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1
Tournaments and Events / Northeast f.ds Meetup
« on: April 28, 2018, 08:44:44 pm »
Would there be any interest in a f.ds meetup in the Northeast US sometime this summer? If yes, I don't mind doing the organizing.

2
Dominion Articles / Pre-Game Analysis
« on: November 25, 2017, 03:17:10 pm »
The best thing about Dominion is that every game is different. Sometimes wildly so. So before you even play your first copper, take a minute to read the board and form a strategy. If your opponent is impatiently yelling at you to go, feel free to curse them out and take up to 3 minutes and 59 seconds out of spite. (Note: Don’t actually do this).

What do we have here?
“If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra

Have you ever gotten through a few turns to only suddenly realize, wait, this game has Colonies!? I have. I do a lot of dumb things. Take a moment to see ALL the available card shaped cards and card shaped non-cards. If you’re unfamiliar with any of them, read what they do.
 
Deck Roles
“Know your role and shut your mouth.” - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

There are a few main effects that cards give in Dominion that serve specific purposes in a deck. I call them deck roles.

-Trashing
-Extra Buys/Gains
-Extra Actions
-Draw/Cycling
-Attacks
-Economy

Generally the more deck roles that are present and the more strongly they are fulfilled, the stronger the deck you can build. So before you make a plan, find which cards can fulfill which of these roles, and how strongly they do so. For example, Chapel trashes incredibly fast. Trade route trashes very slowly but also weakly fulfills the role of an extra buy.

Starting Out
“The beginning is the most important part of the work” -  Plato

With Nocturne, now more than ever, pay attention to your starting deck. Sometimes you have shelters replacing your estates or heirlooms replacing your coppers. These cards can possibly fulfill certain deck roles or otherwise impact the overall strategy. For instance, shelters make rebuild weaker, or Goat might let you skip a weak trasher (but probably not a strong one).
 
The Power Cards
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”  - Gandalf the Grey in The Hobbit

Some cards in dominion are so strong they can warp the game. These cards are exceptionally good at something (like Donate for trashing) or perform multiple roles very well (like Cultist for attacking and drawing) or they have some unique but strong ability (like Rebuild). Identify these cards and see how they fit into your plan, or how to build a plan around them. Often you need to buy them, unless you have a very good reason not to. Furthermore, ask yourself a couple of questions. How quickly do you want your first copy? And how many copies do you want? Is the pile likely to run out? Mountebank, for example, you might only want one or two, but you want it ASAP. King's Court you want a lot of, but you need to do some building first.

Alternate Paths to Victory
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning...Smelled like Victory” - Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now

Alternate victory points consist of any card that’s green or produces VP chips. You win the game by having more points, so pay special attention to these. Some alternate VP is strong enough to potentially build around completely. Some you can just pick up on your way to provinces or as a consolation for not hitting $8, to eke out a few more points.

So What’s the Plan?
“Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”  - Winston Churchill

Now that you know every resource available to you, how do you go about actually building a winning deck? Well, to give the most useless advice in these parts - it depends on the board. But for generally useful advice, have an idea of what you want your final deck to look like. Will you have removed your starting cards with Forager while drawing your deck with a Fortress/Rabble engine, with a payload of Gold and Silver? Good, now you can figure out the best way to get there.

Adaptation
The best laid plans of [Rats] and men often go awry. - Robert Burns
 
Finally, don’t be afraid to change gears mid game. Maybe you missed some strong interaction. Or your original plan isn’t coming together. Or you just got some rotten luck. But that’s something that happens after the game starts and is a topic for another article.

3
Dominion General Discussion / Dominion: Ultimate Balance Edition
« on: April 18, 2016, 07:40:46 pm »
We all love Dominion. But even Donnie X. agrees there are some dud cards. Yeah, I'm talking about you Adventurer. And I see you hiding back there too, Scout. And, while I applaud the effort that goes into countless threads trying these bad cards playable, these efforts only prove that these cards will just never be any good. Harsh, but true. But if we can't make the worst cards good, there's only one option left:

Nerf everything until true equality exists.

So as a community, let's create the perfectly balanced game we all strive for. I'll start with my proposed re-balance of an unfairly advantaged powerhouse.



Scout is looking better already.

4
General Discussion / Financial Management
« on: December 16, 2014, 11:08:15 pm »
I recently graduated and got a nice paying job. And, unless I pick up that cocaine addiction I've been thinking about, I have more money than my standard of living requires. As such, I think it's time to start doing financial things with my money, like adults do. Thing is, I have absolutely no idea where to even start. It's not anything I've ever learned. I figure, I'll push hard to finish off my student loans, but the ones left aren't super high interest, so it's not quite so urgent to do it ASAP. Anyway, I'm sure some people here know of such matters.

5
Other Games / TTR World Champion Stripped of Title
« on: November 04, 2014, 11:40:17 am »
An interesting article. I'm not sure how one cheats at TTR though.

http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/press-release/096/#newsstart

6
General Discussion / Terraria
« on: October 02, 2013, 12:00:48 pm »
Anyone else here play Terraria? The new 1.2 patch just dropped and it added tons of new content. So far I'm finding it a lot of fun. For those unfamiliar, it's a sort of 2D minecraft with heavy metroidvania elements.

7
Other Games / Card Hunter
« on: September 25, 2013, 03:58:31 pm »
Has anyone else played this? I just started and I'm finding it a lot of fun. It's sort of a cross between MtG and tabletop games. If you like those, I recommend trying it out. It's free to play, too, which is nice.

8
Dominion: Guilds Previews / Obvious Predictions: Guilds Edition
« on: June 13, 2013, 12:56:16 pm »
THIS is the obvious predictions thread. I'll start.

Not all the predictions in the Bold Predictions thread will be accurate.
At some point, someone will misjudge the strength of one or more cards from Guilds.
Playing Guilds will be an enjoyable experience for people who are fans of Dominion.

9
Dominion: Guilds Previews / Bold Predictions: Guilds Edition
« on: June 13, 2013, 11:28:38 am »
Just as we did with Dark Ages, this is a place to make BOLD predictions. Keep your standard, run of the mill predictions out of here, man.

I'll start:

Stonemason: The overpay mechanic will make this one of the best (top 3-4) $2 cards in the game. 

Adviser: A top 10 $4 card.

10
General Discussion / Book Recommendations
« on: May 05, 2013, 01:13:53 pm »
Twice a year, Ithaca has a massive used book sale. I'm talking hundreds of thousands of books in a huge warehouse. I'm looking for book recommendations. I particularly like sci-fi/fantasy but I still enjoy other genres.

Anyway, as a rule of thumb for recommendations, the really high profile and popular books (e.g. asoiaf) get bought out super quick, plus I already know about them so there's no need to recommend. Really obscure books will probably also not be there (but they might, who knows). The sweet spot is somewhat popular but not super obscure books/authors.

Anyway, what should I keep an eye out for this time around?

11
Innovation General Discussion / Saddest Innovation Moment
« on: March 27, 2013, 08:54:22 pm »
jonts melds mathematics
jonts applies the dogma of mathematics
...jonts returns calendar
...jonts draws and melds translation

12
Dominion Isotropic / This Was a Triumph
« on: March 15, 2013, 08:12:55 pm »
Thank you Dougz for all your work. While we are all sad to see isotropic go, please know how much we appreciate your hard work. A triumph indeed.

13
General Discussion / Path of Exile
« on: January 25, 2013, 01:15:18 am »
For all you ARPG fans out there, Path of Exile is a free to play one that just went open beta. I think it's really good and worth a shot at least if you like the genre. It's very similar to Diablo 2 in play style but with some crazy skill tree. Anyway, check it out and we can party up if you'd like. I need friends.

14
Goko Dominion Online / Strategy Campaign
« on: January 19, 2013, 01:18:24 pm »
Well I guess I got outvoted on the other thread, so I'm making my own campaign. With blackjack and hookers. Sans the blackjack. And the hookers. Mostly just strategy based. If there is at least some interest here, I'll go ahead and head it up, but I don't want to be by myself.

Anyway, here is the general idea I have right now, but feel free to propose something else.

Each level is designed to illustrate a certain strategic principal. I guess we start super basic (big money + x, importance of trashing, etc) and go from there. We do away with the story component. The text before each game is a short discussion of a strategic principal. Then the kingdom will provide opportunity to apply that principal, while still being fun to actually play.

I do think there will be a lot of interest from new players and maybe intermediates as well. Maybe we can eventually have multiple campaigns (beginner, intermediate, advanced) so people don't have to play through super basics if they got them down.

Anyway, whos with me?

15
Dominion General Discussion / A New Kind of Pin
« on: January 08, 2013, 01:16:43 am »
I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. -J. Robert Oppenheimer


Masquerade? Discard attacks? Don't need them. What if I told you there exists a pin which requires you to increase your opponent's hand size? Crazy? Perhaps. True? Absolutely. Practical? Probably not.

The key cards are Possession, Forge, and Governor/Council room. A King's Court won't hurt either. Can you find it? Spoilers for those who want to try on their own.

The pin works by a quirky little rule interaction (HT: greatexpectations for pointing it out to me). A new 5 card hand is drawn during the clean-up phase. Cards trashed while possessed don't return until after your turn, AFTER you've drawn your 5 card hand. See it now? The idea is simple. Have your opponent draw his entire deck with Governor/Council room (that's where KC comes in handy). One of his cards has to be a Forge. Play possession. Forge away his entire deck. During his possessed clean up phase, he can only draw Forge. That's the only card in his deck. Only after clean-up is the rest of his deck returned to him. At best he can gain 2 Coppers.

And now next time you see a board of KC, Governor, Forge, Possession you will be ready to destroy someone's world.

16
General Discussion / Happy New Year!
« on: January 01, 2013, 12:04:10 am »
My resolution is to play more Dominion.

17
2012 / Best Game: Round 1 Voting and Round 2 Nominations
« on: December 10, 2012, 12:57:25 pm »
Here at f.ds we believe in thread conservation. As such, this thread will be used to a) vote for the round 1 best game and b) nominate games for round 2.

The round 1 poll will remain hidden until Sunday evening. And feel free to discuss the round 1 games here if you must.

Now get nominating.

Round 1 Nomination Info
Game 1: 8 point vineyards beat 6 point dukes
Game 2: $10 pirate ship beats $3 pirate ship. Also governor.
Game 3: Jack and Noble Brigand and alt VP
Game 4: Diverging ambassador strategies
Game 5: Tactician to discard tunnels and bishop for points
Game 6: Pirates up to Provinces and a big Wharf/Village engine into Vineyards
Game 7: Goons and crossroads supplemented by apothecaries
Game 8: Marin comes back from 19 point down despite losing the grand markets

18
2012 / Best Game: Round 1 Nominations
« on: December 04, 2012, 06:24:13 pm »
Not all Dominion Games are created equal. Some are going to be more interesting or fun or showcase creative play, etc. I'm not going to tell you what criteria to use for best, but I do want you to nominate games which you feel might possibly be the best ones played in the first round of play.

Then, greatexpectations and I will confer and select the top however many we feel like and put it to a community poll. The participants in the best game will win, I dunno, accolades, I guess? Who doesn't like an accolade, right?

Anyway, let's see what you got!

19
2012 / Win Probability Calculator
« on: December 03, 2012, 01:09:40 pm »
Hey, I was bored and I'm a huge nerd so I made a series win probability calculator in excel. It's still mostly functional in google docs and open office if you don't have excel.

Just plug in each player's mean skill and who goes first. Also you can adjust the first turn advantage parameter.


20
2012 / Toughest Division
« on: December 02, 2012, 09:40:49 pm »
What's a tournament without a little meta-discussion.

So let's hear it, which division would you least want to be placed in?

21
2012 / Thief Division: Bracket and Results
« on: December 02, 2012, 08:35:17 pm »
Results for the Thief Division bracket are to be posted in this thread.

For each series post the overall winner and the number of games each player won. Please try to grab each game log from isotropic before moving on.

Here is the bracket for the Thief Division of the 2012 DominionStrategy.com championships: http://dominionstrategy.challonge.com/2012thief


Full rules can be found here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5686.0

Each round, you are responsible for finding your opponent and scheduling a game by the end of the week. You may mutually agree to any rules you wish to play by. If you cannot agree you must play with the default rules as follows: veto mode off, identical starting hands on, official point counter on, fully random sets, point counter extension allowed.

The first player in the first game is decided by whichever player is 'higher' in the Challonge bracket. For round one, this means the higher seed will play first. To accomplish this, begin a game in the tournament lobby and select the player who is to play first. After that game, you may both move to the Secret Chamber lobby (but don't exit Isotropic!) and the player to play first will be the loser of the previous game.

If you have trouble scheduling, please message me and I will attempt to work it out.

Good luck and have fun!

22
2012 / Witch Division: Bracket and Results
« on: December 02, 2012, 08:33:42 pm »
Results for the Witch Division bracket are to be posted in this thread.

For each series post the overall winner and the number of games each player won. Please try to grab each game log from isotropic before moving on.

Here is the bracket for the Witch Division of the 2012 DominionStrategy.com championships: http://dominionstrategy.challonge.com/2012witch


Full rules can be found here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5686.0

Each round, you are responsible for finding your opponent and scheduling a game by the end of the week. You may mutually agree to any rules you wish to play by. If you cannot agree you must play with the default rules as follows: veto mode off, identical starting hands on, official point counter on, fully random sets, point counter extension allowed.

The first player in the first game is decided by whichever player is 'higher' in the Challonge bracket. For round one, this means the higher seed will play first. To accomplish this, begin a game in the tournament lobby and select the player who is to play first. After that game, you may both move to the Secret Chamber lobby (but don't exit Isotropic!) and the player to play first will be the loser of the previous game.

If you have trouble scheduling, please message me and I will attempt to work it out.

Have fun and good luck!

23
Dominion Strategy Wiki Feedback / Meta-Organization
« on: November 12, 2012, 04:49:55 pm »
I think we need to discuss and decide upon a general organization for pages relating to game phases, high level dominion concepts, etc. In general, we should try to avoid overly short pages, when they could be combined into one with subsections. For example, Action Phase, Buy Phase, Clean up Phase should belong to one page together, not each page separately. However, you could also argue that Game Phases should not be its own page, but rather a subsection of some sort of Playing the Game page or the Dominion game page. Also, we use the terms action and buy independently of the action and buy phase. To what extent should action and buy have their own pages?

Anyway, here are what I think should be full pages and what should be subsets within them. Feel free to disagree:

Dominion (Game)
-Gameplay, short description, link to full page
-Releases, brief overview or just a table of the sets, link to full set pages

Gameplay
-Set up, etc
--Kingdom (absorb current [[Kingdom]] page)
-Phases
--Action Phase (absorb current [[Action]] page)
--Buy Phase (no seperate page for [[buy]])
--Clean Up Phase
-Ending Conditions


24
Other Games / Amazon Board Game Reviews
« on: September 20, 2012, 05:33:29 pm »
I was bored so I created some reviews on amazon for a few board games. Figured I'd share.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1BMQAZR080KFH/ref=cm_pdp_rev_all?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

25
Game Reports / Ye Olde Mandaring/Horn of Plenty Game
« on: September 19, 2012, 10:24:09 pm »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201209/19/game-20120919-191517-15ec28cc.html

I've always wanted to actually try to pull this off, and here it is. Got set up with Gold/Silver/Copper/Venture/HoP letting me get a province each turn starting with turn 10. I did get pretty lucky, especially in the 5/2 open, which was huge, but I think the venture was very helpful in getting me all these unique cards together quickly.

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