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Author Topic: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?  (Read 3248 times)

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Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« on: January 29, 2013, 03:01:07 pm »
+2

Just played this games with Chancellor, City, Develop, Haven, Lighthouse, Mint, Quarry, Trader, Woodcutter, and Worker's Village. and it was a Colony game.

I opened Trader/Develop thinking Big Money to rush the Provinces if they go for the Cities.

On Turns 7, 8 and 9 I hit $8 but opt for Gold on all three turns. The Gold was important, as it help me buy the Colonies when I hit $11, but i probably shouldn't have done that either if I was rushing the Provinces.

My Biggest mistake was in turn 20 not picking up an estate.  Lost by 1. 

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/29/game-20130129-114826-4a4c85db.html

Did I spend to much time buying treasures? Should I have been greening on turn 7 or 8?

Any thoughts appreciated.
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shark_bait

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2013, 03:10:12 pm »
+1

To answer your question, think about how you are trying to end the game.  Assume your opponent won't help with a single Province.  That means you need to buy all 8.  There is no exceptionally good BM or TfB to facilitate a quick province rush so you're in this for the long haul.  This means you don't start greening early.  You need a robust economy but even with building that up I'd give 20-21 turns for emptying Provinces, netting 48 Points.

Now think what your opponent can do.  They could open Develop/Quarry open.  There is no +Card until Level 1 Cities so prioritizing Cities and emptying a pile would be priority #1.  For that they need Buys and cheap actions.  Worker's Village/Woodcutter provide +Buy while Quarry gets everything cheap.  Develop is just a solid card for getting a slightly thinner deck.  A fortuitous Mint purchase with 5xCopper or even 3xCopper,1xSilver would help immensely.  I'd imagine that they could completely empty the City pile in 13 turns tops.  That means that they get 7 Turns drawing there entire deck to score more than 48 Points.  Throw in Mint/Platinum and they will quickly skyrocket to Double/Triple Colony turns in no time.  Played right, I'd guess a City player could empty Colonies in 17-18 turns no problem.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 04:51:30 pm by shark_bait »
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dondon151

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2013, 03:46:50 pm »
0

It's a bit difficult to give you criticism on your tactical decisions considering that you picked the wrong strategy from the outset and your opponent did not execute his strategy very well.
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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2013, 04:07:44 pm »
+2

Thanks, for these thoughts. I know that there is so much I still need to learn.
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theory

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2013, 04:27:02 pm »
+1

This isn't really that easy of a set to play!  But yes, generally speaking, Big Money falters with Colonies on the board, since it's a lot harder to build up to $11's.  Cities are more powerful with Colonies for the same reason.
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WanderingWinder

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2013, 04:45:44 pm »
+3

I actually think the biggest problem for BM with colonies is that it's really hard to get to 9 on any kind of consistent basis with any kind of speed, and it's hard to get colonies without platina (or oodles of gold - oodles of gold definitely works but it's rare you can get oodles of gold; don't you like the word 'oodles'?).

But more than Big Money being worse, engines are better.

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2013, 05:05:44 pm »
0

This is such a weird board because generally buying villages/cities/woodcutters for the main purpose of upgrading cities would be an absolutely terrible idea but here, it seems far and away the best one.
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Master Shuffler

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2013, 06:06:59 pm »
0

I would have gone the city route as well, since there is so much support for it (quarries and the various +buys) that the city pile should be empty in no time flat, and that's really all you need to do since we have lots of +buy already - platinum/mint would be icing on the cake once you empty the city pile. However, if there was no support for cities, you would probably be correct in avoiding them entirely, although I still don't think trader is correct here either way.

decent game-plan:
1) open quarry/develop
2) get a worker's village and possibly another quarry, while developing estates into woodcutters
3) get as many cities as possible. If the cities are running low, you may wish to develop a quarry into city/$3card(another develop perhaps)
4) Once the cities are gone, get a platinum
5) At the end of your next turn, play all of your coppers, then buy a mint (or if you severely won the city split, you can avoid buying mint altogether and instead gain it mid-turn by developing a now-useless $4 card).
6) mint platinum and buy colonies, all while using the develops to get rid of useless cards like copper

note: you may also consider doing Level 3 (or 2, for you programmers) cities by buying out a 2nd pile, depending on how the city split works out - your opponent eventually recognized this and that's why he bought out the WV's

I make no claims about this plan being entirely optimal, but it's a start, and it should be faster than 'province rush with trader' (and it's more or less what sharky was saying). It's also a bit more coherent than what your opponent was doing. In general, trader is not so good in colony games (unless it's a curse fest or something).

finally to answer your question:  you were rushing provinces, so you shouldn't be worried about buying colonies! so I would say get like 1 gold, then only buy provinces (like on turn 8-9 instead of gold), then you would have had more of a chance at ending the game while ahead. Also I would have trader-ed the develop on turn 10, instead of developing the trader into a city which helps him. Cheers
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 07:12:15 pm by Master Shuffler »
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SirPeebles

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2013, 06:28:46 pm »
+3

note: you may also consider doing Level 3 cities by buying out a 2nd pile, depending on how the city split works out - your opponent eventually recognized this and that's why he bought out the WV's

 :o Cities only go up to Level 2, dude.
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lespeutere

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2013, 06:58:53 pm »
0

don't you like the word 'oodles'?).

It's lovely. Always eager to learn new words in foreign languages.
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Forge!!!

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2013, 07:10:05 pm »
0

don't you like the word 'oodles'?).

It's lovely. Always eager to learn new words in foreign languages.

My favorite spanish word is espeluznante - meaning spooky
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Polk5440

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Re: Did I spend to much time buying Treasure?
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2013, 09:24:20 pm »
0

There is no +Card until Level 1 Cities so prioritizing Cities and emptying a pile would be priority #1. 

note: you may also consider doing Level 3 cities by buying out a 2nd pile, depending on how the city split works out - your opponent eventually recognized this and that's why he bought out the WV's

 :o Cities only go up to Level 2, dude.

This is going to become a problem now that it was pointed out on the other thread, isn't it?
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