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226

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What expansion do you play best with?

« on: June 24, 2012, 07:34:14 pm »

I seem to have very flat play across the expansions. Alchemy is my worst. From that, my worst is Apothecary--which I don't feel I've ever successfully used--and my best is Possession, which I seem to mostly understand when to avoid.

Prosperity     0.65%
Seaside       -0.36%
Dominion       0.54%
Intrigue      -0.69%
Hinterlands    0.81%
Alchemy       -1.42%
Cornucopia    -0.43%
Promotional    0.31%

Edit: This is after 1255 games, 80% played post-Hinterlands.

227

Dominion General Discussion / Hilarious Dominion "review" at BGG

« on: June 23, 2012, 09:44:55 am »

I'm 99.8% confident this "deconstruction" of Dominion as a Marxist allegory is tongue-in-cheek.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/819342/two-hopefully-novel-answers-to-questions-about-dom

228

Dominion General Discussion / Re: lol, intentional cleanup discussion on BGG

« on: June 21, 2012, 08:35:05 am »

Is it still cheating if you don't know you're cheating? Like could I plant subliminal deck shuffling techniques in my own mind and then erase my own memory to cover my tracks? I wouldn't know I was scheming, I'd just play and think that's how I've always shuffled. And does it make a difference if the memory erasure is magical or scientific in nature?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavka%27s_toxin_puzzle is a fascinating thought experiment.

But magic or brainwashing aside, yes, it is still cheating even if you steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the fact that your cheating is cheating.

Oh, and

"I didn't murder him. I just increased the probability that his blood would be found outside of his circulatory system."

229

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Shelter/Ruins thought

« on: June 20, 2012, 02:35:48 pm »

My thought:

Ruins - $0 - Victory-Reaction

0 VP

----

When you would trash this, return it to the supply.  Each other player gains a Ruins.

If all players have a Watchtower, this breaks the universe.

Less dramatically, in a 3p game where only one player lacks a Watchtower in hand, that player gets all the Ruins in the pile.

230

Dominion General Discussion / Re: lol, intentional cleanup discussion on BGG

« on: June 19, 2012, 04:10:54 pm »

Man, I would never allow this person into my home.

"I'm not stealing this DVD. I'm just increasing the probability that it ends up in my house instead of yours."

231

Game Reports / World's most hardworking Duchess

« on: June 15, 2012, 10:31:47 pm »

Duchess was the Bane on this board where I opted for Jester/Duchess with a 5/2 start. Is Duchess a lousy bane? Maybe so, but in my opponent's four uses of Young Witch, I held that Duchess all four times--silly luck.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201206/15/game-20120615-192803-112f723d.html

232

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Unofficial Interested in beta list

« on: June 11, 2012, 09:30:36 pm »

I, too, would like to register for this list.

233

General Discussion / Re: Demographics of F.DS

« on: June 08, 2012, 08:56:24 pm »

Cleveland, Ohio.

234

Dominion Isotropic / During the Isotropic downtime...

« on: June 08, 2012, 08:49:25 pm »

I got a good chunk of the way through The Hidden Reality, which is interesting but not fantastic, and learned how to throw playing cards while watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

(edit to correct book title)

235

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT) High School Championship finals

« on: June 08, 2012, 12:08:11 am »

That's _awesome_.  Does the NAQT allow answering questions before they are completed? If so, I am curious as to what point people here would have answered?  I certainly would have hit it at 'game', and very possibly after '4-3'.

At the point where it says "4-3", the question could still be referring to Go; that's a very common opening move. 5-2 isn't a typical Go opening move, though, so if the question were being read very very slowly that's the earliest I might buzz in.

http://senseis.xmp.net/?BeginnersGuideToTheOpening

236

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic is still down

« on: June 07, 2012, 11:56:28 pm »

Is FunSockets sabotaging the power grid near dougz's home to undermine Isotropic? Are your children safe? Film at 11.

237

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Base Cards Promo Card?

« on: June 05, 2012, 09:21:49 am »

At Origins, the retailer Troll & Toad was advertising these with purchase of the base cards box. They said that there were a very limited number in existence and that they had them all--this statement seemed like a falsehood as the salesman was saying it, but I have no evidence either way. A card that's included in the later half of the print run seems much more likely.

I asked the developers who were demoing the game at Rio Grande's area, but the one I caught didn't know what the promo would do when activated. Although activating the fancy art seems like an eminently reasonable guess.

238

Game Reports / Re: The Over-hard Counter

« on: June 05, 2012, 01:06:08 am »

I remember a game where several times I was sitting with Jack of all Trades in my hand, hoping my opponent would Ghost Ship me so I could topdeck a victory card, discard it, and get a replacement. I think it hit twice, which was enough.

239

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which cards are the slowest?

« on: June 05, 2012, 12:01:32 am »

Any card chain involving Potion cards are slow to set up; the earliest you can even have such a card in your hand is turn 5.

Chancellor says hello.

Or, with quite a bit of luck, a Courtyard/Potion opening.

(Or opponent's Noble Brigand/Fortune Teller/Rabble/whatever)

240

Game Reports / Unusual game featuring Chancellor and Pirate Ship

« on: June 04, 2012, 11:56:50 pm »

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120603-154807-a525cd4b.html

On a 5/2 opening with no remarkable 5s, I went Royal Seal and was caught off-guard when my opponent went Pirate Ship/Scheme. The only non-Treasure cash was Chancellor and Pirate Ship. I planned to use Remake to get Chancellors, but when that looked to be too unreliable to hit $8, I used Remake to switch over to Pirate Ships myself! The Chancellors plus thin deck plus villages helped me switch gears fast enough to pull out $4 pirates fast and steal the victory.

241

Goko Dominion Online / Re: ZOMGZ The Dominion Online website is doing something!

« on: June 02, 2012, 01:12:51 am »

I suspect that it would be interesting from an AI point of view and not from a playing-dominion point of view; I strongly suspect that even the best AI would be worse than the top players here... If they manage to make an AI that is better or even on par with Stef, Obi-Wan, WW, Geronimoo, etc., I will be very, very impressed.

If they made an AI that could play at lvl 25 on iso I'd be impressed.

It's true. On the other hand, you should be able to write an AI that performs well, if not 40+ caliber, for a prespecified board. And really... the campaign for public use shouldn't require you to be able to beat the ten best players in the world.

242

Goko Dominion Online / Re: ZOMGZ The Dominion Online website is doing something!

« on: June 01, 2012, 09:41:46 pm »

Is it possible to play against a computer? If it isn't, is it possible to set the skill level? That would be interesting.

The developers I chatted with said that AIs would be available and suggested that they would be user-creatable as well. They also suggested that quickmatch between players would somehow take level into account; I didn't ask any specific questions about the matchmaking or rankings 'cause I figured that's stuff that's still very likely to change.

What I meant to say was will it be possible to set the level of the computer, but do you know, after chating with the developers?

My best guess is yes. Outside of the ingame interface, the UI listed some sort of "Campaign" mode that wasn't working on the demo systems. If the AI is indeed pluggable, it's easy to imagine an advanced UI vs. one that's less sophisticated, or even programmed to make questionable/reckless plays.

243

Goko Dominion Online / Re: ZOMGZ The Dominion Online website is doing something!

« on: June 01, 2012, 09:27:00 pm »

Ok, that was a pretty good comeback... so we know the price will be > 0, will you tell us if it's going to be upfront or monthly fee?

I asked the developers about pricing when I demoed the game and at least the ones I talked to weren't very clear about the pricing; I'm not sure if anyone is. They suggested that there would be some minimal level that's available for free. I indicated that I would prefer to just pay a flat sum and not worry about being nickel-and-dimed, and they seemed to indicate that that's a common desire that they were taking into account. But of course, who knows what the final cost structure will look like after everyone has had their say.

244

Goko Dominion Online / Re: ZOMGZ The Dominion Online website is doing something!

« on: June 01, 2012, 09:19:31 pm »

Is it possible to play against a computer? If it isn't, is it possible to set the skill level? That would be interesting.

The developers I chatted with said that AIs would be available and suggested that they would be user-creatable as well. They also suggested that quickmatch between players would somehow take level into account; I didn't ask any specific questions about the matchmaking or rankings 'cause I figured that's stuff that's still very likely to change.

245

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Live report from Origins

« on: June 01, 2012, 06:28:08 pm »

Did they have all the expansions ready, or not yet?

Not yet. They did not have Cornucopia, Hinterlands, or Alchemy.

246

Goko Dominion Online / Live report from Origins

« on: June 01, 2012, 05:44:48 pm »

Howdy folks. I had the chance to play several games at Origins today. I'll report as much as I can remember. If you have additional questions, I can try to answer them or investigate further tomorrow.

Overall, I would say that the state of the game is "needs work, but has potential." I talked with the developers and they seemed competent, friendly, and receptive to my (several) suggestions.

The app is HTML5. I played it on a demo iPad--much easier than it would be on Isotropic, although I'd prefer the interface of Iso on PC.

The interface is generally competent and I didn't notice any gameplay errors at all; Throne Room correctly stayed out when modifying a Lighthouse.

The app offers both arranged tables and "quickplay". I strongly advocated for the ability to create random sets that were unknown to all players before (as it is now, the host always chooses the set; he has a "randomize" button, but there's no guarantee he's used it). Alarmingly, there was also no way to randomize start player. I advocated for that as well.

Some players expressed concern that the layout would not handle big turns well. I didn't have any deck-drawing megaturns, but it seems to shrink what I had nicely to fit the available area.

I signed up for the beta--the folks suggested that the beta was still quite some time out, so I'm not buying booze for Isotropic's wake just yet.

I can't think of what else to say about it, but I can answer questions eventually--right now I'm off to eat and play some more games. Hawaii was pretty good, even though I got spanked.

247

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: CardIdea - Patrol

« on: June 01, 2012, 08:46:31 am »

What is the intended interaction with Fortune Teller?

248

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Knowing you are behind early

« on: June 01, 2012, 08:44:06 am »

Additionally, if you're getting beaten by a different strategy from the one you started down, don't panic and try to follow the winning strategy belatedly. I see novices do this a lot with trashing cards: I open Chapel/Remake/Steward/Trading Post, and by turn 7-8 start rolling; then the novice finally buys the trasher, but of course by then it's far too late.

249

Goko Dominion Online / Re: ZOMGZ The Dominion Online website is doing something!

« on: May 31, 2012, 01:33:26 pm »

Today's the start of Origins, yes?  I wonder if anyone who posts on this forum is going and might get a chance to try the program.

Dealers' room would only be limited hours today I think--like 2 to 6--and most people are just getting there tonight.  I think tomorrow is the earliest we'll hear anything.

That said, do we know of anyone on the forums going?  Despite my proximity, I was unable to go.

I will be driving down today. I may not make the dealer's room today, but definitely tomorrow, and will seek out anything I can find and report back to the mothership.

250

Game Reports / 4p over-the-board game with competing power combos

« on: May 31, 2012, 12:31:32 am »

This is a game I played the other night with 4 players. How would you tackle this board? Colonies and Platinums are active.

$2: Fool's Gold
$3: Oasis, Wishing Well
$4: Spice Merchant, Remodel
$5: Festival, Library, Venture
$7: Expand
$8: Peddler

At a quick glance, there are two big opportunities here, which everyone spotted: Fool's Gold and Peddler. Peddler looks particularly enticing because of the chance for Expand into a Colony, and because it will suffer less than FG if several opponents choose the same path. I drew 3/4 in the fourth seat. P1 and P3 both got 5/2 splits and opened Venture/Fool's Gold; almost certainly a mistake over Festival/FG, I think. I opened Silver/Spice Merchant and almost immediately kicked myself as P2 opened Oasis/Spice Merchant.

Although the Silver buy seemed like a horrible idea at the time, I'm not sure it was; P2 did get more Peddlers, but had to buy more Oases than Festivals early on, and wasn't able to hit Festival/Library often enough. With Spice Merchant eliminating his coppers, he eventually found himself dead-playing Library without any good cards to draw with it!

In the midgame P1 and P3 pursued the remaining FG while P2 and I went for the Peddlers. I belatedly got some Oases to drop Peddler prices as did P1, and all four of us picked up a few Festivals and Libraries to try to make that combo hit. P2 won the Peddler split 5/4 (P3 picking up an errant one). I went for an Expand and immediately began turning my Peddlers to Colonies. P2 had some $10-$12 turns and used them to buy Festivals and Libraries, which just seemed to not quite work out. P1 and P3 floundered a little, eventually getting up to Platinum but thinning with Spice Merchant too late to get the FG megaturns they needed.

With FG and Peddler exhausted, I looked for the last pile to deplete, and started buying Oasis with my scrap money after using Expand. Helped slightly by the somewhat-inexperienced P3, I was able to exhaust that pile before P2 could Expand more than one of his Peddlers into a Colony. He still got second, with the FG players not too far behind; they had been picking up provinces and the odd colony since the end started looming.

I'm not sure there is a moral to the story and it would have gone very different in two-player, but this was a pretty memorable game.