Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

6801

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #5: Necropolis, Overgrown Estate, Hovel

« on: August 10, 2012, 09:28:12 am »

Seems a bit luck-based? I mean, if you open double terminal and pair them with Necro, and opponent doesn't.. And if those terminals are Swindler/Swindler.

I mean, opening with these are totally different story. Well, necropolis mostly.


But is sure going to make Puzzles fun 

Necro diminishes the probability of terminal collision (assuming neither terminal draws) in the first reshuffle hurting you by precisely 1/3.

3/10.

3/10 is precisely 1/3.

This is true for very large values of 3/10.

6802

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #5: Necropolis, Overgrown Estate, Hovel

« on: August 10, 2012, 09:20:31 am »

4 and a hovel with island on the board is going to be the new mint fool's gold - elite opening that you have to be a little lucky to get.

Um, what are you going to do with that opening Island? Set aside a Copper? Setting aside an Overgrown Estate seems lackluster and setting aside a Necropolis is just counterproductive.

6803

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: A missed opportunity

« on: August 10, 2012, 08:54:47 am »

I agree with Loschmidt and HiveMindEmulator. That being said, there could easily be an Action or Treasure card that cares about the composition of the trash in the same way that City and Trade Route care about Supply piles. I'm expecting at least one of these, since the blurb mentions "cards that care about the trash" and I assume that Graverobber isn't the only one.

6804

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Spoils Gainers

« on: August 10, 2012, 12:21:11 am »

Well, you're really asking two (or three) questions.

What will the other two Spoils-gainers be? I'm expecting one to be a Looter. I'm inclined to agree that the other one may be a non-attack.

What possible variations of trashing attacks remain? Quite a few, but they are difficult to balance. My custom expansion has such a card. It would be gauche to post it outside of the variants forum, but it's a combination discarder/trasher, as in each opponent trashes a card from his hand. It would not surprise me if an official card used this combination.

That being said, given that we have so many on-trash benefits in this set, any trashing attack is bound to be severely weakened when playing with other Dark Ages cards. It wouldn't shock me if the set didn't contain any trashing attacks.

6805

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #3: Squire, Hermit, Madman

« on: August 09, 2012, 09:42:35 pm »

I really hope that there's another card that turns into Madman. Ruins are cool because 3 different cards hand them out, spoils are cool because 3 different cards can get you them. But the idea that there's a stack of cards just for one other stack of cards to turn into seems like a wasted opportunity.

Fingers crossed you can make other cards go mad

I wouldn't get your hopes up. I think Donald would have mentioned if that were the case. That being said, I like the fact that Madman can only be obtained through one other card. I was hoping that there were going to be more than two cards like that. But Spoils has definitely mollified me. It's a good compromise.

I am hoping that the final non-kingdom card isn't a one-shot, but I'll be perfectly happy if it is.

6806

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Self-Referencing Cards

« on: August 09, 2012, 02:52:13 pm »

Oh, how I wished Goons referenced itself. "If you have any Goons in play, when you buy a card, +1 VP."

6807

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #4: Rats, Pillage, Spoils

« on: August 09, 2012, 02:48:32 pm »

Nah, you guys are missing the beauty of rats.  Rats are not really trashers -- every card that's trashed is replaced with a rat.  But rats do temporarily turn all your trash cards into cantrips, at least until you start to run low on trash targets.  But even if it's only for a couple of shuffles, having cantrips instead of dead cards could be exactly the help you need to get to your real trasher.  And, as a bonus, when you do trash the rats, you get some cards, though you'll probably be drawing dead since most trashers are terminals.

The point is, you obviously need an actual trasher in conjunction with rats, but rats grease the wheels for you: they cycle your deck, putting that trasher in your hand more often.  I think this will allow you to clear garbage from your deck much faster than normal.

Except that if you're doing this, you may be forced to trash the trasher as soon as you draw it.

6808

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #4: Rats, Pillage, Spoils

« on: August 09, 2012, 01:28:50 pm »

Rats might be worse than Scout, but I'll have to play hundreds of game to know for sure.

Why does that make you sad? Sounds like fun times to me!

6809

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #3: Squire, Hermit, Madman

« on: August 08, 2012, 07:27:18 pm »

now you sapek my lgagunae.

Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deustch sprechen.

Halt!

6810

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: What card design rules are left?

« on: August 08, 2012, 04:17:46 pm »

All I know is that my Fan Card Creation Guide probably needs an overhaul.  I recall that although I mentioned a lot of these as design spaces you should be very careful with, I recall only very seldomly being strict and unequivocal about some particular idea being irredeemable.  But I'm still building up the courage to go back and check.

No worries, man. I already checked and the only thing you might want to change is to soften the wording on the gaining cards from the trash section.

6811

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #3: Squire, Hermit, Madman

« on: August 08, 2012, 12:17:07 pm »

I'm not sure where to put this, I just write it here.

Dark Ages has zero blanks.

Hurray!
Now you can start counting!

As I mentioned in that thread, it begs the question of what all the extra cards will be used for. So far we know there will be:

At least 352 Kingdom cards (35 different ones, at least one of which is a Victory card)
Between 20 and 22 cards like Madman that can be gained by trashing another card
Exactly 50 Ruins cards
Exactly 35 randomizers

That leaves as many as 43 cards unaccounted for. Shelters could be any number of those cards. Perhaps there are 30 of them that you randomize, like Ruins.

6812

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: What card design rules are left?

« on: August 08, 2012, 11:54:55 am »

We've also just violated the "fish through your discard" rule.

Wasn't that rule first violated with Counting House?

Well, pulling Copper out of the discard pile is a pretty controlled situation. Sort of like how Mine gains a Treasure directly into your hand. It's OK, because there's only so much shenanigans you can get up to with that Treasure card.

Speaking of, I'd consider "cards shouldn't gain Action cards directly into your hand" to be a decent card design rule. Maybe Dark Ages will break that one in a cool, balanced way.

6813

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #3: Squire, Hermit, Madman

« on: August 08, 2012, 10:40:04 am »

In all this Madman craziness, I think we're ignoring how useful Hermit can be in its own right. The ability to trash cards that aren't in your hand is significant. In games with Curse-givers and/or Looters, it's a powerful deck thinner. It gains you a Silver (for Big Money) or a Village (for your engine) in the bargain. If you're so bogged down with bad cards that you know you won't buy anything this turn, you can use Hermit to gain another Hermit and turn your current one into a Madman.

6814

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Puzzle: The Four Mysterious Ruins

« on: August 08, 2012, 10:26:11 am »

I've said it before; but I definitely think Ruined Library instead of Ruined Smithy. The Ruins would make a lot more sense as buildings or places instead of people. It's effect could be +1 card, or possibly draw to 5 cards in hand.

A smith is a person. A smithy is a location.

6815

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #3: Squire, Hermit, Madman

« on: August 08, 2012, 10:22:37 am »

Squire + Watchtower?

Any attack you want...for 2!  (As long as you have Watchtower in hand.)

Whoa, yeah. Watchtower definitely boosts some cards in Dark Ages. At minimum it opens up tons of new options (like gaining 3 Silvers instead of Feodum).

6816

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: What card design rules are left?

« on: August 08, 2012, 10:20:22 am »

Don't trash cards from the supply

There's no reason that this can't be done as long as certain restrictions are put in place to prevent mass Province/Colony trashing.

No more "vanilla" cards

We've already broken that in Dark Ages with Ruined Market! 

6817

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #2: Feodum, Cultist, Ruined Market

« on: August 08, 2012, 08:14:18 am »

50 are Ruins. It's likely that these too have randomizer cards, just as every other supply pile in the game.

It's not true that every supply pile has a randomizer card:

• Potion from Alchemy
• Colony and Platinum from Prosperity
• The base cards from Intrigue
• The base cards from Base Cards

Although the last two are functionally equivalent to the base cards from Dominion, so they don't really count.  It's also worth noting that the prize cards don't have randomizers, although they aren't supply cards.

Fixed that for you.

In fact, at least in the copy I have, the Province, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Silver, Copper and Curse piles all have randomizer cards. You need to be careful not to start with 13 Provinces. Don't know why it keeps putting that tag here ->[/list]

Dude, you didn't fix that for him. You broke it. He wasn't referring to the Dominion base set, he was referring to Dominion: Base Cards, which contain the new artwork version of Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, Platinum, Colony, Potion, and Trash. Hence why he capitalized "Base Cards". And he's right, it doesn't include randomizers for any of them.

6818

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Base and Expansion Card Counts

« on: August 07, 2012, 11:22:55 pm »

Just to be crystal clear, and because I like making lists, here is the total count of all non-blank cards in each expansion.

Base Set: 486 cards
Intrigue: 492 cards
Seaside: 288 cards
Alchemy: 150 cards
Prosperity: 299 cards
Cornucopia: 150 cards
Hinterlands: 292 cards
Dark Ages: <= 500 cards

Presuming Dark Ages has at least 490 cards (if not, they could have included an additional Kingdom card), the total number of sleeves needed is between 2647 and 2657. If you only need to sleeve one set of the basic cards, you only need between 2438 and 2448 sleeves.

6819

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Did... did Transmute just get better?

« on: August 07, 2012, 10:54:20 pm »

Usually you don't want Feast when you're going for a power $5 just because silver/silver will usually do the job just as well and leave you with 2 silvers after you get the $5.

This line of thinking is still misleading. Usually on the turn you play Feast, you have enough cash left to buy a Silver, leaving you with the same number of Silver as you would have if had bought Silver instead of Feast. Feast simply guarantees you the $5 card on the second shuffle, which can be important.

6820

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #2: Feodum, Cultist, Ruined Market

« on: August 07, 2012, 09:59:24 pm »

Also - what the hell is on the Cultist's face?

A mask, presumably.

6821

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #2: Feodum, Cultist, Ruined Market

« on: August 07, 2012, 05:59:36 pm »

True. Considering that this set has 35 kingdom cards instead of the usual 25, and five of these cards are Ruins, it wouldn't surprise me if another five cards are Shelters.

Ruins aren't Kingdom cards.

Yeah, the 35 Kingdom cards don't include Ruins or Shelters.

6822

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dominion: Dark Ages on Rio Grande Games' Website

« on: August 07, 2012, 03:13:00 pm »

As far as I remember, we were all wrong about Ruins. Did anyone suggest anything close?

Somebody suggested there would be different types of Ruins, but I don't remember anyone suggesting that Ruins would also be Action cards.

6823

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #2: Feodum, Cultist, Ruined Market

« on: August 07, 2012, 01:43:16 pm »

Okay, the problem with Feodum is that you need 9 Silvers to get it up to Duchy level, which is always a good benchmark.

9 Silvers may be no problem with Trader, which can get you that by trashing a Platinum, but with cards that just gain one Silver at a time, it's going to be a real task.

What Feodum needs is to always appear in conjunction with a card that can net you 3 Silvers a pop.

Trader/Cache.

That gets you 2 Silvers, maximum. Also, please tell me you got Voltgloss's clever joke.

6824

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: The Feel of Dark Ages

« on: August 07, 2012, 01:39:02 pm »

You've really got time to burn, don't you? 

6825

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dark Ages Preview #2: Feodum, Cultist, Ruined Market

« on: August 07, 2012, 01:24:52 pm »

(3) "Three ways to gain Ruins" -> I'll bet it's not "Three cards that give Ruins", but rather "Three ways"
     Way #1: Other player gives them to you like a curse
     Way #2: You give them to yourself as a penalty for a card that would otherwise be too good (We've seen lots of fan cards like this before that have been poo-poo'd. Just like $1 cards and card that take from the trash were poo-poo'd)
     Way #3: Something else? Maybe you start with Ruins? Or cards get transformed into Ruins?

No, see my post above; Donald confirmed that there are 3 Looter cards.

And it would mean overall if you played randomly you would barely ever play with Ruins -> 3 cards in ~200?

According to the BGG thread, this gives you about a 15% chance of having Ruins in a completely random game. It's identical to the chance of needing VP tokens.

If Guilds gives 13 Kingdom cards, it will be exactly a 15% chance.

Are you including the promo cards in your count?