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1

Game Reports / Bishop vs. Horse Traders in presence of important 5$ cost cards

« on: August 25, 2011, 09:12:21 am »

I wasn't very happy about my bishop purchase in hindsight:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110824-122516-872e65bd.html

I felt that HT (or Moneylender?) are better here to get the critical 5$ cards.

Although I had some not so good draws early I was really lucky that my opponent could only get $7 from 8 cards at turn 14 while I got exactly $16 next turn. Is this luck the end of the story? I do have some questions anyway:

- What would be your 3/4 start as first player and as second player in reaction to opponent's bishop?
- Would you have included Jester at some point?
- How would you have spent 14$ at turn 10?:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110824-122516-872e65bd.html#NinjaBus-show-turn-10
In other words: Did he buy too much silver for the bazaar/wharf engine? (maybe Gold/Province instead?)
- Would you in place of my opponent have trashed Copper instead of Estate at turn 12 as the estates might still produce money through Horse Traders?:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110824-122516-872e65bd.html#califax-show-turn-12

2

Game Reports / Missing the critical moment or starting player "disadvantage"

« on: July 31, 2011, 08:12:41 am »

This game shows the importance of timing province buys in games without plus buys - and the special responsibility for the starting player in this case. He will almost inevitably lose missing the critical moment while for the second player it's the difference between win and draw.

It's very much a mirror match with loan, minions, conspirators:

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110730-091741-e380dbdc.html

I couldn't get the critical 5$ at turn 9 and 11 (maybe 8$ is already critical at this point) and will discuss the gained cards later. With my opponent starting province buys at turn 11 and alternating province buys every following turn there was nothing left to do. The desperate duchy gain at turn 14 was aesthetically flawed. Imagine the picturesque score graph had I bought that last province instead.

Now the aforementioned critical turns:
1) Turn 9: 4$
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110730-091741-e380dbdc.html#califax-show-turn-9

I decided that another conspirator would be too risky and bought the second cellar instead as there is no point in reaching more than 8$. This might be ok.

2) Turn 11: 4$
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110730-091741-e380dbdc.html#califax-show-turn-11

Deck composition at this point:
califax: 3 points : 4 Minion, 3 Conspirator, 1 Loan, 2 Cellar, 3 Estate, 5 Copper
Thisisnotasmile: 3 points : 5 Minion, 3 Conspirator, 1 Loan, 1 Cellar, 3 Estate, 3 Copper

Bying another cellar here was clearly a mistake. You have to see the threat of the second player to start buying provinces. I was aware of the more or less equal number of the critical minions/conspirators, but haven't followed the more successfull loan play of my opponent enough. Otherwise I would have bought a workshop to give the opponent something to think for. Assumed an otherwise identical course that last estate in the extra turn might change the outcome. Of course the workshop could well have been in the way at an early point during the turn so that you can't discard to it again. And of course he might simply buy a workshop too. But it was the only chance anyway.
Note that reaching 5$ it would have been tempting to buy the last minion - and it would have been a mistake too.

Questions:
- I was thinking about including workshop early to gain conspirators/cellars, but thought it would be too much in the way for minion gains.
- Would it have been an option to buy a second loan?

What do you think on these?

3

Dominion General Discussion / Game logs behind Isotropic

« on: July 12, 2011, 09:46:49 am »

All the discussions regarding the official online version became somewhat delicate sooner or later so far. I don't want to continue the discussion why isotropic has to go down, but bring out one specific point.

It was mentioned already in these threads, but maybe it went a bit unnoticed: The Forum here and the Blog (especially Annotated game section) became a hilarious source for sharing the love for dominion (thx again Donald for this great game!), thoughts on strategy, great moments etc. This is possible because we can play on Isotropic, but - no less important - Doug makes available the game logs and rrenaud on councilroom.com offers additional features such as the new score and money per turn graphs and many more:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=260.0

Around this we have many great discussions, for example expert advices to new players (analyzing sample games). This wasn't possible (or only with much greater effort) in former real life/BSW only times when the discussions went in a more abstract way. For me personally this brought the game to new levels.

Just like to ask if public game logs and their parsing is being considered for an official online version too. Or is it too early to ask this? More specifically: Could there be a standardised interface/notation for Dominion games (such as portable game notation for chess) so that councilroom.com could continue their amazing job (if rrenaud were interested in doing so). Maybe in the process we could even replay the games in some form, not only read the logs. That would be really great and for me personally much more important than for example an AI. I realize that this is a bit more complex than for chess, considering the cards, interactions and upcoming expansions.

PS: This was a bit tough to write for me - hope I could express myself understandingly in the foreign language. I wasn't sure where to post this too, but decided the Isotropic and councilroom.com Sub Forums are too specific.

4

Feedback / The Bible of Donald X.

« on: June 20, 2011, 06:10:09 am »

Theory: Do you plan to post all the "Secret History" articles and all the "Designer's diary" articles (former at boardgamenews) - maybe even in a subsub Forum? Would be nice to have them at a glance here too.

5

Dominion General Discussion / Math/probability for silver/potion opening - getting Familiar/Alchemist turn 3/4

« on: June 17, 2011, 04:54:19 am »

I think it's not hard to calculate - but I'm bad at these things. Recently I started Silver/Potion on a face2face board with Alchemist/Golem as the only Alchemy cards. There were not many strong alternatives in the 3-/4 range (only remodel seemed to be an alternative) and no 2 cost cards at all. I drew potion/copper/copper/estate/estate at turn 3 and at turn 5 and lost badly.

It has been already discussed that starting potion with Golem as cheapest Alchmey card is bad.
Was it too risky to open potion/silver in this case? Is it less critical to get Alchemist at turn 3 than Familiar (may of course depend on the trashing options).