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[qmech]

qmech 2 - DG 3

qmech 62 - DG 57
Mountebank, but Trader.  Fairgrounds will be useful later on.  My 5/2 Mountebank misses DG's 4/3 Trader on the first reshuffle and that might have been all it came down to.

DG 43 - qmech 32
Lots of nice toys, but also Fishing Village/Jack.  I throw away a draw by not taking advantage of DG's passing up an Estate for a Library on his penultimate turn, assuming I needed more than one extra Estate to win (which was true, but not useful).

qmech 23 - DG 26
Ironworks/Conspirator/Inn.  I grab an early Council Room and Embargo them.  I get some use out of the +Buy, getting 6 of the Conspirators and buying multiple VP a turn, but it doesn't help and a close game goes to DG.

DG 43 - qmech 57
Chapel and King's Court with Colonies.  DG doesn't spot the +Buy until I buy a Margrave and grabs early Colonies.  I have a lot of Treasure which makes DG's KC'ed Tributes an effective source of money, but my bigger engine leaps ahead on the final turn.

DG 27 - qmech 1
This looks like so much fun, with Ambassador, University with a great selection of 5's including Upgrade in the presence of Grand Market, and Black Market with Tournament, Torturer and Goons amongst other goodies.  After we both open Ambassador/Potion my next four draws are

2 Coppers and 3 Estates
4 Coppers and an Ambassador
2 Coppers, 2 Ambassadors, and a Potion
2 Coppers and 3 Estates

Sigh.

[blueblimp]

@blueblimp: Game 3 had Ventures. I understand $5 is a popular price-point here, but those seem good, especially when greening hard and especially when Ghost Ship is on the board. Being so clogged is usually horrible, but if you have a Venture in hand, just throw those Dukes and Duchies on top and watch them get skipped because of the Venture hunting. I think the simulators might be able to tell us if Ventures are a worthwhile investment here.

Interesting, although it's hard to analyze.

Although Venture can mitigate being Ghost Shipped, the best it can do is skip over green and dead actions if they were put back. A Ghost Ship play would do that too, but instead of giving +$, it would attack. Hard to say which is better in general. In this game, I first played my Ghost Ship on turn 7, and Venture would've put me at $4 instead of $3--that doesn't help much, but then again the GS attack that turn probably helped yuma (since he only wanted $5 and had $7 in hand). I play GS for the second time on turn 12--Venture would have put me at $9, but at that point we're still fighting over Duchies--on the other hand, the GS attack wasn't damaging. When I play GS on turn 18, the GS attack helps yuma, and Venture would have got me a Duke that GS didn't, so Venture would have been better there.

[Young Nick]

Also note that Venture can skip over even more cards than you might think. Whether it's a good thing or not is unclear, but, yeah, it's not like the game would have been the exact same if you Ventured.

[-Stef-]

Game 1: blueblimp 11 - yuma 5

Thoughts:

Game 1: I don't know whether Remodel/Grand Market is actually much good in Province games, but anyway there's no good BM option, so I go for it, and so does yuma. A combination of Cellars, Villages, and Watchtowers later on allows for a surprisingly good engine, and I'm able to end it on piles. I'd love to see what a strong engine player would do with this kingdom.

Grand market is definately the way to go. But the focus during the start should be not so much on getting the goodies, but getting rid of the coppers & estates. Remodelling a copper is quite bad, just getting rid of it is much stronger. Cellar isn't that good when you don't play with huge hands.

So Loan and Lookout are both very good here. Watchtower is also strong, because lookout & remodel both reduce your hand.
Engines almost always require draw. Just look at what happends to your deck once you buy the watchtowers (t12)

The start is still quite complex, and I don't really have an answer for that. Maybe loan/remodel, but lookout/watchtower also feels strong.
By the time I got 7 cards in, I'd like them to be 2 villages, 2 watchtowers, a remodel, a lookout and a loan.

Starting 5/2 is bad here, and I agree on your remodel/cellar. Drawing 'cellar cccc' on t3 is horrible, but to cellar all 4 is asking for more trouble. I would cellar 1, hoping to draw an estate and get a loan, lookout & watchtower before the reshuffle. If not, I'd settle for loan and lookout.

[Wizard of Woz]

Wizard of Woz 3 - Chriskern 1

Game 1
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120729-181345-43d53969.html

Woz 31 - 19 Chriskern

With Minion on the board, I see Embassy and think that I will try Embassy BM and see if I can just run with it.  It worked.  I think Chriskern gave up on him Minion start after I got going with Embassy, by then it was too late to switch and I coast to Victory.

Game 2
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120729-182025-9e767843.html

Chriskern 36 - 35 Woz

After Embssy dominating the first game, it shows up again here.  I pretty much decide to go the same route, BM Embassy, while Chriskern decides to do Embassy with a little support from Markets.  I could never get my Salvager to collide with anything meaningful toward the end of the game, and had it collide with one too many Estates.  I break the PPR, we dance for a bit, and Chriskern picks up the winner. 

Game 3
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120729-182731-1439f3d9.html

Woz 39 - 35 Chriskern

As we look at the third board, what card is there?  Yup, Embassy again.  Weird.  The big difference here is that there are tournaments on board.  I push tournaments a little harder.  We both grab a Province on turn 7, but I get mine to collide first.  From there, again Embassy with money and support from Tournaments and a Trusty Steed.  I jjust got the first prize, and sometimes that's enough.

Game 4
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120729-183645-0cba31d7.html

Woz 33 - 23 Chriskern

Well, no Embassy this time, but I see his BM enabling brother, Vault on the board.  I am already thinking about money games so Vault seemed like a ready made strategy.  Chriskern started out with a Spice Merchant.  I grabbed one too because I thought "Hey two coins plus trashing a copper".  After I bought it I though "Hey, its really only +1 coin because I have to get rid of a copper, so it won't help me get Vaults as fast as a silver would have."  Even still, I stay on the Vault BM path while Chriskern goes with some schemes and throne rooms.  He had the support, but no big cards to use them with.  Black Market was on the board but he really didn't get a chance at it. 

Chriskern was a great opponent, and I have to apologize for not being very talkative.  Was trying to get dinner in at the same time, and was unable to type a whole lot. 

I would appreciate if someone would look at these three Embassy games and give thoughts on how to approach this card with 3 different kingdoms.

[DG]

For those 3 embassy games -
#1 - There are lots of options, good kingdom actually, so you'd need to tailor your play against your opponent's strategy.
#2 - I don't think salvager helps the embassy here. Something simple with smithy+royal seal seems fine.
#3 - Either take labs or festivals+embassies, but not labs+embassy.

[yudantaiteki]

Chriskern was a great opponent, and I have to apologize for not being very talkative.  Was trying to get dinner in at the same time, and was unable to type a whole lot. 

No problem, thanks for playing and posting the writeups.  I wish I had played better, particularly the 4th game where I never really had a good strategy.  I bought the last province for the loss; I don't think that even buying duchies would have enabled me to catch up -- I just didn't have anything to work with.  Throne rooming Council Room was the only thing giving me any steam but of course that benefited you too.

[Jorbles]

Young Nick beat me 3-2 yesterday. He'll be posting the logs today. I look forward to seeing them as there were some really interesting boards involved.

[HiveMindEmulator]

HiveMindEmulator 3 : 1 Rabid

HME 48 : 34 Rabid http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/31/game-20120731-100935-61d07404.html
HME 64 : 48 Rabid http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/31/game-20120731-101955-5cbeb2bc.html
HME 19 : 76 Rabid http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/31/game-20120731-104331-fdf05d88.html
HME 32 : 29 Rabid http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/31/game-20120731-105005-c84de4be.html

Game 1 was Thief/Fool's Gold. I got a little luckier and won.

Game 2 was a Sea Hag Colony game. He went 2 Hags, and I went 1 + Fortune Teller. I got my Trading Post really late, but I hit a lot of 6s and ended up with a better Gold economy to grab Provinces.

Game 3 was KC/Possession/Scheme. He got it going it going faster with better Potion timing and hitting the first $7 and demolished me.

Game 4 I played Oracle BM vs Trading Post/Lab. He broke the PPR, which is a tough call. I guess he figured the Oracles would handle a bunch of Duchies better than the Labs.

[Rabid]

Thanks for the games.

Game 1: I can't remember ever winning a game with thief.

Game 2: Even with 2 hags, I only managed a 5/5 curse split.
In hind sight on T17, I should have played Trading post, instead of hag.
Rabid draws: 2 Sea Hags, a Trading Post, and 2 Silvers

Game 3: Crazy board, could have been some cool interaction with scheme vs possession if it was close. But my early draws were better.

Game 4: Your plan was better I think, I need to stop avoiding mirrors in matches.
Not sure about PPR here, you had already played a lot of money that shuffle, so it seems OK.

[HiveMindEmulator]

Game 2: Even with 2 hags, I only managed a 5/5 curse split.
In hind sight on T17, I should have played Trading post, instead of hag.
Rabid draws: 2 Sea Hags, a Trading Post, and 2 Silvers

I did get luckier with my Hag hits, but I'm almost certain Fortune Teller is better than second Hag. It boosts economy, has basically the same immediate attack impact (potentially skip good cards, leave useless card on top), and continues to be useful when the Curses are gone.

[Rabid]

Yep, sims seem to agree, I should win the curse split but still be behind.
Seems about even 2 Hag vs 1 hag + FT on colony board.
But once you add the trading post it move to 55% in favour of FT.

[michaeljb]

A quick note:  players who are mathematically eliminated, and who withdraw with notice, will be eligible for the next IsoDom.  I don't want anyone to feel like they must play this last round if they can't make the top eight and don't wish to finish the round.

I withdraw--unless shark_bait turns out to be really eager to finish the round.

[Rabid]

Does that mean sharkbait gets a win or just no result?
I think I need them to win for my tie breaks.

[Kirian]

Does that mean sharkbait gets a win or just no result?
I think I need them to win for my tie breaks.

Unplayed matches in round 5 will be treated as draws.

[-Stef-]

Mic Qsenoch vs -Stef-   1-3

Game 1 - Apprentice, Bridge, Conspirator, Embargo, Familiar, Ghost Ship, Governor, Pirate Ship, Potion, Salvager, and Trading Post

This was a really interesting set to start with. Without any source of +actions, both Governor and Apprentice were obviously going to be the stars. Ghost ship to finish a chain, Salvager or Bridge for the +buy? The really tough choice for me was about the curses. Familiar on the board is usually a must-buy, but skipping it and try to get the vast majority of Governors was also really attractive. With huge chains involving apprentices, trashing curses away shouldnt be that hard.

I went for the governors, and Mic Qsenoch for the familiars. It turned out to be real close. I got a 7-3 governor split, resulting in a final turn gaining 3 Provinces and a Duchy. I had to sacrifice a province to pull this of, which was a rather silly miscounting-thingy that you shouldn't ask questions about. The final score 21-21 looked just fine until I realized I took both the first and the last turn. Ouch! Why am I not more carefull in a tournament?

Game 2 - Bank, Baron, Harvest, Haven, Mandarin, Market, Noble Brigand, Saboteur, Steward, and Trading Post

Yet another set without +actions but with lots of interesting interactions. In my pre-game analysis the words "haven heaven" came to mind. Three cards that love it: Baron, Trading Post & Bank. Mic Qsenoch prefered Silvers, and this was the only game that didn't feel close. 1-1.

Game 3 - Caravan, Council Room, Crossroads, Great Hall, Harem, Hunting Party, Nobles, Royal Seal, Smithy, and Wishing Well

This set features a hard-to-evaluate crossroads. All the friends from Intrige to enable lots of draw, but both +actions (only Nobles) and +buy (only Councilroom) were quite awkward. And the most important point: Hunting party was on the table, presenting a pretty serious clock.

I decided to go for it anyway, but it didnt feel good for a long long time. I think I shouldn't have made it, but he didn't buy enough Hunting Parties (3 can't be enough, right?) so despite my Councilroom plays he stalled too much.

Game 4 - Colony, Courtyard, Harem, Horse Traders, Jack of All Trades, Market, Moat, Mountebank, Peddler, Platinum, Salvager, and Watchtower

I didn't like this set. Some options (salvage a Peddler, Watchtower to block Mountebank) but they didnt seem to be worth it. So I ended up with double Jack with a Mountebank, and he played double Mountebank with a Jack. I can't really tell you which is stronger. I actually think his double Mountebank was better, but not that much. He did green too early, and that cost him the game.


All in all these were really good sets, and 3/4 of the games were very close. Not the "super engines" that make me love Dominion, but more the kind of sets that strike me as WanderingWinders favorites. Thanks for playing again, Mic Qsenoch

[Mic Qsenoch]

Game 1 was really interesting, but I don't know how it should be played at all.

Game 2 was just me losing like a fool.

Game 3 is the only one I have much to say about. I went for Hunting Party because I almost always play the tried and true thing if I think it's reasonably good. Here it just isn't good enough though, he can basically pick up a province's worth of points each turn without hurting his deck. I actually don't stall out (province on turns 9,10,12,13,14,17), with 5 provinces before I even buy my third Hunting Party. So I feel like my luck, with the exception of some early $4 hands, was pretty incredible. My turn 11 should probably be another Hunting Party, not a Nobles.

Moral of the story: HP is real good, but not so great without a nice terminal partner. Don't ignore crossroads with Great Hall, Harem, Nobles (profound right?)

Game 4 I lose by not buying Platinum.

Well they were pretty fun games anyway, thanks for the match Stef.

[Kenuru]

Kenuru (3) - Marin (1)

Game 1: Kenuru
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-144723-e8c9522b.html
Game 2: Kenuru
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-145354-c613a4ee.html
Game 3: Marin
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-150449-7aa25817.html
Game 4: Kenuru
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120801-151637-572a9422.html
(We both talked for a bit after the match, and I forgot to get the log before the game put us back into the lobby. I'll have to get it from CouncilRoom in a while.)

Edit: added the log for Game 4.

[Young Nick]

Young Nick beat me 3-2 yesterday. He'll be posting the logs today. I look forward to seeing them as there were some really interesting boards involved.

I'll post on it soon, I promise!

[cayvie]

ugh i drop

[Young Nick]

Young Nick defeats Jorbles 3-2!

Game 1: YN 49 - 38 J. Key cards: Gardens, Lighthouse, Tournament. I am lucky enough to open Stables/Lighthouse to Jorbles' Baron/Silver. From here I pick up Festivals and Barons and ultimately rush Gardens winning the split 5-3. With more sources of +Buy and a favorable split it comes as no surprise that my Gardens are worth 20 to his 12. I get lucky in that despite his early Province, my Tournament is rarely blocked and I even pull Followers late in the game (t19 out of 21). He gets his prize the very next turn and takes Trusty Steed for Silvers, which was a smart play. Hooray for first turn advantage. Horn of Plenty helped with some gains and the game ended on Gardens, Estates, and Lighthouses.

Game 2: J 40 - 25 YN. Key cards: Governor, Sea Hag. He opens Governor/Hamlet to my Sea Hag/Silver. We both add a Tactician as he mostly plays a Governor deck (despite only having three of them) and I do a bunch of nothing until switching my strategy to Hamlet/Menagerie. Tactician is a great enabler for Governor. I never really felt in control of this game. What should have I done? I feel that it was impossible to make up the large deficit no matter what I did.

Game 3: J 33 - 22 YN. Key cards: Chapel, Mountebank, Merchant Ship. He opens Chapel/Mountebank to my Chapel/Silver and never looks back. I go Merchant Ship hoping that he stalls mightily, but there was no coming back. He comfortably wins in a game that I never felt I had a chance in.

Game 4: YN 45 - 20 J. Key cards: Chapel, Witch, Remake. Right back at you! I open Witch/Chapel to Jorbles' Chapel/Remake. I add a Remake in the mid-game to kill Curses and dead Witches which is only slightly effective. Regardless, I cruise to a victory. It was an interesting opening for Jorbles, the Chapel/Remake. I was very surprised he didn't go Ambassador and I wonder if it would have been the best strategy. Similarly, I am curious where (if) Trading Post could have fit in. Commentary is certainly welcome here!

Game 5: J 27 - 29 YN. Key cards: Witch, Horse Traders, Mining Village. This game was definitely the most exciting of the set. We both open Horse Traders/Silver in pursuit of Witch. We each get one, but mine misses the first reshuffle. He gets a second and I take a Gold. He pumps Curses into me super fast and I keep hitting 7. We are both nearly certain that I will lose the game seeing as by turn 18, he has 4 Provinces to my 1 and I have lost the Curse split 3-7. I then proceed to end the game on three straight Province buys which amazed both of us. His three last turns net him a Crossroads, a Mining Village and nothing. My 3-1 Duchy split gave me the two point victory. Later we realized that I had a much better economy than we had initially realized and that his Mining Villages had given him a false sense of economy (in my opinion, at least). It was certainly an unexpected comeback. Just look at the Victory Point graph at the bottom!

Note: We played the last game without the point counter by accident, but neither of us minded.

Jorbles was a great opponent and we had lots of good conversation throughout the set. I am excited to hear what he has to say on all of this! As always, questions and comments are welcome and appreciated!

But really at least check out the VP graph on Game 5!

Edit: Edited a non-nonsensical sentence.

[ycz6]

Um, I'm not sure exactly what just happened, but I think cayvie resigned his match against me?

Game 1: cayvie 12-14 ycz http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-171208-db707c91.html

Quarry/Grand Market with Develop. He had a chance to end the game on the last turn and just barely messed it up, and I won on my turn.

Game 2: cayvie resigns 0 ycz, didn't grab the log

Minion game with 6 trashers, he resigned after I finished off the Minions

[Kirian]

ugh i drop

Um, I'm not sure exactly what just happened, but I think cayvie resigned his match against me?

Game 1: cayvie 12-14 ycz http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-171208-db707c91.html

Quarry/Grand Market with Develop. He had a chance to end the game on the last turn and just barely messed it up, and I won on my turn.

Game 2: cayvie resigns 0 ycz, didn't grab the log

Minion game with 6 trashers, he resigned after I finished off the Minions

Are you actually resigning the match cayvie?  Note you're still within reach of the top 8 in your bracket.

[zxcvbn2]

Finished my match with greatexpectations. Won 3-0.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-174323-30d9cc82.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-174908-0127b0b5.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/01/game-20120801-175601-2048e414.html

I thought these were mostly boring games, to be honest. I liked using bishop with Governor to trash gold in Game 3 versus basically vanilla hunting-party BM with monument. But mostly these were BM-dominated sets.

Thanks to greatexpectations for playing, and I think I'm probably not moving on, barring some outstanding circumstances. But I'd like to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my own One Day Tourney this weekend: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=3557.0 If you're free this Saturday, I'd love to have you!

[Grujah]

Me and Ins couldn't connect to Iso cause it was malfunctioning, so we played it out on FunSockets. I don't know how long that FunSockets host logs so I saved them on my db.

Grujah 3 - 2 Insomniac.

Game 1:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20240121/vsIns/Baron.txt
I go BM-Baron he makes this huge Smithy/WV engine. He didn't manage to catch up with me. Also my baron hit Estate every time. So lucky there.

Game 2:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20240121/vsIns/Coppersmith.txt
I go BM + few supports (Should have gotten more moats) he makes this huge awesome Lab/Market/Bazaar/Coppersmith engine. This time, he managed to catch up with a last minute comback and wins.

Game 3:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20240121/vsIns/Torturer.txt
Torturer hell. Ended on piles, Tort, WV and Curses. I won because I had Bishop who got me some VP.

Game 4:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20240121/vsIns/Amb1.txt
He just stomps me. He goes Caravans while I try Ambasador sheneningans and fail.

Game 5:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20240121/vsIns/King%27sCourt.txt
Big Shot Kards. KC, Wharf, Amb, Sea Hag.
I Ambasador away 6 curses in one turn
He managed a early KC, I struggled hitting 5. Came at about equal decks, he was lacking Wharfs perhaps.
Ended on piles, Great Halls, Shanty Towns and Curses. I won.