Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.  (Read 2145 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Anodos

  • Pawn
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3
  • Shuffle iT Username: Thomas
  • Respect: +14
    • View Profile
Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« on: February 20, 2018, 07:50:38 pm »
+5

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I had the following kingdom last night:

Moat, Chapel, Vassal, Workshop, Beauracrat, Poacher, Throne Room, Witch, Sentry, Market

and, as new players (~30 games so far) it's fair to say we were up a creek without a paddle.

We feel quite comfortable with kingdoms with engines, but with these kinds of sets (no draw or +actions) we just don't know how to approach them. In the end we both began by Chappelling, though she had the better shuffle luck and got the early advantage. I bought a few witches, throne rooms and markets in the hope of getting some sort of engine and hurting her with curses, while she bought lots and lots of Sentry's (about 6 I believe - these nullified my Witches) and bought some Markets and more Silver/Gold than me. She soon began single-buying provinces, which, with all her Sentry's, didn't clog her deck, and she won handily. However, once the game had ended we felt like neither of us really found a reasonable strategy.

How would an experienced dominion player approach a kingdom like this?

Thanks

P.S. Is there a trick to getting images of Dominion cards to display in this forum? :)
Logged

Cave-o-sapien

  • Jester
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 887
  • Respect: +1675
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2018, 07:57:34 pm »
+4



Logged

aku_chi

  • Minion
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 622
  • Shuffle iT Username: aku chi
  • Respect: +1435
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2018, 08:17:54 pm »
+7

There is draw and +actions: Moat and Throne Room, respectively!  Truly, Moat is weak draw, but it can work with strong trashing and Throne Room, which this kingdom provides.  There is also a strong synergy here with Sentry and Vassal.  This is not an easy engine to build, but it's pretty strong.  I'll play around with it in a few hours to work out a good build.  Initial thoughts:

I'd probably open with Chapel + Vassal or Poacher.  I'd look to get a Sentry on my first $5 and a Workshop as soon as I knew I could get a Sentry (I think the Sentry is important for Vassal reliability).  With the Workshop, I'd gain lots of Throne Rooms, along with some Vassals and Moats.  My second $5 buy would be either a Witch (if the opponent looks susceptible to being junked) or a Market.  I expect almost all of my economy would come from Vassals and 1-2 Markets (powered by Throne Rooms).
Logged

Commodore Chuckles

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1284
  • Shuffle iT Username: Commodore Chuckles
  • Respect: +1971
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2018, 09:14:51 pm »
+1

I'd say this is a reasonably strong engine set, actually. While there are no cards that say "+2 actions" a Throned Sentry or Market is effectively a Village.

Vassal is normally hard to make work, but here it's pretty good, because of Sentry and all the other +actions, and the excellent trashing. It will trip on the Curses, but if you Chapel down fast enough it's pretty easy to get rid of the Curses as they come and keep your junk level low. In fact, considering that this set has weak draw, it's probably best to not buy too many treasures (if any) and instead focus on Vassals, Markets, Sentries and Throne Rooms. Poacher is bad here because the Curse pile will empty fast, but you don't need it because of Market.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2018, 09:16:01 pm by Commodore Chuckles »
Logged

Cave-o-sapien

  • Jester
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 887
  • Respect: +1675
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2018, 09:21:59 pm »
0

P.S. Is there a trick to getting images of Dominion cards to display in this forum? :)

There are f.ds browser extensions that let you add card image and kingdom tags when composing.

In my post, for example, I just took your comma-separated list of cards (corrected the Bureaucrat spelling ;) ) then put tags around it that the browser extension converts from something like this:

Code: [Select]
[k!ngdom]moat,chapel,vassal,etc.[/k!ngdom]
to this:

Code: [Select]
[img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?title=Special%3AFilePath&file=Moat.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?title=Special%3AFilePath&file=Chapel.jpg[/img] [img width=100]http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?title=Special%3AFilePath&file=Vassal.jpg[/img]
So you could do the latter if you like, but the browser extension is much easier.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2018, 09:23:10 pm by Cave-o-sapien »
Logged

weesh

  • Conspirator
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 247
  • MOAR MAGPIES
  • Respect: +351
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2018, 10:10:50 pm »
0

Test




Cool.
Logged

aku_chi

  • Minion
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 622
  • Shuffle iT Username: aku chi
  • Respect: +1435
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2018, 10:19:06 pm »
+16

I ultimately prefer to open Workshop + Chapel.  But Poacher and Vassal are also reasonable openings.  Here's a video where I talk through building the engine on this board:

Logged

Anodos

  • Pawn
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3
  • Shuffle iT Username: Thomas
  • Respect: +14
    • View Profile
Re: Beginner's Question #2 - A Kingdom without an obvious engine.
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2018, 01:07:02 am »
+3

That, umm, is quite a response, thank you :) I had no idea throne room could be so powerful, that was really something.
Logged
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.079 seconds with 20 queries.