need.
Play KC-Possession, Outpost, Chancellor (your NV method is probably better, actually).
Draw Possession, Chancellor, draw Masquerade
Masquerade the Possession, Chancellor.
Opp plays Possession once each.
You have 4 turns. Masquerade it back, play KC-possession for the 3 turns, then masquerade it on the 4th.

Second Trick:Horn of Plenty took the place of Possession
Deck: 7 Colonies, 7 Provinces, 7 Duchy, 13 Estate, 9 Curses, 9 BM+19 more (5 treasures 1 in opponent's hand), +4 prizes = 75 cards
Hand: 11 Plat, 29 Gold, 39 Silver, 59 Copper, 15 Potion, 9 Bank, 10 Phil. Stone, Diadem, 9 Fool's Gold, 9 Cache, 9 Contraband, 9 Hoard, 9 Royal Seal, 9 Stash, 10 HoP, 9 Venture, Harem, Loan, Quarry, Talisman, IGG
Play the simpler treasures, and gain copper with IGG
HoP: Platinum, FG, Contraband, Gold, Cache (no coppers left), Hoard, Royal Seal, Stash, Venture, Bank.
The P. Stones are now worth 85/5=17
Play the Ventures, hitting Venture->Bank last, then the banks.
Score:
12 Plat=60
30 Gold=90
39 Silver=78
60 Copper=60
15 Potions=0
10 FG=37
10 Contraband=30
10 Cache=30
10 Hoard=20
10 Royal Seal=20
10 Stash=20
10 Venture=10
(6)Harem, Loan, Quarry,Talisman, Diadem,IGG=9
10 HoP=0
10 Pstone=170
10 Bank= 2520+55

3209


Mandarin shenanigans are too inefficient so I think this is the best.

92

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Dream Features. Or: Features in My Really Weird Dream Last Night

« on: January 22, 2012, 01:34:48 am »

I've woken up in the morning thinking I couldn't get up because I didn't have any actions left.

93

GokoDom / Re: IsoDom 3 Sign-up

« on: January 21, 2012, 05:39:26 pm »

I'll play.

94

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: BIG money

« on: January 20, 2012, 02:53:38 pm »

It's a similar puzzle, and I designed it based somewhat on tricks from those discussions. However the tricks used here are different, for example a pair of constraints are reversed as such:
Possessions played by both players allows any number of consecutive turns desired. This makes the big hands puzzle uninteresting so must be disallowed there, but there is no such constraint here, and in fact it can be used to get more points.
In the other puzzle it's better to allow infinite base treasures so that one can simply see how many draw effects they can stack. In this puzzle it's uninteresting because of the Philosopher's stone value.


TL;DR or no spoilers, it's not the same puzzle, and if you think it is you should try it

95

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: BIG money

« on: January 20, 2012, 02:51:37 am »

Council Room/Governor is the right move, but it can be improved on. Duration cards are a liability, because of the Philosopher's Stones.

96

Dominion Articles / Re: Scheme

« on: January 19, 2012, 10:48:49 pm »

Regarding Scheme vs Minion, there are some workarounds that may or may not work well, depending on the kingdom. For example, you can top-deck moats or HTs or ensure lighthouses are going off every round.
A more extreme way to get it done is by playing outpost on your outpost turn so you get a 3 card hand.

97

Puzzles and Challenges / BIG money

« on: January 19, 2012, 10:22:42 pm »

Here's another counting-style puzzle:

You and your friends are discussing the merits of engine decks vs BM decks. So, one of your friends, quite fond of engines, asks:
"How much money can you get in a turn without playing any actions?"
The BM advocate thinks for a bit, and says, "well, I have a hand with 1 venture and 4 banks. If I play the venture and hit 9 more ventures and then a bank, that's a cool $65. Never mind the plus buy, that's plenty money"

You think to yourself: Hmm, this question is ill-posed. It doesn't preclude, for example, having played Tactician or Wharf the previous turn, even though that's clearly a violation of the notion of BM.
So how much money can one actually get, in a 2 player game, with isotropic-style setup (otherwise Philosopher's Stone value is unbounded), and without playing any actions on that turn?

98

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What combos with JoaT?

« on: January 19, 2012, 02:38:53 am »

Yeah, you wouldn't trash in a Gardens strategy (except possibly a couple curses). I'd say it's fairly close to Bureaucrat in this capacity, since the weak attack and top-decking vs filtered draw seems about even. But there are several situations where you'd much rather have JoaT, for example when getting plus buy with hamlet(!) and pawn, or when your opponent is going with Ghost Ship, Militia, or Minion, which can be quite damaging otherwise.
Head to head I'd imagine JoaT Garden would outdo Bureaucrat Garden, since the extra draw->faster cycling mitigates the top-decking, and the filtered draw to 5 makes Bureaucrat's attack actually a benefit.

99

Simulation / Re: Simulation Challenge: Gardens vs. Silk Road

« on: January 18, 2012, 04:07:47 pm »

@WW: Actually, never mind. I was thinking something about the Gardens player being better able to exploit large plus buy, without having significantly less victory cards but it's pretty flimsy.

100

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: The Rube Goldberg of Dominion Challenge

« on: January 17, 2012, 08:56:58 pm »

I guess I'll have a go at this.

Spy ->see my opponent has a copper on his deck
Governor->Draw option
Masquerade->He passes a copper, I pass him a copper. I don't trash anything.
I play a Bridge
Develop Copper into Duchess
Develop Duchess into Silver and Curse
Masquerade->He passes a copper, I pass him the curse. I trash the Silver.
I play Mountebank, he discards the Curse.
=Swindler

No important cards trashed needlessly.