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101

Dominion General Discussion / Swindler troubles

« on: August 05, 2011, 11:21:45 am »

I played two games yesterday in which Swindlers became an issue for me. I'd appreciate feedback on what I should have done differently.

Game 1: Chapel, Council Room, Counting House, Golem, Minion, Pawn, Potion, Quarry, Shanty Town, Swindler, and Talisman
I went first, opening Minion, then Chapel after seeing my opponent open Swindler/Shanty Town. My plan was to get lots of Minions and Chapel away Coppers/Curses so my opponent had fewer Swindler targets for cursing. The problem was that this left me vulnerable to having Minions swindled into Counting Houses. I'm guessing I should have opened Pawn rather than Chapel for my second buy, but I wonder if Minion was a bad strategy in this setup because there was such a bad $5 around.

Game 2: Apothecary, Chancellor, Chapel, Hamlet, Herbalist, Laboratory, Native Village, Pearl Diver, Potion, Swindler, and Vineyard
Lots of spammable $2 actions, lots of +buy, and Vineyard seemed like a winning combo. I screwed up my deck my buying Vineyards too early and so ran out of coin, but I also took a huge hit from Swindlers trashing several Vineyards, including after there were none left to replace. I don't know if I got unlucky with how frequently the Swindlers hit my Vineyards rather than the $2 cards (which would have had less effect on my deck) and I just timed my strategy wrong or if this was a bad setup for trying an Action-rich strategy.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

102

Dominion General Discussion / Opening: Horse Traders or Baron?

« on: August 04, 2011, 05:29:30 pm »

I'm wondering if anyone has done some thinking/analysis about the opening strategy if both Baron and Horse Traders are on the board. Baron gives more money as long as you have an Estate in hand (which is likely the first couple of shuffles) but becomes more chancey later on. Horse Traders works no matter what, but you have to discard two cards, making your effective hand size smaller. Which would you prefer, and in what situations would you change your answer?

103

Dominion General Discussion / Goons help

« on: July 28, 2011, 12:06:58 pm »

I am apparently quite bad at playing with Goons, so I'd appreciate some feedback on how to play Goons games better. Here are two games I played yesterday that can provide a starting point for some tips.

Game 1: Colony, Feast, Festival, Goons, King's Court, Native Village, Platinum, Royal Seal, Steward, Talisman, Throne Room, and Wharf

My initial strategy was to get Native Villages and Stewards for actions and trashing, then move to Wharf with a thin deck so I could get good draws consistently. With how the shuffles played out, I ended up going modified BM (since I had lots of actions, the Stewards turned into Silvers). In retrospect, this board looks pretty good for Goons because there are NVs and Festivals for multi-Goons turns and Wharfs for drawing the Goons consistently.

Game 2: Caravan, Duke, Fortune Teller, Goons, Loan, Lookout, Nobles, Scout, Steward, and Witch

I thought this was a bad set for Goons because the only +2 actions came from Nobles. But, my opponent went Goons, and I eventually had to do likewise because my deck wasn't strong enough to compete with 3-card hands. How should I have played this set?

104

Dominion General Discussion / Sets to combat groupthink

« on: July 23, 2011, 07:23:25 pm »

Would the forum be collectively interested in generating a list of Kingdom sets that are designed specifically to combat groupthink? An example would be a Pirate Ship setup in which Pirate Ship is actually a horrible strategy (e.g., Minion, lots of cantrip cards, Moneylender, Festival/Bazaar). The idea would be to generate setups that could be used to educate a group about why seemingly awesome cards are not great in every situation.

Obvious candidate "groupthink" cards to defeat:
1) Pirate Ship
2) City
3) Minion
4) Tournament

Please either suggest other cards to add to the groupthink list or submit Kingdom card setups that demonstrate why those cards are weak.

105

Dominion General Discussion / When do you go for luck?

« on: July 22, 2011, 12:33:39 pm »

At what point in the game do you decide that your best (only) chance to win is with a high-risk, high-reward strategy? Specific examples will of course depend on the setup, but some of the thresholds you might consider are getting 2P after your first shuffle with Familiar, having your Opponent's Sea Hag flip your Sea Hag on turn 3, or ending on the bad end of a race for a pile (e.g., Minion). The kind of "I've got nothing to lose" strategy I have in mind might be Treasure Map without support.

106

Dominion General Discussion / Revisiting card rankings in light of Cornucopia

« on: July 16, 2011, 11:33:39 pm »

Now that Cornucopia has been out for a while and people have had a chance to play it, it might be worth revisiting the card ranking lists from the main blog. How would you modify these lists based on Cornucopia cards?

As a reminder, the lists were:

Worst $2 Cards (low numbers are worse)
5. Pawn
4. Cellar
3. Moat
2. Herbalist
1. Pearl Diver

Best $2 Cards (low numbers are better)
5. Pawn
4. Native Village
3. Courtyard
2. Haven
1. Chapel

Worst $3
5. Village
4. Wishing Well
3. Workshop
2. Woodcutter
1. Chancellor

Best $3
5. Watchtower
4. Warehouse
3. Steward
2. Fishing Village
1. Ambassador

Worst $4
(Honorable mention: Thief)
5. Treasure Map
4. Ironworks
3. Talisman
2. Cutpurse
1. Bureacrat

Best $4
(Honorable mention: Throne Room)
5. Envoy
4. Caravan
3. Militia
2. Bishop
1. Sea Hag

Worst $5
(Honorable mention: Counting House)
5. Mine
4. Contraband
3. Explorer
2. Stash
1. Sabateur

Best $5 Non-Attack
(Honorable mention: Venture)
5. Tactician
4. Vault
3. City
2. Lab
1. Wharf

107

Dominion General Discussion / Supporting Alchemists

« on: June 30, 2011, 04:38:06 pm »

Alchemists on their own lose fairly reliably to BM. My question is: what cards (or kinds of cards) are needed for Alchemists to be a viable part of a strategy, and under what circumstances are you happy to see your opponent race for Alchemists on his own?

I would make the following guesses, but they are only guesses:

• Actions that produce coin are essential
• Attacks are more valuable with Alchemist chains because you can cycle your deck more frequently and play them more often (assuming you don't trigger reshuffles during the turn and cause the attack to sit out a shuffle)
• Other cards providing draw power without additional benefits (e.g., Smithy) are less valuable than they would be on their own because of the potion cost to Alchemists (which delays those purchases relative to a Smithy).
• +Buys are not very valuable without the ability to generate coin (e.g., Wharf would not be a huge advantage, while Festival would be extremely useful)

Do these claims seem correct? Other considerations?

108

Dominion Articles / Request: Avoiding end-game deck stalls

« on: June 26, 2011, 11:20:33 am »

I have a request for a strategy article rather than the article itself; my apologies if this is the wrong forum to post this request.

I would love to see an article on how to avoid having your deck stall in the late-game. Examples of the kinds of tricks I have in mind include getting a VP edge and then Apprenticing Provinces/Colonies in order to draw enough money to buy replacement victory cards (cf. Annotated Game 2) or using Vaults to turn green cards into cash to continue buying VPs.