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601

Dominion Articles / Re: Island

« on: September 26, 2018, 12:48:07 pm »

Of course, what makes it not as strong as that is that the turn you play it is really bad; being -1 action and -2 cards.

That's a pretty big downside.

Also, while with Laboratory you get the benefit after one shuffle, with Island you have to wait two shuffles for the benefit.

Plus, to play Island you need to line it up with a card you want out of your deck. Whereas nobody cries if they play Laboratory and discover they now have a hand of six useful cards.

(Of course, the real reason people are so down on Island compared with Laboratory is the risk of being Possessed into using it destructively. I mean, imagine how much of a mess you'd be in if your opponent put your Scout on an Island!)

602

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant

« on: September 26, 2018, 12:36:56 pm »

+1 Coffer doesn't actually convey the idea. It's like saying +1 Safe. When really you're adding money to your safe(s). So, +1 to your Safe. You're adding money to your coffers. +1 Coffers.

I keep seeing this explanation, but it still makes no sense to me. One might as well say "+1 Storage Solutions" to mean "gain a Dominion expansion".

603

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant

« on: September 26, 2018, 10:34:33 am »

Hey, it could be worse: we could also have Merchant, Merchant Guild, Highway, Trade Route, Trade, Trader, Horse Traders and Trading Post.

604

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant

« on: September 26, 2018, 10:03:13 am »

I wonder...

If you have a Watchtower in hand and Spice Merchant in the supply, is a $4 buy for 2 coin tokens and 2 Villagers a good deal?

605

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter

« on: September 26, 2018, 09:55:26 am »

What do you expect to do with it? Trash your Estates and accelerate by not needing villages for a few rounds, or use gainers to feed it?

It feels to me as though the main benefit of Villagers will be consistency that enables otherwise awkward strategies. Two Labs are better than a Village and a Smithy, but Smithies plus a way to start each turn with a Villager or two in hand could be better still.

606

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance name BINGO

« on: September 25, 2018, 09:17:01 pm »

I was sure to have read that Dominion's usage of "Traveller" over "Traveler" was old (British) English, and decided for to invoke an old-timey feel.

Well, it's on the wiki page, so it must be true.

I didn't spot that one, because I'm British and we still spell "traveller" that way. Unlike the far more common "theater"/"theatre", I'd never noticed the USA spelled it differently. (Conversely, "spelt" does feel archaic to me here in the UK. Unless you're talking about the grain, of course.)

607

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance name BINGO

« on: September 25, 2018, 08:45:30 pm »

What do you know that I don't?

...that both Donald X. and Rio Grande Games are American?

608

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter

« on: September 25, 2018, 08:42:47 pm »

[Coup sidetrack]

Well that's kind of the point... you don't want to challenge. But you want your opponent to. And you might reluctantly challenge only if no opponent is willing to. But then how do you determine if no opponent is willing to? There's no set way to know.

If you're claiming Assassin, Contessa or Captain, it's obvious who ought to be doing the challenging. If you're claiming Duke, there are probably only a couple of people in a position to be truly suspicious, and thanks to Ambassador, etc. some will be more suspicious than others. It's only really Ambassador that's a suspicion free-for-all.

In practice, at any given moment, just assume you're the only person thinking of challenging and you won't go far wrong.

609

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter

« on: September 25, 2018, 06:00:59 pm »

Coup, a game that I might otherwise like, suffers from this greatly. After a player makes a play, any other player can challenge it. But there's no actual rule about whose turn it is to take the act of challenging it; it's just any opponent at any time.

Wow! The stakes for challenging or for being challenged in Coup are so high that we've found people rarely do things that are going to be challenged, and rarely challenge. And different people know different things so have different willingness to challenge. I'm not sure I've ever seen two people want to challenge at once!

Now, the follow mechanic in Tiny Epic Galaxies. That's an entirely different kettle of fish...

610

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #2: Acting Troupe, Sculptor, Recruiter

« on: September 25, 2018, 11:36:53 am »

Still loving what I'm seeing of the new cards in Renaissance.

Still not feeling the love for the coin token -> Coffers terminology, nor for yet another mat. Nor for using coin tokens as Villagers. Nor for relying on tokens never accidentally straying across a line on a bit of cardboard.

Assuming my other players agree, I think I'll pick up some small meeples to use instead.

611

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #1: Mountain Village, Priest, Seer, Scholar, Experiment

« on: September 25, 2018, 11:21:07 am »

I'm also wondering why Wine Merchant triggers on end of Buy phase rather than during Clean-up. Good for Villa shenanigans; bad for Priest shenanigans.

612

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #1: Mountain Village, Priest, Seer, Scholar, Experiment

« on: September 25, 2018, 11:18:20 am »

As far as I can find there is no niche case where you can benefit from the virtual coin you can get with priest + night trashers.

It's Ball.

Or Capital.

I've just noticed discarding Capital lets you pay off any debt, not just the Capital's debt.

Now I'm wondering about fancy tricks to clear an epic Mountain Pass debt...

613

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #1: Mountain Village, Priest, Seer, Scholar, Experiment

« on: September 24, 2018, 08:57:18 am »

I've just noticed that 1 Scheme and any number of Mountain Villages would be self-sustaining:

Start your turn with a Mountain Village in hand. Cascade through playing and drawing all the Mountain Villages in your discard pile. When you play the final Mountain Village, draw Scheme and play it. During clean-up, topdeck one Mountain Village.

That's not overpowered. It might not even be a winning play. But messing about with these new cards is going to be so much fun!

614

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Renaissance Previews #1: Mountain Village, Priest, Seer, Scholar, Experiment

« on: September 24, 2018, 08:48:03 am »

Woo! Simple cards with interesting emergent properties. Exactly what attracted me to Dominion in the first place all those years ago. Not too demanding; not too frivolous or swingy. We're back in the Goldilocks zone! (-8

(I see Seer and think we've had that name before. Nope, it was Sage in Dark Ages. I expect I'm going to get those two confused a lot...)

615

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Teaser

« on: September 22, 2018, 09:50:48 pm »

There can't be any Victory cards since those are 12 copies per pile in games with more than two players.

Then again, Dame Josephine is a Victory card in a 10-card pile. Renaissance may throw similar curveballs; I hope it does!

616

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat card interactions that were useful in the game you found them in.

« on: September 21, 2018, 10:16:00 am »

Hmm. That would be a change since the first edition Dark Ages rulebook?

Has someone compiled a complete list of the material rules changes 2nd Edition has brought about? I'm beginning to lose track. )-8  (Uh... as it were.)

617

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat card interactions that were useful in the game you found them in.

« on: September 21, 2018, 01:16:42 am »

If you Procession a Hireling, the Procession is not discarded during Clean-up; it remains in play indefinitely.

(Forever, unless you pull a stunt like Bonfire, or you played Procession on the Procession you played on the Hireling, or...)

618

Dominion Articles / Re: Chariot Race

« on: September 19, 2018, 10:18:43 pm »

Interesting article.

However, having muttered darkly about this mere days ago, I feel there deserves to be at least some mention of how matters become more complicated if Chariot Race features in a game with more than two players.

619

Dominion: Renaissance Previews / Re: Dominion: Renaissance on RGG's website

« on: September 19, 2018, 12:49:39 pm »

Here's hoping the first one isn't but the second one is!

(OK, the first figure isn't actually wearing glasses or anything, but it looks like mascara and hair styling may both have been way more advanced half a millennium ago than I realised...)

620

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Mine

« on: September 19, 2018, 11:58:47 am »

I doubt it.

Really? Gosh. I thought Donald X. established the principle of letting every card be as cheap as possible very early in development and basically everything got tried at a lower cost at least once.

621

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Mine

« on: September 19, 2018, 09:16:14 am »

I'm guessing it got playtested at $4, many moons ago?

622

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Mine

« on: September 18, 2018, 11:00:47 pm »

Looking at recent expansions, it feels like Crown, Rocks and Heirlooms might interact interestingly with Mine.

Probably not earth-shatteringly, just interestingly.

623

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When seating order matters - Chariot Race

« on: September 17, 2018, 12:07:49 pm »

Where 3p games with high skill disparity really get weird is Smugglers.

Ooh - point. I only reminded myself of which cards were affected by searching the card list for "left". I forgot to search for "right" so overlooked Smugglers and Treasure Hunter.

I wouldn't expect Smugglers to dominate quite as much as Chariot Race did, but I can see there's a convoluted strategy-copying aspect to it as well as the mechanical considerations!

624

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When seating order matters - Chariot Race

« on: September 17, 2018, 11:19:00 am »

I don't get your point. If you prefer a gaming group that is more homogenous skill-wise that's nothing anybody but yourself can help you with.

Most of the time, a lack of homogeneity is a non-issue.

Even when it does matter, it normally matters approximately equally for all players. (e.g. if one player is floundering, the other two both need to plan their greening around coping with six Provinces in their deck, not the usual four.)

Gross asymmetries are so rare I'd not encountered one before. Hence posting.

625

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When seating order matters - Chariot Race

« on: September 17, 2018, 10:36:10 am »

The issue isn't the interactivity. Interactivity is great.

The issue is the advantage for whoever has a weak player seated to their left, in a game where skill levels aren't finely matched.