I know this is reviving an old thread, but I'm new to Dominion and fascinated by some of the card interactions and strategy; a friend introduced my wife and I to the game a couple of months ago.
To start off at home, I went for the Big Box set (base, Prosperity, Alchemy) as a birthday gift to my wife a couple of weeks back.
We haven't tried any Alchemy games yet, but mixing in Prosperity cards is proving to make the game far more exciting than just the base set. Counting House, in particular, fascinated me because it is one of those cards that forces a totally unorthodox strategy to make it effective. We had it out in a couple of games and zero were purchased. So last night, with it back on the table, I determined to try it and see if I could make it effective.
Kingdom was a Province game with: (2) Cellar | (3) Chancellor, Village, Watchtower | (4) Bureaucrat, Feast, Talisman | (5) Counting House, Market, Mine
Three of us were playing. I opened Talisman, Chancellor (I think Talisman, Cellar would have been better), and proceeded to use the Talisman to grab a couple of Feasts (to turn into CH, Markets), along with plenty of Coppers and, another Cellar, a pair of Villages, another Talisman, a second CH, and five more Markets.
None of us have played much, so I don't think anyone's play was optimal. Both other players were using bureaucrat to add silvers to the deck; my wife was mining her deck up into big money; our friend was using chancellor/village for the extra coins to add golds and fast cycle through his deck.
When the greening rush started, I was quickly down 18 points to each of the other players. Held off on greening to pick up extra markets, and finally hit a half decent turn and grabbed two provinces... had a couple of dud turns (did grab one duchy) while I watched more greens get picked off. Got to me with one province on the table and half the duchies remaining... Used village/village/chancellor/counting house/cellar to move my deck to discard, pull 22 coppers into my hand then discard 16 to draw my entire deck, where I could then village/markets/chancellor/counting house to pull all the coppers back in. Markets+other actions+22 coppers hit 34 coins across seven buys... went 5 duchies and a province to finish out the game. Was a fantastic feeling to have the CH hit.
I'd never imagined a turn that drew 22 cards, discarded 16 cards, drew 16 cards, drew 16 cards... I've seen engines cycle through much smaller hands before, but nothing that could fully turn through--AND DRAW--a deck of 46 cards into hand at once.
My wife and I ended up tying at 39 points each, but I was 2nd player, she was 3rd, so she took the victory. Still, it made me think that, played a little better, or with a slightly more accommodating kingdom (Worker's Village instead of Mkt/Village; Colony board instead of Province board), CH would have the potential to be a dominant card.
Regardless, trying to play a CH strategy was probably the most fun I've had with a game of Dominion. It's the outlier strategies and crazy ways cards work together that are making this such an addicting game. Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but just glad to join you. Thanks.