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26

Rules Questions / Re: Trashing several cards with Monestary

« on: December 01, 2017, 06:56:49 am »

These are definitely edge cases, but it is possible:

You have two Catacombs in hand, no other cards in hand, and no cards in your deck and discard pile.
Blessed Village is in the Supply, and the top boon is The Wind's Gift.
If you trash the Catacombs one at a time, and gain a Blessed Village off the first, then The Wind's Gift will make you discard the second Catacombs, so you can't trash it.
If you trash both Catacombs at once, however, you can trash both at once.

Another way to get the same issue:
Cursed Village is in the Supply with your -2 Cost token on it. You have 4 Provinces in hand in addition to the two Catacombs, and Fear is the top Hex. (Or Haunting with 3 Provinces in hand - if you've trashed both Catacombs you don't have to topdeck a card, if you've only trashed one then you do).

These also work with Inherited Blessed/Cursed Villages and trashing Hunting Grounds.

27

Dominion FAQ / Re: Maximum Possible VP?

« on: November 29, 2017, 04:50:33 am »

In the sense that infinity is shorthand for an unbounded limit, I am completely fine with Awaclus' loop producing "infinite VPs" in the sense that for any real number, the loop can always produce more points than that.

Not distinguishing between infinity and an unbounded limit is a very dangerous thing to do if you wish to make true statements.

What's the difference?

Unbounded VP Action $notenough
+1 VP
You may play this again.

Infinite VP Action $notenough
+1VP per whole number greater than 0.

The first one can get you any number of VP, but at some point you have to stop, at which point you only have some finite number of VP.
The second one actually gets you infinite VP, because you get them all at once.

28

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Empty the Changeling pile with one Action

« on: November 22, 2017, 05:49:10 am »

Kingdom: Duchess, Lurker, Changeling, Market Square, Watchtower, Death Cart, Necromancer, Trader, Hunting Grounds; Ferry, Inheritance.

Setup: Ferry then Inheritance on Hunting Grounds. Gain Zombie Mason from the trash with Lurker.
Hand: Zombie Mason, Market Square, Market Square, Trader, Watchtower.
Top of deck: Hunting Grounds.

We have Trader in hand, so can exchange anything for a Changeling.
Play Zombie Mason, trashing Hunting Grounds.
Gain 3 Estates, exchanging two for Changelings and trashing the third with Watchtower.
Repeat this n times, where n is the size of the Estate pile. By default n=8 but it can be increased.
From trashing the final Estate-Hunting Grounds, gain a Duchy, exchanging it for a Changeling, gaining a Duchess, exchanging that for a Changeling.
React to the first Hunting Grounds trash with two Market Squares, gaining 2 Golds, exchanging them for Changelings.
Zombie Mason lets you gain a card: gain a Death Cart, exchanging it for a Changeling, and with it get two Ruins, exchanging those for Changelings.

Total Changelings is 2n + 7, so 23 if n=8.

The maximum value possible for n is 12+3*6 = 30, in a 6 player game with Ambassador and Lighthouse. Although we only have one Kingdom card slot left, we could replace Trader, Watchtower and Lurker with Black Market to allow both Ambassador and Lighthouse.

29

Dominion FAQ / Re: Maximum Possible VP?

« on: November 21, 2017, 05:43:40 pm »

In the sense that infinity is shorthand for an unbounded limit, I am completely fine with Awaclus' loop producing "infinite VPs" in the sense that for any real number, the loop can always produce more points than that.

Not distinguishing between infinity and an unbounded limit is a very dangerous thing to do if you wish to make true statements.

30

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Split pile: Attendants/Old God

« on: November 19, 2017, 07:11:13 pm »

Is it intended that Attendants doesn't stay out if you don't discard a Potion? As written it doesn't.

31

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Set up the longest sequence of known top-decked cards

« on: November 19, 2017, 12:26:53 pm »

On the megaturn: discard everything to Vault, then topdeck everything with Herald's overpay effect.

My solution strands a Vault in play where your solution strands 3 cards in hand; 3 - 1 = 2.

You need Travelling Fair as well, to topdeck the Herald - it can't topdeck itself with its overpay.

32

Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Cultural references in Nocturne

« on: November 19, 2017, 07:00:54 am »

Tragic Hero: This is a general reference to the dramatic archetype of a hero who begins prosperous but falls to ruin through his own mistakes and actions (not usually villainy). Famous examples include Oedipus, who accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother; and Hamlet, who embarked on a worthy quest for revenge but whose recklessness leads to the death of most of the play's characters. Likewise, as soon as things are getting really good for you, this Tragic Hero dies, but at least you get to inherit his Treasure! The crows in the illustration are omens of death or bad luck.

i feel this is missing the similarity to Hero.

33

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: PSA: loop: KC'd Overlord as Mining Village, Lurker and King's Court

« on: November 19, 2017, 06:52:13 am »

Ew. Ick.

I guess I'm now convinced that's how it works. Just less convinced it's how it ought to work...

The only other possibility would mean the Overlord would remain a Lurker until it next left play, i.e. if you gained it (with Lurker, say), drew it, and then played it, it would still be a Lurker, and would only stop being a Lurker when it left play the next time. Which would be actually impossible to track.

34

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: PSA: loop: KC'd Overlord as Mining Village, Lurker and King's Court

« on: November 17, 2017, 01:47:42 pm »

If you have sufficient (8 definitely works) other cards in hand, then using Tragic Hero instead of Mining Village gives you unlimited buys as well as allowing you to gain the entirety of every Treasure pile in the Supply.

35

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: November 16, 2017, 05:31:03 pm »

Wonka Chocolate Bar
Candy $3
When you gain this, look at its back. If it's a Golden Ticket, gain 3 Wishes from their pile. Otherwise, gain a Silver. Return this to the Supply and shuffle the Wonka Chocolate Bar pile.

(There are 9 Wonka Chocolate Bars with normal backs and one with a Golden Ticket back. As with Knights and Ruins, shuffle the Wonka Chocolate Bar pile before the game, but keep the cards in the pile face up.)

36

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Puzzle: Smuggler's Choice

« on: November 16, 2017, 02:45:08 pm »

No Black Market - so no Potion, since we can't have Potion-cost cards in the Kingdom, no Events, and no gains other than as a result of buying a single card:

Kingdom:
Charm, Haggler, Catacombs, Cache, Cultist, Bazaar, Trader, Young Witch, Skulk, Watchtower (Bane), Smugglers; Shelters

Deck: 8 Cultists, 8 Bazaars, 7 Hagglers, 6 Charms, 1 Necropolis, 2 Catacombs, 1 Trader, 1 Watchtower
(Trader can trash Coppers, and with a Watchtower in hand can trash Shelters).
The trash contains your 9 starting cards, plus two Silvers from trashing the Shelters.
Your opponent's deck consists of their starting cards and a single Smugglers.
The bottom two Ruins are the same.

Play 8 Bazaars and a Necropolis, leaving 10 actions, leaving a hand of 4 Cultists.
Play 8 Cultists (chained) and 2 Catacombs, leaving 7 actions and drawing 22 cards. You need to draw 4 Cultists, 2 Catacombs, 7 Hagglers, 6 Charms, 1 Trader, and 1 Watchtower = 21 cards, so this works.
Play 7 Hagglers, so you now have no actions.
Play 6 Charms, always taking the gaining option.

Buy Duchy
Gain from Charm: Charm, Haggler, Catacombs (reveal Watchtower to trash, gaining Estate), Cache (reveal Trader to gain Silver instead of one Copper), Cultist, Bazaar
Gain from Haggler: Watchtower, Trader, Curse, Young Witch, Skulk (gaining Gold), Smugglers, the penultimate Ruins.

There are 19 Supply piles, of which only Province does not cost $6 or less, and your opponent can Smuggle from any of the 18 other Supply piles.

37

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Empty the Supply in 1 Turn

« on: November 16, 2017, 11:42:34 am »

Buy: Banquet (CC to discard, c, hex Locusts, f -> l, topdeck c)

This doesn't work: when you gain the Lurker, it goes on top of the Cursed Village which is lost track of, so Travelling Fair can't topdeck the Cursed Village.

38

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Puzzle: Smuggler's Choice

« on: November 16, 2017, 07:08:34 am »

Edit: This doesn't work because I forgot to include Smugglers. Oops. Not sure how to fix it: we can replace Village with Smugglers but you can't then get the required cards into play.

We can only get Potion into the supply if we also include Black Market, which always feels a little like cheating. I can manage Young Witch and the top Ruins, though:

Kingdom:
Charm, Haggler, Catacombs, Cache, Cultist, Bazaar, Trader, Watchtower (Bane), Young Witch, Skulk, Village

Bazaar + Village + Catacombs lets you draw & play 7 Hagglers and 6 Charms
(8 Bazaars and 8 Villages gives plenty of terminal space for 8 Catacombs and 7 Hagglers. The Catacombses draw 24 cards, plus 5 in your starting hand; you need to draw 7 Hagglers, 6 Charms, 8 Catacombs, 1 Trader, 1 Watchtower, and 3 Estates - you can trash Coppers with Trader - which is 26 cards in total, which is less than 29.)

Buy Duchy
Charm-gain: Charm, Haggler, Catacombs (reveal Watchtower to trash, gaining Estate), Cache (reveal Trader to gain Silver instead of one Copper), Cultist, Bazaar
Haggler-gain: Watchtower, Trader, Curse, Young Witch, Skulk (gaining Gold), Village, top Ruins (which is the same as the next one)

39

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Puzzle: Smuggler's Choice

« on: November 15, 2017, 11:57:59 am »

Kingdom: King's Court, Border Village, Skulk, Duchess, Haggler, Smugglers, Hunting Grounds, Trader, Watchtower, Cache.

Buy a Province with 10 Hagglers in play. One of those Haggler gains is a 1) Border Village that gains a Duchy, gaining a Duchess (giving room to gain a Curse instead of one of the 10 Kingdom cards). Another Haggler gains a 2) Skulk, gaining a Gold in the process. Another gain is a 3) Cache, gaining 2 Coppers, but you reveal Trader to turn one of those Copper gains into a Silver gain. Another gain is a 4) Hunting Grounds, but you trash it with Watchtower to gain 3 Estates. Gains 5-10 off Haggler are Curse, King's Court, Trader, Watchtower, Smugglers, and Haggler.

The only thing they can't gain is the Province. Is that okay for the rules?

Replace King's Court with Catacombs; add Ferry, and put Ferry on Hunting Grounds.

Buy a Border Village with 8 Hagglers in play.
Haggler 1: gain Skulk gaining Gold
Haggler 2: gain Cache gaining Copper, replacing with Silver with Trader, and Copper
Haggler 3: gain Hunting Grounds, trashing with Watchtower, gaining 3x Estate
Haggler 4: gain Catacombs, trashing with Watchtower, gaining Trader
Haggler 5-8: gain Watchtower, Smugglers, Haggler, Curse
Border Village on-gain: gain Duchy, gaining Duchess

What's more, all 10 Kingdom cards cost $6 or less.

40

General Discussion / Re: Maths thread.

« on: November 05, 2017, 10:26:15 am »

If you call the original sum S_n then using (n choose k) = (n-1 choose k-1) + (n-1 choose k) you can get a recurrence relation S_n = 2S_{n-1} + 2^{n-1}. This has closed form S_n = (n+2)*2^{n-1} which you can prove by induction.

41

General Discussion / Re: Maths thread.

« on: November 05, 2017, 04:19:32 am »

What do you mean by "k out of n"? Is it "n choose k" i.e. n!/(k!(n-k)!)?

42

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Roots and Renewal

« on: November 02, 2017, 04:19:14 am »

Gem, $4, Action/ Treasure
If it’s your Action phase, +2 Cards. If it’s your Buy phase, +$2.While this is in play, if you played exactly 4 cards, return this to your hand.

Inspired by Asper’s Jeweller (which didn’t work out) and Road, this card is very weak when played once but if you put some work into it, can boost your turn multiple times. Alternatively, it could go back to your hand on different triggers depending on your current phase (e.g. 2 actions in your Action phase and 3 Coppers in your Buy phase).

Just to check how Gem is meant to work. Suppose:

I play Village
I play Gem
I play Village
I play Gem
-> at this point, do both Gems go back into my hand?
Now I play Gem again. This is the 5th card I've played this turn, so it - and any future Gems I play - won't return to my hand again. Correct?

43

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: November 01, 2017, 06:20:13 am »

From Mr. Cha-shu.

Solo game without any Events: play Possession on turn 2.

Kingdom: Lurker, Pixie, Stonemason, Fool, Necromancer, Baker, Band of Misfits, Pooka, Possession. Shelters (thanks to Band of Misfits).
Starting cards: Goat, Cursed Gold, Lucky Coin, 3x Copper, Overgrown Estate, Hovel, Necropolis.
T1: Draw Cursed Gold, Copper, Copper, Goat, Overgrown Estate
Play all treasures. Goat trashes Overgrown Estate, drawing Hovel.
Spend Baker coin, giving $7. Buy Stonemason, overpaying $5, gaining two Bands of Misfits.
T2: Draw Copper, Copper, Lucky Coin, Necropolis. Shuffle, draw Band of Misfits.
Deck: Band of Misfits then Stonemason, Curse, Copper, Copper, Goat, Cursed Gold in any order.
Play Necropolis.
Play Band of Misfits as Fool. Take Earth's Gift, Moon's Gift, Wind's Gift.
Receive Earth's Gift, discarding Lucky Coin to gain Lurker. Receive Moon's Gift, topdecking Lurker. Receive Wind's Gift, drawing Lurker and Band of Misfits, discarding 2x Copper.
Play Lurker, trashing Possession.
Play Band of Misfits as Necromancer, playing Possession from the trash.

44

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: A traveller line based on discarding

« on: October 31, 2017, 12:30:30 pm »

I think Ancient Coin should lose the "treated as Copper" thing. That's really inelegant. Instead, you could just make Dowser say "or an Ancient Coin".

Agreed.

Hospital can generate boundless points without ever bringing the game to a close.

The VP is tied to Copper-gaining, so it is capped, although it scales badly with number of players going for it.

Also, Ancient Coin is basically a Silver+, unless you play with Night cards.

Yeah, I don't see a reason for Ancient Coin to be worth $2 rather than $1.
It took me a bit to realise that Ancient Coin could trigger Dowser, Source and Hospital. Heirlooms are a really easy and elegant way of making sure a mechanic is available without putting it on the card itself.

45

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Gamer's Cards

« on: October 30, 2017, 08:55:51 pm »

It would be nice to have some explanation as to why the card does what it does. Like, Inquisition looks like it started as "Receive a Boon", then that's quite boring and weak so let's tag some vanilla bonuses on, and let's make them next turn because why not? There's no coherence to the card. And quite a few other cards are like that, or at least seem to be like that.

Forgotten Jewels - It's not entirely clear what this is meant to do. Did you mean:
If it's your Buy phase: +$1
If it's your Night phase: Gain a card costing etc...
If right, I think that's quite nice, and I like the way that it ties into the Landmark, although only minorly (and I suspect the Landmark isn't one that often makes much of a difference).

Gatherer is kind of the obvious card to do at the start of a Traveller line given the official ones. Hunter is a reasonable basic card for early in a Traveller line, although maybe compares too well to Caravan to be 2nd in line? However, the rest are incoherent both individually and as a set, both mechanically and thematically. And compare Commander to Teacher or Champion, it's nowhere near as good. Witch Doctor is probably stronger but only because it can kill opponent's turns (more likely in multiples, but not only), which isn't fun.

I think it's too easy for Armada to yield a situation where you're both giving out more Debt than the other can produce $, and just accumulating more and more Debt and being unable to buy anything. I suspect almost any King's Court / Armada game ends like that, but I don't think KC is required.

Why is one half of Colosseum when-gain and the other when-buy? When-gain for both seems better. I like it, though.

There are some nice ideas: I like both Ancient Remains and Recurring Loans, and Scribe's bottom half is really interesting (I'd probably call it Copyist, which is pretty much the same idea but less subtle :p). Hard to judge whether that's the correct top half to pair with it (though I agree it wants something simple), or how good it is, but I like the idea.

Street Sweeper is nice but causes confusion with Durations.

I agree with pretty much all of the other comments people have made.

46

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: October 28, 2017, 06:43:03 am »

I really like Spellcasters, although as you've found as well the issue is playtesting them... I have done a bit, testing against BM, but none with other players. They're much more like Events than Boons - I think you're underestimating how much of a difference "you have to pay for them" is. The interesting thing is that they're one-shots, not that they're different each time.

I can see the point that if Summoner is the only Spellcaster in the kingdom then it's like Druid in the sense that it's "pick one of these three bonuses, which are different each game". But with other Spellcasters around, the fact that you can delay the bonus becomes a much bigger thing: discard 2 Estates at the end of your turn to get +2 Cards when you play your first Trickster next turn, for example - or, provided there's enough terminal space, there's the combination with Magician. Even with Summoner on its own Harm is the only Spell you always want to play immediately rather than saving.

The only State that is remotely similar to an Edict is Lost in the Woods, and the interesting thing there is more the hot-potato aspect for Fool, rather than the actual effect of Lost in the Woods. Yes, some of them could go on other cards (and I really like fragasnap's Greed for that), but not all of them, and there they kind of need to tie into the card, rather than being just "occasionally the rules of the game are different" in the way they currently are. Messing around with ways to give them out rather than just being permanent (for this game) rules changes takes away a lot of the elegant simplicity of the current design.

47

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: October 28, 2017, 04:30:14 am »

But yeah, if I was to rename it, I could do something like Lich and give it an army of Skelletons. Until that name's taken, of course. I think I lost three names and three concepts up to now, and we're not even completely through. It makes me proud to have done a card that resembles an official one as much, but at the same time I kinda wished this had been more like Werewolf, where it was name only.

I can see the names (Necromancer, Werewolf, Nightwatch?), but the only concept I can see is Necromancer/Zombie?

48

Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Nocturne Teasers Speculation

« on: October 27, 2017, 09:51:02 am »

So, with Bats and Zombies, other than the two Heirlooms we haven't seen, the only things to come are ordinary Kingdom piles?

49

Dominion: Nocturne Previews / Re: Previews #5: Exorcist, Pixie, Vampire

« on: October 27, 2017, 05:13:00 am »

I do not really understand the benefits of Vampire. $5 looks like a steep price for an unthroneable random attack which is weaker than all other $5 attacks. The fact that it trashes itself for another $5 does not make it better - if you wanted the other $5, why did you not purchase it in the first place? Bats seem also rather weak to me. Best case scenario is that you can use your bats turn 5 to trash 2 cards without any additional advantage. Yes, you might have more choice if you had a lot of draw, but with +action that is true for all other trashers. In my opinion, this compares unfavorably even to weaker trashers like Rat Catcher, Lookout or even Trade Route.

So in the end, you have a so-so attack, that exchanges itself for a useful card and a weak trasher. Feels like a Jack of all Trades, master of none situation. And I have not even started, comparing it to Skulk.

So, what am I missing here? After all this playtesting, there should be a reason why it costs 5.

The fact that the Bats turn back into a Vampire, so next shuffle you get another $5 gain (and hexing)?

50

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: October 26, 2017, 09:42:27 am »

I reckon you should just rename "Werewolf" to "Lycanthrope".