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[love]

Hi,

http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141113/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1415895973660.txt

I read the stef vs awaclus log above and I want to understand why stef starts buying provinces on turn 11. I always heard I should start to green when there is no way to improve my deck anymore or if I am behind two provinces. But I think on turn 11 one can still buy wishing well or a gold maybe. Why is it correct to buy a province here? Thank you for your help.

[JW]

Hi,

http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141113/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1415895973660.txt

I read the stef vs awaclus log above and I want to understand why stef starts buying provinces on turn 11. I always heard I should start to green when there is no way to improve my deck anymore or if I am behind two provinces. But I think on turn 11 one can still buy wishing well or a gold maybe. Why is it correct to buy a province here? Thank you for your help.

Stef buys a Province and his fourth Candlestick Maker on turn 11. There are 2 Candlestick Makers and 3 Stewards left, and Heralds are already out. Therefore, Stef threatens to end the game on a win if he starts his turn with a points lead, and after Stef's turn 11 he is ahead 6-0 because of that Province. Awaclus scrambles to buy points on turns 12 and 13 to avoid this. Stef gets a slight lead heading into his turn 13, and therefore can end the game with a win.

[Awaclus]

I read the stef vs awaclus log above and I want to understand why stef starts buying provinces on turn 11. I always heard I should start to green when there is no way to improve my deck anymore or if I am behind two provinces.

That sounds like bad advice. Usually you want to green because three piles are about to be emptied, in order to prevent your opponent from 3-piling and buying a single Estate on his turn. It's not the only reason for starting to green, but I think you can pretty safely forget about that "behind two Provinces" thing since some engines can come back after being 5 Provinces behind and I doubt the "no way to improve my deck" thing is ever going to be relevant, even though it's obviously a good idea to green in that situation.

[Jack Rudd]

I once had an engine that came back after being seven Provinces behind. Mind you, it was an engine that led to KC-KC-Bridge-Bridge-Bridge, and my opponent hadn't touched the Fairgrounds pile...

[DG]

I always heard I should start to green when there is no way to improve my deck anymore or if I am behind two provinces.

There may have been no way for Stef to improve the deck without offering a 3 pile ending to the opponent. In these situations you should never offer a chance for the opponent to win on the next turn (providing you have a reasonable alternative).

[liopoil]

I once had an engine that came back after being seven Provinces behind. Mind you, it was an engine that led to KC-KC-Bridge-Bridge-Bridge, and my opponent hadn't touched the Fairgrounds pile...

I once had an engine that came back from being 7 colonies and some provinces/duchies behind. Mind you, it was a KC-masq-outpost pin.

(and that's why you should buy provinces over colonies sometimes)

[pacovf]

I once had an engine that came back after being seven Provinces behind. Mind you, it was an engine that led to KC-KC-Bridge-Bridge-Bridge, and my opponent hadn't touched the Fairgrounds pile...

I once had an engine that came back from being 7 colonies and some provinces/duchies behind. Mind you, it was a KC-masq-outpost pin.

(and that's why you should buy provinces over colonies sometimes)

I once had an engine that came back from being in the garage, does that count?

[lespeutere]

No, I miss your "mind you" part.

[-Stef-]

So nice to see other people explain my actions I could use some of that in the rest of life too, because quite often I don't understand me.


love - there are quite a number of different endgames. I don't have any "rules" to solve them, but if you wanted to formulate one general rule it would have to be a whole lot more complex than what you wrote down in the OP. I'm not even going to try.

In this particular case, all actions are free anyway (double quarry). Piles are about to run out. I know my opponent doesn't have the buys to end it, but I feel like I have a comfortable lead and just don't want to lose. Even though my deck is better, it's still unreliable (Herald based with terminals, opposed to wharves or schemed scrying pools or tacticians or ...). I can't do anything to significantly improve the reliability either. Therefore, I'd like to prevent scenarios where one dead turn can make me lose.

So I just go for a province. Greening would be much worse if my opponent can ignore my points and keep building, but here he can't because of the 3-pile threat.