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[werothegreat]

*clever line about harbors*

-How does this compare to other Villages?
-Is it worth opening Port?
-How often do you want to really contest the pile?

[AdrianHealey]

I am very confused about this card. It's like 'here, people buy too many villages, so let's give them extra's!'

[aku_chi]

Port is one of the best villages.  Buying a Port is almost always better than gaining a card that reads +1 card, +3 actions.  On the other hand, gaining a Port without buying it is rarely better than gaining a vanilla Village.

I believe it is often correct to contest Ports when it is the only source of +actions (and there are terminals worth playing).  Losing the Port split 8-4 (4 buys to 2) is more impactful than losing any other village pile 6-4.  In a 3-player game (where the aforementioned conditions apply), you do not want to find yourself with only 2 Ports.  If you're contesting Ports, then, you probably want to open with a pair; there generally isn't time to wait.  Port + (terminal) Silver is a decent opening; you have a good chance of hitting / or / on turns three and four.  It depends on the rest of the kingdom, though.  With Torturer, I would really want to grab the Ports early.  With Mountebank, I might prefer to open with something else to make it more likely that I hit .

[Limetime]

Opening port seems bad more than 99% of the time. It is still a village that does 0 things for you 1st shuffle. THe only case where it is worth opening is like when there are like 0 5 costs that you want right away and it is the only village and the villages will be contested.
WIth torturer I would probably still get double silver so I can get torturer port on my first shuffle. Torturer should hurt the person who needs to hit 5 but opened port.

[markusin]

Opening port seems bad more than 99% of the time. It is still a village that does 0 things for you 1st shuffle. THe only case where it is worth opening is like when there are like 0 5 costs that you want right away and it is the only village and the villages will be contested.
WIth torturer I would probably still get double silver so I can get torturer port on my first shuffle. Torturer should hurt the person who needs to hit 5 but opened port.

If for whatever reason you can open 4/4, then maybe a Port/Death Cart opening can be a thing if you want to spike $6-8. Having two villages helps the Ruins suck less early on and can serve as a Death Cart target in a pinch.

[JThorne]

I really hate having to contest Villages and will rarely open them. Just because my opponent(s) are being Village Idiots shouldn't force my hand into being one, too. I've watched it happen with Wandering Minstrels when it was the only source of +Actions and watched as players complained because they were skipping over their money and not accomplishing anything.

There are 6 port buys available vs. 10 buys of any other Village, so yeah, they can pile out quickly, but if your opponent(s) are hitting ports hard early, take a good look and see if you can get away with doing something else that punishes them for what will be a very slow start as they spin their wheels not buying cards that actually do something. Can you plan on losing the Port split intentionally?

By contrast, since there are 12 of them, sometimes players will do the right thing and start out with building/trashing, knowing that there are actually plenty of Ports to go around for several decent engines and "losing the split" really isn't that big a deal. I will happily lose the split 8-4 if I also have 4 Torturer/Rabble/Goons/Smithy/whatever, and my opponent has no engine parts and all their starting cards.

That said, I did hit Ports hard early in a game recently...with Training.

[Limetime]

Opening port seems bad more than 99% of the time. It is still a village that does 0 things for you 1st shuffle. THe only case where it is worth opening is like when there are like 0 5 costs that you want right away and it is the only village and the villages will be contested.
WIth torturer I would probably still get double silver so I can get torturer port on my first shuffle. Torturer should hurt the person who needs to hit 5 but opened port.

If for whatever reason you can open 4/4, then maybe a Port/Death Cart opening can be a thing if you want to spike $6-8. Having two villages helps the Ruins suck less early on and can serve as a Death Cart target in a pinch.

THe reason ruins are bad is there effects are worse than nothing not they cost one action to play.

[LastFootnote]

Opening port seems bad more than 99% of the time. It is still a village that does 0 things for you 1st shuffle. THe only case where it is worth opening is like when there are like 0 5 costs that you want right away and it is the only village and the villages will be contested.
WIth torturer I would probably still get double silver so I can get torturer port on my first shuffle. Torturer should hurt the person who needs to hit 5 but opened port.

If for whatever reason you can open 4/4, then maybe a Port/Death Cart opening can be a thing if you want to spike $6-8. Having two villages helps the Ruins suck less early on and can serve as a Death Cart target in a pinch.

THe reason ruins are bad is there effects are worse than nothing not they cost one action to play.

And yet, having a surplus of villages can make most Ruins suck less, which is exactly what markusin said.

[markusin]

Opening port seems bad more than 99% of the time. It is still a village that does 0 things for you 1st shuffle. THe only case where it is worth opening is like when there are like 0 5 costs that you want right away and it is the only village and the villages will be contested.
WIth torturer I would probably still get double silver so I can get torturer port on my first shuffle. Torturer should hurt the person who needs to hit 5 but opened port.

If for whatever reason you can open 4/4, then maybe a Port/Death Cart opening can be a thing if you want to spike $6-8. Having two villages helps the Ruins suck less early on and can serve as a Death Cart target in a pinch.

THe reason ruins are bad is there effects are worse than nothing not they cost one action to play.

Right, but early on it helps that Port can mitigate the downsides of some of the Ruins until you reach the point where Death Cart can trash them. Every little bit of help counts, though you most likely want to get some other trasher at some point.

But then, Death Cart is generally underwhelming to begin with.  More often than not I buy Death Cart for draining the Ruins pile.

PPE: Ninja'd by LF.

[werothegreat]

Regardless of the actual mechanics of the card, the artwork is just beautiful, I must say.

[jomini]

Opening Port is not something I am crazy about, but it does make sense in 4er and even 3er. It is far too easy with multiple players to end up with 0 or 2 villages and get locked out of contention, particularly if you are also fighting off attacks. It also makes sense to open Port if you are going be using low cost terminals and are heavy trashing. For instance, Port/Chap/Alms works really well as you never collide on Chapel on the first shuffle, you can time your shuffles better, and you can still get some fun terminals to quickly build back buying power (e.g. things like Fortune teller, Scavenger, Horse traders, etc.) quickly. Likewise if you are doing something like Steward/Port/Wt it can be worth it early on to grab Ports so you can buy terminals and not worry about buying Silvers to maintain buying power (you really do not want to be playing Steward for cards or coin just to buy Port later).

Port also plays really nice with cards that care about value. Feed your Salvager over two turns, Forge a province next turn for $4, or Tr -> Upgrade to pick up two nice $5s. And like all cards with any sort of on-gain effect, Port is a pretty nice feed for scaling TfB.


In terms of how games actually play out, Port makes engine get going a lot faster. Spending half the normal number of turns acquiring early villages is nothing to sneeze it; in some cases it may effectively give you an extra turn with each Port buy. It is particularly handy if your draw or payload cards fall in the $4 range. On the flip side, the Port pile tends to empty faster and empty fully, unlike a lot of other village piles, this makes it a good bit easier to reach end game. One or two other fast piles can very quickly turn the game into a duchy race or an instant 3-pile. None of this is huge, but Port should make you consider marginal engines a bit more and consider a bit more building with an eye towards a possible 3-pile.

[dedicateddan]

Port is one of the premier targets for the +card token (it's a lost city!)

As a village, the first few give so many actions that you rarely need very many (like fishing village)

Also, there are only 12/2=6 ports, so the pile runs very quickly

[Seprix]

One of the best $4 Villages in the game, not for being great, but for being efficient. Basically, it's worth $3, but then two are gained every time it is bought. It's not going to beat Fishing Village, but pound for pound one of the best value purchases someone could make early game. It also piles faster than other cards (as long as you buy them) at an astonishing 6 gains, in comparison to 10 gains. In a game where Ports are the only villages, and Goons/Wharf is on the board, I'm going to seriously consider opening Port/Silver, just to get that leg up. Other than that, Port is not something to open with. As for contesting Port, it may/may not be worth it, depending on the kingdom. If I need more villages, I only have to make half the purchases to get my Village fix, and overbuying Villages is still a mistake, even when you get double the amount. Something to consider.

[Limetime]

Gaining port with workshop is exactly the same as gaining village with workshop.

[Seprix]

Gaining port with workshop is exactly the same as gaining village with workshop.

Not if your opponent really wants those last two Ports and you only have $3 to spend to block him with.

[Chris is me]

I'm gonna laugh when I win Port splits 8-4 or 10-2 on Dominion Online because you guys are still so hung up on "not being a Village Idiot" you don't realize half the pile is gone in 3 buys instead of 5.

I'm not saying you should only buy Port until they are gone and then buy terminals only after the Ports are gone, no way, but the whole Village Idiot thing assumes you have plenty of time to get Villages, and with Port you just don't.

[Mavy2k]

Port is a card I kinda dislike in 4p games.
This is a card you do not want to open with, but usually want some of.
Every single game the pile was empty by turn 4. Happened as soon as turn 3.
This is especially bad, if it is the only source with +action on the board.
This pushes everyone towards the same strategy, which I really dislike. I like that everyone in my group usually has a different strategy approach.

[Watno]

Getting 2 $4 cantrips might be pretty good even if you don't need extra actions, jsut for Trash for benefit/remodeling purposes.

[iguanaiguana]

This pushes everyone towards the same strategy, which I really dislike. I like that everyone in my group usually has a different strategy approach.

If a non-village based strategy is competitive with an engine on a board, whether it's port or say Wandering minstrel shouldn't make too much of a difference. Kinda sounds like your gaming group has some groupthink going on when it comes to port being good.

[GendoIkari]

Port is a card I kinda dislike in 4p games.

I could say the same about every card in Doninion.

[wachsmuth]

So after playing a lot of Adventures online for the first day of Dominion Online, I've noticed that this card is apparently a huge trap card for many players. I think at least 3 times I saw different people playing some variant of Port-Big Money, which is obviously awful. Not to say that there aren't many village idiots online, but apparently Port is particularly attractive to them. Maybe it's because it's a new and exciting card that's also easy to understand, and it'll disappear soon. But maybe Port appears significantly more attractive in decks where villages are weak than other villages.

[E.Honda]

So after playing a lot of Adventures online for the first day of Dominion Online, I've noticed that this card is apparently a huge trap card for many players. I think at least 3 times I saw different people playing some variant of Port-Big Money, which is obviously awful. Not to say that there aren't many village idiots online, but apparently Port is particularly attractive to them. Maybe it's because it's a new and exciting card that's also easy to understand, and it'll disappear soon. But maybe Port appears significantly more attractive in decks where villages are weak than other villages.

Its because you get 2, so you can play even more villages to get to your other villages faster

[Max]

The super annoying thing is that because people are so excited by them, you need to spend a couple of early buys before you need them before you're stuck with only 2.

[Aleimon Thimble]

The super annoying thing is that because people are so excited by them, you need to spend a couple of early buys before you need them before you're stuck with only 2.

If you don't need 6 or more Villages, then the joke's on your opponent for diving into those Ports without a good reason, and I wouldn't be annoyed if an opponent made such a mistake. If you do need 6 or more Villages, fighting to win the split was actually the correct choice by your opponent, since now you're left with a deck with too few Villages. In that case, you can only be annoyed at yourself for letting your opponent win the split (unless you got shafted by shuffle luck).

[JW]

The super annoying thing is that because people are so excited by them, you need to spend a couple of early buys before you need them before you're stuck with only 2.

If you don't need 6 or more Villages, then the joke's on your opponent for diving into those Ports without a good reason, and I wouldn't be annoyed if an opponent made such a mistake. If you do need 6 or more Villages, fighting to win the split was actually the correct choice by your opponent, since now you're left with a deck with too few Villages. In that case, you can only be annoyed at yourself for letting your opponent win the split (unless you got shafted by shuffle luck).

In 2 players, this is correct, but it changes with 3+ players. For example, one opponent is playing regular Big Money, another is playing dubious Port-Big Money, and you're playing a normally great engine that now has a tough time getting enough +Actions.