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Tournaments and Events / Dutch/Belgian Championship tournament report
« on: September 08, 2013, 03:29:41 pm »
At the break of day I get into my car and head for The Hague, Holland. This sea town is the place where the small board game convention of spellenaanzee is to be held. More importantly the Dutch/Belgian Dominion national championship is scheduled to happen there. I arrive with time to spare and check out the games for sale waiting for the tournament to start. A while later I see a few known faces trickling in the hall: Dave (Davio), Stef (Stef), Steven (Indur), Loes (loesu) and some more. I also get to meet Filip (SheCantSayNo). Stef is the favorite to win the whole thing of course, but I hope to get lucky. The tournament structure differs from last year's as we're going to play heads up matches with a swiss structure. This is much better suited for competitive Dominion than three-player randomness. The kingdoms have all been custom designed ahead of time so the games should all be interesting.
First round is against Martijn (don't know his Goko nick) and the kingdom features Laboratory, Festival, Swindler, Militia, Chapel and Duke as notable cards. I decide to open Swindler/Chapel although Militia/Chapel is probably a little better. My opponent surprisingly skips trashing and goes for Swindler/Silver. I get a lucky Chapel turn (3 Estates) and quickly get my deck into shape while my opponent is going for some big money strategy. Eventually I empty the Labs and then start greening with a triple Duchy turn. My opponent is going for Provinces so I get 7 Duchies which makes the Dukes huge and I win by a large margin.
Second round has the Native Village/Bridge combo and my opponent is a little noobish and doesn't seem to know it. I empty the NV pile and get 7 Bridges. My opponent is going for some sort of turbo Remodel strategy and gets 4 of the Provinces when my mega turn is ready to trigger so pretty easy win again.
Third round is against Loes (loesu), whose friendly, pretty exterior hides the Dominion beast that lurks within. This is one of the most fun sets and features Ironworks, Wharf, Gardens, Great Hall, Island. If both players go for the same dominant strategy of Ironworks/Gardens/Island rush the game can be over in 10 turns. I decide to open Bureaucrat/Smugglers. The theory is that the Bureaucrat's extra economy will allow me to get crucial Duchies after the rush. Loes goes for Ironworks/Silver. I get to smuggle an early Wharf and then basically start draining Ironworks, then Gardens, then Islands while Loes follows suit. We split the Gardens, but I get mine up to 4 points while Loes can't get to the 40 card treshold so I win.
3-0 and feeling pretty good, but now I have to play ...Stef.
I'm not really worried. Stef's a very mellow friendly fellow despite superhuman Dominion skillz. The board isn't very engine friendly and that's a relief because I know I won't be destroyed. We both open Courtyard/Silver. I get a few Ghost Ships and basically money (Torturer was also an option, but Ghost Ship is just better). Stef goes for money and Ghost Ships as well. After my first Gold I switch to Harems and win the split 5/3. We split the Provinces evenly, but Stef wins the Duchy split so he wins. It was my own fault because I bought a 3rd Ghost Ship over Duchy when there were 4 Provinces left. Stef correctly starts Duchy dancing earlier and wins deservedly.
5th round I get to play Steven (Indur). He's also a very strong player, but not yet at superhuman level. This board is pretty cool with Fishing Village, Nobles, Bazaar, Swindler, Lighthouse and Witch. I open Swindler/Lighthouse. I believe Lighthouse is key here, but Indur doesn't seem to realize it and only gets 1 (I think?) so I get to curse and Swindle him a few times while I'm often protected and only receive 2 Curses (to his 4). I never buy money and head straight for Nobles. I win that split and in the end also the Province split.
One more win and I'm in the finals....
Last round has Masquerade, Militia, Tactician, Festival, Sea Hag, Ambassador. We both open Militia/Masquerade (which Stef strongly disagreed with saying he always opens Silver with Masquerade). We basically play a mirror match of Masquerade Big Money. He gets a few early Golds while I settle for Silvers, but he makes a small mistake of building further when he hits $8 instead of going green. This allows me to split the Provinces and it's a tie. In the meantime Stef is playing some double Tactician/Festival deck which seems a lot cooler than what we went for. He wins handily and that means I'll play the finals best of three against Stef.
Our match gets a few spectators, but I'm not really nervous, just glad to be able to play Dominion against the best player in the world. The first board has Journeyman, Herald, Bazaar, Stonemason, Steward, Butcher and Baker. We both open Butcher/Steward (Baker coin token). I can't explain how, but Stef builds up a lot faster and while I'm still having single Bazaar buying turns he's already had a turn buying Stonemason (+2 Herald), Stonemason (+Bazaar,+Journeyman). It all seemed pretty hopeless and my only chance is Stef making a mistake, so ... I concede. I should have probably played on for that 1% where everything lines up for me and nothing for him, but oh well. On to the second game. The board is slightly less engine friendly: Soothsayer, Baker, Plaza, Council Room, Lookout. We both open Soothsayer/Lookout. Stef gets a second Lookout clearly indicating he wants to build an engine. I've never really seen a board where I want to get 2 Lookouts so I decide the engine is just not going to run that smoothly with Soothsayer junking up the decks (too many Golds is also junk for an engine). Stef gets a million plazas and manages to connect them pretty well with his few Council Rooms. He even manages a double Province turn and seems to win this one easily again, although he admitted afterwards that he wasn't too sure the engine was the right choice for this kingdom.
So SuperStef is the deserved Dutch champ. Well done and see you next year
First round is against Martijn (don't know his Goko nick) and the kingdom features Laboratory, Festival, Swindler, Militia, Chapel and Duke as notable cards. I decide to open Swindler/Chapel although Militia/Chapel is probably a little better. My opponent surprisingly skips trashing and goes for Swindler/Silver. I get a lucky Chapel turn (3 Estates) and quickly get my deck into shape while my opponent is going for some big money strategy. Eventually I empty the Labs and then start greening with a triple Duchy turn. My opponent is going for Provinces so I get 7 Duchies which makes the Dukes huge and I win by a large margin.
Second round has the Native Village/Bridge combo and my opponent is a little noobish and doesn't seem to know it. I empty the NV pile and get 7 Bridges. My opponent is going for some sort of turbo Remodel strategy and gets 4 of the Provinces when my mega turn is ready to trigger so pretty easy win again.
Third round is against Loes (loesu), whose friendly, pretty exterior hides the Dominion beast that lurks within. This is one of the most fun sets and features Ironworks, Wharf, Gardens, Great Hall, Island. If both players go for the same dominant strategy of Ironworks/Gardens/Island rush the game can be over in 10 turns. I decide to open Bureaucrat/Smugglers. The theory is that the Bureaucrat's extra economy will allow me to get crucial Duchies after the rush. Loes goes for Ironworks/Silver. I get to smuggle an early Wharf and then basically start draining Ironworks, then Gardens, then Islands while Loes follows suit. We split the Gardens, but I get mine up to 4 points while Loes can't get to the 40 card treshold so I win.
3-0 and feeling pretty good, but now I have to play ...Stef.
I'm not really worried. Stef's a very mellow friendly fellow despite superhuman Dominion skillz. The board isn't very engine friendly and that's a relief because I know I won't be destroyed. We both open Courtyard/Silver. I get a few Ghost Ships and basically money (Torturer was also an option, but Ghost Ship is just better). Stef goes for money and Ghost Ships as well. After my first Gold I switch to Harems and win the split 5/3. We split the Provinces evenly, but Stef wins the Duchy split so he wins. It was my own fault because I bought a 3rd Ghost Ship over Duchy when there were 4 Provinces left. Stef correctly starts Duchy dancing earlier and wins deservedly.
5th round I get to play Steven (Indur). He's also a very strong player, but not yet at superhuman level. This board is pretty cool with Fishing Village, Nobles, Bazaar, Swindler, Lighthouse and Witch. I open Swindler/Lighthouse. I believe Lighthouse is key here, but Indur doesn't seem to realize it and only gets 1 (I think?) so I get to curse and Swindle him a few times while I'm often protected and only receive 2 Curses (to his 4). I never buy money and head straight for Nobles. I win that split and in the end also the Province split.
One more win and I'm in the finals....
Last round has Masquerade, Militia, Tactician, Festival, Sea Hag, Ambassador. We both open Militia/Masquerade (which Stef strongly disagreed with saying he always opens Silver with Masquerade). We basically play a mirror match of Masquerade Big Money. He gets a few early Golds while I settle for Silvers, but he makes a small mistake of building further when he hits $8 instead of going green. This allows me to split the Provinces and it's a tie. In the meantime Stef is playing some double Tactician/Festival deck which seems a lot cooler than what we went for. He wins handily and that means I'll play the finals best of three against Stef.
Our match gets a few spectators, but I'm not really nervous, just glad to be able to play Dominion against the best player in the world. The first board has Journeyman, Herald, Bazaar, Stonemason, Steward, Butcher and Baker. We both open Butcher/Steward (Baker coin token). I can't explain how, but Stef builds up a lot faster and while I'm still having single Bazaar buying turns he's already had a turn buying Stonemason (+2 Herald), Stonemason (+Bazaar,+Journeyman). It all seemed pretty hopeless and my only chance is Stef making a mistake, so ... I concede. I should have probably played on for that 1% where everything lines up for me and nothing for him, but oh well. On to the second game. The board is slightly less engine friendly: Soothsayer, Baker, Plaza, Council Room, Lookout. We both open Soothsayer/Lookout. Stef gets a second Lookout clearly indicating he wants to build an engine. I've never really seen a board where I want to get 2 Lookouts so I decide the engine is just not going to run that smoothly with Soothsayer junking up the decks (too many Golds is also junk for an engine). Stef gets a million plazas and manages to connect them pretty well with his few Council Rooms. He even manages a double Province turn and seems to win this one easily again, although he admitted afterwards that he wasn't too sure the engine was the right choice for this kingdom.
So SuperStef is the deserved Dutch champ. Well done and see you next year
