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[nastley3]

Hello All, I'm new to the forum. I want to find out what questions you ask yourself to come up with your strategy for a given board. I am also very interested in the order of the questions, so please number them instead of just listing them. I do not believe it is possible to have an exhaustive list, but I would like to see what you all can come up with!

My list goes like this:

1) Are there are any cards that allow for multiple terminals to be played in the same turn? (Villages, but also cards like Throne Room)
2) What are the trashers?
3) What are the Alt VP?
4) What are the attacks?
5) What are the + Buys?
6) What are the Gainers?

Then there are a few other questions that I am not sure where they should go (from an order standpoint)
- What are the Specific card combos / cards that go together well?
- Will this be a slow/medium/long game?
- What are ways to end the game quickly once ahead?

Here is the logic behind why I ordered the 6 numbered questions in the order above:
A lack of villages means I need to be very careful of not buying too many terminals, and so that is what i look for first. I put trashing as #2 because I have trouble creating engines without strong trashing (I might be in the over-trashing stage of the game ). Depending on the answer of those first two questions, I then look for other options such as Alt VP, Gardens rush etc. I have found that in general Attacks are more important than either +buys or gainers so I put it 4th, and then I put +buy slightly ahead of gainers because sometimes I see engines get overbuilt but without a +buy to take advantage of it.

Thanks!

[Chris is me]

In order:
1. Is there +Buy, or a way to gain multiple cards per turn?

This more than any other narrows the scope of strategies doable on the board. If the answer is "no", the case for building an engine gets much narrower, and the possibilities to come back if you are not the first to be ready to green are highly limited. If "yes", you still have to do a lot.

Multiple cards per turn without true +Buy can speed up the engine build enough to be competitive with strong BM even if you're limited to 1 Province a turn, depending on the board.

2. What is the potential payload of this board?

Payload in a broad sense being the payoff for your engine; anything from victory points to attacks to attack resilience. A payload of "double Province every turn" is sometimes enough (see above question), depends on anything else. Is the payload terminal?

3. Thinning and draw

You *have* to look at these basically simultaneously, as the availability of one dictates the necessary amount you need of the other. Which of these are terminal?

4. Village / splitter support

How many terminals can you reliably play a turn, given the above constraints? Lots of people like to start with this, but the answer to this questio varies a lot with the above information. How many terminal slots can be reserved for payload vs what's needed for draw?

5. Clocking the BM / rush / etc strategy

How fast can the BM get to a game end condition, or an effective game end condition? Is t vulnerable to things the engine can do? Can it sustain through greening? How does it compare to the engine above? Usually this is a quick thing, but whenever there's a strong enhancer on the table you do have to ask this question. You also have to ask yourself if you are a capable enough player to complete the engine properly, and how sensitive it is to mistakes on your part. It's not picking the best strategy, it's picking the strategy you can execute to the greatest effect.

[Kirian]

Excellent post here:

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=16194.msg634642#msg634642

[Awaclus]

1. Are there any combos?
2. Are there any engines?
3. Are there any rushes?
4. Are there any slogs?
5. What's the best big money?
6. Which of these is the best?

[Rabid]

Your list is good, but is missing +cards.

[jsh357]

Sometimes I'll realize just how many games I've played and ask, "what have I done?"