So, I've been playing some of the Empires recommended sets of 10 with my friends over the last couple of weekends. I don't log games IRL, so I only have a general description of what happened. Thoughts on strategy for the sets, but also reviews of the sets (how balanced they are, how fun, novel, etc) is what I'm after in this thread. All the games here were played 3p.
Empires only
Basic Intro Tower, Wedding - Castles, Chariot Race, City Quarter, Engineer, Farmers' Market, Forum, Legionary, Patrician/Emporium, Sacrifice, Villa
Both my opponents went for an early Legionary, one picking up Castles along the way and another playing basically money. I opened 3/4, which was unfortunate, as if I had opened 4/3 I could have opened Sacrifice/Engineer and carried a debt into the shuffle. As it was, I opened Silver/Engineer, hoping to pick up a pair of Sacrifices with the Engineer on turns 3/4. As it turns out, I got super punished for this hubris when my Engineer missed the shuffle. The money player connected his Legionary a seemingly inordinate percentage of the time, which slowed me way down as well. I eventually cleaned up, and my deck of 6 Villas (empty pile), 6 Patrician/Emporiums (empty pile) and a couple City Quarters and Chariot Races was beginning to play well. I went for a Tower-induced pileout on Chariot Race (which I had 9 of when the game ended), only to realize that there are in fact, 2 Humble Castles in a 3p game, so I miscounted the Castles player's VP and lost by a few points. More patient play would probably have won me the game.
Advanced Intro Arena, Triumphal Arch - Archive, Capital, Catapult/Rocks, Crown, Enchantress, Gladiator/Fortune, Groundskeeper, Royal Blacksmith, Settlers/Bustling Village, Temple
Trashed down with temple while picking up some Settlers and sadly only one Bustling Village. Got one Royal Blacksmith. My last turn of the game: Crown/Capital, Crown/Capital, Crown/Gold, (Crown - just for the +buy)/Fortune with 5 Groundskeepers in play for an easy pileout with tons of VP. The one player who touched the Gladiator pile and revealed Fortune was also the only one not to pick up on Crown/Capital in time. Made my deck infinitely more explosive.
Empires & Seaside
King of the Sea Delve, Fountain - Archive, Farmers' Market, Overlord, Temple, Wild Hunt - Explorer, Haven, Native Village, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag
Both my opponents open Sea Hag, and I instead open Temple/Native Village. It is clear from the outset that they are all in on Fountain, each picking up their extra coppers relatively early. I eventually set up a Native Village/Wild Hunt engine with very necessary Overlord support; without Overlord this probably isn't consistent enough. Wild Hunt is pretty good; it was both draw and payload, drawing my whole deck and then playing a last one to pick up the VP. I had a Temple on hand to trash the Estate each turn, and I picked up a couple of Pirate Ships and managed to knock both my opponents out of their Fountain VP by the end of the game. One of my opponents had transitioned from Sea Hag into Big Money, and one of my opponents had basically floundered into a complete pile of coppers and Havens.
Empires and Adventures
Area Control Banquet, Keep - Capital, Catapult/Rocks, Charm, Crown, Farmers' Market - Coin of the Realm, Page, Relic, Treasure Trove, Wine Merchant
What a game, a fantastically novel game that felt nothing like any other game of Dominion I've ever played. The 3p dynamic was also great with this set, jockeying for position on treasure piles for most of the game. I ended up using Treasure Trove to win 3 piles, and when both my opponents kept Treasure Hunters to contest Silvers, I went straight to Hero (and then stopped), allowing me to steal a share of the Charm pile. I also won the Relic pile and the game, having picked up a single Province before a Charm, Crown, Capital pile out.
No Money, No Problems Bandit Fort, Mission - Archive, Encampment/Plunder, Royal Blacksmith, Temple, Villa - Dungeon, Duplicate, Hireling, Peasant, Transmogrify
I opened Temple/Peasant here, using a couple of Encampments and Mission to get thin and push my Peasant through to enlightenment. I was able to pick up two Plunders and cover the pile with two encampments (with two others in my deck), and then spread a couple of Teacher tokens onto Villa (+card) and Encampment (+ coin) and nicked a pile out. I actually liked what one of my opponents did, grabbing a ton of Soldiers for economy and annoyance, but he failed to send one through to Teacher and ended up not having a consistent enough deck to play all the Soldiers. The third player was a bit of a non-factor in the game.
