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teasel

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[Featured] A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« on: March 23, 2013, 10:15:47 am »
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Hello!  A while ago I tried to write an article about basic strategy.  Today I want to try to go a little deeper and talk about the cards you should look for.  I divide the cards in ages and describe what to look out for in each age by separating each card by their uses.

Age 1

There are basically two ways to play age 1.  The first is to start building up your board and/or hand with cards like Sailing, Domestication, The Wheel and Code of Laws.  The other is to try to score as quick as possible.  Scoring is achieved through Metalworking, Clothing and more rarely, Agriculture and Pottery.  The tech up cards of age 1 include Writing and Tools.  Writing just lets you draw a 2 which quickly becomes useless.  Tools lets you skip 2 ages ahead to age 3 but requires 3 cards to spend to do so.  Special mention goes to Masonry which let you achieve Monument with relative ease.

Scoring

Clothing - Playing against Clothing is best reason why you should build your board by playing as many colors as possible.  A quite common newbie mistake is to not play more cards and instead to just keep drawing (usually because they want to search for cards like Masonry) letting the opponent score as many as 3 cards per Clothing dogma.  This is huge, especially since it lets your opponent achieve Monument, thus making your Masonry pointless.  So if you see Clothing try to build at least have 3 colors on board so your opponent can't achieve Monument.

If you are playing with Clothing, board building cards are your pal.  Mysticism lets you find color you don't have (although you also risk covering Clothing) and Domestication gives you both free meld and drawing action which is awesome support.  Sailing is also good, but you need to play it before Clothing because both are green.

Metalworking - There isn't a lot to say about Metalworking.  You use it, pray you get cards with castles and also get a free draw action out of the deal.  The best part of it is that it makes the role of the guy with Masonry harder as it drains the cards with castles from the draw pile.  Metalworking is an action you don't want to share, since it’s got a reasonable chance of scoring very big for your opponent. 

Pottery - Don't bother reading the text on pottery.  Here's what the card effectively does "If all the pile below it are empty, score a card from your hand, and then draw a card from the same age".  The other nice thing about Pottery is that it comes with 3 leaves which can be really useful to combo with Fermenting from age 2.

Agriculture - Agriculture is kinda lame at the beginning, but once you get to age 4 it lets you score a 5 point card for each card you return.  5 points is the difference in score between consecutive eras.  So Agriculture can be pretty powerful if you tech up quickly.  One little Agriculture trick, if you return an age 10 card, it will end the game.

Board

Sailing - Sailing is the first of many "Draw and meld" cards, these are all useful as they let you build your board quickly.  Building your board gives you a symbol advantage and options.  You can also share forced melds in an attempt to eliminate a particular annoying opponent card.

Domestication - This is sort of like sailing but more controlled, since you pick from your hand rather than whatever is on the top of the deck.  But this can also be a disadvantage after the ages pass, since Sailing can meld from the piles, but Domestication will force you to get rid of all the lowest cards from your hand.

Mysticism - Sailing with an added condition that the drawn card matches the color of a card already on your board, but a free draw added on top of it.

Drawing

The Wheel - Draw 2 age 1 cards, there is not a lot to say.

Stealing/Board Screwing

Archery - Archery lets you take the highest card from your opponent’s hand, and in return, they draw a 1.  Archery forces a teched up opponent to always have his hand empty so they don’t get their card stolen and their tech advantage negated.  It's easy to use as teched up opponents usually don't have many castles, but otherwise it's a pretty dull card.

City States - The chances are you usually don't want whatever the opponent gives to you.  But if you don't want to share Metalworking or the Wheel, it's a nice solution to decrease your opponent castles.  If you are hit by City States, giving your opponent Mysticism is a nice way to shut up the card.

Oars - This is probably the worst card of all the game, most cards in innovation are situational.  But the situation in which you want oars involve an opponent that teched up, has less castles than you, is keeping his coins card in hand, and you have no better way to score.  There are way too many conditions to make Oars worthwhile most of the time.

Tech Up

Writing - Again, this quickly becomes useless.

Tools - Getting 3 cards is pretty easy, especially if you use The Wheel.  Once you get to age 3 your best hope is to jump to age 4 (usually with Paper) and then get to Gunpowder which lets you blast your opponent’s castle cards and score big.  Tools other power can be handy if the age 1 and age 2 draw piles have run out.  You discard a 3 and then draw three 3s, thus netting you 2 cards a-la Calendar.

Splaying

Code of Laws - If the tucked card can help you make a demand or not share an effect you don't want to share, it can be a good idea to use Code of Laws.  But most of the time it's better to just wait for the other splaying cards.

Special

Masonry - Masonry lets you meld multiple cards, but the cards you meld must all have castles on them.  These cards quickly become useless once age 3 is over.  The real power is that it hands you the Monument achievement without much pain.  It's just a matter of drawing cards until you get to 4 castle cards in hand.  The other thing to watch out is if you have to share Masonry, if your opponent has more than 4 card in hand chance are they can use the shared effect to gain Monument before you do.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2013, 11:52:45 am by theory »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2013, 11:06:33 am »
+2

Age 2

The most notable cards include Mathematics (the best of all the tech up cards), Fermenting (which lets you draw huge number of cards), Philosophy (which enable you to splay any color to the left thus being a big enabler for Paper in age 3), Construction (another special achievement card) and Monotheism.

Scoring

Currency - Currency doesn't look like much, but actually it can let you score pretty big.  For example, sif your hand consist of two 1s, two 2s and two 3s, it's actually possible to gain up to 16 points in a turn and gain Monument all in a single swoop.  It's situational in that it requires you to wait for an age to run out or to use card that draws from certain ages (like Calendar which is a perfect combo) but in the right situation it scores you big points.

Mapmaking - Mapmaking lets you demand your opponent transfer a 1 from his score pile to yours, and if you manage that, to let you score a fresh 1 as well.  More often than not the age 1 and age 2 piles will run out, thus making each application of Mapmaking give you a score of 4.  One nice combo you can pull off with Mapmaking is with Optics or Medicine (both from age 3), use one of these and give a 1 to your opponent, and  then steal it back with Mapmaking.

Tech Up

Mathematics - Math is simply the best age 2 card.  You draw a 2, feed it to Math and meld a top decked 3.  you draw a 3 feed it to math and draw and meld a 4, and so on until you get to 10, or meld a blue on top of Math itself.  Most of the hand/board screwing cards can usually level with Math and as such when playing with Math you have to be pretty careful about what you leave on your board and/or in your hand.  The other thing you have to worry about is usually covering up math with another blue tech.  When that happens you still shouldn't despair much as certain cards in age 5/6/7 can remove cards from the top (not to mention blue cards usually are tech up cards themselves).

Calendar - this counts double as both drawing and teching up, getting a score card is easy enough with any of the cards mentioned in the score section.

Drawing

Fermenting - under the right situation Fermenting lets you draw up to 5 cards.  When you consider each age is 9 cards, this is huge as you are basically drawing half the cards in age with each fermenting action.  All those cards can then be used to feed stuff like Philosophy or other cards that come in higher ages  Pottery is a nice pal to Fermenting as it is the earliest non-yellow card that comes with 3 leaves.

Board Screwing

Monotheism - Monotheism screws up your opponent boards by eliminating one color they have but that you don't.  On top of that, it lets you score the card.  This punishes an opponent who techs up quickly, and can occasionally remove Mathematics or Clothing. It also tucks an extra card on your board, but this can make it’s attack less applicable.  It can also be used in a crutch against Gunpowder in age 4.  You give away all of your red cards, letting you Monotheism away the Gunpowder.

Road Building - Road Building lets you build your board by letting you meld two cards at once. But the key effect comes from bottom part of the text, which lets you steal a green card. Most of the time that card will be a high tech card or Paper.  There is not a lot else to say other than if you meld a red card (thus finding a use for Oars), then you don't have to give Road Building to your opponent, covering one of the most annoying weakness of the card.

Splaying

Philosophy - Philosophy lets you splay any color to your left,  which makes for a nice way to prepare for Paper in age 3.  It also lets you score a card from your hand.  This lets you put to use some of the weaker cards drawn with The Wheel or Fermenting.  It's a good all-around card.

Special

Canal Building - Canal Building is the first of the many "cards from your score go to..." and frankly it doesn't have much use.  If you have drawn a lot of cards from a single age (like your hand consists of five age 2 cards) then it can be a nice way to kickstart your score pile.  Occasionally it can also help you tech up when combined with cards that score cards from ages higher than they are (like Optics or Democracy) by rescuing the cards they score from your score pile to your hand.  But otherwise it's pretty meh.

Construction - Aside from Clothing, this is reason number 2 to build as many colors as possible. If you gain Monument through Masonry, then you can use Construction with your full board to gain Empire.  This is one of the most powerful openings in the game. The demand effect is nice (especially against teched up opponents) but not really worth it most of the time.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2013, 07:40:53 pm by rrenaud »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2013, 11:06:42 am »
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Age 3

Age 3 is host to a big number of screwing up/stealing cards, making for a pretty weird age. Good cards from age 3 include Machinery (which lets you steal all your opponent’s cards), Education (which lets you make big jump in tech), Optics (like Sailing but with added chance for scoring) and Paper, another card that lets you draw huge numbers of cards.

Scoring

Engineering - The problem with Engineering is simple.  It’s a castle based attack against castles.  So Engineering is better as your opponent gets more castles, but the more castle cards he has, the harder it is to successfully use Engineering.  As such I personally don't like the card that much.  It also lets you splay red cards left as an added bonus which you should consider.

Tech Up

Alchemy - Alchemy is the first "risk for a reward" tech up cards. Luckily that risk isn't that big, as out of the ten age 4 cards only two of them are red.  The fact that it also draws and melds is pretty big too as it spares you an action and it also lets you score from your hand.  So all in all you have a pretty neat package in a single card, although it risks blowing up in your face.  Of course, you can use it offensively by intentionally sharing it with an opponent who has lots of cards hoping they’ll hit a red and have to return their entire hand.  Further, if you have 2 or fewer castles, it safely lets you meld and score from hand in one action, which can be useful in a pinch.

Education - Education lets you return your highest card from your score pile, and then draw a card two higher than the remaining card in your score pile.  It can be as powerful as Math.  But Math does all his job alone, quickly and efficiently.  On the other hand, Education needs some support, and so it can be pretty hard to use.  If you are using Agriculture you can do jump as big as 3 ages with each cycle of Agriculture/Education.  Optics puts a 4 in your score pile without you doing much work, which makes it another good card for Education.  And if you use Democracy (an age 6 card) you can jump from 6 to 10 in a single swoop which is huge.

Board

Optics - Optics is like sailing but it draws and melds age 3 cards instead of age 1.  If that cards comes with coins you score a 4, which is awesome.  Iif that card doesn't come with a coin you give an opponent (who has less than you) a card from your score pile.  This might sound bad but if you lose just 1 point it's not the end of the world. If you combine it with Mapmaking you can even score with 100% chance.  All in all, Optics is an awesome card.

Drawing

Paper - If there is a reason to splay your colors left, it is this card.  Just like Fermenting, drawing 5 cards per turn is huuuuuuuuuuuge.  Unlike Fermenting, splaying all 5 colors is a lot easier than gathering 10 leaves on your board. Also unlike Fermenting, it lets you draw age 4 cards rather than age 2 cards. Even if you don’t manage to splay all your cards, it lets you tech up. Best of all, Invention from age 4 is great combo with Paper and makes for an incredible 1-2 punch.

Stealing/Board Screwing

Compass - Most of cards that screw with your opponent’s board give something to your opponent as compensation.  Of all these kinds of cards, Compass has the best compensation. If ever card on your has leaves, that compensation can nothing at all.  Sometimes you can leave a bad card, non-leaf card on your board and is it to cover a useful opponent top card.  That said with the exception of Fermenting, there aren’t leaf cards in the early ages that are bothersome enough to be worth stealing with Compass.  But as tech gets higher, the cards that Compass can steal become much better.  It can steal cards like Canning, Lighting, or the myriad of yellow cards that tampers with the opponent’s score.

Feudalism - By age 3, finding an opponent with a castle card in hand is a quite hard task. But on the other hand, it can steal both Machinery and Alchemy, so it's not as bad as oars.  The important part of the card is that it lets you splay both purple and yellow cards left, which helps you set up big draws with Paper.

Machinery - If there is one card that you should be scared off when doing massive draws, it's this one.  Stealing all the cards in the opponent hand is huuuuuuuuuuge. Most of the time, giving one of your 3 for 5 or 6 1s is an awesome tradeoff.  To top it all, it lets you score a card with a castle from your hand.  It also lets you trade an empty hand for anything your opponent has, which is incredibly annoying to your opponents.

Medicine - Medicine lets you screw with your opponent score and eh, it's okay.  For optimal use it requires a situation where you scored a lot of small cards and your opponent has scored a lot of big cards.  That doesn't happen often.  The best part of Medicine, after you give your opponent a sucky card, you can then get it back by Mapmaking/Navigation.  Note that if you have no score at all, it will let you steal a card for free.  This combos with cards that require you to return a card from your score pile to activate.

Special

Translation - Translation lets you meld card from your score pile. If you have any of the big cards in your score pile (like Math for example) it might be worthwhile to sack all your score for your board.  But most of the time it's not worth it.  Most of the stuff said for Canal Building applies for Translation too.  The other cool thing about Translation, it nets you the World achievement if all your top cards have a coin.  Occasionally, you can use the first effect if you to get the achievement.  If you are in a situation where one of the cards in your score pile has a coin on it in a color that your board is missing, activating Translation can get you the coin coverage needed.  This is quite situational and only easy to achieve when you have a small numbers of piles, or better yet, have only Translation on your board. But that puts you in a bad position against Clothing, so it's hard to get this off easily unless you pull it off with Tools.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2013, 10:57:06 pm by rrenaud »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2013, 11:06:50 am »
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Age 4

two important things happen in Age 4... the first is that castle card stop appearing,one reason why you shouldn't bother too much with castle icons is that simply enough they become useless after age 3,instead you get industry icon,unlike castle,industry icons are used for the whole game so collecting them is always worthwhile... the other thing that happens,card that let you splay right instead of left begin to appear,splaying right gives you 2 icons instead of 1  when it comes to certain cards (like sailing) and usualy let you trade icons you don't want (like castles) for icons you might want (like leaves and coins) notable age 4 card include gunpowder,perspective,reformation and experimentation

Scoring

Gunpowder - by this point your opponent castle cards are useless and/or covered by other cards so this won't do much board damage (although it kills fermenting) but each application will still score you between 3 and 6 points which is a decent amount of points so it's still a worthwhile card

Perspective - this is the big paper enabler,with 8 lightbulbs,this let you score 4 cards out of a 5 cards hand,making it almost as good as stem cells (an age 10 cards) this card can rack you huuuuuuuuuuge amount of points and depending on the age it's not uncommon to score up to 16-36 points with each paper/perspective application

Board

Colonialism - if you are lacking in color,tucking has the same effect of melding and that can help under the right condition,if you are splaying and lacking in icons that's also another reason for why you want to tuck,lastly if you tuck 6 cards you get monument altough in case of this card that requires A LOT of luck,that said there are roughly 4-5 coins card in ages close to colonialism so that gives you more or less a 50% chance of the effect repeating at least once,it's not bad but there are better way to build your board like...

Reformation - Reformation is another card that reward you for having a lot of leaves on board and it rewards you for having a huge hands,reformation make for an awesome combo with fermenting enabling you to draw 5 cards and then tucking 5 of them for massive board advantage thus emulating a better version of industrialization where you decide what to keep on your hand instead,to top it all reformation also splay two colors right,yellow and purple

Tech Up

Experimentation - it's sailing,but now it melds age 5 cards instead of age 1,everything previously said applies to this card with the added bonus it let you skip an age ahead

Printing Press - Printing press can be annoying to use because to truly make it work,you need a high purple card but by the time you found the high purple card,the current age has ended and now it let you skip only 1 age ahead as opposed to 2,that said... when it works,it works,it's awesome to draw reformation,use it to jump to age 6,draw an age 6 purple card and jump to age 8 in 2 turns,as an added bonus it splay blue card right

Stealing/Board Screwing

Anatomy - Anatomy attacks both your opponent score pile and your opponent board which is pretty powerfull,unfortunately it only works if your opponent has scored a bunch of big cards (like with optics) and is mostly useless against a string of 1 for example,it's very powerfull but also quite situational

Enterprise - Enterprise steal coins card,of all the stealing card is my least favourite one,as the compensation is that your opponent gets to draw and meld another card which basicaly puts his board position on the same spot he started,that said enterprise can steal math and forcing your opponent to meld a random card translate into the chance of eliminating 2 annoying threats for the price of one,to top it all it also splay your green card right

Navigation - eh,the amount of score you steal is a pitiful amount but it still can delay your opponent into achieving an age and occasionaly it still can slowly steal all of your opponent score which in consequence makes it easier to target him with anatomy and the like so once again it's that sort of card that shines depending on how thing goes

Special

Invention - Invention let you splay a pile from left to right and although it can be helpfull frankly that's not a huge improvement most of the time... so it comes with added scoring in the package,the other nice thing about the card,if you splayed all your color,it scores you wonder well before than you should be able to do so
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 01:48:21 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2013, 11:06:58 am »
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Age 5

Age 5 is a scoring one featuring tons of card that let you trade board presence for score,notable card include coal,steam engine,astronomy,measurement and the pirate code

Scoring

Chemistry - well you trade a 1 and you get a 6 and you increase your score by a total of 5 points,frankly i don't like it much as it's a little slow to use,but it can also puts your card out of pirate code range so there is that,also comes with free blue right splaying

Coal - Coal tucks a 5,splay your red cards right and then let you trade board for score... is the trade worth? well if you have an unsplayed pile you really aren't losing anything by eating cards from that pile,and if you tucked a usefull 5 coal let you dig at it but the best use of this card is if you have built your board by abusing free tucking/melding action,if after abusing experimentation you got a board full of 5 then by all means go and score them all with coal

Steam Engine - Steam Engine is like coal in that it tucks you card and then eats from your board,unlike coal the number of card it tucks it's bigger than the one it eats so

Tech Up

Astronomy - Astronomy is like writing in that it draws you a card from the next age,unlike drawing it also occassionaly gives you free meld's and to put the cherry on the cake,handles you the universe achievement when the condition are right,Astronomy is awesome

Physics - Physics is like Alchemy in sort that it let you tech up and that it blows up in your face,unlike alchemy the chance of blowing it up in your face are higher so it's a card you might want to share more often,another important thing to pay attention with physics,if you use it,it fails and you run through the whole 6 deck count the number of 6 card that are out and then subtract it from 9... if the number of cards in the 6 deck is divisible by 3 then no matter how many times you use physics,it will always blow up in your face

Stealing/Board Screwing

Banking - Banking aims at industry cards,most of the industry cards are either scoring cards or board building cards,stealing one can be helpfull but not really necessary so let's talk about the compensation... the compensation in this case is letting your opponent score a 5 for free,that can be bad if your opponent is close to achieve an age and is just missing a few points but it's not so bad if your opponent has a low score and actualy makes a perfect 1-2 punch when combined with anatomy... also let you splay your green card right if you still haven't done so

Societies - it steals lightbulb cards,that means it can steal math and it also steal a bunch of other tech up cards,the compensation is a free age 5 card which is not compass good but it's not enterprise bad either

Statistic - it's anatomy,it doesn't have the multiple score card weakness but it also doesn't ruin your opponent board,frankly the tradeoff isn't really worth it making this card useless most of the time,at least it splays your yellow card right

The Pirate Code - of all the stealing card this is probably the biggest one,letting you steal up to 8 point and then scoring an extra 4 in optimal situation,this card can let you score big while reducing your opponent score to nothing,all it needs as many coins card to feed it

Splaying

Measurement - Measurement is a weird card in that it both splays AND tech you up,the splaying part is more important as it let you splay any color thus making it one of the card that can easily achieve wonder all alone,the tech up part is pretty nice too,if you have a green pile of 9 (pretty rare but can happen) this can jump you instantly in the color that features collaboration
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 10:11:47 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2013, 11:07:05 am »
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Age 6

Age 6 has another whole group of scoring cards and one of the most dangerous score screwing card in vaccination,notable cards include machine tools,atomic theory,canning,industrialization and of course vaccination

Scoring

Canning - Canning continue the tradition of board for score that coal and steam engine had started in age 5,canning is more like coal in that the number of cards it eats is probably bigger than the number of cards that creates,that said it makes controlling your board easier and occasionaly it scores more than coal

Democracy - Democracy let you trade 1 card for 8 point,and eeeehhhh it's not a tradeoff i'm to fond off,first of all you need to have higher lightbulb than your opponent,otherwise you have to fight over the amount of card discarded,then you have the fact that all the previous scoring card have an added effect other than scoring,then to top it all consider that if you are discarding age 6 cards,agriculture will do the same job almost as fine (letting you score a 7 instead) and you have a pretty meh card overall

Emancipation - sometimes your opponent will hold cards of low ages making this hard to use but most of the times it's 6 point neat without any complication,it's easy to use,splays 2 color and combines well with mobility which is one of the best cards in the game,if you are having trouble using the card,hand attack card can help make it flow better

Machine Tools - well basicaly it let you skip the pain of triggering any optional condition other scoring card might have so for example now you only need to discard only 1 card to democracy before you can score all the 8 you want... it's a nice and easy to use card

Tech Up

Atomic Theory - it's experimentation! it draws age 7 cards instead of age 5! it splays your blue cards right! next one!

Board

Classification - classification it's a pretty hard card to use under normal condition,gathering multiple of one color is already a pain in the ass,then you use it hoping to steal some card from your opponent hand aaaaaand they have no card of that colors,still there is no reason to not use it as opposed to the normal melding action and there is one situation where the card shine,that's it when you share drawing dogma,give your opponent some cards and then steal and meld them all with classification

Industrialization - the big bad of all the board building cards,you tuck 2 cards and your industry symbol increase by 2,so the next turn you tuck 3 cards then 4 then 5,until your board becomes freaking huge,you have the advantage on all the symbols and most of the domain achievements like empire and monument

Splaying

Metric System - if you missed on classification this is the other card that let you splay all your colors right,there isn't a lot else to say,some of your piles aren't splayed,you use metric system to splay them

Stealing/Board Screwing

Vaccination - of all the score destroying card this is the biggest one,3-4 application of this and your opponent score will go from 30 to 0 in no times,as an added bonus it tech you up although you risk covering vaccination with each use

Special

Encyclopedia - it's translation,it doesn't completly destroy your score pile but it's still lame most of the times
« Last Edit: April 01, 2013, 09:02:04 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2013, 11:07:12 am »
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Age 7

like with age 4,two important thing happens in age 7,first of all cards with clock on them start appearing,the second important thing... cards that let you splay your piles up start appearing,splaying up shows the 3 bottom symbols thus giving you A LOT of extra symbols when it comes to certain cards like agriculture,math and philosophy

age 7 features the other annoying anti-score card in combustion,one of the big score card in lightining,and bicycle which can let you score huge amount of points when used right

Scoring

Lightining - lightining is basicaly currency so everything said about currency applies to lightining too,unlike currency it scores you 7 instead of 2 and the card gets tucked instead of returned so even returning only 3 cards net you a grand total of 21 points,that's a quite sizeable scoring

Tech Up

Electricity - well you might return a card that you didn't want to return but if you share it so does your opponent,and if you don't share you still teched up to 8 (which features a lot of the card that tech up to 10,which features all the card that wins you the game) so it's all good

Evolution - evolution first power is basicaly chemistry and as i said i'm not a fan of these kind of powers,power number 2 let you tech up to 9 after you have used power number 1,while it's not like teching up to 10,9 still feature some pretty powerfull cards

Stealing/Board Screwing

Combustion - combustion is the second most dangerous card to your score after vaccination,while slower the card go in your opponent score pile instead of their respective deck,it's one of those card that can change the course of the game

Explosives - Explosive let you steal 3 cards,and eh i guess it stops your opponent from wanting to have massive amount of cards in hand but frankly at this point there aren't many drawing cards that remain in the first place

Refrigeration - by this time,it's hard to see someone with more than 3 cards in hand,so it's rare for this to hit more than 1 card... scoring from your hand is nice but not that great either

Sanitation - if your opponent has reached 10 and you are still stuck to 7,this can be the wrench in their plans

Splaying

Publications - Publications let you re-order a pile,most of the time this will happen so that you can resurface math but it can also be used for any other kind of shenigans,as an added bonus it splays yellow and blue up

Railroad - mmm what there is to say,if you are under in icons splaying from right to up your biggest pile(s) can help,the other effect is usefull but not as big as a proper paper/fermentation engine

Special

Bicycle - Bicycle is like canal building but unlike canal building it doesn't suck,if you have draw your way up to 7 with fermenting and/or paper and have just got bicycle then congratulations! you just scored yourself around 150-170 points,massive drawing with bicycle added to it is incredibly powerfull and will score you lot of points
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 03:04:41 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2013, 11:07:21 am »
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Age 8

Age 8 features some of the biggest card when it comes to destroy the opponent board and/or score pile,thus making it a nice age to stop if your opponent is close to winning in achievements and you need a breather,it also features the first instant-winning card,notable card include rocketry,mass media,quantum theory,skyscrapers and mobility

Drawing

Antibiotic - frankly it's quite hard to reach age 8 and still have a different number of ages in hand,then you have the fact that while drawing huge number of 8 can help you quickly finding quantum theory and jump to 10,there isn't a lot of thing to do with a big hand to do at this point of the game

Tech Up

Quantum Theory - this let you jump instatly at age 10 and also let you scores,when reaching age 10,it's important to try to have a higher score than your opponent as the game might end by scoring if a card higher than 10 get drawn,so the extra score added is nice

Board

Socialism - eh it's pretty rare that at this point your board still needs more building up,and stealing the lowest card in the opponent hand is a rather gimmicky bonus than anything else

Stealing/Board Screwing

Corporations - Corporations it's like banking but unlike banking the card goes in your score instead and it uses industry instead of coins... and like engineering in age 3 it suffers from the same problem in that the best scenario involves your opponent having lot of industry card but with each industry card this become harder to use,like enterprise this also has a melded card as compensation but at least in this case you get a free meld too so it balance's out better

Mass Media - Mass media is annoying score destroyer number 3! the best part of mass media is that it's not an i demand effect,that means it's always usable no matter what which makes for some pretty wicked comeback... there isn't a lot else to say,it's a strong card,oh yeah it splays your purple card up

Mobility - of all the board destroyer Mobility is the biggest and baddest one,simply put,mobility kills the 2 highest card your opponent has and then put them in your score pile,this is a huge effect as it let you score big while killing stuff like mass media,rocketry,empiricism and the list goes on... unfortunately mobility won't kill red cards and/or card with an industry symbols so if your opponent has mobility,you know those are safe... the compensation for mobility is an 8 but this compensation can be quickly taken away if you combine mobility with emancipation

Rocketry - Annoying Score Destroyer Number 4,like mass media this isn't an i demand effect and as such can always be triggered,at only 3 clock this isn't dangerous but as soon as it becomes 4 clock this will quickly eat at your score and at 6 clock it's as good as mass media

Skyscrapers - Mobility Enemy and board destroyer number 2! skyscrapers steals one top card with a clock and then destroy a whole pile,yes it's as damage inducing as it sounds,the best part? the compensation it's just letting your opponent score the second card of the pile,when you are playing card with clocks always remember about skyscrapers because it's one of those card that quickly makes thing go south,of course playing yellow card is safe as skyscraper can't target those

Splaying

Flight - it's metric system! it's for red cards! it splays your card up instead of right! next one!

Special

Empiricism - Empiricism is the first instant-win card,most of the lightbulb symbols are on blue and purple card and occasionaly appears on green and yellow card too,using empiricism power and usualy naming blue and yellow/green is a good way to increase your lightbulb count to the point where you can insta-win the game
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 03:47:46 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2013, 11:07:29 am »
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Age 9

Age 9 features lot of tech up cards,and also the last bunch of annoying attacks,notable cards include computers,satellites,genetics,fission and collaboration

Drawing

Satellites - if you missed your chance for empiricism then this gives you another shoot by also giving you a chance to meld it and execute it,in the same turn you draw it,quantum theory is target number 2,you meld it,execute it and discard the other 2 card to jump directly to 10,flight is another good target,if the age 8 pile has ran out then this basicaly gives you 2 free actions with age 9 cards,

Tech Up

Computers - Computers give you a free meld action AND a free execute action,that is awesome! unfortunately most of the 10 cards tend to give the victory to a player fulfilling certain condition so try to be under the following condition when using computer

- you have more than 3 leaves
- you have more leaves than industry OR have an higher score

computer also splays your green and red cards up

Ecology - Basicaly Quantum Theory number 2,everything said to Quantum Theory more or less applies to this card

Genetics - you lose a good chunk of your board,but the scoring it will give you is huge and you get a 10 out of it,it's a pretty good trade

Stealing/Board Screwing

Composites - a combination of explosives and combustion,it's nice and can end the game but not as good as combustion

Fission - if you are suffering badly from Mobility then using fission will easily remove your problem,but be carefull because you risk blowing up your whole board,this can be helpfull if you are heavily behind in score and/or board but it usualy won't help much if you are behind in achievements,note that the second effect isn't an i demand and in fact sharing fission can be a good idea as you skip giving your opponent a free 10 and fission itself can't be removed anyway

Services - if you still missed all of the big score screw up card this is the penultimate one,the compensation is a card without a leaf from your board,in high tech leaves become more rare but the tradeoff can still be worthwhile as you gain massive card advantage

Specialization - board remover number 2,more hard to use than fission but you get the eliminated card and you don't risk blowing up the whole board

Special

Collaboration - Collaboration is insta-win card number 2,frankly this is the most situational card of all the situational card,it gives you a free melding action and that is awesome but it also gives it to your opponent and that it's bad,if you are going to lose next turn,that free melding action can save your ass but otherwise this doesn't change the situation around too much,unless you are desperate to shut off mobility/skyscraper... the insta-win condition is hard to achieve as making a big green pile is usualy related to luck

Suburbia - scoring a 1 for every card doesn't sounds too much but if the age 1 pile has run out then you have to score from age 2 and so on,so basicaly the more pile have run out,the better this card is,if all the piles before 7 have run out then this is as good as lightining without the added condition
« Last Edit: April 01, 2013, 12:09:23 pm by teasel »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2013, 11:07:37 am »
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Age 10

and lastly comes Age 10,most of the Age 10 cards call for other Age 10 cards or let you win the game instantly which in turns make the game ends up pretty quickly,notable cards include Bioenginering,Software,A.I,Self Service and Globalization

Bioenginering - Bioenginering gives the victory to the player with the most leaf symbol when one player has less than 3 leaf symbols,the effect it's not an i demand effect and as such can be used even when lacking in symbols,that also means YOU get to pick what card to eliminate which can make a world of difference

Software - Software scores a 10 and then pulls out two 10 cards and then execute one of them,go read the other effect so you know what to expect,if you share this effect you eliminate six card from the 10 deck,basicaly sharing software twice will end the game no matter what

Robotics - like software but it scores your top green card instead and it only pulls out a single 10

A.I - the card that you have to fear when using software,if software,robotics and A.I are all on top then the player with the lowest score wins,when using software you want to either

- have robotic or A.I in your hand or score pile
- have at least a 20 point difference with your opponent

otherwise you risk handling the victory with A.I

Self Service - Self Service let you win if you have the most achievements,thus it's a good idea to gather achievements against/for self service,if you pull self service with software it also gives you a chance to give software another spin

Stem Cells - if you still have card in your hands this is the way to use them

The Internet - The Internet eat almost as many card as software and as such can be used (or shared) to quickly end games

Miniturization - of all the 10 card this is the only one i'm never happy to see,while it can end the game by massive drawing,it's slow and clunky

Database - the last of all the score attacks,this attack half of the card your opponent score,this might sounds like a big number but usualy it rarely deals more damage than mass media

Globalization - lastly we have globalization,globalization let you score,eat at your opponent cards and lastly handle the victory to the player with the highest score,if you teched up quickly hunting for globalization is usualy a pretty good idea as most of the 10 card let you score big,thus making you the perfect candidate for globalization
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 04:03:44 pm by teasel »
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dondon151

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2013, 08:57:11 pm »
+1

Pretty good; needs a thorough proofread though.

Physics - Physics is like Alchemy in sort that it let you tech up and that it blows up in your face,unlike alchemy the chance of blowing it up in your face are higher so it's a card you might want to share more often,another important thing to pay attention with physics,count the number of 6 card that are out and then subtract it from 9... if the number of cards in the 6 deck is divisible by 3 then no matter how many times you use physics,it will always blow up in your face

... Unless you're implying something else, I don't think this is true.
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dan11295

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2013, 09:19:56 pm »
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Only true if physics has been tried unsuccessfully and the cards returned, and then you played physics and redrew them. No reason why the last 3 cards can't be all different otherwise.
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2013, 10:06:11 pm »
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Only true if physics has been tried unsuccessfully and the cards returned, and then you played physics and redrew them. No reason why the last 3 cards can't be all different otherwise.

err yes that's what i meant,there was a game where physics was unsuccesfull the first 2 times so i tried 4 other times without realizing why it always ended up being unsuccesfull which is why i added that paragraph ^_^'
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 10:10:41 pm by teasel »
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Hideyoshi

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #13 on: March 24, 2013, 03:37:25 pm »
+1

A pretty good article, good for beginners to read for more information. However, I have some different opinions about some specific cards, so we may discuss these cards.

Oars: well, the most useful situation for oars is actually "demanding unsuccessfully" leading to draw a 1 and a free draw. It is quite useful at the start, specially, there is only a 1 in the pile, leading to your opponents draw a 1, and you draw 2 higher cards
Currency: If your opponents stop you from fermentation before you get bicycle in around age 4-5, currency is a good way to score your cards
Canal Building: Canal Building is generally useless, but I think it is very suitable to meet with paper and philosophy, even better than perspective
Enterprise: well, I think it is the best stealing cards among all stealing cards. The difference is that enterprise steals cards with crown, which usually makes your board more and more crown, and your opponents board less and less crown. The compensation "Draw and meld a 4" is actually not a very useful compensation, unless your opponent is still in age 2. Compared to compass, enterprise is easier to use unless you have a very funny board, such as transfer an useless Oars to other; otherwise, you often transfer a red card to your opponents which leads to dangerous condition. I may say, at lower age, compass is probably better, but in age 5 or even higher, compass becomes less and less useful than enterprise.
Emancipation: I am not sure your condition is really correct. At age 6, it is common your opponents get some 1, 2 and 3 in hand. Scoring them and letting your opponents draw 6 may not be a good choice. Well, this card quite depends, but in most cases I think it is a bad card.
Classification: well, classification is just a better version of "meld", so do not put too much expectation on it for stealing other hands
Vaccination: mass media and combustion may be better than this card, depending on situation. The problem of vaccination is that you give a 6 to your opponents. Age 6 cards are generally useful, which may lead to some unexpected result. The other problem is actually you need to meld a 7. If you meld a refrigeration or sanitation, it will stop you to continue the dogma effect
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Kirian

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2013, 05:47:49 pm »
+1

Okay, I hate to be a dick, but this became unreadable after a couple of posts.  If you're going to post something you intend to be an awesome article, you need to write in clear English.  Run-on sentences are awful to read, as the lack of pauses makes it hard to see how your thoughts are organized.  Pluralization, subject-verb agreement, and other usage problems need to be fixed.

I'd love to read this whole thing, but I normally charge for copy-editing.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 05:48:56 pm by Kirian »
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #15 on: March 24, 2013, 06:34:21 pm »
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Okay, I hate to be a dick, but this became unreadable after a couple of posts.  If you're going to post something you intend to be an awesome article, you need to write in clear English.  Run-on sentences are awful to read, as the lack of pauses makes it hard to see how your thoughts are organized.  Pluralization, subject-verb agreement, and other usage problems need to be fixed.

I'd love to read this whole thing, but I normally charge for copy-editing.

mmm i'm sorry but english isn't my first language so i'm not sure what i can do to fix it,but if you can make some example about what you wanted fixed,i can try to improve it later
not to mention it tooks me a lot of time to write it all,i really didn't bother to proofread or do stuff like that

Quote
Enterprise: well, I think it is the best stealing cards among all stealing cards. The difference is that enterprise steals cards with crown, which usually makes your board more and more crown, and your opponents board less and less crown. The compensation "Draw and meld a 4" is actually not a very useful compensation, unless your opponent is still in age 2. Compared to compass, enterprise is easier to use unless you have a very funny board, such as transfer an useless Oars to other; otherwise, you often transfer a red card to your opponents which leads to dangerous condition. I may say, at lower age, compass is probably better, but in age 5 or even higher, compass becomes less and less useful than enterprise.

the consideration in this post are all good (well i don't agree much about oars too) but... i did the same tought of "if i keep using enterprise i will get more and more coins" but in truth it never worked for me as you are more moving symbols around rather than gaining it... and while coins are nice for combustion and skyscrapers,they don't do much else... draw and meld also has another unforeseen consequence,if your opponent draws and meld another card with a coin,then they have something else to give them that it's not the card you might want (like math) so of all the stealing card enterprise is the only one that sabotage itself

anyway the point wasn't that "compass is a better card" most of the stealing card are as good as the card you can steal,the point was that you might want to use compass even on card you don't want as in the right condition it can double as damaging the opponent board,where enterprise will never do any sort of damage
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 06:56:52 pm by teasel »
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popsofctown

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #16 on: March 24, 2013, 07:00:26 pm »
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Enterprise does damage all the time, the melded 4 is often a techdown.
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #17 on: March 24, 2013, 07:04:54 pm »
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true but when i meant damage,i mean symbol damage,if you steal a card and then meld another one you still have the same amount of symbols you had when you beginned even if now you have 3 lightbulb instead of 3 coins for example
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popsofctown

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #18 on: March 24, 2013, 07:08:03 pm »
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Compass exchanges don't damage your opponent's symbol count either..
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #19 on: March 24, 2013, 07:12:27 pm »
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Compass exchanges don't damage your opponent's symbol count either..

it does if you only have leaves on your board (which is why i said "in the right condition"),it also let you control what opponent card you tech down if you control your board so that only 1 card has no leaf on it where with enterprise everything is held by chance
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 07:14:07 pm by teasel »
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eHalcyon

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2013, 09:06:24 pm »
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I know barely anything about Innovation, having played it only once.  But perhaps strategy articles for the game would benefit from following the example set by the Dominion Strategy blog.  Instead of one super gigantic article covering everything, put out an article focused on one card or combo every few days or weeks.  That way, any follow-up discussion (questions, critiques, praises) can be focused and driven.  It will also be more accessible for a helpful volunteer to help rewrite and fix any grammar/spelling issues that there may be.  As it is, anyone who might want to help will be scared off by this behemoth of a guide!
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teasel

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2013, 09:42:28 pm »
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actualy when i wrote the whole thing i just wanted to highlight the card that i consider most important (paper,fermenting,mobility and the like) for newbie's which is why i added a "notable card in each ages" at the start of each paragraph :P
« Last Edit: March 24, 2013, 09:47:05 pm by teasel »
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eHalcyon

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2013, 09:49:58 pm »
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Mmm.  Well, as it is, it just feels like too much to read.  This is all posted together as one big guide, but it would be easier to get into if it were split into like 10 articles (one for each age, of course).  You've sort of already done that by splitting it into separate posts, but maybe separate threads would be better.  And posted with an appropriate amount of time between each! ;)
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rrenaud

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #23 on: March 24, 2013, 11:47:17 pm »
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I copy-edittted age 1, and I'll gradually work through the rest.  I think the articles are pretty solid actually.  For example, I never thought about the mapmaking/calendar combo.
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ednever

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Re: A More Detailed Strategy Guide
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2013, 01:34:16 am »
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Granted the English isn't perfect, but I'd like to give you props for a great content article.

We are still in the early stages of understanding this game. Things like this can provide the basic outline to build deeper combo/single card articles.

Well done.

Ed
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