Write-up of this event: (Warning: there will be a lot of complaining. I am a rather sore loser)
The tournament was set up with 16 people, there were 3 rounds and 4 tables of 4 people each. Each table played the same cards, and whoever got the most combined points for the three rounds (1st was 4, 2nd was 2, 3rd was 1) got to go to the final table. The guy who ran the tournament said he was attempting to create interesting boards with different potential strategies, but I'm not entirely sure how well he succeeded. Oh well.
Game 1: Counting House, Coppersmith, Venture, Hoard, Loan, Mint, Forge, Quarry, Royal Seal, Vault, Colony, Platinum
A very big money game with no +actions or +buys. I figured a strategy with Ventures and maybe hoards and just basically money would be good, and of course in a game like this Mints are going to be good, so if it popped up I would get one. This did not go according to plan. I opened silver silver, then promptly managed to get either 3, 4, or 6 with 2 silvers every turn until probably at least turn 8 or 9. In the meantime, First (who is level 40 on isotropic, yes, I know who you are, apologies for creepiness) was able to get a mint early on, and then the first platinum rather quick through ventures, then minted platinum and venture a couple times, and pretty much dominated everyone else. I got 7 once and figured hell, why not, let's get a Forge. It is my name, after all. This kind of saved me as it got me both my colonies and I eeked out second place, 68 to 37 to 36 to 35. The other two people didn't play terrible poorly, but they both bought coppersmiths and fooled around a bit more on a board that doesn't allow for too much foolin'. I don't think I played this board incorrectly at all, I just didn't get the numbers I needed to make it work.
Game 2: Upgrade, Remodel, Village, Feast, Expand, Remake, Moneylender, Salvager, Mine, Workshop
An impressively trashy board. I decided (as I did every game, possibly incorrectly) to play a very simple strategy, and opened remake/silver. I then basically just remaked things into silvers and coppers into nothing and bought a couple upgrades. I upgraded my remake into a mine once all my estates were gone and went for money. One other player went for a similar strategy, while the other two fooled around with mines and villages (an awful lot of villages) and remodels and upgrades and everything. I had quite a solid lead, but wasn't able to get anything good on my last turn and then the player who had been fooling around with villages managed to get a province, duchy, and estate in the last turn to run out the provinces and ended up winning by one point. 28 - 27, or something to that effect. I was pretty upset that I lost this game, but maybe I should have taken the remodeling and whatnot more seriously. I dunno.
Game 3: Bishop, Monument, Kings Court, Throne Room, Masquerade, Ambassador, Jester, Chancellor, Harem, one other card without +action or buy and wasn't interesting/useful
A hell of a board, and I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I hate ambassadors, and I guessed correctly that no one else would use them, so I just ignored them entirely. Being the silly person that I am I decided to ignore Bishop, which I later realized was a terrible idea, but no one else at my table got them either, so eh. I opened Masquerade/silver, thinking again that I should take things simply, which was a mistake. Complaining about luck: 3/4 first times I played masquerade I didn't have any estates in my hand at all, only money, and didn't even draw any. Jester was played against me 3 times in the game, and all 3 times i discarded an estate card, gaining the only 3 curses of the game. That being said, if I had gone bishop, I still probably would have won. Instead I went mainly masquerade, picked up a monument eventually, and added one King's court and a couple jesters as well. My main opponent, who beat me, went heavy with monuments and throne rooms/kcs and ended up with 25 or so tokens, as well as a few provinces/harems. I was up for the first half of the game, but eventually it just dragged on and I couldn't keep up with KCs/TRs and monuments hitting each other consistently. I didn't win, and because of this wasn't able to get to the final table. Other fun strategies other people did apparently included getting 40+ tokens with Bishop, and Jestering the shit out of everyone.
Overall though, it was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see other people playing Dominion and talking about strategy and whatnot and not just my normal group of friends or names behind a computer. Hopefully they do another one soon!
Also, congrats to First for winning.
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Topic: Dominion tournament in Chicago, Mar 3 2012 (Read 4483 times)