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1

Game Reports / Is Transmute Actually Good Here?

« on: March 10, 2016, 08:49:13 am »

Code: [Select]

Transmute, Poor House, Scrying Pool, Storeroom, Fortress, Ironworks, Apprentice, Duke, Graverobber, Saboteur
Game Log: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160309/log.0.1457561553907.txt

This was perhaps the first randomly-generated kingdom I've seen where I was like "whoa, Transmute is actually a thing here!"

The idea is to get a bunch of Scrying Pools, then thin down and Transmute Fortress into Duchy and ultimately discard cards with Storeroom for cash to get Dukes.  Transmute has the added benefit of being drawable with SP, converting coppers into more Transmutes (read: also can be drawn with SP), and being a +Buy potion target when the SP's are gone.  Thoughts?

2

Game Reports / Holy Ship!

« on: February 17, 2016, 12:47:58 pm »

Code: [Select]

Scrying Pool, Fishing Village, Watchtower, Herald, Pirate Ship, Plaza, Scout, Counterfeit, Ill-Gotten Gains, Stables
Log: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160217/log.0.1455672735829.txt

After getting some really terrible early game luck that resulted in no SP plays until turn 9 and my opponent having double Counterfeit by turn 3, I thought I was completely toast and nearly resigned.  However, after a ton of opponent Counterfeit plays, I realized that his economy was quite vulnerable and multi-SP was just the ticket for maximizing the chances of having Treasure on top, so I went for a desperation Pirate Ship.  Succeeded in trashing all his treasure and adding 10 coins of payload per turn.  I simply couldn't believe I was able to win this game.

EDIT: Prettified log

3

Goko Dominion Online / Random Opponents--More or Less Accurate Leaderboard?

« on: October 28, 2015, 10:20:18 am »

With the new client queuing up a random opponent each game (barring a specific challenge or rematch), this has led to a much greater diversity of players encountered.  Assuming this is the case for all/most players, should that lead to a more accurate or less accurate leaderboard?  My gut is that mu will be about the same for everyone but with a larger sigma, but I'm no stats guy.  I do find it comical that I can be matched up with someone who barely knows how to play and then matched up with a super-expert the next game.

4

Goko Dominion Online / Goko Down For Maintenance

« on: August 21, 2015, 01:20:31 pm »

I was in the middle of game (in the middle of my turn, incidentally) when my internet froze, I refreshed page and Dominion Online is "down for maintenance."  Not only am I sad that the game is down, but how does the dropped game get handled? Does either me or my opponent get stuck with a loss or quit?

5

Goko Dominion Online / Salvager Down?

« on: August 19, 2015, 09:08:20 am »

Salvager has been down for me for the last 2 days.  With no posts up here already, I'm assuming this is just me?  Or does it have something to do with the fact that I'm still using the "old" version of Goko?

6

Game Reports / Proud of This One

« on: August 09, 2015, 02:57:39 pm »

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150808/log.51354761e4b07f4f5210780c.1439087199693.txt

Code: [Select]

Beggar, Cellar, Fortune Teller, Urchin, Watchtower, Bazaar, Junk Dealer, Tactician, Trading Post, Witch
Provinces/Shelters

I'm particularly proud of how this game turned out.  In no way am I professing to have played this perfectly, but I do know that in the past I either would have rage-quit here or in some way just gave myself no way to win because of poor play. It seemed like almost everything went against me here:
1.  I was second player
2.  Opponent got T3 urchin collision AND hit 5 at the same time
3.  My mercenary missed the shuffle when I finally got one
4.  I already had one curse before I had a mercenary in my deck at all

I think the reactions were very important and I also feel skipping witch was a good idea to avoid giving him mercenary fuel and dead-drawing my own actions.  In my opponent's position I think witch was a good idea because it pushed his advantage while he had it, but even then he dead-drew some stuff so I'm not sure.

Questions about this one:
1.  Is urchin skippable?  I considered going straight for the 5's and avoiding urchin since Junk Dealer and Trading Post are also very good trashers and a dream hand of Necro/WT or Bazaar/WT hard counters the discard attack.
2.  Is witch good here at all?  I'm really not sure with such good defense and strong trashing, as well as strong competition at the 5-coin price point.
3.  Was the Beggar a good idea? My thought was that I needed both economy and discard defense, and therefore was better to get before WT.

7

Dominion General Discussion / Thoughts on Jester

« on: July 07, 2015, 09:31:24 am »

Jester is an interesting attack in that may be either a junker or a gainer, and this is fairly luck based.  Prior to posting this, I reread the 2011 thread about Jester (somewhat comical now in how overpowered it was originally thought to be...except for WW who is of course a genius 

Having played a bunch of games with Jester recently, I'm forming a strong opinion that the junking element is far weaker than the gaining.  As an example, in this game http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150707/log.50991563e4b024b832068abb.1436272606957.txt I get hit hard with curses from his early Jester and it's still not enough.  Possible reasons why this may be true:

1.  Hitting a bad card off the opponent's deck cycles it, which is good for them right now.
2.  By the next shuffle, there is often a way to improve cycling or trashing, mitigating the effect of the junk.
3.  The junking is slow (1 card per play of Jester) and takes up valuable 5-cost space as a terminal silver.
4.  Hitting a good card, on the other hand, does exactly the opposite: skips opponent's good card, potentially slowing their deck up to an entire shuffle, while making your own deck expand at a faster rate

As a result, I think Jester is better used on most boards as payload in an established engine as opposed to an opener (of course numerous counterexamples could apply) or in conjunction with deck inspection to guarantee hitting a good target.  Scrying Pool seems especially juicy here, since the rate of expansion in a SP engine tends to determine the winner.

Just some food for thought.  Would love some insight from better players on this!

8

Rules Questions / Borrow Wording Clarification

« on: July 04, 2015, 08:16:57 pm »

If your -1 card token is already on your deck for another reason, can you still buy Borrow and get +1 coin? The strict wording of the event would make me think the answer is no, however this isn't mentioned directly in the rulebook.

9

Goko Dominion Online / Really Low Iso Level Players on Goko

« on: March 18, 2015, 12:29:12 pm »

So I've become more open about playing anyone on Goko without restricting pro rating or Iso level all the time, just to get exposed to a variety of playstyles.  I have noticed that many registered players have extremely low Iso levels (negative 15 or worse), but yet they play competently.  Not that they are top-tier or even extremely good, but I really don't understand how a player with such a terrible rating can be a competent player...either they should just completely suck or their rating should rise accordingly.  Has anyone else noticed this?

10

Game Reports / Driving the Engine

« on: February 09, 2015, 08:55:15 am »

Code: [Select]

Hamlet, Haven, Stonemason, Steward, Conspirator, Mining Village, Count, Inn, Junk Dealer, Possession
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150204/log.516cd492e4b082c74d7a247a.1423073935082.txt

I'm posting this game as part of my ongoing quest to both improve and learn what makes the good players and good and the ones like me, well, stuck in mediocrity 

In this game, I'm playing against an elite player and totally luck into what feels like a dominating position.  Yet somehow the game ends up being nail-bitingly close and I nearly blow it.  Part of me thinks that it came down to that because if I hadn't aggressively gone to end the game quickly and built more instead that it would give him time to get multi-possession and just pile out.  The other part of me, in my gut, feels I just horribly misplayed and nearly lost a game I should have won decisively.

I'd like some advice and feedback about what you all think of this board and how the game actually went down.  Actually achieving the upper hand against a good player just isn't good enough...one also needs to be able to take the reins of the big engine and properly drive it.

11

Dominion General Discussion / Appropriate Pace of Play

« on: November 05, 2014, 03:35:28 pm »

I've read the recent threads about timed Dominion, and while I wouldn't be a fan of this, I can see the possible merit.

However I've encountered some of the same problems mentioned in the "why is Goko so bad" thread, in which I'm playing an engine that just plays several cards per turn and has tricky turn order, gains/trashes, or greening decisions.  And I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm honestly not that good at playing such engines at this point.  But it's really getting annoying that people are putting things like "please speed up" and "can we go any faster" in the chat.  I'm not slowplaying or in any way being jerky, and I'm not even certain that a master can play some of these engines with super fast turns.

Is there a consensus about how long one should take to play a turn?  I really don't believe I'm violating any protocol.

12

Game Reports / Opening Advice

« on: October 15, 2014, 01:35:06 pm »

http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20141014/log.50ba29b8e4b015dcbac5f45a.1413344533198.txt with Provinces/Estates

Code: [Select]

Beggar, Native Village, Urchin, Moneylender, Bazaar, Ghost Ship, Governor, Harvest, Outpost, Prince

This game capped off a disastrous night of Dominion for me.  I basically played like garbage the whole game and my opponent played very well.  I commented after the game that 5/2 opening was not good here.  Giving it more thought, I wonder if the approach to the 5/2 just needs to be different.  Options I thought of in the post-mortem:

1.  Ghost Ship/NV--Pseudo-thinning to enable future Urchin collision, GS itself is an attack so 2 urchins not mandatory, anti-cycling slows opponent down but also possibly makes urchin collision easier.

2.  Governor/NV (what I did)--just don't play it stupidly like I did.  Likely pick up a single urchin or GS to force small hand after governor draw.  Avoid mercenary altogether and just try to rush provinces before Mercenary can really start cooking.

3.  Governor/nothing--Like above, but eliminates the awkward possibility I faced where there was high likelihood of NV putting Governor on the mat, don't really need NV anyway because there's Bazaar...and honestly I'm not sure a village is even required period.

4.  Urchin/nothing--Pretty sure this is just terrible

Love to see what the experts think about this setup, and thanks in advance for the feedback!

13

Dominion General Discussion / Strength of T1 Mountebank/Nothing

« on: April 25, 2014, 11:42:00 pm »

This has been recently discussed a bit in the 5/2 split thread, but I'd like to get the community's thoughts on this more generally.

I've had it come up a few times in recent games where I got a 5/2 with mountebank on board (in either first or second seat) but no good 2-cost with which to pair it.  This has virtually always prompted a response in the chat, some variant of "you're lucky" or a string of expletives.

My opponent seems to be more convinced the game is over at that point than I am, and even though I'm not a top-tier player, I can usually pick out some significant mistakes in how they play from that moment on.  What is it about a T1 mountebank that makes people get so on tilt?  Is it really that crushingly awesome?  I'm really not convinced.

14

Goko Dominion Online / Tie Games and Goko Ratings

« on: March 26, 2014, 01:39:47 pm »

The rulebook for base Dominion states that if players are tied after application of tiebreaker, then the players "rejoice in their shared victory".  Isotropic actually posted this phrase straight up after a tie.

CouncilRoom.com of course posts records as W-L-D and so does Goko.  So ties are not actually treated as a W for both players apparently.

About how much do ties affect one's rating?  Is it deleterious to tie a lower-ranked player and disproportionally better to tie a higher-ranked player?  Or is it really treated as a win for both players?  I tend to doubt the latter as my rating has fallen after tying lower-ranked players and risen quite a bit for tying superior players.  Thanks!

15

Rules Questions / Trashing Squire

« on: March 06, 2014, 10:07:32 pm »

The on-trash effect of Squire is to gain an attack card.  I've used this to gain Alchemy attacks without the need for a potion.  Can this also be used to gain Followers?  Thanks!