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51

Puzzles and Challenges / A ____ but not a ____ Riddle

« on: February 12, 2012, 06:09:54 pm »

Here are four

A Council Room but not a Governor

An Inn but not a Warehouse

A Throne Room but not a King's Court

Geronimoo but not WanderingWinder

Add your own if you figure it out

52

Game Reports / Triple Mandarin/Duke

« on: February 07, 2012, 11:14:21 am »

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/07/game-20120207-080625-0bc1e91d.html

Develop, Duke, Embargo, Herbalist, Hoard, Lighthouse, Mandarin, Oracle, Talisman, and Woodcutter

I know I didn't play this perfectly, nor did my opponent. Embargo was present and he easily could have put a huge damper on my Duchy rush by embargoing them. But aside from that I have been trying to use Silk Road and Dukes whenever they are on the board. In this situation  it appeared to me that since I started out 5/2 I might be able to use Mandarin to accomplish my goal. I ended up buying 3 Mandarins on my first 3 turns and then using the 5 copper again to buy my first Duchy. I think overall the strategy worked pretty well, I won. But not by much. My opponent had a $7 late that had it been $8 would have put him over the top of me.

Any thoughts on this Triple Mandarin route to Duchy/Duke? I thought it was comparable to Horse Traders. Horse Traders is much stronger but Mandarin had some nice perks being able to put a Mandarin back on top of my deck if I drew two of them together. Would Double Mandarin or Quadruple Mandarin have been better? Triple seemed best to me.

As an aside I think I would have really liked some treasure--I didn't buy any except a copper very late in the game--a silver or two could have opened things up a bit I think

53

Game Reports / Golden Salvager Deck?

« on: January 21, 2012, 11:31:52 am »

I looked to this if this situation had been discussed before in this forum but didn't see it.

A few days ago I accomplished my first Golden Deck with Bishops by accident. (I had read of it before but never accomplished it).  A few games after I came across this deck.

Bazaar, Chapel, Duke, Feast, Margrave, Pawn, Potion, Salvager, Shanty Town, Trader, and Transmute
game log here:  http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120119-163505-b1b03be5.html

My opponent didn't play optimally and neither did I, but I again stumbled into a Golden Deck situation but this time with Salvager.

I opened Salvager and Chapel because I couldn't make up my mind as to which one I liked more and decided to try both. I ended up up buying a silver my first turn because neither of the trashers came up, but ended up trashing it with Salvager on turn 5 to get a Gold. By turn 8 I had trashed everything but a Chapel, a Gold and a Salvager. I trashed the Chapel for the $2 and bought a Margrave, still not really sure what I was doing. Next turn I trashed the Margrave and bought a province with the $5 and gold. Next turn I trashed the province and and bought a province and silver with the $8 and gold. Next turn I did the same. Next turn I did the same but was able to buy a gold instead of a silver.

At turn 13 I had 2 golds, 2 silvers a salvager and a province and my opponent had bought a province making province trashing for gain a little more precarious. I bought another province, as did my opponent, and then the last turn bought another by trashing my gold for a 3 point win.  While it ended close I felt in control the whole time.

I realized that I didn't play optimally and neither did my opponent so I played against my self for a game using the same cards, again I am not the greatest player so this test isn't perfect.


But this time I played the non-Salvager player as if I was just playing a normal chapel strategy. Again Salvager with a small deck was successful with a 12 point win. In this game I bought the Margrave a little earlier and got rid of extra cards a bit later due to shuffle luck but my turn 9 I had a margrave, 2 Golds, a salvager and a silver. The biggest difference between this game and the previous one was that trashing provinces in this game on turns 10 and 13 allowed me to buy double provinces and end the game pretty quick.

After this long post... is this strategy--using chapel and salvager to get a golden deck variant--a viable one against better players or am I just lucky that I tried it out against mediocre players, including myself.

54

Game Reports / Big Money-Lookout

« on: January 12, 2012, 07:31:53 pm »

In this game http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201201/12/game-20120112-162025-a4a4a35a.html

Alchemist, Cartographer, Conspirator, Governor, Harvest, Herbalist, Inn, Laboratory, Lookout, Potion, and Thief

I had no intention of taking the strategy that I did at the end. I figured I would try something similar to my opponent in using Governor to get golds, maybe a lab and if possible some conspirator chains... Mostly I didn't have a great plan going in.  I started 3-4 lookout because I liked the idea of trashing early.

But in turns 5-8 I had 4 straight opportunities to buy gold. I opted to to this instead of Governor each time. The first times I thought, "hey these golds will help me get to Governors faster" and the last two "hey, I already have the golds Governor would get me, so I'll just take another one or two."

In the end I had 4the  Golds along with 5 silvers and started Greening pretty quick. I had read elsewhere that Lookout was bad for Big Money. But in this case the game was over pretty quick--13 turns. Did I luck out in getting those 4 straight golds--I am pretty sure luck was involved, but how much luck?  Or is lookout actually a viable option for big money?

55

Help! / Fool's Gold/Remake or Remodel

« on: January 09, 2012, 09:34:16 pm »

I just played a game that I forgot to copy the log in which Fool's Gold appeared to be the optimal strategy because of the presence of a trashers with both remodel and remake present. In the game I chose remake out of a gut instinct but later wished I had opted for Remodel. I won't tell the final outcome of the game to be consistent with the rules of this board.

Which trasher would be better--I realize other cards may make one more advantageous than the other, but what cards would those be?  I have the Remodel/Remake argument with myself pretty consistently and can normally find a quick decision given the situation. But in this situation I am not too sure, even the council room logs are split with Remodel being the ninth best card to pair with Fool's Gold--the best $4 cost card in fact--while Remake is the twelfth best.

Any thoughts?

56

Dominion General Discussion / Male vs Female Cards

« on: December 31, 2011, 02:08:27 pm »

A while back there was a bit of discussion about female and males cards. I am not trying to make a point, or demand change or equality, but I thought it would be interesting--and there was a major lull at work--to look more into this.

This is what I found.  There are 157 cards in dominion at the moment. 56 of them are male cards--with male characters on them.  44 of these are non attack cards. 12 are attacks. There are 18 female cards. 11 are non-attacks while 7 are attacks. There are also 42 cards without people in the drawings and 41 with people either of both sexes or of a gender that can't be determined.

I took from this that Dominion has a male bias with 35% of all cards being obviously male and a 3:1 ratio to female cards. Furthermore, a higher percentage of female cards are attacking cards than male cards; 38% of female cards are attacks while 21% of male cards are attacks.

Here is the breakdown of the types of cards.  Again, I am not trying to make any sort of argument or criticize the makers of Dominion. I love it. My wife loves it. I just wanted to show that there fewer female cards than male, which for the time period Dominion is supposed to represent may be appropriate.

Male: 44
Chancellor
Mine
Moneylender
Smithy
Woodcutter
Alchemist
Apothecary
Apprentice
Golem
Transmute
Baron
Conspirator
Duke
Masquerade
Nobles
Pawn
Scout
Shanty Town
Steward
Counting House
King's Court - this card has both sexes in the picture but it is a king's court, not a queen's court
Loan
Mint
Venture
Bazaar
Fishing Village
Navigator
Pearl Diver
Salvager
Smugglers
Tactician
Horse Traders
Hunting Party
Tournament
Cartographer
Develop
Haggler
Jack of All Trades
Mandarin
Scheme
Spice Merchant
Black Market
Envoy
Governor

Male Attacks: 12
Spy
Bureaucrat
Thief
Minion
Saboteur
Swindler
Torturer
Goons
Mountebank
Ambassador
Margrave
Noble Brigand



Female: 11
Herbalist
Courtyard
Harem
Forge
Peddler
Explorer
Fairgrounds
Farming Village
Princess
Duchess
Trader


Female Attacks: 7
Witch
Possession
Scrying Pool
Sea Hag
Fortune Teller
Young Witch
Oracle



Unisex w/o people: 42
Cellar
Chapel
Council Room
Gardens
Moat
Remodel
Throne Room
Workshop
Philosopher's Stone
Vineyard
Bridge
Great Hall
Contraband
Hoard
Monument
Quarry
Royal Seal
Talisman
Vault
Watchtower
Ghost Ship
Haven
Island
Outpost
Treasure Map
Treasury
Warehouse
Bag of Gold
Diadem
Horn of Plenty
Trusty Steed
Remake
Border Village
Crossroads
Oasis
Farmland
Tunnel
Cache
Fool's Gold
Ill-Gotten Gains
Stash
Walled Village

Unisex w/ people of both sexes or unknown gender: 41
Adventurer
Feast
Festival
Laboratory
Library
Market
Village
Familiar--male? female? I can't tell
University
Coppersmith
Ironworks
Mining Village
Trading Post
Tribute
Upgrade
Wishing Well
City
Expand
Grand Market
Rabble
Trade Route
Worker's Village
Caravan
Cutpurse--looks like a woman, but I can't tell
Embargo
Lookout
Merchant Ship
Native Village
Pirate Ship
Wharf
Followers
Hamlet
Harvest
Jester - is this clown a man or a woman? I can't tell
Menagerie
Highway
Inn
Nomad Camp
Stables
Silk Road
Embassy

57

Dominion General Discussion / Hunting Party w/o Buys

« on: December 28, 2011, 04:06:09 pm »

I've got a question about Hunting Parties in a board without any extra +Buys. The question is this, in a turn where multiple Hunting Parties are drawn and capable of being played should a player continue to play them and draw additional cards after reaching the magic $8 for a Province or stop and go straight to Buy phase without playing the other cards?  Perhaps an even better question is, does this even matter?

I know there are other situations where this can occur, Labs, etc--obviously duration cards would want to be played for benefit for next turn.

Just in my own reasoning I figured a lot would depend on what I knew was in my draw pile, what was in my discard and how close I was to a reshuffle, but is there more strategy there than that?

58

Help! / Loan vs Steward

« on: December 28, 2011, 09:42:13 am »

Here is a game report where I felt like I started with the better strategy

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/28/game-20111228-063623-d26b1db8.html

but despite using my Loan 8 times I only drew up a copper once meaning the other 7 times I had to discard a silver or gold. Because at the start I imagined my treasure quality being high and my quantity being low I bought Labs instead of Stables--my opponent also bought Labs for some reason. I eventually bought a Steward as a desperation move but ended up never used it for trashing.

Was I wrong to buy Loan over Steward?

59

Variants and Fan Cards / Wedding Card

« on: December 27, 2011, 12:02:14 pm »

So I've got an anniversary coming up with my wife--who I met playing Dominion--and as part of the celebration I want to create a card named Wedding. I have never created a card before and thought I would use the genius minds here in this forum to help me.

So the main idea I wanted to use here is one of a wedding, so big--outlandish, with guest involvement and everyone gets something--just like in a wedding everyone gets cake!  Also since getting married is a risk, I thought the wedding card should be a big risky. I know that designing a card around a name violates one of rinkwork's rules for card design, but given the situation I thought he would forgive me.

So, here is my initial idea, feel free to critique and suggest as I am new at this and would like it to turn into a card that we could play with.

Wedding
Cost $8

When you buy this card, gain another card costing $5 or less.
If you trash this card,
+6$, +Buy, all other players may trash a card from their hand.



I wanted this card to cost $8 because it seemed like it should be a risk to go for this instead of going for a province, but it is offset somewhat by getting a $5 card at least.

And while I know some of the concern about one-shot cards, Donald seems to like them more than the rest of us--I like the idea because a wedding should be a one time event.

Is the +6 too much? Too little? I think this card would only be bought early game or in situations at end game where a player is behind and would buy Duchies anyways when they have 8+.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks

60

Variants and Fan Cards / Card Names

« on: December 14, 2011, 01:44:20 pm »

So what are some names for cards that you would like to see in the final expansions?

I am not talking about what the card does, but simply the name or the card itself regardless of its purpose or type. Feel free to explain why. Note: this isn't intended to be suggestions for Donald X., but merely a fun exercise now that finals are over.

I would like to see:

Midwife - because there aren't enough cards with females on them--and even then those are normally bad, Witch, Young Witch, Sea Hag, Duchess is the one of a few that are positive and even then...

Knight-errant - because who wasn't surprised when they opened up the base dominion and didn't see a knight card even though there was a knight on horseback on the box.

Canoga - I am breaking my own rule. Canoga was a popular medieval dice game--I would only like to see this type of card if dice were implemented into the game, which too be honest, I don't think I would want.

Troubadour - because who doesn't love a good troubadour?

Artist Guild - mostly because I think a picture of the Lolly-pop guild on isotropic would be fun.

Bailey - Every good castle need a "motte" and a bailey.

Mathematician - in honor of all of the math geeks that love and frequent this board

61

Rules Questions / Curses

« on: December 10, 2011, 02:53:33 pm »

So this isn't really a question but more of a reminiscence post. When my family first bought Dominion we didn't completely read the rules regarding Curses. As a result we erroneously thought that a curse could be given at any time, just by using a plus buy--to other players. We also thought that when a curse came up in your pile you could give it to any other player of your choosing.

Example:

Player 1 has 2 buys, $6. Buys a gold and a curse, gives the curse to Player 2.

Player 2's hand includes estate, gold, silver, curse, smithy. Player 2 gives the in-hand curse to Player 3).

It actually made curses a very different and very dynamic part of the game. All of a sudden cursing other people became very dangerous because they would end up giving the curses back to you when they came up in opponents' hands.

This shows the importance of reading the rulebook all the way through, but also shows how house rules can add a fun twist. We haven't played that way in a long time, but I think I might bring it back to life for a night some time soon.