Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: Ozle on February 26, 2012, 12:37:17 pm

Title: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Ozle on February 26, 2012, 12:37:17 pm

....are they always that slow? Took about 45 minutes in all!

Made the mistake of thinking that with Throne room i'd get 2x bonus victory points, and the cartographers on board seemed to slow the game right down.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Thisisnotasmile on February 26, 2012, 12:41:46 pm
Yes. Goons games are long because there's little incentive to buy Provinces and.. you know... end the game.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Asklepios on February 26, 2012, 01:33:30 pm
Generally, I try to play Goons games with an endpoint in sight, that endpoint being three piling. They do tend to run a bit longer than province games, but generally if you're playing a decent opponent they'll always be keeping an eye on being able to end the game while they're ahead on points rather than just playing for as many points as possible.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Ozle on February 26, 2012, 02:02:23 pm
Yeah, thats how I ended it in the end, but I cant help thinking if I had just gone for provinces then it would have ended quicker and I'd have still won.

Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Beyond Awesome on February 26, 2012, 02:48:24 pm
Yeah, thats how I ended it in the end, but I cant help thinking if I had just gone for provinces then it would have ended quicker and I'd have still won.

The thing is though that if the Goons were chained with some sort of village or you had multiple plus buy from Worker's Village or something, then someone could easily be making 6+ points each turn. So much for buying provinces.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: popsofctown on February 26, 2012, 03:11:48 pm
If the point tracker is off, Goons games last waay longer because neither player knows whether they can buy non VP cards like the last few Native Villages or whatnot, and end the game in an immediate win, so the safe option becomes to buy Duchy copper copper copper or Province copper, copper, copper, and then redraw that terrible deck and things slow down.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: ftl on February 26, 2012, 03:32:56 pm
Even with the point tracker off, you can see how many vp chips other people have, I think.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Piemaster on February 27, 2012, 02:45:36 am
Can somebody explain to me slowly, as if I were an idiot (which I guess I am) why Throne Rooming Goons doesn't give you double VP chips.  I can understand it if the game never gave benefits for cards that weren't technically 'on the table' but that's not the case as if you TR a Wharf or Caravan or something you still get double the bonus at the start of the following turn.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: petrie911 on February 27, 2012, 02:49:25 am
Goons says "when this card is in play, gain a VP chip when you buy a card."  Throning the Goons doesn't put more than one Goons card in play; it just plays it twice.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Kirian on February 27, 2012, 03:03:59 am
Goons says "when this card is in play, gain a VP chip when you buy a card."  Throning the Goons doesn't put more than one Goons card in play; it just plays it twice.

Also, this was an obvious design balance issue, especially since Goons and KC came with the same expansion.  Consider this game (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120218-180449-34c9a3c7.html) in which WW gets 8 KC-Goons plays.  That's 24 points per buy without the "in play" specification.  Such a game could rapidly become ridiculous (WW would have earned 624 points in that last turn).
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Asklepios on February 27, 2012, 03:57:17 am
Even with the point tracker off, you can see how many vp chips other people have, I think.

Yeah, on isotropic you just click on the info button and it tells you
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: DStu on February 27, 2012, 04:13:30 am
Goons says "when this card is in play, gain a VP chip when you buy a card."  Throning the Goons doesn't put more than one Goons card in play; it just plays it twice.

Also, this was an obvious design balance issue, especially since Goons and KC came with the same expansion.  Consider this game (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120218-180449-34c9a3c7.html) in which WW gets 8 KC-Goons plays.  That's 24 points per buy without the "in play" specification.  Such a game could rapidly become ridiculous (WW would have earned 624 points in that last turn).

... and we really don't want to live in a world where Goons-games can get ridiculous ...
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Piemaster on February 28, 2012, 12:27:56 am
Oh yeah I can understand why Goons was made that way, I just couldn't understand what is was about the wording on the card that made it thusly.  Thanks for the explanation.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: jotheonah on February 28, 2012, 05:25:02 pm
Pretty much any time you see the wording "while this is in play" it's code for "KC and Throne Room don't work on this."  See also: Highway and Princess vs. Bridge.
Title: Re: Just played my first game with Goons.....
Post by: Tahtweasel on March 01, 2012, 05:29:01 pm
Pretty much any time you see the wording "while this is in play" it's code for "KC and Throne Room don't work on this."  See also: Highway and Princess vs. Bridge.
Also, Haggler.