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Author Topic: Dark Ages initial report  (Read 18145 times)

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HiveMindEmulator

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #50 on: August 18, 2012, 02:02:30 am »
+1

Junk Dealer: Strong and solid; the Dark Ages equivalent of Lab.

It doesn't remind me of Lab at all. It even leaves you with a 4 card hand after playing it instead of the 6 card hand Lab gives you.

Unless the card you trash lets you draw cards when you trash it...
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Varsinor

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #51 on: August 18, 2012, 07:07:18 am »
0

The reason I think you need to alternate I'd because you can gain cultists AND because you absolutely have to win the duchy war to make up for the fact your getting -10vp

No offense, but what you are saying really doesn't make much sense at all... ;)
Maybe you need to start to go for Duchies early, but that does not at all mean you should ever plan to buy a Cultist after you started going for Duchies (as long as there are still Duchies left).

I thought this would be obvious, but maybe you want to reread this sentence (which you may have missed because I didn't edit it in until some minutes after first posting, I put the important part in bold here):

If you instead buy Cultist after a Duchy, it would have been better to do it the other way round (unless Duchies are gone), because that might have given you an opportunity to use your additional Cultist instead of having a dead Duchy in your deck.

In any case, as dondon has already pointed out, it is very unlikely that a Cultist-only player will beat a Witch player just with Duchies anyway - the -10 VP from Curses are just too much for that.
The Cultist player will need at least one Province (more than the Witch player) to have a chance.
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rinkworks

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #52 on: August 18, 2012, 08:18:44 am »
+1

The reason I think you need to alternate I'd because you can gain cultists AND because you absolutely have to win the duchy war to make up for the fact your getting -10vp

Yeah, this doesn't make any sense.  Let me try to say what Varsinor is saying about this in different terms.

Let's say that over the course of a game using your algorithm, the following Cultist/Duchy purchases take place:

Cultist - Duchy - Cultist - Duchy - Cultist - Duchy - Cultist - Duchy - Cultist - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy

Then the game ends, and you have, hey look, 7 Duchies!  That's awesome.  21 points for you.  However, there is a price to pay for those Duchies beyond the money you spend on picking them up, and that is that the earlier Duchies clogged up your deck and appeared as dead cards in your hand instead of Cultists, which could have been used to further slow down your opponent.

Let's replay that game, then, keeping the same purchases but reordering them thusly:

Cultist - Cultist - Cultist - Cultist - Cultist - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy - Duchy

There you go.  7 Duchies for the same 21 points.  Only this time, with the Cultists entering your deck earlier, you got to play them more often, junking up your opponent's deck quicker and more, and the Duchies didn't slow you down as much, because they only started coming in at the end.

The hard part is figuring out when to stop buying Cultists and start buying Duchies.  But a good player WILL know that, and will beat someone hedging his bets by alternating every time.

This is a fundamental Dominion principle here, applicable in essentially every game.  It's why Duchy/Estate openings aren't very good.
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hamcannon

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #53 on: August 18, 2012, 10:40:03 pm »
0

Quote
Rebuild: This is a powerful point source. I actually gained Estate with Hermit just so I could leverage it! It'll be especially good in non-Shelter games where the Estates make an attractive target. In most cases you'll name Province or Colony, whatever you don't want to hit.

I think I can completely describe when you want to name what.

If piles aren't close to running out, name the lowest costed VP card you have. Estate->Duchy is 2 points, but Duchy->Province is 3. Also it's more VPs that your opponent can't get, and given that you're running a non-draw non-money card, your opponent is going to be better at buying late VPs.

If provinces are close to being out and you're ahead, name the most common card that can't grab province. This is usually estate. Even if you hit a province with Rebuild, you can just trash it for another province, which means a dead province pile sooner. Same logic holds for Colonies in a Colony game.

Alternate VP cards can be tricky, since their price and how much they are worth aren't always the same sort of thing. With Duke out, you probably ought to just buy enough duchies and trash them for provinces so that your opponent can't duke/duchy. If there's only one alternate VP, you probably want to name it and trash lower costed cards into it. Gardens or Silk Road for massive VPs is one option. Harems or Nobles lose you a VP but make your deck not suck.
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engineer

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #54 on: August 19, 2012, 12:46:48 am »
0

Man, that rebuild card seems like it will be crazy in the right kingdom.  If you have an engine that can draw your whole deck with extra +buy (e.g. worker's village/smithy), you can just pick up a few rebuilds and buy estates.  If you have 3 rebuilds, assuming you can still draw the deck, that's 3 estate->duchy or duchy-> province upgrades every turn..  This would probably also be awesome in a lab deck as long as you can find a cantrip +buy.  Maybe 2 squires? 

Alternatively, you could just pick up a couple hunting grounds for your engine, trash one of them, and take the estates instead of the duchy!
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jonts26

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #55 on: August 19, 2012, 12:55:42 am »
0

Man, that rebuild card seems like it will be crazy in the right kingdom.  If you have an engine that can draw your whole deck with extra +buy (e.g. worker's village/smithy), you can just pick up a few rebuilds and buy estates.  If you have 3 rebuilds, assuming you can still draw the deck, that's 3 estate->duchy or duchy-> province upgrades every turn..  This would probably also be awesome in a lab deck as long as you can find a cantrip +buy.  Maybe 2 squires? 

Alternatively, you could just pick up a couple hunting grounds for your engine, trash one of them, and take the estates instead of the duchy!

Except you cant rebuild cards in your hand. You'd need a way to discard the green after you draw your deck.
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Rhombus

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Re: Dark Ages initial report
« Reply #56 on: August 19, 2012, 01:04:50 am »
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A brief update on my experience with Dark Ages:

Rats - still can't figure them out (had many opportunities, but haven't bought one).  Maybe they can help protect against cards like knights?
Knights - can be useful.  Attack is very good against trimmed decks.
Poor House - played a money-less deck and rocked the game (and was super fun).  Poor House is a power house but definitely board dependent.
Wandering Minstrel - absolutely awesome.  A village with 3-card cartographer effect for $4, just wow.
Squire - great card, good for +buys, +actions, and even silvers in the beginning depending on your deck goals.
Hermit - awesome defence against cursing attacks and looters; Madman is amazing.  Tactician is my favorite card... I may just love Madman more.
Altar - situational.  Doesn't feel like a powerhouse, but might be strong on some boards.

Necropolis - despite what others say, I still think it helps enable engines.  The shelters in general are pretty awesome to play with.
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