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[Kirian]

Dead Man's Chest

I am off on vacation from Wednesday until Sunday, so I'm posting this a bit early.  Week 2 games should still go in that thread!

This week we will all play matches dominated by Seaside.  Each match is seven total games.  Make sure that you set Isotropic's filter system to include exactly six cards chosen at random from Seaside!

Please report your results in this thread.  I'm going to ask you to follow a reporting style much like rspeer's post here but with some small changes.

• Please make sure the person listed first in the matchups below (or the person on top in the Challonge brackets) is listed first.
• Please make sure your scores are listed.
• Don't worry about making your scores a link to the game log, just put it in there on the line.

Feel free to add further commentary, but please put it after these opening lines!

Please have your match completed by 18:00 GMT Thursday 12 April.  Good luck and have fun!

If you wish to play future matches, feel free to do so... but wait to post the results in that week's thread.

Week Three Match-ups:

Pacific Coast Group

ednever vs. Insomniac-X
antony vs. Titandrake
Tmoiy vs. O
shark_bait vs. DGHunter79

What's a Coast? Group

[MAD] Mergus vs. perdhapley
tlloyd vs. Ignorantmen
Yuma vs. coheed
Axxle vs. Jorbles

Gulf Coast Group

BJ Penn vs. A_S00
mikemike vs. mnavratil
ninjabus vs. michaeljb
ebEliminator vs. CarpeDeezNuts

Atlantic Coast Group

Mean Mr Mustard vs. Nicki Menagerie
AHoppy vs. greatexpectations
^_^_^_^ vs. RisingJaguar
rspeer vs. Brando Commando

Bracket Results (and future weeks) are here:

http://isodom.challonge.com

[Mergus]

[MAD] Mergus wins agains perdhapley   4 (8 points) - 3 (6 points)

Thanks a lot for the matches. Here are the logs.
Mergus 66 vs 84 perd Complicated board where more Lookouts were better. Epic 42 turn game.
Mergus 29 vs 19 perd Ill Gotten Gains and Dukes.
Mergus 42 vs 35 perd He just needs 4 money to buy the last two hamlets and win the game but only gets to 3 with Bank+Cutpurse allowing my comeback due to Silk Road advantage.
Mergus 39 vs 36 perd He gets an early Smuggler which almost decides the game in the end but I am lucky to have enough coins for the last province.
Mergus 38 vs 26 perd No comments here.
Mergus 24 vs 42 perd For some reason I buy a Golem midgame which is too slow here. He wins comfortably in a Witch game.
Mergus 44 vs  45 perd It's about that one extra Estate that I can trash early in this Jack game which gives him the win.

An interesting series, where we both didn't think that Seaside played much of a role. In none of the games was there the classic Fishing Village race or were there ridiculous Wharf chains. Still fun though, perdhapley is a really nice opponent and fun to play with.

[PerdHapley]

Thanks to Mergus for the games, this was a really interesting series with lots of interesting decisions, and I really enjoyed it. My comments:

Game 1 - For however much of a slog this one was (42 TURNS!) I actually really enjoyed it. I figured early on that Ghost Ship was the big card here, not Sea Hag, and took advantage of the several cool interactions Ghost Ship has with this set to shape my deck. I went Horse Traders first, stocked up on Bazaars, and grabbed two lookouts. On two separate occasions I was able to trash two curses at once, having each time put them both there thanks to Ghost Ship's attack. I delayed getting my own Ghost Ship until I had cleaned out my deck, not wanting to give him the same Lookout opportunities I had. Once I got all the junk out I picked up Treasure Maps, knowing that between sifting from Lookout and Ghost Ship's attack I would be able to get them to collide pretty quickly. In the end focusing on trashing propelled me to a lead that Mergus could never quite catch up to. With no buys other than Horse Traders, it wasn't really surprising that this took as long as it did, and I'm not sure just how it could've been any shorter.

Game 2 - I pick up the Embargo at the beginning thinking I'm going to use it to shut down IGG here, and then after I hit 5 on turn 3 I get the wild idea that maybe I should buy Ghost Ship and then prohibit him from it, hopefully blocking him from IGG enough to pull ahead. I figured even a single Ghost Ship could be frustrating to deal with when you're gunning for piles, right? Wrong. I pick the wrong time to experiment, Mergus makes better choices, and the game is never really close.

Game 3 - This one was truly a heart breaker, and the confluence of events that seal it is pretty insane, but I think I deserved to lose it. In retrospect, it all makes so much sense to me. I believe I play it right up until the point I switch to Silk Roads, an entirely unnecessary move. Instead, I should have Embargoed the Silk Roads and built my engine up for a few turns before attacking the Provinces again. Man, isn't hindsight just the best?

Game 4 - I mean, what can you really say about a 3 point, equal-turn game? We differ in the opening, him going Loan and myself going Smugglers. I like Smugglers here, with Caravan and Grand Market (which ultimately goes untouched) plus Warehouse, but Mergus is able to maintain a cleaner deck and I get clogged with Duchies.

Game 5 - Mergus goes Salvager and I go Envoy in the open, and Mergus is right. I believe I made the Envoy call thinking that Envoy/Bank would be fast enough to combat an eventual Ghost Ship, but Mergus gets to GS fast and I spend much of the midgame stuck. Mergus gets some good shuffles and extends his lead quickly, but really, I was just outplayed here.

Game 6 - And finally a game where I actually have a plan! Mergus is right about Golem here, it is just too slow and low-impact in this setting to matter much. I love Farmland, especially with Caravan, since it lowers the pressure on how much you need to build your economy. Hitting $6 here was often plenty good enough.

Game 7 - It's all about that one Estate. This was a pretty funny Jack game, really, breaking down into first Duchy-dancing and then Island-dancing, the two of us splitting everything in rapid-fire until there's just nowhere left to go. I was impressed with Mergus' dedication to not breaking the PPR, and the frantic ending felt like an appropriate way to close everything out.

Congrats to Mergus on his 3rd straight 4/3 victory - that's some impressive consistency right there. Whatever I expected the Seaside influence would be here, this most definitely was not it - not one Ambassador game, only one Wharf engine game, Ghost Ship more than Sea Hag (and Sea Hag only once), and a weird Hinterlands sub-theme with games that revolved around IGG, JoaT and Silk Roads.

[Mergus]

Nice commentary! For the last game I'd like to add that I'd rather lose this way than losing because I break the PPR in such a tournament game. In a regular game I would probably have risked it Anyways, thanks again for the games (and comments)!

[antony]

antony 5 wins, 1 tie, Titandrake 1 win, 1 tie

1. antony 37, Titandrake 34:  Ambassador vs. tactician.  I open silver silver to go for the tactician immediately and get the ambassador later, whereas Titandrake does the opposite.  We get our last reshuffle on the same turn and it comes down to who gets the tactician first, with identically-sized decks.  I do.
2. Titandrake 36, antony 46: Cutpurse-(mandarin)-BM, neither lookout not cartographers look helpful here.
3. Titandrake 37, antony 48: Smithy-BM, I do get a FV, a bazaar and () a TR that draws dead a couple of times.  An early estate provides a tiebreaker for Titandrake and I have to decide to break the PPR, but at the end my better economy wins.
4. Titandrake 27, antony 30: Ghost ships, cutpurses, lighthouse (and city) -- and a golem for me which worked out fine though I'm not sure it's fast enough.
5. Titandrake 35, antony 27: BV/governor/salvager/FV, lots of possibilities and I misplay my governor a little bit (say on Turn 10 where with governor/salvager/BV/gold/silver (one other gold in deck) I gain gold and salvage BV instead of BV->province, salvage gold->province which looks better a posteriori).
6. antony 28, Titandrake 12: Sea hag... and the rest is random crap: treasury, NV, KC, etc. A long and painful game but out of sheer luck I win the curse split 6-4; now Titandrake decides to run out duchies and treasures but I manage to grab my share while getting a province (and another one at the end) on the way.
7. Titandrake 72-antony 72: Definitely the most exciting game of the set, I go for heavy bishopping while Titandrake gets vineyards, with HT as +buy and NV/haven as easy targets; unfortunately there are no hand expanders so HT is of limited power.  I get lots of interesting decisions as he was powering up his vineyards: do I trash my province to get the last one faster or my gold to get some more points?  My last province immediately after his 21th action ties the game.

[Titandrake]

My thoughts:
At one point, I considered myself to be a better BM player than engine player. Now I know for sure it's the other way around.

Game 1: Ambassador isn't useful to getting $5 on turn 3/4. There's no good engine possibilities. I get Tactician later. I lose. However, the Smugglers I buy keeps me in the game for a bit. Getting to Smuggle a Tactician turn is just amazingly useful.

In the last few turns I have Tact+Gold+3 Silvers in hand. I break PPR because that's a lot of my deck's money in hand, and discarding all of it to Tact seems like a bit of a waste. This ends badly. If I played Tact, my hand would be Smug + $9, with antony having just played Tact. So I'd be forced to buy Duchy+Estate and I would still have probably lost. Conclusion: I think breaking PPR was right, but I lost anyways.

Game 2: Lookout is horrible in BM. Also no good engines. I realize this partway through and decide that trashing Estates with Lookout won't be worth it. I actually barely play Lookout the entire game, which I feel is a mistake: sure it's bad, but trashing some Coppers is better than pretending to have 1 dead card the whole game.

(Just a side note: I think I started getting too annoyed at myself here. In BM, 1 mistake puts you in a bad spot. But it's not that bad. I started equating <50% chance of winning = instant loss, which is very much not true. Probability fallacies ftl.)

Also, Cartographer actually helped me out a ton: I cycled through my deck faster, and there was a turn where I discarded 4 victory cards. In the end it doesn't help as much, you want to cycle as little as possible. Net positive though.

Game 3: Eh, essentially Smithy-BM mirror match. I don't pick up other actions, feel that the collisions are too deadly. My feeling is that in BM games without +Buy, picking up a tiebreak (even if it's Estate) is actually pretty huge. Depending on when you buy it, it won't hurt you that much, and it's 1 more turn the opponent has to spend. Think in terms of turns, not points.

Game 4: Yeah idk, is Golem good here? I just tried doing Ghost Ship-Cutpurse BM...

Game 5: Governor first turn advantage FTW. This game was odd in that Governor-Remodeling gave your opponent a lot of good chances for Duchy (Salvager, Governor into BV), so it was in your favor to do as little of that as possible, relying on Salvager to do most of the dirty work.

Game 6: I really shouldn't have tried rushing Duchies/Estates. Such a bad idea, when your deck is filled with junk and your plan is to add more junk. I would have been at a disadvantage, true, but as shown, 1 Province and I lose.

Game 7: Vineyard was (I feel) a bad call. HT +buy is far too awkward. I can't play Bishop too much, as it cuts down my handsize too much and I run out of targets fast. But I manage to stay in long enough for a tie.

And I think the right decision (at all points) was trash Province. Aggressive trashing of VP should win. Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows?

[dghunter79]

Shark_bait wins 3, dghunter79 wins 4

Game 1: Shark_bait, 82; dghunter79, 67
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-110747-2da01440.html

His shrewd early investment in Treasuries leads to a Platinum on turn 8, and I'm never really competitive after that.

Game 2: dghunter79, 39; shark_bait 27
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-111358-68f4268c.html

I get a turn 3 Haggler vs. his turn 3 Gold.  Haggler lets me grab 7 Caravans, which gives me a slight edge even though he has a lot more Gold.

Game 3: shark_bait, 40; dghunter79, 32
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-112021-53bc5b58.html

Sea Hag.  Once I had my Tactician and Trading Post in my deck, I had visions of trashing curses two at a time, and then one day having a Tactician-hand of eleven silvers.  Then, I won the game in my mind.  Instead, I drew the Trading Post with all coppers, or with Tactician, or his Sea Hag flipped it.  He won the province split and I screamed "this dream has become a nightmare!" and everyone at the library looked at me and knew exactly what had just gone down.

Game 4: dghunter79, 43; shark_bait, 42
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-112508-c448563c.html

My Lookout, Explorer, and money beats his more avant-garde Nomad Camp/Quarry opening.  Doesn't this game look like it was a super-close nail-biter?  I'm sure that's what it was, and that I just barely eked out a win.

Game 5: shark_bait, 10; dghunter79, 14
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-113507-483635c9.html

More Sea Hag.  He buys two and wins the Curse-split 6-4.  I buy Tactician off a 5/2 opening, and start amassing Peddlers and Pearl Divers, and then a second Tactician.  He eventually gets a Tactician of his own.  I get the lead and the upper hand, but stupidly give him one last chance to win, if he can just buy the last Peddler and a Province on a Tactician hand -- which in this game is practically a gimme.  Miraculously, he only draws 7 coin, and so I never have to learn my lesson and I never will.

Game 6: shark_bait, 33; dghunter79, 32
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-114153-bdceb200.html

Bishops into Hunting Party for both of us.  I wasn't really sure if I should be Bishopping the Provinces as I bought them, in order to keep the Hunting Party engine going.  Anyway, I didn't do that.  Instead, I matched his province buys, bought the penultimate Province, and lost.  I find the graph of this game amusing, if you like funny graphs.

Game 7: dghunter79, 22; shark_bait 10
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120406-115032-f76729e4.html

Vineyards.  Lots and lots of cheap cantrips.  Tactician, Salvager, and Talisman.  This Game 7 was obviously going to be One Of The Great Ones.  We both got two Talismen.  I bought a Tactician, not knowing exactly if I should.  He didn't, and instead bought a lot more Salvagers.  I was always so jealous of his Salvagers.  But in the end, my Tactician hands let me make some major Costco runs, while he was stuck going back and forth to the corner 7-11.

Shark_bait was a fun, friendly opponent.  Except for Game 1, when he completely outplayed me, these were all incredibly evenly matched games in which we both wandered around in the dark until somebody won.

[CarpeDeezNuts]

CarpeDeezNuts 6-1 ebEliminator

Game1 CarpeDeezNuts 23, ebEliminator 10
Game2 ebEliminator 41, CarpeDeezNuts 41 
Game3 ebEliminator 77, CarpeDeezNuts 50
Game4 CarpeDeezNuts 50, ebEliminator 40 
Game5 ebEliminator 37, CarpeDeezNuts 75
Game6 ebEliminator 23, CarpeDeezNuts 38
Game7 ebEliminator 31, CarpeDeezNuts 33

Game1 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-163123-1019e237.html
Game2 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-163950-b267dcb3.html
Game3 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-164721-deff2536.html
Game4 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-165410-71cf7621.html
Game5 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-165950-8ecb9143.html
Game6 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-171426-cee964fc.html
Game7 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-172127-22ffc7bc.html

[Brando Commando]

I PM'd rspeer on Thursday but still haven't heard back form him...

[CoheedandCambria]

Yuma (3-4-0) vs Coheed (4-3-0)

Game 1: Yuma 33 - Coheed 47 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-154139-66864ea8.html

Game 2: Yuma 35 - Coheed 24 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-154834-43bbc1eb.html

Game 3: Yuma 32 - Coheed 66 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-155903-a636e5c4.html

Game 4: Yuma 32 - Coheed 38 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-160917-2229d983.html

Game 5: Yuma 56 - Coheed 48 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-161421-e9af7246.html

Game 6: Yuma 38 - Coheed 25 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-162152-7444f045.html

Game 7: Yuma 18 - Coheed 36 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-163014-08cf8341.html

Analysis:

Game 1: No +actions except for tactician. Alchemist is a big trap here like it normally is.. I opt for 2 swindler opening while he goes swindler/silver. I felt swindler was going to be a huge card here as it's the only "curser" and there's no trashing. He chose to get a bunch of treasuries which I felt was wrong. I'm not a fan of that card in games like this. There's not much tricks with tactician here as treasury and swindler are the only +$ on the board. I'm able to get ahead in the province race and he's forced to buyout duchies while I gobble up the VP left on the board to make sure of my victory.

Game 2: Ambassador game with treasure maps. I'm not too happy with my 5/2 opening because I would have loved to start double ambassador on this board. I plan on trying to thin my deck out to make treasure maps collide later on. My deck wasn't thin enough and it takes me a while to trigger my maps and while I'm waiting for my maps to hit, he's buying provinces and getting his golds through hoards.

Game 3: I notice pirate ship + tactician which is a weird kind of combo because if your opponent chooses to go double tactician, clearing out his coppers will REALLY help him. He ends up trying to follow me on the pirate ship route but gets pretty unlucky attacks early on. I plan on getting my ships to 5$ and using my double tactician engine to pick up 2 duchy/dukes every turn. I got such a huge lead from my tactician that when he buys his on turn 12 he's not able to catch up.

Game 4: Very interesting board.. Sea hag with no trashers and also tactician and goons. I notice cellar is going to be very crucial later on and it's an amazing enabler for tactician. I feel the end came down to luck since I was able to get 3 goons off very late in the game for a 15 VP turn. Even though I hit that 15 VP turn it still was a close finish.

Game 5: Kind of a bland board. No useful attacks or +buys with kings court. It's going to come down to who can kings court their monument more. I got 2 very unlucky turns on turn 16 and 17 which were very crucial turns.. From there I couldn't catch up to him and was forced to try to weasel a win through duchies

Game 6: I look at the board and somehow convinced myself going pirate ship here was good. I planned on getting rid of his money forcing him to buy +$ actions and then saboteur those so he's left with nothing. Obviously, this strategy was way too slow to work. My saboteurs ended up hitting provinces and duchies very luckily towards the end of the game and I almost pull off a miracle victory. Maybe if I held off on buying provinces and just focused on winning the duchy split I could've dragged out the game and trashed his provinces.

Game 7: Double tactician board with conspirator and treasury. I chose to go salvager instead of masquerade because the +buy will help me later in the game more than the +2 cards, he chooses to do the same. I embargoed the conspirators while I had 3 and he had 2 and focused on winning the treasury split so my deck would be superior. I end up buying 2 more conspirators eating the curses and won the game with 2 province turns.

[yuma]

My quick thoughts:

Game 1: Yuma 33 - Coheed 47 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-154139-66864ea8.html  Bad decision with Treasuries, Gold would have been much better. Swindling swindlers should be outlawed...

Game 2: Yuma 35 - Coheed 24 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-154834-43bbc1eb.html I hit collisions with double ambassador and end up apprenticing one for a pretty important turn 10 to get my first gold. From there hoards end up treating me really nicely except I wanted to buy Islands with them... Ultimately was not necessary.
 
Game 3: Yuma 32 - Coheed 66 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-155903-a636e5c4.html Dumb move buying Silver... But i thought Tailsman would treat me better as I wanted lots of Pirate Ships and villages to eventually get Tact. But just didn't work out and I was behind from the beginning...

Game 4: Yuma 32 - Coheed 38 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-160917-2229d983.html I am stil not sure what went wrong in this game.  I had a pretty good lead and was feeling great but hit a wall, hard... I think my first double goons buy opportunity (turn 21) I should have ignored the coppers to prevent stalling too early...

Game 5: Yuma 56 - Coheed 48 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-161421-e9af7246.html I think my two Warehouses were pretty key here. I complained early about my KC being dead or colliding dead, but once I got Warehouse into rhythm I was able to line up Merchant Ships and Monument much easier.  Coheed had 4 Monuments to my 1, but had 14 victory tokens to my 11.

Game 6: Yuma 38 - Coheed 25 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-162152-7444f045.html I started to panic when I saw him have success with saboteur. If I hadn't ended the game with the last province I was going to buy one myself to try and stop an improbably comeback from succeeding.

Game 7: Yuma 18 - Coheed 36 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-163014-08cf8341.html I just got outplayed... I wanted to do the same strat as Coheed but he pulled it off much, much better. I knew this game was over by turn 8.

Coheed played better than I in almost all of the games. He deserved to come out on top.

[Jorbles]

Axxles wins 4 and Jorbles wins 3.
1: Axxle: 34 - Jorbles: 32
2: Jorbles: 40 - Axxle: 30
3: Axxle: 23 - Jorbles: 34
4: Axxle: 31 - Jorbles: 28
5: Jorbles: 22 - Axxle: 42
6: Jorbles: 45 - Axxle: 23
7: Axxle: 42 - Jorbles: 30

Game 1:
Key Cards: Ambassador, Tactician, Gardens, Oasis, Cutpurse
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-185004-a36d89ab.html
An Ambassador game with Tactician. I open Ambassador/Cutpurse and Axxle opens double Ambassador. I end up using Oases to get something vaguely resembling a Double Tactician deck, but what I really should have been doing since I'd resolved myself to losing the Ambassador war was buying Gardens up as fast as I could. Even though I don't do that it's still pretty close, but Axxle's thinner deck is in more of a control position in the end game and wraps it up neatly.

Game 2:
Key Cards: Ambassador, Island, Grand Market, King's Court, Salvager
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-185802-2418baca.html
Axxle forgot to turn the point counter on for this game (I'd set up the previous one), but we decided to play on anyways. This ended up being greatly to my benefit as Axxle lost track of points and ended it when I had a big lead, but he still had a shot at catching up. He again made the thinner deck by opening double Ambassador to my Ambassador/Island. However, he got worried about my point lead and broke off from his KC-Grand Market engine which probably could have beaten my deck in the long run buying the last Province and ending the game.

Game 3:
Key Cards: Chapel, Ghost Ship, Wharf, Sea Hag, Ill Gotten Gains
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-190453-c1550249.html
This board would have been really interesting if I hadn't gotten a lucky 5/2 split here allowing me to open Ghost Ship/Chapel to Axxle's Chapel/Silver. I proceed to Ghost Ship him a lot in the early to mid game and he never really catches up.

Game 4:
Key Cards: Embargo, Tactician, Salvager, University, Embassy, Forge, Colony
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-191959-4186bd73.html
Aptly for a Tactician game this one was all about detail oriented tactical play. I'm pretty sure I had a strong strategy (get Universities, Salvagers, Forges, and Tacticians) and then use big Tactician hands filled with trash for benefit cards to gain said benefits from cards gained by Universities. However, the resulting hands made my brain hurt and I don't think I was making the correct decisions all the time. Axxle played roughly the same strategy, but with less Universities and a slimmer deck. He also smartly rushed the game by Forging his Colonies into more Colonies, and slowed me down with well played Embargoes. His tactics > my tactics.

Game 5:
Key Cards: Familiar, Chapel, Tactician
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-193033-3098daaf.html
This was most definitely the worst game I played. My first turn from first player I get a $4, since Familiar is on the board I am thinking it's a no brainer and buy a Potion. Axxle has a $2 and buys a Chapel at which point I realize I'm kinda hosed because he's got a 5/2 split, and Familiars are way more of a trap card on this board for me than they normally would be, but it's too late to do anything about it as I've already bought my Potion. I get a Chapel (probably a questionable choice, but I figured I'd need something enginey to get out of this hole) and he gets a Tactician. I end up getting some Familiars, but by the time I start cursing him he can comfortable trash 2 or 3 Curses a hand without much worry. I blunder around trying to find some way to save myself and deservedly lose. In retrospect I'm not even sure I would go for Familiars with Chapel on the board in the future. If I were to play this board again, I'd probably ignore Familiars and instead try and set up a DoubleTactician engine using Bazaars and Fishing Villages for money after trashing out most of my treasure with Chapel.

Game 6:
Key Cards: Treasure Map, Courtyard, Hamlet, Horse Traders, Ghost Ship, Pirate Ship
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-194019-201f5776.html
I like playing Treasure Map when there's decent enablers so I open Treasure Map/Courtyard. I don't know what Axxle was originally planning with his Horse Traders/Courtyard opening, but maybe he was worried about me Ghost Shipping him to death like I did in Game 3? Anyhow I buy Treasure Maps and intend to buy nothing but Courtyards and Hamlets to set up my Treasure Maps to hit. Except then I break discipline and buy a Horse Traders because I'm pretty sure my TM's are going to hit THIS reshuffle, they don't, but at this point Axxle has followed me into Treasure Maps with less of a plan than I had and I'm rewarded on Turn 9, by having 2 of my 3 TMs match up and it's off to the races. Axxle's TM's never hit, but he tries to get Hamlets and Pearl Divers to set up a Conspirator chain that doesn't really have much of a chance of catching up.

Game 7:
Key Cards: Cutpurse, Militia, Native Village, Navigator, Treasury, Upgrade, Wharf, Witch
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/09/game-20120409-195012-8daea222.html
I open Navigator/Silver to enable quick cycling and replaying of Witches. Axxle opens Militia/Silver to try and slow down my ability to buy Witches. I don't hate my opening, but I'm not sure I played the midgame properly and I definitely misclicked once when I meant to Upgrade my Witch into a Gold after the Curses had run out, but instead discarded my Witch to his Militia attack. I also probably started buying Duchies too soon because I was worried about his lead. Anyhow I was drawing dead at the end and didn't realize it, but then I bought the last Estate accidentally three piling the ending so it didn't matter that I hadn't realized I'd already lost. Definitely one of my sloppier games, but I'm not convinced I would have won with tighter play.

[ednever]

Ednever wins 5 (10 points) and Insomniac-X wins 2 (4 points).

1: ednever: 41 - Insomniac-X: 37
2: Insomniac-X: 62 - ednever: 28
3: ednever: 61 - Insomniac-X: 37
4: Insomniac-X: 44 - ednever: 17
5: ednever: 23 - Insomniac-X: 8
6: Insomniac-X: 29 - ednever: 37
7: Insomniac-X: 22 - ednever: 34

Game 1:
Key Cards: Ambassador, Shanty Town, Ghost Ship
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-182021-65198262.html
A slow Ambassador/Ghost Ship game that dragged on for 40 turns. Between Moneylender and a double Ambassador to get my deck down to 6 cards and started loading up golds. Then a picked up a few provinces. Then Insomniac started hitting me consistently with his Ghost Ship (no extra actions, but very small decks). Eventually it dragged into Shanty Towns and Alchemists to get extra cards. It ends very close on piles - all the Estates, Duchies and Shanty Towns are gone - and there is only one province left that neither of us seemed to be able to reach with our messy green decks.


Game 2:
Key Cards: Pirate Ship / Wharf /Gardens
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-182857-3ae55025.html
Insomniac played this perfectly. Opening Silver/Silver and diving into Big Money supported by Wharfs. I thought the lack of actions would let a Pirate Ship / Ambassador play work. I was wrong. While I was able to kill a bunch of I's money, it wasn't nearly enough. By the time my PS's were strong enough to pick up provinces there weren't enough left. I was left buying Gardens in a desperate attempt to catch up. To no avail.


Game 3:
Key Cards: King Court, Wharf, Conspirator, Loan, Merchant Ship, Embargo, Bazaar
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-184501-c1a5dc91.html
What a game! All 10 KC's in play for some crazy mega-turns. I think my picking up Loan on the opening is what gave me this game. By the end my only money was a loan and 2 copper, but when you KC-KC-KC-KC-Wharf-Conspirator-Conspirator-Merchant Ship-Merchant ship-Merchant Ship-Bazaar-... you can produce some serious coin... My second favorite game of the series.


Game 4:
Key Cards: Fool's Gold, Nomad Camp, Tactician
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-185150-11f2ab80.html
Insomniac totally outplayed me here again (44-17!). I thought I could use Nomad Camp to pick up a ton of Fool's Gold and then use Tactician to pull off a mega turn (Nomad Camp-Nomad Camp-FGx6 = $25 and 4 buys), but his Big Money+Tactictian was just too fast again. I was left scrambling to use Bishop or Island or something to come back. Again, to no avail.


Game 5:
Key Cards: Fishing Village, Wharf, Sea Hag, Upgrade
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-190431-529b8a54.html
We both open FV-Hag. Insomniac supplements with a Steward to clean out the curses. I decide to double down on Sea Hag thinking I can Upgrade her when she's finished being useful. A good thing I did as that barely saves me from being on the wrong side of the curses which we split 5-5. I get lucky and pick up a couple of early gold, which when combines with Wharf-Fishing Village lets me pull into the lead 2-1 provinces. I load up on some duchies and then end the game on piles by picking up the last 4 Pearl Divers in my last two turns.


Game 6:
Key Cards: Horn of Plenty, Native Village, Tactician, Young Witch (Cellar Bane), Warehouse, Black Market (+Tournament)
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-194205-5c5b069d.html
My favorite game by far. The turns took forever. The score jumped back and forth. So many great combos here. Insomniac opened YW-BM. My initial play was to Pick up a bunch of Horns and Native Villages and then unload them all at once using Tactician for an enabler for a mega turn of Provinces and trashed Horns. I opened Tactician-Cellar (to product from the YW) then started building. It wasn't until a third of the way into the game that I realized the right play was Double Tactician-Black Market. I tried to shift in that direction, slowly building up my Horns and NVs, but I slipped up not once, but twice and played too many actions to play both BM and T (once Discarding everything, once mis-clicking and not playing the T at all). The game came down to the wire when, down by 13 I came off a Tactician, emptied my Native Villages, Ironworked a Estate, Horned two Provinces and bought a couple of Duchies. I think it took me 8 minutes to play the turn correctly. Thanks Insomniac for your patience! I was sweating.


Game 7:
Key Cards: Salvager, Ambassador, Island
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-195117-654d5bac.html
I love Salvager. I think it is one of the most underrated cards by top players.
This game was my turn to play big money. We both opened with Ambassador (I picked up two, but quickly killed one with my Salvager). Both my trashed Ambassador and a trashed Silver bought me a Golds. From there I picked up a Province and didn't hesitate to kill it to the Salvager. It was my turn to be ahead with barely enough points on the board for Insomniac to catch up (I also trashed a Duchy for another Duchy). I think Insomniac was going for a double-Tactician supported by Bazaars and Navigators, but he never had time to set it up.


A great set of games. Insomniac was fun to play with, and Seaside (and the way the cards landed) allowed for some really neat interactions. Tactician seemed to play the biggest role in the games, but Ambassador, Fishing Village and Wharf all played a part.

Looking forward to the next round.

Ed

[ednever]

Has it been decided if we play with 6 cards from Alchemy?

FWIW my vote is to use less than that six. I've played a few IRL games with Alchemy and games start to look pretty similar with 60% of the sets cards used every time. My vote would be for four or even three.

Ed

[Kirian]

Ed:  Not decided yet.

East Coasters:  Any of you out there??

[CoheedandCambria]

What's the deal people? Today is the deadline and only 7/16 matches have been played?

[greatexpectations]

sorry for the delay. i played my set with AHoppy real late last night and held off on posting the results. a nice and surprisingly fast round with AHoppy.

Wins: AHoppy 1 - 6 greatexpectations

Game 1 - AHoppy 19 - 44 greatexpectations - bazaar/horse trader/menagerie beats bazaar/minion
Game 2 - AHoppy 21 - 30 greatexpectations - fishing village/steward/treasure map beats caravan/moneylender/BM
Game 3 - AHoppy 49 - 52 greatexpectations - bazaar/island/explorer beats island/library
Game 4 - AHoppy 23 - 27 greatexpectations - IGG/sea hag beats island/sea hag
Game 5 - AHoppy 15 - 42 greatexpectations - warehouse/menagerie/merchant ship beats warehouse/treasure map/ghost ship
Game 6 - AHoppy 85 - 9 greatexpectations - we both go sea hag/trading post/alchemist
Game 7 - AHoppy 24 - 36 greatexpectations - envoy/BM beats envoy/haven/BM

i thought game 1 was easily the most fun of the set - 
Bazaar, Embargo, Explorer, Ghost Ship, Horse Traders, Island, Menagerie, Minion, Tactician, and Young Witch ( Scheme♦ )
this game coupled brilliant counters for each of the 3 typically powerful attack cards with a few nice pieces for building engines.

[RisingJaguar]

Ed:  Not decided yet.

East Coasters:  Any of you out there??

My opponent hasn't played his second week match yet...

[Kirian]

Ed:  Not decided yet.

East Coasters:  Any of you out there??

My opponent hasn't played his second week match yet...

I know, I should have specified I was including Week 2 out there.  ^_^_^_^?  Nicki?  rspeer?

[Brando Commando]

Rspeer and I are going to finish our matches tonight.

I vote for 3 or 4 alchemy cards, not 6.

[Brando Commando]

Rspeer has 4 wins, Brando Commando has 2 wins, and each get 1 tie...

Game 1: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-201444-9ac3de9c.html

rspeer 42 - brando commando 23

Game 2: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-203334-8e188a98.html

rspeer 35 - brando commando 40

Game 3: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-202431-3b6bcef6.html

rspeer 68 - brando commando 51

Game 4: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-204747-b31abeff.html

rspeer 37 - brando commando 37

Game 5: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-150609-7bf856d5.html

rspeer 23 - brando commando 31

Game 6: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-152358-5e936ee9.html

rspeer 50 - brando commando 36

Game 7: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-151446-c81414e2.html

rspeer 46 - brando commando 24

Thx to Rspeer for the games -- he played well and deserved his wins.

[rspeer]

Brief commentary on those games:

Game 1: Envoy/BM actually goes well with Cache.
Game 2: Both of us bought a disastrous Lookout in this Hunting Party race.
Game 3: Colonies without combos. Spy actually seemed relevant.
Game 4: Nasty Sea Hags even out to a tie.
Game 5: Ambassador tennis, with Warehouse countering Ghost Ship (but not enough).
Game 6: Ambassadors and no good combos. Brando tried Highway/Conspirator.
Game 7: Fool's Gold + Salvager + Wharf + Border Village = power.

Thanks for the good match and for working with my awkward schedule, Brando.

[RisingJaguar]

Brief commentary on those games:

Game 1: Envoy/BM actually goes well with Cache.
Game 2: Both of us bought a disastrous Lookout in this Hunting Party race.
Game 3: Colonies without combos. Spy actually seemed relevant.
Game 4: Nasty Sea Hags even out to a tie.
Game 5: Ambassador tennis, with Warehouse countering Ghost Ship (but not enough).
Game 6: Ambassadors and no good combos. Brando tried Highway/Conspirator.
Game 7: Fool's Gold + Salvager + Wharf + Border Village = power.

Thanks for the good match and for working with my awkward schedule, Brando.

I looked at three games.

Game 7: Very very impressive.  Did not think it would be THAT fast and you end the game well.

Game 2: LOL yeah not a good game.  No plus buy makes the constraints interesting, hard to know if HP are as strong it normally is.  Merchant ship might just be enough economy. 

Game 6: Does ambassador/potion work here? With the focus on getting rid of estates? Maybe would've been with like Market in the game for that needed +buy. 

[jonts26]

Game 2: Both of us bought a disastrous Lookout in this Hunting Party race.

That game log just made me cringe.

[tlloyd]

tlloyd wins 6, ignorantmen wins 1

Game 1: ignorantmen 33 - tlloyd 39
Courtyard-BM beats Smithy/Vault-BM.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-121911-b25c2242.html

Game 2: ignorantmen 49 - tlloyd 74
Very luck-dependent game with Ghost Ship and Lighthouse, though ignorantmen's King Courts may have been a mistake.
dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-122914-1fb6205e.html

Game 3: ignorantmen 24 - tlloyd 34
Wharf/Native Village mirror match. Ignorantmen gets the first two Provinces, but only one more after that.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-123724-835f8e0b.html

Game 4: ignorantmen 11 - tlloyd 3
We both use University to grab Tacticians, Treasuries and Cities. Ignorantmen wins the City split, then pile-drives the Estates for the three-pile.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-124405-8416e7df.html

Game 5: tlloyd 23 - ignorantmen 18
My favorite game of the series. We both use Ambassador to thin while building an engine of sorts with Crossroads and Great Halls.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-125124-76b3597b.html

Game 6: ignorantmen 26 - tlloyd 27
Another close Duchy three-pile, this time with Margraves, Fishing Villages and Islands.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-125830-c79b3ead.html

Game 7: ignorantmen 31 - tlloyd 37
Yet another three-pile, this time with Ghost Ship and Fool's Gold. The FGs split evenly, and my Smuggler helps me win the Duchy race.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-130604-565685bd.html

Thanks for the games ignorantmen!

[ignorentmen]

tlloyd wins 6, ignorantmen wins 1

My main comment about these games was that my prediction in my comments for the base set that "whoever gets to play me in Seaside is going to do very well" came true. Seaside is the only set I don't own play regularly and it showed big time.

First game: I was frustrated that I couldn't play my Vault after turn 10. Drew it dead every time after with Smithy.

Game 2: King's Court was a mistake to buy. But they missed a lot more than I expected them to.

Game 3: Greened too early...

Game 4: Pile driving the estates at the end was fun... The only highlight in the whole series for me.

Game 5: Really frustrating game for me... I had more crossroads but he had more great halls and a silver. Wonder what would have happened if I had just absorbed estates rather than giving them back and bought silvers?

Game 6: Doomed from the start when I bought remake. Remake normally treats me so well.

Game 7: If I could pick my least favorite card it would be smugglers. I can never win with it and my opponent always does great things with his. Hate that card!

I felt like I played better than just win one... but tlloyd played well enough to win all 7.

[NinjaBus]

The match between me and michaeljb took place on thursday, but I didn't post the results right away and then forgot to do so for a while...

Anyway, NinjaBus wins 5-2 vs michaeljb.

Game 1: NinjaBus 24, michaeljb 19
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-203720-3e4dba65.html

Game 2: NinjaBus 59, michaeljb 44
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-204621-b66b4d6c.html

Game 3: NinjaBus 42, michaeljb 44
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-205351-a7bf76dd.html

Game 4: NinjaBus 33, michaeljb 24
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-205928-9e48d155.html

Game 5: Ninjabus 38, michaeljb 31
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-211018-7aabdccf.html

Game 6: NinjaBus resigns (1), michaeljb 18
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-211848-cdc74d5e.html

Game 7: NinjaBus 37, michaeljb 36
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120412-212245-4a865a72.html

[tlloyd]

If I could pick my least favorite card it would be smugglers. I can never win with it and my opponent always does great things with his. Hate that card!

I can't tell you how completely I agree with this. I almost never buy the card and will always veto it if given the chance. I was surprised that I was able to use it effectively in that game.

[RisingJaguar]

RisingJaguar 7 - Dsell 0

Dsell was a wonderful opponent.  I had some great games with some fun dialogue.  He definitely did not play poorly to lose 7 games (I sincerely thought I would lose 3 games here), although I'm sure he knows the end game is what made the subtle differences.

Dsell 20 - RJ 38 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-191824-39e543a8.html
Dsell  3 - RJ  4 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-192209-f6f01685.html
Dsell 45 - RJ 52 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-192919-b4455286.html
Dsell 37 - RJ 39 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-194023-0ec037f8.html
Dsell 27 - RJ 41 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-195048-e9c8522a.html
Dsell 24 - RJ 33 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-195737-ca4de98c.html
Dsell 34 - RJ 37 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/03/game-20120503-201510-6ecb7eda.html

Easily my favourite expansion of them all! Some quick thoughts on the game:
Game 1: Dsell did not notice the masq and knew immediately he was in trouble. 
Game 2: FV/Wharf comes into play with fool's gold.  We split a lot of the resources, but I ruin the fun by 3 piling + estate. 
Game 3: Dsell goes BM/Ghost ship and I go bureaucrat (on the assumption of ambassador opening) with the intention to go dukes.  I overbuy provinces and put myself at risk. 
Game 4: I try to go sea hag in a game with lighthouse and pay dearly for it getting 0 curses off.  It becomes a huge grind and I nearly eek out the win.  A late farmland purchase allowed me to get the extra points I need to win. 
Game 5: I'm not really sure how its just a 5-5 split on curses, but my salvager purchase definitely helped here.  I was not paying attention enough to both sides to notice how I was lucky but I'm sure I was here at some point
Game 6: Quarry with Bazaars/wharf.  We both get equally fortunate starts until I hit T9 where I hit 3 bazaars.  Once I get the majority of the bazaars, I manage a 3 piles win. 
Game 7: We both make poor decisions at the start (my potion and his smithy).  I think mine collides more but I can't be certain.  He gets out to an early lead but likely should've sat on it with ghost ships/bazaars.  I weasel my way in to get the last 3 provinces for the win.