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26

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 17, 2012, 09:41:06 pm »

7 games seems fine to me.

If you want to know who is currently the 'best' you can just look at the top of the leaderboard.  We play the tournament because it's fun, not because it tells us the Truth.  Which is to say: there SHOULD be some upsets, so trying to wash them all out is pointless.

In order to win the tournament, you have to be good.  But in order to win, you also have to be lucky.  That's true whether you're really the best, or whether you're merely one of the 15-20 best (like I was last year). 

27

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 17, 2012, 08:11:26 pm »

Small-sample size.  In several ways.  First, Dominion has a lot of luck in it.  Seven games isn't enough to wash that out, so you'll always see some 'upsets' that are more about card distribution than anything else.  Second (and more importantly), it's a small tournament. A couple big upsets (Me, RJ, Marin) will make things seem really wacky, but don't ultimately mean a whole lot.  We are primed to look for interesting results, so we ascribe more significance to the upsets.  Have there really been a bunch more upsets this year compared to last?

I bet once it's all done, the number of upsets won't seem ALL that far out of line with expected results.

Oh, and I bet that a fair number of lower-ranked players could be 5-10 levels better if they really focused.  Tournament games inspire that focus. 

28

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 14, 2012, 11:44:50 am »

RisingJaguar is out.  Seems like Round 2 is where all the upsets are.

Alright, I'm officially scared.

Games tomorrow morning for me.  We'll see if there's another upset...

And about that...

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5688.msg154819#msg154819

29

2012 / Re: Witch Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 14, 2012, 11:44:23 am »

Will post a more complete version of this later, since I have to run.  But in round 2, olneyce got crushed by randomname 4-1

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-081157-ac76ad10.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-082238-5ee7a73b.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-083049-02716f08.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-083415-adaf115b.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-084018-c587161e.html

It was a combination of bad luck, stupid play, and randomname making almost no mistakes.

Good luck to randomname, who now needs to go on and win the thing!

30

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 14, 2012, 12:18:12 am »

RisingJaguar is out.  Seems like Round 2 is where all the upsets are.

Alright, I'm officially scared.

Games tomorrow morning for me.  We'll see if there's another upset...

31

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 10, 2012, 03:12:47 am »

Uh, First got knocked out in the Chapel division. That's gotta be like a MASSIVE upset.

Yeah, wow.

By far the closest I came to getting knocked out last year was playing against First.  He, if not for a very stupid and totally avoidable mistake on his part, would have taken me out.  Great player.

Though mith is a much much better player than the rankings would suggest, so there's some bad luck there, too.

32

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Math in Dominion

« on: December 06, 2012, 11:28:11 pm »

I study political theory, and the last math class I took was Algebra II (which I was terrible at) in 1997.

So, exception to the rule...?

33

2012 / Re: Witch Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 06, 2012, 07:16:24 pm »

Round 1: olneyce (1 seed) vs. blitzcat (64 seed)

olneyce wins 4-0.

Game 1: olneyce 45 – 14 blitzcat
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/06/game-20121206-152531-c46a602e.html
Key cards: Bridge, Bazaar, Forge, Courtyard, Envoy
We both opened Bazaar/Courtyard, but after that blitzcat started buying Bridges, while I tried to build toward a Forge as quickly as possible.  Once I culled my deck, I was playing triple and quadruple Bridge hands by turn 12.

Game 2: blitzcat 27 - 29 olneyce
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/06/game-20121206-153417-ee413955.html
Key cards: Trading Post, Militia, Treasure Map
He went for maps and it almost worked.  I think he made a mistake in not going for Havens to supplement the maps.  Meanwhile, I futzed around for a while but basically played Militia-Big-Money.  I bought a Trading Post on turn 4, which was probably a mistake.  That gave me three terminals out of 14 cards – and it convinced me to buy Walled Villages to supplement them.  All of which was probably a distraction.  In the end I got 4 Provinces and a Duchy in 20 turns without getting attacked much.  Which is not very good.

Game 3: blitzcat 40 - 65 olneyce
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/06/game-20121206-154343-9641fafc.html
Key cards: Trader, Gardens
I went for the Trader/Gardens semi-rush.  All the other cards were terrible, so there wasn’t much else to do.  Blitzcat fought me a bit for the Gardens but I still got 6 of them.  The game ended on piles with Silver, Gardens, and Harem running out.

Game 4: blitzcat 16 - 36 olneyce
Key cards: Mining Village, Torturer, Scheme, Develop, Menagerie
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/06/game-20121206-160004-5eb62e07.html
Menagerie is a nice counter to Torturer and I kind of considered trying to build a straight Menagerie engine.  But my early hands I had the turns to let me build a Torturer one. So that's what I did.  Develop was moderately useful here, both to clean out the Estates (and Curses if I got hit by a Torturer), but also to top-deck valuable $3 cards for the next turn.  Scheme+Torturer when you can draw the whole deck is pretty devastating. 

Thanks to blitzcat for the games!

34

Dominion General Discussion / Re: olneyce's strategy

« on: November 30, 2012, 07:31:39 pm »

But yeah, that wasn't intended to be the 'correct' answer to how people should play the game.  It was a question for advice to give to a newbie.

I'm definitely thankful for your advice... I realize that it's just a simplified rule of thumb, but it made me realize that I need to not forget about money!  There have even been games lately where I've opened with double Silvers!   

One question for you:  what did you mean by "good trashing" vs "bad trashing"?  Is Mine considered bad trashing?

Mine, Island, Remodel.  Stuff like that.  Cards that really do serve a useful purpose, but will tend to be overrated if you become obsessed with lean/mean decks after playing a couple Chapel games and don't realize how important it is to trash a LOT and quickly.  So good trashing means Chapel, Steward, Remake, Trading Post if you have a 5/2.

I didn't really mean stuff like Transmute or Develop.  The best Transmute advice I could give to new players is "never buy a Transmute."

35

Dominion General Discussion / Re: olneyce's strategy

« on: November 30, 2012, 05:21:13 pm »

When planning your strategy: cursers > money > good trashing > +card > +buy > bad trashing > +action. Obviously, things get more complex than this, and it often depends, but when you’re starting out you should plan things with this equation in mind.

I suppose that if you're asked in one sentence "how do you play dominion?" then this is the sort of answer you might give, but it isn't particularly good tuition for anyone learning the game. Cards should be considered within the kingdom rather than on their own.  As an example, workshop+gardens will probably beat a couple of opponents who play witch+chapel against you. The one sentence guide tells you nothing about that whatsover.

So I maybe should have said 'get better at the game and it all pretty much depends on the board.'  But I'm not sure that would really be very interesting.

Looking back at some of the things I said in that interview, I feel like I understand the game much MUCH better now.  So I would probably restructure the advice a bit.

But yeah, that wasn't intended to be the 'correct' answer to how people should play the game.  It was a question for advice to give to a newbie.  And I think it's perfectly reasonable to encourage newbies to be very skeptical about +actions when scanning the board.  But it's of course correct that +actions are not the WORST thing.  For instance, bad trashing is worse

36

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Best Dominion Cards List 2012 Ed.2: $5 cards

« on: July 30, 2012, 06:43:30 pm »

Like others, I mostly agree.  These are the same 13 cards I have at the bottom.  None of them are good, but some are slightly better/worse than the consensus. 

I would take Stash/Explorer about 4-5 slots higher.  They're not good, but more useful than some of the others.  Mine is also too low.  By itself, it's a terrible terminal but it integrates with a fair number of engine-ish decks.   Mandarin, on the other hand, is too high.  It's a terrible terrible card.

Other than that, good job crowd!

37

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Best Dominion Cards List 2012 Ed.2: $4 cards - Part 3/3 posted

« on: July 25, 2012, 10:49:36 am »

1. Sea Hag
2. Tournament
3. Jack of all Trades
4. Remake
5. Young Witch
6. Caravan
7. Militia
8. Monument
9. Salvager
10. Bridge

I'm willing to consider the possibility that I'm overrating Bridge, but I feel pretty good about the top 9.  Maybe Caravan should be 8 or something, but that's getting out into the weeds of precision.

Baron is a good card and I had it at #6 or #7 the first time we did these lists.  I was wrong.  It's a good card but it's NOT a great card.

38

Dominion Isotropic / Re: The point counter/game tracker

« on: July 20, 2012, 02:09:52 pm »

Hmmm, I guess that works.

The problem is that I know that are a ton of great players who I enjoy playing with that use the simple point counter and/or allow disabling.  I don't want to restrict myself from playing them.  And I have no problem whatsoever with the simple point counter - I don't use it myself, but I enjoy games just fine when it's involved.

But for the sake of not playing against the super-tracker, I guess I'll just be banning the counter entirely.  Seems like an unfortunate situation.

39

Dominion Isotropic / The point counter/game tracker

« on: July 20, 2012, 01:55:43 pm »

Alright, I know this is a touchy subject, but here we go again...

I have encountered quite a few players recently who use the extensive version of the point tracker AND who disallow their opponent from disabling.  Maybe the prevalence hasn't increased and I'm only now noticing this because I now understand just how much of an advantage it provides to the player running the tracker vs. their opponent. But regardless, it seems like a problem.

My understanding is that this has been clearly labeled a variant - and thus unacceptable unless all players agree to it. 

Is there any way to stop people from preventing disabling?  Shouldn't that element be built into the add-on?

It is seriously reducing my desire to play Dominion.

40

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Attention-whoring thread.... I did it!!

« on: July 15, 2012, 10:14:59 am »

Up to Level 47 for the first time.  In many previous periods, that would have made me comfortably #1.  Instead, I'm still looking up several levels at Marin, Obi Wan, RisingJaguar, and Stef. 

And, actually, WanderingWinder, too.

But still, go me!

41

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Best Dominion Cards List 2012 Ed.2: $3 cards

« on: July 10, 2012, 05:41:03 pm »

Fishing villages : the best $3 for me, as it is a good buy in every game, far better than ambassador.
Masquerade : Very fun to play, but only in 2 players, and there are some games it isn't that interesting if you can trash by yourself. But if you've reducing handsize attacks, if you know before drawing two cards which one you'll pass... what's the matter ? No one ^^ deserves good rank, though !
Ambassador : Sorry to tell it, but I think it leads to boring games : "I return two estates, one gets to you" "thanks, here is another for you" etc... where are trashers, with those estates/coppers not disturbing anymore ? I'd rather buy steward/chapel !!! But it is truly a "strong" card...

It seems like you're putting what you enjoy above what is actually objectively best.

I personally LOVE Ambassador games, because they reward strategy a great deal.  But setting all that aside...

Ambassador is much, much better than Fishing Village.  Ambassador is very often better than Chapel, too.  I've won a few games in the last couple days going for Ambassador against a Chapel-ing opponent.  If there is a reasonably cheap village and/or a potentially useful $2 card on the board, Ambassador is FAR superior to Chapel. 

The net shift in cards with Chapel is one more - if you actually use it to trash all 4 cards.  But with Ambassador you can swing 3 cards AND buy something. Or, with a village, you can swing just as many cards as Chapel by removing two and sending two to your opponent.

42

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Best Dominion Cards List 2012 Ed.2: $3 cards

« on: July 10, 2012, 01:40:01 pm »

All looks pretty reasonable.  I'm not a big fan of Tunnel, but even so that just means I had it a couple slots lower.  I'd certainly put Watchtower higher, and probably Oracle.

I am big on Villages, so I think that's perfectly reasonably placed.

I think Menagerie might be better than Fishing Village, but that's only a minor quibble. 

43

Council Room Feedback / Re: Can someone explain what's going on here?

« on: June 26, 2012, 01:58:35 pm »

Pretty sure tat isn't a dude.  Might be wrong, though.

44

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Attention-whoring thread.... I did it!!

« on: June 17, 2012, 09:01:56 pm »

Yup Stef has been crushing the old rank/skill records.

not to take anything at all away from -Stef-'s great play, but skill/rank will creep up over time due to the nature of TrueSkill's formulas.

There's some truth to that.  Looking back at the leaderboard from, say, last September, the highest ranked player (non-cheating division) is chwhite at level 43. 

However, even as recently as April of this year, a level 46 would put you at #1.  It's hard to argue that a jump of 7 levels at the top has all that much to do with TrueSkill creep.

45

General Discussion / Re: Euro 2012

« on: June 17, 2012, 02:18:45 am »

Is that anything like strenuously objecting?

Oh yes.  I've found that strenuous disagreement is precisely as effective in internet posts as it is in the court of law.

46

General Discussion / Re: Euro 2012

« on: June 17, 2012, 12:15:11 am »

Greece being in the quarterfinals is just awesome, for obvious reasons. I wasn't really invested in them until now, but I really want them to go farther now, even though/partly because it's extremely unlikely.

Strenuously disagree.  They're probably my least favorite team in world football.

47

Dominion Isotropic / Re: AFK etiquette

« on: June 16, 2012, 03:09:42 pm »

It cannot give you any more first player advantage than you'd get by not closing the window.

Oh, interesting.  I thought the two pools were (won last game) and (lost last game + new session), but the new session folks go in with the winners?

48

Dominion Isotropic / AFK etiquette

« on: June 16, 2012, 02:57:07 pm »

Not a big deal, but just wondering what people think:

I tend to play Dominion a lot when I'm doing other things.  Grading papers, reading, etc.  I use Dominion as a 10 minute break here or there during the day.  Because of this, I often play a game and then just sit in the lobby for a while until I come back to play another.

I have a lot of games proposed against me.  Often from folks like WanderingWinder who want a game against the highest-ranked person available.  But often from other folks, too.  I always accept proposed games when I'm ready to play a game, and always decline if I notice that it was proposed and I'm not ready to play.  But when I don't have the Isotropic window open, I'm sure I miss a lot of the challenges.  Is it bad form to sit in the lobby indefinitely and time out on these proposed games?  Is it bad form to sit in the lobby and decline games when I'm not in the mood to play? 

I should probably just close the window and only re-open when I want to play, right?  The only thing there that I feel slightly bad about is that it will disproportionately give me first-player advantage, by closing the session after wins fairly regularly.

49

Dominion General Discussion / Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): Your Favourite Cards

« on: June 15, 2012, 08:49:28 pm »

Laboratory is totally the weirdest slot-taker here. It's no power slouch, sure, but it's outclassed by a ton of other more interesting, deserving cards and blown away by Hunting Party most of the time. It's about as Ann as the nose on Plain's face.

I ranked Lab pretty high. I agree it's less powerful than Hunting Party, but that's part of why it's more fun.  Hunting Party games are stupid and dull.  It's not an engine - it's just HP+Silver+Gold+one terminal.  Rinse and repeat.  Those games bore me to tears.

Lab, on the other hand, because it's a bit less powerful, is simply a good card in many many games.  It helps to enable a lot of different strategies.  And it almost never hurts you.  Maybe that's damning with faint praise, but there aren't too many cards in the game like that.

50

General Discussion / Re: Euro 2012

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:16:17 pm »

http://www.heartachewithhardwork.com/2012/06/euro-2012-reflections-after-the-first-eight-days.html

My thoughts on the tournament so far.