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Dominion General Discussion / Mixed strategy in Dominion
« on: February 27, 2016, 10:24:36 am »
I noticed this adage: There is no such thing as optimal play.
Now, in games where you have complete information such as Tic-Tac-Toe or Chess, there is optimal play (even though it may be too complicated for you to calculate it).
On the other hand, in a game like rock-paper-scissors, there is no optimal play like "always play rock", because the best play depends on what your opponent is doing: If he plays "paper", you should have played "scissors". You need what is called a mixed strategy.
Now how about Dominion? It is a card game, you don't have complete information - but this hardly ever matters, so there should be optimal play in most situations.
One exception may be Masquerade: You have to pass a card to your opponent and the best card may depend on what card your opponent is passing to you - which you don't know.
Example: In a two-player-game, my opponent has just played a Masquerade. I know (from deck-tracking and because he has just emptied his draw-pile), that he has a curse, a copper and a Mountebank in hand (and an action left to play it).
He knows (for similar reasons) that I have one curse and a copper in hand.
Should I pass him my curse or not?
In this particular situation there is no optimal play; it depends on what my opponent is doing (which I can only guess.)
Now my questions: Have you ever met such a situation with no optimal play?
Can you think of other examples - maybe even without Masquerade?
Now, in games where you have complete information such as Tic-Tac-Toe or Chess, there is optimal play (even though it may be too complicated for you to calculate it).
On the other hand, in a game like rock-paper-scissors, there is no optimal play like "always play rock", because the best play depends on what your opponent is doing: If he plays "paper", you should have played "scissors". You need what is called a mixed strategy.
Now how about Dominion? It is a card game, you don't have complete information - but this hardly ever matters, so there should be optimal play in most situations.
One exception may be Masquerade: You have to pass a card to your opponent and the best card may depend on what card your opponent is passing to you - which you don't know.
Example: In a two-player-game, my opponent has just played a Masquerade. I know (from deck-tracking and because he has just emptied his draw-pile), that he has a curse, a copper and a Mountebank in hand (and an action left to play it).
He knows (for similar reasons) that I have one curse and a copper in hand.
Should I pass him my curse or not?
In this particular situation there is no optimal play; it depends on what my opponent is doing (which I can only guess.)
Now my questions: Have you ever met such a situation with no optimal play?
Can you think of other examples - maybe even without Masquerade?