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[ThaddeusB]

Here is an interesting Kingdom I played recently:

Code: [Select]

Squire, Vagrant, Forager, Hermit, Gardens, Thief, Butcher, Graverobber, Witch, Altar



No one replied to my previous game report, so I'm not really sure if people liked it or thought it was too long or what.  I'm going to try something a bit different this time - I will comment less & use chess-style annotations.  For those unfamiliar with chess, the symbols are below.  Player skill is taken into account, so a good opener (for example) is uncommented b/c it is an expected move.

?? - Blunder, possibly leading to direct loss
? - Mistake
?! - Dubious move; probably bad, but leads to interesting/difficult decisions
!? - Interesting move; probably good, but unclear/difficult to execute
! - Good move
!! - Excellent move, possibly the game winner


Pregame thoughts: I was pretty unclear what to do beyond getting a Witch ASAP.  I decided on getting a Hermit to cleanup anticipated curses and build up some money, a couple forgers to get rid of Copper, and maybe a bunch of Graverobbers for trash and replace Provinces.  There is a nice Squire-Hermit (or Curse)-Garden rush, which I did not see but my opponent went for.

Player 1: kassy (iso 32)
Player 2: ThaddeusB (iso 29)
Log: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140825/log.53be12a0e4b00ccce8075fbc.1409019186815.txt

	kassy	ThaddeusB	Comments
Turn 1	buys Hermit	buys Hermit
Turn 2	buys Squire	buys Silver
Turn 3	plays Hermit	buys Squire !	I bought this squire specifically to trash with my Hermit for a Witch next hand.
	gains Squire		Although I don't realize it yet, kassy is setting up a Gardens strategy nicely.
	buys Squire !
Turn 4	buys Silver	buys Altar !?	I got a surprise 6 here and decided I could wait on Witch.  I'm not sure about the wisdom of this choice, but it worked out.
Turn 5	plays Squire	plays Hermit	My Hermit misses the shuffle, a bad break delaying my ability to get a Witch.
	plays Squire	trashes_Overgrown_Estate
	gains Silver	gains Forager
	buys Witch	buys Silver
Turn 6	plays Hermit	buys Forager	kassy executes the Squire->Witch trick nicely
	trashes Squire
	gains Witch
	gains Squire
	buys Squire
Turn 7	plays Squire	plays Squire	It is right around here when I realized kassy was going for a Gardens rush.  Figuring I'd contest the pile, I got a Butcher to try trash and replace on the Gardens.  In retrospect the move seems highly questionable.
	buys Squire	plays Forager
	buys Squire	trashes Squire
		gains Witch
		plays Altar
		trashes Hovel
		gains Butcher ?!
Turn 8	plays Necropolis	plays Forager	Taking a Butcher was questionable for me, but downright bad kassy.  He shouldn't be wasting a buy on it given he is going for a rush.
	plays Witch	trashes Copper
	plays Squire	plays Hermit
	plays Hermit	trashes Curse
	gains Squire	gains Squire
	buys Butcher ?	buys Vagrant
		buys Vagrant
Turn 9	plays Squire	buys Gold	I am behind and I figure the best I can do is try to pick up enough Provinces quickly to outlast the rush, so a Gold is a nice hit.
	plays Squire
	plays Squire
	buys Vagrant
	buys Vagrant
	gains Vagrant
	gains Vagrant
	gains Vagrant
Turn 10	plays Squire	plays Vagrant	The greening rush begins with a nice 2-in-1 hit for me.
	plays Witch	plays Forager
	buys Gardens	trashes Copper
		plays Altar
		trashes Necropolis
		gains Gardens
		buys Gardens
Turn 11	plays Squire	plays Vagrant
	buys Gardens	plays Forager
	buys Copper	trashes Copper
	buys Copper	plays Hermit
		trashes Curse
		gains Vagrant
		buys Silver
Turn 12	plays Squire	plays Squire	I could have taken two Gardens here, but elect for the Province.  I don't mind losing the Garden split - I just can't afford to lose it 8-0.
	plays Squire	plays Witch
	plays Butcher	plays Butcher
	buys Gardens	uses 1 coin token
	buys Copper	buys Province
	buys Copper
Turn 13	plays Vagrant	plays Vagrant	I trade a Silver and all of my coin tokens for the last two Gardens, so we split 4-4.  Its an interesting choice - perhaps keeping my stuff and accepting a 5-3 split was better, but this did make things hard on kassy because he'll need his Gardens to be worthy a lot more than mine to win (he outnumbers me 36-222 cards already).
	plays Vagrant	plays Forager
	plays Squire	trashes Copper
	plays Witch	plays Squire
	plays Hermit	plays Butcher
	trashes Curse	trashes Silver
	gains Vagrant	uses 1 coin token
	buys Gardens	gains Gardens
		uses 2 coin tokens !?
		buys Gardens
Turn 14	plays Squire	plays Vagrant	Kassy forces the issue by taking two Vagrants instead of, for example, two Estates.  I respond with the Duchy and now we are both looking to force the three pile ending.
	plays Necropolis	plays Witch
	plays Squire	buys Duchy !
	buys Vagrant !
	buys Vagrant !
	buys Copper
Turn 15	plays Squire	plays Vagrant	His Gardens upgrade and I have no choice but to take all the green I can or else he can three-pile me.
	plays Vagrant	plays Forager
	plays Witch	trashes Silver
	uses_2_coin_tokens	plays Altar
	buys Duchy	trashes Copper
		gains Duchy
		buys Estate
Turn 16	plays Squire	plays Butcher
	buys Estate	trashes Forager !
	buys Estate	uses 2 coin tokens
	buys Copper	gains Duchy
		buys Estate
Turn_17	plays Vagrant	plays Vagrant	In the end it is I who force the three-pile with a little help from a curse to take the lead first.  Just in time too - he was a maximum of 2 turns from leveling up the Gardens.
	plays Vagrant	plays Squire
	plays Necropolis	plays Witch
	plays Squire	plays Hermit
	buys Duchy	trashes Curse
	buys Copper	gains Vagrant
	buys Copper	buys Vagrant

Analysis: My pre-game plan was not a good one, but I adapted well and managed to pull out the win.  The Altar was very helpfully in my ability to hold off the 3 pile ending (by gaining Duchies).  Still, I have to think I mostly got lucky. kassy certainly had the better game plan; perhaps that strange Butcher buy cost him the win.  (He got some use of it, but an extra Gardens would have almost certainly been better.)

Other thoughts?

[DG]

The witch isn't strong here. Hermits will clean up the deck quite easily and set up a silver rich deck with squires for for gardens and duchy points. If you're going for a province scoring deck then you probably still need to be able to contest gardens so butcher and altar might be ideal for that.

Is there an interesting concept deck here, trashing down with hermit and forager then using graverobber with 5 cost cards? Looks too fancy really even if you could keep using hermits and madmen for draws. I'm guessing an uncontested gardens deck will just beat that with 5 point gardens.

[ThaddeusB]

The witch isn't strong here. Hermits will clean up the deck quite easily and set up a silver rich deck with squires for for gardens and duchy points. If you're going for a province scoring deck then you probably still need to be able to contest gardens so butcher and altar might be ideal for that.

Is there an interesting concept deck here, trashing down with hermit and forager then using graverobber with 5 cost cards? Looks too fancy really even if you could keep using hermits and madmen for draws. I'm guessing an uncontested gardens deck will just beat that with 5 point gardens.

If I'm going to have to contest gardens,then alter if definitely a strong card. I just don't want to give myself too much credit for the buy since I had missed gardens at the time. I picked it up to try to spam Graverobber, which never happened.  Butcher I'm less sure of - it can help pick up a garden,site,but only at the cost of a card I probably want to keep (eg silver). Maybe it can upgrade a garden, but to gold is probably to slow and to Duchy isn't much help.

Witch isn't a power card on this board,certainly, but it is the only draw (except madman),so is still fairly useful. I probably should have looked for chances to convert hermit to madman though if I'm going for 8 coin hands