Final | Bronze Match | Designer | Set * indicates Bane |
Game 1 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-102530-a4adbff2.html) | Game 1 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-101850-b0873d7b.html) | Powerman | Vineyard, Apothecary, Fishing Village, Menagerie, Envoy, Young Witch, Market, Goons, Hoard, Expand, Colony, *Wishing Well |
Game 2 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-105136-14542e0e.html) | Game 2 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-104108-39648436.html) | shark_bait | Fool’s Gold, Lookout, Shanty Town, Warehouse, Woodcutter, Remodel, Sea Hag, Apprentice, Bazaar, Hoard |
Game 3 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-112331-e752ed67.html) | Game 3 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-111152-ecfb9345.html) | Wingnut | Hamlet, Menagerie, Tunnel, Watchtower, Monument, Remake, Inn, Tactician, Adventurer, Bank |
Game 4 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-114040-504d5e6d.html) | Game 4 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-114215-81ab656a.html) | WanderingWinder | Courtyard, Oracle, Trade Route, Tournament, Golem, Bazaar, Mint, Rabble, Fairgrounds, King’s Court |
Game 5 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-121403-1dcf3a01.html) | Game 5 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-115722-5acd0061.html) | Beyond Awesome | Vineyard, Herbalist, Fishing Village, Philosopher’s Stone, Caravan, Young Witch, Horn of Plenty, Mandarin, Royal Seal, Trading Post, *Watchtower |
Game 6 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-122240-1107b9cd.html) | Game 6 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-123408-88113fe1.html) | Robz888 | Ambassador, Lookout, Wishing Well, Bishop, Ironworks, Monument, Trader, Venture, Expand, Peddler, Colony |
Game 7 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-125145-5507300e.html) | Game 7 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-124608-2b43871b.html) | jonts26 | Crossroads, Embargo, Trade Route, Tunnel, Village, Warehouse, Workshop, Silk Road, Spice Merchant, Apprentice |
Game 8 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-130802-57c6fc31.html) | Game 8 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-130212-681ce733.html) | ednever | Moat, Fortune Teller, Bridge, Moneylender, Smithy, Throne Room, Festival, Jester, Vault, Fairgrounds |
Game 9 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-133122-9a1fde36.html) | Game 9 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-132159-8400e30b.html) | RobertJ | Chapel, Embargo, Fool’s Gold, Oasis, Workshop, Thief, Throne Room, Worker’s Village, Margrave, Wharf |
Game 10 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-135549-70a0df7a.html) | Game 10 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-133847-859192d9.html) | Polk5440 | Haven, Fishing Village, Scheme, Steward, Horse Traders, Mountebank, Upgrade, Festival, Library, Goons |
Game 11 | Game 11 | Tables | Native Village, Talisman, Treasure Map, Worker’s Village, City, Vault, Venture, Grand Market, Expand, Peddler, Colony |
I think it offers a lot of different strategies. Vineyards is very strong (especially with early potion buys being able to be Apothecaries) but it is also quite easy to set up a Goons engine. With that said, a big money approach with FV-Envoy and maybe a hoard or two might be able to rush Colonies or Provinces and end it before the engine gets started, as the only trashing is Expand. Young With also allows for the engine player to slow down the BM player, but if an engine gets hit with a few early curses it might never take off.
This set highlights the transition from from an early game slogfest to a late game powerhouse. Sea Hag provides a way to hinder your opponent. But how to do so is the question, do you look to annihilate your opponent by playing as many as possible and then using TfB to transition? Do you ignore it completely and use the various counters like Lookout/Remodel to build a lead? Or do you play a hybrid strategy that looks to both attack your opponent and improve your deck at the same time. This kingdom should allow for a fast game despite the presence of one of the more brutal attacks.
"The Goal: Find a set where some form of BM is viable but where it's not automatic and where a skilled player is likely to find something different to do. IE something different that the different variations of all engine games we saw last year (though that was really fun).
Options I see (surely there are more):
Tunnel with Tactician/Inn
Tactician/Bank
Inn or Hamlet/Menagerie or Watchtower and possibly using multiple Monuments as extra payload
Whatever some high level player will do with Remake (I have no idea but this set felt like it needed a trasher in it"
There's the potential for 8 point fairgrounds here (would need 2 prizes and everything else on the board), and fairgrounds from an engine look to be super powerful, but on the other hand, tournament pulls you to provinces. Courtyard certainly allows for some possibility of a money deck, as well, as the villages, while excellent, are expensive. It also allows for early mints to happen. Trade route can clean up and gives buys. The game is likely to hinge on one player plowing ahead for ending the game on provinces with the other going for enormous fairgrounds, and the question being whether the latter can get there in time, probably needing an early province for prizes at any rate. There's also the possibility of KC-fueled money-floods, which may be strong, or maybe not.
Herbalist/Pstone is here, but we also have the Mandarin copper/silver/gold + Royal Seal +HoP combo. I am not sure it is faster than Herbalist PStone, but it is there for someone going for a engine. We have Fishing Village/ Watchtower/and Young Witch as great engine enablers. We also have Caravan and Herbalist for +Buy. There is also Vineyards so someone can go for an action/HoP engine and try winning the game by Vineyards as well.
This set, which I played IRL with 4 people, offers an engine without Villages or +buy. Ambassador is always key (thwarting a Venture-based or Golden Deck) but here it finds strange counters in Trader and Lookout. Meanwhile, Peddler makes a lovely target for Bishop or Expand, but you will have to do a lot of work with Ironworks and Wishing Well to get there.
"This is a power board with two distinct strategies. The idea is that both strategies are equally viable (as is a hybrid of the two if played right). Also, either strategy is still interesting and very tactical in a mirror match.
The more obvious strategy revolves around silk road with a lot of support. There are also a few different ways to play the silk road ranging from rush to slog. Use tunnel warehouse to get gold and buy province/duchy support? Thin copper with spice merchant and use crossroads/village/warehouse to draw big and cycle big? Many opportunities for tactical advantage to shine through.
The less obvious, but more powerful strategy revolves around apprentice/tunnel/warehouse to gain and apprentice golds for massive draw and spending power. The limiting factor for this plan is how quickly you can buy provinces. Since all +buy options require a card to be trashed and are terminal, likely you will settle for a few 2-3 province turns. Embargo exists to allow the Silk Road player to slow this down by clogging the apprentice deck, hopefully leading to dead turns, bringing the two to roughly equal power levels. In a mirror, end game dancing will be more interesting since both players would know exactly what the other is capable of. Additionally, there is room for one player to quickly, unexpectedly embargo provinces and transition into a Silk Road/workshop game. If done right, it could potentially be the strongest strategy of the board."
"The set doesn't look special from just looking at it, but a closer look reveals hat the dominant strategy might require using a combination of ALL ten cards.
The Fairgrounds gives you time to build an engine - and the bridge allows for a mega turn of sorts (especially with Throne Room). The only village is Festival, which is expensive and doesn't have any draw, so you need to use Smithies and double-thrones pretty extensively. Which then means you need Moneylender to clear out your copper. Fortune Teller slows the other guy down just a tad (and works better with Throne Room than Silver). Moat give you another draw options at a lower price point. And Jester lets you pick up the other guys engine components - since you need pretty much everything.
Since you will go across the board on card-types, Fairgrounds will be worth as much as Provinces - effectively doubling the length of the game.
There are a lot of nuances on which cards to buy in which order. All the piles will get driven down, but not 1-3 piles down to the point where the game will end on piles. So it's a long game that doesn't have a lot of attacks.
The end game will play out like a lot of end games - but it will happen a LOT later. And these wonderful engines both players built will get demolished when they go green (Which means that picking up a Vault becomes key too - the last of the ten cards you need to win here I think)
With trashing, draw and +buys Fool's Gold looks hard to ignore but is it better to chapel into it (risking thieves) or just rely on the good draw? Judicious embargoing may also make things interesting although workshop and chapel will get round this to some extent.
The simultaneous tension and synergy between Goons and Library drives this kingdom. Fishing Village, Festival, and Library is a potent engine. Goons is a constant threat (countered by Library and Horse Traders). Mountebank clogs, but Steward and Upgrade speed things along. Upgrade and Horse Traders provide easy access to $5s and $6s. Scheme and Haven are targets for extra Goons buys in addition to making all the pieces come together that much quicker. Three piling is a concern here.
This is based on a set I played face to face, although I've exchanging Jack for City, firstly because Jack isn't interesting here and City is, and secondly because it becomes a cool, difficult kingdom with only two sets used, which is kinda cute. There's lots of options for combos here, and lots of potential strategies involving more than one of them. It's gonna be some kind of engine for sure, but focusing on what, and building into what, are the key questions.
Game 10 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-135549-70a0df7a.html) Game 10 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130203-133847-859192d9.html) Polk5440 Haven, Fishing Village, Scheme, Steward, Horse Traders, Mountebank, Upgrade, Festival, Library, Goons
The simultaneous tension and synergy between Goons and Library drives this kingdom. Fishing Village, Festival, and Library is a potent engine. Goons is a constant threat (countered by Library and Horse Traders). Mountebank clogs, but Steward and Upgrade speed things along. Upgrade and Horse Traders provide easy access to $5s and $6s. Scheme and Haven are targets for extra Goons buys in addition to making all the pieces come together that much quicker. Three piling is a concern here.
I'm gonna vote for one not my own, because well, I feel weird voting for my own here, and I don't think it's particularly better than lots of the others. I would love to play some of these. Anyway, I will post my comments on all the sets in a bit, but for now I wanted to point out that I played (http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/12/game-20130112-101755-06b81d1c.html) almost the exact set 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsHKUnz4HJ4&list=PLECC131oboc7qGtbC1SNi0wb0vFzEW3Y3)
in the Division Semis of the tournament (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5688.msg174035#msg174035). This isn't at all mentioned in the description, and he did make 2 changes (wishing well, the previous bane, and throne room are out for royal seal and vineyard) which probably help the interest level of the set, but I figured this should be out there.
I like 5 too, except watchtower. What's the point ? Watchtower is too powerful as a bane and a little bit too strong with fishing village... I would have preferred something like Oracle, Shanty town, Oasis or great hall...
Set 4: My set. Sadly, I wouldn't count this as one of the better of my submissions, but oh well. Probably, in hindsight, it would be better if the Rabble where something else - smithy maybe, I would have done Catacombs if DA were available, venture seems good to me now, as this would make big money a more intriguing possibility. I do really like the potential for 8 point fairgrounds here, and for as much as Mic Q complained about the set being a 'I won followers quick, it was game over, boring', I think that's a real mis-analysis. I mean, okay, he got a luck bomb, but well, for one thing I don't think the game was actually even over then. Bu more important, if you don't get such a clear luck bomb, I'm fairly sure you want to build the engine up a good bit before you actually go for greening, though when to do that is the big question. And I think followers is really only the third best prize here, largely because with the big engine, it's not SUCH a big deal, and princess and Trusty Steed (in that order) both help you build up so much more.
As for set 7, I think this set is still being misread a little. The power comes from the spice merchant/warehouse/tunnel combination and the apprentice is simply a good finisher for that. The workshop is peripheral and probably not needed. I haven't voted for that one just because I knew about it already ;).
I can assure you, the power of the engine relies on apprentice/warehouse/tunnel with the spice merchant being ancillary. Taking out apprentice makes provinces completely non-viable.
QuoteI can assure you, the power of the engine relies on apprentice/warehouse/tunnel with the spice merchant being ancillary. Taking out apprentice makes provinces completely non-viable.
Any decent finisher will do. Wharves were the best I found in the simulator when I looked it after hinterlands was released ...
Congrats jonts26!
Edit: lol. I just checked the votes. Wow! Just one away. I think that is fitting though. It reminds me of those games where you always win or lose by exactly one point. I guess you held onto that extra estate jonts. Well done with the KCD.