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Author Topic: Pilgrimage  (Read 4988 times)

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jsh357

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Pilgrimage
« on: October 17, 2015, 10:15:23 am »
+10



"The pilgrimage has gained momentum /
Take a turn, take a turn /
Take a fortune, take a fortune"

- Michael Stipe

At first it might seem like Pilgrimage is more trouble than it's worth. You have to spend two turns and $8 to get its effect, and that can be quite a lot of opportunity cost on many boards. Things get rosier when you realize you are gaining three cards you have in play of any cost. This means you can gain another Gold. It means you can gain another King's Court. It means you can gain another Familiar or Possession. Grand Market has an amazing synergy too.

I think the implications there are fairly obvious. You're spending a measly $8 (really $4 two times, which is a whole lot different than $8) on cards that could be worth a whole lot more. However, I'd argue Pilgrimage is still pretty sweet when you are gaining cheaper cards with it. The important thing here is that in most cases, Pilgrimage is gaining you cards that you certainly want more of in your engine. Most engines like having parts in mass: draw cards, villages, gainers, money earners, and so on. By adding more of these cards to your deck in one fell swoop, you are adding a lot of value at hopefully little stopping risk.

Of course, you want to be careful what you gain. If your turns contain Village, Smithy, Market, and Militia, odds are your Pilgrimages should be netting you Villages and Markets primarily with a few Smithies sprinkled in. Odds are you don't want to add another Militia. The more cantrips and nonterminal actions you can add, the better. It might seem like adding a bunch of Gold and Woodcutters could net you a lot of money, but remember that having a starting hand of five stop cards means you are doing no better than your initial hand in a turn. This is where deckbuilding skill comes in to play, and it's why I predict we will see better players using Pilgrimage more often. Pilgrimage is not an event you should trigger without a plan.

Setting up your Pilgrimage takes a bit of finesse. You need to spend a spare buy on a $4 that nets you nothing. The upside of this is that by the time you have a deck worth playing Pilgrimage with, hopefully there are not very many $4 or fewer options you would consider worth a single buy. The prospect of gaining three helpful cards next turn should outweigh the lost opportunity. There are some instances where it might not! If an important pile is about to be drained, you should probably buy the last card in that pile instead, for example. Certain situations are nice for buying that dead Pilgrimage too, particularly in Adventures-heavy games. Opponent played a Swamp hag? Might as well set up your Pilgrimage this turn. You went on a Mission? Pilgrimage away.  Of course, speaking more generally, there are times where you might end up with a bad draw. It happens to the best of us. Often you do have $4 on those draws, though, so Pilgrimage is likely to be a strong option as long as you have a good potential to profit off the Event soon.

I should quickly mention that Pilgrimage can be combined with Ranger or Giant to flip the Journey token around. Of course, remember that if you use this combination you are losing the effect of one of the Journey token users, so it had better be worth doing.

Finally, one of the considerations when using Pilgrimage is that it can only gain cards that are put in play. This means you are not going to be able to gain Provinces or Colonies, which means that Pilgrimage is only useful in the endgame if you are planning to run piles. Good engines typically do want to have that option available, so Pilgrimage is quite nice in the endgame as long as you can end on a point lead, but if things are down to the wire and you need points, not pile control, it is probably not worth setting up a Pilgrimage over gaining points. Don't throw all your eggs in a basket that might have a hole in it.

The short version:
- Pilgrimage can gain cards that are very expensive or awkward to buy as long as you already have one
- Pilgrimage is worth using when you want multiples of the same cards in your deck, particularly in an engine
- Some cards, particularly in Adventures, help you set up a Pilgrimage, so always consider those options when they are available
- Consider using Pilgrimage in the endgame for pile control, but remember it cannot gain the big victory cards unless Donald releases an Inheritance for Provinces in a future set.
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DG

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Re: Pilgrimage
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2015, 05:11:01 pm »
0

4 coins can be a bad income in many kingdoms when gaining silver has no benefit and the cheap kingdom cards are equally unhelpful. This means that pilgrimage sits at an ideal cost to turn poor hands into something productive.
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A Drowned Kernel

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Re: Pilgrimage
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2015, 06:55:25 pm »
+10

Pilgrimage is not an event you should trigger without a plan.

But they're only going to be on the board together a small amount of the time...
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schadd

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Re: Pilgrimage
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2015, 07:42:11 pm »
0

Pilgrimage is not an event you should trigger without a plan.

But they're only going to be on the board together a small amount of the time...
thbhtbhtbhthfhbtfhTHBFHBTHFBFTH
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Pilgrimage
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2015, 05:35:25 pm »
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I'm really excited about how this event will play out. It's potentially viable on almost every board, but I have no idea how good it actually is.
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