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Author Topic: empires: encampment and plunder  (Read 2876 times)

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schadd

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empires: encampment and plunder
« on: August 07, 2016, 05:40:44 pm »
+1


hey you're gonna need a visa to set up this encampment. except they don't make those so you just have to bribe me. and also you don't actually have do bribe me, you just have to demonstrate that you can


i like revealing gold for stuff. it's tactics and also strategy, and also you might or might not be able to get plunder, and conveniently, the one who has the most encampments is also the one most interested in making plunders available. so there tends to be some driving force towards doing that. the card encampment would not be horribly awful if there wasn't a way to keep them, and hey, there's two, that aren't all that distinct but whatever. and plunder is like a monument that is instead a treasure, which is fine. they're both grand, and as a unit i'm not sure if they really push any strategy sort of thing in particular.


-is there any implicit synergy of these two compatriots
-is there ever a time where you completely skip plunder and just pick up a couple golds and all 5 encampments?
-are these two cards exciting?
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jomini

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2016, 06:06:06 pm »
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Picking up just the encampments? Sure have a treasure hating deck that needs actions (e.g. Goons/Pool) but can sustain a gold (e.g. Haven). Running a tight ship of 6 Goons, a Gold and encampments is huge points (36 VP from buys alone on the final turn). Obviously that is a contrived example, but encampment can really limit the number of terminals in play when it is the only village out, monopolizing them can make for some lopsided setups. Other times you may want to limit your treasures and Gold just works better (e.g. with Legionary or to use as fodder for a Stonemason before buying it back).

Further it is completely valid to treat encampment as a mini-Madman. With light trashing and sifting you may well be able to setup 6 Bridges quick enough to skip out on the Gold/Plunder entirely. With 7 (from Nec) Bridges, that is pretty much game over once you line up the combo. Encampment, Forum, Bridge would be a not too bad a megaturn setup where Gold & Plunder may be skippable.

Outside of the megaturn, Encampment is dirt cheap. Drop a ferry on it and you can just buy replacements for +buys. This can let you haven enough actions to setup interesting combos (e.g. Militia, Masq, B-crat) and just buy two Encampments a turn off of non-terminal +buy (e.g. Forager, Cmaker, Pawn).

More often though, Plunder is just insanely good unless it is very near the end of the game. It is a non-terminal Monument for $1 more that you cannot even draw dead. Yeah it is vulnerable to thief, gums up Pools, clogs Libs, cannot be Kc'ed and does not juice Cityq ... but it takes very few turns for Plunder to pay out and it is cheaper than gold to keep your cheap "Lost cities".

Ultimately I think Encampment is good enough that you should just plan on buying it back a few times unless you can make a go of it with other villages, heavy trashing, or non-terminal draw.
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Chris is me

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2016, 07:47:08 pm »
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My favorite aspect of this card is the risk / reward of playing it without Gold or Plunder in hand, and how the winner of the split actually changes over time. It's never "oh, lost the Encampment split, the game is now over". It makes for exciting games.

Plunder is boring, but a pretty good card.
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werothegreat

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2016, 08:13:58 pm »
+1

My favorite aspect of this card is the risk / reward of playing it without Gold or Plunder in hand, and how the winner of the split actually changes over time. It's never "oh, lost the Encampment split, the game is now over". It makes for exciting games.

But if your deck is not as consistent as your opponent's, you have to hold onto the Encampments you have for dear life, or you will never get them back.
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J Reggie

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2016, 09:46:00 am »
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These cards aren't as good if you can only gain one card per turn.

werothegreat

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2016, 10:01:52 am »
+1

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trivialknot

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Re: empires: encampment and plunder
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2016, 08:52:49 pm »
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In some early games with encampment, my friends and I would buy it early and then hold onto it for a shuffle or two hoping to get plunder and keep them.  I have decided now that this is the wrong strategy.  If you're buying encampments early on, better to play them at first opportunity.  If you play it the first time you see it, you net one card.  If you play it the second time you see it, you net 0 cards.

Now as for the correct strategy, I haven't figured that out yet.  I think getting gold first might be better.
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