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226

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Early Adventures Impressions

« on: May 04, 2016, 01:19:34 pm »

A bunch of random thoughts from my games so far. Probably way off on most of them.

Lost Arts on Goons - The frees up the terminal space to be used on draw. I was able to consistently get 5 Goons in play every turn.

Pathfinding on Baker - This seemed to turn it into an insane card.

Distant Lands - I was surprised at how early you can start Green. It seems to open up some strange rush strategies if you can win the split.

Inheritance on Crossroads - Didn't think that one through properly.

Port - Brings an interesting dynamic to the game. If you need them because they are the only village they are going to go quickly. If there are other villages I am beginning to feel it might be a trap. I had one game where the villages were Port and City. That was interesting. Port is easier to get, but in doing so it powers up Cities.

Coin of the Realm and Conspirator - Is this a synergy or an anti-synergy?

Plan - This seems to be quite hard to use. I put it on a card I know I will want to buy lots of and then I find I don't want to trash what is left in my hand. I put it on something I only want a few of and then I find I don't want any more of that card but I want to trash something in my hand.

Caravan Guard and Vineyards - CG seems very good here. Cheap, spamable cantrip and gives money.

227

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

« on: April 25, 2016, 01:14:47 pm »

Haven/Saboteur

For those rare boards where you can play Saboteur enough to be destructive, Haven offers an interesting defence. Use it to hide away any Provinces or Duchies you pick up so your opponent's Saboteurs can never find them.

228

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Face of Dominion

« on: April 14, 2016, 11:08:48 pm »

Base - Chapel. Often regarded as the most important card in the game. It also has that major breakthrough moment for new players when they realise it isn't just a counter to Witch and they want to get rid of their starting cards.

Intrigue - Nobles. The only card that includes both of the set's new mechanics, choices and victory cards that are not dead cards.

Seaside - Fishing Village. A duration that changes the way you play or next turn and how you construct your deck.

Alchemy - Vineyard. Costs a potion and makes you want a lot of action cards.

Prosperity - Colony/Platinum. Several cards are suped up versions of the base set, so why not go for the suped up base treasure and victory card.

Cornucopia - Menagerie. Has both strategic and tactical implications as you want variety in both your deck and your current hand.

Hinterlands - Border Village. Highlights the difference an on gain effect can make to a card.

Dark Ages - Fortress. Allows for all sorts of trash for benefit shenanigans.

Guilds - Stonemason. Often bought because of the overpay option.

Adventures - Teacher.  The end of a traveller line that is a reserve which uses tokens.

229

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion

« on: April 14, 2016, 06:42:30 am »

Congratulations Stef and SCSN. Excellent news that people so into the game have got the contract.

I don't have a problem with the subscription pricing model. For Software as a Service it is the only sensible way. I was surprised that Goko's model of unlimited use for a one off cost. I could not see that working long term as at some point the costs would exceed revenue. My worry though is people (particularly with Making Fun's decision to carry forward Goko purchases) who do not understand the business model will feel that they are being asked to pay again for something they have already paid for and this could cause some ill-feeling.

Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

230

Dominion League / Re: [Feedback] How do you like the Kingdom selection process for the Champion match?

« on: April 12, 2016, 03:03:51 am »

I like the process as it currently is.

The championship match is billed as a showcase match and as such it should use kingdoms that give the players involved the chance to demonstrate their skills. I want to see boards that allow them to show why they are some of the best in the world. I would not like to see them play a board with a simple dominant strategy that basically comes down to who has the better draws.

I also like the current submission process. I have been fortunate enough over the seasons to have had three boards selected. Seeing my kingdoms played adds a lot to the experience in my opinion, as on each occasion the way it has been played and the commentator's analysis have highlighted some facets or interactions on the board that I have missed. I have found this a great way to understand some of the more subtle aspects of the cards better.

231

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Adventurer

« on: March 31, 2016, 08:24:26 pm »

It's main strength is that it allows you to have a small number of good treasure cards in your deck because it is guaranteed to find them. The downside is that such a deck requires a number of other things to be in place and even if they are all present, there is a good chance there is also a better payload option.

I think this can be a trap card for new players. It certainly was for me. When going through the "buy lots of action cards without a coherent plan" phase, I saw Adventurer as a way of ensuring I would have a reasonable amount to spend that turn. For a while this made me think it was a good card, even a must buy at times.

232

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss... Adventures!

« on: March 31, 2016, 09:51:41 am »

I am looking forward to playing it online as I think there are some concepts that would work better online (namely the various tokens). I have only played with a casual group, but I often seen people forgetting to flip their journey token, remove the -1 whatever token, etc. I think it is the first new Dominion mechanic that had a negative reaction amongst my group. Events though have proved to be very popular. Whenever my group plays Dominion now they always want to add in a couple of events regardless of which sets we are using.

For me the reserve cards have had one of the biggest impacts on the game as with them you have the choice of whether or not to play (call) them this turn or not, which is a completely new decision to make.

233

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best Dominion moments 2016

« on: March 28, 2016, 02:41:55 pm »

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160327/log.0.1459090515671.txt

I know it is a bot game but had I achieved two things.

1) On turn 13 I bought 6 provinces to end the game.

2) Turn 12 was more interesting though. I gained Followers, Trusty Steed and Princess on this turn despite only having a single Province. I drew it 3 times.

234

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Cards You Hate

« on: March 24, 2016, 08:57:09 pm »

I wouldn't say there are cards I hate, but there are set ups I hate because the game can come down to who gets a certain card.

1) Tournament with no trashing and no other cursers. In such a set up if you don't get Followers you are guaranteed to end up with all 10 curses in your deck.

2) Knights with no other trashing and Dame Anna is the top Knight. Whoever is first to have a 5 hand has a significant advantage.

235

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Dominion mod that bans cards?

« on: March 02, 2016, 01:29:39 pm »

I don't like Province, Duchy or Estate. They are boring cards that just sit in your deck doing nothing. I wonder if I could persuade my opponents not to buy thenm

236

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Mixed strategy in Dominion

« on: February 27, 2016, 12:02:30 pm »

Interesting idea.

I suppose every game of Dominion has a finite (but large enough to it cannot be calculated) number of ways the game can work out. Every decision a player makes is from a finite number of options. Every time a player shuffles their deck there is a finite number of ways your deck can be ordered.

With enough computing power, you could have a theoretical brute-force AI that knows the current game state, has calculated all the ways the game could pan out and how many of those result in a win. Whenever it makes a decision it goes with which ever option leads to the greatest percentage of wins.

237

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

« on: February 27, 2016, 08:26:20 am »

A couple I have had recently come up in games.

Mint/Spice Merchant

- Spice Merchant was the only +buy on the board. Mint can be used to gain Spice Merchant fodder so more than one card can be bought per turn.

University/Graverobber

- University can gain 5 cost actions that Graverobber can turn into Provinces.

238

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: February 26, 2016, 02:12:03 am »

There is also the possibility that of Potion-cost cards. If you have no Potion in your deck, you can't buy them. Of course, only so many of the supply cards can be Potion-cost, and this doesn't really explain why you can't buy e.g. Estate.

I think you may be onto something here....

The kingdom consists of 9 potion cost cards and Contraband. You have played 7 Contrabands to which your opponent nominated Province, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Silver, Copper and Contraband, You do not have a potion in your hand.

239

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: February 20, 2016, 02:29:45 am »

You keeled over and died mid turn?

240

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best Dominion moments 2016

« on: February 19, 2016, 10:55:42 pm »

Lord Bottington's Noble Brigand attack fails in the most spectacular way.

Lord Bottington - plays Noble Brigand
xyz123 - reveals: Tunnel, Tunnel
xyz123 - discards: Tunnel, Tunnel
xyz123 - reveals reaction Tunnel
xyz123 - gains Gold
xyz123 - reveals reaction Tunnel
xyz123 - gains Gold
xyz123 - reveals reaction Trader
xyz123 - gains Silver

241

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Incidental 9-card Kingdoms

« on: February 17, 2016, 02:41:03 pm »

Don't some cards have built in self-synergies to prevent this though? For example, Urchin is a non-terminal attack so it will never be impossible to gain Mercenary. Graverobber gives you a reason to trash good cards so there could always be something you want to retrieve from the trash, etc.

That said with random kingdom generation there are several scenarios where you could get dead cards, for example Throne Room or King's Court were everything else is alt-vp or kingdom treasures.

242

Dominion League / Re: S12 Champion Match: Saturday 13-2, 16:00 UTC, commented by Donald X.

« on: February 14, 2016, 06:01:18 am »

I just watched a replay and I would like to thank Donald for taking the time to do this. The commentary was very enjoyable. Thanks also to SCSN and anyone else who has been involved in organising this event.

243

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: A possibly easy Dominion puzzle

« on: February 08, 2016, 04:38:49 pm »

The listed cards form a new word when S is added to the front. There's also Training which is not a card.

The cards with the opposite property are Stables, Sage, and hmm I can't think of the third.

Edit: Is it Squire?

I suppose for the third you could have a crying pool.

244

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

« on: February 07, 2016, 04:20:28 am »

Sage + anything that requires you put cards from your hand on top of your deck, e.g. Courtyard, Secret Chamber's reaction, opponent's Ghost Ship attack, etc.

Put cards costing <3 on top of your deck and Sage will sail past them.

245

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: January 29, 2016, 02:58:58 pm »

You are less than 6 points behind. You are playing an engine where the only draw card is Embassy, which means after drawing your deck you have to discard three cards. You have three Distant Lands in your deck. After playing your last Embassy you discard the three Distant Lands and play Scout to draw them again. You have sufficient actions left over to put each on your Tavern Mat scoring you 12 points and giving you the lead. You can then use your multiple buys to end the game.

Your opponent is playing pure Embassy BM so can only buy one card per turn and there are multiple Provinces remaining. This means they cannot end the game on their turn and neither can they prevent you from winning even if they buy Province.

246

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Scout Archives

« on: January 19, 2016, 05:06:39 pm »

A deck type I have found Scout to be useful (although not enough to make it a must buy) in is a Scrying Pool/Vineyard deck. Clearing out the victory cards and re-ordering can help set up the next Scrying Pool draw.

247

Dominion General Discussion / Re: what makes a good non-engine game?

« on: December 13, 2015, 03:47:46 pm »

Is the selection process biased towards engines? People are asked to submit randomly generated boards that they found interesting.

If you randomly generate some kingdoms I think the chances are that the majority will feature some sort of engine. Out of those that don't a number of those will be money boards, which are very unlikely to be considered interesting. Is it therefore not surprising that the majority selected kingdoms will be engines?

Is having more design competitions for the final boards a suggestion? That way if anybody is unhappy with the kingdoms they can submit the type of boards they want to see.

248

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best Dominion Moments 2015

« on: December 07, 2015, 03:26:16 pm »

I had a game yesterday with what initially appeared to be an unlucky turn 3/4 draw that lead to a neat trick on turn 5. I opened Potion/Sage. On turn 3 I had 4 copper and a potion, so bought a University. On turn 4, I only had 2 to spend, Sage had missed the reshuffle so I bought a Squire. On turn 5 though I managed to draw Sage, Potion and University together which lead to this.

xyz123 plays University
xyz123 gains Wharf
xyz123 plays Sage
xyz123 shuffles deck
xyz123 reveals Squire, Overgrown Estate, Copper, Copper, Copper, Necropolis, Copper, Hovel, Copper, Wharf
xyz123 places Wharf in hand
xyz123 discards: Squire, Overgrown Estate, Copper, Copper, Copper, Necropolis, Copper, Hovel, Copper
xyz123 plays Wharf

249

Rules Questions / Re: Discard action card after playing?

« on: December 04, 2015, 04:52:52 pm »

I put the treasure cards I am playing (assuming they are not Horn of Plenty or Bank or something) down on the table in front of me. That way people can see how much I have to spend whilst I am stating which cards I want to buy. With cards that do something like Horn of Plenty, Counterfeit, Contraband, etc, I have noticed that people tend to play them one at a time like actions.

The card that causes the biggest problem with people who just flash their hand in my opinion is Spoils. In most games with spoils I find at least once a "hand flasher" will just put everything on their discard pile and forget to return the Spoils to the supply.

Just showing your treasure cards can lead to confusion. At a gaming club another player once tried to call me out on counting treasures towards Horn Of Plenty. His argument was that you do not play treasures, you only play actions.

250

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Daily Devotional

« on: December 01, 2015, 03:04:58 pm »

What is Gold?  Is that kind of like Scout and Royal Seal?

It's a card that, strictly speaking, passes the silver test.

Unless its a Feodum board.