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51

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Official(?) Dominion App Available on iTunes

« on: January 24, 2012, 11:26:54 am »

Depending on the pricing structure for the online system - will it be a monthly cost?  Or will it be a one time cost, I cannot say that I'll come on board for the online system or not.  A one-time cost, I'd strongly consider it - a recurring monthly cost - no way.

This makes for a danger for Dominion in my life, in general - because I have all the cards other than Cornucopia and the Promos.  And a big reason I bought the recent cards is because of seeing them on isotropic.  But as far as dominion hitting the game table - its chances are limited.  This is for a few reasons:

1)  Simple storage solution - Unless I can take the game with me places - it won't get played.  I've managed to squeeze everything into one box - so this problem is solved, but there is no way I can squeeze in another expansion.
2)  It is a chore to setup, once you are spoiled with Isotropic, digging out a random set of kingdom cards is a pain.  It is something I think about while I'm putting my games into my game bag for an upcoming gaming opportunity.
3)  It is a game that my more serious gamer friends, fellow SWCCG and LOTRCCG veterans, are discouraged to play against me, because I have so much more experience playing it thanks to isotropic.  They would rather play other games where the playing field is more level (like Seven Wonders or Puerto Rico).  Dominion mostly hits my game table at family functions with my brother-in-laws, but even then it is competing against games like Stone Age, Power Grid, or Agricola.

So, for these reasons, and pending closure of Isotropic for a pay site - I could see myself leaving Dominion altogether. 

I'm curious whats going to come out of all this, I've been keeping my eye on these forums just to catch a whiff of what is coming.  Lack of answers is frustrating, but I understand why things need to be close to the chest.

Out of curiosity, which incarnation of the SWCCG are you referring to?

My guess is the Decipher version (Star Wars Customizable Card Game), since he also mentioned and LotR game (and once again, I'm assuming he's referring to the Decipher version and not the earlier Middle Earth game, or the more recent FFG LCG), and there was a lot of cross-over between the player bases of those games since they were both Decipher products.  That, and I think the Decipher version is more likely to be referred to as serious compared to the Wizards version, and the "lesser" Decipher versions (Young Jedi and Jedi Knights).

I loved the Decipher game (and still do, I play casually with virtually cards every now and then and follow the current player developments), and I'm glad to see there are fans of that game here.  Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.  The Wizards game was interesting aspects, but I found it lacking over all.  And too much dice!

52

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 07, 2011, 10:24:33 pm »

Thief Division, 27 - 6 Bracket

These games were pretty fun for the most part, and Stealth Tomato was a great opponent (a better player than me, but I believe I lucked out on the last couple of games).

sherwinpr 4 - 3 Stealth Tomato
With 1 tie.

Game 1
sherwinpr 15 - 37 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-163143-15d751d5.html
I played this one rather poorly, and kind of didn't know what I was doing.  I embargoed the IGGs, but we both gained some through Haggler and Forging, and maybe upgrade.  Picking up an Embargo instead of a Silver was a mistake.  I also made some further mistakes from that point on (had an odd habit of forging away my Hagglers, Embargoed the golds for some reason, etc.).  Stealth Tomato played a rather solid game.

Game 2
sherwinpr 38 - 23 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-164110-cdb63cfb.html
This was a fairly straightforward game.  I focused on only two actions: Festivals and Merchant ships; the rest was just a straightforward big money style strategy.  Stealth Tomato went for a bit more variety in his action choices, pulling off some considerable trashing with Lookout, but I feel his approach may have been a bit too slow.

Game 3
sherwinpr 30 - 30 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-165205-087e8602.html
A Fishing Village/Wharf game with Conspirators thrown in for good measure.  Stealth Tomato manages to pick up a few more actions than I do, while I take some Golds, differentiating our strategies by a bit, but it's mostly just those three actions that dominate.  Stealth Tomato ends up trashing two Copper, but I don't think this ends up being too significant either way.  Stealth Tomato picks the wrong bet by buying an Apprentice rather than a Duchy, which doesn't end up on the top half of the deck, which in turn doesn't allow for a "trash a Province" play; I also lose my chance at victory by not picking up an Estate in the penultimate turn, when I could have (I instead take a Silver).  I decide to tie the game, since foregoing that opportunity would have likely given Stealth Tomato the victory.

Game 4
sherwinpr 19 - 20 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-170407-02b25a32.htmlGame 5
A really cool nonstandard Gardens/Workshop game.  I jump for the Gardens strategy, giving Stealth Tomato little choice but to follow; the Gardens split 4/4 early.  There are a lot of cards here that interact with the strategy: Crossroads, Walled Village (just because of the +actions), Nomad Camp, and Baron.  The negative points from the Young Witch curses also hurt me a bit (why couldn't Workshop have been the bane card?  ).  Stealth Tomato manages to use good responsive play to weasel into a one point lead.

Game 5
sherwinpr 54 - 47 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-171328-a0df1166.html
We both play straightforward Tunnel/Embassy strategies; interestingly the set also has Hoard and I go for it.  Not sure if that was the right play or not.  Both our decks stall big time in the mid game, which drags things out.  I manage to hold onto my lead and take the game.

Game 6
sherwinpr 22 - 32 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-172437-a43c36b6.html
We both open Treasure Map/Lookout.  The maps take a surprisingly long time to hit (we both buy a third map, and actually activate them on a turn where we draw all three); Stealth Tomato's maps are activated a turn before mine.  I probably bought too many Silvers.  I'm unable to use my minor potential point advantage (a single Estate, and later a Duchy) to win by splitting the provinces 4/4.  Stealth Tomato takes the game handily.

Game 7
sherwinpr 21 - 11 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-174028-dc76a790.html
A Curse-heavy Colony game (not that anyone ends up buying one).  5/2 leads to an uninteresting start, as we both mindlessly open Witch/Hamlet.  I get a second Witch and a Bazaar to support, meanwhile, Stealth Tomato has a Witch miss a shuffle, and the bad luck perpetuates through the whole game, despite a noble attempt at a defense using Hamlet/JoaT; I think the curses are dealt out 8-2.  The game is more or less decided by luck a few turns in, but drags on for a bit.

Game 8
sherwinpr 50 - 33 Stealth Tomato
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/07/game-20111207-175921-88240714.html
A Tournament game, where we both open Cartographer/Duchess.  I'm not exactly sure how I managed to win this one.  Stealth tomato snags an early Gold, which looks very promising, but somehow hitting too many $7 hands and not managing to grab a second Province seems to throw things my way.  I think it was just luck on my part; it was a Tournament game after all.

53

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Four-player Mountebank: Estate rush?

« on: December 06, 2011, 10:47:51 am »

I'm just confirming that there are indeed only 32 coppers (exactly 2 more than curses) in the supply in a four player game.  I remember this caught me by surprised and seemed like quite a "flaw," but I guess you just have to roll with it. 

I first encountered this (actually it was the only time) in an early real life Prosperity game, where my nine year old cousin who had just learned the game a couple days earlier beat her older sister, father, and myself in a four player game.  I went heavy cities thinking I could profit from the curse pile (and I guess eventually copper pile) running out, but I think other people bought treasure maps which made them more successful.  The Mountebanks were a big pain despite Lighthouse and Vault being in the game.  Then again, none of us had too much familiarity with the cards.

54

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: November 29, 2011, 07:43:35 pm »

Thief Division, 27 - 38 Bracket

For the most part, these weren't really great games (through no fault of my opponent), and a lot of it game down to high variance hijinks, especially the tournament game.  I thought game 3 was sort of fun though; we both bought a lot of caches (they split 5-5) to power our gardens and to have the coppers serve as a buffer against familiar curses (which in turn actually hampered our ability to pass out curses).

sherwinpr 4 - 0 hampuse1

sherwinpr 37 - 24 hampuse1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-144040-f2d917d9.html

sherwinpr 53 - 20 hampuse1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-145301-82a8f8e1.html

sherwinpr 26 - 13 hampuse1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-145852-c1c2b634.html

sherwinpr 32 - 21 hampuse1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-150537-8fe8ca70.html

55

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Registration

« on: November 21, 2011, 05:34:43 pm »

1) sherwinpr
2) GMT -5

56

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Notes About Set Design

« on: November 13, 2011, 05:27:48 am »

Ghost Ship, Pirate Ship, and Ghost Ship.

Umm...

...Also Sea Hag, and Ghost Ship.

Hahaha, okay so I messed up.   

But my point still stands.  Replace the second Ghost Ship with Sea Hag (I was even going in alphabetical order until the error).

57

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Notes About Set Design

« on: November 12, 2011, 11:17:23 pm »

Attacks

Base: 5
Intrigue: 4
Seaside: 4
Alchemy: 2
Prosperity: 3
Cornucopia: 3 (not counting Followers)
Hinterlands: 3 (not counting Ill-Gotten Gains)
Average: 4.0 per full set

Seaside has 5 attacks: Ambassador, Cutpurse, Ghost Ship, Pirate Ship, and Ghost Ship Sea Hag.  This should bump the average to 4.17 per full set (if I did the math correctly).

Edit:  Thanks to Jimmmmm for catching my mistake.  It should be a Sea Hag rather than a second Ghost Ship, obviously.

58

Dominion General Discussion / Re: New Promo Governor

« on: October 20, 2011, 11:13:47 am »

It's already on Isotorpic (if you want to play with it, just require it)!

59

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Compare the Single-Card Engines

« on: September 15, 2011, 02:42:58 am »

It would be nice to discuss the fast trashers, which are those cards which can trash (or otherwise get rid of) at least two cards at a time.

They are:
Chapel
Steward
Trading Post
Ambassador
Forge
Remake

Island shouldn't count as it gets rid of itself, so can't be used repeatedly; neither should Mint. If both you and your opponent are playing Bishops, trashing will be quite fast as well.  Upgrade, Lookout, and Loan might be considered fast too as they don't take up an action, and they also don't take up a card; they leave you with 4 other cards rather than 3. (Upgrade draws a card, while Lookout and Loan trash cards in your deck rather than your hand).

60

Game Reports / Re: Horn of Plenty + Duke in play = Go For Colonies Instead

« on: September 06, 2011, 09:48:41 am »

This player was really a great sport, and I thanked him for putting up with the abuse and super long turns.  He said I should have waited to be able to get all 8 Colonies in the same turn, haha (i.e. so he could have won).

61

Game Reports / Horn of Plenty + Duke in play = Go For Colonies Instead

« on: September 06, 2011, 04:03:52 am »

This is an interesting game here; I obviously wasn't playing just for the win and wanted to have fun with this.  But Black Market + Horn of Plenty is insane (I got it up to gain cards costing at least $14)!  My opponent tried an interesting Transmute+Duchy+Duke strategy, which is generally too slow, but might have gotten me if it wasn't for a sufficiently lucky last turn draw (I could have gone for Colonies earlier).

I wonder if this is ever the right strategy in a competitive enough game.  Maybe with slightly better support than Hamlet/Steward/Envoy, but those did quite well for me (pulling KC, Bazaar, and some other cards helped).  Actually, those three might be as good as it gets, though Village may have been more consistent than Hamlet, and I basically never used a Salvager I bought (I used it once, and usually discarded it to a Hamlet).  I didn't even need to buy every cantrip in the supply (Spy).

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201109/06/game-20110906-003858-667d012d.html


   — sherwinpr's turn 19 —
   sherwinpr plays a Caravan.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
   sherwinpr plays a Hamlet.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
   ... discarding 1 card and getting +1 action.
   sherwinpr plays an Envoy.
   ... drawing an Envoy, a King's Court, a Steward, and 2 Hamlets.
   ... discarding a King's Court and putting the rest into the hand.
   sherwinpr plays a Hamlet.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
   ... discarding 1 card and getting +1 action.
   sherwinpr plays a Worker's Village.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions and +1 buy.
   sherwinpr plays an Envoy.
   ... (sherwinpr reshuffles.)
   ... drawing a Harem, a Bank, an Envoy, a Silver, and a Black Market.
   ... discarding an Envoy and putting the rest into the hand.
   sherwinpr plays a Hamlet.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
   ... discarding 1 card and getting +1 action.
   sherwinpr plays a King's Court.
   ... and plays a Steward.
   ... ... drawing 2 cards.
   ... and plays the Steward again.
   ... ... drawing 2 cards.
   ... and plays the Steward a third time.
   ... ... drawing 2 cards.
   sherwinpr plays an Envoy.
   ... drawing a Bazaar, a Salvager, a Black Market, a Militia, and an Envoy.
   ... discarding an Envoy and putting the rest into the hand.
   sherwinpr plays a Bazaar.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions and +$1.
   sherwinpr plays a Hamlet.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +1 action.
   ... discarding 1 card and getting +1 action.
   sherwinpr plays a Militia.
   ... getting +$2.
   ... joecool discards 2 cards.
   sherwinpr plays a Black Market.
   ... getting +$2.
   ... drawing an Alchemist, a Tournament, and a Bureaucrat from the Black Market deck.
   ... returning an Alchemist, a Tournament, and a Bureaucrat to the bottom of the Black Market deck.
   sherwinpr plays a Black Market.
   ... getting +$2.
   ... drawing a Hoard, an Herbalist, and a Tactician from the Black Market deck.
   ... returning a Hoard, an Herbalist, and a Tactician to the bottom of the Black Market deck.
   sherwinpr plays a Loan.
   ... drawing and revealing a Horn of Plenty.
   ... discarding the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Harem, a Silver, and a Copper.
   sherwinpr plays a Venture.
   ... revealing a Market and a Hamlet and then a Horn of Plenty.
   ... discarding 2 cards.
   ... playing a Horn of Plenty.
   ... ... gaining a Colony.
   ... ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Horn of Plenty.
   ... gaining a Colony.
   ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Horn of Plenty.
   ... gaining a Colony.
   ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Horn of Plenty.
   ... gaining a Colony.
   ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Horn of Plenty.
   ... gaining a Colony.
   ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Horn of Plenty.
   ... gaining a Colony.
   ... trashing the Horn of Plenty.
   sherwinpr plays a Bank.
   ... which is worth +$6.
   sherwinpr buys a Colony.
   sherwinpr buys a Province.
   (sherwinpr reshuffles.)
   (sherwinpr draws: a Hamlet, 2 Horns of Plenty, a Silver, and an Envoy.)

62

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Hoard/Scout

« on: August 30, 2011, 07:02:29 pm »

Slightly off topic as it's not about Hoard, but since this thread has partially turned into (admittedly deserved) Scout bashing: isn't another situation in the absence of dual-type victory cards where Scout might shine be when it's used in a Scrying Pool deck?  Granted, there are probably more appropriate actions in the 2-4 cost range (any cantrips, conspirator, cards with +buy, ironworks, etc.); but once you have enough of these or the hot items are sold out, it seems like 1-2 scouts could effectively prevent greening from causing you to stall (though perhaps the Scrying Pool itself already does a good enough job).

Scout and Spy both just seem pretty lackluster (due to opportunity costs when purchasing them, among other things).  Their potion-cost close relatives, Apothecary, and Scrying Pool are just so much better.

63

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Compare the Villages

« on: August 27, 2011, 01:18:16 am »

Another quasi-village kingdom card we've forgotten: Tribute!  I've actually used it for the +2 actions in quite a few games, when it's the only source.  It's risky, but sort of exhilarating too.  It's kind of a dud though when it just gives you +4 actions though.

64

Dominion General Discussion / Re: recommended decks for base + Seaside

« on: August 25, 2011, 11:35:45 pm »

Yeah I was asking for good sets of 10 which would help me get a good sense of how different cards synergize. But then I realized that a lot of the fun is just messing around and discovering that on your own. Thanks to sherwinpr for the tips, though. I sure wouldn't want to play against you, at least not yet! 

Haha, although I consider myself at least decent at the game, I've just been standing upon the shoulders of giants.  I owe a lot to theory and the other contributors on the the blog, as well as a lot of posters here.  But don't get too caught up in trying to learn in depth strategy, just enjoy the game casually for a while and try to discover the nuance of the cards on your own (as you said you plan on doing).  When you're new to an expansion you might want to "bias" your play toward that expansion.  For example, 7 cards from Seaside and 3 from base; or if you buy a third expansion, and you're learning that one, say 6 cards from it and 2 each from base and Seaside; later you can mix the randomizer decks (or use one of various online/mobile apps) and go totally random.  It's just exciting to have lots of exposure to the new cards.

65

Dominion General Discussion / Re: recommended decks for base + Seaside

« on: August 25, 2011, 04:43:32 pm »

Are you asking for good sets of 10 to play with, or strategies (combos using cards from just these two expansions)?

Most people on here prefer playing with random sets of 10.  If you've already played with base a decent amount (say 10+ games), maybe try playing a few random Seaside only games first (using the 7 basic cards from the base set, of course), to get a hang of the new Seaside cards.  One thing you can do is play with 10 random Seaside cards, then play with 10 random new ones that you didn't play with in game 1, then play with the remaining 6 cards and with 4 cards that were not bought or didn't figure in prominently in the first and second games (or just use 4 base set cards).

Moreover, the Seaside rulebook has a few recommended games, including some that are matched with the base set, so you could try playing those, though I generally never bother (I think the only recommended game I've played is "First Game" from the base set).

The fun in Dominion though, is the huge variety you can have, and a good way to see a lot of these is random set ups (and you and your fellow players can choose to reject any setups that you think are too similar to something you've already seen, but my friends and I never really do that unless there's a specific card we're not in the mood to play with or something).

Now, if you want to know about strategies (combos), I recommend trying to discover some of these on your own, at least initially.  But one powerful combo that can be found in Seaside only is Fishing Village/Wharf.  A combo making use of both expansions is Haven/Library.  Haven is effectively reducing your hand size (you can save up useful cards like terminal actions you can't play yet, such as extra libraries, or small money like copper), so if you play Library after it you can draw more cards.  This just gives you an okay hand this turn, but if you saved up even some minor cards, your setting up a stronger hand next turn.  Combined with a source of +2 actions (Festival and Native village are probably best for this), you can get some real power out of this combo, as Festival's especially will help you pick up Havens with their +buys; I haven't really tried this much though so it may not be all that great.  Another cool combo is in a game with Ambassador, where you're frequently drawing your whole deck, you can purchase a single curse and then use Ambassador to give out curses.  However, don't return your curse to the supply unless the game is ending soon or there are no more curses left; of course in other situations where you're naturally gaining curses, you'll usually want to return them to the supply.

As far as counters, Militia and Ghost Ship are effective against Warehouses.  Speaking of Ghost Ship, if you have a Tactician and you get hit by a Ghost Ship place two good cards (other than the Tactician) on top of your deck, then use the Tactician.  So Tactician is an effective counter to Ghost Ship; in fact the Ghost Ship can end up helping you!  Another counter is Lookout, which can help neutralize Sea Hag a bit.

Most of these strategies are discussed on the Dominion strategy blog, but I just thought I'd mention them again here.  I hope that helps, and have fun playing with Seaside.

66

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Compare the Villages

« on: August 25, 2011, 04:24:19 pm »

Hamlet is great in the right situations.  Hamlet/Library and Hamlet/Watchtower are especially attractive.  It works somewhat well with Goons, since you can pick up Hamlets with your +buys for VP, and they in turn give you more +buys; the only problem is  when you're hit by Goons, you can't discard much with them, but in a hand with Goons/Goons/Hamlet/X1/X2, you can still discard the X1 and X2 to your opponent's Goons and then get a double Goons Turn (and use it to buy two Hamlets if you wish, for 4 VP).  Hamlet/Goons/Watchtower is obscene.  You can use the watchtower to place newly bought Watchtowers, Hamlets, and/or Goons on your deck, you can buy Coppers and/or Curses when you want to, Hamlet/Watchtower provides an effective draw engine and you can play multiple Goons easily, and you have built in defense against your opponent's goons.

Hamlet also works nicely with cards such as Menagerie, and can be an effective poor man's Worker's Village in a Minion deck (and it's so much cheaper to pick up with your spare buys, that the Hamlets themselves will generate).

Lastly, it's a very easy pile to run out (as far as contributing to doing so itself), probably easier than even Pawn, though I'm not sure, and this can be a good thing or a bad thing.

The other cards that enable you to play multiple terminal actions a turn are:

Throne Room
Tactician
University
Golem
King's Court

However, aside from University, these work a bit differently.

67

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Rubberbanding cards?

« on: August 24, 2011, 04:08:39 pm »

What if we changed Mercenary to this (to favor helping weaker players out):

Discard any number of Coppers, Estates, and Curses from your hand.  For each card you discard, +1 card.  For each Copper you discard, $+1.

No idea if it's balanced.

68

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Can anyone not log into isotropic right now?

« on: August 21, 2011, 02:44:30 am »

Good point, T.i.n.a.s. I neglected that aspect of Courtyard lobby.

Regarding the low numbers of people -- I was thinking that in the case of the Courtyard, the low population was because the lobby was working as intended?

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case however.  I checked all the games that were active a few minutes ago and tabulated the number of games taking place in each lobby:

Great Hall: 81
Council Room: 0
Secret Chamber: 20
Courtyard: 0

At least the Secret Chamber lobby seems useful.

69

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Tax

« on: August 19, 2011, 02:56:06 pm »

Another reason I wanted to focus on the buy phase was because that makes the card closest to how Embargo works (it's still not exactly the same, because Horn of Plenty cannot circumvent Tax, while it can circumvent Embargo).

If we do want to alter base cost, I think the card should say something like "except the Copper or Curse supply piles."  Or maybe it should say this either way?

Here's another idea (where (P) denotes the potion icon):

Ridiculousness
Action - $2(P)

+1 Action
+$2
Trash this card.  Put a Ridiculousness token on top of a non-Treasure Supply pile that does not have a Ridiculousness token on it.
---
During the buy phase, each card costs +(P) if it has a Ridiculousness token on its pile.

70

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Vegas!

« on: August 18, 2011, 10:29:14 pm »

This idea is so great and so terrifying at the same time!  It seems really well-designed and thought of, play2draw, but DG's criticisms about playing with this in practice seem very valid.  I think I'd want to play Dominion like this maybe four times and then probably never again, haha.  It just seems too fiddly, too easy to mess up which pile the dice are in, etc.

But, all that said, I'll play a long.  How about this?

Reversal of Fortune
$3 Action - Reaction
For remainder of turn, all your die rolls are +1 (but no more than 6) this turn.
---
If a player just rolled a die, reveal this card to reroll the die; the final result may not be rerolled any further. Then +1 card and discard this card.

71

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Tax

« on: August 17, 2011, 03:34:22 pm »

This idea has been suggested as "bridge troll" in the fairy tale fan expansion, with some modifications. The biggest problem with tax, in any implementation, is that it can make a pile effectively impossible to buy if it stacks - a $11 province is well out of price range in a province-only game. It's not really changing the playing field much, just making the game nigh-impossible to end without remodel or +buy. You could make taxes non-stackable to avoid that issue, but then a $1 malus just doesn't affect the game much.

If tax doesn't stack and affects base cost instead of buy cost, then it can be used to place $4 cards out of the range of ironworks or $5 cards out of the range of university, which at least alters strategies. Furthermore, it could either be used to make gold $7 so upgrade can take gold -> province (!), or make copper $1 to mess up somebody trying to upgrade copper, both of which significantly alter the strategy space. Maybe try that.

The first version I considered actually affected the base cost, which I thought would be cool and thematically interesting precisely because of how it interacted with Workshop, Ironworks, University, Talisman, Smugglers, etc.  You can put a card "out of reach" of these.  However, then I realized I didn't like the interactions with the other cards too much, such as Remake, Upgrade, Swindler, etc.  For example, putting a single tax on curses really messes with upgrade or remake being used to get rid of coppers (probably in a more devastating way than putting a tax on coppers, which would lead them to be upgraded to 2's, which at least means you can upgrade them to Taxes, haha, unless they've been taxed.).  Yes, altering the strategy space is cool, but this makes it really swingy, perhaps, like making sure you have your tax at the right time to create this sort of discomfort for your opponent or relieve it for yourself, just seems to introduce too much variance.

I'm still not really convinced that this is too strong or too weak.  Sure maybe it's often a bit weaker than Embargo, and sure it can put Provinces out of buying range; but I don't mind either.  There will only be ten taxes (okay, thrity in a King's Court game, but if that's a concern we can add an "if you do" condition after "trash this card") max across 17+ cards.  What is the most annoying tax spread?  4 on Province, 6 on Duchy?  This could be pretty bad, but then the game would just end on piles.  An early tax on something like Laboratory might make it harder to build that engine.  A tax on Duchy could alter how the Duchy dance goes.  A tax on some cheap 2 cost card could prevent it from being mass-bought for some strategy.

72

Variants and Fan Cards / Tax

« on: August 17, 2011, 03:08:47 am »

This is a kingdom card idea I had the other night, and I would be surprised if no one had thought of yet (a quick glance turned up nothing on here, but I haven't checked BGG), and in fact, seeing the Inflation post reminded me of it.

Tax
Action - $2
+$2
Trash this card.  Put a Tax token on top of a Supply pile.
---
During the buy phase, each card costs +$1 per Tax token on its pile.

This is obviously just Embargo with a cost increase instead of a Curse handout.  I may be wrong, but I think it should be about as strong as Embargo.  A one cost increase often isn't prohibitive, but could make some cards undesirable relative to others, and might make players decide to put more money (virtual or treasure) in their trimmed decks to be able to afford Provinces or Colonies.  Unlike Embargo tokens, which are ineffectual once the Curses have run out, Tax tokens seem more permanent.  However, like Embargo, they can be circumvented by cards that gain outside the buy phase.  I think pricing it at $2 would be correct; after all, like Embargo, a big part of the reason to buy it is just the trash for +$2.

One modification may be preventing it from being applied to Copper to keep those free, but I don't think that's a very serious concern.

73

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Solving the Good Curse Card problem?

« on: August 17, 2011, 02:51:01 am »

Other than for perhaps thematic reasons, negative VP (curse) tokens are unnecessary; you could just give every other player the appropriate number of VP tokens.  Unless I'm missing something, or some future card lets you "spend" VP tokens for some benefit, it should be functionally equivalent.

74

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Vineyard and University Cost Without Potion

« on: August 17, 2011, 02:44:44 am »

Here's one possible rule, but not if it will be to anyone's liking: 

Every turn you have one free "virtual potion" that you may play during your buy phase (or Black Market phase), the purpose of which is toward buying the following cards; the virtual potion is not a card (so no contribution toward Horn of Plenty, and can be played even if you've discarded your hand from a Tactician--although this latter rule make it less Potion-like):

University ($5+P)
Vineyards ($4+P)

You may also modify Apprentice so it draws 4 cards for University and 2 for Vineyards as in the standard game.  Or just let it draw 5 for University and 4 for Vineyards (ignore the potion part of the text, as we could call this new virtual cost anything if we wanted, say "cows," "computers," or "euros").

Consequences:
Universities can only be Swindled into themselves.
Vineyards can only be Swindled into themselves.
Gainers can't be used to gain these, except that Vineyards can be upgraded/remade/remodeled/expanded into Universities, and you can gain these during an opponent's use of an Ambassador.
As a special case of the above, University can't gain itself.
Another special case is that an opponent's Saboteur won't let you gain these.
You cannot buy multiple Vineyards in a turn.
You cannot by multiple Universities in a turn.
You cannot buy a Vineyard and a University in a turn.
The cards are a little bit better with Forge/Salvager/Bishop, but this isn't a big deal, and you can use a further rule if it is.

75

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Custom Set Challenge #2

« on: August 16, 2011, 02:55:08 pm »

Okay, I'm gonna give this a go, although it may be pants:

(Colony/Platinum included)

$7
Forge

$6
Goons
Nobles

$5
Council Room
Horn of Plenty

$4
Tournament
Gardens
Talisman

$3
Shanty Town

$2
Secret Chamber


...

I had Familiar in for Cursing (because all other cursing price-slots are already used up) for a bit until I just remembered that Followers can do that. Also, I started writing this before sherwinpr posted asking about Potion cards, and I was thinking that anyway. So I have one more slot to fill and I will come back to that at the end. So anyway, with Gardens now becoming more and more viable, and the Goons deck likely to end up a bit junked too, I put Secret Chamber in there at $2. The Gardens player can pick it up with Talismans and clearly doesn't want the Forge to get around the junk. The Goons player has spare buys, and may want the Forge instead but it's expensive. The reaction to the Goons attack is just a bonus (although not particularly strong).

This just leaves us with the hole left by Familiar... Let's see... Nobles. As a victory card. This will provide a small amount of VP while supporting any player running an engine (read: ST/CR). It won't help the Goons player as the prices clash, so this won't boost the already-probably-dominiant strategy any further, but should provide some support to opposing choices. Even the Tournament player should be able to get some use out of a Nobles or two.

And that's my set. You can call it "Tournament/Colony/Goons/Gardens I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!" or something if you want. As I said, I've got a couple more ideas in my head so I might write them down some other time too if I can be bothered. Let me know what you think, and I look forward to seeing what others come up with.

I like this... did you every consider Lighthouse instead of Secret Chamber, or is that too strong?  A quick game ending strategy might try to empty the Lighthouse, Talisman, and Garden stacks, I don't know how well it would work, but the Lighthouses would keep the cash steady without having to worry about devastating hits from Goons (Secret Chamber's defense, as you say, might be pretty weak, especially if you're mostly going for cards that generate 1 coin, so you would have to also invest in Silvers; Goons also weakens Horn of Plenty too much).