Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Game Reports => Help! => Topic started by: Eevee on December 22, 2012, 01:44:20 am
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http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/21/game-20121221-224232-4619e2e6.html (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/21/game-20121221-224232-4619e2e6.html)
I thought masq-bm would be best on this board with no +buys. Well, apparently it wasnt. Am I underestimating pirate ship? Or did I just paint myself in that corner with some bad moves?
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With the looming threat of Pirate Ship, Steward starts to look a lot better to me than Masquerade, since you can trash your starting cards faster early, and play it for coin later (since there are plenty of Villages). There are a lot of engines that deal best with Pirate Ship by just ignoring it (I played Hunting Party + Horse Traders earlier today and found that Pirate Ship really can't compete, unless it gets a lucky hit on your Gold or can be played an awful lot of times), but I think most BM+Xs really struggle - keep in mind that whenever the Pirate Ship fails its attack, it's very likely to cycle your X without you playing it. Engines are more resilient because there are more Xs around (which also helps protect your high-value Treasures).
Also I'd really really strongly consider going Duchy/Duke here. Getting to 5 is not so hard. He has trouble getting the Pirate Ships really fired up if you trash aggressively with Steward, while you still have terminal Silvers and maybe a couple actual Silver or Gold shielded by green.
Basically, I vote to open Ironworks/Steward, using the Ironworks to pick up a bunch of Villages (well, probably Silver sometimes too) and later some more Stewards for money and/or draw, with a Duchy/Duke plan. Now Pirate Ships are dead in the water (ahem) and you have a plan that would make sense anyway. (You want to build a surplus of Villages with Ironworks IMO because that *also* gives some shielding against Masq.)
Of course, he didn't tip his hand WRT the Pirate Ship strategy until turn 2, but...
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I don't think it's a clear win for masquerade+treasure here at all. The masquerades create a treasure rich deck for the pirate to plunder and a mini-engine to cycle the pirates. The pirate can also switch into duchy/duke at +3/+4 coins.
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he hit your silver on the first shuffle, which is probably gg if he doesn't make any serious mistakes afterwards. pirate ship is a really swingy opening in this way - on the second shuffle, it has a 2/12 chance of winning you the game, a small chance of being very bad for you, and a slightly less than 10/12 chance of significantly helping the opponent.