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[theory]

From the Gardens Division: Smartie vs Jahz (1:0)

As Jahz forgot to show up in the competition and we find another timing, Jahz has kindly agreed to let me win this. I would like to thank him, and hope to challenge him again in the near future 

Very sorry again... I'm so sad to leave a great tournament this way... but entirely my fault... even if not helped by big timezone gap, which only allowed us one slot in the entire week to play.

Jahz

If we ever have large tournament like this in the future, I suggest we split the divisions into timezones so we can minimize the problems that this causes.  It would hurt seeding a bit, but I think that's better than seeing players drop needlessly.

I tried really hard to do this, but it just couldn't work out.  We didn't have a good representation of skill across time zones, and trying to manually tweak the seeds to make good time zone matchups was a huge headache.

Either way would have been unfair, but I'd rather it be objectively unfair than subjectively unfair.

[Elyv]

Elyv beats ScottPilgrim92 4-2 in the Witch Division. We played with identical starting hands, no veto mode, and no point counter.

Game 1 (Elyv 47-33 ScottPilgrim92): Both of us open Silver/Nomad Camp with the intention of getting hoards and going green. The main difference is that ScottPilgrim bought an early expand while I didn't buy any, and he felt like that was why I won.

Game 2 (Elyv 31 - 21 ScottPilgrim92): I open potion/warehouse, visions of king's courted alchemists dancing through my head, but Scott goes for Jack BM. When he sees me grab the potion, he buys an early embargo and blocks the alchemists, so I decide that I have to transition into Jack BM as well. It was a pretty close game, but I realize that I still haven't been able to trash one of my starting estates, so I'm able to grab the second-to-last province without fear, and then am lucky enough to get the next one on the following turn as well.

Game 3 (Elyv 46 - 35 ScottPilgrim92): Another BMish game, with the difference that he opens with horse traders and I open silver/silver, intending to get a vault later. His deck ends up doing better for the majority of the game, with the result that when the duchies run out with 2 provinces left, he has a slight lead on points. Luckily, I'm able to snag the last two provinces to take the game.

Game 4 (Elyv 35 - 39 Scottpilgrim92): At the beginning of this game, I say something to the effect of "finally an interesting board", which was really kind of a silly thing to say since I'd somehow missed that the kingdom had no card draw, leading to both of us going remake BM. Scottpilgrim grabbed a second remake, and that may have been the difference, as he ends up with a pretty significant lead once the duchies run out. I felt like I had no real chance to win the game at that point, so I bought the province for the loss.

Game 5 (Elyv 26 - 27 ScottPilgrim92): Probably the closest game of the series. I open masq/silver since I hate opening with tournament, especially when paired with terminal card draw, but Scott doesn't seem to mind. I end up getting the first couple of golds, so he gets a couple of Noble brigands, which hurt me a lot more than I was expecting. Regardless, I was still able to make my one tournament collide with my one province before he was able to, putting me in a good position. On my last turn, I stupidly use tournament to grab a diadem instead of a princess, forgetting about the $1 that the tournament provides. As a result, scott is able to pass me his one curse with masquerade and buy the province to squeak out the win. If I had grabbed princess, I would've been able to buy an estate as well, and the game would've been a draw.

Game 6 (Elyv 34 - 20 ScottPilgrim92): Probably the most interesting game of the series. Both of us go for a fishing village/steward deck, mixing in jesters and forges later. Again going into the endgame, I'm up a point from a random estate that I hadn't had a chance to trash, so I'm able to buy the penultimate province and then the last one a turn later to take the game.

It was a fun match, especially since I was able to chat with ScottPilgrim after every game, and it felt like every game was very close.

[Geronimoo]

Remake BM doesn't really exist. Open Silver/Silver on that board aiming for a few Merchant Ships. That will work a lot better.

[Elyv]

Remake BM doesn't really exist. Open Silver/Silver on that board aiming for a few Merchant Ships. That will work a lot better.

Good to know; I thought about doing that, but it's really hard for me to not open with a multicard trasher, which is something I've been trying to work on.

[Fabian]

Fabian (2) beats Mean Mr Mustard (15) 4-0-1 in the Thief Division.

Fabian 40 - Mean Mr Mustard 34
On the first decision of the match, we choose differently. I go Laboratory with the idea of picking up a Horse Traders, and money, and more Laboratories. Mustard goes with Cache with the idea of picking up an Envoy (two actually), and money. Which idea is better, I can't say (I'm sure Geronimoo will tell us momentarily though ), but I liked my chances, especially with the extra buy. Mustard gets a Duchy with 5 Provinces left (me leading 2-1), which I think his deck is not as well equipped to handle as mine, and the extra green cards probably slowed him down a bit too much. He needs both the last Provinces, and after buying the penultimate, there are a few turns when either of us can buy the last one for the win, but my deck delivers first.

Fabian 40 - 27 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard opens Moneylender/Chapel, going for some assorted good stuff (one Royal Seal, one Library, one Adventurer, two Hoard) while I go Silver/Chapel, hoping to get into Goons eventually. As it turns out, the extra VP chips and the attack from Goons is too much, 5 Provinces and 9 VP chips in 16 turns is kinda tough.

Fabian 33 - 30 Mean Mr Mustard
Boring Mountebank/nothing opening where our decks turn into crap pretty quickly, and Apprentice tries to recover for us. A pretty interesting situation came up in the last few turns, where I buy the last Duchy with $9 instead of the penultimate Province, because Mustard can get the win if he buys Duchy+Province, which seems a lot easier than buying Province+Province. It's a bit risky, as if he can buy the penultimate Province, I can't end the game on piles (Duchy and Curse piles are empty, one Apprentice left) because he takes the lead, but at least then I'm still left with a better deck and one Province to go, and he basically needed to hit that penultimate Province immediately as I was probably winning soon, buying that Apprentice. I think I'm happy with my decision overall.

Fabian 33 - 33 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard tries for an elaborate Remodel/Wishing Well/Highway/Pearl Diver type engine, with a few Peddler and other stuff thrown in. I don't see the potential in an engine, since there's no +buy to be seen anywhere (Remodel is, of course, kinda +buy), and instead go Silver/Shanty Town with the idea of just buying treasures and possibly a Bazaar or two (which is why I choose Shanty Town over Moat). I get a pretty big lead early on while his engine is getting into gear, and feel almost certain he won't be able to catch up. I underestimate his deck though, and possibly misplay on turn 13 when buying a Gold for $6 instead of a Duchy, thinking my lead is big enough that I just need to hit another Province to essentially lock the game up. My Duchy Duchy Province turns on 14, 15, 16 is enough to tie at 33-33 after he goes Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy for those three turns.

Fabian 31 - 19 Mean Mr Mustard
A kinda weird/tough board, where I intend to go Alchemists and buy zero of those. I like my Swindler/Potion opening here, and I also get lucky to buy an early Possession, which I use to buy myself another Possession on Mustard's turn. He resigned in a bad, but imo definitely not hopeless, position with 2 Province remaining and down 12 points

Overall I think the games were very good, and I'm pretty pleased with how I played overall. Thanks for the match Mustard, see you around and gl in the future!

[Geronimoo]

Envoy/Cache beats Lab/HorseTraders 2-to-1. Of course Fabian had the first player advantage and MMM bought the second Envoy and Duchies too early.

[Fabian]

<3 simulators.

[WanderingWinder]

Game 2 (Elyv 31 - 21 ScottPilgrim92): I open potion/warehouse, visions of king's courted alchemists dancing through my head, but Scott goes for Jack BM. When he sees me grab the potion, he buys an early embargo and blocks the alchemists, so I decide that I have to transition into Jack BM as well. It was a pretty close game, but I realize that I still haven't been able to trash one of my starting estates, so I'm able to grab the second-to-last province without fear, and then am lucky enough to get the next one on the following turn as well.

I just don't understand this. Alchemist is too slow to beat straight BM, I can't imagine KC or any of the other cards there are going to help it THAT much, and double jack is just so FAST. I think the big mistake here was opening the embargo (also shuffle luck was really bad), as he should've just let you hang yourself with the alchemists.
I'm still always surprised by how I often I find so many really good players overrating alchemist.

[DG]

I just don't understand this. Alchemist is too slow to beat straight BM, I can't imagine KC or any of the other cards there are going to help it THAT much, and double jack is just so FAST.

The embargo kills it, but you can make a reasonable deck from alchemist/warehouse using spice trader for trashing with king's court festivals to finish. Warehouse + spice trader seem well suited generally.

[Elyv]

I just don't understand this. Alchemist is too slow to beat straight BM, I can't imagine KC or any of the other cards there are going to help it THAT much, and double jack is just so FAST.

The embargo kills it, but you can make a reasonable deck from alchemist/warehouse using spice trader for trashing with king's court festivals to finish. Warehouse + spice trader seem well suited generally.

Yeah, these were my thoughts. I actually dislike alchemist and think it's generally not very good, but I figured that with KC and festivals I'd have a reasonable chance of catching up and I didn't really want to play BM.

[Lekkit]

Witch Division Round 3 Lekkit - WHARF 2 THA BRIDGE 4-2

Game 1 36-44
Game 2 61-52
Game 3 34-33
Game 4 49-40
Game 5 23-54
Game 6 44-27

Thanks, W2TB for a nice series of games. I enjoyed them a lot.

[Jorbles]

I just don't understand this. Alchemist is too slow to beat straight BM, I can't imagine KC or any of the other cards there are going to help it THAT much, and double jack is just so FAST.

The embargo kills it, but you can make a reasonable deck from alchemist/warehouse using spice trader for trashing with king's court festivals to finish. Warehouse + spice trader seem well suited generally.

Yeah, these were my thoughts. I actually dislike alchemist and think it's generally not very good, but I figured that with KC and festivals I'd have a reasonable chance of catching up and I didn't really want to play BM.

Looking at that board I thought it was an ideal Jack board. Elyv managed to overtake ScottPilgrim by buying cards that complimented Jacks (Festivals and Warehouses) while ScottPilgrim was buying Silvers when he should have bought a second Jack, (and maybe probably a second Warehouse.)
[edit: woops looked at the game log again, SP did buy a second Jack, but he should have been buying more Warehouses instead of Silvers.]

If I were playing this board I would have opened Jack/Warehouse, buying another Jack on the next $4, and Warehouses on $4s and $3s after that (so you can ditch Coppers and replace them with Silver). Buying Festivals on $5 (because they reduce handsize while improving your hand), then just cruise through. I played it solitaire a few times and on good games I was hitting my fourth Province on turn 10, on bad ones I was hitting it at 14.

[Stefan_k]

Stefan_k - yaron 4-2!

Great games. I made few misstakes during these six games and I am really happy about my play. In game four I missed the Tunnel WareHouse combo and also I made some minor misstakes in some of the late game. However, I'm really glad how I played the Farmlands game, since I have not played that many games with the latest expansion. This game gave a lot of interesting considerations and is a board I can recommend to try in practice.

Yaron is a great player and have a far higher rating than me. I do respect his play in all games. Thank you for the great games!

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-134804-046c48ad.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-133655-52dbd58b.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-132212-d687fcee.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-130331-90277b36.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-125702-52182462.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-135829-6dc8369b.html

[Fabian]

My boy Stefan continues to crush, woo!

[Qvist]

Wow, I'm in the 4th round. Incredible.
I (#37) just won my series against michaeljb (#12) in the Chapel Division 4-2
We played without veto mode, with point counter and with identical starting hands.

Game #1 michaeljb vs Qvist 43-34 (1-0)
I was going first but my Smithy / Silver opening lost against the Trader / Silver opening.
Despite he had Trader I tried to use Jester as he bought later his Smithy. His strategy was way faster and I got not much luck with my Jester, so I had no chance to win this very quick game.
Not much to analyze here.

Game #2 Qvist vs michaeljb 69-24 (1-1)
This Colony game had a lot of nice cards there: Menagerie, Hunting Party, Mountebank, Vault
This game I liked very much.
Of course we both wanted to reach $5 as quick as possible to go for Mountebank. So he opened Silver / Silver while I tried Shanty Town / Silver
He could buy his Mountebank in turn 3, but my Shanty Town worked out to get to 5 coppers and buy one too in turn 4.
In turn 5 I used Shanty Town once again to get to $5 and bought another Mountebank as michaeljb bought a Gold.
In the next 2 turns I managed to get to $5 again and bought 2 Hunting Parties, he bought a Menagerie and an Ironworks
I didn't understand his Ironworks buy. I know Islands were on the board, but in Colony games with such good cards in the supply they're not that good.
And my Hunting Parties could filter the coppers and curses way better as Island could put them away.
Later he bought an Expand, while I finally added a Gold for my Hunting Party / Menagerie engine.
In turn 10 I bought a Vault to get coins for all the curses and green cards (which turned out as very helpful). michaeljb bought another Expand and expanded his coppers and curses to Menageries which was unfortunately too slow.
In turn 13 and 14 I finally could buy 2 Platinums.
Now the fun could go on. With the exception of turn 18 (where I decided to add one Hunting Party) I bought a Colony or a Province in each turn from turn 17 to turn 25.

Game #3 Qvist vs michaeljb 48-26 (2-1)
Another fun game. I like to know how you would've opened here. Going for Chapel is obvious, but I couldn't decide between going for Familiar or directly for Tournament as I could trash the Curses with my Chapel. michaeljb bought a Potion and so I decided to do it too, as I wasn't sure if Chapel alone would do the job. I had more luck as he drew $2P in turn 4 while I got to $4P and could buy the Familiar. I bought my second in turn 6, he got his second in turn 8. So I got an early lead. In turn 10 he drew 3 curses with a Potion and Silver, bad luck again. From there it was easy. In turn 10 I bought my Gold, in turn 11 I massively trashed, in turn 12 I bought the Province and with my deck so slim I got my prize directly in turn 13. There was the next difficult decision for me. Followers wasn't so strong now with no curses left. I thought about Bag of Gold in this slim deck, but was going for Trusty Steed. What would you have bought? I also couldn't decide to use the 4 Silvers option. I decided to buy Golds instead. Then I started going green, maybe a turn too early, but I got a so big lead it didn't matter. I could use Tournament to get Duchies and keep the lead. How would you have played this game?

Game #4 Qvist vs michaeljb 36-35 (3-1)
What a close game in which I played pretty badly. Loan / Moneylender wasn't so good as Silver / Moneylender. I just wanted to trash faster but that was dumb.
We both went for IGG of course. I think my best buy was to stop the IGG in turn 5 and buy an Upgrade. In turn 7 I made the mistake and bought a Moat as I thought it could block the curses. I know it couldn't. It turned out not so bad, as it was the only Drawer. And I also made the mistake and forgot to go green earlier as both piles (IGG and curses) would go out quickly. Normally I would have lost at that point. But michaeljb also made a mistake as he later admitted himself. He should've rushed Duchies or Farmland/Silk Road. But he bought green cards equally so it turned out that the 5/3-Silk Road split in my favor with 4VP each was my win. How would you have played that? Would Apothecary be a good alternative for buying IGG? Normally I should've bought Scout, but I had to catch up in the green race.

Game #5 michaeljb vs Qvist 75-40 (2-3)
Another fun game, this time not for me. In this Colony game we both opened Ambassador/Ambassador and the ping pong could begin. I added a Crossroads and tried to get a thin deck and could send him 2 estated every turn. I had around 5 cards when he had 20 cards. I thought my plan worked. I wasn't so concerned that he quickly got to King's Court as I thought he couldn't manage to bring the good cards together. So I bought a curse with the intent to clog his deck more. With my thin deck I then tried to get 2-3 Pirate Ships. But at the time his engine began to roll, I was the one who couldn't get the important cards together. I always hit $3 instead of $4 and it was clear I was going to lose. Just look at turn 26 and you know what I mean. Well played michaeljb, I misread the board.

Game #6 Qvist vs michaeljb 50-42 (4-2)
Oh no, Possession is there. So the Bishop / Silver opening was clear for me and him. We had nearly identical strategies and added a Warehouse and just going for money only. He then got the first province in turn 7, I got mine in turn 9. But he stopped after his first province and bought a Potion and a Possession. It turned out it wasn't a so good choice. After his Possession buy I decided to buy one more Bishop as a defense. But then I got lucky and got 3 more Provinces in turn 11-13 while his 2 first Possession turns missed. His third Possession turn was a Province for him but with my lead I could now mess my deck up with Duchies and Bishops. He could catch up as his 4th Possession also got him a Province, but with nearly equal score I could buy the last Province and win this game.

[v3ck]

v3ck 4-3 Mergus (Witch Division)

v3ck 41:32 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-191152-76d4919a.html)
v3ck 22:32 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-192345-bb5ec4fc.html)
v3ck 55:31 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-193647-d79b6b50.html)
v3ck 42:25 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-194837-a1220470.html)
v3ck 28:35 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-201029-ebe1246f.html)
v3ck 45:57 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-201914-9b07b7d5.html)
v3ck 51:9 Mergus (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/13/game-20111213-203508-0c9d0fd9.html)

[manzi]

Garden division,  manzi defeats Thaddeas for 4-2

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-041139-4c181306.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-042736-814a2141.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-043701-2033be3e.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-045341-db79e013.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-050348-3560f044.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-051455-3e163894.html

[Lekkit]

My boy Stefan continues to crush, woo!

Go, Sweden!

[Rabid]

Rabid losses 0 - 4 to RisingJaguar

Well played, last game is worth looking at for the very close finish.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-105037-1d8f7c23.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-110532-123f3e81.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-111430-f97fe6c3.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-112017-bfa5af65.html

[RisingJaguar]

Witch Division : RisingJaguar (12) - Rabid (5)

RisingJaguar wins 4-0 in some great matches, every game each player went different strategy which always makes it exciting.  Game 4 is probably the most exciting one to me.

All games were with identical hands, veto mode, point counter.  With some very... unique... games, point counter was a blessing here (which I normally do not play with).  There were plenty of VP counters (bishop/goons), dukes, and silk roads. 

Game 1: 64-50 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-105037-1d8f7c23.html
My initial thoughts was to gain points through bishop-ing peddlers since I could gain more through hagglers/wharfs.  Of course there's no villages, and that made it really hard. So I ditched that idea to go for a bishop BM type deck after bishoping my wharf.  Whereas he went for a Haggler BM deck.  Not really sure why i was so ahead most of the match, I'm guessing because of the spice merchant start and first turn? Either way I'm glad I won.

Game 2: 47-21 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-110532-123f3e81.html
Much closer then the score suggests.  By far the best use of upgrade I've ever seen at the start, especially with menageries in play.  This was a Goons vs. Duchy/Dukes game.  Normally I think Dukes win, but because of menageries, Duchies just destroy that plan.  The decks were cleared off pretty quickly which killed off the dukes attack.

Game 3: 33-21 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-111430-f97fe6c3.html
This game was built around Fool's Gold.  He gained the 6-4 advantage by starting remodel/fool's gold instead of chapel/remodel (although i think i was better trashed).  I think the embassies really changed it for me which made it really easy to get FG together.  My last turn took me quite awhile to decide.  I had a few options at this point:
  1. Embassy like i did (i had 4 FG within 10 cards, i was pretty worried i wouldn't get 3 to win)
  2. Remodel province to tie (i really considered this)
  3. Remodel embassy for duchy (didn't want to lose embassy but maintain lead)
  4. Remodel copper to estate (maintain that important one point lead)
I THINK I made the right decision, or i might've gotten lucky. I did it because I was sure i was gonna lose if the game dragged out. 

Game 4: 42-42 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/14/game-20111214-112017-bfa5af65.html
A fascinating game.  This is all new to me, but combining ironworks, workshops, silkroads for a very formidable strategy with such underwhelming cards is fantastic.  As soon as I saw how fast it was moving, I was really nervous.  I decided to continue with big money instead of interrupting his silk road attack.  Wharves were definitely a game changer in this.  I managed to get province on that last turn to tie the score up.  For once it was nice to be second.  Ironically the clincher was probably that I bought an estate in turn 9.

All in all, great games.  I enjoyed it very much. 

[Mergus]

Thanks v3ck for the games. It was a fun match, just the last game wasn't very close Good luck with your further matches.

[timchen]

In the thief division, timchen (allfail) beat Captain Frisk 4-1.

All the games are pretty close, except the one I lost. We played with veto, identical starting hands, and point counter.

game1: He opened steward, and I chose to pass on trashing. I don't think in the end there's a major difference. I edge out probably by my luck on the militia always hitting him without tunnels in hand (which I forgot he can discard the tunnel under militia, otherwise I might skip it entirely).

game2: He was playing pretty much BM+Moneylender. With several early golds, he might have won without trying to get to possession I think. On the other hand, I am trying to combo governor+possession, buying time from getting 6VP fairgrounds. Chaining enough governors for a mega turn let me end the game.

game3: Again without combo potential he went the moneylender+BM route, with Haggler to spice it a little bit. I played similarly but got a few more Hagglers to get free mining villages, both to play multiple hagglers and act as a one time GM. Looking back from now it didn't look so spectacular, but at turn 9 I was 2 Provinces down and 2 Gold down. Feels pretty good after noticing the trick with MV+haggler and coming back taking advantage of that.

game4: Due to the terrible loss I forgot to take the log... I let Swindler stay in the game, we both opened double swindler, and they were my 11th and 12th card. One of them is swindled to become a Chancellor.

game5: My first game going first for a while in the tournament! I originally just planned to run single smithy. It feels better than some combined militia strategy. He decided to go for 2 militias (which now I know lost to single smithy by simulation!), but I am fortunate enough to get 2 early golds at turn 3 and 5. When I was hit and cut from $6 to $5, I thought, alright, let's try a duke strategy. Militia should be less effective. He followed suit after I got 2 duchies and ended up with a 5-3 split. With a 3-5 split on dukes, I have a lead of 6 points. The game was kind of halted at that point though; I manage to get enough Provinces and starting at the estates to get enough points to ensure a win.

Over all, those are all very entertaining games. I still remember the first time when Captain Frisk and I faced each other, in the earliest rounds of BBGDL. At that time he was one of the players I feared the most. I guess after a year or so I have made some progress. Good luck to your future games!

[mathguy]

mathguy (23) beats boloni (10) in the gardens division 4-3.
(identical hands, point tracker, no veto)

mathguy 59 - 55 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-074702-c02f4428.html
I open Jack/- to his Contraband/Crossroads in a Colony game. He speeds up a lot in the last few turns, but I had managed to grab 6 gardens.

mathguy 42 - 31 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-080209-c9a314e8.html
Loan +Quarry ->Wharf -> Minion rush.
His loans kept skipping his good cards and once I won the minion race I used outpost to great effect.

mathguy 31 - 51 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-081019-55ad3e44.html
I tried for tunnel/warehouse he went Masquerade/BM and trounced me.

mathguy 47 - 61 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-082133-11709d71.html
A colony game in which boloni played masterfully. This is a textbook example of how to build an engine. I thought I played well, but boloni played extremely well.

mathguy 30 - 29 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-083200-cae2fad1.html
Another example of extreme prescience and masterful engine building by boloni. With 5/2 splits I open wharf/embargo, he opens apprentice/embargo. He trims to a very tight deck with wharfs/fishing villages/HOPs. Unfortunately boloni miscounts (even with point tracker!), ends the game and lets me eke out the win.

mathguy 28 - 40 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-084456-a8a13b22.html
boloni builds an engine out of cantrips which I was hoping would stall after greening. It didn't and he won. Great use of workshop on his part.

mathguy 38 - 37 boloni
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111214-085100-4c0b3387.html
We both open Jack/lighthouse and by my turn 10 we each have 3 provinces (but I am up a very key estate). He correctly starts the duchy dance. On his turn 13 he breaks the PPR (correctly), but loses to my province buy on turn 16.

Very good games, and I am now convinced that boloni is one of the premiere engine builders.

[mathguy]

Just so people know, I am also reading all of these game summaries so please keep posting them! It is very interesting to see commentary of the top players when they play each other.

Any suggestions for these commentaries? Here are some of mine:

• I will probably not click on the gamelog link, so don't assume I know the setup/openings. That being said only tell me the relevant information.
• Key turns and key choices are great to see!
• The "speed" of the game is good to know. i.e. did the game feel frantic or like a slog.

[mischiefmaker]

I'm also reading them all, and feel like I might be learning something from the insightful comments.

 - Agree that key turns and key choices, especially the chosen strategy and opening, are the most important thing.
 - I like hearing about particularly strong/weak/controversial tactical plays. In general I think these situations are fairly rare and as a result we don't discuss them much.
 - Length of game is usually missing but I think it's important to know when a game was over -- was this an 11-turn megaengine race, a 12 turn game dragged out by Duchy dancing, a 25 turn Cursefest, etc.?
 - I appreciate it when people offer an opinion on who outplayed whom, or whether the game came down to luck. Reminds me that nobody wins them all and that luck is an important part of the game.