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226

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Cards That Combo With Tunnel Reaction

« on: November 13, 2011, 12:35:38 pm »

I had a game recently where Tunnel was the Bane card for Young Witch. It was... completely scripted. One of those rare instances where I really wished I was 2nd player so that the other guy (20 levels below me) wouldn't have the opportunity to mirror me upon realizing how completely obvious my opening Tunnel buy was. Though on the plus side I did still win

That's pretty bad luck for you opponent.  Through 9 turns, you've done basically the exact same thing and have almost identical decks, except you've got 6 more golds.

227

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Veto strategy

« on: November 12, 2011, 12:21:25 am »

I have two veto priorities. 

1st - cards I just dislike.  I don't find Possession games remotely fun, for example.  I really dislike Saboteur.  I don't enjoy the strategy of Tournament.  And so on.  This has a lot to do with swinginess, but it's not necessarily that.  I dislike Gardens rushes, so I'll veto those but it's not a top priority if there are engine alternatives that stand a chance to beat it.

2nd - cards that are likely to be dominant, which will control the board.  Mountebank is boring because you basically have to go for it.  Familiar is the same.  It's not just the cursing cards, though.  I veto Envoy, too, if it's clearly going to be dominant. 

The cards that straddle these two categories are the really bad ones.  Ambassador games are boring, and if it's there you almost have to go for it. 

On the other hand, dominant cards aren't necessarily bad.  It has to do with the way they force strategies to conform to them.  Fishing Village is an extremely powerful card that doesn't by itself force any particular strategy, so I really enjoy it.  Minion, on the other hand, more or less obligates you to play it.  That's what I don't enjoy.

228

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Grand it up!

« on: November 07, 2011, 05:12:53 pm »

Grand Archivist would be interesting. Maybe push the drawing to 7 and discarding to 2 or more in addition to the +$2? It would be like a Minion without the attack, but with stronger drawing.

Grand Archives is one of my favorite bands!

229

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Ill-Gotten Gains + Counting House

« on: November 07, 2011, 05:10:08 pm »

Rushing Ill Gotten Gains produces a weird situation where it's actually pretty easy to get a Province in the early/mid game, and very difficult to get one later.  Before you blow them up to get coppers, you have a decent chance of drawing two or three of them together.  In which case, you can treat them as silvers and get to $8.  Once you dilute your hand with coppers (and curses from the other player), it's very difficult to make it to 8.

Counting House might actually be pretty useful in those circumstances.  Unless it's at the very top of your stack, every time you draw it, you're likely to get a Province.  That's worth two Duchies.  So if the opportunity cost is losing a Duchy to buy a Counting House, if you can successfully play it twice you're way ahead. 

The question is whether you'll actually get to it twice, I guess. 

230

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Create a card inspired by another game

« on: November 07, 2011, 04:26:02 am »

Consult NATO


Victory-Reaction, $6
+2 VP
When an opponent gains a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, the United States Federal Government enters into binding consultation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the subject of your opponent gaining the card, and he gains the card if and only if NATO agrees.

LOL.

231

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: November 06, 2011, 07:39:39 pm »

It's a game. It's satisfying to actually play games out to conclusion.  It's not just about winning; it's about the process of playing. 

I see people tip their king over in chess all the time instead of playing their game to completion when they know they're going to lose.  I don't play competitive chess, but I'm guessing it would be considered rude to keep playing instead of resigning when it's obvious your opponent is going to beat you.

but then, to many people, chess is all about winning and improving your rank...huh

Sure.  Again, my point was not that resigning is itself the problem.  I just get annoyed when people can't be bothered to mention that they're doing so.  It's just a simple courtesy that communicates the basic message: 'hey, you may be getting some fun out of this, or are learning something about endgames with a big engine, but it's pretty dull on my side so I'm going to check out.'

EDIT: I think the corollary here is that it's a bit rude to keep running out the game to maximize points when you can simply end it on piles or something.  But I would have no problem with someone just saying they would like to play it to the conclusion.  It's the acknowledgement more than the act itself that matters.

232

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: November 06, 2011, 12:39:18 pm »

Why do they need to do this? I mean, I obviously have no problem with doing this, I just don't understand why it would be necessary.

Because you're playing the game with another human being.  I don't know, this just seems obvious to me. 

It's a game. It's satisfying to actually play games out to conclusion.  It's not just about winning; it's about the process of playing.  Which, as I said, doesn't mean that quitting is in and of itself terrible.  I completely agree that it can be frustrating to just sit there while someone racks up a 50 point lead.  I just think if you're going to leave, it's nice to acknowledge this.  It's obviously not the worst thing in the world, but it does seem like the modestly civil thing to do.

I mean, if you were playing face to face with your friends, you wouldn't just get up and leave in the middle of the game.  You would say "man, I am losing.  Let's just call it a game" or something.

233

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?

« on: November 06, 2011, 04:40:53 am »

The major change I've noticed over the last couple weeks is the number of people who just resign once they start losing.  Now, I don't have a problem with that in the abstract.  I've certainly resigned once or twice.  But it seems like it's only good form to say something before you do it.  How hard is it to type: "Way behind, not going to catch up, gg"?

234

Dominion Articles / Re: Highway cost interactions

« on: November 04, 2011, 06:15:33 pm »

Pure Big Money, with absolutely no other cards at all, can get you 8 provinces by turn 26. 

235

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Etiquette question, and learning options

« on: November 04, 2011, 04:52:45 pm »

2)  I'd like to hear from high rated players on how they decide whether to accept a proposed game. The few times I've proposed games with players rated higher than 30, they've not accepted.  I seem to remember reading that playing against unregistered players means the game won't count towards your rating.  Perhaps that is the problem, but I'd like to play against the 20's and 30's of the world at some point, because I improve by playing with and against people better than me (although that may be everybody at the moment, so the point may be moot).  Which leads me to...

I never play with unrated people.  It's not even really anything to do with the game counting toward the rating directly.  It's simply that unrated folks, as a class, have less invested.  So you're more likely to get people who are screwing around or not taking the game seriously.  I prefer to play with people with something at stake. 

Obviously, that criticism is general and doesn't seem to apply to you.  But registering is so easy that it just makes sense to do it.  It seems like you've already made that decision, so welcome to the world of registered games!

236

Game Reports / Re: Farmland/Highway fun

« on: November 03, 2011, 02:35:25 pm »

I think that highway is a massive, massive trap card. Actually, I plan on writing a series of articles on trap cards soon, and it's probably going to get its own full article.

That would be very interesting to read.  I think there are actually a lot of different types of traps.  The obvious ones, of course.  But for me, some of the biggest traps are solid cards that I treat like they're great.

I often base my whole strategy on winning the race to the Laboratories, even when there's a better combo available.  I often buy mediocre trashers early, regardless of whether it is actually crucial to my long-term strategies.  In that vein, Moneylender is a huge trap card for me.  It's rarely *wrong* in a definitive sense, but it often is a poor crutch.  At the extreme level, even great cards can be traps.  Chapel, for example, which I pretty much open with instinctively.  It's good enough that it can still work, but being a little more risky would often be worth it.

237

Game Reports / Re: less than obvious Hinterlands Synergies

« on: October 26, 2011, 05:59:08 pm »

Yeah, jack of all trades is a great card overall.  It combos with lots of things. JoAT + fishing villages? Yes please. You may need to add silvers to your deck, but the draw effect and the extra cash is well worth it in a province game.

Just tested out a solo game with Jack and Fishing Village.  The board also had Wharf and Bridge.  Result: I had all 8 provinces and several duchies by turn 14.  Obviously that relies on not having to compete with someone to get all the fishing villages.  But still: wow, that's pretty fast.

238

Dominion Articles / Re: Crossroads

« on: October 26, 2011, 05:33:58 pm »

I posted this to the front page, since I thought the article was outstanding.

(I do still read the forum.  I've been torn lately over whether I should try to keep up the blog if I can only write articles sporadically, now that I'm employed and not just in school.)

I think people would be happy with the occasional post - and the occasional promoting of good posts from the forums.  It doesn't need to be comprehensive to still be incredibly worthwhile.

239

Dominion General Discussion / Re: [spoiler] Full Hinterlands card list

« on: October 25, 2011, 06:41:00 pm »

Talking as the game winds down is great.  I'm often very impressed with how productive and fun that can be.  For a random game, played with people that you'll never meet and may never even play again on Isotropic, it's a pretty friendly community. 

The worst was today when I was playing someone who a) started out buying a bunch of villages, b) waited until turn 6 or something to buy a chapel, and c) was consistently using his pawns as simple cantrips even though he had tons of extra actions from all his villages.  I tried to helpfully point out that this was suboptimal strategy.  And then promptly lost.  Doh!

240

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How does/will Hinterlands affect the overall Dominion game environment?

« on: October 19, 2011, 05:22:25 pm »

What do you all think? Any other major trends you see stemming from Hinterlands?

Games take forever, with the endless re-shuffling of hands, drawing cards and discarding them, forcing your opponent to draw and then discard, etc.

I almost can't imagine playing Hinterlands in real life, with all the complex interactions.

241

Dominion General Discussion / Re: [spoiler] Full Hinterlands card list

« on: October 19, 2011, 10:39:11 am »

Is Oasis/JoAT a subtle supercombo?  It may have been perfect shuffle luck but damn, this simple deck produced 4 P's by turn 11, and 6 by 14.

Jack of All Trades is actually a surprisingly strong card.  It counters discard and curse attacks, it creates money, and it trashes the first three estates quickly.  It's probably the newsness still talking, but I think I would buy one over every other $4 except Remake.

Like any "draw up to" card, it combos well with discarders (Inn, Oasis, Hamlet, Warehouse).

Jack of All Trades seems like a card that's great to have one of but absolute death to get two or more.  It's a nice early game enabler, but by the mid or end-game it's a pretty big drag.  It adds silver to the deck which can disrupt your ability to draw the whole deck, once it's wiped out the estates it doesn't trash anything else, and drawing back to five is often not that helpful.

It's a good and useful card - but I think you need to be in a game where all the various talents have some utility for it to be a strong purchase.  If you're getting it just for the trashing, the other trashers are better.  If you really want silver, you can just buy silver.  If you want to draw cards, any card that just lets you draw two is usually going to be better.  It's only when the talents synergize that it becomes great.

242

Dominion General Discussion / Re: [spoiler] Full Hinterlands card list

« on: October 18, 2011, 01:42:04 am »

Having played a few games with the new cards, my main comment is that they make games take FOREVER.  I like the concepts of a lot of them, but any game that's got more than one or two of them drags on for like an hour.

They're great at producing complex interactions, but do so in a way that doesn't tend to produce killer hands.