So maybe this should go in game reports now that Dark Ages has been released... played a few more games tonight IRL. 2 player match; I went Madman while my opponent went Mercenary. Urchin/Mercenary was hurting more than I expected. While I was building up who-knows what, my opponent bought 4 Provinces and a Duchy while I still had 0 VP.
Then it happened... played 3 Madmen on my turn. With no other card draw available; that's a 26 card hand... which happened to be exactly my entire deck. With 3 Death Carts, 2 Mercenaries, and lots of Squires alternating between +2 actions and +2 buys, I managed to have 46 money and 8 buys... exactly enough for 4 Provinces, 2 Duchies, and 2 Estates, FTW.
In other Dark-Ages opinions, I believe Wandering Minstrel will prove to be among the top Villages; even among the top $4 cards. Yes there were quite a few plays where it discarded Gold, but it more than made up for that with the times that it discarded Curses and Victory cards. Definitely weaker with Ruins around, though.