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Author Topic: Article request: Sharing  (Read 3862 times)

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elglin1982

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Article request: Sharing
« on: March 18, 2013, 03:49:21 am »
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Disclaimer: A single newbie can ask more questions than ten grand masters can answer.

It is obvious that most of the time, you would not want to share a dogma. E.g., sharing Writing defeats the purpose of the card (getting to Age 2 several turns ahead of your opponent). However, there are cases when sharing is... okayish to good.
1) Most certainly if your opponent cannot share the dogma due to other dogma prerequisites, e.g. Mathematics or Currency with an empty hand, or Paper with a single card in both green and blue stacks.
2) When a dogma benefits you way more than your opponent, say, playing Masonry for Monument against a castle dominance when the opponent has less than 4 cards. The definition of "way more" is, of course, a big question each time.
3) A special case is, I think, splaying, if it allows you to gain a dominance in an icon and play another (or the same) dogma unshared.
4) When sharing is likely to hurt your opponent. Cases like Sailing when your opponent is well into higher ages but for some reason there's a single "1" hanging there. An edge case may be Alchemy if your opponent has a large dominance in castles (9 or preferably 12) since the probability of drawing a red will be pretty high for him and the card can effectively play as "I demand you return your hand".

Of course the decision to share or not is dictated by the actual game state and the edge cases may and will be multiple. What I attempted to put down (and would ask stronger players than me to expand) were some general guidelines.
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antony

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2013, 05:50:23 am »
+1

Sometimes the extra draw of sharing is really powerful too.  Typical example may come from Math: say you Math a 3 (the highest level you've reached so far) into a 4, and they do the same.  Now you draw a 4 for sharing and get to Math it too, reaching lvl 5 when your opponent is still at level 4.
When forecasts come into play then the extra draw is even stronger of course.
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HiveMindEmulator

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2013, 10:38:43 am »
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I think the fear of sharing is largely unwarranted. Ideally, you'd like the dogma to benefit you "way more" than your opponent. But even if it benefits you only a little more or about the same, when you add in the extra draw, it can become better than your next best alternative.

Not every action you take can be the best thing ever. But it should be the best thing among your choices. If you're considering just drawing a card, you're probably better off sharing a dogma, since you still get to draw the card, but you also do something else that at least helps change your current (unfavorable, since you were considering just drawing) situation, and only might help your opponent. The only time I wouldn't share is if it is clearly going to be more beneficial to my opponent than to myself.
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Davio

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2013, 10:56:41 am »
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Is it like Governor and such?

There's a lot of irrational fear of letting your opponent do stuff for free in Dominion, like playing Council Room and Governor. But as long as the benefit to you is greater, it's still profit $$$. :)
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popsofctown

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2013, 11:08:45 am »
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I don't feel the urge to write a lengthy sharing article, but I'll point out this: a great way to overcome natural human biases about sharing is to put "the burden of evidence" on your standard draw action.  Every turn, I always ask myself, "Do I have proof that sharing Metalworking is worse than drawing a card normally?".  If I can't prove to myself that is the case, I share the dogma.
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theory

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2013, 12:57:36 pm »
+1

My rules for sharing:

* I do not share into weakness.  This should be obvious, but if your opponent is going for the 6th achievement, do not share things that help him get that 6th achievement.  If he needs tech, don't share him Math.  If he can't get {6}, I don't help him with {Wonder} by sharing him some splays.

* I always share against strength whenever I can (e.g., sharing Electricity into a tableau of 10's).

* I always share whenever I can set it up advantageously (e.g., returning a [1] with Pottery, then sharing Sailing so he melds a 1 and I meld a 6)

* I almost always share if I am behind.  If he's going to win anyway, I would rather take my chances with a shared Satellites.
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DG

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2013, 01:10:30 pm »
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You might want to consider sharing on your first turn rather than your second, just so that you can adapt to a new game state (or use new era cards) ahead of your opponents.
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Razzishi

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2013, 11:32:50 pm »
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Sharing Domestication can be good in the same way sharing Sailing is sometimes good, and of course is quite nice when when your opponent has no cards in hand.  Even when they do have cards in hand, forcing them to meld on a turn after they decided not to meld something works in your favor as long as you have a card you want to meld.

Just like Alchemy, sharing Physics is more like an attack, although a bit more desperate one.

And in general of course, you have to consider what the impact on the game of each action is going to be.  Sharing a splay can be fine even if they have a huge stack of cards if they all have the wrong Hexagon placement to benefit or if they icons they'll gain won't make a difference.  Sharing a scorer is fine if you're threatening to win and the score you're giving them isn't letting them take any achievements you're aiming for, or likewise if they need to tech up to score more achievements (I've been in this situation a lot after heavy Canning or Coal use), throwing more cards into their score pile won't help them one bit while it might get you to score that 7 or 8 and make it even harder for them to get up to the necessary tech level.  Canning might even wreck their own board for score they have no use for.
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popsofctown

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2013, 12:30:08 am »
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You can go further.  Sometimes the correct play is to let your opponent share a dogma that nets him 10 points and an achievement the next turn, because it also nets you 10 points and an achievement this turn, and you are ahead on achievements.  It's like trading Queens from ahead.
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Awaclus

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Re: Article request: Sharing
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2013, 07:43:00 am »
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Also, if the game ends before your opponent can benefit from the sharing, sharing is beneficiary to you only. Especially if the game ends because of the sharing of an effect that draws a lot of cards.
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