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[grrgrrgrr]

Hello,

With Empires out, I was wondering: what is the most powerful kingdom in Dominion?

When trying to the question, I was thinking about a kingdom that at least contains the following cards:
- Counting House
- Highway
- King's Court
- Coppersmith
- Scheme (not important, but makes it on turn faster)
What the remaining five cards are doesn't really matter, although several attacks can somewhat slow the game down.
The event cards are Counting House's super best friends. To be precise:
- Travelling Fair
- Banquet

With this setup, if you start with 5 coppers, the game will be as follows:
T1: Your hand: 5 coppers
-Buy Travelling Fair
-Buy Banquet for Counting House & 2 coppers; topdeck only counting house
-Buy Copper; don't topdeck
T2: Your hand has 1 coppers & 3 estates & Counting House (worst case scenario)
-Play Counting House; draw 8 coppers (you have $9)
-Buy Travelling Fair
-Buy Banquet for Counting House & 2 coppers; topdeck all
-Buy Banquet for Scheme & 2 coppers; topdeck Scheme and 1 copper
T3: Your hand has 1 Counting House & 1 scheme & 3 coppers
-Play Scheme; draw Copper
-Play Counting House; draw 10 copper (you have $14)
-Buy Travelling Fair (2x)
-Buy Banquet for Counting House and 2 coppers; topdeck Counting House
-Buy Banquet for Highway and 2 coppers; topdeck all (2x)
-Topdeck Scheme (via scheme)
T4: Your hand has 3 coppers; Scheme; Highway
-Play both Highways and Scheme. Your hand now has 4 coppers and Counting House
-Play Counting House; draw 16 copper (you have $20)
-Buy Travelling Fair (4x)
-Buy Banquet for King's Court and 2 coppers; topdeck King's Court (2x)
-Buy Banquet for Coppersmith and 2 coppers; topdeck Coppersmith (2x)
-Buy Copper
-Topdeck Counting House (via Scheme)
T5: Your hand has King's Court, King's Court, Coppersmith, Counting House
-Play King's Court+King's Court+Coppersmith+Coppersmith+Counting House
You now have 29 Copper in Hand. All of them are woth $7. So enjoy having $203 with Travelling Fair for the buys.

Yup, you gain the ability to buy all provinces in the 5th turn! And if you don't start with $5, if will be slightly weaker but still very strong.

This setup is an amalgation of already existing concepts. Counting House+Travelling Fair is a ridiculously powerful duo. Banquet is always a huge improvement for Counting House. Counting House always wants to work with Coppersmith, but usually doesn't get to.

What do you guys think. Do you know a stronger board?

[McGarnacle]

Welcome to the forums!

Haven't read the whole log exactly, but I'm guessing there is a stronger board, just because both Counting House and Coppersmith are pretty weak cards. KC is good, though.

[Qvist]

Not sure what you mean with most powerful board. But you can empty the whole supply in 2 turns if that is what you're looking for:
(I haven't actually read through the threads, but at least it seems possible for 3 players at a short glance)

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=11093.0
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=15683.0
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=14830.0 with worst shuffle luck it's like 5 turns

[grrgrrgrr]

With "powerful" I measure how fast people can gain lots of points without neading some coorporation of the opponents.

The games in qvist's links don't end in 5 turns; their purpose is to get the WHOLE supply in a relatively fast fashion.

Also, power of a card depends on the board it is in. Counting House and Coppersmith are statistically weak. But when backed up by the right cards, they are ridiculously strong.

[grrgrrgrr]

Nvm, Qvist games do end fast, but people need to coorperate in full, and for some of the games, luck is required.

[Holger]

Nvm, Qvist games do end fast, but people need to coorperate in full, and for some of the games, luck is required.

There is a board with a 42% probability to win on turn 1:

+ 5 other Kingdom Cards

[...]

Probability of Winning on 1st turn for Player 1 is ~42% (Probability Necropolis in 1st hand = 50%. Probability Necro + OG + Hovel (which means 2 copper in 1st hand) is 1 / 2 * 4 / 9 * 3 / 8 = 1 / 12. 1 / 2 - 1 / 12 ~= .41666666... = Probability Necropolis AND not both OG/Hovel)

And mith changed it into a board that is a guaranteed win for player 1 on turn 2, no cooperation or luck required:

I believe there is a way to turn the turn 1 solution into a turn 2 solution by adding Death Cart and removing Shelters. Death Cart gets around the possibility of opponent buying a Villa on turn 1 (only need 5 buys to empty the Ruins, instead of 10 for Patrician/Emporium; the remaining buys can gain Border Village/Duchy for points), and also gives you a way to be sure your turn 2 hand gets to 5.

With 2 or 3 on turn 1, just buy Travelling Fair + Ruin - this sets up turn 2 to have at least the Ruin and 3 Coppers, and then the turn 1 solution follows.
With 4 or 5 on turn 1, buy Borrow + Travelling Fair + Death Cart (use Baker token if needed) - this gives you a Ruin in hand and $5 from Death Cart (trashes itself or the other Ruin, either way), so you don't need the Baker token.

Unless I'm missing something, this is 100% for player 1, though of course we are still well over the Event limit.

Both use >2 Events, however.