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Topics - ragingduckd

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26
Goko Dominion Online / Goko Dominion Tools - going open source
« on: July 13, 2013, 05:19:38 pm »
I've put the code for game parsing, log search, etc on github: https://github.com/aiannacc/goko-dominion-tools

It includes everything you need to replicate gokologs.drunkensailor.org (log search, kingdom visualizer, etc). You can either connect to my database of parsed logs or create your own. Instructions are in the readme file. Email or PM me if anything isn't clear or doesn't work for you.

Please feel free to add or modify code. There are quite a few outstanding feature requests and potential projects using this database that I haven't gotten around to.

27
Goko Dominion Online / Automatch development thread
« on: July 02, 2013, 12:42:48 pm »
I've been investigating Goko's JavaScript framework a bit. It's neither elegant nor intuitive, but it's plenty powerful enough for the feature requests that we've been making. The fact that Goko has never gotten around to stuff like auto-kick or displaying pro rating is really damning. Neither of these requires more than a dozen lines of code.

This is clear evidence that either Goko's developers are really unqualified, or Goko isn't giving even the slightest priority to feature requests from its dedicated users. Browser extension is clearly the only way that we're ever going to get a decent online Dominion experience.

I'm therefore starting a collaborative quest for the holy grail of missing Goko features: Automatch.

Anyone is welcome to contribute to the github project. The code on it doesn't quite work yet, but it demonstrates the design I have in mind. It's in the 'automatch' directory of https://github.com/aiannacc/goko-dominion-tools

Please use this thread for design proposals or to describe how you would like automatch to work. Working with Goko imposes certain restrictions that weren't present on isotropic, so let's start from scratch. What automatch options do you want? How do you want to interact with the UI?

Edit: As usual, I'll be auto-upvoting all reasonable feature requests and design suggestions.

28
Goko Dominion Online / Goko bug: Misfits
« on: June 28, 2013, 01:46:59 am »
Misfits sometimes just fails to activate. Reported on getsatisfaction

KC isn't necessary to make it happen. I've run into it in 2-player games with singly-played Misfits but never saved the log.

29
Goko Dominion Online / Kingdom Visualizer
« on: June 25, 2013, 11:59:19 am »
Tool for quickly visualizing a kingdom and copying the images into forum-friendly BBCode: gokologs.drunkensailor.org/kingdom

Just enter the log url and it'll spit out something like this:




... along with the BBCode for your game report posts:

Code: [Select]
[center]
[img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/f/f6/Silk_Road.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/2/20/Horn_of_Plenty.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/3/37/Mystic.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/d/dd/Royal_Seal.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/6/60/Saboteur.jpg[/img]
[img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/3/3f/Vagrant.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/7/74/Ambassador.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/b/b2/Doctor.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/8/8a/Fortress.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/6/65/Quarry.jpg[/img]
[/center]

30
Game Reports / Rebuild Mirror: AI vs SM.SM
« on: June 23, 2013, 06:00:56 am »
I'm annotating some Rebuild mirrors to complement this strategy article. Some of my terms and analysis here won't make sense unless you've read it first, or at least skimmed the three "Post-Duchy Strategies."

SM.SM and I played this mirror on June 6th. SM.SM (aka 'sm') isn't too active on the forums, but he's an online Dominion regular who was Level 35 on Iso and is currently #12 on Goko.

I've annotated the key buys, the post-Duchy decision, and the end-game. I've presented more analysis here than I probably did during the game. If anything, turn 10 suggests that I'd been drinking heavily that evening.

Summary:

This was a reasonably well-played Rebuild mirror with a few strategic errors during the Duchy race. SM.SM's early Bandit Camp should have cost him the split, but three of my early Rebuilds failed to find Estates and he was able to split Duchies 4-4... or would have except for an interesting good I made on T10. I also failed to capitalize on my early Rebuild lead by passing on a fourth Estate and a third Rebuild.

Duchies emptied too slowly for us to keep all three post-Duchy strategies open. I committed to Rebuild-BM early while SM.SM spread his buys across all three strategies. That usually results in all three strategies failing, but this time they all worked: on T10-T11 he rebuilt two Duchies and bought a Province and an Estate, reducing my lead to just 2 VP.

This would have been a more illustrative game if there had been more time for us to implement our post-Duchy strategies. Mutual good luck short-circuited that and we jumped straight from the Duchy race to the end-game. As in many Rebuild mirrors, it came down to just a few VP with Rebuild searches and Estates deciding the winner.




AI vs SM.SM: AI wins 30-24 on T13   (Full Log)

The most important Rebuild support cards here are Courtyard and Nomad Camp. Fortune Teller isn't great in a Rebuild mirror, since Rebuild itself soft-counters it and it tells your opponent what his top VP card is. Bureaucrat is too slow. Bandit Camp and/or Embassy may eventually support Rebuild-BM, but neither $5 card should be purchased before the Duchies run out.

A Torturer engine looks like the strongest non-Rebuild option, but I expect Rebuild to clobber it. There's no trashing, no cantrip sifting or draw, and the only village is $5. Rebuild doesn't grind to a halt when you fill it up with Curses anyway, nor does it mind discarding 2 or even 4 cards from many of its mid-game hands.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 1 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Estate, Copper, Copper, Copper, Copper
   
    ---------- SM.SM: turn 1 ----------
    SM.SM - plays 3 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Silver
    SM.SM - gains Silver
    SM.SM - draws Estate, Copper, Copper, Copper, Copper
   
    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 2 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 4 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper, Courtyard, Estate, Copper, Estate
   
    ---------- SM.SM: turn 2 ----------
    SM.SM - plays 4 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - gains Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - draws Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - draws Estate, Silver, Estate, Copper


I like the flexibility of Courtyard here. There's no clearly dominant post-Duchy strategy, so I'd like to avoid committing myself too early.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 3 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Silver, Copper, Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - places Copper on top of deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper, Copper, Copper, Copper, Estate
 
    ---------- SM.SM: turn 3 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - plays 1 Silver, 1 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - gains Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - draws Copper, Estate, Copper, Copper, Copper


Bandit Camp instead of Rebuild suggests that SM.SM is planning a Torturer engine.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 4 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 4 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Courtyard, Estate, Copper, Copper, Estate
   
    ---------- SM.SM: turn 4 ----------
    SM.SM - plays 4 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Courtyard
    SM.SM - gains Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Copper, Copper
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - draws Copper, Copper, Copper
   
    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 5 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper, Estate, Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - places Estate on top of deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Estate, Copper, Copper, Rebuild, Copper
   
    ---------- SM.SM: turn 5 ----------
    SM.SM - plays 5 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Rebuild
    SM.SM - gains Rebuild
    SM.SM - draws Estate, Estate, Nomad Camp, Estate, Courtyard


This buy surprises me. If SM.SM goes Rebuild now, he'll need some luck to catch up. The Spoils from Bandit Camp will help, but with my head start and first player advantage, I'll be a big favorite to win the Duchy split.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 6 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Copper, Silver, Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - discards: Copper, Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Rebuild, Courtyard, Copper, Copper, Silver


A fourth Estate was probably better here. It's a bad play when the Duchy race is close, but here I'm far enough ahead to justify it. With my 2 Rebuilds and 1 Duchy to SM.SN's 1 Rebuild and 0 Duchies, I can reasonably expect to have time to rebuild all four Estates.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 6 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Copper, Copper, Silver
    SM.SM - places Nomad Camp on top of deck
    SM.SM - plays 2 Copper, 1 Silver
    SM.SM - buys Silver
    SM.SM - gains Silver
    SM.SM - draws Nomad Camp, Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - draws Courtyard, Silver, Copper
   
    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 7 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper, Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - places Silver on top of deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 4 Copper, 1 Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Silver, Rebuild, Duchy, Copper, Estate


I've now rebuilt two of my starting Estates and there are still 6 Duchies left. With a $2-$4 hand, I would definitely buy a fourth Estate. "Unfortunately," I've hit $5 again.

I think I should have bought a third Rebuild here instead of a Duchy. It definitely looks like I'm going to win the Duchy split, and I'll probably do so while clearing out my Estates. If that happens, then Turbo is going to be great.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 7 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - draws Copper
    SM.SM - gains Spoils
    SM.SM - plays Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Estate, Copper, Estate
    SM.SM - places Silver on top of deck
    SM.SM - plays Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - plays 3 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Rebuild
    SM.SM - gains Rebuild
    SM.SM - draws Silver, Rebuild, Copper, Copper, Copper


SM.SM buys a second Rebuild. Ok, no doubting his commitment now.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 8 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Silver, Copper, Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - discards: Silver, Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 1 Silver, 1 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Rebuild, Province, Estate, Copper


I draw a Rebuild with my only remaining Estate. Argh! Now I definitely wish I'd bought an Estate on T6.

I Rebuild a Duchy into a Province, which is going to cost me some control over my future Rebuilds. From here on, I'll have all three types of VP cards in my deck, so I may not be able to force my Rebuilds to hit my Estates. That's bad, though it's not such a huge liability that I'll pass on a Province to avoid it.

A fourth Estate doesn't look as good here as it did on T6. When Duchies go late, they tend to go all at once because the decks have improved in the interim. Here SM.SM still doesn't have any Duchies, but he's added a second Rebuild and another Silver. With a Province interfering with my Rebuilds, I'm not at all confident that I'll have time to rebuild two more Estates.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 8 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Rebuild
    SM.SM - names Province
    SM.SM - reveals Silver, Copper, Estate
    SM.SM - discards: Silver, Copper
    SM.SM - trashes Estate
    SM.SM - gains Duchy
    SM.SM - plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
    SM.SM - buys Rebuild
    SM.SM - gains Rebuild
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - draws Rebuild, Copper, Bandit Camp, Courtyard, Silver


SM.SM's deck is starting to warm up. He rebuilds an Estate and picks up a third Rebuild. Note how much time that early Bandit Camp cost him. He didn't buy a Rebuild until after his second shuffle, and he's only now playing his first one. In a lot of Rebuild mirrors, Duchies are gone by T8.

I'd definitely buy a Duchy rather than a third Rebuild in his position. With only 5 Duchies left and 2 Rebuilds plus good production in my deck, it's likely that Duchies are going to run out too quickly for that third Rebuild to get him a Duchy. If he loses the split, then that third Rebuild isn't going to be a super-star for him either.

A third Rebuild also says Turbo, while his Bandit Camp, Courtyard, Nomad Camp, and Spoils are better preparation for Rebuild-BM or possibly an Estate Blitz. Spreading yourself too thin between the strategies is a good way to fail with all three.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 9 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Copper, Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - discards Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 2 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Silver, Rebuild, Copper, Copper, Copper


I draw my one Estate again, so I rebuild another Duchy. I then have the option of buying an Estate.

There's no way I'll get to rebuild two more Estates now. If I buy one, it's semi-committing me to an Estate Blitz. I don't want want that just yet, both because my deck doesn't support it and because I might still get to rebuild my third Estate. If that happens, then I'll be Estate-free with at least a 4-4 split (more likely 5-3) and two-Province lead. That would be an easy win. I also think it's a lot more likely that another Courtyard will get me an extra $8 hand than that I'll pick up 6 Estates more than SM.SM.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 9 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - draws Copper
    SM.SM - gains Spoils
    SM.SM - plays Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Estate, Copper, Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - places Estate on top of deck
    SM.SM - plays Rebuild
    SM.SM - names Province
    SM.SM - reveals Estate
    SM.SM - trashes Estate
    SM.SM - gains Duchy
    SM.SM - plays Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
    SM.SM - buys Duchy
    SM.SM - gains Duchy
    SM.SM - buys Courtyard
    SM.SM - gains Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Rebuild, Rebuild, Copper, Estate, Spoils


Just two Duchies left.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 10 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Copper, Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - discards Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Courtyard, Silver, Silver, Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Copper


If that turn didn't surprise you, then you should probably re-read it more carefully.

I'll wait.

.
.
.

Quote
Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Duchy
Andrew Iannaccone - gains Duchy


Yep, I rebuilt a Duchy into another Duchy. Inexcusable. I really wanted to hit that elusive third Estate here, but that's no reason to rage-Duchy.

I can't remember now whether this was fancy-play syndrome or just a misclick, but it does raise an interesting question. I win the Duchy split 4-3 and I take the last Duchy from SM.SM, who would otherwise be likely to rebuild his last Estate into it. Could this sort of play ever actually be the right move?

I think it's plausible in spots where unrebuildable Estates do your opponent a whole lot of damage. I'd do it if SM.SM still had two Estates and a fourth Rebuild instead of a Bandit Camp. I think I'd also do it in a Rebuild-Rogue game, where gaining Duchies from the trash means you really, really don't want your Rebuilds to trip over your Estates.

Here's it's definitely wrong. I'm 9 VP ahead (and I would be 12 VP ahead), but SM.SM has more Duchies left, more Rebuilds, and at least as much money density as me. My edge here is my VP lead, so every Province that leaves the pile is great news for me.

In any case, the Duchy pile is empty now, so I know the split and can select my post-Duchy strategy. It's unusually late in the game, so I don't have as much flexibility as usual. Still, even one or two extra Golds, Rebuilds, or Nomad Camps can have a meaningful impact with all the reshuffling from Rebuild. It's worthwhile to go through the exercise.

Here are the decks:
  • SM.SM: 1 Bandit Camp, 2 Courtyard, 1 Nomad Camp, 3 Rebuild, 7 Copper, 2 Silver, 2 Spoils, 1 Estate, 3 Duchy
  • AI: 2 Courtyard, 2 Rebuild, 7 Copper, 4 Silver, 1 Estate, 2 Duchy, 2 Province
And here are my post-Duchy strategy considerations:
  • The Split: I've won the Duchy split 4-3, but two of my Duchies have already become Provinces. That's good for me, but having only two productive Rebuild targets left also means I don't have as much to gain from Turbo as usual.
  • The Kingdom: Bandit Camp, Courtyard, and Embassy make for good Rebuild-BM support. Nomad Camp supports an Estate Blitz. Courtyard offers tolerable support for Turbo.
  • My Deck: My deck already looks a lot like Rebuild-BM. If I add a Gold, Embassy, or Bandit camp, I should be able to hit $8 once or twice.
  • My Opponent: SM.SM's deck isn't really set up for any single strategy, but I can guess what he's going to do anyway. With a 9-VP deficit and only 3 Duchies, Turbo can't win. He's also far enough behind to need to gamble, so an Estate Blitz doesn't look great. He pretty much has to go Rebuild-BM.
An Estate Blitz is my best response to the score and to SM.SM's high-variance plan, but my deck really doesn't support it. With 2 Courtyard, 4 Silver, 2 Rebuilds, and no Nomad Camps, I'm pretty much committed to Rebuild-BM. I would have had more flexibility if Duchies hadn't gone so late or if there weren't already two Provinces gone, but this game isn't going to last too much longer.

My plan is to Rebuild Duchies when I can, trash Provinces when I have to gamble, and spend my $5-$7 hands on Embassy, Bandit Camp, and Gold. I'm only expecting one or two $5-$6 buys before we reach the end game, but Rebuild will shuffle them back in quickly enough that they could get me an extra $8 hand. I'll hold off on Estates until the very end to maximize how many Duchies I can rebuild.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 10 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Rebuild
    SM.SM - names Province
    SM.SM - reveals Copper, Silver, Copper, Copper, Duchy
    SM.SM - discards: Copper, Silver, Copper, Copper
    SM.SM - trashes Duchy
    SM.SM - gains Province
    SM.SM - plays Rebuild
    SM.SM - names Province
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - reveals Copper, Copper, Copper, Rebuild, Copper, Duchy
    SM.SM - discards: Copper, Copper, Copper, Rebuild, Copper
    SM.SM - trashes Duchy
    SM.SM - gains Province
    SM.SM - plays 1 Copper
    SM.SM - plays Spoils
    SM.SM - buys Courtyard
    SM.SM - gains Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Spoils, Courtyard, Copper, Bandit Camp, Courtyard


SM.SM catches a nice draw: two Rebuilds and his only Estate. His first Rebuild is certain to hit a Duchy and naming Province makes his second Rebuild certain too.

I don't like trading a Spoils for a Courtyard here. He has neither the money density nor the villages to justify it.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 11 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Courtyard
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Duchy, Rebuild, Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - places Rebuild on top of deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Silver, 2 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Rebuild, Copper, Copper, Duchy, Copper


I catch an even nicer draw. $8 for a Province and I'm back to a 9-VP lead with only 3 Provinces left.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 11 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Bandit Camp
    SM.SM - draws Silver
    SM.SM - gains Spoils
    SM.SM - plays Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Province, Silver, Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - places Courtyard on top of deck
    SM.SM - plays Nomad Camp
    SM.SM - plays 2 Silver, 1 Copper
    SM.SM - plays Spoils
    SM.SM - buys Province
    SM.SM - gains Province
    SM.SM - buys Estate
    SM.SM - gains Estate
    SM.SM - draws Courtyard, Copper, Duchy
    SM.SM - shuffles deck
    SM.SM - draws Copper, Rebuild


And SM.SM counters with a Province and an Estate too! This game is ending way faster than I had expected... 4 Provinces gained in the last 1.5 turns.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 12 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Copper, Courtyard, Silver, Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - discards: Copper, Courtyard, Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 3 Copper
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Rebuild, Copper, Estate, Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - shuffles deck
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Silver


I'm down to a 2-VP lead with 2 Provinces left. No time for Gold and Embassies now. This game is going to be settled by Rebuild searches and Estates.

It's a tough call whether to name Estate or Province here. It's definitely time for some VP math. With my 2-VP lead, the plausible outcomes that give me the win are:
  • I trash both remaining Provinces
  • SM.SM and I each Rebuild a Duchy
  • SM.SM and I each buy a Province
  • SM.SM buys a Province while I rebuild a Duchy and get 2 Estates ahead
  • SM.SM rebuilds a Duchy while I trash a Province and get 2 Estates ahead
SM.SM can buy Estates at least as quickly as I can, so events #4 and #5 are out. Events #2 and #3 are possible, but they require two somewhat unlikely events to coincide. Event #1 is probably the most likely way for me to win.

Right now I have 2 Provinces, 1 Duchy, and 1 Estate ahead of me in my shuffle, so:
  • Naming Province gives me a 1/2 chance of hitting a Duchy. If that happens, he'll need to buy a Province to win, but if I hit my Estate, I'll have wasted the Rebuild.
  • Naming Estate gives me a 1/3 chance to hit my Duchy, but I'll be certain to remove a Province from the Pile one way or another. He'll win if he can buy or rebuild into the last Province, but otherwise I win with my next Rebuild.
My intuition tells me that the extra 1/6 chance of hitting a Duchy doesn't matter as much as an extra 2/3 chance of trashing a Province. Event #1 is the most likely winning scenario, so it's the one I should bet on.

Some explicit calculation could do a better job, but we're already well past how much analysis I can do in an actual game. Working out the winning scenarios and roughly estimating their odds is pretty much my limit.

I name Estate and my Rebuild finds a Province. I buy an Estate that probably won't help but certainly can't hurt.

    ---------- SM.SM: turn 12 ----------
    SM.SM - plays Rebuild
    SM.SM - names Province
    SM.SM - reveals Copper, Copper, Nomad Camp, Province, Silver, Estate
    SM.SM - discards: Copper, Copper, Nomad Camp, Province, Silver
    SM.SM - trashes Estate
    SM.SM - gains Estate
    SM.SM - plays Courtyard
    SM.SM - draws Courtyard, Rebuild, Copper
    SM.SM - places Rebuild on top of deck
    SM.SM - plays 3 Copper
    SM.SM - buys Estate
    SM.SM - gains Estate
    SM.SM - draws Rebuild, Courtyard, Silver, Copper, Spoils


Lucky me! SM.SM draws his only Duchy (see T11 cleanup). I don't know it during the game, but his Rebuild is doomed. He's at the top of his shuffle, so his next one is probably doomed too.

    ---------- Andrew Iannaccone: turn 13 ----------
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays Rebuild
    Andrew Iannaccone - names Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - reveals Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - trashes Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Province
    Andrew Iannaccone - plays 1 Copper, 1 Silver
    Andrew Iannaccone - buys Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - gains Estate
    Andrew Iannaccone - draws Courtyard, Copper, Estate, Province, Province


I've drawn last Rebuild I needed. Naming Estate guarantees the win, but my Rebuild finds a Duchy anyway. I give him an "A" for effort.

    ------------ Game Over ------------
    Andrew Iannaccone - cards: 2 Courtyard, 2 Rebuild, 7 Copper,
                               4 Silver, 4 Province, 3 Estate, 1 Duchy
    Andrew Iannaccone - total victory points: 30
    Andrew Iannaccone - turns: 13
   
    SM.SM - cards: 3 Rebuild, 3 Courtyard, 1 Nomad Camp, 1 Bandit Camp,
                   7 Copper, 2 Silver, 1 Spoils, 3 Province, 3 Estate, 1 Duchy
    SM.SM - total victory points: 24
    SM.SM - turns: 12



Comments and questions are welcome, particularly on strategic points. I plan to annotate a few more Rebuild mirrors, so let me know if you'd like me to use one of yours.

31
Goko Dominion Online / Goko ratings drift -- Now with data!
« on: June 14, 2013, 09:27:10 am »
I've been scraping the Goko top-100 leaderboard for a while and I've now gathered enough data to say a little about the infamous "rating drift."

Your rating changes when you play a game, of course, but Goko also updates everybody's rating simultaneously once a day. This happens around midnight EST, when their server runs a script called omgwtfwearemorons.sh

Here's what happened to the top 100 pro ratings yesterday morning:

Code: [Select]
Stef -20
Wandering Winder 0
Andrew Iannaccone -19
LESPEUTERE -20
Mic Qsenoch -24
Rabid -22
Geronimoo -22
PitrPicko -20
eliegel -22
Stealth Tomato -20
Robz888 -24
nomnomnom -48
SheCantSayNo -18
Troninho -19
Davio -71
RTT -18
Gorling -34
Lekkit -20
Fabian -22
Eevee -32
Bulec -60
flyingkuyt -20
qmech -35
GwinnR -29
kenyou2859 -29
Rene Kuroi -29
jsh357 -58
manzi -24
scott pilgrim -24
Watno -49
TrickStaR -27
Boodaloo -41
First -33
Zakharov -27
nnn -28
Twistedarcher -24
lightbulb -18
Jeebus -23
Adam Horton -33
wsc -28
kn1tt3r -47
Lagrangian -23
dudeabides -20
iriho -22
fah -28
attrill -26
majormajor -21
SM.SM -20
Darter -21
zporiri -27
theParty -20
Masschy -22
jhovall_goko -25
Dubdubdubdub -59
Titandrake -22
faw -35
yac -27
ChiChi -22
daniel greif -62
Perna -20
Dumbassador -24
YeahBoooey -25
Slyfox -21
pâté de campagne -31
yed -19
Underdog -24
nidzela -19
David Hunter -24
houroku -21
Blobby -36
loppo -31
Lotoreo -20
kilgoretrout103 -19
Emeric -21
Tombery -48
jaybeez -23
Aron35 -22
BadAMutha -25
Drab Emordnilap -82
Perry Green -24
Pex Golder -55
Tom Collett -45
LosChikitos -20
HF -25
Cruxis -26
A Drowned Kernel -28
sangatsu -21
Rhun -23
heron -27
Lukáš Černoušek -26
gagnerouperdretelleestlaquestion? -28
secret tunnel -22
Indur -26
Kirian -23
Warfreak2 -20
MarkowKette -26
hiroki -20
Alexey Rakhmanov -23
Silverfinger -26
Psyduck 128

Don't ask me why WW's rating didn't adjust that time or why Psyduck's went up... equally strange things happened to other players on other days. Anyway, with few exceptions, the changes are always negative and mostly around -25 points. Here's are the mean changes every day for the past month:

Code: [Select]
2013-05-12 -27.76
2013-05-13 -21.75
2013-05-14 -28.34
2013-05-15 -26.83
2013-05-16  01.71
2013-05-17 -28.13
2013-05-18 -27.58
2013-05-19 -29.07
2013-05-20 -29.10
2013-05-21 -28.29
2013-05-22 -27.60
2013-05-23 -27.57
2013-05-24 -26.66
2013-05-25 -27.60
2013-05-26 -26.74
2013-05-27 -27.55
2013-05-28 -26.16
2013-05-29 -27.28
2013-05-30 -27.82
2013-05-31 -24.80
2013-06-01 -08.69
2013-06-02 -26.72
2013-06-03 -26.70
2013-06-04 -31.97
2013-06-05 -24.71
2013-06-06 -26.11
2013-06-07 -25.36
2013-06-08 -26.45
2013-06-09 -25.03
2013-06-10 -26.57
2013-06-11 -27.30
2013-06-12 -26.54
2013-06-13 -26.70

Ok, sorry for all the raw numbers. Here's what this means:

First, your rating will drop like a stone if you ever take a break from Dominion. If you're currently #50 with a rating of ~6000 and you quit playing today, you'll drop out of the top 100 in about two weeks. Edit: Several responses below report drops faster than this for 1+ week of inactivity. Perhaps the drift accelerates.

Second, anyone who isn't playing a lot is dramatically underrated. This is a crude approximation, but the per-game change that you get from Goko is something like 2x the change you'd get from the de-facto standard rating system for online chess (Elo with K=32). Roughly, if you're really a 6500 player, but you only play 2-3 games a day, you can expect to hover around 6000 indefinitely. Edit: you can expect to oscillate around a mean of 6000 or so.

I can only scrape the top 100, so I don't know whether this is also happening at lower ratings. It's hard to imagine that everyone on Goko be could dropping by 25 pts a day, so maybe players with really low ratings are gaining a comparable amount. There's no relationship between rating and drift in the top 100; ratings between 5700 and 7300 all drift in about the same way.

I'm guessing that at least everyone above 5000 is seeing a daily loss. Edit: See responses below for several confirmations that ratings drop over time all the way down to 2000.

If you're interested in playing with this data, just send me a PM and I'll send you either database access or just the 16M csv file.

32
Dominion Articles / Rebuild Mirrors
« on: June 11, 2013, 07:21:59 am »
This article isn't an introduction to Rebuild or a comprehensive treatment of the card. It focuses on two player games with Provinces and Estates where both players pursue a Rebuild strategy.

This should really be considered a coauthored article with SheCantSayNo. The ideas presented here are the product of extensive testing and discussion we did together over several weeks.

Rebuild Mirror Matches

When Rebuild is on the board, you usually just have to buy it. Other engines have a reasonable shot in games with Colonies or Shelters, but Rebuild is always a force to be reckoned with. When Rebuild has the home-court advantage of a Province game with Estates, there are very few decks that can outrun it.

This means that many of your Rebuild games -- particularly your Province/Estates games -- will be mirrors matches. Most of those Rebuild mirrors will follow a fairly consistent script. Playing them well requires first understanding that script and then deciding how and to what extent any particular kingdom demands that you deviate from it.

We assume that you're playing against one opponent, with no Shelters, no Colonies, and no game-breaking combos, and that you and your opponent are both going for Rebuild. I briefly discuss some the major deviations from this setup at the end.

Act I: The Duchy Race

Your main goal in the early game is to win the Duchy split. An empty Duchy pile is a Rebuild roadblock for your Estates, so the Duchies you buy during this phase are the only cards you can productively Rebuild for the rest of the game. Getting more than your share of those Duchies is a huge win.

Your other early-game goal is to clear out those pesky starting Estates. If you manage to win the Duchy split 5-3 while emptying your deck of Estates, you're in an absolutely dominating position. Every Rebuild you play will turn a Duchy into a Province, so playing Rebuild five times gets you five Provinces and a virtual lock.

Buying a Rebuild with your first $5 hand is a good start on both goals. With your subsequent $5 hands, keep buying either Rebuilds or Duchies. With each $5 hand, ask "if I buy another Rebuild, will I get to use it on an Estate before the Duchies run out?" When the answer is no, it's time to start buying Duchies instead.

Edit: SCSN has done a wide range of simulations that suggest a simpler approach: buy 2 Rebuilds and then all Duchies.  Situations where anything else is better appear to be extremely rare.

Common mistakes to avoid:
  • Rebuilding Duchies into Provinces -- Deliberately rebuilding a Duchy instead of an Estate is the biggest early-game mistake you can make. Your opponent will snap up five or six Duchies, leaving you with deck full of small treasures, VP cards, and nearly-useless Rebuilds, and then rebuild his Duchies into Provinces while you scramble to find an $8 hand.

  • Buying Gold or any $5 action besides Rebuild -- Unless you plan to skip Rebuild entirely, your early-game focus should be on Duchies (and Rebuilds that can gain Duchies). Even the game-breaking $5 terminals (see Combos below) should only be purchased after the Duchies are gone.

  • Buying surplus Estates -- If your opponent is also rushing Duchies, you probably won't have time to rebuild four Estates. A fourth Estate can be valuable if in you're well ahead or in danger of running out of Rebuild targets, but it should be approached with caution. If that extra Estate wins the Duchy split, it's a hero; if it's the one Estate you get stuck with in a 4-4 split, it's a goat. A fifth or sixth Estate is wildly overoptimistic and almost always a mistake at this point.

Act II: Post-Duchy Strategies

With the Duchy pile empty, the remaining sources of VP are limited. Unless there are alt-VP cards or VP tokens, it's down to the Provinces and the Estates. Each player wants to Rebuild his Duchies, but he also has extra production to use along the way. He can use that production for of any of of three major post-Duchy strategies:

1. Turbo Rebuild: Add Rebuilds and sifters to rebuild your Duchies quickly

There are 8 Duchies in play and 8 Provinces to be gained. Every time a Province gets bought or trashed by Rebuild, another Duchy's dreams die. With Turbo Rebuild, your goal is to make it the other guy's Duchies that don't get turned into Provinces.

2. Rebuild-BM: Add treasures and productive actions to buy Provinces

It's not easy to start buying Provinces when you have a deck full of Duchies and Rebuilds, but it pays off big. Rebuilding a Duchy into a Province is only +3 VP, but buying one is +6 VP. Buying one Province can be enough for the win after a 4-4 split, and buying two will more than make up for losing the split 3-5.

3. The Estate Blitz: Buy estates and end the game early by rebuilding your Provinces into other Provinces

With Duchies gone and rebuilt Provinces worth only +3, Estates constitute a respectable form of VP. In a Blitz, you piledrive Estates and play Rebuild naming Estate to run out the Province pile. If all goes well, your opponent won't have time to buy or rebuild into those last couple Provinces, and your pile of Estates will carry the game.

Some general considerations that should inform your decision:
  • The Duchy split -- When you've won the split, Turbo Rebuild is usually the best continuation (assuming you don't also have 2 or 3 surplus Estates for you Rebuilds to trip over). Five Provinces is a near-lock, if you can get there. If you can't, then your Rebuilds will at least be productive right up to the end of the game. If you've lost the split, Turbo Rebuild isn't going to close the VP gap, so go Rebuild-BM or Estate Blitz instead.

  • The kingdom -- Cantrip sifters accelerate your rebuilding, which strengthens Turbo Rebuild and the Estate Blitz. Strong drawing cards strengthen Rebuild BM. Baron allows for a hybrid Estate-BM strategy. A complete list of combos would be difficult to write and painful to read, but you can usually just look at a kingdom and figure out which strategies have good support.

  • Your deck -- If you have some extra Silver because you didn't get to $5 on T3 or T4, you're probably in a reasonable position to go Rebuild BM. If you managed to clear out all of your Estates, then Turbo is very attractive.  If you got caught with 2 or more Estates, they're going to seriously get in the way of your Rebuilding, so you might avoid Turbo even if you won the Duchy split. On the other hand, you probably have a VP lead already and the opportunity cost of an Estate Blitz is relatively low.

  • Your opponent's strategy -- If the first thing your opponent does after Duchies run out is spend $6 on a Rebuild, he's telling you that he's going either Turbo Rebuild or Estate Blitz. Your time is limited, so responding with Rebuild BM is questionable unless you already have a good start. If he buys a Gold or an Estate instead, that reveals his intentions too. It's hard to give concrete rules here, but try to anticipate how your strategies will interact and choose accordingly. If you respond to Turbo with Turbo, for example, the game will be high-variance and lightning fast.
You only get a few turns to choose your post-Duchy strategy once and for all. Once you start filling up on extra Rebuilds and Warehouses, you'll have a miserable time changing gears to buy Provinces. Similarly, once you start adding Estates, it's awfully hard to use your Rebuilds productively. This why Estates should be approached with caution during the Duchies race -- a deck that gets caught with 2 or more Estates is essentially pre-committed to a Blitz.

Act III: End-Game Tactics

Once the players have committed to their post-Duchy strategies, the game is mostly tactical. But these aren't the usual "do I buy a Duchy or a Gold?" end-game tactics, and they require skills that don't normally get a lot of practice.

Tracking your VP cards throughout your shuffle is key. Rebuilding a Duchy is always best, and it's often possible to engineer that. It's also rather embarrassing to name the wrong card and have Rebuild skip your whole deck. If this happens to you, check the log to see exactly what was in the deck that you just discarded; this will get you back on track. The VP counter won't do your job for you, but the counter plus the trash will often let you catch up if you've gotten just a little lost.

Resist the temptation to purchase haphazardly. If you're running an Estate Blitz and some freak shuffle gives you a $7 hand, buy another Rebuild or Estate anyway. Despite this aberrant hand, you're in no position to buy Provinces and adding a Gold isn't going to change that. Stick to the cards that are compatible with your strategy, even if you have to grossly overpay.

Assess your long-term prospects and Rebuild accordingly. Often you have to risk either hitting an Estate or a Province. Hitting an Estate is pretty much a wash, but hitting a Province brings the game closer to its end. Before you play your Rebuild, consider whether shortening the game is good or bad for you.

As a general rule, the player with the better deck wants a longer game. If you have extra Duchies or loads of treasure, you want time to turn that advantage into Provinces. If your deck is full of Estates or you've already rebuilt all your Duchies, you probably want to end the game ASAP. An ordinary end-game is usually a race to gain Provinces (or sometimes to 3-pile), but a Rebuild end-game is often a race between a player who wants to gain Provinces and an opponent who wants to destroy them.



Game-Breaking Combos

Most Rebuild combos simply strengthen or weaken the various post-Duchy strategies, but there are a few that are simply so powerful that you have to scrap most of the script.

Rogue and Graverobber can regain your trashed Duchies. Turbo Rebuild is the only serious strategy on such a board, since you'll have a continuous flow of Duchies to rebuild. For the same reason, Estates become a huge liability.  These guys are mid-to-late game buys, but with Duchies going to the trash constantly and with little else to do with your $5 hands, you'll want to acquire two or more.

Duke is the only $5 VP in the game besides Duchy, so it provides Rebuild with the only alternate road from Estate to Province. With Duke on the board, you can flood your deck with Estates and your Rebuilds and they'll continue being productive right up to the end. You'll have some Dukes in your deck at the end of the game, so name Duchy when you play Rebuild and let your Provinces fend for themselves.

Tunnel, as werothegreat has already noted, turns Rebuild into a Gold machine. In a Rebuild game with Tunnel, there's no actual rebuilding into Provinces. Just name Tunnel every time and flood your deck with Gold.

Feodum isn't game-breaking per se, but deserves a mention here, as it's rather strong and it doesn't play like a normal Rebuild mirror. Edit: Rebuilding Feoda into more Feoda and then buying Provinces with the Silver seems to work rather well and usually beats a Duchy-oriented Rebuild strategy.  Ignore Duchies until late in the game and be more inclined to buy Gold, draw, and other actions that help you get to $8.



Other Notable Situations

Colonies weaken Rebuild. It takes several extra turns to go from 4-5 Provinces to 4-5 Colonies, and it's a whole lot easier for an engine to grab 4 Colonies in 19 turns than 4 Provinces in 14 turns. With 4 VP cards instead of 3, you also have a lot less control over what your Rebuilds hit.

Shelters weaken Rebuild because you no longer get a free Duchy with every early-game Rebuild you play. I'd estimate that Rebuild with Shelters is effectively 2-3 turns behind Rebuild with Estates. In the mirror, you should buy fewer early-game Rebuilds and buy more of your Duchies directlyEdit: SCSN's simulations suggest that Shelters don't particularly hurt Rebuild.  When Rebuild is matched against non-Rebuild strategies, its win rate with Estates is almost exactly the same as with Shelters.

Nobles, Harem, and Farmland can all be rebuilt into Provinces. Buying these is usually at least as good as buying Duchies, so the Duchy race becomes less important and finding $6 to buy these with becomes more important.

Smaller Alt-VP cards should be added with caution. They can play the same role as Estates in a Blitz, but you can't name both Estate and Great Hall. Every time your Rebuild trips over a Great Hall, your opponent gains time to grab the Province you otherwise would have trashed. Still, Rebuild games are usually close, so all three strategies are happy to grab some extra VP as the game draws to a close.

33
Dominion Articles / Combo: Border Village + Forge
« on: June 10, 2013, 12:00:59 am »
My apologies if this is already posted elsewhere... I couldn't find it.

Border Village can gain you $11 worth of cards for only $6 spent.  Pair that with a Forge, and you've got a rather cheap Colony... assuming you can draw the cards.  Fortunately, there are quite a few $5 cantrip draws and sifters (Lab, Stables, Cartographer, HP, etc).

Here's the game that got me thinking about it.  It's not all that great a game... SCSN was mainly experimenting with Rebuild strategies and I just stumbled around a bunch.  Still, 6 Colonies (plus one trashed) in 20 turns isn't too shabby.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130609/log.5101a6c4e4b02b7235c3860f.1370787738643.txt

34
Game Reports / 10 Highways and no +Buy
« on: June 01, 2013, 01:08:03 pm »
This is a Colony game between me and SheCantSayNo.  We both spent most of the game feeling confused as to how the board should be played.  Looking back, all I can think is that the engine wasn't so great and that more cash and/or Monuments would have improved both our decks.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130601/log.505d732a51c359e6597efeb8.1370071663912.txt

Thoughts?

35
Goko Dominion Online / Log Search Engine
« on: May 29, 2013, 09:42:35 pm »
Search engine for Goko game logs: http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org

Please post feature requests and bug reports in this thread.

------------------
Status (AFAIK): Online
- Downloading new logs every 10 minutes

Known limitations:
- Some 2012 games can't be unambiguously parsed
- Can't distinguish unrated/casual/pro before May 15, 2013

Outstanding feature requests:
- display number of copies of each card gained
- save default search options
- more elegant UI generally
- bring back the win-loss results summary

36
Dominion Articles / Save the Hovels!
« on: May 25, 2013, 07:49:20 pm »
I've been seeing a lot of Hovel abuse lately and I feel an moral obligation to try to stop it. Yes, Hovel is the red-headed stepsister of the somewhat better Overgrown Estate and the far better Necropolis. But that doesn't mean you should treat it like crap.

To be fair, Hovel is more often a target of opportunity than a deliberate victim. You find yourself with two Coppers on turn 3 or 4, a Hovel in hand, and no decent $2 action on the board. Hey, why not buy an Estate?

So you burn down your Hovel, flaming peasants flee into the night, and you build a shiny new Estate in its place. Hooray!

But often enough, you find that Estate smirking up at you on some mid-game turn when you wanted to buy a green card anyway. So you play $6, buy a Nobles, and trash your... argh! You can't trash your Hovel because you already turned it into a goddamned Estate!

You're going to buy a bunch of VP cards eventually. You're likely to have that Hovel/Estate in hand during one of those turns. When that happens, you can get rid of it if it's still a Hovel, but you're stuck if you've already turned it into an Estate. So the question to ask yourself is, when that mid-game greening turn comes, how are you going to feel about having an extra Estate?

I find I want that mid-game Estate pretty rarely.  Yeah, sometimes the game will to end at 24-25 with 4 Provinces each and that Estate will turns out to be the winning VP. But way, way more often, there's going to be some Duchy dancing, or there's a +Buy, or a gainer, or VP-tokens, or [insert interesting card here]. Then that 1 VP doesn't matter very much, but being one card slimmer in the mid-to-late game does.

It depends on the kingdom, of course. An early Hovel-to-Estate swap makes sense when you're going Rebuild or Ambassador, and it's at least plausible with Apprentice, Salvager, or Silk Road, or in a big nasty slog. But unless you have some definite use for that Estate in mind, you're usually better off saving your Hovel for later.

If you're not so sure, ask yourself a few questions when you're actually looking at the kingdom:
- "Will I be happy if my opponent Ambassadors me an Estate in the mid-game?"
- "Am I likely to be drawing late game hands with $12 and no +Buy?"
- "If we're greening and I find myself with an extra $2, would I buy an Estate?"

If the answer to these questions is a resounding "Yes!" then go ahead and swap your Hovel for an Estate. But if it's "No!" or "I'm really not sure," then do the right thing. Spare your peasants. Save your Hovel.



This is my first strategy article. Comments and advice are appreciated.

37
Goko Dominion Online / Just how bad are Goko's bots??
« on: May 17, 2013, 04:55:02 pm »
I just played an experimental 8-game series against Goko's stronger bots (2 games each against Bottington, Conqueror, Defender, and Banker).  The bots lost 1-7.  I say "the bots lost," rather than "I won," because I was playing a strategy that you could teach to an illiterate meth-head.  On each board, I chose the single strongest action card for Big Money and just played X-BM.

I did use a modicum of human intelligence: when to buy Duchies, what to discard against Margrave, etc.  But that was about it... I played every action, even if I'd just drawn Island + $8 or both Witches at the bottom of my shuffle; I always bought Province > Gold > X-Action > Fool's Gold > Silver, adding Duchies when provinces got low; I ignored combos as straightforward as Beggar-Gardens; and I passed on Jester-BM lest I be compelled to make a judgement call.  You could program that strategy with an ordered list of which X-Action to prefer and a few dozen lines of Dominiate code for issues like when to green and what Jack should discard and trash.

The only game the bots won was when I went straight Witch-BM and ignored Border Village, Hunting Party, Caravan, and Fishing Village.  In one particularly unimpressive game, Banker Bot picked up 5 Kings Courts (all for $8+) along with several Treasuries, Cultists, and Monuments, and still managed to lose to Cultist-BM.

Are Goko's bots really that bad?  Eight games is a small sample, but doubt I could tolerate doing this for hours.  Has anyone else tried a similar experiment?

I feel bad for new Dominion players who start out by playing against and learning from the bots.  I remember getting my ass handed to me by Village Idiot Bot when I first started playing.  Even worse, I remember trying to learn from those losses... like the time a bot crushed me by buying all the Spies.  :P

Goko must aware of their bots' incompetence.  Either they don't know how to fix it or they're too busy with other problems.  What would it take to write a BM bot that was more-or-less compatible with their system and just hand it to them?

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