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[BitTorrent]

Bah, of course I like using Fermenting+Reformation, I am from the forest, you know?

So some of them are the more usual one, those you got all the necessary cards for the winning formula:

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201303/07/game-20130307-205203-a294c41a.html

This one is rather aggressive, I intentionally robbed the Fermenting card from yaron's hand in the middle because I know he has it;

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201304/17/game-20130417-105748-c7f650f4.html

And this one is actually more usual approach, get all the required cards and grab a massive score. I used bicycle this time but later shifted my score back after I accidentally got Suburbia and go with Suburbia again;

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201303/20/game-20130320-211408-9d4fd3d7.html

The key of playing Fermenting+Reformation is to draw a lot of cards and gain as much knowledge of your opponent as you can, so sometimes you can still work on it even you don't have Reformation for some reason, as long as you can draw a reasonable amount of cards and kept your opponent under your estimation,

You can see that generally I would have Calender/Pottery as my top blue card and that is usually what defines a good Fermenting+Reformation from a mild one. Having both Blue and Yellow cards supplying leaves means that you can easily reach 5-6 leaves via a green leaf or a purple one. My early goal before Reformation is 6 leaves which is usually the minimal requirement to make a Fermenting+Reformation becomes favorable;

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201303/23/game-20130323-003224-987c960f.html

Classification post great harm to the forest. (See turn 11 of Hank) In such case try to shorten your game and do some quick Scoring with your massive hand. Currency serves such purpose quite well since you can easily score some 30+ points with a single action when you are working of F&R since the piles from age 2 is being drained by you. Currency is also a green card with a leaf which gives you both supplement to leaves and allows you to continue with your Fermenting since it won't cover it up.

After the threat of Classification is gone, I proceed to grab Suburbia and finish the game there.

As you can see my general preference is Suburbia > Bicycle > Lighting since Suburbia is simple and precise. It only serves one purpose: to build a forest in your score pile. With one single dogma action you can seal the game right there, even your opponent is 1 achievement away from winning. Bicycle is sometimes used to prevent cards which harms your hand like Classification or Composites(sometimes a shared Pressure Cooker, too) as Bicycle is an earlier card (age7) which means that you can get it quicker.

I seldom go with Lighting since it is not quite powerful as Suburbia or Bicycle, using it once may not be good enough if you did not score anything beforehand. You still have to achieve, too.

The difference between the 'game winners' that you may use:

1. Suburbia
Strength: 1 shot knockout, inert from sharing(even your opponent did get enough leaves to share it they still need the cards to accomplish it);
Weakness: an age 9 card, if you do not control the game tight enough at that point you could be in huge trouble(e.g. your opponent got into age 10 and wins with Self-service before you can score anything);

2. Bicycle
Strength: Gives massive score advantage, usually inert from sharing;
Weakness: It is not a scoring effect which means you cannot get Monument from it, and even you get 100+ points from it you did not win instantly, you still have to achieve things. Also it did not give you any board supplement which can be a trouble;

3. Lighting
Strength: Do a bit of everything, score a bit(consider not huge when comparing with the others in this class) and build your board a bit. Reusable;
Weakness: It only gives you a push in your score so unless your opponent is doing zero scoring, you may have to do it twice or 3 times in a row to ensure a score advantage;

4. Currency
Strength: An AGE 2 card which can still proves its resourcefulness even in a late game since it can potentially score more points per dogma when compared to Lighting;
Weakness: The scoring mechanism do not actually ram the age deck and it provides no supplement to your board, which makes it usually inferior to Lighting;

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201303/20/game-20130320-211408-9d4fd3d7.html

There is no contradiction of running Math + F&R together in the same time as long as you know how to win the game with them via flow control. With both of them you can control how the game rhythm is going, get the winning card before your opponent(i.e. Stem Cells in this one, seldom use it though) and Math-tech to age 11 to end it.

http://scorepile.org/gamelog/201304/25/game-20130425-111445-8a3b2675.html

Classic type of F&R vs Achievement game. Usually it is more beneficial to go with Suburbia rather than Bicycle in this kind of situation while your opponent is 1-2 achievements away from winning, since Bicycle is only an age 7 top card and it doesn't give you access to Achievement age 8 and 9. if you are down to a situation which you have to fight for them, you are not in a much better position than your opponent since if you are working on 'Fermenting + Pottery/Calender + Bicycle + Reformation + some useless Red', you have no draw and meld effects which allow you to instantly got a touchdown. The only advantage you can have is that you can draw a lot of cards which can defines the age of your opponent's next turn start at;

http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201305/01/game-20130501-223757-9f0a209c.html

This one is a new one, a rather funny one though. When I got Watermill and Machinery I know the fact that 'if there is Reformation exists in the age 4 pile then I can do it, with a lot of leaves'. And I did it, via 1 single use of Reformation I got 20 leaves. I don't even bother to use it again to grab Monument or whatsoever as 20 leaves in age 4 is just too massive. (since I am Relaxing, too) I decided to go with Lighting this time since my opponent should not be able to get Composites but it turns out that it is Parachute who is waiting for me. Though I have 22 leaves already which means I can instantly burn out age 9 and 10 with 2 draws.

Just the most pure type of F&R combo which don't even involve much useless actions, pure age deck ramming.

There are other forms, too. Another approach of working with F&R is to consume the hand quickly before ramming deep and grabbing achievements beforehand. This is usually used when you don't have a complete version of it(e.g. you got only 9 leaves even after using Reformation and your opponent is scoring quickly already). As long as you have something which quickly consumes your hand(e.g. Umbrella/Currency) you can put them together and score fiercely. I do play a lot of games like this, but I can't separate them from the scorepile.org since they are win by achievements too...

So this is how the Tree rebuild the forest and preserve the earth 

[BitTorrent]

Update: got a funny game just today:

http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201305/02/game-20130502-215848-7d4a3923.html

Though this one is not about using F&R to win, but countering a F&R against me instead. 

I intentionally dig into the echoes and aiming at several possibilities. Though I wanted Elevator most, but Parachute should get the job done too so I go with Parachute + Television and it turns out that it is I have massive hands and my opponent got some Industrial-related board. Television really helps me to make enough trouble to my opponent + develop my board a bit.

And this is one of the possible solution against a coming F&R: using some icons in the later age which your opponent cannot gain access with F&R easily. Factories and Clocks, usually.

[dan11295]

Had an opponent counter my Fermentation/reformation engine (I had 17 leaves!) in an echoes game by getting classification, stealing my greens then using measurement to draw an 11 while up in score. Guess in that situation I just needed to make sure I draw through the 6's in one turn. Sometimes I just get lazy and do something sub-optimal which gives my opponent and opening. That said there are more counters to this in echoes.

[BitTorrent]

Sometimes just drawing cards will get the job done:

http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201305/09/game-20130509-124004-bd430f7e.html

I just have so many ways to rebuild the forest on the earth, including pure drawing and doing nothing else... 

[BitTorrent]

General Tran, we found a new way to further optimize the operation of brewery:

http://innovation.isotropic.org/gamelog/201308/10/game-20130810-095234-8c753e01.html

Tran Hung Dao: each 2 castle on your board provides 1 extra icons of each other type on your board,
left splay, massive castles, and...

22 leaves after one use of Reformation lol