I was actually thinking about the possibly-inaccurate power predictions thread from the Empires Previews board recently and my opinions on cards from back then. Before ShuffleIt my experience was mostly 4 player games so I think my experience with some of the cards was very different. I think it will be interesting to look back and see what I think now.
Kingdom cards for now.
Debt
Engineer: With second edition adding more workshop-friendly cards to the mix in base-only games I've gained a new appreciation for workshop and its variants, and Engineer is actually an extremely good workshop variant as far as they go. It's really good at helping you get key piles and the fact that it goes away when you're done means I'm more willing to buy it to help empty a single other pile than I would with many other workshop-likes, where I typically look to have more than one pile to gain from. This is a solid card.
City Quarter: As nutso as everyone suspected it would be. There are boards where it won't matter because it's hard to get your action density up, but it's usually obvious what those boards are. Watch out for crazy combos with Vault and Storeroom, and any discard for benefit really. City Quarter + Storeroom is frightening the way your opponent can suddenly start generating absurd amounts of cash, and comes with +buys too!
Overlord: I've been buying it and opening with it less than I thought I might, but it's still very strong. You ideally need to be able to take advantage of its flexibilty for it to work well, paying 8 to get a 5 one shuffle earlier is not always worth it if it stops you from building fast and early. I have seen games where the high cost means buying one early caused my opponent to do something like badly lose a crucial village split (splitter split?), and with Overlord no longer able to mimic the only villages it did not go well for them.
Royal Blacksmith: It's excellent, but you really really want copper trashing, although buying it and using it before the coppers are all gone is not such a big deal. Counting House is a cute combo in the absence of trashing, but in my experience actually not very reliable because you need a village in your starting 5 and have a bunch of coppers around. Make no mistake though, this is strong draw.
$2
Encampment / Plunder: I predicted Encampment was the real rockstar here and I still agree. Almost never see Plunder actually show up. Buying an encampment with a spare $2 buy is generally very good, and if you eventually get a gold and luck into keeping these, then it can be excellent engine grease. Having them be set aside is really not all that bad, even one use can still be strong, like an early silver buy that goes away so you can get that one $5 cost you wanted.
Patrician / Emporium: Found this pile to be hard to make use of, but when Emporiums are available then they are great to pick up a lot of the time. A peddler almost-duchy can really help to keep up points-wise without stalling.
Settlers / Bustling Village: I have seen this pile be irrelevant more often than not but when building a deck-drawing engine is quite hard then don't underestimate this! I have been crushed by underestimating how having settlers can sometimes turn bustling village into a lab, and sometimes that's really important in a deck that otherwise struggles with draw. And when that lab has one of the cards be a guaranteed peddler, then hey that's also excellent. Actually trying to use the bustling village as your only village can be unreliable at times, its much worse than Port in that respect, but Port is an insane power card so that's hardly a fair comparison.
$3
Castles: I have found these hard to use, but now my opinion is starting to go more towards the point of the pile largely being Opulent Castle a lot of the time. If you are making an engine and think you will be able to get a lot of use from Opulent Castle, especially if other payload is lacking, then start buying these. The other castles help prevent you from falling behind too much on points until BOOM, payload time!
Catapult / Rocks: After being initially extremely critical of this pile I have been focussing on trying to understand these cards more. I have seen games go both ways on this, with some boards it is is dominating and on others it is way too slow. I think the attacks are really the decider here on if you want it. If the board is one where your opponent wants lots of $5 costs early, it can be good to open double-catapult and really stop them from getting there with discard attacks while you thin and pick up silvers. And the cursing can be devastating if the curses are a big deal, which usually means there is no other trashing. Its also in this latter case that Rocks finally has some use, getting your opponent curses really fast. Buying one guarantees a silver in your next hand, hopefully prime for trashing. On really weak boards mass-catapult is actually a thing and can be really crushing, but with even half-decent engine potential I've also lost badly by doing that. In boards with strong engines you actually want to prioritise building first, and then look to attack your opponent each turn once you mostly reliably start to draw your deck each turn, as if you use this early then you really aren't buying many $5 cards yourself. So overall I'd say that these cards are OK, and probably 50/50 whether I use them or not. Very dependant on the rest of the board.
Chariot Race: I have found it very hard to consistently generate lots of points with these even with strong trashing, as your opponent will usually trash a lot too, and if they don't well you were probably gonna win anyway. There are really two things that make this pile work: Easy gaining, or Plan. So basically I think these have quite high opportunity cost under normal circumstances. Keep an eye out for when your opponent tries to topdeck your provinces with Rabble, and remember to thank them. Every time.
Enchantress: It's OK? Honestly the attack effect is not always as big a deal as I suspected it might be, but the draw at the start of your next turn can really matter. At its best in decks where your opponent has low action density, as otherwise it's easy to shrug off the attack with a spare action. If there are easy to get cantrips, like Magpie, then the attack makes very little difference, but you might still want 2 of them to start turns with 7 cards. Helps with reliability.
Farmer's Market: In practice not so great a lot of the time. The points come too slowly to matter all that much a lot of the time, but sometimes you really want them because you're desperate for a Woodcutter-like. The times when it does work in my experience are in the absence of other decent payload and with a lot of spare actions. Then it's better to buy them instead of gold, as you still generate a bunch of cash, but the points start to add up and the buys can really help with pile control. But it's not the best terminal payload ever. Leagues below bridge, for example.
Gladiator / Fortune: We all know Fortune is insanity, but I'd like to call out Gladiator for also being quite good. Often I have found that a terminal silver that is sometimes a terminal gold can make a much better opener on your $3 than a silver, especially when the engine is good, as it's better both while building and in the long run. And when Fortune is available, it can help you spike it early AND gives you a gold for even more payload when you buy Fortune. Using it to buy Possession on turn 3 is still my stand-out 2017 Dominion moment.
$4
Sacrifice: At first I thought using this to trash estates for the VP chips was really good, but over time I've come to feel like this is the weakest of the three options and you shouldn't buy this just to trash estates if other trashers are around. However this card is still excellent, and trashing actions with it is very good if you have a way to get lots of actions for low opportunity cost. Note: Rats not quite the amazing combo you might hope for, despite what I just said.
Temple: I still think this is really strong, but I don't think winning the points pile is as good as I first thought. However the point on each use is still very good, they really add up, and so I'd still look to get a second one a bit later most of the time, and usually an opportunity to do that while getting even more points inevitably presents itself. Often building a bit more earlier on is more important then that second Temple. I'd still buy this over many other trashers.
Villa: This card is super good, no change in opinion here. Focus on buying your draw first, and pick up villas when you draw actions dead as the opportunity presents itself. In this way it lets you build good engines much more efficiently, letting you cycle while playing the good stuff earlier. You usually want to focus on get draw up first anyway, but it really really matters more when villa is on the board. Get draw early or die.
$5
Archive: I still like this, but have found more use for it as supplemental draw to grease your engine. Going all-out on Archive's doesn't always work as well as you might hope unless there is little trashing or filtering otherwise.
Capital: The best part of this czard is the +buy a lot of the time. This card is narrow and I've found little use for it, but there was this one board where the +buy was crucial.
Charm: I have underestimated this. Even if only used as a treasure Woodcutter that can still matter a heck of a lot, and sometimes will be even better than that if you choose the other option. A Woodcutter+ you can't draw dead can help a lot with engine building, and I've been caught out when my opponent has bought this as their first buy and crushed me, more than once!
Crown: I've yet to see a board where this didn't have some use, even if you don't want to buy it early. Decent almost always, exceptional sometimes.
Forum: "Excellent sifter but a tad on the expensive side. That whole no-buy cost thing? You will only rarely take advantage of that." <--- my opinion from the power predictions thread still stands.
Groundskeeper: Much stronger than I first thought. Better than Duchy most of the time because Duchy being a stop card really hurts. Even if you buy just one shortly before greening you can get at least 3 points from it in which case it was superior to Duchy, same points but not a stop card. If there's a strong engine with at least one or two extra buys available then get as many of these as you can, you can easily turn estates into Provinces and catch up super fast.
Legionary: Are you already winning? Win harder! Like Torturer, some games can be decided by who gets this off first, crippling your opponent's ability to build their engine as well as you can. Hitting them with this combo can make it harder for them to do the same to you, unless they throw away their turn to hit you back. Look for boards where you can gain multiple engine pieces per turn, especially via buys. You will get lots of money and buy loads of stuff, your opponent will often do nowhere nearly as well on the turns they are hit, and once that starts happening every turn they are dead.
Wild Hunt: You'll know when its a crazy Wild Hunt engine board, and then winning the split is crucial. This card is both your draw AND your payload, and its as good as that sounds.
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I'll talk about the events and landmarks tomorrow I guess.
Author
Topic: Initial Impressions of Empires Cards, Events & Landmarks + 2e cards and Sauna (Read 6045 times)