lespeutere vs secret tunnel 4-3-1
Commentary and links to youtube videos (pretty bad sound quality, I have to admit) to come.
Logs are here:
1-0
2-0
3-0
3-1
3-2
3-2
3-3
4-3
Here are the video links, as I said, sound quality is rather aweful. I'd really like to hear some comments what I (/we) could've done better, I'm especially interested in the games I lost, actually. Also, commentary on the videos is very welcome, it was the first time I did it in English and I fear I may have started mumbling to myself more than saying anything useful during the 2nd half of the match.. ;-)
Scrying Pool, Smugglers, Steward, Workshop, Philosopher's Stone, Conspirator, Quarry, Militia, Mine, Farmland1-0I see scrying pool and conspirators and think that's the way to go, despite the lack of +buy. Steward provides trashing but it collides with potion on the first reshuffle. ST starts -/mine and ramps up his economy to 7 silvers and 3 golds with 3 coppers left only. He also adds a milita. My SP does not find many of his useful cards during midgame so the spying on his deck is not extremely useful for me, here. He gets ahead with the first two provinces on t10 and 11 while I can start greening 2 turns later. I nearly tie on t16 via farmland and a duchy from steward (23-25) although I see the danger of thinning in action cards but he gets 8 VP from farmlanding a gold on t17, leaving only 1 province left with a 10 VP lead for him. Eventually, my SP have got useful denying any militia plays from t14 until the end. T17 sees me with 2$P left and I go for my fifth SP in order to keep my chain going rather than thinning out even more for another VP. ST gets 3$ only on t18 getting him another estate, him being up by 6, so that I cannot win by somehow gaining 6 VP. However, I get a duchy on t19 while he does not buy any green although he has at least 2$. He draws enough to gain 8 VP on t20 but before he is able to I luck out for 6$ and a farmland in hand, resulting in a lucky 37-34 win for me.
Herbalist, Native Village, Pawn, University, Village, Baron, Jack of All Trades, Quarry, Worker's Village, Vault2-0I see joat and that pretty much settles it for me, especially when I see ST starting 2/5 and buying a vault. There are villages here and +buy but the only carddraws are vault and joat which are better suited for BM (although one might think of something fancy like 2xvillage-vault(discard down to jack)-jack). His vault helps my double jack and I've got a much, much better economy, partly because he invests 3$ in a village that should clearly have been a silver. In the end, he has 4 golds (t11 should've been a duchy, for sure) and no silvers while I have 1 and 12, respectively. I win rather comfortably by 12 points with a little bit of non-collision luck of my jacks (only time they do, I can discard one due to his vault).
Transmute, Pawn, Develop, Woodcutter, Contraband, Embassy, Tribute, Border Village, Hoard, Bank3-0Again, I don't see much going on for any kind of engine. There is border village and tribute but tribute is unreliable here as I see a BM approach favourable with embassy and hoard on the board. Some develop shenanigans with 5, 6, 7 and 8$ cards available have to be taken into account, though, +buy is provided by woodcutter and pawn. I go silver/silver for the simple embassy/hoard route while ST starts silver/woodcutter leading to an early border village/embassy on t3 but a pawn on t4 while I get a little unlucky with 4$ on the first reshuffle providing 2 more silvers (= 5 in total, 1 from his embassy). With 6$ on t5 I get a hoard, he gets his 2nd embassy, I my first on t6, 2nd on t7. On t8 he chooses to by bank and develop for 10$ and I still believe in my simple approach while he seems to be willing to take a detour for double province turns (not corresponding to our seats, though, as he started and takes the higher risk, imho). I get my first province and he another border village/embassy. I get a 2nd hoard and keep on greening from here on. He even draws develop and bank together but doesn't develop bank (which I didn't see during the game, obviously) on t10. My embassies collide once in a while and in the end I fear he might have develop and bank in hand which would've made him able to overtake me despite my 9 VP lead (province+border village/duchy from bank development + estate from 2$) but he can only develop 2 silvers for estates and potions which puts him into a very bad position for his next turn (
secret tunnel draws: 2 Potions, a Copper, and 2 Estates) which does not matter as I have enough to finish this game 45-35 giving me a 3-0 lead in the match.
Haven, Shanty Town, Smugglers, Wishing Well, Sea Hag, Worker's Village, Embassy, Ill-Gotten Gains, Mine, King's Court, with Platinum & Colony3-1There is sea hag on a colony board, so I presume we'll be cursing each other and struggle to gain some treasures during midgame. We both start silver/sea hag and I lose the curse split 4-6 as ST buys 2 IGGs. I skip them for two golds on t11 and 12 putting me into a good position, I believe. He keeps his affection for villages, adding 3 shanty towns and 2 worker's villages to his 2 embassies while I stick to 3 embassies as I believe money and filtering is more important than the action cards he acquires. For some reason that I haven't understood, yet, my plan goes horribly wrong, despite my gold advantage. The only explanation I have is that platinum is simply much more important than gold here and he manages to have 4 in the end (one of which should've been a province, imho) while I have none (!). It's not like I didn't want them, I just didn't get them. He wins very comfortably, never being in any danger, 71-50.
Transmute, Apothecary, Develop, Bishop, Gardens, Island, Haggler, Ill-Gotten Gains, Saboteur, Bank 3-2There is IGG here and gardens. There is haggler as support for both and there is bank/develop again. I take the apothecary detour which I believe is nice for the coppers I gain with IGGs + I can pick up a transmute to get rid of curses or of estates for golds. ST starts silver/bishop which I ignore completely, for some reason but which is nice with IGG, of course. I'm not sure whether this plan of mine is a bad one a priori but for some reason I lose both the IGG split (which I do understand) and the gardens split (which I don't really understand - just due to the curse split loss??). And I lose this game 41-32, and suddenly it's 3-2 only in the series.
Scheme, Smugglers, Bridge, Jack of All Trades, Treasure Map, Remake, Talisman, Mandarin, Merchant Ship, Border Village3-2Another board with jack. I don't like my 2/5 start and buy jack while ST goes scheme/jack. He also picks up a remake and two bridges while I get a 2nd jack and rely on my experience with that. I can take the early lead, being 2-1 in both provinces and duchies by turn 12. T13 and 14 see another province and another duchy buys for both of us, so it's 3-2 for me. We keep duchy dancingI buy my 4th province on t17, putting me rather comfortably ahead. There are 2 provinces left and the estates. I start emptying border villages and estates but his bridges pay off a little as he's able to buy 2 estates on t18 and 19. On t20 I buy the last estates with 2 border villages and 1 province left, up by 6 points. His t20 is a schemed bridge which he's able to match with a copper, a silver and a gold for the last VPs available and the tie. Still 3-2.
Lighthouse, Secret Chamber, Loan, Warehouse, Familiar, Cutpurse, Embassy, Explorer, Market, Merchant Ship3-3Another familiar board, with lighthouse available. I shortly think about starting lighthouse/lighthouse but refrain from that and take the usual familiar route, in this case potion/warehouse for me while ST starts silver/potion. I like warehouse better as it provides faster cycling. We both get 3$P on our first reshuffle, I get 3 familiars in total while he is able to pick up an early market (t6), and I win the curse split 4-6. From now on, things start falling apart for me. Our final decks have 6 golds (ST) vs 1 gold (me) and I have hardly any chance to win against this. He adds 2 embassies while I buy 4 merchant ships (2 of them colliding when I had 3). I feel like I have to break PPR on t27 as I rarely reach 8$ but his much better deck pays off and he wins 36-33. Boom, 3-3.
Embargo, Bridge, Mining Village, Nomad Camp, Sea Hag, Apprentice, Bazaar, Ill-Gotten Gains, Library, Border Village4-3So, it goes down to a decisive game, and again there is IGG, border village again, and sea hag again. I start with nomad camp and hope for a t2 5$ which I don't get, so that I buy a silver instead of sea hag. ST starts silver/sea hag and picks up an embargo on t3. Before he can embargo IGG, I buy a border village with IGG (should've been apprentice, I guess) and a sea hag on t3 and 4. He gets a mining village for 4$ which I don't like and embargos them when he sees me having got a sea hag. ST gets an apprentice on t5 while I get mine on t6. We keep cursing us with sea hag and IGGs, he gets another apprentice on t10, I don't get a 2nd until t17 (!) which I regard as a clear mistake with all the bv and IGG around. He starts with a duchy on t12 but 3 piling is not achieved via emptying duchies, yet and I can get a province by apprenticing a sea hag. We both can sacrifice bv, sea hag or IGG to apprentices once in a while and buy provinces. However, I have a better economy (7 silvers vs 3) and am ahead until he decides to break PPR on t24 after which he is up by 4. On t25 I can only buy an estate and he is still up by 3. ST takes a veeery (at least to me) long time to think and then plays an apprentice. Again he pauses and I fear he will trash a province to buy the last one. Fortunately for me, he does not, but trashes a curse only. He even had a province in hand (but 5 of his next 8 cards were province, copper, 3 estates), I in turn apprentice a sea hag and draw a border village and 2 nomad camps to my 4$ in hand so that I can buy the last province for the win of the game (34-31) and the match. It was a real nail-biter, though, when I had the better economy and he broke PPR but with apprentice and border village in his hand things could've easily gone the other way. 4-3, eventually.
It was a very intense series, at least towards the end. Maybe I got overconfident after the first 3 games. And the sets were not very engine-encouraging, unfortunately. Secret Tunnel, however, was a very nice opponent, I very much enjoyed playing him, thanks for this tight match.