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4501

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 13, 2011, 04:23:09 pm »

I just don't understand this. Alchemist is too slow to beat straight BM, I can't imagine KC or any of the other cards there are going to help it THAT much, and double jack is just so FAST.

The embargo kills it, but you can make a reasonable deck from alchemist/warehouse using spice trader for trashing with king's court festivals to finish. Warehouse + spice trader seem well suited generally.

Yeah, these were my thoughts. I actually dislike alchemist and think it's generally not very good, but I figured that with KC and festivals I'd have a reasonable chance of catching up and I didn't really want to play BM.

Looking at that board I thought it was an ideal Jack board. Elyv managed to overtake ScottPilgrim by buying cards that complimented Jacks (Festivals and Warehouses) while ScottPilgrim was buying Silvers when he should have bought a second Jack, (and maybe probably a second Warehouse.)
[edit: woops looked at the game log again, SP did buy a second Jack, but he should have been buying more Warehouses instead of Silvers.]

If I were playing this board I would have opened Jack/Warehouse, buying another Jack on the next $4, and Warehouses on $4s and $3s after that (so you can ditch Coppers and replace them with Silver). Buying Festivals on $5 (because they reduce handsize while improving your hand), then just cruise through. I played it solitaire a few times and on good games I was hitting my fourth Province on turn 10, on bad ones I was hitting it at 14.

4502

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Greatest Isotropic Moments of 2011

« on: December 13, 2011, 02:59:15 pm »

I call this the tie to end all ties: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111007-174917-ee4f9c5c.html

#1 Robz888: 45 points (3 Provinces, 4 Duchies, 4 Harems, 4 Great Halls, and 3 Estates); 24 turns
         opening: Bazaar / nothing
         [40 cards] 4 Great Halls, 4 Harems, 3 Hoards, 2 Bazaars, 1 Envoy, 1 Moneylender, 2 Coppers, 1 Silver, 12 Golds, 3 Estates, 4 Duchies, 3 Provinces

#1 rakovsky: 45 points (3 Provinces, 4 Duchies, 4 Harems, 4 Great Halls, and 3 Estates); 24 turns
          opening: Bazaar / nothing
          [40 cards] 4 Great Halls, 4 Harems, 3 Hoards, 2 Bazaars, 1 Envoy, 1 Moneylender, 2 Coppers, 1 Silver, 12 Golds, 3 Estates, 4 Duchies, 3 Provinces

Now that's a mirror match.

4503

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 11, 2011, 02:47:25 pm »

Exclams (aka !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) beat me 4-3 last night in a really good set of games. He should have the logs up soon.

4504

2011 / Re: Nomad Camp: a place for people to find their opponents

« on: December 06, 2011, 10:21:29 pm »

I remember that someone on the forum was friends with Exclams (isotropic username: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). If you see this could you let him know I'm trying to get in touch with him to setup our Round 2 match?

Thanks!

4505

Rules Questions / Re: Tacticians, Golem, +Action Drawer

« on: December 06, 2011, 05:27:50 pm »

Ah good to know. Though it seems likely that it would take so long to set this up that you'd end up horribly behind if you ever attempted to play it against someone (and on top of that you'd likely have not enough Coins in your deck to take advantage of the turn as none of those cards give you any money).

4506

Rules Questions / Tacticians, Golem, +Action Drawer

« on: December 05, 2011, 07:25:03 pm »

Let's say hypothetically you have a couple Tacticians in your deck and a Golem. At the start of your turn you play the Golem and hit a Tactician and for the sake of argument a Laboratory. You play the Tactician first discarding your current hand and then the Laboratory drawing your other Tactician and a Copper. You then play the second Tactician and discard the Copper ending your turn.

On your next turn do you get +10 cards, +2 buys and +2 actions? If that is the case has anyone ever managed to pull something like this off getting themselves a super duper Tactician turn?

4507

Dominion Articles / Re: A Few Combos

« on: December 05, 2011, 03:42:27 pm »

Simulations indicate that Amb/Amb (not going for Familiar at all) is slightly better than Potion/Amb. But that's the simple case with just money. The Amb/Amb player will mostly get his economy on the way very quickly while the Familiar player tries to catch up (which he very often will). Luck will play a large roll in this matchup: colliding Ambassadors, getting 2 Curses together with Amb and of course the Familiar player hitting $2P...

But also the sim doesn't optimally ambassador stuff away, whereas it's much closer to playing familiar correctly.

If that's the case then double Amb is actually probably much stronger than Familiar based on Geronimoo's simulation.

4508

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 05, 2011, 12:25:29 am »

In the Garden Division I, Jorbles (25) beat noon (41) in a squeaker 1-point three-pile ending to win a 4-3 match. Really great games, that guy is a great player.

game 1 Jorbles 37 - noon 25
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-200517-1bde0c59.html
game 2 Jorbles 27 - noon 30
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-201521-1a89a073.html
game 3 Jorbles 59 - noon 66
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-202726-3527eac9.html
game 4 Jorbles 61 - noon 53
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-203620-9fabdb3a.html
game 5 Jorbles 46 - noon 50
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-204354-bd318817.html
game 6 Jorbles 22 - noon 7
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-205842-c183b927.html
game 7 Jorbles 52 - noon 51
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/04/game-20111204-211537-aa12e3b5.html

4509

Game Reports / Re: Why Cartographer is awesome

« on: December 02, 2011, 06:02:01 pm »

That is a pretty beautiful final turn. KCing a Cartographer basically lets you set up whatever engine you want.

4510

Game Reports / Re: Stables vs. Alchemist vs. Scrying Pool

« on: December 01, 2011, 02:51:54 pm »

I don't really see why a Scrying Pool strategy would be hindered by Alchemists, they're both actions and the goal of each is heavy drawing, plus they'd both be strong in an action heavy deck. The Scrying Pool attack isn't so great that I'd rather have it than an Alchemist.

4511

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Expansion- Justice and Piety

« on: November 29, 2011, 06:37:57 pm »

I don't think Bounty Hunter is a very well designed attack. It essentially counters itself; the net effect is that players won't get it for fear of it getting discarded from their hands, and the player who did get it paid $4 for a terminal Silver.

Could be better if it made opponents discard ALL attacks from their hands, it would be of little use on its own, but it would be an effective counter to attack heavy strategies, which would give it a purpose.

4512

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Expansion- Justice and Piety

« on: November 29, 2011, 06:28:16 pm »

Some of these cards have really neat mechanics, I really like Altar, Raiders and Bounty Hunter, however some of these cards seem kinda whacky. I don't like cards that can prolong the game or mess with the trash so I'm not a big fan of Beggar (which even if you do like those things seems way underpriced at $2). Guild Hall seems like you could create an infinite stalemate with it by Guild Halling every pile faster than your opponent can remove them (with KC or TR or just a lot of actions), which is problematic (and boring).

Inquisition is an interesting card, but it doesn't seem very fun. Either you buy it and your opponent doesn't and you get to be mean to your opponent or you both buy it and you spend the game bouncing it back and forth. It just seems like it would make the game less fun.

4513

Game Reports / Stables vs. Alchemist vs. Scrying Pool

« on: November 29, 2011, 01:38:09 pm »

Lost this game by a point, but I thought the board was interesting enough to talk about.

game link

Alchemist, Fairgrounds, Feast, Forge, Pawn, Potion, Scrying Pool, Spice Merchant, Stables, Stash, and Steward

We had an asymmetrical start with me getting 5/2 and SadHolandaPanda getting 4/3. When I had initially seen the board I was considering playing a Alchemist/Scrying Pool hybrid strategy, but after getting the 5/2 start, I figured I'd be at a disadvantage if I didn't try something that involved a $5 card so I ended up opening Stables/Pawn and SadHolandaPanda opened Steward/Potion which I would likely have opened if I hadn't gotten 5/2.

I bought a second Stables and a Steward to start trashing with. I ended up using the Steward for the +$2 a little more than I thought I would once the game got going using it to try rushing the provinces hoping for a 5/3 Province split, especially once I saw that SadHolandaPanda was going for a pure Scrying Pool deck, which I figured would be a stronger end game engine.

I broke the PPR hoping to hit the 5/3 split and ended up barely losing on a 4/4 split when I missed the fifth Province and had to settle for a Duchy.

Questions I wanted to throw out there, if I'd had a 4/3 split, would an Alchemist/Scrying Pool hybrid strategy have been more effective than a pure Scrying Pool?
With the 5/2 split is a Stables engine my best strategy here? If I did it again I probably would have done the same thing, but picked up an extra Silver when given the opportunity instead of trashing Coppers and taking a Pawn. (As I did on turn 5). The Coppers aren't too bad when you need to discard them in order to use the Stables effectively.

4514

2011 / Re: Nomad Camp: a place for people to find their opponents

« on: November 29, 2011, 01:13:13 pm »

I changed the thread title to make this a public place for opponents to find each other.

Good idea.

I'll wait to hear from noon for a bit, but I'm going away for the weekend, so I hope he gets in touch soon.

4515

2011 / Re: How to find my opponent "LexiphanicLemur "?

« on: November 29, 2011, 12:22:10 pm »

I haven't had any response from my opponent noon who I've sent a couple PMs. The problem being that noon doesn't have an email posted on the forum. Does anyone know noon and how to get in touch with him/her?

4516

Game Reports / Re: Highway vs. Gardens

« on: November 28, 2011, 07:18:27 pm »

Your engine wasn't bad I mean you did win the game, but that would have been way more successful if you'd had a Village (so you could use multiple Ironworks to gain Provinces after playing all your Highways).

4517

2011 / Re: Prize

« on: November 28, 2011, 06:30:03 pm »

Winner's choice of any expansion?

4518

Game Reports / Re: Bureaucrat? Bureaucrat!

« on: November 28, 2011, 05:02:54 pm »

Who says Bureaucrat can't be used in engine decks?  This is probably my best example, as both the attack and Silver gain are REALLY USEFUL in Chapel games: it forces your opponent to trash slower, and lets you build your economy faster, junking Coppers with impunity and buying engine parts instead of money.  And, of course, Border Village/Rabble is exactly the sort of engine that improves Bureaucrat's attack!

I read this description and thought 'yeah, I had a game very similar to that.'  Turns out I had exactly that game.  It was pretty terrible.  The Bureaucrat basically shut me down.

That game is actually an incredible example of when to use a bureaucrat. I'm going to have to start looking at boards closer when Bureaucrat is out, I usually just treat Bureaucrat boards as 9 card kingdoms, but I'm definitely going to think it through a bit more now.

4519

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Rules

« on: November 28, 2011, 02:16:57 pm »

Regardless of the benefits of identical starting hands vs random starting hands isn't it a little late to bring this up? Some people have already played their matches and been knocked out (and other people will likely play while this is being debated). Changing the rules after it has started seems unkosher regardless of whether it would have changed the outcomes of the games already played. This debate should be for the next tournament, not this one.

4520

Puzzles and Challenges / Most points with no VP chips.

« on: November 25, 2011, 07:29:03 pm »

This puzzle got me thinking. What's the most points you can get in a game without VP chip cards? So no Bishop, Monument, Goons scenarios, but all other Kingdom cards are allowed, including Colonies/Plats, Potions, Black Market (you can stack the Black Market deck also), Young Witch (and Bane), etc. You are playing solitaire and normal endgame conditions apply.

4521

Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Apothecary, Wishing Well, Coppersmith

« on: November 25, 2011, 10:58:04 am »

probably Big Money can beat this fairly easily?

I'm not so sure about that. The above game ended in 16 turns with olneyce hitting his 4th Province on turn 12. Admittedly this is just one game, so it's a small sample, but it seems like a combo that's quick enough to beat big money the majority of the time. If I have time I'll try simulating it later.

4522

Simulation / Re: Improvement on BankWharf

« on: November 24, 2011, 07:32:09 pm »

I think I put the fork in, but I'm not very experienced with github.

4523

Simulation / Re: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web

« on: November 24, 2011, 05:15:27 pm »

Really? Because when I try it, there seems to be no reaction on discards (ie. discarding Tunnels doesn't cause Gold gains, which it should default to).
For example:

Code: [Select]

== VTM's turn 12 ==
VTM plays Silver.
VTM plays Copper.
VTM plays Copper.
VTM plays Venture.
...VTM reveals [Tunnel, Tunnel, Copper].
...VTM discards [Tunnel, Tunnel].
...playing Copper.
Coins: 6, Potions: 0, Buys: 1
VTM buys Venture.
VTM draws 5 cards: [Estate, Venture, Moneylender, Tunnel, Tunnel].
Maybe the trigger for the reaction isn't set up for this kind of discard?

4524

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Leaderboard change

« on: November 24, 2011, 03:18:03 pm »

I agree with many of the opinions posted in this thread so far. For me personally, it was a nice challenge to try and climb the old leaderboard and I like checking it for that reason. With the new system being able to advance will likely become more of a time than a skill challenge to players, which I think is not an improvement.

I also think that the leaderboard is mainly meant to give an idea about the skill of your opponent, in case you never played or heard of him. The new system will not do such a good job of this, unless you and your partner are both really active players. For example, if you look at today's leaderboard, shark_bait is Level 13 and in my opinion he's one of the best players, if you judge it by his success in the two Isodom tournaments. He just doesn't play a lot and with only 22 of his games counting, TrueSkill can't rank him higher.

I think Mergus brings up a really good point here. I care a lot more about the overall skill level of the person I'm playing against than I do about how they've played in the last 30 days. Especially if they've only played a few games in the last 30 days.

4525

Simulation / Re: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web

« on: November 24, 2011, 02:46:36 pm »

I've coded Golem, Farmland, Silk Road, and Tunnel. I still need to implement Tunnel's reaction, and then I'll request a pull. I'll probably do Pearl Diver too, to finish off the "easy" card list.

Was going to say I found a bug in Tunnel, but it seems that it's just not coded yet. (or maybe it is and it just hasn't been moved into the newest build). Anyhow I guess I will have to wait to try my Venture, Tunnel, Moneylender bot (see below). Love the simulator now that I've started playing with it.

Code: [Select]

#VentureTunnelMoneylender
{
 name: 'VTM'
 author: 'Jorbles'
 requires: ['Venture', 'Tunnel', 'Moneylender']
 gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
   "Colony" if my.countInDeck('Platinum') > 0
   "Province" if state.countInSupply('Colony') <= 6 \
              or state.countInSupply('Province') <= 6

   "Duchy" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
   "Estate" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
   "Platinum"
   "Venture" if my.countInDeck('Tunnel') >= 1
   "Gold"
   "Venture"
   "Moneylender" if my.countInDeck('Moneylender') == 0
   "Silver" if my.countInDeck('Silver') < 1
   "Tunnel"
 ]
}