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Topics - Kuildeous

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101
Other Games / Looking for lunchtime games (easy and mess-proof)
« on: September 04, 2012, 11:48:19 am »
So, there's been interest in my lunchtime crowd to play some sort of game. I have all sorts of games in my closet. The problem is that these are nongamers. That has its own issue with whether they like certain games or not, of course. That is something to consider. But, I'm more concerned about having food around. Since these are nongamers, they don't fully appreciate that a game can cost at least $40 (or over $100 for games I'm obsessed with). As a result, I'm really wary about introducing games that have cards or game boards. I really don't want to run the risk of ruining one of games, and I especially don't want to ask my co-worker to shell out $50 for a replacement.

So, what to bring?

I've already brought Blokus. I thought this would be perfect, and it is as far as physical components go. I think they're getting bored of it, so I am ready to shelve it and bring it back later.

I had a request for Zombie Dice. I think I will bring that in someday. I need to get some brain tokens, though.

Gobblet is another possibility. Sadly, it only engages two people, but it can be interesting to spectate.

I think all my other games involve cards or boards (of the ruinable variety). What should I consider?

102
Dominion General Discussion / No free promo cards at GenCon.
« on: August 16, 2012, 10:35:47 am »
I bought my Dark Ages from the RGG vendor. They no longer give promo cards with a purchase. I got a nice bag instead. Still would have rather had the promos.

So, if you are on the fence about buying Dark Ages at GenCon, don't let promos be the deciding factor. They're still going for $5 apiece.

103
General Discussion / Who's going to GenCon?
« on: August 10, 2012, 01:57:47 pm »
So who'll be at GenCon?

I'll be there. I mostly do the RPGs, so I probably won't be found observing any Dominion tournaments or some such. Maybe I'll go play in the Rio Grande room.

I figure I'll bring my base cards on the plane and then buy Dark Ages there. Then during any downtime, I can break out a game with my friends. I suspect I'd get a lot of party crashers, and I may have to politely tell them that I'm leaving in 15 minutes and taking the game with me.

But hey, if anyone plays in Heroes of Rokugan, I'll probably see you there. I'm also doing a demo of Rotted Capes and helping AEG run their introduction to Second City (not the comedy troupe).

And of course, I'm always eager to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory again. It was a crime against Kansas City that it closed here.

104
General Discussion / My wacky cousin (puzzle)
« on: August 02, 2012, 11:16:56 am »
It's been a while since I've seen one of these puzzles on here, so I figure why not.

My eccentric cousin has particular likes.

For example…

He likes radium but not uranium.
He likes pencils but not pens.
He likes paper but not flypaper.
He likes chains but not whips.
He likes neighbors but not homeowners.
He likes abetting but not aiding.

What else would my cousin like?



105
General Discussion / 7 – 4 + 3 x 0 + 1 = ?
« on: July 16, 2012, 10:47:56 am »
I am such a masochist sometimes.

Every so often, there is some question or poll or graphic on Facebook (and I'm sure other social media sites and forums) where someone asks a simple algebra question. This question comes in many flavors, but the one that I saw most recently was:

7 – 4 + 3 x 0 + 1 = ?

The author is challenging what the average person knows. The correct answer is, of course, 4. So many people out there insist that it's 1. After all, anything times 0 is 0. I've even seen some people claim the answer is 7, but I suspect that's a matter of glossing over the details and mistaking the multiplication for addition.

Whenever I see one of these, I feel compelled to help out. I read the comments, which are full of kids (at least I hope they're kids) screaming at each and calling each other retarded for not knowing that their answer is correct. And it drives me crazy. It really drives me crazy that someone who got the wrong answer is calling someone a moron for coming up with the right answer. Like a fool, I try to explain order of operations, but I get shouted down as well. It doesn't bother me that someone goofed or is simply not that knowledgeable, but it does bother me when that person refuses to even listen to the reasons why 4 is the correct answer. It's willful ignorance at that point.

It also doesn't help that the standard calculator doesn't do order of operations. You have to have a "scientific" calculator. That annoys me too. I can see the purpose of the adding machine, but it just encourages bad math. Even the Windows calculator has a standard setting that ignores order of operations. I believe it's the default calculator, so the layperson probably doesn't even know that there is a more accurate setting (fun fact: The actuarial exams in the early 90s required the use of a calculator that looked similar to a scientific calculator but in fact did not use the order of operations either—madness).

I think the next time I feel the need to step into one of these warzones, I will include directions on how to use the scientific mode of the Windows calculator. It's actually very difficult to disabuse someone of his wrong answer when he can just type in the formula and see for himself that the answer is clearly 1.

Sorry, I felt the need to rant. I figured that aside from a math forum, you guys could relate, even though you probably don't suffer my obsessive need to correct people on the internet.

106
General Discussion / Sitting
« on: June 26, 2012, 10:34:24 am »
I'm good at it.

107
Other Games / How do you deal cards?
« on: June 20, 2012, 10:31:37 am »
I don't generally play with people who make a big deal about post-shuffle card distribution, but I've seen them around. It seems that some people think that the cards will be even more randomized if you deal one per player at a time. Even I do that a lot when playing cards. It's a habit, I guess.

It would be faster to just deal each hand out. Using poker as an example, you hand each person the top five cards of the deck. If the deck is properly shuffled, then it should be just as uncertain as dealing one card to each person*.

So, in the games where you distribute cards, how do you handle it?

* Unless you're playing euchre, where you deal 2/3/2/3 cards and then 3/2/3/2 cards at a time.

108
Other Games / My board game demos
« on: June 04, 2012, 05:08:45 pm »
Off-topic, how was Origins? C'mon, spill!

Origins was a lot of fun. I mostly engage in the RPGs when I go to such conventions, so I don't have a whole lot on the board game front.

That said, I was able to devote a couple of slots to the dealers' hall. I had never collected all five ribbons in a Mayfair demo before, so I gave that a shot. I got to learn to some new games. The games I demoed in the Mayfair room were:

Whitewater - I actually enjoyed this a lot. It's a hex racing game between different rafts. It reminds me of Mississippi Queen or Alpine, but this has a distinctly unique mechanic. You control two rafts, but you're not in complete control. Someone else is also controlling your rafts. See, you're part of a team, but you are vested in two rafts. To outline what happened when I played, I had a paddler in rafts B and C. Someone else had a paddler in rafts A and C, while someone else had a paddler in rafts B and D. So, I had to work with someone to get raft B down the river while working with someone else to get raft C down the river. You also bet on which of your rafts will win with multiplier tokens. I put x2 on B and x1 on C, so that the final score would favor raft B.

An interesting take on this is that you want to win, but you have to keep in mind how your rafts are arranged. As it happened, B and C were way out in the lead while A and D were lagging behind. I had put x2 on B because I figured this complete stranger would be better at it than the other complete stranger. I was wrong. C was ahead of B by one hex. As the two approached the finish line, I decided to sabotage C by using my actions to do nothing but spin in place, letting B coast on by. I got 8 points for that (2x3 for first and 1x2 for second). I guess I would have won anyway if I didn't do that (1x3 for first and 2x2 for second) since the other guy in B could only have hoped to tie me (2x3 for first and 1x1 for second), and ties go to the person whose boat crosses first. Still, it allowed me to get a perfect score.

I actually bought Whitewater with my 50% coupon.

Ablaze - This game caught my attention, but I wasn't ready to buy it just yet. I was afraid that it might not hold up to a second demo. I wanted to play it again on Sunday, but they weren't demoing it that day. I'll bide my time and try it again later. The mechanic is interesting. You place tiles like Carcassonne or Seismic, but you're limited on where to put them. The theme is that you're fighting a forest fire. When you draw a numbered hex, you must put it in a spot where the sides touching add up to the highest value. So, two 6s next to each other had a strength of 12, while three hexes with 3, 5, and 5, would be strength 13. It actually captured a fire pretty well, spreading where the heat was strongest but abating as weaker hexes were put down. The scoring mechanism was interesting too. You add up all the hexes and then divide by the lowest value in the group. So, you want those 5s and 6s, but you better get at least one 2, or you're suffering.

Discworld - I never read the books, but I can see this dripping with theme. I have no idea what the Agony Aunts are, but the picture was just awesome. It's a territory-control game where you draw a secret identity, and people try to figure out what would make you win while trying to complete their own agendas. It was kind of neat, but not knowing the identities was probably a detriment. Fortunately, there is a cheat sheet handy so you can see what is available. Seemed neat, and it reminded me of Lords of Waterdeep. I'll have to try it again later.

Family Business - I know this is an older game, but I never played it before. I didn't miss much. My wife and I did not like this game at all. It just seemed too random, like Poo or Nutz. I guess it's actually kind of like Lunch Money in a sense, though I do love that game.

Patrician - I wanted to like this, but I didn't have fun playing this. I think part of it is that while building the towers, ties go to who has the topmost piece. I had it in my head that it was the bottom piece and played it like that. That hurt me a lot. I guess I fail to see the advantage of building a tower first. Usually, tiebreakers in similar games go to people who get in the territory first but not this time. I'll have to try this one again.

Struggle for Catan - This is a simplified version of Catan in a card game. It took some getting used to, but the mechanic seems interesting enough. I only played two players. I imagine this could be really cutthroat with four players.

I also tried a few other board games. I heard good things about Summoner Wars, but it rubbed me the wrong way. The biggest problem for me is that ranged attacks work only in orthogonal directions. You can target something 3 ahead of you or 3 beside you but not 1 ahead and 1 aside. I also tried Jab, which is a nice unique ruleset which involves some speed and dexterity but not overwhelmingly so. I don't see any accountability in the game, though. You can only block punches using certain cards, but if you accidentally block with a wrong card (as I suspect I may have done), then who's going to know? Your opponent is probably paying too much attention to other things. Wife is really interested in this, so we may pick it up. The winner is probably Dixit. I saw the great reviews, but it looked like a child's game. Certainly, it can be, but it's as complex and mature as the players allow it to be. It's kind of like Apples to Apples in that everyone plays a card to fulfill the condition. The condition, however, is set by the "storyteller," and he can be as specific or abstract as he wants. The storyteller also plays a card. His goal is to have between 0% and 100% vote for his card. If he gets 0%, then his selection was too obscure. If he gets 100%, then his selection was too obvious. The artwork for this game is phenomenal, and I predict that we'll buy this and all the expansions. Our niece will love this game.

So, I got to take in some board games, but that wasn't my primary focus.

And man, did I go overboard in posting.

109
Dominion General Discussion / Base Cards Promo Card?
« on: June 04, 2012, 01:30:36 pm »
So, at Origins, I decided to pick up the Base Set cards. After all, my cards are getting pretty worn, and replacing them with new artwork is shiny.

For buying the cards, I received a special promo card. I have no idea what to do with it.

On the front(?) side, it says,

Quote
PLAY THE OFFICIAL VERSION OF DOMINION ONLINE!
JOIN YOUR FRIENDS FOR A GAME OR PLAY AGAINST THE COMPUTER
WWW.PLAYDOMINION.COM/BASE

There are instructions to flip the card. On the back(?) of the card, there is an illustration to hold the card on one end and then another illustration with a caption instructing you to

Quote
PUT CARD FLAT ON DISPLAY AND MOVE SLOWLY

The card is too opaque to see through, so I'm not really sure what dragging it across the display will do. The illustration seems to imply that it goes over a smart phone.

I wondered if there was an embedded bar or QR code. My barcode scanner didn't pick up anything.

I tried going to the website to see if there is a capture applet (I don't know if there is such a thing), but the website doesn't even exist.

So, what do I do with this card? Anyone got an idea?

110
Other Games / How to play Vladimír Chvátil games
« on: May 11, 2012, 02:00:58 pm »
As much as I adore Dominion, I have to confess a love for Vladimír Chvátil's games. I own Galaxy Trucker, Dungeon Lords, and Dungeon Petz. I've played 1/3 of a game of Through the Ages, but I like what I saw. I've yet to play Space Alert, but it sounds like it's up my alley.

I love the complexities that are inherent in these games. Sure, Galaxy Trucker seems like a simple ship-building game, but the fact that the board is heavily against you means that you have to take into consideration many factors that threaten to annihilate you. I like Dungeon Lords for the same reason, though DL doesn't even look simple. Still, it's about weathering the threat that is coming your way. In this game, you can actually manipulate the threat so you are sitting pretty. Dungeon Petz has a pretty complex system of caring for your pets, and it's not too uncommon to lose a pet to disease or unhappiness or escape.

I like all of his games that I've experienced so far. Unfortunately, my group isn't into them as much as I am. What's a man to do? Is there a better way to incorporate these games into a gaming group? The tutorials in Dungeon Lords are handy (and necessary IMO). There wasn't a tutorial for Dungeon Pets, but I wish there was. There was frustration during the game in how to care for a pet. I should have just taken a fully grown monster, deal out a bunch of cards, and explain what would be needed to keep the pet alive and happy. With Galaxy Trucker, when I introduce new players, I at least forbid looking at the event cards for everyone. Not only does it put me on somewhat equal footing with everyone else, but it doesn't slow them down when they try to figure out the cards. This is not a place for analysis paralysis. I also never flip the hourglass with new players. I let them flip the hourglass on their own time.

I'd love to get in a demo of Space Alert. I'm hesitant to buy it, since I have three (four if you count GT's expansion) beautiful Chvátil games sitting in my cabinet doing nothing for me.

I think a possible problem is that I'm into the games way more than the rest of my friends. As such, I have a better understanding of what is happening. It's discouraging to face such a steep learning curve and get stomped on (except for Dungeon Lords; I somehow don't do as well in that game as I feel I should). Maybe I should just bring out the game and sit out, choosing only to advise throughout the game.

111
Other Games / Who's going to see the Battleship movie?
« on: April 26, 2012, 03:19:09 pm »
I'm pretty sure that this is a hackneyed script that is a lame attempt to link Battleship to Battleship Galaxies (if even that much), so I doubt I'll be going.

But, it'll be worth it* if, after a devastating attack that annihilates the fleet, the captain snarls into the camera, "You just sank my battleship. Prepare to die."


*Okay, no it won't.

112
Other Games / In defense of Monopoly
« on: April 16, 2012, 12:46:58 pm »
Well, defense is a strong word, as Monopoly is not really that great of a game. On the other hand, I don't think it's quite as bad as some people claim. It's a negotiating game that relies on a lot of luck.

First, I'll address what I feel are valid criticisms of the game.

Swingy: Hoo boy, is it ever! Player A could roll well enough to land only on the card spaces without paying any rent, while Player B unluckily owes rent for hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk. If you thought that missing your Familiar in Dominion was bad, imagine when you cannot buy any properties because the other players bought them first.

Kingmaker: There are very few restrictions to what constitutes a trade in Monopoly. As such, you can see some wildly skewed trades. If Player A is upset at Player B, then he may offer to sell Boardwalk for $1000 while only $500 to Player C. Of course, there are tactical reasons to skew the prices, but this complaint is about arbitrary sale prices. Even worse, if Player A is a ruthless slum lord and Player B is on the losing end and ready to enter Player A's gauntlet of hotels, Player B can choose to sell off his property to Player C for a ridiculously low amount before getting knocked out. Now, a mediocre Player C suddenly has the capital to take on Player A.

Strategy-lite: In Dominion, you can look at the kingdom layout and choose to focus on a Double-Jack strategy or a Gardens strategy. This is nigh impossible in Monopoly. You don't really start off thinking that you'll grab the green monopoly or all the railroads. That's not always true, since you could devote your resources to trading for the entire orange set, but if one person already has the set, will it be worth it to trade for it? It's almost like planning a strategy for electric football.

Boring for Losers: In general, I wrinkle my nose at games where someone can be knocked out and made to twiddle his thumbs while everyone else has fun. This even applies to my cooler games like Robo Rally. Although, sometimes it's a blessing to be knocked out. How many multi-player Dominion games do you just wish would end because you got shafted?

Then there are criticisms that I feel are not deserved.

Tactics-lite: While I agree that Monopoly is not a strategic game, there are plenty of tactical opportunities. You cannot determine where the dice will take you, but there are actually a lot of decisions to make. You may choose to get out of jail as early as possible so that you can buy up the remaining property, or you may stay in jail and collect rent from others while taking no risk yourself. You can choose to buy more houses before a player rolls the dice, banking on the possibility that he'll land on one of those properties. And let's not forget the trading. How much should you sell that property for? What will the other person gain in the process? If that property you want will complete a monopoly, then expect the seller to ask for a hefty sum. Is the amount you're willing to pay going to be covered by the subsequent rent you will be collecting? Even the timing of the trade is important. If you have a chance where you gain a monopoly on orange while your opponent gets a monopoly on red, you may want to wait until your piece has cleared the red spaces before making that deal or you may find yourself paying outrageous rent that prevents you from developing your orange monopoly. Despite some complaints, this game is not determined solely by the dice. There is a lot of luck involved, but the skill in the game is your ability to weather that luck.

Too long: Really, this is the most fallacious complaint I've heard. I've run some Monopoly tournaments, and the official tournament length is 90 minutes. A lot of games conclude in less time than that. Usually, games run long because of weird house rules or rules omissions. Some examples that I've seen:
  • Money is not taken out of the game: Some people place Income tax and Luxury tax money in the middle of the board, to be picked up by landing on Free Parking. These spaces serve a purpose of removing money from the game. Sure, you have Go to give you more money. Generally, that evens out a bit. Also, buying and upgrading property is a way to remove money. If you don't remove money, then you have fat cats with large bankrolls throwing money back and forth. There is no tension in the game.
  • Money is added to the game: Who invented the concept of putting $500 in the middle of the board for anyone to pick up when they land on Free Parking? That person has no business naming house rules. This makes the previous bullet even worse. Even if people do lose money, they can gain it back again with this rule. The fact that it's $500 (it's usually $500) makes an already-swingy game even swingier. I refuse to play Monopoly with this house rule in play (or most any house rule).
  • Not auctioning properties: Most likely, the average Monopoly player does not realize that every property is sold once it's landed upon. If the person landing on it doesn't want to buy it, it goes to auction. The sooner properties are put into circulation, the faster the production. This results in people losing money sooner. 

Ignorance of the Public: I'm sure everyone has had the moment when he explains to family or friends that he likes to play board games and the response is, "Oh, like Monopoly?" It can be daunting. After all, you engage in some pretty complex and deep games, and this person just reduced it down to something as basic as Monopoly. It invokes rage in many a board gamer. This isn't Monopoly's fault, though. If your favorite band has a front man who happens to look like Hanson, do you hate Hanson because people keep comparing your band to them? No, you hate Hanson because they suck. Likewise with Monopoly. I can understand someone disliking the game for being too swingy or a giant kingmaker scenario, but direct your ire at the people who don't know better rather than the game. Actually, such a conversation can be an opportunity to redirect that ire into a moment of explaining the array of awesome games that you play.

I'm sure some people will disagree. I'd love to hear those points. Like I said, it's not a great game that requires huge amounts of planning, but it does require some thought behind your decisions. I won't place it in my Top 10 List or anything, but it does seem to get more gripes than I feel it deserves.

113
Other Games / Thunderstone on Facebook
« on: February 23, 2012, 04:07:16 pm »
For those who like Thunderstone (or wanted to try it out without an investment), there is a Facebook app that allows you to play Thunderstone. It has the AEG logo all over it, so it's pretty official (not to mention that one of my friends is a writer for AEG and he and his wife are on the leaderboard, and I'd think he'd say something to his boss if it's a counterfeit).

As far as I can tell, you only have access to a pretty limited number of village/monster/adventurer cards. You can buy bundles of other cards. From what I've seen, the bundles are $1.50 to $2.50.

So, if you like Thunderstone—or are Thunderstone-curious—and have a Facebook account, go check it out.

There is a multiplayer option, but I've never tried it. I'm curious if it's real-time gaming like Isotropic or if it's turn-based like Words with Friends. I hope it's real-time, because I can't imagine trying to remember which cards I bought in five different games that take days to play.

The tutorial looked neat, but I quickly skipped it. Since I already knew the game, I got bored. I'd love to hear from a new player if the tutorial helped. I remember that the original Thunderstone rulebook was atrociously written, so this has to be a huge step up.

114
Dominion General Discussion / Dominion cards in haiku
« on: November 18, 2011, 11:58:33 am »
I'm actually a little disappointed to not find these card descriptions in the form of a haiku.

115
Puzzles and Challenges / "What's Missing" - Electric Boogaloo
« on: September 26, 2011, 04:09:23 pm »
I am actually pretty bad at these, and when I try to think one up, it gets used in another puzzle. I think this one is unique enough. I could be wrong.

What is missing from this set:

Spy
Rabble
Swindler
Scrying Pool
Jester


This might be too easy for honorable mentions. In case it's needed, here are the "almosts":  Fortune Teller, Saboteur

And I'm going to be a spoilsport. I'm kind of bad at coming back to the forum, and I don't want to leave the puzzle wide open if that happens. 

So, there is a spoiler below. I'll break it up into multiple spoiler tags in case you accidentally do mouse over it.

========================
The correct answer is: Sea Hag
The criteria are: Cards that make you pull from your deck an odd number of cards during someone else's turn, which you cannot use on your next turn.
========================


116
Other Games / Initial assessment of Fortunes of War
« on: September 23, 2011, 02:47:57 pm »
Since someone mentioned Fortunes of War in another thread, I thought I'd give my assessment of the app (for Android, though I don't know if it's available elsewhere).

First off, this is not a game inspired by Dominion. It is Dominion. The rules haven't significantly changed. The differences I can spot are:
  • Curses are now called Wounds (but still -1VP)
  • There seems to an infinite number of Wounds
  • Provinces (called Cities) cost 9 coins
  • The "kingdom" card stacks are 7 high instead of 10
  • There is a whole new batch of cards
  • You start with 13 cards (more on that below)

If you want the thrill of having about a new expansion and a half, this could amuse you quite a bit.

Briefly.

The cards more resemble fan-created expansions that have not undergone the rigorous testing that Donald puts his cards through. They're amusing cards, but they can be very swingy.

For example, the Blacksmith is a 3-cost card that gives $4. That's right; for the cost of a Silver, you can get something that's better than a Gold. That's quite the deal. The Dragon is a 7-cost card that gives 3 Wounds to your opponents. The additional "cost" is that you have to destroy a coin card from your hand. Uber-cursing is awesome anyway, but I can also trim my Coppers? Sign me up!

It feels like the idea is that the only thing you want to destroy from your deck would be the Wounds. Trimming Coppers and Estates (or Outposts) is not really a viable tactic. There are quite a few cards that give Wounds and quite a few that destroys Wounds. That may be why the Wounds never really run out. This game is clearly meant to have a lot of interaction between players. If someone complains that Dominion is just solitaire, introduce him to this game.

There are a couple of really ridiculously swingy cards, but I haven't seen them come up in a quick match. I think they're only used in the "campaign." The Sun gives +10 Cards, +3 Actions, +3 Buys, and you must destroy the card. Furthermore, all opponents gain a copy of the Sun. I haven't seen it in use. By contrast, the Moon gives -5 VP. You can play it to give everyone else a copy of two Moons. I had this in the campaign. I won that game -140 to -253.

Most of the cards are variants of the +Copper/+Cards/+Buy/+Action. Some of them are reasonably priced, such as the card that costs 6 and gives you +2 Cards, +1 Action, +1 Coin; but some are outrageous, such as the aforementioned Blacksmith.

I'm so used to Provinces ending the game that this version throws me off. I have to wait until three stacks are gone. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Since the Province/City card costs 9, it's a bit harder to end the game on that stack, especially if I can't fine-tune my deck. It's not necessarily bad. It's just odd to me.

One thing Fortunes of War introduced is stacking your deck beforehand. You get your 7 Coppers and 3 Estates, as usual. You also get to pick a race (Human, Orc, Elf), an piece of equipment (Helmet, Sword, Ring), and a spell (Fire, Earth, Water). So, you get to customize your starting deck with something offensive or something defensive or something that generates money or whatever. It's actually quite neat, and I could see someone creating a variant of this for Dominion.

The cost of the full version is $3. One may choose to take a moral stand against giving money to a company that so blatantly rips off Donald and Rio Grande. I can appreciate that. The art, however, does look to be original. It's a little simplistic, but it actually captures the atmosphere (more so than Dominion, I may argue), and it won't slow down your phone by being too detailed. It's nothing to write home about, but it's decent enough.

In the end, is it worth $3? I'd say yes. It's true that Donald did all their hard work for them: He invented the rules that drive Fortunes of Wars. But, they did put together a fairly decent interface and original (I hope!) artwork. I'd be more inclined to praise the value of the game if the cards were actually balanced and tested. The fact that you can buy something for the price of a silver to get something that's better than a gold is proof enough that the cards needed a lot more thought put into them.

You can play for free. Paying the $3 gets you the campaign. I suspect that some cards might become available in the paid version. I haven't taken that plunge yet. Still, for $3, you could do far worse for entertainment. 

117
Game Reports / Never send a Golem to barter
« on: June 26, 2011, 05:22:56 pm »
I played a game with Golem. It was a pretty action-sparse setup, so I got Golem mostly to make use of the Menagerie and Lighthouse actions.

After I got smacked with Goons, I decided to keep my Gold, Silver, and Golem. I figured that maybe I could find my own Goons or some other way to get up to 8. After all, I was already 5/8 on my way to a Province!

My first action was Lighthouse. Okay, not bad. Let's see what the second action is. Oh, Horse Traders. Wait, I said while looking at my remaining Gold and Silver in my hand. That sounds like a bad plan. I certainly hope the card says "may." Oh, bugger, it does not. I turned my Gold and Silver into 3 coins, not even enough to get a Duchy.

So now when I play Golem, I give him a message, "Don't give away the homeworld!"

118
Dominion General Discussion / Why is Remake worded that way?
« on: June 24, 2011, 03:48:28 pm »
I've been thrown a bit by the wording on Remake. I don't have the card before me, but I recall that it starts off with, "Do this twice." That is followed by instructions to trash a card and gain another one costing exactly 1 more.

The card text could have said, "Trash 2 cards. For each card trashed this way, gain a card costing exactly 1 more." Out of 130 cards, I don't believe that any of them say, "Do this twice," even for cards with a double effect (any +2 coin, +2 card, trash 2 cards, etc.). Even Trading Post could have adopted similar language, but it did not.

Is the wording deliberately chosen? Goons was written so that Throne Room could not net +2 VP per purchase per Goons. I don't think this thwarts Throne Room, as you could still play the card twice, performing the action four times.

Maybe it's nothing, but it just strikes me that after over 100 cards have been released, this one has that wording. I sometimes latch onto weird things.

Any insight on this? Other than advising me to take my meds.

119

WanderingWinder posed a question in another thread: Why wouldn't you ever reveal a Province when you play Explorer? Indeed, why wouldn't you?

I love a good puzzle, so I pondered on that and came up with a solution, which is unlikely to happen. I thought, "This totally should be posted in the Puzzles forum." So here it is—with credit due to Wandering Winder for prompting that train of thought.

Of course, an obvious solution is, "The Gold pile has run out, so there's no point in revealing Province." Technically true, but let's make this a little harder and find reasons that you would purposefully choose to not reveal Province, even though doing so would get you Gold. 

I thought of another solution, though this one is even less likely to happen than my first solution.

Lenoxus already gave one solution, so I can't claim to be the first. Just in case you never saw that solution, I won't post it here.

120
Variants and Fan Cards / Black Market without supply cards
« on: June 20, 2011, 01:22:41 pm »
 I just had a thought about streamlining the Black Market deck for me. Sadly, I won't be able to test this out probably until next weekend, but I thought I'd throw it out for the identification of flaws/opportunities.

A little background: I placed all of my cards in one Dominion box. While the idea of having tabbed dividers was appealing, I took a different sort of advice. I put all my kingdom cards in little baggies. Rather than shuffle the randomizer deck and go hunting for specific cards, I just reach into the box and pull out 10 kingdom cards. The upside is that it's pretty quick (though there is the unwrapping portion to contend with). One downside is that I generally put the cards back in the box in chunks, so the cards aren't really randomly drawn. I offset that with scattering my choices, but it's generally a price I'm okay with paying.

The Black Market deck does get kind of weird. I fish around in the box and pull out three bags. If you want one, pull a card out of the bag. This means that the cards don't go to the bottom of the deck. When playing with a Black Market deck of 119 cards, this generally isn't that big of a concern.

But, it's a bit of a pain, and I often veto Black Market just to keep the game running more smoothly. That's just not fair. I wondered if there was a way to play Black Market without relying on the huge store of cards. That's when this idea hit me.

I could use my randomizer cards again. I'd have that stack plus a stack of blank cards. If a Black Market card is purchased, that randomizer card is placed to the side, and a blank card goes into your deck. Naturally, these cards cannot be completely blank, as that would make multiple purchases confusing. The blanks can be numbered, with the randomizer cards sitting off to the side, indicating the number represented (could be with number chits or placement of cards).  At the end of the game, all blank cards go back to that stack, and all randomizer cards go back to its home. No need to put away 20 different kingdom cards.

Though, after having written this out, it still sounds like it's a lot of hassle. Maybe it looks simpler to me because of how my cards are stored, but I'm afraid I don't see that big of an advantage compared to pulling cards out of a box.

So, I guess I've successfully talked myself out of this method, but since I wrote this much, I'm not going to let it go to waste. Are there suggestions on how to make this still work, or is it beyond salvage?

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