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76

Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Landmarks: Baths

« on: August 28, 2016, 08:11:59 am »

I meant to write some illuminating blob, but then it was really hot and I went to the lake instead.

- How much money would you "spend" for this?
- Does this ever change your strategy, or do you just pick up some VP on a dud turn?

77

Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Landmarks: Basilica

« on: August 26, 2016, 09:53:20 am »

Did you know that Basilica translates to "King's Court"? Those poor Greek Dominion players must be so confused.

When I first saw this, I thought I must have read it wrong. Then I read again. It works each time you buy something? Like in, multiple times per turn? But that's broken!

Well is it? Probably not, or the card would not exist. One interesting parallel is Goons; like there, you get a VP bonus for buying multiple cheap things. Goons has taught us that you don't usually want to buy Copper even for 2 VP except in the late game, so I think that is something to keep in mind when playing with this. Of course Basilica works slightly differenty because every 2 VP you take you also deny your opponent, so it's slightly stronger. It also combos nicely with Wine Merchant.

- Would the Landmark be better with a "Once per turn"? Why not?
- In which ways do you think this will play differently from Goons?
- There's a neat trick with overpaying where you get the 2 VP, and the value for your money. Jut make sure to resolve on-buys in the right order. Yes, this is not a question. Sorry.

78

Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Landmarks: Bandit Fort

« on: August 24, 2016, 05:42:25 pm »

I once tried to play a game of Dominion in Skyrim. It did not end well.

Once I was at an f.ds meetup, and we were all playing Dominion. The rest of us had finished their games and waited for the last group to end as well so we could switch. The last group was ehunt and tuffteah (I think), playing a game with Bandit Fort and no real economy other than Silver or Gold, and no trashing. It was fun watching them scramble to get to $5 just so they could grab a Duchy. ehunt was just plowing through the castles with Small Castle, making a sad face when he realized he had to gain a Gold off the Haunted Castle.

The point is, Bandit Fort games can be a real pain when there is no other income available. But most of the time, I think it will just push you a bit more away from Big Money, which is not usually something you want to play anyway.

- How big of an issue do you think situations where you get a couple of money cards and then try to trash them before the game ends will become?
- How much fun will it be to use Embassy as a pseudo-IGG?
- Can you still pull off Masterpiece/Feodum with Bandit Fort present?

79

Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Landmarks: Arena

« on: August 23, 2016, 05:34:32 pm »

"Look, I'm sorry I couldn't do my job... but can't we talk about this?" "No way, Steward! You're facing the lions!"

This opens our long series of "do special stuff you wouldn't normally do and get 2VP for it". Does opening with 2 terminals suddenly become more appealing? No. What are you even talking about? Who needs 2VP chip in their second shuffle? That's right. Are you done talking to youself yet? Good. You know, I have an post-inspiring blurb to write here, and it has to go better than last time. Ha, as if!

So is this ever more than a consolation prize? Probably not. It's still nice to have a consolation prize.

Let's move on to the really important questions:
- Would you ever not play an action you'd normally play in order to get more VP?
- How much weaker does this make Looters?
- What is the fastest way to drain the VP from this, and is "draining VP from Landmarks" now a new puzzle category?

80

Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Landmarks: Aqueduct

« on: August 22, 2016, 06:01:03 pm »

With Aqueduct, you get to keep 40% of your money when you buy something... wait, I must have switched my notes with some other game.

Am I the new schadd? Probably not, I'm not funny enough and look at all the Caps! Anyway someone's gotta do the dirty work.

So, Aqueduct. It's like turning every Victory card pile into a Feodum, except it's not. Imagine if the Victory pile already was Feodum to begin with! Craziness ensues. Here's that delicate decision again that's present virtually everywhere in Empires: Do I hurt my deck earlier than I want to deny my opponent the VP? At some point we're going to figure it out, and it will be glorious. You simulator geeks can get working on the question when to grab the points in a standard BM game.

We'll end on some questions because I'm not creative enough to come up with a new format:
- Will you ever choose not to gain a Silver or Gold because of this?
- Can you figure out if the effect has anything to do with an actual aqueduct? Maybe in form of fanfiction?
- Will I have the perseverance to post a new one of these each day?

81

Dominion Articles / Inheritance

« on: August 08, 2016, 09:23:00 am »

It is the craziest Event in Dominion so far (Sorry, Donate). It impacts the game like few other card-shaped things do, sometimes completely warping the way you approach building your deck. And, I think, it is still heavily underrated by a large part of the player base.

In this article, I try to highlight two different ways to incorporate Inheritance into your strategy, and also offer some thoughts on when going for Inheritance is the wrong move. This we will start with, because it is the easiest part.

When to not go for Inheritance

If you see Inheritance in a kingdom, your first impulse should always be to ask yourself "Can I make Inheritance work here?" In most cases, you will want to use Inheritance, but there are boards on which you don't. Aside from obvious cases like, there is no possible Inheritance target, you should look for these conditions:

- Do you start with Estates?
- Is there a non-terminal action costing $4 or less?
- Is there an easy way to buy/gain multiple Estates in a single turn?

If you answered at least two of these questions with "no", then you can probably ignore Inheritance. On the other hand, if you answered at least two of these with "yes", chances are you want to go for Inheritance in some way.

This evaluation is the easy part. But how to incorporate Inheritance into your strategy? There are two different strategy archetypes for this. I will outline them first and then talk a bit about when to go for which.

The Inheritance Rush

In an Inheritance Rush, you first and most important goal is to buy Inheritance as soon as possible. After that, if your opponent also goes for Inheritance, your next move is usually to try and win the Estate split.

To reach your first goal, you must throw some of your Dominion wisdom out of the window: Trashing is not a priority. Instead, you should focus on getting $7. Copper-trashing can still be worth it if it also provides economy (like Moneylender/Counterfeit) or cycling (like Spice Merchant). But you want to hold on to your starting Estates, if you have those. This strategy wants to open with cards that can spike high price points (Baron excels at this; but even Coppersmith or Death Cart can be worth it). Events such as Save or Expedition are a big help too.

Also, remember that you will soon get three copies of some card at once; you may want to delay buying those. If your plan is to inherit Villages, don't buy one when you have only 2-3 terminals in your deck.

Once you managed to murder your parents and snatch the Inheritance, often you will want to get as many Estates as possible. They're good for your deck, and winning the split provides a comfortable VP lead over your opponent without slowing you down. At this point, you will need to add +buy and gainers to your deck, which you probably didn't want earlier since they don't help you reaching $7.

After the Estates have drained, you should have put together a decent deck. From then on it's just usual Dominion play until the end.

Example games:
Game 1 - Here I focus on economy early on (opening Moneylender/Silver) while my opponent chooses a more traditional trashing approach with Amulet. I never gain more Estates, but choosing the Inheritance Rush is still worth it.
Game 2 - Here my opponent and I both choose to build similar engines, but due to using Inheritance, I get a sizable lead in VP and villages, promting my opponent to resign.
Game 3 - again I forego trashing in favor of more sifting (Dungeon), and use a spiking card (Wine Merchant) to get to Inheritance quickly.

Inheritance as support

Sometimes, the Rush is not the way to go, but Inheritance may still be useful. If Inheritance is only used as support, then you play the game much like a usual game, but at some point - maybe instead of your first Province - you buy Inheritance. Playing "normally" means you focus more strongly on trashing, maybe even trashing your starting Estates.

You will reach $7 much later in such games, and then you have to ask yorself whether Inheriting is still better than greening. Often enough, it will be.

There is less to say about this way to play Inheritance, since it is less a strategy on its own and more fitting Inheritance into whatever strategy your were already playing.

Example games:
Game 4 - here, the presence of Sea Hag turns the game into a slog, which means getting to $7 will be hard. You still want to get Inheritance since Ironmonger is such a juicy target.
Game 5 - here, lack of amazing targets means that building the engine takes precedence over inheriting, which is why I open Loan. I still luck into an early $7 thanks to Borrow.
Game 6 - my opponent goes for the Rush, while I focus on getting to Champion first. That turns out to be important, as I can later destroy his deck with inherited Pages and Warriors.

When to go for which strategy

Now that we saw both ways to play Inheritance, let's tackle the most important question: When do you want to do which? Obviously, that one is not easy to answer. The main reason not to go for a rush are attacks. Going for the Rush often means delaying the attack, which is particularly bad with junking. Also, most attacks will actively prevent the other player from getting to $7 anytime soon.

The other thing to consider is: would you normally open with the card you want to inherit? If your inheritance target is best in the earlier game stages, then the Rush is better. If it is more of a mid- to late-game support card, then you can also delay Inheritance.

Finally, I would like to address some more specific issues that may come up when playing with Inheritance:

Selecting the right target
Usually, the best target for Inheritance on a given board is glaringly obvious, but there are cases when things are not that easy. Usually, some cantrip is the best option - remember, you will have lots of them in your deck. Select a target that will not only benefit you for the next shuffle, but for the rest of the game. Sometimes, you might not want the cantrip at all if it does too little for your deck.

Example games:
Game 7 - I go for Scheme while my opponent picks Tournament. The problem with Tournament is that it's not a true cantrip - if I have a Province in hand and you have a hand of all Tournaments, it's a dud. Tournament just gets too risky in the late game, and my Schemes are just as good at lining up Tournament with Province.
Game 8 - here, I sheepishly go for Wandering Minstrel (it's a cantrip after all!) while my opponent chooses Envoy, and that's just so much better in this Big-Money-like game.

Cost reduction
This is a tricky one. Cost reduction enables you to Inherit more valuable targets, but it also means that you have to delay your Inheritance more than you'd like. The main problem is that Cost-reducers don't actually help you to buy Inheritance, so you better have some plan to get there. If you do, it can work out beautifully. These games are usually not Rushes, but only use Inheritance as support.

Examples games:
Game 9 - I use Highway to inherit more Highways and my deck just explodes from there.

Cost, type, triggers, tokens
It's important to remember where your inherited Estates are like the original cards - and where they differ.
Cost: The Estates still cost only $2. Remember this when planning to inherit Band of Misfits or Border Village.
Type: You will have lots of Action-Victory hybrids in your deck. This is great for cards that care about that stuff (Crossroads, the Iron family, even Scout) and changes the interaction with some attacks (Rabble gets hard-countered while Bureaucrat gets stronger).
Triggers: The Estates become yours as soon a you buy them, and stay your until they are trashed. That means you can make use of any on-buy, on-gain of on-trash triggers. Ever wanted to trash a Hunting Grounds, gaining 3 more Hunting Grounds?
Tokens: Tokens placed on the pile you inherited from are sadly not copied, and you cannot place tokens on the Estate pile.

82

Game Reports / Battle of the Trashers

« on: June 27, 2016, 07:49:37 pm »

Code: [Select]

Expedition, Plan, Raze, Develop, Forager, Shanty Town, Alchemist, Duplicate, Apprentice, Highway, Grand Market, Hoard
We have Estates, no Colonies, and a log.

So game plan was pretty clear here: Highway, Grand Market, buy all the cheap stuff. The interesting question is, how to get there?

We have Forager, Plan, Raze, Develop, Apprentice. So much trashing. But which is best? I went for the faster Raze in the opening, while Jeebus preferred Forager. I made a Plan with Highways, and so did Jeebus, but I'm not convinced it was really worth it; Expedition would probably have been the better event. So I was left with some questions:

Which is the best way to trash on this board? Go probably open either Forager or Raze. Is Develop helpful (gaining more trashers early)? On 5/2, do you open Apprentice/Raze, or rather Highway? Is Plan needed at all?

83

Puzzles and Challenges / Put it all back

« on: June 07, 2016, 07:44:34 pm »

Assuming perfect shuffle luck, what is the first turn that you can end with no cards in your deck, discard, hand or play area, no cards in the trash, and no cards set aside or on any mats?

Solo game, Empires and any number of Events allowed. Hard mode: only 2 Events. Mission, Outpost or Possession turns count extra.

84

Dominion: Empires Previews / Empires Bonus Preview #2: Crown

« on: May 11, 2016, 10:03:38 am »

(shamelessly copied from BGG to get loads of respect)

It's still Tuesday where I live!

Crown is Dominion's first Action/Treasure. It's an Action. It's a Treasure. You can play it whenever you can play either of those things. It counts as both of those things for cards that care about what other cards are. It does something different depending on whether it's your Action phase or your Buy phase; not that different, though. You might use it as a Throne Room that doesn't totally suck if it doesn't collide with your other Actions. Or maybe you want to save it for your treasures; playing Platinum twice is probably better than playing Chancellor twice. When the crown's on your head, you make the call.

85

Game Reports / Mint/Butcher vs Horn of Plenty

« on: April 08, 2016, 06:18:49 am »

Code: [Select]

Great Hall, Oracle, Death Cart, Monument, Golem, Butcher, Horn of Plenty, Laboratory, Mint, Forge
Log

This game left me with a couple of questions:
- first, what is the better strategy? Going for Minting Platina and Butchering them or try for a Horn of Plenty megaturn like luser did? Something else entirely? I mean I won here, but I feel that both of us didn't execute our strategies ideally, and I could see HoP being decently strong here.
- I realize pretty late that the top Ruins is a Ruined Market. With that being the only +buy here, would any of us have benefitted from grabbing it earlier?
- I more general question about the key card Golem: In a game with only terminals and cantrips, what should the terminal/cantrip ratio be in a Golem deck?

86

Mafia Game Threads / M79: Sherlock Mafia (Game over!)

« on: March 10, 2016, 03:24:04 am »

Welcome to M79: Sherlock Mafia!

Mod: faust

Moriarty has returned! Or has he? Sherlock returns from his exile to once more face off against his arch-enemy.

This is a closed setup for 16 players. Some information about the setup is included in the second post.

Players:
1. liopoil
2. gkrieg13
3. fontisian
4. silverspawn
5. Roadrunner7671
6. Melisandre
7. Seprix
8. Hydrad iguanaiguana
9. Awaclus
10. A Drowned Kernel
11. J Reggie
12. Haddock
13. Ichimaru Gin
14. 2.71828.....
15. Jan
16. Teproc Witherweaver

Spectators tagged: ashersky, EgorK, SirMartin, Joseph2302, Witherweaver, scott_pilgrim, iguanaiguana

Day starts/ends:
D1 start | mid-day flavor | end
D2 start | end
D3 start | end
D4 start | mid-day flavor | end
Game end

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts 48 hours.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. If the game goes on for 3 days and 3 nights without a lynch or night kill, town wins.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement multiple times risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

87

Game Reports / Fun with Pirate Ship

« on: March 05, 2016, 07:51:13 am »

Code: [Select]

Chapel, Lookout, Market Square, Masterpiece, Alchemist, Feast, Pirate Ship, Treasure Map, Graverobber, Soothsayer
Log

The game includes shelters, which is huge here because Necropolis makes for a much more interesting game. As you can see from the log, my opponent went basic big money using Chapel/Market Square for load of Gold and Soothsayer for even more Gold. I tried to break him by playing 2 Pirate ship per turn. Since my opponent often has Market Square in hand, my Pirate Ships are turned into a hand-size attack sometimes. The game left me with some questions:

- could my opponent have countered me effectively by an early big Masterpiece overpay?
- was I correct to cash in on one of the later turns, getting 7 Gold for my Market Squares, or should I have continued building up my Pirate Ships?
- What's the best strategy here anyway? Is it just money? Or closer to what I did? I could also see some Graverobber/Alchemist engine working out.

88

Puzzles and Challenges / Have the most money on turn 1

« on: January 18, 2016, 08:39:01 pm »

Puzzle: In a standard game, what is the maximum amount of money you can have in your first turn?

All cards and any number of Events allowed.

I can get to     $16   , can anyone do better than that?

EDIT: New high score:   $58 

89

Mafia Game Threads / faust's guide to mafia roles (Updated 18/03/2016)

« on: January 10, 2016, 03:00:19 pm »

What is a role?

A role is the collection of all abilities and the win condition of a player. It is comprised of any number of base roles, modifiers, faction memberships and exactly one alignment.

Base roles

A base role is a specific ability that an individual player possesses. Every base role has a mode: either active or passive. A player with an active base role can at certain points in the game choose to use their ability, while the ability of a passive base role is always at work. Targeting base role form a subgroup of active base roles: Players with a targeting base role may at certain points in the game choose one or more targets. Unless otherwise specified, only living players other than the player using the base role may be chosen as targets.

Every base role also falls into at least one category. The categories are:
Manipulative, Protective, Killing, Investigative, Miscellaneous

Manipulative base roles additionally have the subcategories Blocking and Redirecting.

Factions

A faction is a group of players with shared abilities. This usually, but not necessarily, includes the ability to talk in a shared QT at some times during the game. Any faction may have access to one or more possibly modified base roles. If they do, then the ability in question can be used by one member of that faction at a time.

Modifiers

A modifier can be attached to a base role, a faction membership or another modifier. The modifier will change the way the base role works, or may give special abilities with respect to the shared powers of the faction. A base role A may function as a modifier to a base role of the same mode as well, adding the abilities of A to the base role.

Alignments

Every player has exactly one alignment, which constitutes the win condition for that player. The alignment states the criteria that have to be met for that player to win. Unless stated otherwise, the game ends when at least one player fulfils their win condition.

Composed expressions

Multiple roles, faction memberships and/or modifiers can be added up to obtain a composed expression. A role modifier comes before the expression it modifies. A faction modifier always comes after the faction membership it modifies. In any given expression, a modifier always modifies the nearest valid expression. Brackets may be used to indicate a modifier that modifies another composed expression. A slash between two composed expressions indicates that only one of these expressions may be active at a time.

90

Mafia Game Threads / RMM30: Making Fun Mafia (Game Over)

« on: January 04, 2016, 09:48:27 am »

Welcome to RMM30: Making Fun Mafia!

Mod: faust
Comod: Teproc

It is the beginning of the year 2016. Making Fun is struggling to finally turn online Dominion into a profitable business. Will they manage to do so before they run out of cash? Will Adventures be released? Or will they go down the way Goko did?

This is a closed setup for 12 players inspired by yuma's "Simply Simpler Simple Mafia". Some information about the setup is included in the second post.

Players:
1. yuma (Mafia (Even-Night Strongman) Godfather - lynched D3
2. Awaclus
3. Witherweaver (Town Virgin Ascetic Innocent Child) - killed N1
4. XerxesPraelor
5. gkrieg13 (Town (Enabled Deathproof) Multiple User Personality) - killed N4
6. Roadrunner7671 (Town Compulsive Gladiator Restless Spirit) - lynched D1
7. A Drowned Kernel (Town Loyal Novice Vanillaiser) - killed N3
8. Hydrad
9. silverspawn
10. SirMartin (Town (Delayed Poisoning) Seraph Knight) - lynched D4
11. Joseph2302 (Town Neighbor Motion Detecting Arsonist9 - lynched D2
12. EFHW

Spectators tagged: Archetype, scott_pilgrim, ashersky

Day starts/ends:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts 48 hours.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. Not lynching on two consecutive Days is only allowed if there has been a kill the Night between. Otherwise, instead of no lynch, a random town player will be lynched. Similarly, the mafia may only forfeit their night kill two Nights in a row if there has been a lynch in between.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement multiple times risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

91

Dominion Articles / Scout 2

« on: November 09, 2015, 05:19:55 pm »

This one is for Roadrunner.

Sadly, Scout is not a good card. In fact, Scout is a bad card. So bad that in most cases you would not even want to take a Scout if you would get it for free, and that is fatal for a card that is not even terminal. Why is it so bad, and are there cases where it's still worth picking one up? Let us find out!

Comboless Scout

First, we want to examine how Scout fares without the presence of cards that synergize with it in a meaningful way. Imagine for simplicity a Big Money deck that has Scout added to it. What Scout does in this case it make your next hand better by removing dead cards from it. However, this comes at the expense of making you're current turn worse. If you play Scout and pick up one green card, then sure one green card is missing from your next hand. But this turn, you are now stuck with a five-card hand that includes this green card. And who is to say that the turn you played Scout isn't the one where you could have needed the extra Copper instead?

So if Scout picks up 1 card on average, it's pretty much the same as not having Scout at all. He does nothing for you, but at least won't hurt you. In order to be actually helpful though, Scout will have to pick up more than one green card on average. For Scout to pick up 2 greens on average however, your deck has to be 50% green. This basically never happens in a normal game.

So Scout without support is bad. Normally, it will pick up less than 1 card on average, thus actively hurting your deck. For Scout to be worth it, we need cards that work well with it. The rest of this article will be spent looking for such interactions.

We can split Scout into three parts: He puts green into your hand, reorders the top of your deck and provides +1 action. Typically cards will combo with one of these abilities.

Getting green

As said before, as long as you put only one card on average into your hand, Scout does not do anything. If you want to utilize this ability, you need ways to ensure you get more green.

Inheritance
We start out with what is probably one of the strongest Scout combos. If you use Inheritance to transform your Estates into useful actions, then Scout actually picks up the good stuff. For maximum effect you want the inherited card to be nonterminal, so that you can really load up on them.
The problem with the combo is that you need to spike $7, and picking up a Scout will certainly not help you do that. So don't pick up Scout before you inherit. But after the Inheritance, inherited Estates themselves compete with Scout for the buy. You should always carefully evaluate whether another Estate is not better for your deck than the Scout.

Hybrid VP
This is what Scout was originally designed for. You still need a LOT of Hybrid VP for this to pay off. Even if you gain 8 Nobles, you would still need a deck with significantly less than 32 cards total to expect being able to draw more than one of them. And if you have such a small deck why did you pick up all those Nobles anyway?
The fact of the matter is, the hybrid VP we have mostly prefer large decks over small ones. The larger the deck, the smaller the green density, the worse the Scout.

Discard for benefit
Remember how good it feels to discard a ton of actions to Storeroom and then redraw them with Scrying Pool? Can we make the same thing work with Scout and green cards?
Unfortunately no. Scout it just too bad at drawing. Even if you draw 4 green cards with Scout, playing a Storeroom afterwards, this will only net you $4. So you just spent $7 and two buys on something that in the best case is a terminal $4? Could have as well bought a Harvest.
I will say that Artificer is a much stronger discard-for-benefit card and might make this combo worth it. It's too early to tell.

Rabble
Rabble is countered by Scout; the Scout puts all the green into your hand. This is only worth it if your opponent plays multiple Rabbles per turn. Even then, you need to have the Scout in hand at the start of your turn. Scheme might make this possible. Wait, we're on a board with a Rabble engine and Scheme? Why are you wasting $4 on a Scout?

Apothecary
A cleverly timed Scout actually helps an Apothecary engine that starts choking on green. Apothecary leaves all the green on top of your deck; your Scout can clean it away. This is actually a decent combo.

Knowing the top of your deck

Sometimes Scout can be worth it even if he never picks up any green. Here are some examples.

Mystic
A Mystic-heavy deck benefits from Scout. Imagine your hand is 4 Mystics, Scout. Playing the Scout lets you draw four new cards. The catch is that 4 Mystics guarantee you to draw 2 cards anyway, so Scout effectively has about the power of a Lab here. It can be even better if you reveal more Mystics (or Scouts), which can continue drawing. For this to work, you only need one Mystic in hand. To pull the combo off, you need a high Mystic density though.
The Wishing Well combo is sadly too weak to ever matter.

Scrying Pool
Scrying Pool does two things with Scout: It effectively turns it into a cantrip because it is one more card that gets drawn with Scrying Pool, and if played before Scrying Pool it allows you to put that one non-action card on top to skip it with Pool.

Ruined Village anyone?

And then there are the oddball games where you just really need this +1 action, and don't have any other nonterminal lying around.

Peddler/Conspirator
Just wanna get a lot of actions in play? Well, Scout at least is nonterminal. This needs a lot of support in order to become a competitive strategy though.

Prince
Scout just may be the only nonterminal, and you really want to start your turn with 2 actions. Very unlikely.

Tokens
Say what you want of Scout, at least it's spammable. Pathfinding actually turns it into a decent card. Of course most of the time you'd rather turn an already-decent card into an awesome card.

Conclusion

What have we learned? There are probably three major Scout combos to keep in mind: Inheritance, Apothecary, Mystic. If you see Scout without any of these cards, chances are you won't be any worse off ignoring it.

92

Mafia Game Threads / M69: GOP Mafia (Russian Agents win!)

« on: September 09, 2015, 02:21:43 pm »

Welcome to M69: GOP Mafia!

Mod: faust comod: ashersky

Yes, I resisted the urge to make this number a NSFW theme. But if somebody else wants it, I will gladly change this to M70.

Anyway... This is an open game for 13 players. I will however not release the whole setup during signup phase in order to push all theory discussion to the actual game. Some information is already contained in the second post though.

Players:
1. gkrieg
2. Witherweaver
3. ashersky
4. chairs
5. UmbrageOfSnow yuma
6. Hydrad
7. EgorK
8. XerxesPraelor
9. Joseph2302
10. silverspawn
11. Edmund
12. Teproc
13. Twistedarcher

Spectators tagged: scott_pilgrim, yuma, Archetype, skip wooznum

Day starts/ends:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable, as is self-quoting. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts 48 hours. As an exception, Day 1 will last 10 days, and is followed by a special power distribution phase that will last 24 hours. Night actions are due one hour before the deadline.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate.  Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. Not lynching on two consecutive Days is only allowed if there has been a kill the Night between. Otherwise, instead of no lynch, a random town player will be lynched. Similarly, the mafia may only forfeit their night kill two Nights in a row if there has been a lynch in between.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement multiple times risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT.  Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

93

Mafia Game Threads / Political themes for mafia games?

« on: September 07, 2015, 08:15:23 am »

So, I have been looking for new themes for mafia games, and thought about a couple of things that could be fun. Only problem is we're diving into political areas that are usually restricted to the RSP forums with good reason.

So, to get a bit more concrete, I thought the US presidential race would make for a great theme. There are two parties fighting each other, multiple candidates on each side - it screams for a mafia game. And well, it seems relatively harmless to run that.

But then the question is where to draw the line. If I started a game featuring refugees fighting against Frontex (the border guards of the EU), then that might already be trouble. Take it a bit further and we have stuff like Islamic State vs Israel. And nobody wants that.

So I wondered what the consensus is. Ban completely? Allow "soft" political topics? Feel free to discuss! (And feel free to move this thread to RSP if you feel that's where it belongs)

94

Mafia Game Threads / RMM25: Buffy/Angel Mafia (Game over - Vampires win!)

« on: April 04, 2015, 09:38:36 am »

Welcome to RMM25: Buffy/Angel Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a closed RMM game for 15 players. It is, in some ways, a follow-up to the LOST Mafia RMM which never quite took off, reusing some of the ideas implemented there, but also introducing totally new aspects. The theme of this game follows the flavor of the shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Roles, and alignments, will be highly thematic.

Realize that RMM stands for Role Madness Mafia, and this may be true for this game in a particular way. Every player gets a uniquely designed role that may very well feature new or unusual types of actions as well as nonstandard win conditions. Still, this is not a bastard game, and balance has been strived for. There will be no mod lying, and no player's win condition can change over the course of the game. More details about the setup are found in the following post.

Players:
1. 2.71828.....
2. Hydrad (Xander Harris, the Town-aligned Sarcastic Sidekick) (lynched D1) (revived D4) (killed N5)
3. chairs (Anyanka, the Town-aligned Rehabilitated Vengeance Demon) (killed N5)
4. EgorK (Tara Maclay, the Vampire-aligned Witch of All Trades) (lynched D2)
5. Ichimaru Gin (Illyria, the self-aligned Time Travelling Old One) (killed N2)
6. Witherweaver replaced by UmbrageOfSnow (Warren Mears, the self-aligned Megalomaniac Inventor) (lynched D5)
7. silverspawn (Faith Lehane, the Town-aligned Capricious Slayer) (killed N5)
8. ashersky
9. hockeysemlan
10. Ghacob (Dawn Summers, the Town-aligned Kleptomaniac Teenager) (killed D1)
11. A Drowned Kernel replaced by Archetype
12. Awaclus (Lorne, the Wolfram&Hart-aligned Aura-reading Karaoke Bar Host) (lynched D4)
13. Lekkit (Spike, the Town-aligned Chipped Vampire) (killed N2)
14. Delirious Deleuze
15. mail-mi (Cordelia Chase, the Town-aligned Vision Girl) (killed N4)

Spectators tagged: Archetype, skip wooznum

Day starts/ends:
D1 start | end
D2 start | end
D3 start | end
D4 start | end
D5 start

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

The Silver Rule:

If any instructions you receive from the mods (via PM or otherwise) contradict any rules stated here, please stick to the instructions. If you are unsure, please contact the mods before taking action.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. Roles with Night actions will not be able to submit an action on Night 0 (i.e. during the confirmation stage).
4. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. This game will have variable deadlines, depending on the number of players still alive as follows: If more than 13 or less than 7 players are alive, days will last 7 days, otherwise 9 days. Night lasts 48 hours.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate.  Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, the player that is closest to lynch will die, with ties broken randomly.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent. Personal communication remains forbidden until the game is over.
10. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a PM to the moderator.  Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

95

Game Reports / Cool engine board

« on: March 04, 2015, 09:46:17 am »

I just played an engine that felt really cool, so here's my showing it off:

Code: [Select]

King's Court, Graverobber, Catacombs, Worker's Village, Island, Herald, Baron, Masterpiece, Pearl Diver, Vineyard
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150304/log.50733066fca2ca7237ee9b77.1425478527493.txt

Things that make this cool:
- Baron as the only payload
- KC/Island for trashing
- Graverobber/Catacombs for lots of gaining

The mirror would be really hard to play here I think. Luckily, my opponent just went for Provinces.

96

Mafia Game Threads / M59: Blink Mafia (Game over - Weeping Angels win flawlessly!)

« on: February 04, 2015, 05:28:34 am »

Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink!
Good luck.

Welcome to M59: Blink Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a small, simple open setup I created base on the episode "Blink" from the third season of (new) Doctor Who. Setup details can be found in the second post.

Players:
1. Hydrad
2. chairs
3. EgorK
4. Joseph2302
5. Witherweaver
6. XerxesPraelor
7. Awaclus
8. Rubby
9. silverspawn

Spectators tagged: Teproc, scott_pilgrim, ashersky, A Drowned Kernel, 2.71828...

Day starts/ends:

Rules for this game

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings.  This also means that out of context quotes are prohibited for all players who signed up for this game as long as it is running. Mafia members may communicate at night and during the confirmation stage.
3. If you have a role with a Night action your choices are due to all mods by the posted deadline.  If we do not receive your PM by the posted deadline you will forfeit your actions. In case of multiple submissions, the last valid one before the deadline will be used.
4. Roles with Night actions will not be able to submit an action on Night 0 (i.e. during the confirmation stage).
5. Any player with a Night action may instead submit a “No Action” PM to let the Mods know that you do not want to perform your expected action that Night phase.
6. Mafia members must choose their night kill target in their QT. It is possible for a member of the mafia to hand in orders for their partner. It is not possible for the Mafia to no kill two nights in a row. If this were to happen, the kill target and the kill executioner are decided randomly.
6. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. In this game, the Day phase will last 7 days and the Night phase 24 hours.
3. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
4. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate.  Further votes will also be ignored.
5. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
6. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch. It is not possible for a no lynch to occur two days in a row. If this were to happen, a random town player will be lynched instead.
7. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
8. Please submit vote revocations as either Unvote: PlayerName or Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
9. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch. It is not possible for a no lynch to occur two days in a row. If this were to happen, a random town player will be lynched instead.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.
12. Do not edit or delete posts.  We don't want some players having more information than others.  If you want to clarify posts, feel free to double post. Mods will not edit posts for you.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please PM the mod privately.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.10 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a PM to the moderator.  Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

97

Game Reports / Awesome comeback on an interesting board

« on: January 02, 2015, 11:11:40 am »

Code: [Select]

Advisor, Feodum, Herald, JackOfAllTrades, Thief, Catacombs, Library, Minion, Upgrade, Forge
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150102/log.50733066fca2ca7237ee9b77.1420214391875.txt

There's a nice engine, but no +buy. There's Jack/Feodum countered by Thief. When I see my opponent goes for Jack, I decide for the engine. I misplay a bit and then my opponent has 3 Provinces and 7 Duchies... the majority of the VP cards, right? No, there' still Feodum! Feodum, which doesn't fit into my strategy at all. I get four (!) Thieves, and manage to steal almost all his treasures. In the end, I somehow pull out a win.

What's the best strategy here? I wonder if this is an A > B > C > A board with Jack/BM> Jack/Feodum > Engine > Jack/BM

98

Dominion Articles / Prince

« on: December 22, 2014, 02:05:24 pm »

Prince is the shiny new card that got us all excited for a while until the new expansion was announced. The eventual effect – being able to play a card every turn without using an action or card slot – is super strong, but it's a long way until you get there.

Prince of what?

Let's start with the easy part – determining which cards you want Princed. Usually, once you bought a Prince, you want to set it aside as soon as possible. But if you have two potential targets, deciding which one to Prince might be difficult. Plus, if you see a kingdom full of cards you don't want Princed, you probably shouldn't go for Prince. I'll present a list of very bad to very good Prince targets.

The completely useless
Durations, one-shots

These cards just don't work with Prince, for technical reasons.

The very bad
Ambassador, Baron, draw-to-X, Cursers/Looters, trashers

Cards you probably don't want to Prince even if you can. With these, it's often better to Prince a shuffle later. This includes cards that require you to have certain cards in hand to be good, like trashers (require junk cards), but also cards you want to play a lot of early on and that lose value quickly (junkers).

The rather bad
Throne Room, Villages, Menagerie, Reactions

Cards you will probably Prince if you draw your Prince with nothing else, but where the effect just isn't great. Princing reactions means losing the reaction part, if you Prince a Village, you will usually end up with lots of unused actions. Throne Room can end up doing nothing, or even throning a bad card [side note: if you Prince Throne Room and throne a duration with it, you lose the Princing].

The rather good
Cantrips, trashing attacks, gainers, +buy, sifters, +coins

Cards that are almost always nice princed. Cantrips help you avoid terminal collision AND let you start with bigger hand size, which is already two plusses.

The really good
+cards, Discard attacks, Monument, Tournament, Scheme, Prizes

These kinds of cards are exceptionally good. Starting with a bigger handsize each turn is huge. A princed discard is sort of the inverse effect - opponents start with lower hand size each turn. Monument gives 1 VP per turn. Scheme effectively lets you play a more expensive card each turn. On tournament and Prizes, see below.

Note that this list does not imply that you should go for Prince whenever good Princable cards are around. The decision to make if e.g. Tournament is around is much harder than this. The following part tries to give some guidelines for deciding when to go for it.

When to go for Prince

First and foremost, Prince is an engine card. It has no place in big money games or slogs, simply because – similar to Throne Room/King's Court – you need to line it up with an action to get anything out of it. There are rare circumstances where you might want to use it even in non-engine decks, but the general advice is, ignore it if you're not building an engine.

Even if you are going for the engine, consider carefully if you really want Prince. The main problem about Prince is that it is slow. That Prince could have been a Province, and then you don't get the effect immediately, but instead need to sacrifice on action to set aside the card you want. That puts you behind a Province and roughly half a turn. If you could buy a single Province per turn before and now can buy two Provinces a turn, that may have been worth it; but more often than not, the benefit simply won't be big enough.

The following list gives scenarios where Prince can be good.

1. Colony games

There are two reasons why Prince is better in Colony games: First, Prince is made for long games, and Colony games tend to go longer. The more turns you have, the more will you be able to play your Princed cards. Second, the competition for Prince is weaker. In a Colony game, you usually don't want to go for Provinces except in the endgame, so if you hit $8, you can grab a Prince without that much opportunity cost.

2. Alt-VP

Same as above – if you don't want those Provinces anyway, ignoring them becomes easier. This point comes with a caveat though: Most Alt-VP cards (Gardens, Duke, Feodum) support decks that don't want Prince in it. But Prince can be great with Fairgrounds and Vineyard, and there's always the odd engine-into-Duchy/Duke game. The VP token cards also fall in this category: Prince allows you to build better Golden Decks for Bishop, a Prince of Monuments nets you 1 VP per turn, And Prince an help play more Goons per turn.

3. Prince while ahead

If you already have a decent advantage, you may be able to cope with skipping a Province buy. Prince can give your deck additional reliability and prevent you from losing to unlucky draws.

4. 2-card combos

This is a bit of a niche use for Prince, but can be quite good. Some cards combo nicely in theory, but it just isn't worthwile to set them up, because e.g. the one you'd need to play first is terminal. Prince can help with that. Prince a Navigator and your Herald engine will flow smoothly. Prince a Scavenger to get the card you want on top of your deck.

5. Rare components

This is definitely the scenario where Prince shines most. Sometimes, the engine is just not quite powerful enough. There are awesome eninge components, but the only Village is Necropolis? Just crown a Prince of Necropoles (is that the correct plural form?), and you'll start with three actions each turn. Similarly, a Prince of Crossroads can make your engine work.
While +action is what you need to make the engine work most often, there are also other possibilities: Maybe you can't guarantee drawing a +buy every turn – set it aside. Princed attacks are also quite nice.

When to play Prince

Usually, you want to Prince your cards as soon as possible. If you have Prince with a decent card in hand, don't wait for a better opportunity! Another mistake that is often made is this: you have Prince and Wishing Well in hand. Unless you can be pretty certain that you can draw a better action, don't play the Wishing Well! It's tempting to try and get more out of your turn, but if your Prince ends up dead, you'll curse your recklessness.

Countering Prince

Not much needs to be said here. If your opponent goes for Prince and you don't, your task is to end the game before his Prince pays off too much. Piledrive these Provinces, go for the three-pile. The longer the game, the better for the Prince player.

Specific interactions

In this last part, I'd like to pick a few special cards that have an interesting interaction with Prince.

Prince and Tournament

Prince and Tournament have a love-hate relationship. You need Provinces to activate your Tournaments, and every Prince could have been a Province. On the other hand, once you've Princed a Tournament, every hand with a Province in it wins. And, even better, once you've got those Prizes, you can Prince them and quickly get your opponent to resign. Getting Province with your first $8 and Prince with your second isn't a bad strategy on many Tournament boards.

Prince and Black Market

No, not what you think... Princing a Black Market is of course horrible. But what Prince really likes is the Black Market deck. Often you get a good card from the Black Market, but it's not enough because you can only ever get one copy. With Prince, you can play that card every turn.

Prince and cost reducers

Prince loves cost reducers because they give the opportunity to set aside better cards. After two Highways, you can set aside a Goons. Just don't spend too much time on such neat tricks. It's often better to set aside Prince this shuffle with a boring 4-cost than to wait another shuffle in hopes of getting that Prince of Hunting Grounds.
One warning: If you Prince a Bridge, keep in mind the effect that has on your TfB cards. You definitely look stupid when you start Upgrading your Coppers into Estates.

Prince of Hermits

This can be great if the kingdom allows for it. If you don't buy anything a turn, Prince sets aside Hermit before it can trash itself. That means, if you can cobble together an engine that doesn't need to buy anything, the Prince of Hermits can give you a constant supply of Madmen.

Other interactions
Outpost: more turns mean more Princed card plays. And Prince is often enough to make those Outpost turns as good as normal turns.
Quarry: Lowers the bar for Prince. Now it doesn't compete with Province anymore.
Swindler: Just like Peddler, the presence of Prince makes Swindler games even swingier than usual. If you manage to turn Province into Prince late-game, this can be a game-changer. And unlike Peddler, Princes will very rarely run out towards the endgame.

Conclusion

Prince is a unique card, but don't let that distract you. It's not that good. It has its uses, but you usually shouldn't just buy it without good reason.

99

Mafia Game Threads / RMM19: LOST Mafia - Game ended

« on: October 09, 2014, 12:27:57 pm »

Mafia is the oldest game in the world. Two factions, two sides. One is light, one is dark.

Welcome to RMM19: LOST Mafia!

Mods: faust, Archetype

This is a closed RMM game for 17 players. Now I know that 17 players is quite an undertaking, so this might take some time to fill. Please be patient. If you are looking for a game that starts sooner, please join sudgy's game.

The setup has been worked over, adapted and balanced for several months. A lot of work and passion went into it, and I hope everyone playing has as much fun as I expect. More information about the setup is found in post 2.

Players:
1. Teproc (Sayid Jarrah, Town-aligend 1-shot Lynchproof Public Role Cop) Killed N1
2. Hydrad
3. XerxesPraelor
4. Witherweaver
5. silverspawn
6. Beyond Awesome
7. ashersky
8. Ichimaru Gin
9. xeiron
10. chairs
11. Awaclus
12. 2.71828...
13. xxpittip
14. Twistedarcher Robz888
15. A Drowned Kernel
16. reinoe (Jin-Soo Kwon, Other-aligned Neighbor/Modified Jack Of All Trades) lynched D1

Spectators tagged: pacovf, mail-mi, Joseph2302

Day starts/ends: Day 1 start/end
Day 2 start

Rules for this game

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:

Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

The Silver Rule:

If any instructions you receive from the mods (via PM or otherwise) contradict any rules stated here, please stick to the instructions. If you are unsure, please contact the mods before taking action.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings.  Mafia members may communicate at twilight, night and during the confirmation stage.
3. If you have a role with a Night or Twilight action your choices are due to all mods by the posted deadline.  If we do not receive your PM by the posted deadline you will forfeit your actions. In case of multiple submissions, the last valid one before the deadline will be used.  If your Night/Twilight action was mandatory, it will be decided randomly.
4. Roles with Night actions will not be able to submit an action on Night 0 (i.e. during the confirmation stage).
5. Any player with a Night or Twilight action may instead submit a “No Action” PM to let the Mods know that you do not want to perform your expected action that Night/Twilight phase.
6. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. This game will have variable deadlines, depending on the number of players still alive as follows: If more than 15 or less than 7 players are alive, days will last 7 days, otherwise 9 days.
2. Twilight lasts 24 hours. Night lasts 48 hours. Unless stated otherwise, individual Night actions must be submitted within the first 24 hours of the Night phase. Twilight actions are due before Night begins. You may submit orders for the Twilight phase during the Day.
3. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
4. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate.  Further votes will also be ignored.
5. Once a player is lynched the game enters a 24 hours period of twilight; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
6. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, the player that is closest to lynch will die, with ties broken randomly.
7. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
8. Please submit vote revocations as either Unvote: PlayerName or Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
9. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.
12. Do not edit or delete posts.  We don't want some players having more information than others.  If you want to clarify posts, feel free to double post. Mods will not edit posts for you.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please PM the mod privately.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.10 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a PM to the moderator.  Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

100

Game Reports / A Scout board (kind of)

« on: September 23, 2014, 02:55:25 pm »

I had a game where I actually bought Scout! These are rare enough to share it here:

Code: [Select]

Pearl Diver, Stonemason, Feast, Remodel, Scout, Catacombs, Counterfeit, Margrave, Minion, Rabble
Strategy is pretty simple: A Minion rush with Counterfeit support. There are no villages, so any terminal will slow me down. When I get to $9 and buy the last Minion, I'm wondering what to do with my $4. And I actually go for Scout. There is a lot to support this: Counterfeit clears the Coppers, but leaves the green cards in the deck, Minion lets you make use of the filtered top of your deck immediately, and Pearl Diver can put these green cards on top of your deck for Scout to pick them up (there's an awesome combo, someone should write an article about: Pearl Diver/Scout. Completely overpowered.). I actually have one glorious moment that I will tell my children and grandchildren about when my Scout flips over four green cards.

The end game was probably bad on my part, should have gone for Remodel earlier to pile out those Provinces.