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2051

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: April 17, 2012, 03:31:41 am »

Better than turn 5.

Why?

Not challenging, just trying to learn.

If I had to take a stab, I would say that on T5, the collided cards stay in your discard for longer as the deck was reshuffled to deal out the entirety of the hand that turn.  Is that correct?  Or is there something else here?

That's pretty much it.

Cards you draw on T5 "miss the reshuffle", because you have to shuffle to draw your hand of 5. Generally, you get to play a card you bought once per deck cycle (ignoring weird cases like Scheme). If it misses the reshuffle, you get to play it once in both deck cycles.

Bah someone else can probably explain this better. There's a Deck Control article somewhere out there that goes into more depth.

EDIT: Ninja'd whyyyyyy.
Idk if turn 3 collision is any worse than turn 4 collision though. Later on early collision is probably worse, but turn 3 vs turn 4 collisions probably don't matter?

2052

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: April 17, 2012, 03:06:49 am »

Better than turn 5.

Which is the 2nd level of the joke  .

2053

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: April 17, 2012, 02:51:40 am »

2054

Game Reports / Re: The Most Nailbiting Embargo Game Possible!

« on: April 15, 2012, 12:34:56 am »

Man, I am just horrible at Embargo. Or I overestimate how much the Curses hurt. But I also buy it a lot, because I like the card too much.

Embargo experiences I remember include:

The general "Embargo Province to buy time for my deck to catch up".
Getting horribly locked out of the game by a Governor deck that Embargoed Governors 2 or 3 times (don't remember which) and Province 6 (!) times, using Governor Remodels to cruise to an easy victory.
Isodom game where I tried doing Treasure Map/Embargo Gold with no other TM enablers (which was horrible)
General Potion blocking (one IRL game where I tried to Embargo Familiar before anyone could buy it, one game where I Embargoed Vineyad)
An engine game where I got a heavy lead by Embargoing Village, then repeatedly Embargoed Village and bought 2 to empty the Curses out for the 3-pile.
Blocking Duchy/Estate in response to early Hoards (the one game where I felt I actually played Embargo well)

It's just so amazingly game-warping, if someone decides to warp it.

2055

GokoDom / Re: Kirian's Bracket, Week 3 -- Vacation Edition

« on: April 06, 2012, 03:17:34 am »

My thoughts:
At one point, I considered myself to be a better BM player than engine player. Now I know for sure it's the other way around.

Game 1: Ambassador isn't useful to getting $5 on turn 3/4. There's no good engine possibilities. I get Tactician later. I lose. However, the Smugglers I buy keeps me in the game for a bit. Getting to Smuggle a Tactician turn is just amazingly useful.

In the last few turns I have Tact+Gold+3 Silvers in hand. I break PPR because that's a lot of my deck's money in hand, and discarding all of it to Tact seems like a bit of a waste. This ends badly. If I played Tact, my hand would be Smug + $9, with antony having just played Tact. So I'd be forced to buy Duchy+Estate and I would still have probably lost. Conclusion: I think breaking PPR was right, but I lost anyways.

Game 2: Lookout is horrible in BM. Also no good engines. I realize this partway through and decide that trashing Estates with Lookout won't be worth it. I actually barely play Lookout the entire game, which I feel is a mistake: sure it's bad, but trashing some Coppers is better than pretending to have 1 dead card the whole game.

(Just a side note: I think I started getting too annoyed at myself here. In BM, 1 mistake puts you in a bad spot. But it's not that bad. I started equating <50% chance of winning = instant loss, which is very much not true. Probability fallacies ftl.)

Also, Cartographer actually helped me out a ton: I cycled through my deck faster, and there was a turn where I discarded 4 victory cards. In the end it doesn't help as much, you want to cycle as little as possible. Net positive though.

Game 3: Eh, essentially Smithy-BM mirror match. I don't pick up other actions, feel that the collisions are too deadly. My feeling is that in BM games without +Buy, picking up a tiebreak (even if it's Estate) is actually pretty huge. Depending on when you buy it, it won't hurt you that much, and it's 1 more turn the opponent has to spend. Think in terms of turns, not points.

Game 4: Yeah idk, is Golem good here? I just tried doing Ghost Ship-Cutpurse BM...

Game 5: Governor first turn advantage FTW. This game was odd in that Governor-Remodeling gave your opponent a lot of good chances for Duchy (Salvager, Governor into BV), so it was in your favor to do as little of that as possible, relying on Salvager to do most of the dirty work.

Game 6: I really shouldn't have tried rushing Duchies/Estates. Such a bad idea, when your deck is filled with junk and your plan is to add more junk. I would have been at a disadvantage, true, but as shown, 1 Province and I lose.

Game 7: Vineyard was (I feel) a bad call. HT +buy is far too awkward. I can't play Bishop too much, as it cuts down my handsize too much and I run out of targets fast. But I manage to stay in long enough for a tie.

And I think the right decision (at all points) was trash Province. Aggressive trashing of VP should win. Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows?

2056

Dominion General Discussion / Project: Three-Sentence Overviews of Every Card

« on: April 03, 2012, 09:41:12 pm »

So, I reread the Three-Sentence Overview for Hinterlands (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=947.msg14427), and thought it would be nice to have an overview for every card that could be used as an introduction to the deeper strategies involved.

However, I'm not insane enough to type one up for every card, so why not let other people do it?

The rules are simple. Name a card, copy-paste it's card effect, and post a 3-sentence overview of it. I'll try to edit them in as they come. Although you are free to do a card that has already been done, try not to. I want every card to have an overview first.

EDIT: Oh god that was a lot of replies fast. Alright, time to start organizing.

---BASE---

Chapel
$2 Action
Trash up to 4 cards from your hand.

Very strong, but you need to pick it up turn 1 or 2 for the best effect. Trash as much as you can early on, then slow down. Not as useful if your deck is mostly money.

Cellar    
$2 Action   
+1 Action
Discard any number of cards.
+1 Card per card discarded.
A mediocre sifter, but hey, what are you expecting at $2. It becomes more powerful when you can increase your handsize (e.g. laboratory, tactician, +cards/+actions engines), but conversely is weakened in the face of handsize reduction attacks. Like all sifters it becomes less useful if you can directly trash the junk in your deck.

Moat    
$2 Action – Reaction    
+2 Cards
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack.
Consider the damage you do to your own deck by buying this card before you get it to stop attacks -- +2 cards is a very weak effect to waste a terminal action on. You probably want to bother with this only against the most powerful of attacks. However, this card becomes better in a multiplayer game, as more attacks will hit you between your turns and one Moat can stop them all.

Chancellor
Action - $3
+$2
You may immediately put your deck in your discard pile

Not quite as useless as most beginners suppose, but its cycling power is too weak and unreliable to be worth a buy most of the time.  Chancellor/Stash, however, is an elite combo in Province games without hand reduction.  Does not trigger Tunnels, but can lead to very impressive Inn purchases, and is frequently used in "perfect shuffle luck" solitaire puzzles.

Gardens
Victory - $4
Worth 1 VP for every 10 cards in your deck (rounded down).

A powerful alternative to Provinces. However, make sure the board is right. Only buy it if you have a very good enabler to quickly end the game.

Witch
Action - $5
+2 Cards
Each other player gains a Curse.

The best 5 coin card.
Kills your opponent's deck hard.
Curses are the best.

Adventurer
Action - $6
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Treasure cards. Put those Treasure cards in your hand and discard the other revealed cards.


Best when you have a good reason to trash a lot of your coppers. Can help a deck clogged with green or curses, and sometimes good against discard attacks. Often a trap, because you have to pass up a potential gold to get one.

---INTRIGUE---

Masquerade
Action - $3
+2 Cards
Each player passes a card in their hand to the player on their left. You may trash a card from your hand.

A strong Big Money card and unstoppable attack of sorts. One of the few ways to beat Curse-giving Attacks. Play a Militia, Goons, or Margrave before this, if you can.

Baron
Action - $4
+1 Buy
You may discard an Estate card. If you do, +$4. Otherwise, gain an Estate card.

Helps to get an early Gold or Fiver.
If you don't draw it with an Estate, you're very unlucky.
The +Buy is also nice.

Duke
Victory - $5
Worth 1 Victory Point per Duchy you have.

Deceptively strong in most Province games. Buy Duchies at every opportunity while gaining Coppers if you can. Swindler, Thief, and Saboteur hurt more than usual.

Minion
Action--Attack - $5

+1 Action
Choose one: +$2; or discard your hand, +4 Cards; and each other player with at least 5 cards in hand discards his hand and draws 4 cards.

Works best with more copies of itself, and other non-terminals that provide virtual coin. Semi-resistant to cursing but hurt by excess Coppers and Silvers. Ignore at your own peril.

---SEASIDE---

Embargo
+$2
Trash this card. Put an Embargo token on top of a Supply pile.
When a player buys a card, he gains a Curse card per Embargo token on that pile.

A nice combination of early-game control and one-shot virtual money to get to a Gold or $5 card quickly.  Buy this when you're nearly positive about what your opponent is going for and block stacks accordingly, even a common buy such as Silver.  Although taking a single Curse is less of a big deal than hyped up to be, players will hesitate, giving you some control of the game's flow.

---ALCHEMY---

Transmute
Action - $P
Trash a card from your hand.
If it is an...
Action card, gain a Duchy.
Treasure card, gain a Transmute.
Victory card, gain a Gold.

Turning Estates into Gold looks awesome, but the awkward Potion cost make this one of the worst trashers.  You can't get it early,  you're likely wasting the rest of your cash to get this, and turning Coppers into Transmutes is almost always horrible.  However, it is useful as a consolation prize in slow Familiar games, where even just clearing Curses and grabbing Duchies makes a difference, and is very occasionally worth a buy in other curse or Alchemy-heavy sets.

---PROSPERITY---

Goons   
Action – Attack   $6   
+1 Buy; +$2
Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, +1 VP token.

If you can, buy it. If you can, play it. Spend your time thinking about other cards.

Bank
Treasure - $7
When you play this, it's worth $1 per Treasure card you have in play (counting this).

Takes the right setup to be helpful. In a normal $5-card hand, it's not usually worth more than Gold, and sometimes worth less. In a large hand, it can be worth a ton, but that's usually only really useful if you have +buy to take advantage of it.

Forge
Action - $7
Trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain a card with cost exactly equal to the total cost in coins of the trashed cards.

Relatively weak as a mass trasher because of its high price, and relatively weak as a Remodel variant because of its inflexibility. It can be very powerful, though, in games with large handsize so you can pick and choose what to trash to get the target value you need. Keep in mind ways to achieve your target value: if you want to Forge $8 for Provinces, it helps to plan in advance by having a lot of $4 cards, or a lot of $5s and $3s.

King’s Court
Action - $7
You may choose an Action card in your hand. Play it three times.

Is it considered rude to buy this card?  I have no problem with other players resigning when I buy a few of these.  This is in spite of saying things like "Good lord, I can't believe I got one on turn 3!"

---CORNUCOPIA---

Remake
Action - $4
Do this twice: Trash a card from your hand, then gain a card costing exactly 1 treasure more than the trashed card.

An elite early trasher, since it trims as fast as Steward but also gives you valuable $3 cards (Silver at the very least) for your Estates.  If there are useful engine parts at $3, Fishing Village or Menagerie for instance, it will build your deck even faster than Chapel.  Like most trashers, less useful in BM games and in the late game, but moves like $4 Action --> Duchy can be life-saving.

Hunting Party
Action - $5
+1 Card; +1 Action.
Reveal your hand. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a card that isn’t a duplicate of one in your hand. Put it into your hand and discard the rest.

Despite coming from the variety themed expansion, does better with less variety. Best strategy is to amass Hunting Parties with silver, a single Gold and one other source of +$2 or more. Hold off on Duchies an extra turn or two.

---HINTERLANDS---

See link.

---PROMO---

---BASE CARDS---

Technically it's coming out soon, so I'll leave these in.

Gold
Treasure - $6
Worth $3

Very good at giving you enough coin to by provinces. You need two of these plus either a silver or two copper. Even when building an engine, don't forget to get Gold.

Province
Victory - $8
6 Victory Points

Victory points are how you win the game.  Second sentence.  Third sentence.

2057

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Anime Dominon; huhwhat!?

« on: April 03, 2012, 09:23:57 pm »

Yeah, most of the cards don't correspond to characters.

Although of course Yukari represents Chapel. Always have to be OP, don't you?

2058

GokoDom / Re: Kirian's Bracket, Week 2

« on: April 03, 2012, 12:08:20 am »

Titandrake (4 points) loses to shark_bait (10 points) 2-5

Titandrake 30 - shark_bait 25
Titandrake 29 - shark_bait 47
Titandrake 23 - shark_bait 38
Titandrake 28 - shark_bait 35
Titandrake 25 - shark_bait 34
Titandrake 13 - shark_bait 9
Titandrake 49 - shark_bait 53

Game 1: Jack-BM, except I get better Tournament luck.

Game 2: I plan for Apprentice-Hoard-Woodcutter, but feel I have to block Fool's Gold. Partway through I realize that Hoard gaining extra Golds makes Fool's Gold collisions less likely, so I try to transition but it's far too awkward. shark_bait buys Duchies very early, I'm forced to respond by buying some of my own (or am I? I was down on Provinces.), and then I can't buy Estates because of the threat of a FG/Duchy/Estate 3-pile. Without ways to gain Gold off Hoard I fizzle, and shark_bait gets the 3-pile.

Game 3: I try some janky Treasure Map/Embargo-Gold strategy with little trashing. I don't see any other strategy besides Cache-Duke, which dies to Embargo, so I decide to try something silly. Maps don't collide until turn 14, and Cache-BM with some Stewards wins. Embargo also bites me back when Treasure Map gets Embargoed. Should have picked up Ironworks to gain more maps, but Cache makes the Embargo-Gold not terribly useful anyways.

Game 4: I plan on Masq-BM, and pick up a 2nd Masq to respond to Mountebank. I get worried, so I pick up a Mountebank as well, and promptly have horrible horrible collisions. Straightforward Jack-Mount-BM wins, although I'm interested whether 2 Masq-BM should beat it.

Game 5: Goons game. I make some questionable Swindler decisions (Quarry vs Baron). I pick up Torturers, but with Shanty Town as the only +Action this might not have been the right call. I lose early Goons to Swindler and lose 2 more on later turns, and after a double-Goons turn from shark_bait I can't catch up enough.

Game 6: Labs, Hamlets, Bridges, Courtyards, Ironworks...A very silly Bridge game. Not that Bridge, the Dominion one. Anyway, shark_bait gets 5/2, which I feel is worse than the 4/3. I trash my deck with Steward, pick up some engine components with Ironworks (gaining Labs after playing a Bridge is nice), and after a good turn get a very early 3-pile for the win.

Game 7: I start off deciding to play Courtyard-BM, planning to outrace Dukes. After a few turns I realize that with Hoard, Duke is going to be much faster, so I transition into Dukes. My deck is not quite as well set-up for Dukes (no Bureaucrat, only 1 Hoard), so I lose. Interested in whether Courtyard-BM beats Bureaucrat-Duke, and whether Bureaucrat/Courtyard beats Bureaucrat/Silver for Duke games.

It was an interesting set (well, besides game 1), and it was nice playing with you

2059

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: One-Shot Deck

« on: April 02, 2012, 09:16:42 pm »

1. $5 -> Mandarin
2. $4 -> Trader
3. $2 -> Courtyard (reshuffle, deck is TMCouCopEEE)
4. Trader trashes Mandarn, buy nothing
5. Courtyard draws $11 + Estate, put back Estate and buy Colony.


Also for kicks a solution without Mandarin


1. $4 -> Trader
2. $2 -> Hamlet (deck is THCEEE)
3. Hamlet discards for +Buy, gain 2 Silvers (deck is TSSCEEE)
4. Buy Cache gain 2 Silver (EE     TCaSS)
5. Trader trashes E, buy nothing
6. CaSSSS buys Colony

2060

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Gray's design Challenge

« on: April 01, 2012, 02:23:10 am »

Out curiosity, I tried playing Apprentice Bloom-BM. Standard BM rules, buy Bloom on $4 and $5 if it's still in the pile. Does about 14 turns. Odds are it's slower if someone else also picks them up, I haven't tried that yet. The pile runs out somewhere in between the 2nd and 3rd reshuffles.

2061

Game Reports / Re: How the hell did this happen...

« on: March 31, 2012, 03:22:07 am »

Uh....

1. Managing to get Merchant Ship early was a way to bundle up more money on one turn.
2. +$2 Trade Route came at exactly the right time (with already played Ship) for early Gold.
3. Facilitating more Gold buys and so on...

But yeah that's just silly.

(Also out of curiousity, I pitted YW/Tunnel against BMU on the simulator. BMU still wins 0.263% of the time. If BMU can still win about 1/400 games against something like YW/Tunnel...Well, let's just say that's some silly luck)

2062

Dominion Isotropic / Re: List of things that make playing on Isotropic different than real life

« on: March 29, 2012, 08:40:59 pm »

Could also happen with Lookout. Or Throne Room. Really, any card that forces you to make a decision might reveal information if there's only one possible choice and so isotropic chooses it for you.

I HATE that isotropic will make these automatic decisions for you. Sometimes I don't realize it has happened and will click on a wrong action as a result.
Example: Play Throne Room, Ambassador with another Ambassador in hand. Accidentally send the Ambassador over because I was choosing the card to reveal, not the action to play.

This gets me sometimes too. By now I'm usually careful enough that when it's my turn, I'm aware of the potential mistakes, but I've come very close to confusing Envoy & Masquerade since they are triggered by my opponent.

Well, essentially it comes down to this: would you rather have to deal with more redundant clicking, or would you rather have a faster turn? On average I think the speed is worth some of the minor confusion.

2063

GokoDom / Re: Kirian's Bracket Week One

« on: March 29, 2012, 12:52:50 am »

O vs Titandrake
Results: O wins 6-1

Games + Commentary!

Game 1: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-193614-19ef4ce4.html
O: 30
Titandrake: 25

I decide that I would really like Hamlet for +Action this game because of all the awesome card draw (Council Room, Torturer, Witch), and it's the only +action card. So, I open Remake/Hamlet. This is a terrible mistake:  opening with no Silver makes my chances of picking up early Witch almost 0. And Witch makes my engine dreams a bit too tough to reach. So, I have these Hamlets sitting in my deck, instead of the pure money I needed in a Cursing game like this, and so I lose.

Game 2: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-194930-59ef2bb5.html
O: 36
Titandrake: 11

So. Totally base-centric right? Torturer engines and Menagerie, yeah right. I do Silver/Courtyard vs Silver/Militia, thinking that the extra card draw will help me dig for more torturers. At the end of the game, O told me that he opened Militia to disrupt my chances of getting $5. I still get $5 on turn 4, but I do have to play my Courtyard and reshuffle to get it, which could have played a part in my deck starting up slower. Looking back, I should have picked up more Menageries over Silvers later on because of how good they are against Torturer, but realistically it was over on turn 11 when I got double-Tortured the first time.

Game 3: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-195932-d97aeb55.html
O: 45
Titandrake: 30

A Council Room-BM board. I open 4/3, O opens 5/2. Fairly straightforward loss. In post-game discussion, we both decided that I shouldn't have opened Bishop and should have done Silver/Silver. Or, I shouldn't have bought Council Room #2. I might try simulating this, see what fares better. Council Room draws my Bishop dead for the entire game and I only get to play it once.

EDIT: After some quick simulations, here's the results. All I did was stick in an opening Bishop buy to the built in bots.

Bishop into optimized CR is 54-43 over optimized CR with 4/3 and 5/2 starts respectively.
Bishop into 1 CR is 55.4-41.6 over 1 CR, also with 4/3 and 5/2 splits.
Bishop into 1 CR is 54-42 over optimized CR, also with the given splits.

So I made the right move in picking up the Bishop, but it's not an overwhelming margin and I get caught in the ~40% range.

Game 4: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-201321-f36d7473.html
O: 33
Titandrake: 27

Oh man, this game. This game was hilarious. I spent the first 2-3 minutes agonizing over the opening. Witch is in the game, so you want to buy fewer other terminals. Chapel is in the game, and early trashing is hard to pass up. Militia is a nice disruptor, especially against Chapel. And the only +Action in the game is Bazaar, which you certainly have to buy after picking up a Witch.

After a lot of deliberation, I open Silver/Silver, O opens Militia/Silver. I still felt pretty burned about CR drawing Bishop dead all the time and really wanted to make sure that didn't happen. I should have bought Militia turn 1, but went for Silver instead. Oh well. Once I see O open Militia, I decide that I can't open Chapel at all. Without that second Silver, getting $5 on turn 3 or 4 would be far too difficult, especially with Militia in play. O decides that without me picking up Chapel, picking up a Chapel isn't worth it, as my money is going to get me a $5 with a decent likelihood and a Militia/Chapel isn't quite that consistent.

Still turn 2 of the analysis btw.

Then O gets his first Gold turn 6. I get mine turn 14. On no turn in between there does Militia knock a $6 hand down to something lower. My lack of a Militia means I don't disrupt at all, and I quickly lose. So much for all that opening drama.

Game 5: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-202513-468157c3.html
Titandrake: 37
O: 24

I open 5/2. Hunting Party and Chapel are on the board. I open Lab/Chapel, which we both agree later is an incredibly silly decision, and then transition into a Hunting Party/Goons Engine. O goes for a HP/Militia engine which doesn't quite cut it against my opening luck, and I steamroll through the Provinces.

Game 6: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-204340-50ddd636.html
O: 66
Titandrake: 41

And here's the payback. O opens 5/2 on a Lab-engine board. On turn 4, I buy a Gold which I feel should have been a Lab, and end up losing the Lab split 6-4. I try to pick up some Cities in hope of getting to run them out, and buy two Level2 Cities over a Platinum. O buys Colonies far too fast for that plan to work. In post-game, the conclusion is that I needed that Plat a lot more than I needed that card draw.

There was one turn where I could have trashed Gold for Plat (turn 9). Still not sure whether replacing Gold with Plat or getting Lab+Silver while trashing an Estate is better.

Game 7: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/28/game-20120328-205915-12e21e06.html
O: 36
Titandrake: 30

To end the somewhat non-Base centric games, we have a Familiar game. Curses get split 4-6, and I pick up a Remodel to turn Curses into Cellars, Familiars into Labs, and (if it ever happened) Potion into Gold. Then I pick up a Council Room partway through. Then Game 3 repeats all over again, and I keep drawing actions dead. I'm not sure if I could have won even if I hadn't gotten that Council Room, since I really needed more Gold that I just wasn't getting. Gold > Lab when cursers are around.

So, long story short, I make some small mistakes in every game, and those mistakes quickly snowball into large problems. But oh well, hopefully I do better next round.

And Council Room, I'm never buying you again  .

And also I type way too slow, so now I get to read your post . Thanks for playing, and good luck!

2064

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Gray's design Challenge

« on: March 27, 2012, 12:34:13 am »

Digger
Treasure - $4

$1
When you play this, you may reveal any number of Diggers from your discard. +$1 for each Digger revealed.

Part of an expansion I'm working on. I haven't tried it out that much, but one interesting thing I found out is that the Diggers you buy affect the values of Diggers already in your deck before the reshuffle even happens. I didn't plan that in the design, but it's a nice touch.

2065

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Gray's design Challenge

« on: March 26, 2012, 09:46:59 pm »

Broker
$4 Action

+$3
+1 Buy

Each other player draws a card.

I've actually come up with this exact card idea, several months ago. Weird. Some basic testing makes me believe this is perfectly costed btw.

2066

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Trap kingdom?

« on: March 24, 2012, 01:01:25 am »

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/23/game-20120323-215833-27b550b0.html

One test game of Moneylender-BM to 4 Provinces.

4 Provinces 1 Duchy in 16 turns

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201203/23/game-20120323-215726-a0becece.html

One test game of Crossroads/Duchy/Workshop/whatever random stuff I felt like picking up.

4 Provinces 2 Duchies 2 Great Halls in 15 turns.

There's some nice luck in the 2nd log (TR-Crossroads with 4 victory cards in hand), so idk if this proves anything. But it's interesting!

2067

Dominion Articles / Re: Mandarin

« on: March 24, 2012, 12:48:14 am »

Something important to note is that the card effect of Mandarin is pretty good. Like, very nice at smoothing out draws for multiple-Gold buys good and on par with Gold if not better good. The problem is that the on-gain effect makes it too much of a hassle to buy it most of the time.

If you can get around that it's very nice. Scrying Pool games, Feast, maybe University? If you have a hand of few but high quality treasure cards, it's also not bad assuming the game isn't too close to finishing.

I've never been able to get good results from it unfortunately.

2068

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Trap kingdom?

« on: March 24, 2012, 12:42:48 am »

You know what would be funny?

A Crossroads/Feast/Duchy deck powered by Workshopping for Feasts and Fishing Villages.

You know what would probably be better?

Something like Moneylender-BM

Idk, I don't see anything else, especially with no +Buy.

2069

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Fewest Turns To A Province And One Other Card

« on: March 23, 2012, 02:48:19 am »

Without Possession it seems that 6 turns might be the best you can do in solitaire.

Here's one that doesn't open with Chapel, although it picks it up.

Turn 1: Hamlet
Turn 2: Library
Turn 3: Hamlet discards 2 Estates, Library draws up to 7, play 7 coppers, buy Forge. (Draw contains Estate)
Turn 4: Ham, Lib, 2 Est, Cop. Ham draws Forge, discards 2 Est. Library draws 4 Cop, 1 Est. Forge trashes 5 Cop, 1 Est into Chapel. (Draw contains 2 Copper)
Turn 5: Chap, Lib, 2 Cop, Est. Chapel Lib and 2 Coppers.
Turn 6. Have five card deck of Ham, Chap, 2 Est, Forge. Forge everything into a Province.

2070

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 21, 2012, 10:44:20 pm »

Monopoly
Action-Duration
$4

+$2

If you have 3 or more white-bordered cards in play, +1 Card +2 Actions.
If you have 3 or more orange-bordered cards in play, at the start of the clean-up phase you may put Monopoly on top of your deck.
If you have 3 or more green-bordered cards in hand, +1 VP.
If you have 3 or more blue-bordered cards in hand, pretend that an attack has been played against you.
If you have 3 or more gold-bordered cards in hand, +$2.
If you have 3 or more purple-bordered cards in hand, you may return any purple-bordered cards in hand to the supply.

2071

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: New Gainer

« on: March 20, 2012, 02:05:13 am »

Any gain in hand card is dangerous/not viable because of the following situation.

"Alright, I've played 5 Highways. Now I play Conscription, discard nothing, gain a Conscription, play Conscription, repeat, empty out the Conscription pile."

Whether that's the right move or not, I don't know. It might not be in many games, it'll make using Conscription more difficult. But the fact that you can just end the game right there (and you probably don't even need 5 Highways, some card draw and +actions lets you get away with less) is a bit disconcerting.

I guess the other issue (I'm spouting out the theoretical stuff now) is that when you gain a card in hand, no one else has a chance to "react" to it. When you buy anything else, it takes some time for you to actually play it. When you buy an Attack, people can get ready by buying reactions. When you gain a card directly, and play it before anyone can respond...it feels funny. There's examples of this in the present game too: tell me that watching someone gain a card, then reshuffle and play that card the same turn felt perfectly normal the first time around.

2072

Solo Challenges / Re: Solo Challenge 5 - Time to Prosper!

« on: March 19, 2012, 02:56:49 am »

Oh, and now that I look at it I didn't get a bonus point either.

2073

GokoDom / Re: IsoDom Challenge Sign-up

« on: March 17, 2012, 05:03:58 pm »

Titandrake, PST

2074

Game Reports / Re: Three Pile with Copper

« on: March 12, 2012, 03:29:52 am »

Hm

• Cache
• Spice Merchant encourages Copper buying when used in an engine.
• The silver gaining cards caused a closer look at Silver-based decks, which led to a closer look towards alternate VP, which led to the realization that buying Copper in an alternate VP strategy can be a good move.
• Haggler gaining Coppers  [\li]
  

Can't think of other reasons though.

2075

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card Ideas: most playtested

« on: March 09, 2012, 01:34:30 am »

Lucky Break - 2$
+1 Card
+1 Action
Return a card from your hand to the supply. If you did, gain a card costing the same amount as the returned card and put it into your hand.

Interesting. I suggest playtesting with Ill-Gotten-Gains, Border Village or Peddler.

Not that different from the interaction of Salvager with these, right?

Well, except for the bit where this is non-terminal.