blueblimp 3 - andwilk 2
Game 1: blueblimp 41 - andwilk 24
Game 2: andwilk 39 - blueblimp 32
Game 3: blueblimp 37 - andwilk 30
Game 4: andwilk 47 - blueblimp 41
Game 5: blueblimp 32 - andwilk 21
Boring boards overall. First player won every time.
The most interesting game was game 3, where my attempt to build a HoP-megaturn engine was derailed by some poor early draws ($2 on T3, Upgrade on Copper on T6) but then got some good luck later on to win anyway.
They don't look TOO boring. But not so great. Except game 3, where there's a LOT of stuff that looks reasonable, without anything being very strong at all. Lots of options there.
Well, I'd summarize as:
Game 1: To me this is obviously a Ghost Ship slog. I get a Trader to clear some clutter to help mitigate later Ghost Ship plays, but since he picks up a Smugglers early (which seems like a clear mistake to me), I don't have to worry. I feel I read this board better.
Also a ghost ship slog to me. Except, I really really don't like trader here. A huge huge thing is playing your GS every turn, and then you gold is pretty important. Lots of silvers can detract from your ability to GS (and slow you down getting there), and looking at a hand of 3 silver doesn't do you a lot when on the receiving end of the attack. Don't think I really like smugglers either, though I'm a touch less sure about it.
Game 2: Our strategies here are very similar and I think this was mostly decided by whose Mountebanks hit better. His decision to get two Mountebanks instead of just one was possibly better, but maybe less significant than the curse moating.
You both ignore jack in favour of remake, which I find quite questionable here. Now, you do want mountebank at some point, so doublejack is far less appealing, but... well, inn is going to work sorta nice with the jack, and remake is just not so appealing at all on me to this board. It slows you down more early on, which is important. And later, it's also not as good, I don't think. At some point, monuments can be important, too, but it really depends on how things shape up. You have to balance your terminals and inns...
Game 3: This is a pretty interesting board, yeah, but the early draws I have, combined with his VP pressure from the tunnels, mean I don't have as much time to build as I would like. So my engine is bad, but then by luck just barely works out later on (on turn 17 I double Province). So I felt my play decisions were mostly overridden by luck, which thankfully tilted in my favour.
Okay, so much that can go on here. The HoP mega-turn strategy. Well, the problem here is, to get it to work, you need lots of HoP, probably a few upgrades to trash, and the other nicest cards are... Lab and highway. Everything costs 5, and it's very hard to get it all together. Now it still might work, but... well, I can't say I like the coppersmith. It doesn't work well with the oasis, it doesn't work well with the upgrade. It does work well with labs, of course. Upgrade also, synergizes with highway (on this board), lab, not so much with coppersmith, oasis. Oasis goes with lab and tunnel, but not HoP (well, multiple oases anyway) or coppersmith or upgrade. So my point is that it's a little discombobulated.
He, on the other hand, goes with a upgrade-into-oasis-tunnel. I don't think oasis-tunnel is that great to start, and I think he overly-aggresively tunnels here. I would like a lab into this strategy a lot better.
What else can you try? Well, there's other ways to mega-turn, but the HoP will be similar. You can play BM-lab. Or BM-coppersmith lab, which seems not so bad here. And/or get a jester at some point, but not against the tunnel opponent so much maybe?
Game 4: This was frustrating because he went Noble Brigand early, and despite me having a Moneylender and preferring action money over Silver and Gold, I lose anyway. Plus the Alchemist engine here looked pretty reasonable, although in hindsight maybe there wasn't enough opportunity to really explode. Also, I didn't put enough forethought into using the Farmlands.
Going Noble Brigand early is actually good here because... there's not much else. Your action money is moneylender and treasury, which is not so great in terms of action money. You need lots of treasuries, which is slow. And alchemists, also slow.. This is going to make it pretty tough going. I expect a Big Money + buy some NBs if they go for too many silver/gold to be about best here. Basically, I'm actually pretty surprised it's as close as it is.
Game 5: I transition from Masquerade BM into Envoy BM by passing him my Masquerade. He does something complicated that doesn't really work out, although maybe if he were first player...
I think I'm surprised this one is so close too. I don't think his complicated thing is much good at all. Spice merchant and masq just do not mix well. I also think that even if you just go duchy-running, his deck is on the verge of falling apart anyway, whereas yours has some stamina. Keep in mind that there's very little left he wants to pass.
I may just be spoiled by playing too many interesting boards on alts, where nowadays I mostly will bias Prosperity, sometimes along with some other interesting expansion. With these biases, pretty much every game is interesting.
As an aside here, I don't find that 'oh, we're both building an obvious engine here' is really more interesting than, say, double-jack. But that's just me.
Also, I'm not playing in this tournament, but I'm going to try to give commentary on a lot more games than I normally would. Probably not ALL of them, as much in detail as I'm doing here.
