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651

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: MetaSkipper's Hopefully Passble Cards

« on: April 18, 2014, 01:18:04 am »

Actually, I will say that I have a limit capability to test my own cards, embarrassingly enough. I only own the base set, and my real life compatriots who play Dominion with me are limited. I say this not as an excuse, merely a confession. Outside of asking someone else to test my cards for me (which seems exceptionally jerkface-y), is there a place/way I could test my cards online, or at least digitally?

Sure you can playtest the cards. Just use the blank cards from your base game. You don't have to write on these cards; you can just give everyone a template of the card to be tested and say, 'for this game, the blank cards are X' (where 'X' is the card described by the template.

If you want to test more than one card, you can announce before the game that a certain 'real' card (say, Spy), is actually 'General' for this game.

And if you buy just one expansion (and you should, even if your budget is limited; Cornucopia and Alchemy can be had for $20 online) then you'll have 20 blank cards and can test 2 cards at once. Then you can label the blank cards 'A' and 'B', and designate at the start of each game which new card is 'A' and which is 'B'.

Finally, you can buy sleeves for your cards, then make paper inserts to go in front of the blank card in its sleeve--then you can have playable cards for testing.

652

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: MetaSkipper's Hopefully Passble Cards

« on: April 15, 2014, 11:45:04 pm »

Conscription is now an interesting mixture of Workshop and Moneylender. You'd have to test it to see how it works in practice.

Unskilled labor is a decent idea, but as written it allows you to gain a free Colony, free Familiar, free Possession--you name it. You need to tone it down.

Skilled Labor is too strong. It's basically a Trusty Steed when you have strong $3 cards like Ambassador or Masquerade. Plus, you can do something like Great Hall-Oracle for 3 cards and one action, in addition to the 2 cards you already drew. Plus, it doesn't account for Prizes, Mercenary, and Madman. Finally, it needs to specify 'Action cards', to avoid the Black Market problem of putting Treasures into play during your action phase. But it would be fun to try a Poor House-Skilled Labor deck, so this card does have some promise.

I'm not sure when I would buy Mass Production. It's basically a $6 Bridge without the +$1. If you have 4 buys and $15 and play Mass Production, sure, you can spend that $15 to buy 5 Labs instead of 3. But you're not going to get to $15 and 4 buys unless you already have lots of Labs (or other strong engine pieces), so at that point, you'd probably rather have a $6 Gold so that you can buy two Provinces or Platinums. Even if you cut Mass Production down to $4, I'm pretty sure I'd rather have Bridge. If you gave it more buys, it would work better, but that would make 3-piling too easy.

The new General is much better, but I think I'd still prefer any $5 Village (except maybe unimproved City) over General. Villages enable Attacks just as well as General does, and are more flexible. You might change it so that General can chain itself, like Cultist--but that might be way too powerful (you'd have to test it).

If I have $5 and want a Smithy, then sure, I'll pick up Ambush instead. But I'm pretty sure I'd buy Catacombs over Ambush, and Catacombs is the worst of the $5 Smithies.

The problem with Ambush' reaction is that 1) you usually don't have two Attack cards in your hand, so you'd have gotten to play the Attack anyway and 2) most of the time, you would rather have a second $5 attack than Ambush.

653

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: MetaSkipper's Hopefully Passble Cards

« on: April 15, 2014, 01:42:06 am »

A couple of issues:

Exploitation: I'm not sure when you'd want this. After all, you don't normally buy Alt-VP cards (except for hybrids like Great Hall and Nobles) except in the endgame when you miss $5, unless you're pursuing Alt VP as a strategy. In that case, you don't want to trash the Alt-VP cards. It does trash your starting Estates, but replaces them with curses; I seriously doubt that a one-time +2 cards is worth that.

The General is strictly worse than Smithy in games without attacks. And in games with attacks, am I really going to want to buy General instead of another $5 attack? After all, General is only a Smithy if it doesn't collide with my Witch. In the early games, the chances of it colliding with my Witch are not high--so I'd rather just have that 2nd Witch--and later on, the curses will be gone and so playing the attack will only draw me 2 cards. There, the overall effect of General+Witch (5 cards) will not necessarily be better than Village +Witch (3 cards, 1 action). And if there are villages, I'm going to want them anyway, so the General's ability won't be all that useful.

Besides, I think that there's a reason that Dominion has no $5 reactions; you want Reactions to be cheap enough that people can afford to buy and use them, while $5 cards must be useful on their own.

General might be OK if it let you play ALL your actions--but you'd have to playtest that in an Attack-heavy deck that also has a strong defense card (Lighthouse, Watchtower, etc).


Conscription seems super swingy--either way worse than Develop, which can at least get you Silver, or way better than Remake. It would be awesome if there are good $2 actions on the board (you could trash 4 coppers and gain 4 Lighthouses), and awful if the only $2 action is a terminal (Duchess, Herbalist, etc). Sure it can gain Goons, but without strong non-terminal $2 actions, I'd almost always rather have Remodel, which is more flexible.

654

Dominion General Discussion / Re: In Soviet Dominion...

« on: April 14, 2014, 09:03:49 pm »

Lenin? Stalin? L-MAO!

655

Game Reports / Re: chapel-Knights-colony

« on: April 10, 2014, 02:43:23 am »

Because I wasn't paying attention; that's also why I miscounted and used 2 coin tokens to buy a copper on turn 12. Probably i didn't deserve to win this one 

656

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: April 10, 2014, 01:48:49 am »

Penitent Hermit

Cost $3

You may trash a Treasure from your hand or discard pile.
Gain a card that is not an Action, Victory, or Treasure.

657

Game Reports / chapel-Knights-colony

« on: April 10, 2014, 12:01:23 am »

This was my first Chapel-Knights-Colony game.

We both opened Chapel-Baker with 4/3 splits. The only buy on the board was Sir Martin and, potentially, Cities. He won the Knight Split and eventually had Natalie, Sylvia, Martin, and Anna while I had only Baker and a few Golds. He was playing multiple Knights per turn, so my only hope was to go for Platina and Colonies, which Knights can't hit, so I did. He greened too late, despite having a decent engine, and I pulled out the win in a crazy game.

http://www.andrewiannaccone.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140409/log.5079abc80cf28ed55d9d769a.1397101887697.txt

658

Dominion General Discussion / Re: In Soviet Dominion...

« on: April 09, 2014, 12:39:47 pm »

I can't believe that this hasn't been done yet:

In Soviet Dominion, most people are rushin'

659

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: April 08, 2014, 04:19:06 pm »

Off-topic

Reaction

When someone tries to hijack a thread by randomly inserting references to religion, sex or politics, you may gain this from the supply and put it into play. If you do, they need to move to another table or thread. Then return this to the supply and continue enjoying your game.

660

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

« on: April 08, 2014, 02:02:20 pm »

Turn 10:

marcory - plays Jester
secret tunnel - shuffles deck
secret tunnel - reveals Bank
secret tunnel - discards Bank
marcory - gains Bank

Turn 15:

marcory - plays Jester
secret tunnel - reveals Bank
secret tunnel - discards Bank
marcory - gains Bank

Turn 17:

marcory - plays Remake
marcory - trashes Bank
marcory - gains Province

Turn 18:
marcory - plays Gold
marcory - plays Bank
marcory - buys Province
marcory - gains Province

My last two Provinces were directly the result of those Jester'ed Banks.

http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140408/log.50a7e19be4b07a80ae66cba9.1396940719203.txt

661

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: April 06, 2014, 12:10:34 am »

Land of Misfits
$5
Victory
When this is in play, treat this as if it were a Victory card in the supply costing less than this that you choose.


Hand of Misfits
$5
Reaction
React with this as if it were a Reaction in the supply that you choose

Brand of Misfits
$5
Treasure
Play this as if it were a treasure in the supply costing less than this that you choose

Ruined Band of Misfits
$1
Action
Play this as if it were the top Ruin in the supply

Stand of Misfits
$2
Action-Shelter-Reaction
When you draw this, you may reveal it. If you do, it acts as a Shelter that you choose until the end of your next Cleanup Phase.

 

662

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card - Huckster

« on: April 04, 2014, 11:54:15 pm »

As a $3 Digger, Sage is probably more effective than Huckster, as it has +1 action and doesn't require having two $3 terminals collide.

As a means of reusing your best cards every turn, Scheme is better, because it's also a cantrip.

The Huckster collision might be useful if you're drawing your whole deck every turn--but if that's the case, Scheme or Scavenger would probably produce similar results while having stronger vanilla effects.

The reaction is Ok against Thief-type effects, but on the whole I'd prefer Secret Chamber's reaction. Even though SC only looks at two cards rather than your whole discard pile, it works even when its draw doesn't trigger a reshuffle, and it will usually have a similar effect.

Finally, this mechanic would be really time-consuming in IRL play, especially multiplayer. That's why Secret Chamber, Thief, etc only look at the top two cards, and Rabble only hits three cards.

663

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: April 03, 2014, 02:50:50 am »

Diplomacy also allows for draws, where each surviving player shares in the victory. Some players, once they have established a defensible position and are boxed in, will choose to play for a draw rather than risk elimination. So you often have competing agendas. On the other hand, it is possible for players to make full or limited alliances and directly cooperate, which is not possible in Monopoly or Settlers.

Another aspect is that two- or three-way tactical stalemates are frequently possible, so that no one gains control of a key province unless they cooperate or persuade other people to attack their nearby opponent so that he can't continue the stalemate. And even if someone gains that key province, others can usually combine to kick him out if they decide that it's necessary. (Examples: Germany/England/France competing for Belgium; Austria/Russia/Turkey in Romania; Germany/Russia/Austria at Warsaw, etc).

Meanwhile, in Settlers, if three players all have roads leading toward the same vertex, someone can always build a settlement there during his turn, and the others can do nothing to stop it besides complain about the broken agreement. Also, if one player is the leader and the others gang up on him

664

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: April 02, 2014, 12:56:07 pm »

Clearly you need to dilute the water with air. Come to think of it, why add the water at all? Air. That's the ticket. Now where's my $500?

665

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Donald announces new expansion!

« on: April 02, 2014, 01:07:07 am »

Dominion expansion: D O M I N I O N

666

Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Contraband + Advisor (Envoy)

« on: April 01, 2014, 11:22:11 pm »

I have some in-depth comments/questions about this strategy:

1. Say you have 3 Contrabands in play, and you opponent has blocked Pearl Diver, Duchess, and Herbalist, leaving no other $2 actions to buy. How do you use all 4 of your buys? Should you just buy Gold and risk it being discarded, or should you stick to Copper and waste the money provided by Contraband?

2. Maybe you should talk about handling shuffles. If your opponent forces you to discard an Advisor and then a bunch of good cards and then you trigger a reshuffle, you will have a deck full of Advisors and good cards, which means your opponent will get to discard your good cards again! This seems like a major problem.

3. How does this compete with the Scout/Spy combo? Maybe you should do some simulations for this.

Stick to Copper? Why, when there's all those yummy Curses out there? After all, if you buy the Curses, then your opponents' Witches become basically useless. Also, that's one less pile you have to deplete for the awesome 3-piling ability of this Combo (especially with Scout on board).

667

Rules Questions / Re: About Bridge/Princess/Highway/Quarry...

« on: April 01, 2014, 12:35:12 pm »

No, it says 'put the revealed victory cards into your hand'. Since you can see the top Colony, Province, Duchy, and Estate cards, plus the top of any Kingdom victory cards, you clearly must have to take one of each of those when you play Scout. That's why it's ranked #1.

668

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 31, 2014, 05:24:06 pm »

Homeopathic Doctor

Action

Drink some water. Hope that your Curses go away on their own.

669

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 27, 2014, 05:49:04 pm »

Lose Track Rule

When you would gain this, set it aside.

670

Game Reports / In which I clinch the game with Scout

« on: March 27, 2014, 03:00:57 pm »

I got off to a good lead, then Tgorm slaughtered my deck with Swindler and Saboteur and had gotten to within 3 by buying the last Duchy. I was comfortably ahead and probably would have won anyway, but my deck was horribly green at this point.

But fortunately, I had an ace in the hole--Scout! it drew 4 VP cards on my next-to-last turn, which enabled me to draw Gold/Gold/Swindler (he had a lighthouse out, and I was ahead anyway, so there was no risk of Swindling a Province) for the clincher.

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140327/log.5136e2dee4b07cef820a1126.1395946495323.txt

671

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: March 27, 2014, 01:06:07 am »

Did you test a Knight that was a Treasure instead of an Action? Or a $6 Knight?

672

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 26, 2014, 10:13:52 pm »

EvenWorseThanTransmute-Action-$0
Trash a card from your hand.

This is not strictly worse than transmute.  And at $0 it's easily better value.

Trash a card from your hand.  Gain a Transmute.

When this is in the Supply, when you trash a card, gain a Transmute.

673

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Environment cards

« on: March 26, 2014, 08:11:07 pm »

If you want a bonus, why not the Border Village bonus, or some variant thereof? ('When you buy this, gain
-a cheaper card
-a card costing up to X less than this
-X VP
-X coin tokens

All of these might be more useful to the buyer than a Buy phase bonus

674

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 25, 2014, 10:25:11 am »

Rage-Quit Inducer

$2
+1 action

You may trash this.

When you would trash this, put it into your hand instead.

If this is the 100th time you have trashed Rage-Quit Inducer this turn, each other player gains a Province

(The counting part makes it even more maddening)

675

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 25, 2014, 01:53:59 am »

Mulligan
Action
$2
+$1

Return an action you have in play to your hand. Reverse all of its effects. This card cannot lose track of any other card.