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1

Variants and Fan Cards / Number of curses in 3-4 player games

« on: March 14, 2018, 12:38:58 pm »

My play group is thinking about experimenting with a setup of "6 curses per player", rather than the current 10-20-30 model for 3 (6.67 each) and 4 (7.5 each) player games.

This would slightly tone down the junking that can happen, but still allow for each cursing attack to generally hand out a curse to everyone, or no one.  expectancy of 6 per player is still higher than what happens in 2 player games, so it doesn't seem to be crazy to reduce it to that level.

Is there a specific reason that 20-30 plays better than 18-24, that we are just not seeing?

2

Other Games / how to use deckbuilding mechanics with copying dominion: Roborally

« on: March 12, 2018, 11:32:38 am »

I'm a veteran of the original roborally, it's many expansions, and of the reboot. 
If you haven't played, it is a fantastic game of pre-programming robots to run a race course full of traps and lasers and pitfalls...
You try to push and shoot the other racers while trying to avoid the same from them.

It is complicated, and has a barrier to entry due to requiring the players to be able to think 5 steps in advance, and be able to see in their mind what their robot is going to do after they've programmed it...and also anticipate the other player's robots in your planning!

One of the biggest changes from the original to the reboot was a very light deckbuilding theme.  instead of all the players drawing program cards from the same deck, each player has their own deck of 20 cards, and these decks can be junked by your opponents, or improved by buying specialty cards.  This was a huge improvement to the game, because:

1) the junking is roughly half as effective as in the base game, which is good because junking in the first game was VERY harsh, and increased the barrier to entry.
2) it opened design space for purchasing good cards to add to your deck
3) it ensured that everyone would get the best cards in their deck regularly, rather than possibly watching as other players got all the move 3s and you randomly got none.

The game is not a deckbuilder, but it's a phenomenal application of the technology. 

How you guys feel the deckbuilding works in roborally, and also, what other game do you like that have a deckbuilding element without feeling like someone tried to copy or "fix" dominion?

3

Dominion General Discussion / Post Your Fun Kingdoms to Play Vol.2

« on: January 25, 2018, 04:53:29 pm »

Rather than necro the old thread, here is a new one.

post interesting kingdoms that you played.

If you want to comment on a kingdom, feel free but use spoiler tags to keep things spoiler-free for the people to whom that is important.

Type: designed (as opposed to random)
Sets: base, adventures, nocturne







Also, is there a shortcut to creating a post with card images? I navigated to each card on the wiki, clicked the latest card image, then copied the image link.

4

Dominion General Discussion / Quick Questions and Answers

« on: January 02, 2018, 03:36:08 pm »

Rather that ask each of my questions as they come up in a new thread, I have created a thread for fast questions.

Here's the first one...

What kind of deck should you be looking to build when there are plenty of engine components, but adding buys and golds threaten to break the engine?

Had a game that included:
village, lab, throne room, werewolf. 
Bandit was the only gainer. 
Skulk was the only +buy.
There was zero virtual money. 
There was good trashing in the form of sentry.

I tried to build an engine that could handle 6 golds, a skulk, and a few green cards so I could double province...and never once drew my deck after adding that many dead draws (I had zero coppers, zero estates, zero silvers, one cemetery).

5

Dominion General Discussion / How to Win Less...

« on: November 14, 2017, 03:56:17 pm »

I have three different dominion play groups, each of which uses my cards, and doesn't play without me.
What this means is that I play way more than these other players, and am much stronger than most of them, and I am the winner too often.

I think I'm a pretty good game explainer, I have taught games to hundreds of people, and the sharper ones can beat me in their first games sometimes. But it's really tough to not blow out a new player when you have 150+ matches under your belt.

So the question is:
How do I lose more often (without throwing games)(or teaching bad habits)?

I've tried creating very simple kingdoms.

I've tried breaking down the interesting combos in the kingdom to build awareness of things they might miss, but then I find that I build with much better efficiency and timing, and that I am better at trashing, and I still crush them.

I've tried building unfocused decks that don't go all in on the clear best strategy.

Many of these gamers are better than me at every other game we play, and literally the only thing holding them back is the weight of inexperience.  It is not uncommon for one of them to realize the best strategy before I do, but then to fall behind because they make mistakes in assembling it.

Help!  I don't want them to get tired of the game before they catch up.  I want it to be fun.  I want the games to be close.
Is there a way to handicap myself without obviously handicapping myself? 

6

Dominion General Discussion / How do YOU pick interesting kingdoms?

« on: September 19, 2017, 04:42:14 pm »

It seems the potential for finding great boards is limitless....once you have all the sets.  But with only 5 expansions, the reddit KOTW, dominionkingdoms.com, and other sources for kingdoms are unhelpful.

So I use my jack of all dominion app, and heavily curate what comes up until it can hardly be called random anymore.  My kingdoms play substantially similar to each other and I'm looking to branch out.

Do you guys go full random? 

Or do you have tips for making interesting and diverse boards?

I'd love to see some examples of your process as well.

7

Dominion General Discussion / Favorite Thematic Cards (part 2)

« on: September 18, 2017, 04:11:50 pm »

Rather than necro a 6 year old favor thread (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=919.0), how about a new one?

To mix things up, how about the cards/combos whose flavor is delightfully wonky, compared to the ones that are home runs?

So not Peasant, that tells a clear and interesting life story, or how young witch is unwilling to follow you into a chapel.

More like Salt the Earth, that shows you destroying one small part of the world so no one else can have it...and yet feeling some small amount of satisfaction as a result! 

I love the idea of a monarch that doesn't want MORE money, he just wants more than his peers!  And the fastest way to do that is to get ahead, and then destroy everything else.

But far and away my favorite wonky flavor card is Magpie.  It conjures the image of a crazy old man hiding up in his keep, wondering how the kings around him have gotten more powerful by building smithies and villages and markets.  He has an army of magpies!  why isn't he the most powerful man around with the obviously superior strategy of sending out birds to find money and bring it back?!

But then it turns out if he Trains the army of magpies, so that they bring even more money back, he can become the most powerful man around.  the crazy old geezer was right! he just needed to push harder than anyone else would have, and suddenly he appears to be forward thinking

What cards do you guys like for the mental gymnastics you have to do to make sense of them?