Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: ednever on October 19, 2012, 12:30:34 pm
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This board had nothing... But we both tried (different) weird strategies instead of just going Big Money.
With some ridiculous results...
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201210/19/game-20121019-092422-afc8de10.html
Duchies and Estates both get emptied with 3 provinces still left. I don't think I have enough economy to ever get another province, so I start trying to end the game on piles (buying Pearl Divers when there are still 8 left) before MM can buy the two provinces (out of three) he needs to win. There are still 3 PDs left when he gets his second province.
So I have to change tracks and try to find a way to get to that last province. I buy an Inn and put some Barons and Inns (and 7 Pearl Divers) back into my deck.
Then I get lucky.
(ednever draws: 2 Barons, a Pearl Diver, a Gold, and an Inn.)
— ednever's turn 30 —
ednever plays a Pearl Diver.
... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
... and moving the bottom card of the deck to the top. (it was a copper)
ednever plays an Inn.
... drawing 2 cards and getting +2 actions.
... discarding 2 cards. (discard Curse+Baron)
ednever plays a Baron.
... getting +1 buy.
... discarding an Estate.
... getting +$4.
ednever plays a Gold and a Copper.
ednever buys a Province.
(ednever draws: an Estate, an Inn, a Pearl Diver, and 2 Coppers.)
All Provinces are gone.
Note the turn count: Turn 30!
Pretty sure some Gold and Silver would have beat that...
Ed
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i love that feeling, around turn 20 or so, that, oh, this festival/moat/get-all-the-provinces-with-the-horns-of-plenty plan should definitely have been big money militia, oh well, he's going counting-house/p-stone, maybe this still beats that.
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Was he trying his best or was this fun for the sake of it? If I was your opponent and I saw you totally ignored Ambassador in your opening, I would definitely get a second Ambassador. The second Ambassador is the key difference between fueling something like Apothecary, Baron, or Silk Road or whatever hipster way of using junk coming in, versus destroying that strategy because the curses come later.
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I do not think that a second Ambassador is the right play at all; there is nothing in this kingdom to increase your handsize (except a terminal Steward). If you dedicate your efforts solely to passing over Curses, you are going to drag down your buying power so much.
Opponent should have opened with Baron instead of Potion, I think - that's a quicker way to get to Gold, is more flexible at picking up other cards in multiples, and doesn't become useless later on.
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I do not think that a second Ambassador is the right play at all; there is nothing in this kingdom to increase your handsize (except a terminal Steward).
And Scout. :P
But yeah. I agree. If you have no real prospects of getting a full-draw kind of deck, there's no reason to get more than one Ambassador.
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Maybe that's the other lesson here:
Ambassador is a pretty fantastic card, but sometimes, when there is no engine potential at all you should ignore it.
My (bad) plan at the beginning was to take the estates he sent with ambassador and get use out of my barons. It did help me get pretty far ahead - by picking up his estates alone I'm up 6-0. Then grab the 8 estates and I'm up 14-0. I can split duchies and lose provinces 3-5 and still come out ahead.
But any plan that involves pile driving estates may not be the best one...
Ed
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maybe if crossroads or silk road were out. Or Scout. ;)
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Scout was out! And I bought it! And I liked it!
I don't care who knows!
Ed
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Potion bought just for Transmute? I'm not sure I would have done this.
And when Inn is the only "village" you need good card drawing to stop the deck stalling from lack of hand.
I think my choice here would have been either Baron/Warehouse to try and get early gold, or Ambassador/Silver for the long slog to BM with mild pseudotrashing/attacking.