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[clb]

No. With half a dozen estates, duchies, and provinces in the supply it decided to rebuild a duchy into an estate, twice. It had been successfully rebuilding some estates into estates prior to that, so this was obviously an ambitious leap forward.

Clearly, first place is better than third, which is better than 6th, so why wouldn't you want more cards with a big 1 on them?

[jotheonah]

Not satisfied being merely ineffective, Goko bots start actively sabotaging their own scores!

[werothegreat]

Whatever happened to Lord Bottington's diary?

[SirPeebles]

Heh, a bot just Pillaged my Scout.

[Kuildeous]

Heh, a bot just Pillaged my Scout.

Didn't even buy him dinner first? That's rude.

[SirPeebles]

The Scout just kept looking for someone named Josephine.

[Avalanchian]

Someone mentioned this in another thread, and I tried it last night to great amusement: using Masquerade to give a bot Rats.  The bot has no idea what to do with Rats, and just plays it because it's a cantrip.  Within a few turns, the bot will have a deck of all Rats and the one Copper it can buy each turn.

I just mentioned this in stupid pet tricks before realising this thread existed. Turns out this trick is already well established.

I agree - this is hilarious.

[Joseph2302]

Someone mentioned this in another thread, and I tried it last night to great amusement: using Masquerade to give a bot Rats.  The bot has no idea what to do with Rats, and just plays it because it's a cantrip.  Within a few turns, the bot will have a deck of all Rats and the one Copper it can buy each turn.

Yes this is a definite issue with the bots, also seen them frequently with 3-4 Golems but only 2-3 other actions in deck!!!

[Avalanchian]

I was playing a game against Lord Bottington today and had a really meh kingdom using Colonies (Pawn, Great Hall, Masquerade, Shanty Town, Mining Village, Quarry, Thief, Counting House, Upgrade, King's Court). I can't see anything too great here, but I'd love to hear from anyone who sees something I've probably missed. I basically went Masq + BM, which is the kind of style I tend to shy away from in province games, let alone Colonies. Lord Bottington certainly couldn't see anything here, but rather than going BM (which I'm assuming they've been programmed to try and avoid to add variety) he spent the ENTIRE game buying low cost actions and upgrading them one by one. As you can imagine, the game ended 80-19.

I thought this turn summed up his dutifully aimless style nicely (starting with KC, Upgrade, Upgrade, Silver, Copper):

---------- Lord Bottington: turn 17 ----------
Lord Bottington - plays King's Court
Lord Bottington - plays Upgrade
Lord Bottington - draws Mining Village
Lord Bottington - trashes Mining Village
Lord Bottington - gains Duchy
Lord Bottington - plays Upgrade
Lord Bottington - draws Upgrade
Lord Bottington - trashes Silver
Lord Bottington - gains Mining Village
Lord Bottington - plays Upgrade
Lord Bottington - shuffles deck
Lord Bottington - draws Upgrade
Lord Bottington - trashes Upgrade
Lord Bottington - gains Gold
Lord Bottington - plays Upgrade
Lord Bottington - draws Silver
Lord Bottington - trashes Upgrade
Lord Bottington - gains Gold
Lord Bottington - plays 1 Copper, 1 Silver
Lord Bottington - buys Silver
Lord Bottington - gains Silver
Lord Bottington - draws Pawn, Silver, Masquerade, Mining Village, Thief

[ftl]

There's cute stuff to be had with Counting House/Pawn. I don't know how good it actually is, but for a colony game I'd try it. Dunno if it beats masq-BM for colonies.

[SirPeebles]

I would probably open Masq-Quarry and go for an Upgrade and King's Court strategy.  Upgrade -> Gold -> King's Court -> Province looks strong, particularly since you can play King's Court on the Upgrade.

[Avalanchian]

There's cute stuff to be had with Counting House/Pawn. I don't know how good it actually is, but for a colony game I'd try it. Dunno if it beats masq-BM for colonies.

Even after saying that, it took me a good while to work out why that particular combo might work. Use the pawns for non-terminal +buy to grab a ton of copper before using Counting house to bring it all back to your hand, right?

I would probably open Masq-Quarry and go for an Upgrade and King's Court strategy.  Upgrade -> Gold -> King's Court -> Province looks strong, particularly since you can play King's Court on the Upgrade.

I considered this at the time, but it all felt too slow and wasn't sure how useful upgrading to Provinces was in a Colony game (I'm still pretty new to the feel of Colony games).

Thank you both for the tips. I really need to get more creative when I see a kingdom and just accept that I'm going to lose a lot as I get a feel for this creativity >_<

[SirPeebles]

Oh, I hadn't noticed it was a Colony game.  It might still work?  You are unlikely to grab any Colonies though.

In general, in a Colony game you want to look for an engine.  Moreover with King's Court available, it seems even more likely that there should be an engine.  Masq is a great opening trasher, and King's Court fills the $7 gap that often stops Upgrade from gaining multiple Provinces per turn.

One possibility, if you get a sleek KC/Upgrade engine going, is to Upgrade past Province for Platinum and then buy Colonies.  Ordinarily I would think Upgrade is too slow for this, but with King's Court maybe not?

[SirPeebles]

Well, my strategy beat Lord Bottington, but then Lord Bottington didn't do much of anything.  He got 2 Provinces and 0 Colonies in 17 turns.

[Avalanchian]

Okay, I don't want to end up hijacking this thread with this kingdom - but this is insightful for me dammit! >_<

Well, my strategy beat Lord Bottington, but then Lord Bottington didn't do much of anything.  He got 2 Provinces and 0 Colonies in 17 turns.

Yeah that's what he had in my game after 21 turns. Looks like your KC+Upgrade strategy is faster (that or I played my BM badly, though I did feel I had excellent shuffle luck). I'll try it myself now to see if I have the technique to pull it off. Thanks for your help =)

[SirPeebles]

Okay, I don't want to end up hijacking this thread with this kingdom - but this is insightful for me dammit! >_<

Well, my strategy beat Lord Bottington, but then Lord Bottington didn't do much of anything.  He got 2 Provinces and 0 Colonies in 17 turns.

Yeah that's what he had in my game after 21 turns. Looks like your KC+Upgrade strategy is faster (that or I played my BM badly, though I did feel I had excellent shuffle luck). I'll try it myself now to see if I have the technique to pull it off. Thanks for your help =)

I tried a pure BM Masq strategy last night, and I got to 6 Colonies and 1 Province in 19 turns I believe.  I was slowed down a bit by some KCed Thieves who stole lots of Plats and Golds.

Also, I made this topic, and I'm all for whatever discussion comes from it.

[Avalanchian]

I tried a pure BM Masq strategy last night, and I got to 6 Colonies and 1 Province in 19 turns I believe.  I was slowed down a bit by some KCed Thieves who stole lots of Plats and Golds.

Also, I made this topic, and I'm all for whatever discussion comes from it.

The BM+Masq is weirdly fast here. I can't seem to hone the engine down as quickly as you either. I guess that's what experience does huh? I've tried several approaches, but all seem to take me longer than my first game which was simply Masq+BM (I don't think it helps that the bot seems to go Thief on me now when I start getting Platinum, which seems to slow me down =/). Clearly I'm missing a trick (or four).

Well I'm glad you're all for this conversation. It's kind of turned into "let's teach Ava to build an engine" though =P

[SirPeebles]

Well, for the big money I bought two Masquerades.   Are you getting two?  Trash Estates freely, but count your money before trashing Copper; if you're at $9 exactly, you're better off buying Platinum than trashing Copper.  I think in the game I played, I hit $11 pretty early, but opted to pick up my first Platinum rather than snag the early Colony, since that Platinum will help me get more Platinum more quickly.

Big Money is often worse in Colony games since all that starting Copper is so much less valuable than in a Province game, but Masq is one of the few strong BM enablers that things out your Copper.

[SirPeebles]

Speaking of building engines, if you haven't already read Geronimoo's Article I strongly recommend it.

[Avalanchian]

Yeah, I'm actually getting worse. That or I'm over-thinking this or I'm getting board fatigue now... I keep losing to KC+Thief trashing the Platinum out of my thin deck. Pretty embarrassing...

Speaking of building engines, if you haven't already read Geronimoo's Article I strongly recommend it.

Yeah, I spent pretty much a whole weekend with that article and that kingdom trying to make the engine work, playing against myself doing Smithy+BM to measure my technique. I managed to get it working reasonably consistently it in the end, but had to cut back on the recommended markets. I found spending that many $5's on markets really slowed getting my other engine pieces. I learned a lot but enough it seems >_>

Maybe I should give it another look....

[Avalanchian]

With no +buy, no trashing, no attack and Hoard/Bank/Embassy on the board, BM looked good. Lord Bottington scoffs at BM though, and constructed this hilarious work of art.

Turns out the bots also enjoy Scout jokes.

[DG]

I've played a game where despite no silver or gold being bought, two warlord bots bought all the noble brigands. Fortunately I had a chapel and was able to clean out my deck and continue with a highways, buying out a few provinces before the coppers ran out.

[Joseph2302]

Getting the feeling some bots like to overbuy cards: played a game where they bought 9 apothecaries (in a deck of c.20 cards), and then this one (http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20130214/log.505f2ab2f93b9113b758d65c.1360873560878.txt), where they apprenticed their deck to 5 cards and just kept it there!!! silly bots

[GendoIkari]

Heh, a bot just Pillaged my Scout.

This is a thread for bad bot strategies, not bad human strategies. Post about games where you bought a Scout elsewhere!

[heron]

Avalanchian: Since it's a bot and I don't have to worry about it being too good, I might try KC-KC-Thief-Thief-Masq just for fun.