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[love]

Hi,

Before you start to read I want to apologize, because the article was written under time pressure and therefore not written very meticulous. I played this board recently.

Code: [Select]

Horse Traders, Militia, Rats, Bandit Camp, Highway, Journeyman, Merchant Guild, Treasury, Venture, Grand Market
Game 1:

http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20140731/log.51279b11e4b03ef870c8e38e.1406800584300.txt

I lost. After a loss I sometimes play the same board again until I am convinced that I found a strategy winning the majority of games on the board. I admit in the first game it is probably an opening mistake to buy the militia, because it is soft countered by horse trader and the horsetrader has a good synergy to highway, which has a synergy to grand market. Also  merchant guild on turn 5 is maybe a mistake. Maybe merchant guild is not worth to be bought on this board at all. Another question that comes to my mind is how many journeyman and bandit camps are probably required? I feel the need for at least 2 journeyman, because there is no trashing. However, I might be wrong about that.

Game 2:

http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20140806/log.51279b11e4b03ef870c8e38e.1407346683630.txt

In the second game I was happy because my opponent bought 2 horse traders in a row and I considered that as a mistake. Besides a got a nice lead in grand markets after turn 15 (After I lost the game I chatted with my opponent asking why he bought two horse traders. He explained they combo well with his big mass of highways I concluded that I was wrong about the horse traders. And he said that militia is probably bad on this board )  I really got a lead in grand markets but than suddenly on turn 19  my opponent has a mega turn and gets so many colonies that I decided to resign.

Game 3:

http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20140807/log.51279b11e4b03ef870c8e38e.1407432375817.txt

With all the experience and knowledge gained from the two previous games I hoped to win this time. I was impressed by the strategy of my opponent on game 2. I decided to copy the strategy. So no militia, no merchant guild, 2 horse traders many highways. After highways are empty go for grand markets. But I get busted. By turn 13 my opponent starts to buy lots of ventures. I thought this is a mistake too since the ventures should clog up his deck. However he still produces quite good turns. After he has a lead of 3 colonies I resign.

I am happy about your feedback about what I can improve here and there. Thank you

Cheers,

love

[-Stef-]

Hi love, what a lovely name You start playing better gradually. I also like most of your analysis. I'll just repeat / expand a bit on it:

Clearly the highway + free buys strategy can be very strong, but no trashing is annoying. So you'll have to be very careful about the kind of "stop cards" that you add.
In the deck you're trying to build: Silvers are bad, Golds are bad, Militia is bad, Horse Traders is bad, Merchant Guild is really bad. None of them help you draw more highways.
Highways are great. Grand Market is important to have, but not as important as highway.
Bandit Camp + Journeyman is quite good, because it can draw you more highways. Focus on these once the highways are gone.

Obviously you can't start the game by skipping all the bad stuff, when all the good stuff costs $5 or more. However, do not add more of the bad stuff then absolutely necessary to get the good stuff. If you're well into the phase of buying $5+ cards, and then have a bad turn with only $3, buying nothing is much better then adding Silver.

so... well played in the last game on turn 6, 8 & 10. I like everything you do up until you get the treasury. Treasury isn't a bad card, but it's just not worth the $5 it costs here. In stead keep adding village+draw. Still, you're winning this game... just don't resign. You're playing a strategy that makes your deck exponentially better over time... don't be afraid to fall behind a bit on points in the process.

[DG]

If you only half commit to a strategy here then everything becomes much the same. Ventures or highways, militia or horse traders, it might not make much difference as long as the overall deck is coherent. Horse traders should get better once you build the extreme deck that tries to get the megaturn with lots of highways and grand markets in play together.

Drawing the megaturn deck is difficult in this kingdom though since all the cards you need are expensive at cost 5 and 6, so one always comes at the expense of another. If you have to compete with your opponent for highways and grand markets then you're into a 3 pile finish before you can even think of a drawing engine. The bandit camps are also problematic in a drawing engine since you don't want the spoils, they just clog up the deck, and you'd need a quite a few bandit camps and journeymen. Is the engine worth going for? Yes, it should give you end game control even if it builds slowly.

[love]

Thank you for your answers. They are really helping me^^

[Davio]

[...]

If you're well into the phase of buying $5+ cards, and then have a bad turn with only $3, buying nothing is much better then adding Silver.

[...]

I'll just emphasize that, because it's very natural to want to gain at least one card per turn. Sometimes you really have to restrain yourself. It's easier if the only options are Estate or Copper, but much harder if you can grab at least a Silver. Silver's not bad, right? Well, Silver is indeed not as bad as a Curse, but it's also not great if you're trying to draw as much cards as you can.