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Topics - Chris is me

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26
So I'm curious where people are buying Empires, and when these games will ship. So if you've pre ordered it from somewhere, can you post where you pre ordered it from, and post when you get your shipping notice? Or if you bought it from a FLGS or whatever, post when the games arrived in store? Some of us (heh) are still trying to figure out where and when to buy the game, and want to get it sooner rather than later. I figured by crowdsourcing this information and by maintaining a thread where people can post links to stores as soon as copies become available, we'll all be able to get Empires as fast as possible.

Maybe this is a bad idea; I've had them before...

27
So I'm introducing a new friend to Dominion again and I'm also bored at work, so I'm trying to figure out good Kingdoms for the first few games or so. I'm really quite sick of the First Game kingdom, and would be interested in some alternatives, either tweaking that kingdom or a new one entirely. Cards from multiple expansions are okay.

Themes I'm hoping to capture in 2-3 games:
- Trashing good
- Engines are cool, but a really bad engine is worse than BM
- Player interaction through both attacks and Supply pile management
- this game is v good

So far searching hasn't yielded too much but this Wero post is nice: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=12939.msg481719#msg481719

28
Goko Dominion Online / Dominion mod that bans cards?
« on: March 01, 2016, 07:19:32 am »
I was playing a game this morning and a strange message popped up from my opponent. It seems like his Dominion Online client had been modified to allow him to ban cards and propose bans of cards.



Obviously without both users having this mod it's unenforceable, and the mod is problematic anyway (banning cards in Dominion doesn't really help anyway, and you can't have card bans that only start on Turn 3), but I'm just wondering if anyone else had heard of it? I have never seen this before.

29
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Coin of the Realm
« on: January 11, 2016, 06:01:22 pm »
Let's Discuss Adventures Cards is a daily(ish) series of forum threads where we discuss a different Adventures card each day. Right now the plan is to just go through all of them alphabetically, with a single thread for each Traveller line.



Card Text: $1, When you play this, put it on your Tavern mat. --LINE-- Directly after resolving an Action, you may call this, for +2 Actions.

Some points of discussion to start with (discussion of anything else related to Bridge Troll is also welcomed):
  • COTR works differently than any other Village. It gives +2 Actions after an Action is resolved - as if you played 2 Villages before playing the Action. On the other hand, it is not usually possible to play a COTR and call it on the same turn. How does this affect an engine relying on COTR as its sole Village?
  • When COTR is used as a "backup" Village in case one starts a turn with a hand full of terminals, how many can be safely bought? What factors need to be considered when building said engine? What are the opportunity costs to stacking up COTRs?

---

My opinion: COTR is a nifty little insurance policy. It can also be used as the main Village for an engine, albeit somewhat awkwardly. It's somewhat difficult / non-intuitive to use it this way and thus I'm really not good at playing with this card yet. I suspect I need a lot more practice with it to gauge a real idea of the card's strength and to use it to its full potential.

30
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Caravan Guard
« on: January 08, 2016, 02:55:18 pm »
Let's Discuss Adventures Cards is a daily(ish) series of forum threads where we discuss a different Adventures card each day. Right now the plan is to just go through all of them alphabetically, with a single thread for each Traveller line.



Card Text: +1 Card, +1 Action, At the start of your next turn, +$1 ---LINE--- When another player plays an Attack card, you may play this from your hand.

Some points of discussion to start with (discussion of anything else related to Bridge Troll is also welcomed):
  • What attacks inspire the use of Caravan Guard? Is the attack a successful defense against a certain kind of attack?
  • As a (sort of) Peddler variant, it is the cheapest available at $3. Is the delayed payoff enough of a drawback to make it not worth picking up when other Peddler variants would be sought out?
  • Does Caravan Guard have any unusual synergies with other cards? Anti-synergies?

---

My opinion: It's not that great of a card most of the time, but I'm slowly learning when it can be a useful asset. Caravan Guard really, really shines against discard attacks. While other cantrips present a degree of risk when bought in a game with a discard attack, Caravan Guard completely eliminates that risk, and gives you some money to boot. Now you don't have to risk blindly discarding a cantrip when the top of your deck might have had the exact card you needed - you get that information as soon as the attack is played. It also seems like a good pickup in a Minion game when you miss $5. But the utility of the card seems limited and the delayed payoff is awkward.

31
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Bridge Troll
« on: January 07, 2016, 05:54:29 pm »
Let's Discuss Adventures Cards is a daily(ish) series of forum threads where we discuss a different Adventures card each day. Right now the plan is to just go through all of them alphabetically, with a single thread for each Traveller line.



Card Text: Each other player takes his -$1 token. Now and at the start of your next turn: +1 Buy ----HORIZONTAL LINE---- While this is in play, cards cost $1 less on your turns, but not less than $0.

Some points of discussion to start with (discussion of anything else related to Bridge Troll is also welcomed):
  • Instead of giving you +$1, Bridge Troll takes $1 away from your opponents. How much is that +$1 for the user missed? How effective is this attack? Is the attack a strong reason to use Bridge Troll, or just a side benefit?
  • How does the Duration nature of Bridge Troll help it as a card? Is it that much better than Bridge or Highway as a result? Are there any combos unique to Bridge Troll / performed more easily by Bridge Troll versus other cost reducers?

----
My opinion: Bridge Troll is pretty cool. It's easy to understate how good cost reduction over two separate turns is, which even with just one or two Bridge Troll can be quite helpful. In the games I've played with Bridge Troll, I've had a lot more trouble picking them up en masse than I do with Bridge or Highway. Highway is a cantrip, so it's not taking up hand or terminal space. Bridge is both cheaper and provides a coin to help you buy more Bridges with, so it is a lot easier to pick up as well. It's sometimes a struggle to stuff even 3 or 4 Bridge Trolls in a deck where you also need to buy engine components and Provinces. But I'm sure I just need more experience with it.

I'm genuinely not sure how strong the attack is. I think it's more of a nusiance than anything else, but it's a neat little bonus I guess.

32
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Artificer
« on: January 06, 2016, 05:37:16 pm »
Let's Discuss Adventures Cards is a daily(ish) series of forum threads where we discuss a different Adventures card each day. Right now the plan is to just go through all of them alphabetically, with a single thread for each Traveller line.



Card Text: +1 Card, +1 Action, +$1, Discard any number of cards. You may gain a card costing exactly $1 per card discarded, putting it on top of your deck.

Some points of discussion to start with (discussion of anything else related to Amulet is also welcomed):
  • Artificer can gain a card of potentially any cost depending on the size of your hand, which lends itself to strategies that draw you large hands. What types of engines does Artificer benefit? When should an engine player pick up an Artificer?
  • What are some notable combos for Artificer? Tactician has been mentioned before; Artificer can gain 5-cost components to the top of the deck, which also guarantees a Province gain on a double Tactician turn. What other comboes are worth exploring?
  • Artificer is also a Peddler variant; how does this help the card? Would it be of similar strength as a cantrip or terminal?

---

My opinion: Artificer is really good, in a way you wouldn't expect before you've played with it in a heavy draw / light trash engine game. First, the opportunity cost of picking one or two up isn't that high - at worst, you paid $5 for a card that was mostly a Peddler variant and once or twice gained a critical card right ot the top of a deck. That's pretty good! As long as you're not neglecting power $5s to grab an Artificer, it's almost never going to be a burden.

Second, it is incredibly useful in an engine to gain a card to the top of a deck. Say you've drawn about half your deck, you have an Artificer, a Village, and some junk. Just use Artificer to topdeck a Smithy, Village to draw it, and your engine has another shot at success this turn. Depending on how much you over-built your engine, you can even potentially re-draw your discarded cards.

Finally, it retains its usefulness, and even gains some usefulness, during greening. After all, green cards are easy discard fodder, and you could potentially pick up a Duchy or two for free by discarding a few components and Provinces (but be sure you have some way to draw that Duchy off the top of your deck!).

33
Let's Discuss ... / Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Amulet
« on: January 05, 2016, 12:18:40 pm »
Let's Discuss Adventures Cards is a daily(ish) series of forum threads where we discuss a different Adventures card each day. Right now the plan is to just go through all of them alphabetically, with a single thread for each Traveller line.



Card Text: Now, and at the start of your next turn, choose one: +$1; or trash a card from your hand; or gain a Silver.

Some points of discussion to start with (discussion of anything else related to Amulet is also welcomed):
  • Obvious comparisons can be made with Steward. They are both $3 cost cards that trash two cards per play and then do something else once they are done being trashers. How do the two cards compare in effectiveness? Does Amulet's increased flexibility make a big difference (not forced to trash two cards, more ability to buy things on both turns)? Does Steward's +2 Cards make it ultimately more useful?
  • Somewhat overlooked in earlier discussions is Amulet's efficacy at gaining Silvers; it is one of the fastest and best at it in the game, gaining up to 2 Silvers per play. In what situations would you focus primiarly on gaining Silvers with Amulet? How effective is a Big Money strategy, supplemented with light trashing and silver gaining from Amulet?
  • The +$1 bonus is, in a lot of cases, a $2 swing because otherwise you would have trashed a Copper. When would you neglect Amulet trashing to reach a certain cost? How often can you skip trashing before your deck starts to seriously slow down?

---

My personal opinion: Steward is definitely the better card, partially because it is slightly faster at trashing and largely because +2 Cards tends to be a lot more useful than two +$1 boosts, but Amulet is still a respectable trasher that does its job well. It is also easier for a deck to support two Amulet than it is for a deck to support two Steward, particularly because, if you have to, it is a lot easier to trash one of them once you've thinned out. Amulet is also a really, really good Silver gainer and it is better in Big Money decks than you might initially realize. It doesn't have the game-changing power of other BM enablers like Gear but it is still pretty useful in those kinds of decks.

If your aim is to thin your deck as much as possible (most engines) I would be wary of ever skipping a trash opportunity to get an expensive key card. Even missing one or two Trash choices really slows down Amulet's thinning quite a lot. You pretty much want to always trash with it, at least at first.

34
Dominion General Discussion / Better quality sleeves for Dominion?
« on: September 18, 2015, 11:00:30 am »
I ended up buying a few thousand of the Euro sized black Mayday card sleeves that everyone recommends. After using them for a few months, I've concluded that they're... okay, but lacking in quality. The cut is not a consistent length or quality, leading to some cards being shorter than others, and the finish on the bottom cut line varies in quality (straight va burred). Many of them came with creases through the middle that made them useless, as the crease would indicate which card it was.

After a few months using these sleeves, the tops of them have also wrinkled a lot, which is disappointing. More used cards are distinguishable from less used cards - which was the whole point of buying the sleeves in the first place!

Does anyone know of other, higher quality Euro card sleeves? I'll pay more for them, no problem, I just hope there are some solid quality sleeves for Euro size cards like there are for MTG size cards. An opaque back of any color is also preferred.

35
Dominion Articles / Combo: Artificer and Tactician
« on: August 10, 2015, 08:25:22 pm »
Maybe this is really obvious, or not a very compelling combo, or anything like that, but I think there's a really interesting synergy to be had here that's worth discussing. This also really isn't much of an article (yet; I can write one if this turns out to not be that stupid), but I only see Combo posts in this forum instead of the General forum so I put this here.

The basic idea is pretty simple: Get 2 Tactician and at least 1 (really, at least 2 to be safe) Artificer. Play a Tactician. With your 10 card hand, use Artificer, discard 8 cards, topdeck a Province, play your other Tactician, discard your remaining card, and repeat to gain a Province every turn. One Province a turn once you own 4 or more $5-cost cards doesn't sound that great, but it has a few things going for it, and the combo can be helped with a variety of supporting cards.

  • Artificer, in the absence of handsize reduction attacks, can always gain you a $5 cost card. So you only need to hit $5 once to pick up the first Artificer, then Artificer can grab the rest of the combo pieces for you, right to the top of your deck!
  • If after executing the combo, your last card in hand (other than Tacticican) is any other cantrip, you can draw the Province quick before you play your second Tactician.
  • The presence of Gear greatly enhances the combo as you can set a second Artificer aside to guarantee you'll hit the combo on your next turn. Haven would work but it reduces your handsize which means Tactician doesn't have a card to discard.
  • Card draw with multiple Artificers can really help this out as you can gain a Province + an Artificer to keep the combo going.

On the right board, it's not impossible to get this combo firing on Turn 8-10, giving you to Turn 12-14 to get 4 Provinces. Not the worst thing ever, and certainly an option on some boards. It's a bit easier than double Tactician in many cases (e.g. in the absence of a Village). Any thoughts?

36
Game Reports / Tried a silly Expand combo for fun.
« on: June 28, 2015, 10:20:38 am »
First I do want to note that I played this game on the Dominion beta, which means (1) no pretty log and (2) no accurate deck count throughout the game - so that information didn't inform my choices.

Full Game Log


Code: [Select]
Candlestick Maker, Native Village, Stonemason, Loan, Cutpurse, Wandering Minstrel, Band of Misfits, Treasury, Farmland, Expand
Sometimes I play Dominion to win games, other times I play to try out something odd just to see if it kind of works as a strategy. This was one of the latter times. I guess I wasn't really feeling a more basic strategy here. I didn't see a lot to do on this board. A lot of mediocre to decent engine components but nothing to tie it all together, yet nothing to really support a Big Money strategy much either.

I decided the most interesting thing I could try would be a sort of Treasury / Expand engine. The idea being that every turn I could use Treasury to buy up $5 or $6 cost cards, and if my deck was thin enough I could consistently Expand them into victory cards, getting me points without breaking the Treasury chain. It's probably too slow to work on any reasonable board, but maybe it would be okay on this one. The rest of the cards worked well to support the strategy. Wandering Minstrel would sift Expands to the top of my deck and help make up for the limited draw. Candlestick Maker gives extra +Buy. Loan and Stonemason would help clear out Coppers, while Expand would make the Estates into something useful. Finally, Band of Misfits came in handy as a 5 cost version of anything i wanted, almost always Wandering Minstrel.

Opened Silver / Cutpurse and started building. Managed a turn 3 Treasury and a turn 5 Expand, which really helped get my deck from "impossibly slow" to "maybe it will barely work" territory.  A Loan on turn 6 helped thin things out, then I just stockpiled Treasuries, WMs, and Band of Misfits as long as I could. I got pretty far behind, and with two provinces left I was forced to buy two Duchy and break my chain, but I managed to squeak out a win by one point on the final turn.

37
Dominion FAQ / How many sleeves do I need?
« on: May 07, 2015, 11:46:58 am »
Couldn't find this by searching (quickly), and I figure it's a common enough question to go here?

How many sleeves do I need to buy to sleeve every single regular card (including one set of Base Cards, not including any randomizers)? [EDIT: I think the answer to this is 2,576?]

How many sleeves do I need to buy to sleeve just the Base Cards plus the cards used in a single game? How few could I get away with if I didn't sleeve literally every Copper, etc?

38
Help! / Anything I could have done to win this Feodum rush?
« on: April 20, 2015, 10:46:34 am »
So I certainly fuck up a lot of games, but usually the reasons why are pretty obvious to me afterwards - I didn't know when to green at all, greened too early, bad strategy, random absurd buys, etc. Here, I think I might have just picked a sub-optimal strategy, but the game was close enough that I'm curious as to how I could have done it differently.



Code: [Select]
Beggar, Fishing Village, Wishing Well, Feodum, Ironworks, Quarry, Remodel, Tournament, Laboratory, Outpost
Game Log

I looked through the log after, and I probably played sub-optimally a few times, but not anything game breaking that I could tell. Here are my observations
  • Gaining Remodel over Wishing Well was literally pointless, but this was late enough that it probably didn't cost me the game.
  • Did I want an Outpost or two, if only to try and sneak in an extra Silver or two?
  • Was I just not supposed to play Feodum at all here? I think that's most likely, but the rush seemed pretty tempting and I wasn't too interested in the mirror match.

Any tips would be cool. Rushes are generally where I play my best, so getting this aspect of my game perfected might help a bit.

39
Variants and Fan Cards / Making A Themed Fan Expansion for Friends
« on: March 08, 2015, 04:29:06 pm »
So, I'm working on a half-serious Dominion fan expansion for me and my friends to play. I'm essentially trying to make a small (12-13 card) expansion themed after my social group and all the dumb in-jokes we have with each other. Once I'm done with it, I'm going to make a reasonable attempt to print a physical copy of the expansion to give to my friends once I graduate college (May!) and move on with my life. Seems like a nice enough project.

While I'd like to make some basic attempts to balance cards and ensure nothing is TOO wacky, I'm more interested in making the cards thematically accurate, even if a bit overpowered, underpowered, or otherwise plainly ridiculous. I thought I could use an extra set of eyes or three on these card concepts before I print horribly unplayable Dominion fan cards.

I'm coming up with cards slowly, so I think I'm going to post one or two at a time, gather some feedback on those cards, then post 1 or 2 more as they're created, or as discussion dies down if any actually happens. Any tips / criticism would be appreciated.

Here's two to start off.

Card: Lounge
Type: Action
Cost: $3
Effect: +2 Actions, +$2, Discard a card.

The theme here is that the lounge is a useful place, where you can enable some fun things to happen, but it's a drain on your productivity, so it reduces your hand size. This is obviously really bad in kingdoms with hand size reduction attacks, really good with Draw-To-X, and decent in the beginning of the game when you still have Estates and junk. In general it's pretty tricky to use. Does this seem about right, thematically and balance wise? Would it be better bumped down to a $2 cost that gives +$1?

===

Card: Joker [Really the card's named after a specific person, but that wouldn't be a great thing to post online]
Type: Action / Reaction
Cost: $2
Effect [Action]: Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 Coppers, putting them into your hand.
Effect [Reaction]: Whenever an opponent plays an Action card, you may trash Joker. If you do, your opponent discards that Action card instead of playing it.

This is a card named after a guy that we really don't like, so the card is complicated. The main effect is really bad in all but weird niche cases, and even then it's not great. Its Reaction looks just stupidly swingy - you get a one shot disruption of a specific opponent's turn? That's ridiculous. But if you stock up on too many of these cards, you end up regretting it, and the net effect of this card when everyone buys into it is that the game just slows down for awhile. It's really hard to use it to win.

I know that Dominion cards steer clear of targeting specific people, but I figured since this was fairly mild and not an attack itself, it's not the end of the world if it does something stupid. A possible alteration would be modifying the card so it says "Attack card" instead of "Action card". While the reaction targets a specific player, it prevents the attack for everyone, and its not nearly as good at fucking up engines / combos that way.

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