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Topics - Seprix

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51
Dominion Articles / Delve: A Brief Overview
« on: June 24, 2016, 04:13:46 pm »
This article is a brief overview on Delve. It is meant to be a quick and friendly read for newer players, but more experienced players may also benefit from the contents.

Introduction

With the advent of Dominion: Empires, many are looking at the strength of Events such as Dominate, Salt The Earth, and of course the biggest contender for best Event in the game, Donate. However, I wish to focus today on Delve, an Event that has gotten less attention than it deserves.

So what does Delve do? Simply stated, Delve gains a Silver for $2 without costing a buy. This seemingly innocent ability is much stronger than it first lets on. In fact, I will make a bold prediction from my limited playing time with Empires and say that Delve may become as game-warping as Save is.

I can hear some objections already. “Isn’t Silver a bad card?” “Why would you ever want Silver in an engine?” Some of you may already know in general what I will write about, but my hope is that everyone learns something new about Delve, including myself. So let’s “Delve” into the world of Silver gaining, shall we?

The Opening

Delve is most likely to be bought right at the opening first two turns, whether the strategy is Big Money or Engine. The mechanics of Delve in the opening likely would create an article in itself! Thankfully, a lot of it is common sense. For example, a player can pick up a Hamlet and a Delve for Silver with $4 on Turn 1, followed by a $3 Steward on Turn 2. Or perhaps a Silver/Silver with $4 on Turn 1 followed by a $3 Oracle Turn 2. The presence of the extra Silver helps spike $5 more often. What may come as a surprise is this: It may be better to open triple Silver over a $4 and a Silver! On a board where hitting $5 is crucial, this is great to consider! In the case of opening with $5/$2 hands, Delve will likely be a must purchase. Mountebank and Silver on the opening buys? Yikes.

In the opening buys, it is important to weigh out the plan in your mind. Do you want three Silvers in your deck straight away? They provide more economy and building quicker, but they may clog up your deck later on.

Big Money

Next off is likely the first thing on your mind for Delve: Big Money. Delve is a powerful Event in Big Money Kingdoms, and I’m sure you didn’t need me to tell you this. A free Silver without losing a buy for $2 is very strong indeed. What may be a little less obvious is this: Avoid buying Gold completely. The pure density of three Silvers in your deck increases your average monetary deck value more than a single Gold.

Because of the nature of Delve, there are two more things to consider when playing a Province Big Money game. These things are easy to conclude but worth stating; both stem from the free +buy given with the purchase of Delve. Firstly, there is the ability to buy draw and payload at the same time. A hand of $6 becomes Silver and Smithy. A hand of $7 becomes Silver/Silver/Gear. Secondly, there is a potential fear of overbuying terminal draw. Delve also mitigates this through the sheer volume of Silver it can purchase in a given turn, allowing you to buy more draw if needed.

Before you get too comfortable, everything changes when you are presented with a Colony board. While some initial Silver flooding is fine, the ultimate goal will be to get Platinum. A hand of 5 Silvers will become more unlikely as the game progresses and you accumulate Victory cards. This effect is somewhat mitigated with stronger draw cards but still holds true.

Alright. Delve can be great in Big Money. But is Delve any good in an engine?

Engines

Delve may even be better for engines than Big Money. To approach this conclusion, Silver must not be thought of simply as a Treasure but as a payload. This section of the article will be more abstract; there are many kinds of engines out there in the world and Delve will have different uses depending on the board.

Firstly, as with Big Money, Delve encourages flexibility with purchasing power, decreasing the opportunity cost of time and coin. The power of building the engine and increasing payload simultaneously cannot be overstated! Secondly, Delve’s cheap cost encourages more aggressive trashing. Instead of worrying about trashing too many cards, the player can simply trash everything with Chapel and use a spare $2 for Delve. Thirdly, Delve provides instant quick payload. For example, Upgrade can get more fuel with more Silvers to enable more power $4 gains. This quick payload may not even be specifically for trash-for-benefit, but perhaps even just the simple spending power. Spending $4 for an extra $4 economy with no +buy sacrificed can be huge.

All of this considered, engines using Delve may very well be much quicker than engines without.

Miscellaneous

Delve absolutely loves Gardens and Feodum. Delve can mitigate certain junking attacks like Ruins and Curses, as well as trashing attacks like Swindler and Knights. Cultist adores Delve, as does Rebuild.

What about times Delve is not so great? There are plenty of cases where buying Delve is a bad idea. Engines that rely on VP chip payloads like Goons engines and Groundskeeper would do well to stay away from purchasing Delve. Engines that wish to be slim also despise Delve, whether it be because of King’s Court, fragility, lack of trashing, etc. Minion decks in general do not like a flood of Silver.

Conclusion

Delve will likely be purchased at least once in most Kingdoms it is in; it is a very formidable force that is best used as a compliment to a strategy. Will Delve be as game warping as Save? Only time will tell, but the future looks very bright for such a darkly colored Event.

52
Simulation / General Simulation Help
« on: June 22, 2016, 11:15:10 pm »
How do you program a bot to buy only one of a card a turn, such as Bonfire? How do you program a Bot to buy Bonfire only once a turn and then not again over say, a Wharf?

53
Dominion General Discussion / Seprix's Empires Reviews
« on: June 22, 2016, 02:43:46 pm »
Before I make a video talking about all of the cards and what I think of them later, I must first play Empires games. So I will.

The first game I played:

Charm, Crown, Groundskeeper, Legionary, City Quarter, Settlers, Castles, Sacrifice, Temple, Engineer

Events: Wedding, Triumph

Landmarks: Basilica, Labyrinth

Me: 85
Opponent: 89

Three pile of Estates, Duchies, and Castles.

What I learned: Groundskeeper is fantastic. I opened 5/2, and got Sacrifice/Engineer, which ended up being horrible. I sacrificed my Engineer later on. In retrospect, getting Temple may have been better because it thins quicker, but I wanted to spike $5, which I had the unfortunate $4/$4, so I ended up getting Silver/Silver instead. I should have gotten another Sacrifice, but I did not, because I am an idiot. Anyways, I played horrible in the beginning, and my brother went for Castles. He was pretty ahead, but I loaded up on Crowns, Charms, and Groundskeepers, and threw a City Quarter in there for good measure. We got to Bustling Village, and I got one of those as well.

I continued making some mistakes, buying Duchy way too early when I should have kept simply gaining Groundskeepers/Crowns/Charms, but oh well. I got reasonably ahead in VP tokens, so I thought it would be fine to end the game with a Triumph, but as it turns out, my brother slightly edged me out in Provinces. Still, very high score game, and I am looking forward to the next game.

I have no current way to simply build a Kingdom with the Visualizer, so I hope there's some sort of alternate Kingdom printer thing.

54
I think I will try to create a Dominion Challenge every week or month or I don't know, just a fun way for people to think outside of the box and create new cards/Kingdoms/ideas or something else like this. I don't mind other people making challenges as well, people have so many more useful and cool ideas than I do, anyways. Alright, so here is the first challenge.

Create a Kingdom where going for Transmute is not only viable, but the strongest strategy. It has to be the best strategy on the board, but it does not have to be Transmute Big Money or something silly. The answer is almost certainly going to be an engine with a strong incentive to get other Potion cost cards anyways, so I will include another part of the challenge: You cannot have other Potion cost cards in the Kingdom, only Transmute.

I feel that Transmute is one of the single most misunderstood cards in all of Dominion, as a direct result of its being incredibly weak. As a result, this challenge will help people to possibly see cases where picking up a Transmute may be an okay play instead of simply ignoring it. Even Scout has its uses, why not Transmute? I am looking forward to the answers people submit.

55
Rules Questions / Pilgrimage and Debt Cards
« on: June 16, 2016, 09:06:23 pm »
Pretty sure this will be straight forward.

Debt cards can be gained by Pilgrimage, correct?

56
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Haiku Hell
« on: June 14, 2016, 12:17:21 pm »
You can only talk
In the line of the Haiku.
Those are all the rules.

57
Dominion General Discussion / Castles
« on: June 12, 2016, 02:19:46 pm »
Castles really bothers me. Everyone says it's a strategy on its own to go for them. How do you play Castles? What's the best optimal board for Castles? Engine player or Big Money for Castles? Couldn't the engine player just take Castles to deny the Castles player who is just going for them? Castles are expensive as all heck, so it's clear that it's not great for Big Money to get them? Castles is an engine card then? But Castles junk up the Engine, and it doesn't end the game when you go for them, and they're still expensive I don't know, Castles seems incredibly weak to me so far.

It would have been cool for the game to just end when the Castles cards are emptied, I think. It would have been interesting, and led to different decisions in game play. Naturally, you'd have to 'rebalance' Castles a tad, but it would make 'going for Castles' make a lot more sense, right? Castles would be worth more in the long long run, but if you can 'rush' Provinces, you could beat the Castles player, who has to buy all of those more expensive cards first, and empty that himself as well. Maybe Castle cards even have a clause that if you gained a Province, you cannot buy a Castles card. I think that would have been an interesting idea as well. But those are just some thoughts not related to my original question.

58
Simulation / Seprix's Awful Simulations
« on: June 10, 2016, 03:49:06 pm »
I've never really figured out Geronimoo's simulator, but it can't be all that tricky, right? Tips and tricks on how to make better stuff would be awesome.

My pet project so far is to get Castles to beat Big Money, which is a humble little project for sure. It might not even be possible, who knows. I'm trying to get the hang of all of the buy rules and stuff.

59
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Dark Ages: Feodum
« on: June 05, 2016, 01:59:45 pm »

Feodum
How do you stop SCSN from entering your house? Build it on a Feodum.
                          -Seprix


This is probably the Alt-VP card I am the least skilled at, but one of my favorites at the same time. It's the card where you suddenly want stupid Bureaucrat, or that awful Masterpiece, or even freaking dumb Raid that is completely overrated and is not very viable at all. Just read Geronimoo's Article linked below, it does a much better job of discussing Feodum than I. I don't know how many to trash, or when to keep one, or whatever the math is to get the optimal points.
  • Where does Feodum rank among Alt-VP cards?
  • Can we all agree that jsh would basically kill to see pristine art quality of Feodum's caliber on all Dominion cards?
  • Best cases for Feodum? Worst?

for more reading on Feodum: Geronimoo's Article [2015]

60
Help! / Seprix's Game Report Centre
« on: June 05, 2016, 01:28:15 pm »
I think it'll be much better to just put all of my games (and my play in general) into one thread. I have at least two games I want to post a day to look at, but I don't because I don't want to clutter the board. So here's my (hopefully brilliant) solution, which is to just have one thread that you can ignore instead of 203 of them. I'll post games here from now on, I think. This is just a placeholder for future games in the future.

61
Game Reports / Tight Game I should have lost
« on: May 25, 2016, 05:12:55 pm »
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160525/log.0.1464202888050.txt



Code: [Select]
Expedition, Embargo, Fool's Gold, Herbalist, Scrying Pool, Amulet, Scheme, Alchemist, Feodum, Count, Royal Carriage
When I had $2 to spend, I decided to buy Embargo instead of Herbalist, like the idiot I am. I also lost the Scrying Pool split, though I did have a guaranteed Alchemist draw and Potion every turn, so it sort of evened out. What ended up happening was that I fell behind enough to not get first dibs on the Provinces, and I had no time to catch up and get more economy. Thankfully, neither did my opponent, so the Province arms race began.

Second to last turn, I bought Scheme where I should have bought second Alchemist as well.

Finally, my opponent got Province/Duchy, and the pressure was on to get Province/Duchy/Estate to win the game. I miscounted, because I did not think I had enough money, but I had exactly $10 so that worked out for me.

I also feel like I could have played this a lot faster than I did, which is why I'm posting this here.

62
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Dark Ages: Count
« on: May 23, 2016, 09:08:56 pm »

Count
"AH AH AH AH AH!"
                           -Count von Count


Count is sort of like Steward because both are versatile. You get one 'bad' effect, and then one very good effect. Sometimes the bad effect isn't even bad at all, and you're only too happy to take that extra copper or topdeck the Mountebank whilst thinning. Count is primarily picked up for the trashing effect or the Duchy gaining effect, but the $3 effect is not bad either.

  • What are good Kingdoms for Count? Bad Kingdoms?
  • Is Count a good trasher? Is it outclassed by other trashers, or does it hold its own?
  • Does the cost of Count potentially hold it down from becoming very good?

for more reading on Count: Shark_bait's Article [2012]

63
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Dark Ages: Procession
« on: May 22, 2016, 03:46:58 pm »

Procession
"Procession, without a doubt."
                           -Brokoli, when asked what the highest skill card in Dominion was


Why is Procession widely considered one of the highest skill cards in Dominion? After reading through opinions and thinking myself, I have come to three reasons:

I think most people who have ever played Dominion have underrated Procession when they first saw it, because it trashes the card you 'Throned' afterwards. The Develop/Remake/Upgrade effect is a lot stronger than people give it credit for, and it is the lack of understanding with this mechanic that weakens Procession for a lot of beginners. I mean, why trash a card you don't want trashed? I've gotten over trashing Coppers and Estates but man, it's just so much harder to let go of your nice Smithy.

Procession is also a strong card because it handily helps quicken 3-piles while accelerating your engine as a Throne variant normally does. This makes Procession an incredibly viable engine piece, and reading Titandrake's shiny new article about Beatdowns vs. Control only increases this perception for me.

It is often difficult to dissect when the best time to go for Procession is, or even to get it at all, which is my absolute biggest reason. It's not always intuitive to go out and buy tons of Spies to Process into Upgrades to then Process further into something else to get quick points and end it all on a 3-pile. Procession is likely the number one card that separates a good player from a great one, and the sooner you can master it, the better.

Long story short, Procession is fantastic but also tricky.
  • What are good Procession targets?
  • Did you have a moment where someone went for Procession and you didn't? What happened?
  • Do you like this card overall?

Oh, and you can Process Feast for 3 $5 cards.

for more reading on Procession: DG's Article [2012]

64
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Dark Ages: Rats
« on: May 21, 2016, 08:35:05 pm »

Rats
"Play menagerie, reveal a hand full of Rats."
                           -schadd


Remember that friend you had as a kid who went off and took karate lessons? You and him would be frolicking in the meadows or whatever weird things you both would do, and suddenly he wants to show you this cool move he learned from the dojo his recently divorced mother pours hundreds into. You oblige, and your friend tells you to attack him.

You do, and he protests that he couldn't defend against that at all, that you have to attack in a certain way instead, and that also you must slow down too. So being the kind attacker you are, you do as he asks, and after he only messes up the move twice, he does it right finally.

Well, it was a very neat trick. But if you were anything like me, you begin to wonder how useful this special move really is in a realistic setting.

Rats is that one karate move. Man, it's brimming with potential. Visions of Golds from Remodeled Rats dance in your head instead of something normal like sugar plums or that one weird pimple your 3rd grade teacher had. You set up all twenty Rats in your Kingdom, you get to buying that Rats card. You play it. You're so excited. You can hardly contain yourself. Weirdo.

Long story short, Rats sucks.
  • When is the best time to get Rats?
  • Is Rats Scout Bad, or is it only Curse bad?
  • Why are you even reading these questions, you know what Rats does.

for more reading on Rats: Werothegreat's Article [2012]

65
I opened Silver/Silver.

66
Other Games / King of Tokyo
« on: May 17, 2016, 09:57:39 pm »
I've been playing this game a lot recently since my friend brought it over. It has a couple of slight balance issues, but it is a very fun game to play socially. I won a lot of early games but now I'm dying first because it's sadly very easy to play Kingmaker in Tokyo. :(

67
For those moments which were intriguing, but not the best moments ever.

I played an Ambassador game, and Adventurer actually became very good when the decks became choked with Provinces and Duchies. Semi interesting because Adventurer was actually good.

68
Dominion General Discussion / Dear f.ds
« on: May 17, 2016, 07:18:03 pm »
Where do I post general interesting things that happened that aren't 'best dominion moments' or a game report?

Thank you.

-Seprix

69
Game Reports / Tactician/Champion
« on: May 15, 2016, 06:31:31 pm »
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160515/log.0.1463350929679.txt



Code: [Select]
Traveling Fair, Vineyard, Page, Masterpiece, Oasis, Scheme, Haggler, Haunted Woods, Jester, Tactician, Peddler

Incredibly odd game. I thought I was very clever for thinking of the Traveling Fair/Page opening, but then my opponent opened it, so there's that. In addition, I made the slight mistake of buying Jester over Haggler when I could have gained even more Action cards. Also, I wanted more Schemes throughout the game, but what happened happened.

And yes, I should have not bought Province or Vineyard last turn and instead gotten double Duchy and hoped my opponent stalled. I wished I did a lot of things differently, but I just wanted to share this board because it's just such an interesting and unusual thing.

70
Other Games / Shadow Hunters
« on: May 14, 2016, 10:09:39 pm »
I just ordered Shadow Hunters online. I played it with friends years ago, and I forgot the title of the game, but after extensive searching, I finally found it! It's a really fun game to play as I remember, and I'll report back later to talk about the game and what I think about it. Anyone else ever play Shadow Hunters before?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24068/shadow-hunters

71
Help! / A Serious Question Regarding Rebuild
« on: May 11, 2016, 03:49:33 pm »
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160511/log.0.1462995817677.txt



Code: [Select]
Beggar, Armory, Herald, Salvager, Talisman, Artificer, Counterfeit, Market, Rebuild, Harem
This is a very strange game for sure. My opponent opened 5/2, so I knew I was going to be in some serious trouble unless I quickly got going with my strategy. Thankfully, the board was a Shelters board, so I knew I had a little time to quickly build up. I knew I wanted as many Heralds as possible, so I couldn't possibly screw up, so I got Talisman/Silver as my opening. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but whatever, I got tons of Heralds. I still incorporated Rebuild into my long term plans, and I think that is correct. I also got Artificer to potentially discard those green cards while also getting more cards as well, though that never materialized in practice, so Market may have been a better buy. Who knows.

But anyways, my opponent decided to buy things instead of pursuing the whole Rebuild strategy. I think I would have won in the long term game here, but I wanted to get some consensus on this board, as it is immensely complex. I'm not even sure I got the optimal opening or buys. I didn't even incorporate Armory, so I'm sure that may have been a better buy than Talisman...?

72
Dominion General Discussion / Awesome Openings
« on: May 09, 2016, 09:32:44 pm »
Talk about your crazy cool openings you did, either stupid or great, that ended up working out (or not).

Adventures provides tons of opportunity to do neat stuff.

For example, I opened Ferry/Doctor to thin out really quickly (a whopping 3 cards to trash outright), and bought my 3rd Colony by turn 13. My opponent resigned.

73
Game Reports / Raze + Fortress is legit
« on: May 07, 2016, 07:21:48 pm »
Game log



Code: [Select]
Trade, Lost Arts, Raze, Vagrant, Storeroom, Armory, Fortress, Gardens, Pirate Ship, Ranger, Haunted Woods, Harem
Storeroom with Lost Arts Ranger, Raze, and Fortress seems pretty legit to me. I fell way behind and played very poorly, but then I came back and won it anyways because this combo is insane.

74
Game Reports / Tactician Black Market too OP
« on: April 29, 2016, 10:46:24 pm »
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160430/log.0.1461984179750.txt



Code: [Select]
Vineyard, Lighthouse, Black Market, Masquerade, Advisor, Quarry, Smithy, Golem, Bazaar, Vault
I was very behind, and what helped me catch up was getting Goons, but what really got me back into the game was getting Tactician. Black Market and Tac is just so OP.

75
Game Reports / Cultist Fail
« on: April 28, 2016, 02:04:36 pm »
https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160428/log.0.1461866343389.txt



Code: [Select]
Courtyard, Forager, Armory, Marauder, Remodel, Young Witch, Golem, Counting House, Cultist, Haggler, Trading Post
bane: Forager

I opened Silver/Silver, but I hadn't bought a single Cultist until turn 5 and I didn't even play one until turn 8. By then, I already had 3 Ruins in my deck from Marauder, and my opponent was correctly building a Golem engine. I got some Foragers to thin down, and that may have been a slight mistake earlier on. My opponent's Golem engine would have been garbage if I had gotten my Cultists off much sooner, so I blame my loss on that, but I feel as if I still was in this game and I made some serious blunders afterwards.

Something I could have done was build my own Golem engine. I also didn't get Gold, and I had so much junk in my deck. I think building the counter Golem Engine was the best play I could have done, and I didn't do it.

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