Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kirian]

Please also post your results here, and add your commentary and/or discuss your and others' matches!

[Kirian]

If you look at the Results thread closely, you'll note that Kirian is listed as a Bye by Request this week.  I'll be out of town from this Wednesday until next Monday.  This means that final pairings for Round 6 are unlikely to be available until Tuesday morning.  My apologies for the inconvenience; the travel wasn't planned until after Season 2 was scheduled.

I will still be online--you may even see me playing--but my schedule is much more limited, so don't expect frequent spreadsheet updates.

[nopawnsintended]

Commentary on my match against ashersky.  ashersky wins 4-2 after my winning the first two.  Meta-comment: I think I was lucky to be up 2-0 (see messy game 2), and as of right now (writing this as I go), I'm not sure what happened.

Game 1: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378815145033.txt No Pawns 31, ashersky 0

Stonemason, Rats, Market Square, Apprentice, Horn of Plenty.  See a strategy there?  Oh, and Forager.  We both go for it, and I pick up Forager early.  Maybe that helps me MS-a-Gold early while he is unable to do so with MS-a-Gold via Rats until late.  I then Stone my Gold into some fun fives, collect HoP, and it's only a matter of time before I cash it all in and end on piles.

Game 2: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378815605148.txt No Pawns 19, ashersky 18

Workshop, Gardens, Sea Hag.  I'm not convinced I played better, but I win the Gardens split.  Then, I try to seal the victory by buying down Curses.  There's a tense moment where ashersky grabs a Duchy, and gets a one-point lead with one Curse remaining.  But, I'm able to match his Duchy (luckily!) and I win by one.

Game 3: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378816806341.txt No Pawns 23, ashersky 24

This was an interesting Tactician-Vault game with Colonies.  We both end up swinging into double-Tac, Vault, many Villages (Worker's and Vanilla), Margrave, and Smithy.  He ends it on a clever buy-all-the-Estates turn that I didn't see coming.  And, he had just enough money to do it.  If he didn't end it then, I would have found a way to 3 pile on the next turn... I think.

Game 4: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378818198230.txt No Pawns 31, ashersky 32

This was a messy-deck game.  He goes Scrying Pool, Rats, Swindler, while I go Swindler-BM.  I figure that if I go heavy Swindler, I can hit his Potion, make a mess of his deck, and the Scry won't get to me.  He uses the Scry-Swinder pin to good effect.  On the second to last turn, he unDuchied me, and then bought a Curse to 3-pile with a one-point win.  In retrospect, I should not have emptied Estates on the previous turn because I had a better chance to Province than he could, but I thought it was a calculated risk.  Also, we didn't know the score on this one because #vpon was not said.

Game 5: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378819025209.txt No Pawns 60, ashersky 64

Fairgrounds was on the board, so was HoP and University.  So maybe power up Fairgrounds without trouble.  The cards sorta worked well together too, but I didn't have a well defined strategy on this one.  He gets out to a sizeable early lead, and I decide that Fairgrounds is my only plausible route to victory.  Honestly, my initial idea was to Hermit Silvers, Noble Brigand fairly heavily, and use Embassy to sift to $8.  I ended up going light on NB once he got out to his lead.  Maybe I should have had more discipline, but this just looks like a natural Fairgrounding board.

Game 6: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378819567302.txt No Pawns 37, ashersky 47

Ironmonger, Bishop, Haggler, and Farmland are in the kingdom.  I go heavy on Ironmongers with the intent to sometime pick up a Farmland.  I never hit $6 with an Estate to trash into Bishop, but ashersky does.  I get Golds and stuff, but he just builds up more steam with essentially $6 Provinces every time he draws a Farmland.  If memory serves correctly, I have a chance to end it in a tie near the end.

I can't say that I'm happy I lost 4-2 after being up 2-0, but it seems that ashersky took the better route on Games 4-6 after out-endgaming me on Game 3.  Well played, ashersky.  Thanks for the games.

[ashersky]

Commentary on my match against ashersky.  ashersky wins 4-2 after my winning the first two.  Meta-comment: I think I was lucky to be up 2-0 (see messy game 2), and as of right now (writing this as I go), I'm not sure what happened.

Game 1: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378815145033.txt No Pawns 31, ashersky 0

Stonemason, Rats, Market Square, Apprentice, Horn of Plenty.  See a strategy there?  Oh, and Forager.  We both go for it, and I pick up Forager early.  Maybe that helps me MS-a-Gold early while he is unable to do so with MS-a-Gold via Rats until late.  I then Stone my Gold into some fun fives, collect HoP, and it's only a matter of time before I cash it all in and end on piles.

Game 2: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378815605148.txt No Pawns 19, ashersky 18

Workshop, Gardens, Sea Hag.  I'm not convinced I played better, but I win the Gardens split.  Then, I try to seal the victory by buying down Curses.  There's a tense moment where ashersky grabs a Duchy, and gets a one-point lead with one Curse remaining.  But, I'm able to match his Duchy (luckily!) and I win by one.

Game 3: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378816806341.txt No Pawns 23, ashersky 24

This was an interesting Tactician-Vault game with Colonies.  We both end up swinging into double-Tac, Vault, many Villages (Worker's and Vanilla), Margrave, and Smithy.  He ends it on a clever buy-all-the-Estates turn that I didn't see coming.  And, he had just enough money to do it.  If he didn't end it then, I would have found a way to 3 pile on the next turn... I think.

Game 4: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378818198230.txt No Pawns 31, ashersky 32

This was a messy-deck game.  He goes Scrying Pool, Rats, Swindler, while I go Swindler-BM.  I figure that if I go heavy Swindler, I can hit his Potion, make a mess of his deck, and the Scry won't get to me.  He uses the Scry-Swinder pin to good effect.  On the second to last turn, he unDuchied me, and then bought a Curse to 3-pile with a one-point win.  In retrospect, I should not have emptied Estates on the previous turn because I had a better chance to Province than he could, but I thought it was a calculated risk.  Also, we didn't know the score on this one because #vpon was not said.

Game 5: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378819025209.txt No Pawns 60, ashersky 64

Fairgrounds was on the board, so was HoP and University.  So maybe power up Fairgrounds without trouble.  The cards sorta worked well together too, but I didn't have a well defined strategy on this one.  He gets out to a sizeable early lead, and I decide that Fairgrounds is my only plausible route to victory.  Honestly, my initial idea was to Hermit Silvers, Noble Brigand fairly heavily, and use Embassy to sift to $8.  I ended up going light on NB once he got out to his lead.  Maybe I should have had more discipline, but this just looks like a natural Fairgrounding board.

Game 6: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130910/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1378819567302.txt No Pawns 37, ashersky 47

Ironmonger, Bishop, Haggler, and Farmland are in the kingdom.  I go heavy on Ironmongers with the intent to sometime pick up a Farmland.  I never hit $6 with an Estate to trash into Bishop, but ashersky does.  I get Golds and stuff, but he just builds up more steam with essentially $6 Provinces every time he draws a Farmland.  If memory serves correctly, I have a chance to end it in a tie near the end.

I can't say that I'm happy I lost 4-2 after being up 2-0, but it seems that ashersky took the better route on Games 4-6 after out-endgaming me on Game 3.  Well played, ashersky.  Thanks for the games.

Thanks nopawns.  There were some tensely exciting moments throughout, and I definitely didn't expect to come out on top in the end.  I don't have much to add to game commentary, buta few notes from memory:

Game 1: we both had the same idea, you made it work faster.  As I mentioned post-game, I never hit 5 the entire game. 

Game 2: the turn you double Gardens, I had Workshopped another Bridge instead of starting the Gardens rush first.  I knew as soon as you grabbed two, I was probably done.  The Duchy was huge at the end, but I'm not sure I was going to get 5 again before you anyway.  I was hoping to cross another ten card threshold before you.

Game 3: nopawns got the Double-Tac going two turns ahead of me, and I thought I was toast.  When you went Colony, I started calculating a three-pile with 8 estates; hence my odd Duchy buy.  Just happy it worked out.

Game 4: I Swindled your Hunting Grounds.  That was scary.  I otherwise was able to SP-Swindle what I wanted and throw you Caches for -3 VP.

Game 5: I actually miscounted cards for Fairgrounds and ended up with 17 uniques, including curse.  My original plan, before I swerved to contest Fairgrounds, was to University some Embassies and just BM it to Provinces.

Game 6: we basically mirror, but I get the earlier luck, which just helps stack some VP chips and arrange Farmlands better. 

Great games all around.  I honestly feel like I stole this one from nopawns, a worthy opponent who's more highly skilled than me.  Thanks for the great games!

[Titandrake]

(too lazy to make picture)

I won my first rounds of GokoDom
(first world problems)
And now I'm matched against people better than me

I kid, but it feels like I'm on borrowed time and I'm waiting for the round I get 3-0ed.

[Robz888]

Some pretty neat games here, and a lot of Guilds stuff. Herald showed up in 3 of our 5 games.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378912675739.txt
Squire, University, Menagerie, Watchtower, Militia, Tournament, Treasure Map, Wandering Minstrel, City, Wharf
One of my favorite combos is available here: Watchtower/University. It's a really fun one. Watchtower let's you top-deck University-gains, and then draw them on play of Watchtower. Anyway, he goes for the same thing, but I get really lucky to top-deck a university before the second reshuffle, and I just snowball way ahead.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378913080020.txt
Lighthouse, Warehouse, Cutpurse, Quarry, Council Room, Counting House, Pillage, Rogue, Stash, Adventurer
Really weak board. He gets the 5/2. That's probably better, but I'm not even sure. I guess Big Money Pillage is probably best here? But there's even Lighthouse to mitigate that. I grab Rogue as my second terminal to recover Pillages and I just don't know. I get a lucky chance to put myself in tie range, and gladly take that. He buys the last province and secures the tie.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378913570021.txt
Crossroads, Develop, Herald, Talisman, Count, Graverobber, Haggler, Mine, Treasury, Upgrade, Copper, Silver, Gold
He goes for the Talisman opening for mass Herald. I consider that, but without anything else that I want sub-$5, I pass. He gets Upgrades and Hagglers to really get a Herald sort of deck going. Just seems a touch too slow to me, and I play more of a Haggler BM type thing. He wins easy, so I think I just called this one incorrectly.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378914368819.txt
Baron, Herald, JackOfAllTrades, Pirate Ship, Minion, Outpost, Treasury, Tribute, Goons, Expand
Minion looks important, and we both open Silver/Silver for that. I get the excellent 5/5 split next shuffle, though, which just puts me way ahead. I win the Minion split which is huge here. I don't like his second Expand (I'm not even sure I like my first Expand), but in his place you have to try some crazy things. After the Minions run out I realize this is actually more of a multi-Goons board, thanks to Herald. And well, my Heralds just seem to connect really well. He has to go after Tributes for the actions for some omega-Goons thing later. It was never going to work, but in his place, he had to try. I end the game on piles with an easy win.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378916280775.txt
Hamlet, Squire, Forager, Storeroom, Wishing Well, Herald, Quarry, Baker, Council Room, Duke
I think we both played this one badly, actually. Baker investment for triple Provincing later is sort of what we are both aiming to do, but I wish I had opened Quarry. I don't realize how useful Quarry would be here until the Bakers are all gone. Luckily, I get 6 of them. Then he goes for just like Baker plus a few Golds and stores up. I'm certain that's the wrong thing to do, but to beat it, I have to like play intelligently, which I sort of fail at here. I keep adding my tokens wrong and waffling between how much draw I need, do I need treasure, I even forget to pick up free Hamlets. It's a bit of a mess. I wish I had a second Quarry actually, and then Heralds would have been free. But anyway, it's still good enough to put him a really tough position, so he belatedly pivots for Duchy-Duke. But I can put myself ahead in points and then pile out free Hamlets and Squires.

As it turns out, playing adequately and getting good luck is a decent combo. Thanks for the games!

[yed]

Some pretty neat games here, and a lot of Guilds stuff. Herald showed up in 3 of our 5 games.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378912675739.txt
Squire, University, Menagerie, Watchtower, Militia, Tournament, Treasure Map, Wandering Minstrel, City, Wharf
One of my favorite combos is available here: Watchtower/University. It's a really fun one. Watchtower let's you top-deck University-gains, and then draw them on play of Watchtower. Anyway, he goes for the same thing, but I get really lucky to top-deck a university before the second reshuffle, and I just snowball way ahead.

I don't know what I could have done better, maybe WM instead Tournament.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378913080020.txt
Lighthouse, Warehouse, Cutpurse, Quarry, Council Room, Counting House, Pillage, Rogue, Stash, Adventurer
Really weak board. He gets the 5/2. That's probably better, but I'm not even sure. I guess Big Money Pillage is probably best here? But there's even Lighthouse to mitigate that. I grab Rogue as my second terminal to recover Pillages and I just don't know. I get a lucky chance to put myself in tie range, and gladly take that. He buys the last province and secures the tie.

I should have bought Rogue instead of Stash in turn 3.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378913570021.txt
Crossroads, Develop, Herald, Talisman, Count, Graverobber, Haggler, Mine, Treasury, Upgrade, Copper, Silver, Gold
He goes for the Talisman opening for mass Herald. I consider that, but without anything else that I want sub-$5, I pass. He gets Upgrades and Hagglers to really get a Herald sort of deck going. Just seems a touch too slow to me, and I play more of a Haggler BM type thing. He wins easy, so I think I just called this one incorrectly.

The reason why I went for it instead of BM-Haggler was possibility to upgrade Talisman or Herald to duchy in the late game.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378914368819.txt
Baron, Herald, JackOfAllTrades, Pirate Ship, Minion, Outpost, Treasury, Tribute, Goons, Expand
Minion looks important, and we both open Silver/Silver for that. I get the excellent 5/5 split next shuffle, though, which just puts me way ahead. I win the Minion split which is huge here. I don't like his second Expand (I'm not even sure I like my first Expand), but in his place you have to try some crazy things. After the Minions run out I realize this is actually more of a multi-Goons board, thanks to Herald. And well, my Heralds just seem to connect really well. He has to go after Tributes for the actions for some omega-Goons thing later. It was never going to work, but in his place, he had to try. I end the game on piles with an easy win.

The early Heralds were probably mistake. It is better to buy them later when you have Goons. I did not want to have many Silvers for multi-Goons deck, but they would probably allow me to buy more Minions which was key here. Then I just tried crazy things...

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130911/log.51102b6ee4b06719e45eef9d.1378916280775.txt
Hamlet, Squire, Forager, Storeroom, Wishing Well, Herald, Quarry, Baker, Council Room, Duke
I think we both played this one badly, actually. Baker investment for triple Provincing later is sort of what we are both aiming to do, but I wish I had opened Quarry. I don't realize how useful Quarry would be here until the Bakers are all gone. Luckily, I get 6 of them. Then he goes for just like Baker plus a few Golds and stores up. I'm certain that's the wrong thing to do, but to beat it, I have to like play intelligently, which I sort of fail at here. I keep adding my tokens wrong and waffling between how much draw I need, do I need treasure, I even forget to pick up free Hamlets. It's a bit of a mess. I wish I had a second Quarry actually, and then Heralds would have been free. But anyway, it's still good enough to put him a really tough position, so he belatedly pivots for Duchy-Duke. But I can put myself ahead in points and then pile out free Hamlets and Squires.

Yes I should have bought Quarry too, for the end game control. But after you have bought it I felt like I don't have time for that. It is really bad feeling when you can triple-Province but you know it will lose you the game.

As it turns out, playing adequately and getting good luck is a decent combo. Thanks for the games!

Thanks you too!

[shraeye]

I'm not so good at commenting on my games and worse when I'm lacking in free-time, but I just played a nice match with Bekse in which we NEVER had to restart due to the wrong player being set as player1.

Bekse - Shraeye 3-3

http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379006524631.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379006930984.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379007437220.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379007767338.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379008585452.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b19237e4b0c5dcbb3e0778.1379008897824.txt

mistakes were very likely made, but still I enjoyed never having to restart so much, that I'm beyond happy.

[jsh357]

Games against Stef

So after a gauntlet of four really awesome players (Stealth Tomato, Eevee, ednever and Obi Wan Bonogi) I figured the rules of the universe would give me a nice easy match to- oh for the love of


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379007702941.txt
There are several options here; Baron/Silk Roads, Mercenary, some Butcher thing.  I start with Baron and decided to go Mercenary anyway.  I should have picked one or the other.  This game was close, but in the end I lose to a megaturn that gets the precise number of coins and Buys needed interestingly.  I wanted to grab Butcher, but no such luck.  Starting to think Mercenary is as swingy as Familiar sometimes, though Stef certainly went harder for it this game.  His deck is a lot better with its extra Buys, so no surprise I lost.
0-1


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379008988542.txt
Lots of Big Money options and only University as the village.  Stef goes for the Unis, I shoot for Ghost Ship and Militia-BM, picking up Philosopher Stone for near-guaranteed Provinces later on.  I get a bit worried his Rabbles will make me never draw the Stone, but in the end it nets me two cleanly enough.
1-1



http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379009902685.txt
You might think this is a big engine board, but the presence of Witch pretty much makes it a big pile-out board.  On one turn I misclick forgetting I did not have a Mercenary to play for whatever reason and lose a potential good buy by discarding Silver and Copper, but I don't think it was that big a deal in the end.  He gets a Platinum and I go for a gimmicky early ending.  Who do I think I'm playing here?  Stef misses a clear opportunity to pile out Urchin and Curse on one turn, but it doesn't matter as he can easily win not long afterward.  I needed more money to do anything. The Vault was a bad buy.
1-2

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379010622859.txt
Hey look you can still completely cheese out a game with Tournament, guys.  Is anyone surprised?  Procession is sort of interesting here, especially if you're going for Fairgrounds, but I just pile out the Provinces anyway.
2-2

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379011992255.txt
If you're going to read one of these games, this is the one.  A profoundly weird board in which Stef goes for Peddler/Apothecary/Expand and beats my double Swindler opening with Rebuilds.  I think my Swindlers go unlucky and could have stymied his draw a bit more than they did, but it was a mess either way.  He gets ahead in the end and I can't do much about it.
2-3


http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379012788496.txt
Check out my first two buys.  Just look at it.  I should win, right?  Nah.  Noble Brigand BM with Remodel support and a perfect opening ends up losing to Golem/Highway/Woodcutter with no other draw.  Color me surprised.  I had some bad draws, but I suppose that strategy was good enough to at least go 50/50 with me no matter the case.
2-4

[Robz888]

Games against Stef

So after a gauntlet of four really awesome players (Stealth Tomato, Eevee, ednever and Obi Wan Bonogi) I figured the rules of the universe would give me a nice easy match to- oh for the love of

Man, that is rough draw.

[Eevee]

Eevee beats DG 3-1.

http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130912/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1379011877084.txt
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130912/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1379012450835.txt
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130912/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1379013217722.txt
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130912/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1379014365890.txt

In the first game DG underestimates how well ironmonger works as a village in a militia/masquerade engine (with schemes and advisors for added reliability, no +buy but ironworks to build it up). My moneylender was a mistake, but do not ignore masquerade, it doesn't end well.

In the second game I get a 2-5 with embargo and mountebank on the board, this was just awfully lucky.

In the third game it's DG's turn with the lucky 5-2 on a cultist board with forager and trading post for trashing. I never get any close, I might have gone overboard with the cultists though as I never had time to build any economy.

In the fourth game I play an extremely simple young witch+money deck and DG tries a cute peddler engine thing. It's very close, we both aim for the last province for several turns, finally I get luckier.

I think my strategy was significantly better in the first game but other than that I don't even know who played better. Sorry for the luck DG, and better fortunes in your future matches.

[Stealth Tomato]

Mic Q 3.5 - 0.5 Stealth

Holy Christ did this go badly end to end. I always feel unlucky against better players than me, but that's how it's supposed to work, really.

Tie 31 - 31
He gets a Turn 4 Minion and I don't, so I'm playing catch-up the entire time. I manage to draw even thanks to a coin token edge, and we tie.

Mic Q 67 - 52 Stealth
Jack-Silver is a giant mistake of an opening for me, but Mic underestimates the value of the Minion pile and I end up with a 7-3 Minion edge. He picks up 2 Platinums (I should have bought one, but never did due to always playing catch-up) and repeatedly manages mysterious Colony buys. Frustrating game.

Mic Q 59 - 12 Stealth
I don't notice Vineyard and open Cultist on the most powerful Vineyard board of all time. I was going to be way behind anyway opening 5/2 on a Forager-Peddler board with Vineyard, but that made it a stomp.

Mic Q 28 - 25 Stealth
Weird Chapel-Market board. I like my Contraband buy slightly more than his Market, and my cache of treasure slightly more than his pile of Markets, but it's even-up the entire time until my Death Cart whiffs on everything and I'm forced to go into desperation mode.

[Mic Qsenoch]

Mic Q 3.5 - 0.5 Stealth

Holy Christ did this go badly end to end. I always feel unlucky against better players than me, but that's how it's supposed to work, really.

Tie 31 - 31
He gets a Turn 4 Minion and I don't, so I'm playing catch-up the entire time. I manage to draw even thanks to a coin token edge, and we tie.

I have a lucky Turn 4, but I'm not really so far ahead of you (our decks are almost identical, I am a pace ahead because I went second, but you have more coin tokens). I kept one Estate as a tiebreaker, or to make him pick one up with Hermit later, it doesn't end up being a big deal. My turn 16 Peddler purchase is weird (if weird meant stupid), most likely should be an Estate, but I felt like I needed to put in a little economy at the time. I have to say I don't understand your Turn 14 Duchy buy at all. You had 4 coin tokens at that time and you could have used two to get to Province, seems way early for Duchies. I am very fortunate at the end to hit a Province draw for a tie.

Mic Q 67 - 52 Stealth
Jack-Silver is a giant mistake of an opening for me, but Mic underestimates the value of the Minion pile and I end up with a 7-3 Minion edge. He picks up 2 Platinums (I should have bought one, but never did due to always playing catch-up) and repeatedly manages mysterious Colony buys. Frustrating game.

I am severely outplayed here, but some absurd luck comes to my rescue. I knew even while I was playing it that I needed more Minions, I was really just hoping to get 4, but I didn't pursue that aggressively enough. Plat can't be ignored completely though, it's just too useful at getting to $11. If you are going to bypass it you need some Treasuries, not Cartographers. And I think a few of the Develops should be Silvers later on. I do think you could have won this with slightly different play.

Mic Q 59 - 12 Stealth
I don't notice Vineyard and open Cultist on the most powerful Vineyard board of all time. I was going to be way behind anyway opening 5/2 on a Forager-Peddler board with Vineyard, but that made it a stomp.

Yeah, more or less the best Vineyards board ever.

Mic Q 28 - 25 Stealth
Weird Chapel-Market board. I like my Contraband buy slightly more than his Market, and my cache of treasure slightly more than his pile of Markets, but it's even-up the entire time until my Death Cart whiffs on everything and I'm forced to go into desperation mode.

I've no clue what the best play is here, but I like how my deck turned out. I think a little Stonemasoning is good here. His Province buy at the end has got to be wrong, because even if I tie the game I win the match. The Death Cart whiff isn't so surprising, you have quite a lot of treasure in your deck

Thanks for the match Stealth Tomato, I'm sorry about the unbalanced luck.

[HiveMindEmulator]

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130912/log.50b20dc3e4b0c9ce0cf27eb3.1379012788496.txt
Check out my first two buys.  Just look at it.  I should win, right?  Nah.  Noble Brigand BM with Remodel support and a perfect opening ends up losing to Golem/Highway/Woodcutter with no other draw.  Color me surprised.  I had some bad draws, but I suppose that strategy was good enough to at least go 50/50 with me no matter the case.
2-4

You were lucky to hit the Silver with the first NB, but I'm pretty sure your strategy is waaaay inferior. What are your Noble Brigands going to hit besides his first couple Silvers? Pretty soon, they're just terminal Coppers. NB is good vs BM, not vs mass Highway. And Highway with Remodel and +buy is pretty good if your opponent doesn't contest the Highways.

[ragingduckd]

Isn't it about time to rename this board?

[theory]

Isn't it about time to rename this board?

Yes.

[Titandrake]

Quick comments while the games are still fresh.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.505da8ce51c359e6597efefa.1379099833323.txt
Familiar game, I get behind, my buys are unfocused but not necessarily bad, Geronimoo's are just better. The Goons 3-pile kills me; I don't think I have time to try to hit Provinces, but because I have fewer Goons I can't get as much VP when I follow.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.505da8ce51c359e6597efefa.1379100947108.txt
Kind of interesting, kind of boring. No way to increase handsize. Moat gives +2 Cards but Hamlet is the only +Action so it works out to net +0. Geronimoo goes for Fool's Gold, I decide that I can't let him have a lead there so it's pretty much a forced follow. Militia hurts Fool's Gold pretty bad, so I try to pick more of those up. I want to say this is part shuffle luck, part Baker letting me save up tokens to hit $8 despite Militia, and maybe little bit more Militia plays.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.505da8ce51c359e6597efefa.1379101947408.txt
Really fun board, there's a very strong Menagerie engine, and there's Shelters for more variety, but it needs Throne Room to get +Actions to make it work. Geronimoo opens Embargo/Smithy and does Smithy-BM, Embargoing TR. I open Storeroom/Silver to have a high chance of hitting $5 to get HoP. I start up much slower, but I get some helpful Embargoes on Gold + Cache + Province to slow him down. Anyways, on my last turn I draw my deck, but I Embargo Duchy twice, making it just impossible for me to win the game, and I have to settle for a tie.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.505da8ce51c359e6597efefa.1379102760200.txt
Both get 5/2 with Counterfeit out. Literally all terminals on the board. Same strategy, except I have an extra early Island, which actually helps a lot in endgame. Could have gone either way, just got the winning hand first.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.505da8ce51c359e6597efefa.1379103106950.txt
Rebuild board. Geronimoo does YW/Silver, which I think is actually not bad at hitting $5 and gives Curses. I go for Scavenger, get some very good Scavenger luck by drawing it every turn, and Geronimoo consistently hits $4 while I Rebuild away. He resigns after I win Duchy split 6-2, which is pretty much game, especially with Duke out.

[WanderingWinder]

Isn't it about time to rename this board?

Yes.

Poor MMM....

[HiveMindEmulator]

If you look at the Results thread closely, you'll note that Kirian is listed as a Bye by Request this week.  I'll be out of town from this Wednesday until next Monday.  This means that final pairings for Round 6 are unlikely to be available until Tuesday morning.  My apologies for the inconvenience; the travel wasn't planned until after Season 2 was scheduled.

I will still be online--you may even see me playing--but my schedule is much more limited, so don't expect frequent spreadsheet updates.

I assume this means it's okay to finish our match for this round on Monday?

[SirSlugma]

HME and I have both had issues getting together timewise and we plan on finishing our match Monday evening.  (Currently tied 2-2)

[Kirian]

If you look at the Results thread closely, you'll note that Kirian is listed as a Bye by Request this week.  I'll be out of town from this Wednesday until next Monday.  This means that final pairings for Round 6 are unlikely to be available until Tuesday morning.  My apologies for the inconvenience; the travel wasn't planned until after Season 2 was scheduled.

I will still be online--you may even see me playing--but my schedule is much more limited, so don't expect frequent spreadsheet updates.

I assume this means it's okay to finish our match for this round on Monday?

Yes.  I am in airports or airplanes starting at about 1 PM EDT and won't be home until evening.  Let's say midnight EDT for an actual deadline.

[awildnoobappeared]

awildnoobappeared drew with zporiri

Once again thanks for the games zporiri, and best of luck for round 6. What's interesting is that while the match was drawn, none of the games were what I would call close - player one always ran away with the game.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379114151623.txt awildnoobappeared 42-21
Oasis, Swindler, Feodum, Island, Plaza, Procession, Hunting Party, Inn, Fairgrounds, Bank (Shelters game)
We both buy Hunting Party in the opening. My first Swindler hits zporiri's HP, and he doesn't ever really recover. He also has two dead turns in a row fairly early, that must have hurt a lot. He also has really bad Swindler luck of his own, hitting Provinces of mine twice.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379115047177.txt zporiri 62-38
Apothecary, Masterpiece, Wishing Well, Philosopher's Stone, Council Room, Duke, Embassy, Rogue, Royal Seal, Soothsayer (Shelters game)
My strategy is not all there on this board - I tried something with Apothecary and Wishing Well, and it was no match for a Masterpiece silver flood facilitated by Embassy.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379115674023.txt zporiri 63-36
Masterpiece, Steward, Feodum, Nomad Camp, Talisman, Golem, Bazaar, Harvest, Inn, Harem (Colony game)
My strategy is even less all there on this board - Steward was a terrible purchase on a Masterpiece/Feodum board. It always collided with my Nomad Camp, but I should never have bought it in the first place. Anyway, I don't know how well a Colony focused strategy would have gone here, to be honest I don't think it would be able to compete as with Masterpiece/Feodum the Silver pile empties just as fast as the Masterpieces.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379116706846.txt awildnoobappeared 64-34
Poor House, Fortune Teller, Monument, Wandering Minstrel, Band of Misfits, Graverobber, Library, Wharf, Witch, Fairgrounds (Colony game)
I take a chance early on and buy a second Witch even though I've got a Monument as well and no villages. It works out for me as I win the curse split - later on, the big draw from Wharf keeps my economy reasonably strong, and allow me to Graverobber surplus Witches and Misfits into Provinces.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379117706399.txt awildnoobappeared 50-31
Poor House, Lighthouse, Ambassador, Warehouse, Plaza, Talisman, Saboteur, Trading Post, Farmland, Grand Market
Definitely a Grand Market board. Both of us thin our decks with Ambassador with Lighthouse for protection, and while zporiri gets the first GM I've already got two Poorhouses and plenty of Plazas, and my deck is quite a bit thinner, and I run away with the game.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130913/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1379118461241.txt zporiri 21-18
Philosopher's Stone, Feast, Ironmonger, Procession, Scavenger, Bazaar, Counterfeit, Ghost Ship, Rebuild, Treasury
Rebuild dominates here, I haven't played a lot with it and I didn't quite realise what a tricky card it is to play. My turn 11 was just one mistake after another... it looks close but it wasn't really. zporiri suggested that winning the Duchy split in a Rebuild game is probably more important than having more Rebuilds, does this sound correct to anyone else?

[JOG]

1. http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379168308059.txt
fabian 24-17
village, torturer, apprentice. 
He has 5/2 and gets an early apprentice.  The early trashing means his torturer chains are more reliable.  He picks up a trader late in the game, which I think was a nice buy.  Allows him to not discard from torturer attacks, and get silvers which could be fuel for apprentices.  Not sure what I could have done differently here.

2.  http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379169098533.txt
fabian 36 jog 21
tactician, vault, storeroom, laboratory, bank
My plan is double tactician, vault.  He goes for single tactician, bank.  I open spice merchant, warehouse, planning to get the tactician after the first shuffle.  I can't get to 5 until turn 7, so I'm already far behind.  My double tactician deck finally gets going eventually, but it's way too late.  Maybe spice merchant, warehouse was wrong because it's not reliable enough to hit 5.  Anyway, I think single tactician was a much better choice here because of bank.

3.  http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379169098533.txt
jog 38 fabian 31
ambassador, fishing village, counterfeit, oracle
I open double ambassador, he has 5/2 so can't get one and has to go counterfeit.  I get a little ahead in the ambassador war, and he starts greening.  My plan is to try to bury him in junk with ambassadors, but can't get enough draw with oracles and embassies.  I try alchemists to get more draw. I'm able to slow him down enough with ambassadors to catch up at the end. 

4.  http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379171749523.txt
ambassador, king's court, masquerade, fortress

We both open double ambassador.  My ambassador draws were close to perfect, so I get ahead.  he picks up some masquerades and fortresses which allow him to even up the game.  We both end up hitting KC at about the same time.  I have more luck connecting KC and ambassador, which gives me the win.

5.  http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379172980812.txt
minion, city, altar, forager   
fabian 14 jog 4
He has 5/2 and gets an early minion.  I open forager cutpurse.  Again, I can't get to 5 for a while.  Maybe open silver/cutpurse here? He wins the minion split 6/4. Then we go for cities, which he also wins 6/4.  I try to end it on my last turn, by altaring into a city, to give my other cities a plus buy.  Plan was to go for foragers.  But, I can't get enough money to empty the pile.  He has no problem winning the next turn with level 3 cities.

6.  http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.50a44d70e4b09c3f1c235128.1379174096899.txt
university, familiar, ironmonger, haggler, catacombs, merchant guild.  jog 9 fabian 1
We both open potion masquerade.  We both end up with 1 familiar and try to get an engine going with catacombs.  His second masquerade was strong.  I went for ironmonger instead of a second masquerade early.  That ironmonger didn't do much for me, while his masquerade helped trash and draw.  I thought I was beaten.  I get a province on turn 12 to prevent him from running out the piles.  He didn't draw well, and was unable to respond with his own province.  Myy last turn came together perfectly and I was able to run out the catacombs and curse to win on piles.

[jaybeez]

jaybeez defeats Mr Anderson 3.5-1.5

1. Mr Anderson 49 vs. jaybeez 46
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.505cc11ea2e6483e027bc556.1379182815648.txt

2. jaybeez 42 vs. Mr Anderson 30
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.505cc11ea2e6483e027bc556.1379183248398.txt

3. jaybeez 37 vs. Mr Anderson 37
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.505cc11ea2e6483e027bc556.1379183568000.txt

4. Mr Anderson 31 vs. jaybeez 39
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.505cc11ea2e6483e027bc556.1379184056817.txt

5. Mr Anderson 27 vs. jaybeez 30
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130914/log.505cc11ea2e6483e027bc556.1379184843987.txt

Commentary:

Game 1.  We both play this one pretty badly.  Me especially.  I have no idea what I was thinking, just embarrassingly bad play.  I mean, Apothecary + double-Amb with no other draw?  Yikes.  He goes for a multi-Tac strat with Treasuries and Squires.  It's really slow, but my deck is far, far slower.

Game 2. There's draw, there's a village, there's good +Buy (Bridge).  But the draw (Embassy) and the village (Bandit Camp) are both $5 and the only trashing is Mint, also at $5.  I see this and conclude that an engine is not going to be fast enough to beat Embassy-BM, which is what I go for, and I win handily, though it does help that my opponent bought four Embassies, and all the Silvers I got from that helped me green aggressively.

Game 3. Not a lot going on here, no engine possible certainly.  There's YW but Masq is there--and it's the bane too.  We both go for Masq-BM with Islands (we each get two).  In retrospect I think that was a mistake, straight Masq-BM would probably have been faster, right?  My opponent has the opportunity to tie it on T17 after I get $7 on my T17 with one Province left, and he takes it, which I think is the right move.

Game 4. This was a somewhat interesting board.  There was Fishing Village, Margrave, Merchant Guild--yeah engine time.  But the only trashing was Count.  And there wasn't really much else in the way of engine pieces (maybe Death Cart?)  I decide to try to keep it simple and build a FV-Margrave engine with a little bit of money, rushing for Provinces.  I had some luck, getting to $5 before my second reshuffle to grab an early Margrave, while my opponent doesn't get his until T6.  Granted, I was more likely to get to $5 before my second reshuffle because I opened Silver/FV while my opponent opened double-FV, but as it turned out my Silver missed the reshuffle but I got to $5 on T4 anyway.  I get 4 FVs eventually, a second Margrave, two Golds, a few more Silvers, and green hard pretty early.  My Death Cart buy might have been a bit cavalier, but I just wanted it for a one-shot that would get me to $8 even on a 3-card hand, and indeed it did exactly that on T15.  My opponent builds more, going for a Merchant Guild and way too many Margraves (he gets 7 in total, with only 4 FVs).  He's able to double-Province on T15 but it's too late.

Game 5. I think this was the most interesting board of the match: Forager, Loan, Urchin, Pirate Ship, Plaza, Cache, Knights, Pillage, Torturer, Upgrade (no Colonies or Shelters).  I think I played this one pretty well, and I think the difference was Urchin/Mercenary: Urchins are very nice support for a Torturer chain if you can play them first (which I was able to do twice), and getting one Mercenary helped me both keep the pressure up and trash down to a very slim deck that basically just had one Silver, one Gold, and used Plazas to discard those Treasures for coin tokens, drawing them back again with Torturers.  My opponent skipped Urchin/Mercenary and instead relied on just Forager for trashing, and eventually he just fell behind; I'm able to draw my deck and buy Province every turn from T16-T21 (except T20) while he's stuck at $5-7.  And I should have been able to buy Province on T20 too: on that turn I accidentally clicked "end actions" when I still had Torturers I wanted to play.  I did that on T18 too--the same misclick twice in the same game.  No harm no foul, as I won the game, but I did so only by 3 points and it really should not have been that close, I should have had 6 Provinces.  I'm such a dope sometimes.

Thanks to Mr Anderson for the match.

[Fabian]

Thanks for the games jog. In game 6 in particular, I'm not very pleased with how I played. Around turn 3, a friend called me, and my attention was divided for the rest of the game to say the least. I felt like I drew really poorly, but honestly who knows. I probably didn't make a single correct decision in this game, but of course it's tough to know since it seemed pretty complex.

Some interesting games overall, a draw didn't seem unreasonable although I was definitely hoping for more after the nice start.