Here's a game I lost last night:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120123-212908-3f31223a.htmlKingdom: Adventurer, Apprentice, Border Village, Fairgrounds, Fishing Village, Grand Market, Menagerie, Moat, Moneylender, Watchtower
I'm pretty sure I know where I went wrong in this game, and I'll outline my thoughts. I'd appreciate any feedback, either on the game itself or on my analysis.
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Those who don't want to read my wall of text below, the TL;DR version: I decided to rush provinces instead of fighting for GM, had the lead, then lost the game on what I believe to be a number of play mistakes. Also, my choice of strategy might be wrong as well.
The main questions:
1) Was the turn 7 Province buy alright in this case?
2) Turn 14/15 Duchy - mistake?
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So, I opened 2/5. Four (ok, five) cards stand out to me on this board: Apprentice, Grand Market (and Moneylender to try and gain an early GM), Fishing Village and Menagerie. With a 2/5 split, I'm torn about whether I should take the fishing village or go for the Apprentice, especially as my opponent will definitely go for the FV and aim for those Grand Markets. In the end, I decide that Apprentice is the card I want. I pick up Moat/Apprentice, while my opponent picks up Fishing Village/Moneylender (his strategy is apparent).
I get lucky on Turn 3 and my Apprentice draws my Moat and I buy an early Gold. My opponent picks up FV on turns 3 and 4 (I grab a FV on turn 4, too), then decides on turn 5 that he wants Border Village and Apprentice instead of Gold. I opt for a 2nd Gold on my turn 5, and ANOTHER one on turn 6.
Turn 7 is when I stop and have to make a choice. I have $8 to spend. Do I buy the early province? I know typically, the early province buy is not a good idea, but I'm confident (maybe too confident) in my Apprentice and my slim deck. I have 3 Gold already that I can work with ... so I bought the province.
Turn 8, 10, and 11 I buy Provinces, so I have 4. However, I also trashed a Gold on turn 10, significantly reducing my deck's buying power. Obviously, this is not a great state to be in, but I thought I had a good chance to stay ahead, as my opponent's deck was only just getting off the ground.
Turn 14/15 seems like another mistake. I should have bought a Gold at least once to help increase my buying power. One more province would break my opponent's chances in this game, I think, and that extra Gold instead of a Duchy would have been nice (or maybe Fairgrounds, if I had been paying attention ... see below).
Turn 17 I saw an opportunity, as I had 8 different cards in my deck so far, and the VP race was going to be close ... so I bought a Fairgrounds ... and, what do I do on Turn 18? Do I buy Any of Silver/Menagerie/Moneylender to push my Fairgrounds to 4VP? Nope, I buy an Estate. I would still have lost (by 1 VP instead) ... but it still bothers me that I counted, knew I needed one more ... then made the sub-par Estate purchase ...
Anyways, let me know what you all think. Sorry for writing so much.
KC-Goons, Grand Market, Tournament ... Governor shenanigans, too! KC-Governor-Goons would likely be my primary target here. Of course, I'm probably going to lose on this board, as I lose a lot of boards with Tournament available.
