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126

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Still A Better (Love?) Story Than Twilight - The Thread

« on: April 15, 2017, 11:03:24 pm »

Burnt Pork - An independent young Enchantress falls in love with a dark, brooding Cultist.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  (Ed. note: "A real Page-turner. Treasure Hunters and above were not as impressed.")


And the sequels...
Burnt Pork: Red Meat - While trying to forget her beloved Cultist, the Enchantress falls in love with a rugged Marauder.  Meanwhile, the Cultist despairs and goes to an Altar to trash himself.  (Ed. note: "Burnt Pork: Red Meat continues to set new standards in the porcine paranormal romance novel genre.")

Burnt Pork: Chopping Block - The Enchantress is forced to choose between her Cultist and her Marauder.  (Ed. note: Are you Team Cultist or Team Marauder?)

Burnt Pork: Sizzling Bacon - The Enchantress marries the Cultist, drawing the ire of the other Cultists after she turns a Ruined Village into a cantrip pig.  The Marauder marries the pig.  (Ed. note: Publication was marred by a leaked ending, which many preferred over the published version, and reportedly involved a very large Donation.)

127

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Question about Rules-Changing Event-Like Cards

« on: April 15, 2017, 01:21:35 pm »

I had a version of these called Realms:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=15069.msg584538#msg584538

Since that post I've made a few more (such as one which has you use 2 fewer Kingdom cards and 2 more Events and 2 more Landmarks, and one which lets you pay up to half of the cost of non-Victory cards in Debt).  I've been playing with these every game for the past year or so, and enjoyed them (note that I have several copies of "no effect" Realms, so not every game has a special rule).


I like the ones you made; most of them look like components I'd want to play with. 

I am concerned that the one that enhances base treasures could lead to monolithic Big Money Ultimate games on most boards, where the best strategy is to spend every turn buying Province when you can afford it and Base Treasures otherwise, and ignore everything else (except maybe Duchy in the endgame if you get an unlucky hand or are Duchy-dancing).  Starting with a money density of $1.4/card, with a $3 treasure available for $3 and a $4 treasure available for $6, gives you little incentive to purchase anything else (maybe some +Buy or sifting/smoothing, but there might not be time for that).  Just open Province/Gold or Gold/Gold (and curse your luck if you get a 5/2 split and have to open Gold/Silver), then rush the Provinces.  Maybe you could tone it down a bit to something like "The first Copper you play each turn produces an extra $1" (which affects strategy more than buffing Gold and Silver, which you already want most games, and still has a significant impact on the game without redirecting it entirely).

Also, your 2-player one should also give your opponents your Victory tokens (probably not Curses, though, since having them in your deck is arguably worse than the -1VP), although I share Asper's concerns that an Estate/Duchy rush might be too dominant with that.

128

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat card interactions that were useful in the game you found them in.

« on: March 23, 2017, 09:53:37 pm »

Grand Market + Ferry + Band of Misfits

What should I use to buy my first couple Grand Markets? How about Grand Market!

This board also featured Beggar + Triumph, which, with the Grand Markets, led to a pretty juicy last turn.

129

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: February 14, 2017, 10:48:51 pm »

Now I really want a Lord of the Rings Dominion.

I don't have the software to easily make the card graphics, but here you go:

Dominion: The Fellowship of the Ring

Elrond
$2 - Action
Trash up to 4 cards from your hand.

Tom Bombadil
$2 - Action - Reaction
+2 Cards                                         .
When another player plays an Attack card you may first reveal this from your hand, to be unaffected by it.

Wilderness Paths
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Discard any number of cards, then draw that many.

Bilbo Baggins
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look through your discard pile. You may put a card from it onto your deck.

Boromir
$3 - Action
+$2
Discard the top card of your deck. If it's an Action card, play it.

Farmer Maggot
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $4.

The Prancing Pony
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions

Barrow Downs
$4 - Action - Attack
Gain a Silver onto your deck. Each other player reveals a Victory card from their hand and puts it onto their deck (or reveals a hand with no Victory cards).

Gates of Moria
$4 - Action - Attack
+$2
Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.

Gimli
$4 - Action
You may trash a Copper from your hand for +$3.

Grey Havens Party
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Discard a card per empty Supply pile.

Legolas
$4 - Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than it.

Lembas
$4 - Action
You may play an Action card from your hand twice.

Shire Homestead
$4 - Victory
Worth 1VP per 10 cards you have (round down).

Strider
$4 - Action
+3 Cards

Chamber of Marzarbul
$5 - Action - Attack
Gain a Gold. Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes a revealed Treasure other than Copper, and discards the rest.

Council of Elrond
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1

Gandalf the Grey
$5 - Action
+4 Cards
+1 Buy
Each other player draws a card.

Glorfindel
$5 - Action
Draw until you have 7 cards in hand, skipping any Action cards you choose to; set those aside, discarding them afterwards.

Mines of Moria
$5 - Action
You may trash a Treasure from your hand. Gain a Treasure to your hand costing up to $3 more than it.

Mirror of Galadriel
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck.  Trash and/or discard any number of them. Put the rest back on top in any order.

Rivendell
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
+$2

Ships of Lorien
$5 - Action
+2 Cards
+1 Action

Weathertop
$5 - Action - Attack
+2 Cards
Each other player gains a Curse.

Galadriel
$6 - Action
Gain a card to your hand costing up to $5. Put a card from your hand onto your deck.

130

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Semi-Interesting Dominion Moments Thread

« on: February 04, 2017, 06:39:26 pm »

I recently played a 3-player game with Tomb, Bandit Fort, Lurker, Stonemason, and Mining Village, among others (but no viable alternative sources of coin), and won with a trashing rush.

Because some games, you don't care about the Victory cards. Some games, you just want to watch the Kingdom burn.

131

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: January 20, 2017, 05:43:11 pm »

Scout didn't die; he just got a little help.

132

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: January 20, 2017, 05:14:55 pm »

(3.14159) Mathematician's Stone
Treasure
When you play this, discard a card from your hand and put your deck into your discard pile.  Worth ($) equal to the square of the standard deviation of the cost in ($) of the cards in your discard pile.

133

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat and potentially useful card interactions

« on: January 18, 2017, 06:37:57 pm »

Cache + Fountain

It's kind of awkward trying to pick up an extra 3 Coppers in a Fountain game, particularly if there's no +Buy.  Cache solves that problem by giving them to you when you buy a "Gold".  Beggar is better, obviously, but then you have a Beggar in your deck, and you really only want 3 extra coppers, not tons.

Banquet + Fountain

For basically the same reasons.

If you don't trash any Coppers, you can satisfy Fountain in a single $3 buy if the <$5 card you choose to gain with Banquet is a third Copper, which means that even if you don't have a lot of buys, you can still wait to buy the additional Coppers late in the game.

134

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2016 Edition: $5 Cards

« on: January 18, 2017, 06:31:03 pm »

Also, Counting House may also have gotten a bump from Royal Blacksmith.

Was the Travelling Fair combo found before or after the last list?  Because that one strong combo could be enough to keep it out of the bottom 3 (since, hey, at least there's some times when you really want it).

135

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat and potentially useful card interactions

« on: January 13, 2017, 01:53:41 pm »

Keep+Humble Castle
Humble Castle automatically gets you 5 points for Keep, meaning that even if you don't get any other Castles, it's worth at least as much as a Province.  This can lead to a massive first player advantage.  Buying what is effectively a Copper for 6+ VP on turn one may not always be the best choice, but it's still an option that's only available to the first player (or first two players in multiplayer) to take it, and on a weak/sloggish board, or a board where you want Castles anyway, it can be hugely uneven.

136

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Landmarks: Tower

« on: September 15, 2016, 10:14:20 pm »

cultist-bm suddenly become, like, a mediocre bm in bm mirrors. beggar-gardens gets a lot more interesting.

Also, cursers will usually give out Confusions instead.  Relatedly, if you have a lot of buys, buying out the Curses for a three-pile in a non-curser game no longer costs you 10 points (and finishing them off in a curser game can actually gain you points if you were losing the curse split).

This can also lead to some interesting tactics with Ambassador: on your last turn, refill a pile your opponent has a lot of. Of course, this only works if you have two copies of the card in question in your hand (or your opponent has Lighthouse or Champion out), so I see it coming up more in puzzles than in actual games.

Another interesting interaction is with Rats.  With Tower, a deck with all of the Rats is worth 20 points, which could lead to a rush strategy with the right support.  Again, I'm not sure how often this will actually be viable, but it's interesting to consider (and pretty funny flavor-wise).

137

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Semi-Interesting Dominion Moments of 2016 Thread

« on: July 27, 2016, 07:04:50 pm »

I recently played a Colony game with Governor and Mine and trashed 3 Platinums into Colonies on the final turn.  It was fun using Mine as a patch to make Governor's Province trick (gain a Gold, then remodel it into a Province) work with Colonies (by Mining the Gold into a Platinum before remodeling it).

138

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make an attack that dishes out Debt

« on: July 11, 2016, 07:14:32 pm »

Usurer Part 2-$5
Action-Attack
Gain a silver, putting it into your hand
Everyone may discard 2 copper. If they do not: gain a copper, putting it in their hand. Each that did gain a debt token.

Usurer part two is not more disastrous for a deck than a kc-d mountebank, I think.

I considered having the Copper be gained to your opponent's hands, but then it's usually the same as if there was no debt and they gained the Copper to their discard because they'll just play the Copper to pay off the debt.  Exceptions (e.g., if you play a handsize attack, if they trash or discard the Copper, if they're drawing their deck so they'd draw the Copper anyway, etc.) are too minor to be worth it.

The issue with handing out debt, is that if I KC a few attacks every turn, I could in principle hand out debt faster than the average payoff of my opponent's deck.  Even worse if my opponent can do the same to me at the same time.  It's better to hand out debt on buy.  In principle, this could cause an opponent to take several turns to buy a card and pay off its debt.  But it cannot pin a deck unless the deck has no payoff whatsoever.

Right, and I think the danger of allowing you to KC the attack unchecked is that if you pile on enough debt, it will take so long to pay off each single bought card that it may as well be a pin.

Good point about KC, although it would be hard to keep it up absent Watchtower or something due to the Silver-gaining.  Maybe change it to:
Usurer
(4) Action - Attack
Gain a Silver.________________
When you discard this from play, if you have a Silver in play, each other player gains a Copper.  Each player who gained a Copper in this way takes <1>.

That way, it can't be KC-ed.  You could still play several copies a turn (although, again, you'd have to deal with the Silver), but IMO, that's no more of a threat than a Bureaucrat pin.

My only problem with an on-buy debt attack is that an Event that does this already exists (Tax).  While there's room for both (cf. Embargo and Swamp Hag), I'd rather see something different first.

139

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Make an attack that dishes out Debt

« on: July 10, 2016, 07:18:16 pm »

Here's one that gives out debt directly and works in multiples, but mostly avoids the pin aspects:

Usurer
(5) Action - Attack
Gain a Silver.
Each other player gains a Copper.  Each player who gained a Copper takes <1>.

I'm not sure about the cost or the Silver-gaining, which may need to be balanced.  The point is that you can't leave your opponent stuck with Debt and no money, because he gets a Copper to pay off his debt; it's not overly easy to stack because it's a non-drawing terminal that gains treasure; and even if you manage to play a bunch, you'll eventually run out of Coppers to hand out. 

IMO, the pin risk is no greater than Bureaucrat, but there will still be plenty of cases where you play two or more (e.g. because you happened to draw two Usurers and a village) so it's different from the -1 Coin token.

140

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion jokes/pick-up lines

« on: July 01, 2016, 12:38:04 pm »

"I don't understand Catapult.  If I Catapult Estate, it does nothing, if I Catapult Copper, it's a gimped Militia, and Catapulting more expensive cards doesn't seem worth it."

"Catapult Rocks."

"Really? How do I get it to rock? I don't see it."

"That's because you didn't buy enough Catapults. You need to buy all the Catapults to get to Rocks."

"Buy all the Catapults? You mean it has self-synergy, like, I Catapult Catapults?"

"No, Catapult Rocks."

"Okay, it's too good to trash, then; so what do I trash with it? If only there was a way to turn Coppers into Silvers so I could use them."

"But there is a way: Mine."

"And what is your way of turning Coppers into Silvers?"

"I just told you: it's Mine."

"And your strategy is...?"

"My strategy is Mine."

"So that's how you're going to be, huh?  Hoard your strategies for getting Silvers?"

"No, Hoard's my strategy for getting Golds."

"Very well, keep your strategies to yourself, oh, great prince of tactictians!"

"Prince of Tacticians isn't great; in fact, it doesn't work at all."

"You're telling me."

"Yes, I did."

"Fine, then, if you won't tell me how to get expensive treasures to Catapult can you at least suggest a different attack?"

"Witch."

"Let's go with a curser."

"Okay, Witch."

"I don't know, pick any curser."

"I said, Witch."

"No, you didn't. Which is a curser?"

"Exactly."

"AAARGH... forget it! Good night!"

"Sir Michael!"

141

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: The Contest Set Card List

« on: June 22, 2016, 06:05:24 pm »

We need a new name for Farmer's Market

It's OK, this one doesn't have an apostrophe.

Of course.  While the official "Farmers' Market" refers to a market established by or for farmers, this card refers to farmers carrying out the act of marketing.  Farmers market their crops at the farmers' market.

142

Rules Questions / Re: Difference between "in your deck" and "have" when scoring?

« on: June 17, 2016, 08:37:21 pm »

It's the same thing! Both are correct, since all your cards go back into your deck before scoring, but "you have" is more clear, since it doesn't require you to know that rule.

That rule also made Distant Lands a bit confusing.

Indeed. It's too bad Distant Lands wasn't in Prosperity or Empires, then it could have simply been a regular action that was a one-shot take 4 VP tokens.

This is true! There was an Adventures outtake (which you can read about in the secret history) that allowed you to put any card on your Tavern mat, and that would have been a significant difference between a Reserve Distant Lands and a one-shot Distant Lands. But as it stands, I think the only real difference between the two versions is the lack of interaction with Graverobber and Rogue.

And interaction with any things that care about victory type of course. Though the one-shot version could have been action-victory worth 0 I suppose. But people would complain about that.

Also the interaction with Band of Misfits (via Ferry) and Overlord.  As it is, when BoM or Overlord mimics Distant Lands, it moves to your Tavern mat, then immediately reverts to BoM/Overlord, so you don't get the VP.  If Distant Lands trashed itself for VP tokens, BoM or Overlord would be able to mimic that effectively (they'd still revert when they hit the trash, but that wouldn't stop them from carrying out the rest of the on-play ability, i.e., taking the Victory tokens).

143

Rules Questions / Re: Inheritance

« on: June 17, 2016, 08:27:34 pm »

(the Estate doesn't know any better, it thinks it's a Port).

Not really, it's an Estate, and it's not seen as a copy of a Port for things that care about that.
It's just the when-buy ability that tells you to gain a Port. (You have to ignore the "another" though.)

You know, another Port. In addition to the any previous Ports you might have gained, or the one that's set aside over there.

Really, the reason it says "another" is doubtless because if it said, "When you buy this, gain a Port," it would sound redundant ("Of course when I buy it I gain it; that's why I bought it!").  It would be easy enough to figure out that it meant to gain a second Port (both from a strict reading of the rules and because it would be pointless for it to tell you to gain the card you just bought), but "gain another Port" just sounds so much better.

144

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat and potentially useful card interactions

« on: June 17, 2016, 08:20:33 pm »

Encampment/Herbalist: Make sure you always have a Gold/Plunder in hand to reveal.

I just played a game with this last night, and it worked well.  The downside is that with only 5 Encampments, it becomes less useful if you're contested (of course, unless your opponent is mirroring, you'll likely get those Encampments back eventually).  As added synergy, the Encampments leave you with extra actions for Herbalist, and the +buy from Herbalist is useful in picking up cheap Encampments.

Theoretically, Legionary also has some synergy with Herbalist, but I doubt it's as good; both are non-drawing terminals, so without an engine, you're less likely to get them to work together reliably, and with an engine, you can just wait to play Legionary after you've drawn your Gold (I'd still say Herbalist is slightly better in a deck with Legionary than in a deck without, but it's probably not a big difference).

145

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Thematic Kingdom Design Contest

« on: June 11, 2016, 05:47:44 pm »

Fall of Rome:

No Shelters or Colonies

Catapult/Rocks
Chariot Race
Hermit/Madman
Marauder
Villa
Counterfeit
Legionary
Pillage
Rogue
Overlord

Conquest
Battlefield

146

Dominion: Empires Previews / Re: Empires Rulebook

« on: June 07, 2016, 07:02:39 pm »

If the first Province gained is is on the same turn that triggers the end condition (e.g. 3 pile), does the Mountain Pass bidding still happen or not? (the base rules say to end the game, but the Mountain Pass says to do the bidding after that turn - which rule overrules?)

Look at the rules carefully. The original Dominion rulebook says "The game ends at the end of any player's turn when...".

And "Mountain Pass" happens "after that turn".

After that turn is later than at the end of it. The game ends before Mountain Pass has time to trigger.

(And, when you think about it, this is likely why Mountain Pass was worded in such a way. Otherwise, the person to the left of the current player just bids <40> and gets 8VP for free.)

By analogy, Caravan says to draw a card at the start of your next turn, but if the game ends before your next turn, you don't get to draw a card.  Likewise, if you buy Mission and the last Province, you don't get a Mission turn.  Or if your opponent plays an attack and you set aside Horse Traders, but your opponent then buys the last Province, you don't get to return Horse Traders to your hand or draw a card from it.

In short, it's entirely possible to trigger an effect, but then end the game before that effect can be carried out.  Mountain Pass is no exception.

147

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: June 06, 2016, 11:00:11 pm »

148

Dominion: Empires Previews / Re: Release date

« on: June 02, 2016, 12:17:38 am »

The latest thing was, they gave us samples that were miscut, and so there was a delay while we considered our options, but it turned out that these were in some way explained by incompetence in sending us samples; a bunch of boxes of the actual shipment were opened and were fine.

I suppose that's better than if they'd given you samples that were fine while the actual boxes were miscut.

149

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: May 29, 2016, 01:29:49 am »

Presenting Good Advice Teacher vs. Bad Advice Advisor:

150

Game Reports / Re: Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry

« on: May 27, 2016, 11:17:20 pm »

Dear opponent to the left of me in a 3-player IRL game,
I'm sorry I deliberately gave our mutual opponent good draws with his Advisors just to ensure that he got his share of the Provinces away from you so my alt-VP strategy could beat you.  It may have been good tactics, but I don't blame you for being annoyed by it.

And yes, I've already apologized to her in person; she still doesn't want to play with Advisor anymore (she already didn't like it much).  The upshot is I didn't even need to do this because I wound up getting enough points that I could have beaten her even if she'd gotten a couple more Provinces.