Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: A Bridge Too Far ...  (Read 1115 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Marcus316

  • Alchemist
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 36
  • Respect: +5
    • View Profile
A Bridge Too Far ...
« on: November 28, 2011, 06:38:48 pm »
0

I probably should have posted numerous Games already, as I'm trying to improve, but I don't want to spam this board endlessly. :) I already play this game too much.

Anyways, here is a recently played game. I won, but all advice is welcome; I'm sure my play will make stronger players cringe. Instead, I was thinking about asking how my opponent could have played to take this game away from me.

Game Log here: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111127-222532-58abe632.html

Some questions ...

Opening - Was Potion a decent opening buy for this game?

Turns 7/8 - Should I have used one of these buys to pick up my Margrave? I was concentrating on getting more buying power, since the Golem was frustratingly slow to come ...

Turn 12 - Was this purchase a mistake? I could have started on the Provinces instead, but I thought I might need a couple more targets for my Golems

Turn 13 - Opposite question from Turn 12. Is this too early to get into the provinces?

Turns 14/16 - Was my spamming the Conspirators a good idea? I thought it might be good to have a Three-Pile end option, and the Conspirators seem to work very well with Golem. I also thought maybe a couple WW might be useful, though I never did get anything extra off them.

(Extra) Turns 17+ - Any comments on my Endgame play?

===============================================================================================

This ain't no top-player game, but here's my own analysis. You can skip it if you're not interested, but if you do read it, please correct any of the thoughts I've put down here. I found that going through the game like this helped me decide what I wanted to ask.

Bridge, Conspirator, Golem, Margrave, Merchant Ship, Nobles, Outpost, Potion, Salvager, Scout, and Wishing Well
My Opening: Silver/Potion
My Opponent's Opening: Silver/Bridge

Opponent plays first.

With the opening buys, I'm pretty sure my opponent is going to try and build some sort of multi-Bridge engine. When I considered that myself, I thought it would be pretty hard to do since the only village effect available was the Nobles (if you don't count the Golem). I want the Golem, which is more versatile in my opinion. In addition, I can buy a couple of bridges later Golem can activate them for me. I thought this would be a better strategy, especially since I think there's a better way to get multiple buys on the board: Margrave. (Side Note: To be honest, I missed the fact that Salvager was there. That might be a better opening, but I don't know ...)

So, my plan was to go for the Golem and Margrave, maybe picking up a Bridge along the way.

(I discovered the TABLE tag after doing all the manual formatting; something to remember for the future)

Code: [Select]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                loraleigh                                       Marcus316
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 3  |       Bridge                                 |        $3P -> Silver
        |       $5 -> Nobles                           |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 4  |       $4 -> Bridge (shuffle)                 |        $4 -> Bridge (shuffle)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 5  |       $3 -> Silver                           |        $3P -> Silver
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 6  |       Nobles (2 Actions)                     |        $3 -> Silver (shuffle)
        |       Bridge                                 |
        |       Bridge                                 |
        |       $5 -> Nobles (shuffle)                 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 7  |       $4 -> Conspirator                      |        Bridge
        |                                              |        $6 -> Gold
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 8  |       Nobles (3 Cards)                       |        $6 -> Gold
        |       $5 -> Merchant Ship (shuffle)          |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 9  |       Conspirator                            |        $4P -> Golem (shuffle)
        |       $4 -> Salvager                         |

Having to wait until turn 9 to get my first Golem was a bit painful. I couldn't even afford a Margrave until Turn 7, but by then I opted to continue with Big Money until I could get the first Golem. I figured the one Bridge would be enough of a hit for now in case I drew the Golem early.

As for Turns 7 and 8, I had enough to purchase Gold, so I skipped the Margrave purchase for now. The +3 Cards and +1 Buy are only useful if I have enough Treasure to make my buys worthwhile.

On to my opponent's buys ...

Deck Problem:
Opponent purchases almost exclusively Action cards, and only Nobles can make them work together, which isn't always useful. As early as Turn 7 and Turn 8, my opponent had unused actions in hand (a Bridge on both turns, dead in the hand). Part of the problem is too few Treasures, as both these turns were with hands containing only $2 worth of Treasure.

Lesson:
Money is king. If there's not enough in your deck (or you can't get to it fast enough), your opponent will be at an advantage. Even in this Kingdom, where many of my opponent's cards are effectively Silvers (+$2), being able to play only 1 or 2 of these at a time is not as effective as being able to lay out all your treasure.

I think the Nobles my opponent purchased on Turn 3 was a mistake. With $6 on Turn 3, a Gold would have been good for my opponent. If my opponent had bought the Gold instead, his/her hand on Turn 6 could have been: 2x Bridge, Gold, Silver, Estate. Even though the Bridges have collided, it doesn't affect the purchasing power. My opponent could still buy a Nobles (or another Gold), and would not have been slowed at all.

On with the game:
Code: [Select]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                loraleigh                                       Marcus316
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 10 |       Nobles (3 Cards)                       |        $5 -> Margrave
        |       $6 -> Nobles                           |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 11 |       Nobles (3 Cards) (shuffle)             |        $5P -> Golem
        |       $6 -> Nobles                           |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 12 |       Bridge                                 |        (shuffle) Golem (Bridge, Margrave)
        |       $4 -> Potion                           |        $8P -> Nobles, Bridge (shuffle)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn 13 |       Nobles (2 Actions)                     |        $9 -> Province
        |       Nobles (3 Cards)                       |
        |       Merchant Ship                          |
        |       $3 -> Silver                           |

My deck is finally off the ground, and I begin to go green, as I asked above:
1) Is it too early to start going for Provinces? If so, why? or;
2) Should I have begun a turn earlier instead of picking up a couple more targets for my Golem?

As for my opponent, all of his/her numerous actions are still making it hard to keep buying. There will be a lot of catching up to do, and not enough time to do it. A couple of early Gold buys would have made the game much easier on him.

The rest of the game is pretty much endgame. I wonder whether my multiple Conspirator buys in the late game were a good idea or not (as asked above).

New players, let me know if
Logged

DG

  • Governor
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4074
  • Respect: +2624
    • View Profile
Re: A Bridge Too Far ...
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2011, 08:36:49 pm »
0

It's pretty difficult to comment on such an involved strategy in depth. There are also a lot of options with all the kingdom cards coming into play. A simpler deck could work fine. I'll just make a few points.

The golem is an expensive card. Start building up your deck with useful 3 and 4 cost cards and bring in the potion when decent hands are assured.

The conspirator has many better partner cards in the kingdom than the bridge. A bridge could be useful in buying cheap components, but a conspirator deck looks to better than a complex bridge deck. Trashing with a salvager might help more than buying extra cards with a bridge. In your game you just bought more and more cards so the deck lost all its balance and relied on the two golems to pull the other 40 cards together.

The margrave looks like a good card in this kingdom and its attack would probably hurt a lot of the cheaper actions. Putting a margarve into your own deck would also clash with your action cards though. Even though a number of the kingdom cards suggest some good interactions I'm guessing that you either have to buy them very late, they provide little value on their own, the margrave hurts them, or the game is over before a working engine is assembled.

Taking a late salvager would have helped you a great deal, even if you didn't take an early one.

Golem decks work better when the actions are planned or else they turn into a lucky dip.
Logged

ehunt

  • Torturer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1528
  • Shuffle iT Username: ehunt
  • Respect: +1855
    • View Profile
Re: A Bridge Too Far ...
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2011, 10:07:40 pm »
0

Opening potion for golem is a mistake, as I think you've accepted.

I don't disagree with your nobles/bridge buy on turn twelve, as your opponent needs nobles even to get off the ground, so any dip into the nobles pile is good to mess with him.

I believe you should invest even more heavily in margrave, as they will do great harm to your opponent's deck.
Logged
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.097 seconds with 21 queries.