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Author Topic: My opponent's obsession for...  (Read 2089 times)

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Nevermind

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My opponent's obsession for...
« on: May 09, 2014, 10:52:59 pm »
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... cities. Every time I play a game against my opponent at his house and city is on the board, he rushes for them. Big time. He, like pile drives them! Weird thing is, I've only beat him in, like, one of those city games (embassy!) but, otherwise, on those kingdoms, he dominates. He doesn't even reach $10 and 2 buys! He just buys one by one by one... It's crazy! It might even drive this poor old hermit mad (which is why we play at his house(joke))!

HELP ME!!!!!
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serakfalcon

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Re: My opponent's obsession for...
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2014, 11:51:24 pm »
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It depends on the other cards in the kingdom. With the right set-up you could probably end the game ahead before he can finish pile-driving the cities.

Try:
Masterpiece,Feodum,Trader (and a source of +buy, maybe market square):
Trick is, at first, concentrate on getting money. When you hit 7 or more, buy masterpiece and overpay for silvers. After 2-3 turns like this, you can just concentrate on buying feodums or provinces. By the time a pile runs out you will likely have too many points for him to catch up.

Gardens/Beggar/Hamlet:
Get as many beggars as you can, and at least a few hamlets so you can always play the beggars in your hand. make sure to leave at least 3 cards in the beggar pile so he can't just drain them. Play beggar at every opportunity for coppers, buy gardens, profit!

You could also do something similar with workshop/some village/gardens, but that risks emptying a pile before you have a massive amount of points.

Of course, sometimes city really is useful, but I've found that I can still win if I lose the city split (4/6 or even 3/7) but I have more money and cards that cause problems for my opponent.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2014, 12:08:26 am by serakfalcon »
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BadAssMutha

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Re: My opponent's obsession for...
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2014, 12:04:51 am »
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With Cities, you either need to beat him or join him. If piles are unlikely to run out, you should just let him buy expensive villages one by one. Until a pile is empty, Cities are way overpriced, especially if there's no payload to go with the extra actions. With at least 10 turns to build your deck, you should be comfortably getting enough points so that by the time the City pile is empty, it's too late to come back. If you go this route, DO NOT buy any cities yourself, since that will only help to activate his sooner.

If piles are likely to run out (usually Curses/Ruins, or good cheap cantrips like Caravan), you should probably get some Cities yourself, and aim for at least an even split. +2 cards +2 actions is very powerful, especially when there's useful things to be done with all the free actions. With just a little extra drawing power, a souped-up City deck will have no trouble drawing the deck every turn. Be careful about emptying the second pile on your turn, since the extra $ and buy from fully powered Cities can sometimes allow your opponent to end the game quickly and unexpectedly. Ideally, empty a pile on your own turn, using a gainer (like Workshop) or Remodel variant.

The key with City games is to recognize which situation you're in before the game starts. If the game will go on for awhile, you probably want Cities with lots of endgame power. Otherwise, you're better off ignoring it completely and shutting the door before the Cities activate.
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amalloy

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Re: My opponent's obsession for...
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2014, 12:07:17 am »
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If your opponent is pile-driving City as the cornerstone of his strategy, you can beat that by just buying money and Provinces. Draining City by yourself is really bad as a strategy, if the Cities aren't being used to power some other more useful action cards. For example, I set up http://rspeer.github.io/dominiate/play.html to play Big Money + City, and it loses 70% of the time against Big Money + Nothing. if there's something even halfway useful on board, like Library, then focusing down the Cities is even worse.

Now, if he's using these Cities to enable something else, like City+Smithy+Woodcutter or something, then perhaps they're being effective for him. But lacking any context other than "he buys a lot of Cities and wins", the most I can offer is "Do anything less terrible", which includes just buying exclusively treasures.
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