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Author Topic: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.  (Read 1886 times)

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greybirdofprey

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Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« on: December 17, 2017, 06:17:11 am »
+1

I've played a bunch with this split pile and although I'm more advanced than expert, I do have some thoughts on and experiences with settlers/bustling village, and I would like to see an article on them from someone with a bit more grip on the card. Some of this may be obvious. Exceptions apply.

Anyway, things I've noticed:

-Settlers is not a good opener. If you draw it on turn 3 or 5 you'll usually have nothing in discard, so it's just a cantrip. If you draw it in turn 4 it's usually a peddler. However, the average value of your deck will probably still be under $1 at this point, so it's still worse than Silver (not taking into account what Settlers and Silver does later in the game), because the card you draw has an average value under $1 (3 estates, 7 coppers, 1 other card). There's probably 12 cards in your deck after your second turn, so the probability of drawing it in your fourth turn is 5/12 (I think).
-Settlers and Bustling Village are useless in each first turn of your reshuffle (smaller decks make this happen more often).
-Bustling Village gives a lot of actions.
-Settlers is a less-reliable Peddler if you keep your coppers.
-Settlers and Bustling Village are quite order-dependent.
-There are not a lot of them.
-I think I'd usually prefer two cheap villages over one Bustling Village - higher chance to draw them with my +draw action.
-They get quite a bit better if you can control what's in your discard pile.
-They work very well with Dungeon. A single Dungeon play lets you put two of six cards in discard on your current turn, and two of seven cards in discard on your next. It can stay in play during the reshuffle to ensure your Settlers/Bustling Villages aren't 'dead' next turn, and if it causes the reshuffle you'll still have two cards in discard.

-In my experience, they do not seem to be great. In an engine I don't want Copper. With big money I don't want too many action cards to prevent dead-drawing. These cards seems better for large decks (smaller chance to get them in your first turn after a reshuffle), so when there are junkers or no good (Copper) trashing. You can get Bustling Village as a village if there are no other (cheaper) villages, but that would require for the Settlers to be bought/gained. They obviously work better with good sifters (which also make Coppers less problematic), and I think they work especially well with Dungeon.


I usually misthink something in long stuff like this so feel free to leave your thoughts about these cards.
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Chris is me

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2017, 09:37:50 am »
0

They’re not great. They’re reasonable nonterminal draw in sloggy decks. They LOVE discard for benefit, or even just sifters. It’s a great “second Village” on a lot of boards.
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Jack Rudd

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2017, 10:24:45 am »
+2

Settlers is a $2 cantrip, and all the normal $2 cantrip rules apply.
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trivialknot

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2017, 10:32:34 am »
+1

Settlers are usually very marginal--you pick up Settlers when you have nothing better to do.  But when the stars align, they can be great.
-You're keeping copper around
-You have +Buy or gain
-You are not drawing your deck
-Or, there are enough discard effects that you are discarding copper and not just estates/junk (any kind of discard works, including Warehouse, Ironmonger, and Cutpurse)

Bustling Village comes into play even less often than Settlers.  As a strategy, Bustling Village has serious issues.
-It's a $5-cost village, which isn't a good price point.
-+3 Actions is good, but you'd really prefer the actions were spread out for reliability, like with Port or Fishing Village.
-It appears later in the game than you'd really want villages.  It's hard to shift gears fast enough for it to be useful.
-The person who works hardest to reveal Bustling Village often stands to benefit the least from the village effect, because they've been wasting time on Settlers, a non-terminal card that is best in big decks.  Sometimes by this point you've thinned your deck, but then the discard-to-hand effects aren't so good anymore.
-Putting settlers in your hand is great, if you can do it.  But ultimately this is roughly a lab, and well maybe you could have just bought a lab instead.  Bustling Village-Settler-Copper chains are rare even when the stars do align.

Tips for playing with Settlers/Bustling Village
-Consider going for +buy first.  Settlers aren't so great in the first shuffle.
-Just because you have 5 settlers doesn't mean you want all the Bustling Villages.  You want some nice terminals too, or else they're glorified labs.
-If your opponent got 5 settlers, only go for Bustling Villages if they're good for your own deck.  Taking them away from your opponent usually isn't useful.
-Trigger that midturn shuffle!  Settlers remove copper from your discard, making it a better shuffle to trigger.  Furthermore, on cleanup all those settlers and coppers in play will go into the discard pile, which is exactly where you want them.  Of course, this presumes that you have >5 cards left in your draw pile.
-If you have the choice of discarding junk vs copper, and can put the copper into hand, consider discarding the copper, as it improves the midturn shuffle.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2017, 10:36:56 am by trivialknot »
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crj

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2017, 05:48:54 pm »
0

To state an obvious synergy, Settlers is good when you either want, or struggle to avoid having, Copper in your deck. I've used Settlers to advantage both in Palace and in Mountebank games.
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Cave-o-sapien

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2017, 12:56:33 am »
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Obvious Settlers synergies include Stables and Plaza.
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ipofanes

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Re: Would like a settlers/bustling village article.
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2017, 07:02:07 am »
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This morning I tried to load the discard by placing guides on the tavern mat to selectively skip the postreshuffle situation. In both cases when I applied it I discarded a hand with Settlers/Bustlers and drew a hand without any. You make your own shuffle luck.
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