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601

Rules Questions / Inn and Masquerade

« on: June 24, 2012, 07:32:00 pm »

This question just came up in a RL game with some friends who value Inn's on-gain ability over what it does when played. If you receive an Inn as the result of a Masquerade, do you get to shuffle cards into your deck?

602

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Unique Attack Idea *untested*

« on: June 23, 2012, 08:44:13 pm »

Yeah, I should test it sometime too. My brothers and I have a couple of cards that we've come up with but haven't tested yet.

603

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Unique Attack Idea *untested*

« on: June 23, 2012, 08:35:27 pm »

Now that I've thought about it, I think mine needs to cost $4, since it's quite comparable to Ambassador. And since my card only returns the one card, it needs something like maybe +2 cards. And now it's a strange hodgepodge of Masquerade, Ambassador and Artisan.

So, my updated card is:

Diplomat
$4 Action-Attack

+2 cards

Choose a card from your hand put it in the Diplomat deck. Shuffle the Diplomat deck and reveal the top card of it. Each other player gains a copy of the revealed card.
________________
Setup: Make a Diplomat deck containing 1 copper, 1 estate and 1 curse.

604

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Unique Attack Idea *untested*

« on: June 23, 2012, 07:57:48 pm »

Good idea. You definitely want to put the "other" in there. And maybe you want to get rid of the silver.

And here's a similar idea (directly inspired by yours):

Artisan 2
$3(?) Action-Attack

Choose a card from your hand put it in the Artisan 2 deck. Shuffle the Artisan 2 deck and reveal the top card of it. Each other player gains a copy of the revealed card.
_____________________________________
Setup: Make an Artisan 2 deck containing 2 Coppers, 1 Estate, 1 Curse.

605

Game Reports / Re: Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 02:39:05 pm »

That makes sense. I was quite surprised that Goons was beaten so badly. How many Goons would you suggest in a Goons BM deck?

606

Game Reports / Re: Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 02:05:27 pm »

I played around with a simulator, and Margrave BM is significantly better than Embassy BM. So, I guess I've learned something there. Although, Double Goons just loses to Margrave BM and just edges out Embassy BM.

607

Game Reports / Re: Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 02:04:43 pm »

I guess the attack principle applies generally when compared to a similar card. For instance, Margrave vs. Embassy. I wasn't actually thinking of Thief or Pirate Ship.

Robz makes a good point with my early hands though. I didn't hit $6 for a while and before I did I felt confident enough with my $8s to buy provinces.

608

Game Reports / Re: Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 01:48:54 pm »

I hadn't realized that Goons was powerful outside of engines. I guess it becomes kind of like Monument with a handsize attack if you don't use the extra buys.
And, I totally forgot the principle of attacks being good just about whenever.

609

Game Reports / Re: Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 01:39:25 pm »

OK. That's what I thought, but 5 silver just seemed like an awful lot. Although, I don't think it hurt that my opponent had a huge assortment of terminal actions.

610

Game Reports / Embassy Big Money questions

« on: June 19, 2012, 01:28:21 pm »

I just played the following game:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201206/19/game-20120619-102149-ddad25aa.html

I played a strategy which basically relied on two Embassies to draw cards for big money and it got me my fourth province on turn 10. But I have two questions.

1. I had 5 silver, 7 copper and 1 gold. That seems like too much silver and not enough gold. Did I get really lucky? Should I have skipped province buys for gold? Or does Embassy BM work well with lots of Silver?

2. There were a few elephants in the room such as Goons, Margrave, Vault and Possession. I chose to ignore them and my opponent only bought one Margrave. Would one or more of those cards been a better choice? With no village, I didn't even consider an engine but I did consider possession. But would it have just been too slow?

611

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: June 19, 2012, 12:36:17 pm »

I just discovered this thread today and it made me laugh so hard!

612

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What card is worst for you?

« on: June 19, 2012, 12:21:23 pm »

Yeah, the distribution's fairly even.

613

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What card is worst for you?

« on: June 19, 2012, 11:19:25 am »

My worst 3:

Forge at 0.69. Probably because I don't know how to use it and so don't buy it. Then people smoke me by trashing tonnes of stuff for a Colony/Province.

Village at 0.70. I have no idea why I suck with this. For me the Villages are distributed throughout the list with Mining Village being my best.

Pirate Ship at 0.76. Probably because I buy it more than I should. Mostly when I went through a phase of liking it though.


My Best 3:

Fortune Teller at 1.50. This shot up yesterday because I used it effectively. I think that I really know when to buy this card and so am able to use it against my opponents. (Although, I don't buy it very often).

Governor at 1.46. I like this card and play it better than a lot of others at my level.

Third is a three-way tie between Merchant Ship, Smugglers and King's Court at 1.38. (Although, King's Court has a little less uncertainty than the other two). Merchant Ship I like to buy and take it more than others do which works to my advantage. Smugglers I think is up here because I don't fall for it as much as others do. I don't understand why King's Court is up here though. I have had poor experiences doing King's Court chains (Think KC apprentice and KC upgrade. ). Although, I think players at my level buy it more often than they should in Province games.

614

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What card is worst for you?

« on: June 18, 2012, 10:38:16 pm »

My worst card is Forge which really comes as no surprise to me. How do you play Forge?

What did surprise me is that my best card given availability is a tie between Governor and Fortune Teller. (Governor with less uncertainty.) I really like Governor and generally do well with it, but Fortune Teller is definitely a surprise as I rarely buy it.

615

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Council Room/Ghost ship combo card

« on: June 18, 2012, 11:49:08 am »

Yeah. It's turned into a very wordy card very quickly.

616

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Council Room/Ghost ship combo card

« on: June 17, 2012, 06:55:36 pm »

Good point about the stacking. It was just an idea for a combination of concepts without any real thought put into it. Maybe a clause like that on Sea Hag which discards the top card(s) could make stacking provide more than exercise.

617

Variants and Fan Cards / Council Room/Ghost ship combo card

« on: June 15, 2012, 04:53:32 pm »

Margrave is very much like playing both Council Room and Militia on the same turn. If you play village, Council Room and Militia, you'll be at 7 cards, your opponents will all have 3 cards from a choice of 6, you'll have two buys and you'll have +$2. If you play Margrave instead, you'll have 7 cards and two buys and your opponents will all have 3 cards from a choice of 6.

So, I've come up with a card which combines Council Room and Ghost ship in a similar way. You end up with (almost) the same hand size as if you played village, Council Room, Ghost ship and your opponents end with the same damage done, but the penalty is not getting Ghost ship's +2 cards. So, the card would be:

+3 cards
+1 buy
each other player draws a card and then places cards on top of their deck until they only have 3 cards in hand.

This is strictly better than Ghost ship, but what would be a good price point? $6, or $7?

618

Dominion Articles / Re: How's about some Multiplayer

« on: June 15, 2012, 04:44:13 pm »

I have to say that the principal online boardgame I play is Diplomacy and so, when it comes to collusion in multi-player games, I have a much more open tolerance than some others. However, getting a second account, in my opinion, is straight out. Also, collusion between games, is right out in my books. And, discussing an ongoing game is totally bad behaviour.

But, in my opinion, if the interface allows you to do it, go for it. Sure, in a face-to-face game, you won't be consulting a simulator or reading articles, but online, if you can spend the time to do it while not delaying the game unnecessarily, go for it. But, don't post a question; that is seeking advice of an on-going game. The interface also allows you to collude and talk to other players, so do it if you want to.

That being said, if talking to collude becomes a normal thing in multi-player games, I'll just start each game by asking players not to do so. That would be an honour rule, but it could perhaps eventually be implemented as a variant with no chat.

619

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The term "multiplayer"

« on: June 15, 2012, 04:03:40 pm »

In Game Theory usage, multi-player generally means "The more complicated case". So, two-player games are relatively easy to figure out because of the lack of any cooperation. As soon as you add a third player, collusion is possible and things get more complicated. This is obvious in games such as Risk or Diplomacy where alliances are a possibility, but it can also come about in Dominion. For instance, on a board without +actions, if player 1 and 2 both play Torturers, player 3 got hit by two Torturers which wouldn't be possible in a 2-player game on the same board. Also, Council Room can compound more easily.

Basically, in two-player games, your actions are directly influenced by your opponents' actions, but with more players, your actions are influenced not only by what each player did but on the interactions between the actions they took.

Also, in two-player, the only order that can change is who went first, which usually doesn't have a very big impact on Dominion. But in a three-player game, there are more possible orders and where you are relative to a player can make a big difference. In Dominion, some of the cards which affect this are Possession, Masquerade, Tribute, Envoy and Contraband. If you have a kingdom with Masquerade, Contraband and Envoy you want the player who makes some decisions for you to be inexperienced with the card. For example, the player who discards the possession you picked up with Envoy without realizing that you don't have another action. With Tribute and Possession, you want the player whose deck you're using to not know how to counter the card you're using. For example, the player who opens Governor-Chapel with Possession on the board. Or the player who loads up on Harem and Nobles with Tribute on the board.

620

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Council Room vs. Margrave

« on: June 15, 2012, 01:50:43 pm »

Margrave is basically a Council Room with a built in Militia with the one downside of missing the +$2. If you play village, Council Room, Militia, you will end up with 2 buys, 7 cards and +$2.
If you play a single Margrave, you will end up with 2 buys and 7 cards.
Addition: The effect on your opponents is the same in both cases.

An interesting card idea would be a Council Room with a built in Ghost Ship instead of Militia.

621

Dominion Articles / Re: Questions about Gardens

« on: May 20, 2012, 07:03:15 pm »

I played a Gardens game the other day with a combo that's probably well known, but I hadn't considered:

Bureaucrat/Gardens - It's a pseudo buy, and puts silvers into your deck, allowing you to keep up your average card value. I bought 4 before greening, although I imagine mileage may vary. You still have to be concerned with where to empty piles, (Gardens, possibly Estates, and X) - Although perhaps switching off Gardens back to a few more Bureaucrat's mid game once your deck is a bit more stuffed might do well, especially in a non-mirror matchup.

With B-crat I've always been paranoid that the opponent might somehow create a engine that can play multiple B-crats per turn and lock down the Gardens deck, although in practice it doesn't happen. Trader is an even better silver-gainer for a Gardens strategy.

I don't have much experience here but is seems to me that anything that gains treasure is effectively anti-engine.  If your goal is to trigger your engine consistently (e.g. to lock an opponent down), you have to have a lot of engine power to overcome the treasures "clogging" your deck.  And that's slow, especially on a good Gardens board.  If you're going for a Bcrat "engine", it's probably more to gain Silvers ASAP and buy Provinces than to lock an opponent down.  The attack is nice but will pretty much never turn into a lockdown, I suspect.

I can think of one idea that might actually work as an Engine: Buy a watchtower and keep it for the reveal. Then, you can just trash the Silver.

622

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Possession, a poll!

« on: April 29, 2012, 06:48:22 pm »

I don't think everyone does as much possessing in theory.  There's a pretty massive advantage to the first person doing the possessing.  Each Possession play is an extra turn, so that person is a turn ahead in terms of buys.  Further, it's a huge blow if that player possesses the other player's first Possession hand or worse, his first $6p hand.

True. I guess both in theory and in practice there's a huge advantage to having the first Possession.

623

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Possession, a poll!

« on: April 28, 2012, 10:59:11 pm »

I really hate this card in two circumstances in particular:
1) When playing in real life because the time factor is more noticeable than on isotropic and as anyone except the player doing the possessing, you get a lot of downtime. While in theory everyone should do just as much possessing, it sometimes feels like whoever buys it first plays it much more.

2) When I don't notice it. This is particularly true when Chapel is on the board and I don't notice Possession. What tends to happen is I will make a strong engine and then my opponent will start playing my turns and getting provinces on them.

624

Dominion Articles / Questions about Gardens

« on: April 21, 2012, 11:16:36 am »

I just have a few questions about pursuing a Gardens strategy. It would be great if someone could answer them.
1. When do you start buying Gardens? How much infrastructure and what kind do you want first?
2. Do you buy a 5-cost or Gold?
3. When pursuing Ill-Gotten Gains/ Gardens, which do you buy when? Is it best to buy IGGs early and pick up Gardens later or should you rush the Gardens first?

625

Help! / Re: Apothecary/Market vs Expand/Trading Post

« on: April 19, 2012, 06:09:14 pm »

Just wondering, how exactly does Apothecary/Market work? Does the Apothecary pick up the junk so that your Market is more likely to draw another Apothecary or Market?