76
Goko Dominion Online / Re: goko rankings in multiplayer
« on: September 03, 2013, 10:43:44 pm »
Trying it right now...
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77
Goko Dominion Online / Re: goko rankings in multiplayer
« on: September 03, 2013, 10:40:06 pm »QuoteIf the extension programmers can make it so that Goko only matches me with trustworthy people who are guaranteed to play out a three and four-player game, that would be truly impressive.
The bots are waiting for you.
Not sure if that's tongue-and-cheek or not, but it might be interesting:
Play 3p with two humans and a bot.
Solves a lot of the drop out problem (and the speed of the game). While opening up the strategy to how 3p works a little more (which I think in general is relatively weak in this community). Has anyone tried it?
Ed
78
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Use for Fortress without Trash-for-Benefit
« on: September 03, 2013, 10:36:43 am »I find Lookout + Fortress a less than stellar combination, I mean, all you're doing is just discarding one and keeping one on top, almost like a cheaper version of Cartographer.
I've used this trick, but only when I didn't have good things to trash anymore.
I do admit that it's neat if you can find your village this way to kick off your terminal draw engine.
I think the key thing is that while it isn't a combo in itself, it's a nice positive synergy. If you deck happens to contain Lookout from earlier in the game (or whatever) and now involves Fortresses, the Fortresses make the lookout plays somewhat safer. Still not safe, obviously, but you can probably risk playing them and getting a positive result for longer.
Exactly. I think I used it in a goons game. Let me kill coppers, but still pull villages into hand later in the game so lookout wasn't a 2-card hand.
Ed
79
Dominion General Discussion / Use for Fortress without Trash-for-Benefit
« on: August 28, 2013, 11:31:16 am »
Fortress is fantastic with Trash for Benefit, but otherwise it's generally a simple village (with some defense against trash attacks).
I've found two other uses for it though.
The first is with Lookout.
If you set it up right you can use Lookout to pull Fortress into your hand. Lookout becomes:
- Look at your top three cards, put Fortress in your hand, discard a card, put one on top of your deck (then draw it with Fortress)
It's a fun little combo.
The second I found this morning:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130828/log.516d0e09e4b082c74d7aacc1.1377703536847.txt
In a game with no +draw it's hard to build an engine. Here there was chapel though which drives in that direction. And then picking up a Forager makes sense to kill the chapel and get some +buys.
The coppers, silvers and spoils had all been trashed and Forager became a 'trash a card, +1 buy, +3$'
Pretty good - excepy by that point I had nothing left to trash.
Enter: Fortress
When I drew Fortress with Forager I could use it without losing one of my (valuable) cards.
Just a small thing I thought I'd share.
Ed
I've found two other uses for it though.
The first is with Lookout.
If you set it up right you can use Lookout to pull Fortress into your hand. Lookout becomes:
- Look at your top three cards, put Fortress in your hand, discard a card, put one on top of your deck (then draw it with Fortress)
It's a fun little combo.
The second I found this morning:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130828/log.516d0e09e4b082c74d7aacc1.1377703536847.txt
In a game with no +draw it's hard to build an engine. Here there was chapel though which drives in that direction. And then picking up a Forager makes sense to kill the chapel and get some +buys.
The coppers, silvers and spoils had all been trashed and Forager became a 'trash a card, +1 buy, +3$'
Pretty good - excepy by that point I had nothing left to trash.
Enter: Fortress
When I drew Fortress with Forager I could use it without losing one of my (valuable) cards.
Just a small thing I thought I'd share.
Ed
80
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Doctor overpay
« on: August 27, 2013, 08:42:19 pm »
I like opening Dr overpay with 4/3.
I've never done it with 3/4.
I think I've only bought Dr after turn 1 once. I can remember why.
But Dr is only really good if you can use it early to kill Estates and Coppers (or you have excess actions and some way to monitor your deck).
Over-paying for Dr is good I guess, but then it's a trade off for other cards. Most useful if it's a weak kingdom I guess?
It would be good with a slog where you have a bunch of curses to get rid of, but when are you going to draw $8 on a slog like that and want an over-paid Dr over a Province?
There are likely edge cases, but I'll bet in general not a good choice.
Ed
I've never done it with 3/4.
I think I've only bought Dr after turn 1 once. I can remember why.
But Dr is only really good if you can use it early to kill Estates and Coppers (or you have excess actions and some way to monitor your deck).
Over-paying for Dr is good I guess, but then it's a trade off for other cards. Most useful if it's a weak kingdom I guess?
It would be good with a slog where you have a bunch of curses to get rid of, but when are you going to draw $8 on a slog like that and want an over-paid Dr over a Province?
There are likely edge cases, but I'll bet in general not a good choice.
Ed
81
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Attention-whoring thread.... I did it!!
« on: August 27, 2013, 08:14:17 pm »
Like Qvist, it may not last long, but I finally hit the #1 spot on the leaderboard:
...and yet I still don't know how to post an image on f.ds....
Ah well. The image is saved for my children to appreciate.
Ed
...and yet I still don't know how to post an image on f.ds....
Ah well. The image is saved for my children to appreciate.
Ed
82
Dominion General Discussion / Re: WW's Power Rankings
« on: August 25, 2013, 12:53:11 pm »
I looked around on the Internet for something like this and couldn't find it:
A tool where you upload words or images.
Then it feeds it back to you two at a time, and you choose which if the two are "better"
If you do it enough times it should be able to create a ranking for you.
(And humans are much better at this than creating a really long ranking in one step)
Anyone know if this exists somewhere?
Ed
A tool where you upload words or images.
Then it feeds it back to you two at a time, and you choose which if the two are "better"
If you do it enough times it should be able to create a ranking for you.
(And humans are much better at this than creating a really long ranking in one step)
Anyone know if this exists somewhere?
Ed
83
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Extension Suggestion
« on: August 25, 2013, 12:49:08 pm »
Or even more simple:
Be able to assign player order in casual games.
Ed
Be able to assign player order in casual games.
Ed
84
Dominion General Discussion / Re: WW's Power Rankings
« on: August 23, 2013, 08:42:32 pm »The middle-of-the-road-ishness of guilds may be because it's so new still. There's a tendency to play it safe with unfamiliar cards so I expect some of them will drift more towards the higher or lower end as time goes on.
Or it could be that Donald has got better at creating cards so that there are less really weak or really overpowering ones?
Ed
(The again it wasn't that long ago we got Rebuild...)
85
General Discussion / Re: rrenaud is getting married!
« on: August 23, 2013, 08:32:20 pm »
Congrats man!
I'm plunging into marriage just 3 weeks behind you!
Ed
I'm plunging into marriage just 3 weeks behind you!
Ed
86
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Goko rating system is very frustrating
« on: August 21, 2013, 12:44:29 am »
All that said, there is WAY more fluctuation on goko.
On my personal results I fluctuate from rank 100 to 10 on any given day.
On iso I would fluctuate from level 30-10.
And that change from day to day would be maybe 1/10th of that range vs I can swing the entire distance on goko on a good/ bad day.
Ed
On my personal results I fluctuate from rank 100 to 10 on any given day.
On iso I would fluctuate from level 30-10.
And that change from day to day would be maybe 1/10th of that range vs I can swing the entire distance on goko on a good/ bad day.
Ed
87
Dominion Articles / Re: Short Article on Advisor
« on: August 18, 2013, 05:23:25 pm »
It's even worse than that.
If you draw Advisor and Chaptl together on Turn 4, you may not want to play Advisor. It causes a reshuffle and will cause both the Advisor and Chaple to miss Turn 5 (and maybe 6).
It may be the right chocd to play the Advisor, but the fact it's not obviously better means that its one more case where the purchase sure isn't helping you.
Ed
If you draw Advisor and Chaptl together on Turn 4, you may not want to play Advisor. It causes a reshuffle and will cause both the Advisor and Chaple to miss Turn 5 (and maybe 6).
It may be the right chocd to play the Advisor, but the fact it's not obviously better means that its one more case where the purchase sure isn't helping you.
Ed
88
Dominion Articles / Re: Short Article on Advisor
« on: August 16, 2013, 07:29:00 pm »
Good point. It is more Hunting Grounds than Smithy. Updated now!
89
Goko Dominion Online / Re: My First slow-roller
« on: August 16, 2013, 07:20:42 pm »Yes, go in User Settings and there is a text field where you can add people to the blacklist.
Thanks.
This solves a lot of the problem that wasn't solved on iso.
If a play against someone who swears or is rude or slow-rolls or anything obnoxious, at least I know it won't happen again.
Appreciate it,
Ed
90
Dominion Articles / Short Article on Advisor
« on: August 16, 2013, 07:08:17 pm »
Advisor
The subject of bad advice memes the world over. Advisor is to Lab how Envoy is Hunting Grounds. But where Envoy gives you the best 4 of 5 cards (20% of your best cards), Advisor gives you only the best 2 of 3 (33% of your best cards gone). That difference is as important to how Advisor is played as the extra action is. Read on young grasshopper!
So is Advisor a good card?
Like most cards in Dominion (exceptions: Wharf, Cursers, Goons, etc.) "It depends."
In Advisor's case it depends more than most.
Because you are losing a third of your best cards, one of three things need to be true in order for Advisor to be viable:
(1) The difference between your best cards and your average/bad cards is low (i.e., you have trashed all your bad cards, so anything you draw is pretty good)
(2) Your ratio of good:bad cards is high (i.e., you don't have very many bad cards, or you have a LOT of average/good cards so you rarely get stuck with two bad cards in an Advisor draw)
(3) You have cards that don't care about quality - they just want quantity (i.e., Cellar, Warehouse, Vault, etc.)
Three specific notes worth mentioning:
(1) Cantrips are fantastic.
If your three cards drawn are Spy, Pearl Diver and Menagerie - then there isn't much your opponent can do to stop you from getting two average cards (rather than 2/3 of your worst cards). This also means that Advisors are synergistic: If you draw an Advisor with an Advisor, it makes for a tough call on which card for your opponent to discard (if your deck is well set-up for Advisors then they should likely discard the Advisor...)
(2) "Key" Cards are a bane
If you have a key power card, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be discarded when you play Advisor. The only way you will get it is if you draw it in your initial hand, or you get it with one of your other draw cards. So Advisor works better with cards you want to SPAM (Minion, cantrips as per above, Lab, Wharf, etc.) than cards you want one or two of (Cursers, Tactician (but see special case below), Militia, etc.)
(3) Drawing your deck
One special case to the needing a consistent deck is if you have enough horsepower to draw your whole deck. In this case you play the Advisors first to get as much as you can in your hand, and then finish it off with your other draw cards (you definitely need at least cantrips to make this work). Tactician can help a lot here. If Double Tactician is Kingdom friendly then starting with a ten card hand helps you draw everything a lot easier. Even if your other Tactician is being discarded - it doesn't matter if your other cards can pick it up later.
When to buy Advisor
Usually in the mid game after you've got a deck set up that supports it. At the start of the game you have a bad deck (Coppers and Estates) with a few good cards you have just bought. An early Advisor is a good way to have those key early cards discarded. Wait until you have a high density of valuable cards, or after you've trashed your deck down so the initial coppers and estates are pretty much gone.
The End Game
The other thing Advisor needs is a way to green fast. As soon as you start adding green to your deck Advisor turns into a way to get lots of green in your hand. You need a solution before you start heading down the Advisor path:
(1) A way to handle the green (Crossroads, Cellar, Warehouse, etc.)
(2) A way to avoid greening for a long time (Basically being able to end in one or two mega turns)
Concluding Thoughts
In the right situations Advisor is a Lab for $4 - which is pretty spectacular. You can pick it up with Workshop or Ironworks. Caravan is already a power $4 card and it is nowhere near as good as Lab in most cases. So when Advisor is, it can be bonkers.
In the wrong situation (slogs for example) Advisor is worse than useless. It actually can cause you to miss your best cards and get stuck with hands full of Estates and Curses.
Advisor works with:
Good Trashing
Cheap Cantrips
Spamable cards
Mega turns (including Tokens - see there was a reason Advisor was in the Guilds Expansion)
The ability to draw your entire deck
Advisor works poorly with:
Slogs
"Key Cards" that are significantly better than your average (including many attacks)
Cards you only want 1-2 of in your deck (Sea Hag for example)
Sample Games:
Just one for now: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.516d0e09e4b082c74d7aacc1.1376692666755.txt
-=-=-=-
Comments welcome and will be included in edits.
Ed
The subject of bad advice memes the world over. Advisor is to Lab how Envoy is Hunting Grounds. But where Envoy gives you the best 4 of 5 cards (20% of your best cards), Advisor gives you only the best 2 of 3 (33% of your best cards gone). That difference is as important to how Advisor is played as the extra action is. Read on young grasshopper!
So is Advisor a good card?
Like most cards in Dominion (exceptions: Wharf, Cursers, Goons, etc.) "It depends."
In Advisor's case it depends more than most.
Because you are losing a third of your best cards, one of three things need to be true in order for Advisor to be viable:
(1) The difference between your best cards and your average/bad cards is low (i.e., you have trashed all your bad cards, so anything you draw is pretty good)
(2) Your ratio of good:bad cards is high (i.e., you don't have very many bad cards, or you have a LOT of average/good cards so you rarely get stuck with two bad cards in an Advisor draw)
(3) You have cards that don't care about quality - they just want quantity (i.e., Cellar, Warehouse, Vault, etc.)
Three specific notes worth mentioning:
(1) Cantrips are fantastic.
If your three cards drawn are Spy, Pearl Diver and Menagerie - then there isn't much your opponent can do to stop you from getting two average cards (rather than 2/3 of your worst cards). This also means that Advisors are synergistic: If you draw an Advisor with an Advisor, it makes for a tough call on which card for your opponent to discard (if your deck is well set-up for Advisors then they should likely discard the Advisor...)
(2) "Key" Cards are a bane
If you have a key power card, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be discarded when you play Advisor. The only way you will get it is if you draw it in your initial hand, or you get it with one of your other draw cards. So Advisor works better with cards you want to SPAM (Minion, cantrips as per above, Lab, Wharf, etc.) than cards you want one or two of (Cursers, Tactician (but see special case below), Militia, etc.)
(3) Drawing your deck
One special case to the needing a consistent deck is if you have enough horsepower to draw your whole deck. In this case you play the Advisors first to get as much as you can in your hand, and then finish it off with your other draw cards (you definitely need at least cantrips to make this work). Tactician can help a lot here. If Double Tactician is Kingdom friendly then starting with a ten card hand helps you draw everything a lot easier. Even if your other Tactician is being discarded - it doesn't matter if your other cards can pick it up later.
When to buy Advisor
Usually in the mid game after you've got a deck set up that supports it. At the start of the game you have a bad deck (Coppers and Estates) with a few good cards you have just bought. An early Advisor is a good way to have those key early cards discarded. Wait until you have a high density of valuable cards, or after you've trashed your deck down so the initial coppers and estates are pretty much gone.
The End Game
The other thing Advisor needs is a way to green fast. As soon as you start adding green to your deck Advisor turns into a way to get lots of green in your hand. You need a solution before you start heading down the Advisor path:
(1) A way to handle the green (Crossroads, Cellar, Warehouse, etc.)
(2) A way to avoid greening for a long time (Basically being able to end in one or two mega turns)
Concluding Thoughts
In the right situations Advisor is a Lab for $4 - which is pretty spectacular. You can pick it up with Workshop or Ironworks. Caravan is already a power $4 card and it is nowhere near as good as Lab in most cases. So when Advisor is, it can be bonkers.
In the wrong situation (slogs for example) Advisor is worse than useless. It actually can cause you to miss your best cards and get stuck with hands full of Estates and Curses.
Advisor works with:
Good Trashing
Cheap Cantrips
Spamable cards
Mega turns (including Tokens - see there was a reason Advisor was in the Guilds Expansion)
The ability to draw your entire deck
Advisor works poorly with:
Slogs
"Key Cards" that are significantly better than your average (including many attacks)
Cards you only want 1-2 of in your deck (Sea Hag for example)
Sample Games:
Just one for now: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.516d0e09e4b082c74d7aacc1.1376692666755.txt
-=-=-=-
Comments welcome and will be included in edits.
Ed
91
Goko Dominion Online / My First slow-roller
« on: August 16, 2013, 02:00:33 pm »
Wow.
What a pain.
When it was obvious I was going to win he started to wait 4 minutes or so before playing his turn. Every turn.
There is a way to block people with the Extension, right? Not that Guest6628.0000 is likely to be around very long.
(He had a good rating too - I assume it was by slow-rolling a bunch of other people who just got tired of it and quit)
Ed
What a pain.
When it was obvious I was going to win he started to wait 4 minutes or so before playing his turn. Every turn.
There is a way to block people with the Extension, right? Not that Guest6628.0000 is likely to be around very long.
(He had a good rating too - I assume it was by slow-rolling a bunch of other people who just got tired of it and quit)
Ed
92
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Simple card types and mechanics which didn't do it
« on: August 15, 2013, 04:17:14 pm »
Lazy Witch, $2, Attack
Discard two cards. If you do, all other players gain a curse.
-=-=-
Junior Sab, $2, Attack
All other players reveal their top card. If it costs between $3 and $6, trash it. Player may gain a card at least $2 less.
-=-=-
Diplomat (Spy-on-the-side), $2, Attack
+1 action. All players (including you) reveal their top card of their deck. You choose whether it goes back on top of the deck or is discarded.
-=-=-
Gift-giving celebration, $2, Attack
Reveal a card from your hand, all players gain that card from the supply
-=-=-
Backfill Militia, $2, Attack
+$1, Other players draw 3 cards then discard down to 3 cards
-=-=-
They may not all work, but with some playing around they likely could.
I think the bigger issue is they are all derivative. There are higher value cards that do all of those things better.
Right now most of the $2 cards are pretty unique. They do very different things than the higher cost cards.
The exceptions tend to be the worst $2 cards: Secret Chamber, Duchess, etc.
Ed
Discard two cards. If you do, all other players gain a curse.
-=-=-
Junior Sab, $2, Attack
All other players reveal their top card. If it costs between $3 and $6, trash it. Player may gain a card at least $2 less.
-=-=-
Diplomat (Spy-on-the-side), $2, Attack
+1 action. All players (including you) reveal their top card of their deck. You choose whether it goes back on top of the deck or is discarded.
-=-=-
Gift-giving celebration, $2, Attack
Reveal a card from your hand, all players gain that card from the supply
-=-=-
Backfill Militia, $2, Attack
+$1, Other players draw 3 cards then discard down to 3 cards
-=-=-
They may not all work, but with some playing around they likely could.
I think the bigger issue is they are all derivative. There are higher value cards that do all of those things better.
Right now most of the $2 cards are pretty unique. They do very different things than the higher cost cards.
The exceptions tend to be the worst $2 cards: Secret Chamber, Duchess, etc.
Ed
93
Game Reports / Strategy Talk: Finding the un-obvious
« on: August 15, 2013, 03:54:24 pm »
Without giving too much away, consider this board:
Duchess, Fool's Gold, Pawn, Secret Chamber, Develop, Lookout, Rats, Scavenger, Cartographer, Counting House
How would you play it?
The straightforward play is "Fool's Gold with a +buy". Pawn is a weak +buy for FG, but not terrible. Not reason to to open Pawn+FG, try to win the split and then follow the standard FG strategy.
But there is something else in there that is a lot more complicated that may beat the straightforward play.
Can you see it?
I'll post the solution tomorrow or later today.
Ed
Duchess, Fool's Gold, Pawn, Secret Chamber, Develop, Lookout, Rats, Scavenger, Cartographer, Counting House
How would you play it?
The straightforward play is "Fool's Gold with a +buy". Pawn is a weak +buy for FG, but not terrible. Not reason to to open Pawn+FG, try to win the split and then follow the standard FG strategy.
But there is something else in there that is a lot more complicated that may beat the straightforward play.
Can you see it?
I'll post the solution tomorrow or later today.
Ed
94
Dominion Articles / Re: KC-Scheme - But how?
« on: August 14, 2013, 02:19:00 pm »
One thought on "How":
You usually want to build your economy first to get KC as soon as possible. When you do, then start picking up Schemes and putting them on top until you draw one with a KC.
Then next goal is to get a second KC ASAP. The real power of this combo is not KC-Scheme, its KC-KC-Scheme-Sceme-KC-Draw-[more awesome cards]
Ed
You usually want to build your economy first to get KC as soon as possible. When you do, then start picking up Schemes and putting them on top until you draw one with a KC.
Then next goal is to get a second KC ASAP. The real power of this combo is not KC-Scheme, its KC-KC-Scheme-Sceme-KC-Draw-[more awesome cards]
Ed
95
Dominion General Discussion / Re: WW's Power Rankings
« on: August 14, 2013, 02:14:55 pm »But the times [Stables is] drawn without treasure or with a silver (or a platinum!) is often enough that I would take Lab if they were both available almost every timeIn my experience this is actually pretty uncommon, unless you've trashed a few of your starting Coppers. So I think in general Lab is only better than Stables when you have strong trashing.
EDIT:YW does do something for you, it filters/cycles. And you can open with it. I don't know if Jack beats Witch off the top of my head, but if that's true it's probably because YW gets to Cursing that much faster.In Geronimoo's simulator, unoptimized YW beats Jack.
Thanks. I'm just really surprised by this... Jack or double Jack? I mean YW does very little for you; and I wouldn't think the Curses would slow down Jack much at all... I mean, Jack beats Witch, right?
I guess it depends on your definition of "strong" trashing.
If you kill 3/7 of your coppers and you've added 10 cards you are down to 4/17 coppers. Which means you will usually have a copper in your opening hand, but its definitely not a guarantee.
One more thought: throw in a discarded and Stables gets worse. Now you are trading your 3rd best card in your hand for a random card.
Ed
96
GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 1 Results *ONLY*
« on: August 14, 2013, 11:42:07 am »AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3
Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)
Detailed game descriptions in the discussion thread.
No, you've won:Quote4. A player wins the match if after 3 or 4 games, s/he has 3 game points; or after 5 or 6 games s/he has 3.5 game points. A 3-3 tie on game points is a tie for the match.
Oh... whoops! Well that's awesome if so. I think Kirian had better make the call.
Sounds pretty clear to me. I think you are the winner. Congrats!
Ed
97
GokoDom / Re: GokoDom II: Round 1 Discussion Thread
« on: August 14, 2013, 11:08:08 am »
Really fun series.
My comments interspaced below.
Mirrors. Decided by first player advantage. If I had been first player I may have lost anyway though. I picked up an Upgrade at one point that should have been 2 Cellars and a Stonemason. And I had some bad draws on top of that. Seriously thought about resigning just so I didn't go on tilt.
Even when Andrew was playing his last turn I thought the game was mine. He upgraded for 2 Provinces - on the second I took a Fairgrounds with my Governor. But he managed to Remodel enough stuff and play 2 Horsetraders that he came out just ahead. I was very impressed. Well played.
[/quote]
Thanks. I enjoyed playing you a lot. I end up playing a ton of level 4000 people or so on Goko and it doesn't take many losses to stop you from getting to the high ranks. Another flaw of this website... I still play too sloppy when I play this game (hence the 3/6 games with serious mis-clicks in a tournament setting!), but I've done alright when I applied myself, getting to the Top 10 on both iso and goko for at least a little while. Glad I was able to challenge you here!
On a related note: Were the match-up's seeded? A ~6000 vs a ~6800 on the first game of the series was not what I was expecting!
Ed
My comments interspaced below.
AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3
Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)
Games 1, 2, and 5 were runaways, where early decisions and early draws decided the game rather quickly, though we both hung on for quite a while when we were losing. Games 3, 4, and 6 were hard-fought battles that came down to the last turn and just a few VP.
Game 1 was a very Apothecary-friendly board, with Cellar, Herbalist, Stonemason, Upgrade, and Nobles. The first few turns were a dead mirror, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I completely forgot that $4+P could buy two Apothecaries via Stonemason. Luckily, my first-player-advantage ended up winning me the Apothecary split anyway, after which I don't think there was much ednever could have done to recover. He mentioned in chat that he had made some early mistakes that probably cost him the game, but I don't actually know what they were.
Mirrors. Decided by first player advantage. If I had been first player I may have lost anyway though. I picked up an Upgrade at one point that should have been 2 Cellars and a Stonemason. And I had some bad draws on top of that. Seriously thought about resigning just so I didn't go on tilt.
Game 2 was another engine board, a Colony game with Hamlet, Warehouse, Jack, Golem, Cartographer, and Festival. I bought a questionable second Jack and ednever had a big lead by T8 with an Altar and a Golem against my pile of Hamlets. I panicked and bought a Bank on T11 to pick up a couple of Colonies, fearing that he'd 3-pile me otherwise, but ednever calmly and correctly continued building up his engine and he ended up winning huge.Felt great on this one as soon as Andrew picked up the second Jack. First Jack is great to convert Estates into Silvers, and give you some draw (nice with Warehouse and Hamlet and Festival), but you don't want that many Silvers here that it's worth getting two. Bank is questionable as well as you don't have the draw to get many silvers out. In fact Andrew played two banks as his only two treasures one turn. Ouch.
Wow. I messed this one up bad. I had first player advantage, but Andrew started 5/2. That's usually enough on a Rebuild board without a lot of other options. I was still holding it together when I messed up and named Estate instead of Province at one point. I trashed a Province for a Province and the game was Andrew's. I ended the game just to end it. There were 2 Estates and a Province left and I was down by 8 with 1st Player position. Nothing I could do.
Game 3 featured Rebuild, Crossroads, Warehouse, Peddler, and six other cards that could be pretty safely ignored. Lots of shuffle luck here, and I ended up with a VP lead and three Rebuilds to ednever's one. In the end, ednever was far enough behind that needed to actually buy the last Province for the win, but we had accidentally played without the VP counter and I think he miscounted the score. He ended up rebuilding into the last Province and falling 1 VP short.
Thought I had this one. I lost the Governor split, but had the right draws. I mega-turned for 3 Provinces. Then he go nothing. Then I pulled off another 2 Provinces. I figured I had it.
Game 4 was all about Governor, Hermit, and Horse Traders, at least the way we played it. Although the board also had Swindler, Monument, and Jester, the 12-turn game just wasn't long enough for any of them to pay off, in spite of the presence of Fairgrounds. I won the Governor split 6-4 and ednever responded by rushing Provinces, picking up five of them before my mega-turn was ready. Double-Madman and Fairgrounds saved me and I just managed to eke out a 2 VP win.
Even when Andrew was playing his last turn I thought the game was mine. He upgraded for 2 Provinces - on the second I took a Fairgrounds with my Governor. But he managed to Remodel enough stuff and play 2 Horsetraders that he came out just ahead. I was very impressed. Well played.
I think FG's was a mistake here. FG is only good if you get a bunch of them and play money (with draw and +buy). Here you need to (1) Hurt the other guy with Cultists, (2) Get an early KC, (3) Get a Scheme (4) Connect the Scheme with the KC, (5) Get more KG and Schemes and build an unstoppable engine; Catacombs was also great here for the draw to get your entire deck in hand every turn. The only wild card here was Possession. You could build a serious Possession engine that could play the card many times per turn (two possessions and some KC give you 6 plays of the other guy's deck). It also messes with the other guy's KC-Scheme machine. The issue is that by the time you set up an engine that can do that, you can drive 2 or more provinces a turn. It was my back-up against a Big-Money style play where I was too far behind when I got everything set up. Andrew went for the Potion which worried me, but I was able to end it before he could even buy his first possession.
Game 5 was painful. We both picked up 5/2 on a board with King's Court, Cultist, Scheme, Fool's Gold, and several strong engine support cards. The board clearly called for Cultist into KC engine, but I opened up Cultist/FS while ednever opened Cultist/-. Shuffle luck resulted in my winning the Ruins split 4-6, but Scheme made that pretty irrelevant after I didn't connect my two FG's and ednever picked up a T6 King's Court. From there on it was a pretty much a slaughter. I can't really complain, as I certainly deserved to be punished for playing a schizophrenic and high-variance FG-into-KC-engine strategy as the first player.
Best game of the bunch. Very close. I made another mistake on this one misclicking with the Count (Have I mentioned how much I dislike the unforgiving Goko Interface!?!? I didn't even mention the Cartographer I trashed with my Jack in game 2!) and picking up an Estate instead of +$3. That turn I had to settle on two Duchies instead of a Province. I was kicking myself for it the entire game. Thankfully it came together in the end. Just in time.
Game 6 was clearly a BM-something setup, but with Fortune Teller, Caravan, Jack, and Count, it wasn't immediately clear what the "something" was. My 5/2 split made my decision for me and I opened Count/- while ednever opened Caravan/Fortune Teller and picked up a Count on the second shuffle. Neither of us bothered with Jack. I took an early lead on Provinces but I never got around to buying Caravans, and ednever closed the VP gap. We both picked up a bunch of Duchies with Count and soon it was a matter of VP math. On T14, I took two Duchies instead of a Province to force ednever to pick up 2 of the 3 remaining Provinces. After he bought one of them I faced a similar decision on T20, and I bought an Estate to force him to get both of the 2 remaining Provinces to win. Tragically, he did so, while my pile of green kept me from getting to $8 again until T21, when I drew a beautiful $5 + Count with an 8-VP lead only to watch ednever play exactly $8 for the last Province and an 11 VP win.
I missed GokoDom I, so this was my first-ever tournament matchup. It was a very good and enjoyable series, with ednever performing far above his supposed Level 40 Isotropish/6000 Goko rating. I'm glad I didn't have to play a Game 7!
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Thanks. I enjoyed playing you a lot. I end up playing a ton of level 4000 people or so on Goko and it doesn't take many losses to stop you from getting to the high ranks. Another flaw of this website... I still play too sloppy when I play this game (hence the 3/6 games with serious mis-clicks in a tournament setting!), but I've done alright when I applied myself, getting to the Top 10 on both iso and goko for at least a little while. Glad I was able to challenge you here!
On a related note: Were the match-up's seeded? A ~6000 vs a ~6800 on the first game of the series was not what I was expecting!
Ed
98
Dominion General Discussion / Re: WW's Power Rankings
« on: August 14, 2013, 09:27:38 am »
I would definitely have Lab >> Stables.
Yes Stables trades a copper for a random card most of the time. But the times it's drawn without treasure or with a silver (or a platinum!) is often enough that I would take Lab if they were both available almost every time (ok. Maybe one stables the. The rest Labs).
It can also cause done bad re-shuffles if you aren't careful - a discard full of copper...
Ed
Yes Stables trades a copper for a random card most of the time. But the times it's drawn without treasure or with a silver (or a platinum!) is often enough that I would take Lab if they were both available almost every time (ok. Maybe one stables the. The rest Labs).
It can also cause done bad re-shuffles if you aren't careful - a discard full of copper...
Ed
99
Other Games / Re: Sentinels of the Multiverse fixed deck card game
« on: August 13, 2013, 06:44:13 pm »When I was looking for a new game this is a game i came very close to buying.
I haven't played it so I can't give much feedback on how to turn it competitive.
[if you did a pbf, i'd be so in, just sayin]
You can play pbf at both the bbg forum and the >G forum...
I just purchased the first expansion.
I'm playing with others tomorrow. In the meantime I've played 4 solo games (against each of the four villains and played each of the ten heroes (2 of them twice)). Definitely fun playing the villains the first time. In curious to see how much replay value it has.
Ed
100
Other Games / Re: Sentinels of the Multiverse fixed deck card game
« on: August 13, 2013, 06:40:52 pm »Hey, if you're looking for something more competitively-focused...
https://greaterthangames.com/blog/2013/08/a-most-august-announcement
Full Disclosure: I'm one of the designers of this game. And I'm so excited omg
Very cool man. Congrats. Is this your first game?
Can you give any more details on the game, or is it all tight lipped now?
For example, are cards involved at all?
From the limited description it sounds like its a miniatures-battle game with 6-sides dice. Sounds a lot like Battletech (I'm sure others too, but that was a game I'm familiar with that I played back in the early 90s).
Ed