I really wanted to build an engine on this set. It seem that many of the typical engine pieces are missing or quite weak. I almost backed out when I saw the lack of +Buy, also Trading Post is not very good trasher for an engine, and Throne Room is not an ideal source of actions for this board. There are a lot of little things that help the engine in this board. The engine has almost unlimited time to catch up to a money player with Fairgrounds and Monument as alternative sources of points. Militia, also slows down the money player a fair amount.
It end up being a really long game, where my opponent nearly piledrives the Provinces, but stalls out just a bit too early, and I am able to keep getting points consistently with TR/Monument. This game was intersting because with no +Buy I consistantly spent 8-16 coin hands on 4 cost cards. Finally, I didn't even look at Contraband, and it was REALLY good here, so that's a pretty big miss
Contraband, Explorer,
Fairgrounds,
Militia,
Monument, Outpost,
Smithy,
Throne Room,
Trading Post, and Wishing Well
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201303/02/game-20130302-103015-45c1bf08.html