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101

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

« on: April 09, 2014, 09:32:47 am »

In Soviet dominion you can Embargo 5 piles at a time.

In Soviet Dominion, there is no Prosperity set.

102

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

« on: April 09, 2014, 02:52:14 am »

In Soviet Russia, you get taken to Fortress where they trash you and return you back for more.

In Soviet Russia, Butcher trashes you and takes away your coin.

103

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Star Cross'd Lovers of Dominion

« on: April 02, 2014, 02:56:15 pm »

I believe Donald once said how Worker's Village and Peddler form his favourite synergy from Prosperity.

104

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Newbie Questions regarding King's Court

« on: March 26, 2014, 04:25:38 am »

To expand upon what others have said:

1> Am I missing something obvious about the type of deck that wants to buy it?  It's somewhat less than satisfactory in my probably-incomplete engine type decks (entirely possible I'm more of a "Village Idiot" than I realize), and seems to have an annoying tendency to be drawn solo in any other type of deck I'm trying it in.

2> How should this work with the ratio of action cards in the deck?  If the normal ratio is "just shy of 1 action card per 5 cards in deck, unless it's a cantrip", how should I be figuring KC into this?

Since these two questions are connected, I'll answer them together.

I'm not an expert Dominion player, but more I'm learning, the more I realize how important trashing is for building an engine. In King's Court's case, this is especially important, since your 10 starting cards prevent you from connecting KC with powerful action cards you want. Imagine you draw KC with three coppers and an estate: if you had trashed estates and coppers, you would have likely have drawn KC with action card you need.

So don't be afraid to trash aggressively. If you have many coppers in play, buy a Mint. If Moneylender is on a board, it's often recomendabble to buy it on turn 1 or 2 (since it trashes coppers and gives you money for it). Consider opening Loan to clear out your starting coppers. And above all, Chapel is almost an obligatory opening buy in vast majority of games it appears in. Lesser coppers and estates you have in your deck, the better are the chances you'll draw KC with an useful action card.

Secondly, don't overbuy your treasures, even Golds or Platinums. If you have enough virtual money (i.e. action cards that give you coins) coming from cards like Market, Peddler, Grand Market, Monument, Festival, Goons (or many others), then you don't need treasure cards at all. In such decks, action cards can take up to 80%+ of total cards in deck, or even 100% before buying victory cards.

If you don't have virtual money in your deck, then it's often enough to have small number of high-value treasures. If you can draw your entire deck each turn (which is often plausible, especially with KC+card drawer), then having 3 Golds in your entire deck (which you'll draw each turn) is enough to buy you a Province each turn. There's no need to continue buying Golds (unless you plan on buying 2 Provinces each turn)

I've seen it work a few times, even spectacularly once (hand was King's Court, Mint, Platinum, Watchtower, Copper).  Most of the time, however, I'm seeing it either drawn solo (the only action card in the hand) or played on an engine-type action (Village\Workers Village\City\Vault).  I checked around the site & the wiki (which were a lot of help with other cards) but I seem to be missing some key detail here.

King's Court can get way better (and more interesting) than that . KC-Laboratory gives you +3 actions and +6 cards; KC-Monument +6 coins and +3 VP tokens, KC-Smithy +9 cards. Above all, KC is deadly with certain attacks: KC-Witch gives your opponent 3 curses and lets you draw 6 cards, while KC-Mountebank burdens him with 6 junk cards. KC + Saboteur (card from Intrigue set) can really mess up you opponent's deck in quite a nasty way.

I wish you the joy of playing KC when you draw it in the right hand and realize how awesome it can be .

105

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which of these more powerful attack cards is your LEAST favorite?

« on: March 19, 2014, 03:50:54 am »

Cultist, definitely. Having 8-9 ruins in your deck by turn 9 (which happens often enough if your opponent has 5/2 opening) sucks out any kind of fun from the game.

Laboratory is strong 5$ card from base set. Witch is even stronger. Combination of pseudo-Lab and pseudo-Wicth, with added on-trash benefit, is way too overpowered, IMO.

Torturer is close second (way too stackable with village support), while Ambassador is 3rd.

106

Help! / Re: Improving Alt-VP strategies

« on: February 27, 2014, 10:03:17 am »

Thanks for welcomes and suggestions:) I'll be looking forwards to implementing them in next games.

107

Help! / Improving Alt-VP strategies

« on: February 26, 2014, 05:29:13 pm »

Being relatively inexperienced player (Goko rating about 4500) and looking to improve my play, I registered here and thought to ask for feedback regarding some my games. So, hello all

In particular, I've been having some interesting sets recently where various alt-VP strategies were rivaling or overwhelming traditional Province-based ones. Since I have little experience playing alt-VP sets, it's quite probable I've erred in various ways in these games. Any feedback is welcome.

Game 1: Feodum

Code: [Select]

Hamlet, Smugglers, Steward, Feodum, JackOfAllTrades, Tournament, Cultist, Ill-Gotten Gains, Knights, Saboteur
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140213/log.516d5f8be4b082c74d7bcbbc.1392325344542.txt

Before this game, I used to underestimate Feodum. Not any more - as I got completely trashed here without ever coming nowhere near contesting my opponent. We both opened Jack of all Trades/Steward, and while my opponent trashed consistently and got his first Province ASAP, I got carried away, abandoned trashing and opted for Cultist. With his thin deck, opponent connected his Tournament and Province relatively quickly, got Trusty Steed and started pumping more and more silver into his deck with each play. In the end, each of his 8 Feodums were 9 points worth.

So, is Trusty Steed/Feodum right way to go here? Is some Province plan quick enough to stop it? Would Feodum still be right way to go without Tournament on the board?

Game 2: Duke/Silk Roads

Code: [Select]

Candlestick Maker, Doctor, Horse Traders, Silk Road, Smithy, Cache, Duke, Haggler, Margrave, Stables
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140222/log.515c0c7ce4b093d38b19b125.1393098007619.txt

This set, as it seemed to me, heavily favoured Duke strategy - Horse traders, Cache and Silk Road should all go splendidly with it. I opened HT/Silver and started gaining Caches and 1 more HT, while my opponent basically went Big Money + Margrave. Despite winning by relatively narrow margin (76-70), my opponent would have probably won if he bought Silk Roads instead of Dukes and Estate (T18).

My gut feeling is that Duke is best possible strategy here and that Province player should not have come so close. So, did I misplay my game? Started greening too early? Gotten too few Horse Traders? Or am I wrong and Province-based strategy is viable here?

Game 3: Duke/Silk Road

Code: [Select]

Duchess, Chancellor, Coppersmith, Sea Hag, Silk Road, Bandit Camp, Duke, Explorer, Haggler, Border Village
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140222/log.515c0c7ce4b093d38b19b125.1393097338461.txt

We both opened Sea Hag/Silver and went for Duchies with some Haggler support. I started buying victory cards earlier, while my opponent took his time to buy 3 Bandit Villages - whose Spoils enabled him to snatch some Provinces later. It turns out that his Provinces ensured him insurmountable lead. On my last turn, I bought the last Curse to 3-pile the game, as I couldn't know the score and feared it would only get worse for me it the game went on. I ended up losing with four points.

Any improvements here on my general plan or its execution? Was Bandit Camp really the way to go here?

Game 4: Gardens

Code: [Select]

Fool's Gold, Moat, Storeroom, Bureaucrat, Gardens, Navigator, Harvest, Journeyman, Mountebank, Grand Market
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20140226/log.515c0c7ce4b093d38b19b125.1393445555446.txt

The question here was - whether to go for Mountebank and/or Grand Market or Storeroom/Gardens. My opponent went for former, I decided to try latter. Game ended on turn 22, with Gardens, Storerooms and Estate pile empty. Though I won by a small margin, I'm convinced I would be toast with better play from my opponent. Had he snatched more than 1 Gardens from he, I would have lost. Had the game lasted 1 turn longer, I would have lost. Had my opponent not helped me empty Storeroom pile, I would have lost. Had he ignored Grand Market and Fool's Gold and went straight for Money + Mountebank or Money + Journeyman, I'd probably lose convincingly.

So, was Gardens really the best option here? Should it win the game against Mountebank player? Or did I somehow misplay my hands?