(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/f/fd/Island.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Island) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/f/fc/Plaza.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Plaza) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/6/61/Treasure_Map.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Treasure Map) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/3/3a/Explorer.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Explorer) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/9/92/Merchant_Ship.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Merchant Ship)
(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/2/2c/Candlestick_Maker.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Candlestick Maker) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/4/4f/Lighthouse.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Lighthouse) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/0/09/Masterpiece.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Masterpiece) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/5/5e/Advisor.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Advisor) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/c/c1/Herald.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Herald)
Candlestick Maker, Lighthouse, Masterpiece, Advisor, Herald, Island, Plaza, Treasure Map, Explorer, Merchant Ship
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140307/log.50675f6afca284ca61206e88.1394229029037.txt
OK, other than buying those two Heralds on my last turn instead of a Province (I realized that mistake right after I did it), what the hell did I do wrong here? It's hard not to blame this on shuffle luck.
My initial plan is to invest in Candlestick Makers and Islands, sneaking in an early Merchant Ship buy via Coin tokens for economy, with the eventual plan of an exploding Herald engine with Merchant Ships and Candlestick Makers as payload.
My opponent somehow beats be on both the Candlestick Maker and Island splits. Then my Heralds activate once throughout the entire game. Looking back, perhaps the strategy was just way too slow and doomed to failure, but I've been beaten by ridiculous Herald engines way too often to ignore them with any trashing on the board, even just Island.