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Warrior

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Playing with DA
« on: December 20, 2012, 08:51:04 pm »
+3

Hi all,

For those of you who have played Dark Ages, how do you generally play with the Dark Ages cards to get the most fun out of the expansion: 1) Play games only with DA and then other games with cards from the other expansions 2) Just randomly mix up Dark Ages with all the other expansions 3) or have a set amount of Dark Ages cards in the kingdom when you play with the expansion (like potion cards)?

Thanks for your input,
warrior297
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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2012, 09:24:23 pm »
+1

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.
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werothegreat

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2012, 09:29:26 pm »
+3

I'm at the mix-em-in stage.
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philosophyguy

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2012, 09:29:37 pm »
+2

We started with just DA cards. Now we're doing half DA and half others. We haven't had a lot of opportunities to play with the holiday season, so we're trying to make sure we see the DA cards a lot.
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clb

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2012, 11:54:55 pm »
0

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2012, 12:11:35 am »
+1

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
I thought I saw you mentioning this method of card choosing in an old thread. Could you explain how you choose your kingdom cards? Thanks!

warrior297
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2012, 12:12:07 am »
+1

I'm at the mix-em-in stage.

Any favorite sets/cards?

warrior297
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werothegreat

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2012, 12:55:46 am »
+2

I'm at the mix-em-in stage.

Any favorite sets/cards?

warrior297

Well, given that I tend to play on Goko more often than not, I play with whatever is thrown at me.  But, when I do play in person, I try to make a well-rounded kingdom, with a Village and draw and +Buy and whatnot.  As for favorite cards (I'm assuming from Dark Ages): Rebuild is fun, as are the Knights, and I really enjoy throwing Fortress, Rats and Death Cart in with each other.  Count and Altar are awesome, and there's just something satisfying about pulling off a Cultist chain.  And you have to do at least one Graverobber game.

As for a set, try a game with Bishop, Rats, Wandering Minstrel.
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PitzerMike

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2012, 02:36:17 am »
+2

When I started playing DA only, there was always some whacky combo in the kingdom. Sometimes it would give me headaches just resolving all the actions played (in real-life Dominion that is).
For me personally it was just too much at once to properly evaluate the power of the new cards.

Then we started to do completely random setups usually ending up with 1 or 2 cards from DA. That works much better for me, now i finally get to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the new cards when they come up in an otherwise somewhat familiar setup. Now I really love the DA cards because they enable some sort of engine in almost every game.
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2012, 09:58:24 am »
0

I'm at the mix-em-in stage.

Any favorite sets/cards?

warrior297

Well, given that I tend to play on Goko more often than not, I play with whatever is thrown at me.  But, when I do play in person, I try to make a well-rounded kingdom, with a Village and draw and +Buy and whatnot.  As for favorite cards (I'm assuming from Dark Ages): Rebuild is fun, as are the Knights, and I really enjoy throwing Fortress, Rats and Death Cart in with each other.  Count and Altar are awesome, and there's just something satisfying about pulling off a Cultist chain.  And you have to do at least one Graverobber game.

As for a set, try a game with Bishop, Rats, Wandering Minstrel.

Thanks! Super helpful!
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2012, 10:02:15 am »
+1

When I started playing DA only, there was always some whacky combo in the kingdom. Sometimes it would give me headaches just resolving all the actions played (in real-life Dominion that is).
For me personally it was just too much at once to properly evaluate the power of the new cards.

Then we started to do completely random setups usually ending up with 1 or 2 cards from DA. That works much better for me, now i finally get to appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the new cards when they come up in an otherwise somewhat familiar setup. Now I really love the DA cards because they enable some sort of engine in almost every game.

Interesting!
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brokoli

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2012, 10:32:57 am »
0

I agree with PitzerMike. I'm not a huge fan of Dark Ages only. I like to see synergies between expansions. For example Dark Ages + Cornucopia + Hinterlands is awesome (remake two cultists into a border village then gain an Ill-Gotten gains...)
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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2012, 01:34:08 am »
0

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
I thought I saw you mentioning this method of card choosing in an old thread. Could you explain how you choose your kingdom cards? Thanks!

warrior297

Hey Warrior - sorry to be slow on the response.

Typically, we will shuffle the randomizer decks for the sets (we keep them separate), and then draw off the top X cards. Typically, we will choose 4 cards from Prosperity, Seaside, DA, or Hinterlands with 3 from each of the other 2 chosen sets.  THis is, of course, subject to whim - if we feel like playing a particular set, we are more likely to draw 4 from it. We do a sort of "soft veto" where if we really don't feel like playing with a particular card, we reserve the option to skip it and grab the next card in the blue deck. An example is if Sea Hag shows up on a very sloggy board for the last game of the night - that isn't how we want to end the evening, so we might replace her. After the kingdom is built, we return the blue cards to the bottom of their randomizer deck. So, no single card is likely to appear more than once or maybe twice in a night.
This weekend, we used the set generator that was just created by Onigame. It was fun and definitely created some very interesting sets (I submitted one of them to Theory for the design contest). However, it seemed that there were definitely some cards that were preferred over others. I think Familiar and Haggler were in at least 3 or 4 of the 8 or so games we played.
Anyway - that's how we do it, and it seems to work out well. I suggested the use of Onigame's generator to take a look at potentially using cards from more than three boards at once, but it turns out that it tends to clump them anyway! :)
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #13 on: December 24, 2012, 02:07:04 pm »
+1

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
I thought I saw you mentioning this method of card choosing in an old thread. Could you explain how you choose your kingdom cards? Thanks!

warrior297

Hey Warrior - sorry to be slow on the response.

Typically, we will shuffle the randomizer decks for the sets (we keep them separate), and then draw off the top X cards. Typically, we will choose 4 cards from Prosperity, Seaside, DA, or Hinterlands with 3 from each of the other 2 chosen sets.  THis is, of course, subject to whim - if we feel like playing a particular set, we are more likely to draw 4 from it. We do a sort of "soft veto" where if we really don't feel like playing with a particular card, we reserve the option to skip it and grab the next card in the blue deck. An example is if Sea Hag shows up on a very sloggy board for the last game of the night - that isn't how we want to end the evening, so we might replace her. After the kingdom is built, we return the blue cards to the bottom of their randomizer deck. So, no single card is likely to appear more than once or maybe twice in a night.
This weekend, we used the set generator that was just created by Onigame. It was fun and definitely created some very interesting sets (I submitted one of them to Theory for the design contest). However, it seemed that there were definitely some cards that were preferred over others. I think Familiar and Haggler were in at least 3 or 4 of the 8 or so games we played.
Anyway - that's how we do it, and it seems to work out well. I suggested the use of Onigame's generator to take a look at potentially using cards from more than three boards at once, but it turns out that it tends to clump them anyway! :)

Wow! That seems very cool! Maybe I will try that. You use 3 expansions at a time, right?
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2012, 05:28:38 pm »
+1

Anyone get DA for Christmas? :)
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popsofctown

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #15 on: December 25, 2012, 06:09:48 pm »
0

I did!
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DWetzel

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #16 on: December 25, 2012, 06:27:55 pm »
0

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clb

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2012, 02:12:10 am »
0

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
I thought I saw you mentioning this method of card choosing in an old thread. Could you explain how you choose your kingdom cards? Thanks!

warrior297

Hey Warrior - sorry to be slow on the response.

Typically, we will shuffle the randomizer decks for the sets (we keep them separate), and then draw off the top X cards. Typically, we will choose 4 cards from Prosperity, Seaside, DA, or Hinterlands with 3 from each of the other 2 chosen sets.  THis is, of course, subject to whim - if we feel like playing a particular set, we are more likely to draw 4 from it. We do a sort of "soft veto" where if we really don't feel like playing with a particular card, we reserve the option to skip it and grab the next card in the blue deck. An example is if Sea Hag shows up on a very sloggy board for the last game of the night - that isn't how we want to end the evening, so we might replace her. After the kingdom is built, we return the blue cards to the bottom of their randomizer deck. So, no single card is likely to appear more than once or maybe twice in a night.
This weekend, we used the set generator that was just created by Onigame. It was fun and definitely created some very interesting sets (I submitted one of them to Theory for the design contest). However, it seemed that there were definitely some cards that were preferred over others. I think Familiar and Haggler were in at least 3 or 4 of the 8 or so games we played.
Anyway - that's how we do it, and it seems to work out well. I suggested the use of Onigame's generator to take a look at potentially using cards from more than three boards at once, but it turns out that it tends to clump them anyway! :)

Wow! That seems very cool! Maybe I will try that. You use 3 expansions at a time, right?

Yep, almost always 3. It isn't a hard-and-fast rule, though. When DA first came out, after we had played all of the recommended sets and several DA-only sets, we were still DA-intensive, so there were several nights of half DA, half something else boards.
If you have any ideas of ways to mix it up, I am open to suggestions!
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Davio

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #18 on: December 26, 2012, 04:28:47 am »
0

When we play, we first randomize which randomizer we're going to use.
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clb

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2012, 07:10:56 pm »
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When we play, we first randomize which randomizer we're going to use.

Am I to understand that you take one blue card from each set and draw X of them and then Y random cards from each of the X sets?
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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2012, 07:17:39 pm »
0

A bit late to the party, as I only got DA a few days ago. Just wanted to say trash. Lots and lots and lots of it. I believe my first game with all DA cards had over 200 cards in the trash.
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #21 on: December 27, 2012, 04:42:53 am »
+1

When I first got Dark Ages, I played Dark-Ages-only games, then I went down to 5 Dark Ages cards and 5 other cards, now I mostly just mix them in.

Same. we typically do either 3 or 4 cards from 3 sets to build our kingdoms. We rotate through so that each set sees about the same number of plays in an evening, though popular sets may see an extra outing than an unpopular one.
I thought I saw you mentioning this method of card choosing in an old thread. Could you explain how you choose your kingdom cards? Thanks!

warrior297

Hey Warrior - sorry to be slow on the response.

Typically, we will shuffle the randomizer decks for the sets (we keep them separate), and then draw off the top X cards. Typically, we will choose 4 cards from Prosperity, Seaside, DA, or Hinterlands with 3 from each of the other 2 chosen sets.  THis is, of course, subject to whim - if we feel like playing a particular set, we are more likely to draw 4 from it. We do a sort of "soft veto" where if we really don't feel like playing with a particular card, we reserve the option to skip it and grab the next card in the blue deck. An example is if Sea Hag shows up on a very sloggy board for the last game of the night - that isn't how we want to end the evening, so we might replace her. After the kingdom is built, we return the blue cards to the bottom of their randomizer deck. So, no single card is likely to appear more than once or maybe twice in a night.
This weekend, we used the set generator that was just created by Onigame. It was fun and definitely created some very interesting sets (I submitted one of them to Theory for the design contest). However, it seemed that there were definitely some cards that were preferred over others. I think Familiar and Haggler were in at least 3 or 4 of the 8 or so games we played.
Anyway - that's how we do it, and it seems to work out well. I suggested the use of Onigame's generator to take a look at potentially using cards from more than three boards at once, but it turns out that it tends to clump them anyway! :)

Wow! That seems very cool! Maybe I will try that. You use 3 expansions at a time, right?

Yep, almost always 3. It isn't a hard-and-fast rule, though. When DA first came out, after we had played all of the recommended sets and several DA-only sets, we were still DA-intensive, so there were several nights of half DA, half something else boards.
If you have any ideas of ways to mix it up, I am open to suggestions!

Thank you! I completed my Dominion collection over Christmas with some generous gifts of expansions given to me by by family. I played one game of Dark Ages so far. It was a purely DA set with 4 players and we used one of the recommended sets. It was very enjoyable!
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #22 on: December 29, 2012, 07:56:02 pm »
+1

Just played the DA recommended set Grim Parade. The cards available were: Market Square, Forager, Procession, Forretress, Armory, Knights, Cultist, Catacombs, Band of Misfits, and Hunting Grounds. It was a great game! Armory really accelerated the 3-pile ending. Depleted piles were Market Square, Ruins, and Estates. It was a 4 player game and everyone besides me got 4/3 and I got 5/2. I opened Cultist/nothing, hoping to pound out the ruins quickly and get a cultist chain set up. I planned to transition into a foretress/knights/catacombs or HG/ MS + forager for $. I ended up grabbing Foragers and Forretresses and Market Squares early. I picked up Dame Anna (trashing) and Sir Destry (+2 cards) pretty early. I was the only one who ended up going for knights. My engine wasn't getting started as fast as I hoped it would and I was pretty low on economy. Only one other person went for Cultists and she was the one who ended up beating me. Before I knew it, I was losing by two Colonies to her, and with the Ruins gone, 1 MS left, and only a couple Estates left, she started to end the game while still continuing to pick up VP. She picked up a couple MS, a Forager, some Fortresses, a HG or two, and 3 Cultists with lots of money. We ran similar strategies but she went for more money and I went for more engine components. At that point, my only economy consisted of 2 golds and a silver, and I only had 1 HG for draw. I ended up picking up 2 colonies, 1 province, 1 duchy, and 1 estate. I lost by 3 points. How would you have played this game? Anything I should have done differently? If you have any questions about the game, ask me before I forget what happened! Happy New Year!

warrior297
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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #23 on: December 29, 2012, 08:32:00 pm »
0

 
Just played the DA recommended set Grim Parade... <snip>
warrior297

I don't think you should have gone market square at all, as your cards are not going to be trashed (except forager I guess, but you need collision) as nobody else bought knights. Silvers would have been better here for your economy. Also, I don't see the engine working overall, I would go hard on the cultists (3-4), then transition into catacombs-BM which I believe is pretty strong (and the winner did go more Big Money). I also think knights are strong overall, and fitting a few of them in (especially Anna) is a strong play overall. 
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Warrior

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Re: Playing with DA
« Reply #24 on: December 29, 2012, 08:38:34 pm »
0

Just played the DA recommended set Grim Parade... <snip>
warrior297

I don't think you should have gone market square at all, as your cards are not going to be trashed (except forager I guess, but you need collision) as nobody else bought knights. Silvers would have been better here for your economy. Also, I don't see the engine working overall, I would go hard on the cultists (3-4), then transition into catacombs-BM which I believe is pretty strong (and the winner did go more Big Money). I also think knights are strong overall, and fitting a few of them in (especially Anna) is a strong play overall.

Hmm, I really saw an engine here, especially with strong terminals and Fortress for +actions.
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