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201

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 02, 2014, 10:19:34 pm »

Wow.  Lose power for a few hours, go out to dinner, and lots happens.  Including getting confused with Pingpongsam.  Should I take that as a complement.

Okay, time for a reads post.  All are fairly weak at this point. 

Vets first (since I started with the vets or noobs thing)

ADK:  I just looked back at all your posts.  Mostly it seems you've defended Hugo (random setup thing) and defended Hydrad (don't be so sure of your town read on me).  I've also defended both.  I think that's the town position.  So lean town a bit.  But I'd like to see more analysis, to help people like me see how it's done. 

Andrew:  Similar to ADK (on opposite sides of the argument).  He has spread his votes around a bunch, but maybe that's just his style (anybody know).  Seems to be trying hard to keep people from getting town reads from things like the Hugo and Hydrad events-that strikes me as something scum would want.  So I'd say lean scum a bit.

Qvist: Hasn't said much.  Jumped off the first L-2 very quick, but I think I'd have done the same.  I think it is very important to get some pressure, but also to not lynch early.  No real read on him.  Hasn't done/said much.

Hydrad:  Came out early against my original "lynch a vet statement" with a reasonable (if obvious) argument.  I like that.  Then he gets to L-2, and has his minor flip out.  From what the rest of you post, that's normal for him.  I wouldn't know.  Certainly there was no case on him.  Then his "don't read me as town" thing, which was also odd.  Certainly consistent.  And I think town-ish, especially if he has been voted off early as town before in his few other games.  I remember a few silly middle school FTF mafia games where, due to my complete inability to keep a straight face, I was routinely the first voted off; when the consensus started forming, I reacted exactly the same way.  He also has a post explaining his top three scum where ADK is on the list for consistently thinking Hydrad is scum, and Andrew is on the list for consistently switching votes.  I suppose that fits the personality vibes I'm getting from Hydrad, but seems less town-ish to me.  There's a lot there, but it's chaotic.  So I'd say I'm on the fence, but I'd be inclined to not lynch him to see if we can make sense of all that stuff.

SS: Another with a lot.  A (not really) strike against him is not knowing my name .  Also, why wouldn't you read the set-up?  Doesn't knowing the setup help us as town?  Since that is your MO, it doesn't mean anything in terms of scum/town read, but, read the setup!  So pushing pit based on personal knowledge-fine, but we don't know him, so that doesn't really help us now.  It certainly will if we lynch either of you and get the flip.  Also strong on Hydrad, which I get (though don't agree with).  His reasons there are also from previous games.  This, while not necessary town-ish, is helpful.  So I'd be disinclined to have an SS lynch.  If pressed, I'd give a slight town read.  But I don't really have reasons.

xxpittip:  Nothing really.  Showed up, argued with SS.  Then gone again.  WE NEED MORE!  You say (message 158) that you want info.  So help us get some! 

Hugo: Also not a ton.  But there was post 110 (a long post, hence the non-quote) where he gets way ahead of things suggesting scum early (IMO).  Qvist-Hydrad pair (evidence: Qvist's unvote); and then Andrew is scummy, vote Andrew all in the same post.  (and IMO, the reasons for Andrew being scum were entirely baseless, and that's from someone with a small scum read).  There's the setup thing, which seems town to me, but post 110, when I look at it more and more, makes me feel scummy-ness from Hugo.  More than I like myself feeling this early, when we have so little to go on, but probably one of my stronger scum reads.

Awaclus:  My strongest townread.  Seems totally helpful, reasonable, and though I disagree with his tendency to make stronger reads, he backs them up and questions them.  All of that seems very town to me.

So.  That was a long post.  So SS probably thinks I'm scum now (see message 193)

202

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 02, 2014, 07:46:34 am »

Does anyone else think anything about this, am I overthinking things here? Could Hydrad explain himself?

As we previously discussed, I don't think I'm drawing anywhere near as strong a conclusion about this (which is not to say you are drawing a strong conclusion-just more than mine.  I think Hydrad was basically saying exactly what Qvist said:

Btw, why do you believe me already? If you ask me, I'm still in the "I don't trust anybody" phase.

just in a peculiar way.  Is that peculiar way an indication of scum?  Probably not.  Is it worth noting?  Probably yes.

I doubt Hydrad was thinking so far, but if he was going to flip scum at some point, it's possible that others were going to draw similar conclusions.

Pretty much, I agree with this.  With the addenda that if Awaclus were to flip scum, we should look back at this and draw conclusions about Hydrad (and SS and me).  And so on.  Basically, I think this area of conversation has lots of information for down the line when we have flips.  A

And that is surely good for us.

203

Dominion League / Re: Season 4 - game reports C

« on: November 02, 2014, 12:00:48 am »

mpsprs vs. temron:  My 3rd match in C2.  I'm off to a great start, but so is Adam, so I'm hoping to keep up strong play.


Game 1: Temron starts Temron wins 17-11

Code: [Select]

Cellar, Crossroads, Secret Chamber, Village, Procession, Ill-Gotten Gains, Inn, Library, Mystic, Tactician
We both decide this is an IGG game, and I figure starting 5-2 the way I do is an advantage.  I get a curse in his deck before the shuffle.  But I eventually miss 5 several turns in a row and lose the curse split 6-4.  I decide to pick up a Tactician to spike Provinces.  This is a mistake.  I only play it once, and it doesn't get me a Province.  I continue to hit 4 often, so I don't get duchies either.  Ah well.  Temron gets the duchies, and wins.

Game 2:  temron starts, temron wins 38-35

Code: [Select]

Oasis, Sage, Bureaucrat, Sea Hag, Worker's Village, Bandit Camp, Council Room, Ghost Ship, Hunting Party, Venture
We both open Sea Hag, but Temron goes sage, I go silver.  Advantage Temron, I think.  I lose the curse split, anyway.  I grab a bureaucrat to get silver and spread out the curse drawing.  Temron grabs a venture, which I think is odd, but I suppose counters ghostship and bureaucrat.  And his venture is a silver magnet.  Never hits copper until way late.  Still, I'm ahead at 3 provinces.  But he's been picking up hunting parties, and that keeps him going, and he hits half the points.  I buy the last province to end the game.

Game 3:  Temron starts  temron wins 36-27

Code: [Select]

Transmute, Develop, Great Hall, Masquerade, Scheme, Caravan, Conspirator, Gardens, Thief, Nobles
Mirror game.  We both get a masquerade, two schemes and conspirators.  We differ a bit-he grabs an extra scheme, and a nobles, while I get more conspirators.  But the big swing here happens turn 10, when luck does not favor me.  I have the first hand with a tough pass on his masquerade play:  scheme-scheme-masq-province-conspirator.  I need both schemes, and I think I need to conspirator, so I pass the masq.  Now he plays risk free-I have no masq to force him to pass me good stuff.  He gets a better deck.  Nevertheless, I have a shot to tie, but come up one coin short.  He ends it.

Game 4: mpsprs starts mpsprs wins 10-0

Code: [Select]

Haven, Hermit, Market Square, Masquerade, Oasis, Tunnel, Alchemist, Ironworks, Ghost Ship, Margrave
Well there's Hermit, Market Square.  I didn't see this until it was way to late to go for it.  I grab some market squares to limit his buys, and I've grabbed some tunnels to counter his starting margrave.  So I've got some golds.  For some reason, Temron never goes off.  He probably should have tried, though on his last two turns, he started with 3 card hands due to margrave.  So I end it on piles by getting havens.  I feel fairly certain I should not have won this game. 

Game 5: mpsprs starts temron wins: 28-17

Code: [Select]

Fishing Village, Smugglers, Ironworks, Taxman, Young Witch, Count, Harvest, Tactician, Treasury, Border Village, Expand
We load up on fishing villages, and waste time with young witch, but the key here is the tactician and count interactions.  Temron gets earlier big trashes with count, while mine never really lines up right.  So he has a nice double tactician deck running, while mine never really kicks off.  He does stall (and he misses a 3 pile a few turns before it finally ended with border village gaining curses), so I almost have a chance, but not really.

Game 6:  mpsprs starts mpsprs wins: 40-22

Code: [Select]

Vineyard, Familiar, Feast, Silk Road, Taxman, Baker, Butcher, Horn of Plenty, Torturer, Witch
Finally a game where I feel I made reasonable choices.  I open Butcher/Silver vs. Witch/Silver.  I do pick up 2 witches, and temron a butcher.  I get more butchers and golds, while temron goes for familiars.  I'm loading up on coin tokens, and though I lose the curse split 7-3, it doesn't really matter.  I hit a double province turn with lots of coins tokens, buy another, and then it's just waiting until I can build up coin tokens for the last.  I end up with 7 provinces, and it never feels especially close.

So in the end temron earns a 4-2 win.  Hopefully I don't play so erratically in my remaining matches.  I'm in good shape to avoid relegation, but I have higher hopes.

204

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 01, 2014, 08:49:23 pm »

If you're town you owe it to the rest of the town to look as towny as possible.

True, but you also want the other townies to be looking hard at everybody, and reconsidering their thoughts.  I want to be towny as possible, and I'd like for my teammates to eventually read me as such, but I don't want them to stop considering all options, because not everyone they read is towny will be town.

205

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 01, 2014, 08:30:19 pm »

Why?

Well, it just mostly felt like he was genuinely trying to help the newbie townies find the scum and not mislynch people for stupid reasons. Just an impression like that. Of course, that's just my subjective view, and I'm aware that it could be just him being good at acting like a helpful pro-town player and me being bad at telling that it's just an act, so if you can convince me that I'm wrong, I'm very willing to change my view about this. I just find the arguments you and Hugovj were using against him overly aggressive, and not very strong.

While I appreciate the towny vibes your getting from this I just want you to be aware that thats something that is really easily faked and if I did roll scum I would have said probably the exact same stuff. So I would be careful in giving town reads on people who give advice because I know that I will give advice to new players as town or scum.

Well you really know how to not make yourself look towny.

Yeah, no kidding.

Everyone:  "We're getting a town read from Hydrad"
Hydrad: "Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves here."

The point is well-taken though

206

Dominion League / Re: Season 4 - Announcing livestreams

« on: November 01, 2014, 07:22:34 pm »

Streaming my league match vs. Temron starting basically now:

http://www.twitch.tv/mpsprs

207

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 01, 2014, 07:12:28 pm »

No I'm arguing that it's WIFOM and not as cut and dry as you make it seem.

I'll grant you that it's possible that he faked it, I'm just saying that to me, it seems more likely that it's genuine, and that it gives me a town read on him. You don't have to agree, but I don't see how me holding that opinion is scummy. I certainly wasn't trying to present it as indisputable evidence that Hugo is town or anything.

Time for me to chime in on the Hugo and setup thing.  His question (whether or not scum are chosen randomly) also occurred to me, though I simply assumed it was random.  I couldn't find anything in the set-up about that.  So to me, it feels like the kind of thing new townies could and would wonder about (since that is exactly my situation).

And the argument that scum had an extra day of prep to get that question answered is a good one.  And it doesn't really seem like the kind of thing that scum would plan to ask about to put us off their scent, so I'd say the question pushes Hugo a tad toward town in my estimation.  Certainly there is some WIFOM in there, if they thought of it-but I'm guessing they wouldn't.

208

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: November 01, 2014, 08:45:22 am »

Oh, and about this, in the end, are you more willing to lynch a newbie who could be showing signs of being scum but could also be a town player who's just making honest mistakes, or an experienced player who doesn't appear to be scum at all? At this point, I'm not saying that either approach is wrong, I'm just curious.

For the record, I'm the kind of person who's probably going to see connections and draw conclusions even when there isn't any conclusions to be drawn or connections to be seen myself.

This is a good question.  I think I'm the kind of person who will be very slow to draw conclusions, even when they aren't there.  I feel like everything will be probability based and my tendency I think will be to give extra weight to those  "but what if this instead..." type thoughts.  That means that you and I may well be at odds at points during the game, but I think that can be a good thing.  You can counter-balance my tendency to hem and haw, and I can counter-balance what from my perspective will seem like reading too much into shaky evidence .

That doesn't answer your question yet though.  I think I would vote for a newbie with hints of scum tendencies over an entirely non-scummy vet.  Mostly because our number one goal is to lynch scum; that's how we win.  And this:

I don't think that's correct, and it's definitely not how we do it most of the time. If a good player is town, he is usually a high target for scum to nightkill. if you lynch him, they don't have to do that anymore. likewise, if you don't lynch him, he might just prove his towniness by dying.

also helps turn me off the "with no other lead, lynch a vet" idea.  Silverspawn essentially points out that there is value in not lynching someone who is clearly playing well (either strong helpful town or dangerous mafia) because the mafia's decision on who to nightkill will give us information on that.  That is to say, for a strong player, we may be able to read more into their survival to the next day than with a not strong or inactive player.  (In fact, I think it's the best response to my original question so far-thanks SS).

Finally, about the Hydrad L-2, I'm not worried yet.  I trust that even us new townies understand the value of a longer day 1 (information), and mafia won't hammer because that's just asking for suspicion.  But it's always interesting to see how people react.

Then Awaclus and I can argue about the conclusions we can or can't draw from that

209

Game Reports / Re: Endgame analysis paralysis makes me time out

« on: October 31, 2014, 10:55:51 pm »

This may work:

Action 1:  Altar a copper->Dvlp
    Hand: 2KC, 2 Rbble, 2 S, 1 C, Necro, TR, P, WM
Action 2:  Rabble (draw Dvlp)
Action 3:  KC - KC
          1st KC card: Dvlp: P->KC, S->E,F, WM->Dvlp,Rabble
          2nd KC card: Rabble; hand is now KC,Rabble,S,C,Necro,TR,E,F,Dvlp
          3rd KC card: KC
                 1st KC card: Dvp: F->Outpost,Dvlp (also get 3 silver), E->Dvlp, S->F,E
                 2nd KC card: Rabble; hand is now 4 S, C, Necro, TR,E,F,2 Dvlp,Outpost
                 3rd KC card: Dvlp: S->F,E; S->F,E; S->F,E
Action 4: Dvlp Outpost-> WM, Gold
Action 5: TR Necro

Hand is S,C, plus 4 coins from TR.  Buy F and whatever you want with the extra 3.

Gained 1WM, 1 Rabble, 6 Feoda to end the game


PPE:  MicQ has a solution too, but different from mine

210

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: October 31, 2014, 10:34:46 pm »

Well, we can always just collectively decide to lynch an experienced player just because they're experienced of course, but I believe that would be a bad idea.

Certainly at the moment.  We have ~10 days to try and get a slip.  And we should try to get one.  I certainly don't anticipate making a serious vote that could lead to a lynch until at least half of that time is up to give us the time to hear multiple times from everybody.  We need information as town, and we need time to get that.

But I'm trying to think ahead to a scenario where there isn't an obvious scum slip.  We still need to work out where to put our votes.  I'll admit that my standard for what constitutes a scum slip are probably quite high as well (I tend to think honest mistakes by town are fairly common as well-but I haven't looked at other games to see if I'm right about that). 

At the end of the day, we need a lynch (for the informational value of the flip) and in the absence of other info, I will want to put my vote on someone whose danger as mafia outweighs their helpfulness as town.  That's a tough judgement to make, as people strong in one class are likely to be strong in the other, but at the moment, I'm counting on inexperience mafia making a big mistake or two along the way if they don't have experienced hands guiding them.  And I trust us as town to see those big mistakes even without experienced hands guiding us (especially, since we won't be able to fully trust their guidance).  So I see the vets as dangerous and helpful, but with more danger.

All of this is very much subject to change, given discussions over the next 10 days, of course, but it's where my head is now.

211

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: October 31, 2014, 06:25:11 pm »

One thing I will say is I think in all of these new mafia games they have decided who is scum and not usually by complete randomization. I don't think they pick favourites on who gets the PR's or is scum. So I would say it would be a mistake if we start eliminating pools of people just because they are new/experienced.

I was also assuming that they were assigned randomly.  If not, then of course we should take that into account.

So I don't think that ADK or Andrew are any more likely than Hugo to be mafia, but rather that they are more dangerous if they are mafia, and hence we should give stronger consideration to voting them early.

212

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Day 1)

« on: October 31, 2014, 06:04:21 pm »

Wow, that was quick.  I'm 4 minutes late, and I already have a vote on me.

Let's get serious though.  One of the things that characterizes this game is the distinction between the two vets and all us relative newbies (and in 4 cases, absolute newbies).  To go with the flavor, ADK and Andrew are the sharks.  If they are both village, that's great.  Experience on our side. 

I worry though about one of them being mafia (or even both), and masterminding the whole thing without us inexperienced types noticing.  Basically, I view it as experienced villager=moderately helpful vs. experienced mafia=very deadly.  If that is the case, then perhaps, in the absence of more info (which we should definitely try to get), it would be in our best interest (as town) to target one of the "sharks" first.

I'd love to hear other's thoughts on this, especially from ADK and Andrew about why I'm totally wrong about this.

213

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Sign-Ups Open)

« on: October 30, 2014, 05:02:09 pm »

I will gladly take the pre-game advice that Hydrad is scum.  I've heard that experts at mafia can predict that random roll assignment!

214

Dominion Videos and Streams / Re: How to make good Dominion live streams

« on: October 30, 2014, 07:46:27 am »

Who are these evil people taking my username and then taking the username I was going to take because someone took my username?

This is an advantage of unpronounceable strings of letters.  Not once have I ever discovered my username to have been already taken.  To help you in the future, I've created a new suggested username for you:  trjyicl

Now you should be set with internet usernames.

215

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Sign-Ups Open)

« on: October 29, 2014, 06:28:47 pm »

I usually go with "em pee ess pee ar ess", or "em pee ess" for short.  I suppose Matt would also work (with a silent psprs)

edit: em-pea-spurs isn't bad

216

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Sign-Ups Open)

« on: October 29, 2014, 06:23:58 pm »

I've been mpsprs on the internet for ~15 years now.  I'm not going to change it now simply to appease you desires for such petty things as "pronunciation" and whatnot.   

217

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Civility Pledge

« on: October 28, 2014, 07:00:47 pm »

/pledge

218

Mafia Game Threads / Re: Newbie Mafia 7: Fish Mafia (Sign-Ups Open)

« on: October 28, 2014, 07:00:08 pm »

I suppose I'll take a shot

/in

Closest I've come to playing a game is almost subbing for Mafia some small number back in 2012.  Haven't really followed them much since.

Off to sign the pledge.

219

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: October 23, 2014, 10:20:43 pm »

Inspired by Shraeye's puzzle:

In a single player game without Masterpiece, how can you get 3 Silvers in your deck after turn 2?

I wouldn't be surprised if there's more than 1 solution here, but I only found 1 so far.

Open Silver/Silver.  On turn 3, buy another Silver.  Or if you happen to draw 3 Estates in that hand, buy the Silver on turn 4.  Either way, you'll have 3 Silvers after turn 4, which is also after turn 2.

To use your own words:

Yes, that's technically correct.

The best kind of correct.

220

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Black Market/Hermit - Bug, or feature?

« on: October 23, 2014, 01:40:23 pm »

If you play Black market, buy a card, play hermit, don't buy something in your buy phase, should you gain a madman? Hermit clearly says, "if you did not by any cards this turn", so I think you don't, but goko says you do. My guess is that this is just incorrect implementation... or is it correct?

If you buy a card via Black Market, Hermit should not trigger.

221

Dominion League / Re: Season 4 - game reports C

« on: October 22, 2014, 08:29:28 pm »

mpsprs vs. jsh:  League match in C2
twitch highlight (from my point of view): http://www.twitch.tv/mpsprs/b/580234706

Going into the day of the match, I was ranked a few levels lower than jsh, but my first match that day left us entering the match pretty closely ranked.  So let's get to the games.

Game 1:  mpsprs starts mpsprs wins, leads 1-0
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413853645027.txt

We both open silver/spice merchant and pick up a mountebank on the first shuffle.  I win the curse split, but things are pretty even, and we're playing more or less the same strategy.  Eventually jsh takes a lead with 1 farmland and 1 island left (and curses empty), but I get two good hands in a row.  I grab a province, then farmland a farmland to province to go up 2 with one island left (offering draw).  But jsh only has 3 money, and I hit 4 for the win. 

Game 2:  jsh starts mpsprs win, leads 2-0
Log:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413854386482.txt

Well, rebuild is here in a colony game.  I decide engines can't keep up, and play rebuild with a marauder thrown in to slow down jsh.  jsh does try an engine (I wish I had the guts to try it) powered by vagrant and mystic mostly, and picks up a few colonies, but my lead is too big, and I can end it rebuilding into the last two provinces.  I think jsh needed to grab ghost ships at some point, both for the draw and to slow down my cycling as much as possible.  It does let me have more control over what I hit with rebuild, but I don't think that cost outweighs the benefit.

Game 3:  mpsprs starts jsh wins, mpsprs leads 2-1
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413855056062.txt

Colonies.  Yuck.  I try to ignore ambassador, in favor of junk dealer.  Turns out, that doesn't work so well.  jsh has a nice streamlined deck that he is drawing, while I struggle through 20+ cards of junk.  I basically never resign, but I came close here, as this was not a competitive game.  Hopefully jsh will come tell me how I should have played this one.

Game 4: mpsprs starts mpsprs wins, leads 3-1
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413855841619.txt

Colony game.  I'm worried when I see swindler (I'm usually awful at swindler boards), but jsh never gets one.  I open swindler/remake vs. watchtower/remake.  jsh grabs a bunch of native villages and watchtowers, but my swindler has a nose for his watchtowers, hurting his efforts at an engine.  He eventually grabs kings courts, but doesn't king a soothsayer until quite late, and never really has the payload for his engine.  I also grab some native villages, watchtowers and jack, but I go for money and not kings.  This lets me grab colonies in turns 11,12,13, (before jsh has any), and it's just a matter of time before the game ends.

Game 5: jsh starts mpsprs wins, leads 4-1
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413856505151.txt

Shelters game.  I go envoy/menagerie, jsh goes envoy/silver, both into witch and upgrades, but jsh has some bad luck.  He draws witch with envoy, so misses a witch play.  In turn 7, he plays necro, then envoy draws upgrade (which I discard), he causes a shuffle with an unactivated menagerie, and plays witch drawing both upgrades dead.  Seriously unlucky turn.  The result is that jsh buys upgrades turns 5 and 6, and doesn't play either until turn 11.  By which point I have my engine running and I'm working on finishing clearing everything out of my deck, and giving him curses.  jsh resigns rather than test my ability to close out a match.  Sorry about this one jsh.  I know we like to say we make our own shuffle luck, but when you draw 2 of 8 cards remaining in the shuffle and they are both the only two upgrades (when the other 6 are all non-actions), that just sucks.

Game 6: jsh starts mpsprs wins, wins match 5-1
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.505c6645a2e6c78ad2ed5ad3.1413857212047.txt

Colony game.  I start 2-5, jsh 3-4.  I go nothing/mandarin/mine, hoping to play money.  jsh goes smithy silver.  He gets more smithy's and walled villages and a mine, I grab a few smithy's and walled villages as well.   I think the mandarin lets me skip silver more too, so I have more money in my deck, and it's better money too.  But he has better draw.  We hit PCR, and start on the provinces.  We hit PPR, and start on the fairgrounds (4 points a piece).  Then jsh can only hit 5, grabs a duchy and the game is tied.  I have tons on money, buy the colony (he was first, so colony loses).  He has 5, and opts for mandarin over duchy.  I don't think I like that but maybe it's right.  I grab an estate to go up 11, jsh breaks ppr, but I have mandarin/platinum to win.

Some fun games, and some interesting decisions, a lot of colonies.  I think the final score is not really emblematic of the closeness of the match.  Especially since a few of the board we took the same approach, and I simply drew better. 

So now I have 11 wins in two matches, an even better start than last seasons 10.5.  Of course, last season, I then lost 1-5 and 2-4 matches, before tying for first and losing the tiebreaker.  We'll see if I continue to be streaky, or if I can perhaps at least split the remaining matches.

222

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: October 22, 2014, 09:12:49 am »

You guys are really overthinking it...

You're preparing a critique of jsh's art rankings, and just want to make this turn longer to keep examining mercenary?

223

Dominion League / Re: Season 4 - game reports C

« on: October 21, 2014, 10:34:51 pm »

Opening match for C2:  mpsprs vs. zporiri. 
twitch highlight: http://www.twitch.tv/mpsprs/c/5337100
youtube stuff may follow, along with chat log.

Game 1:  zporiri starts mpsprs wins-leads 1-0
Log:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413848582812.txt

Chapel was the bane for young witch.  We both opened chapel/silver into cultists, but zporiri's chapel missed the shuffle, while I picked up a cultist and trashed 4 cards.  This gave me a slight edge, but the big difference in the game came later.  Zporiri trashed the ruined market he got, while I kept mine.  We kept building through the herald pile, but I won the split easily with the market, and was in great shape for the end game, with a more consistent deck and better pile control.  I got ahead and ended the game by piling cultists. 

Game 2: zporiri starts mpsprs wins-leads 2-0
Log:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413849331010.txt

We both started haven/apprentice with a 5-2 split, and then dove into worker's villages to grab peddlers for expand antics.  Zporiri was ahead, but got a little aggressive trashing colonies for draw.  In particular, on what turned out to be his last turn, he trashed a colony and expanded a province into a colony (instead of expanding his last peddler instead).  This left just two colonies left, and I was able to grab both (along with 5 estates) to snatch an unexpected victory.

Game 3:  zporiri starts mpsprs wins, leads 3-0
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413849693245.txt

We both go for HT into duchy/duke.  Zporiri wins the duchy split, I grab more tunnels, and hence more gold.  Zporiri grabs extra coppers, which I'm not sure is good (spreads out horse trader plays).  He would still win, except he unluckily can't pick up the last duke three turns in a row, and is forced into estate on two of those turns, while I gain on him with islands/tunnels.  I hit 5 with HT and buy the last duke for a very lucky one point win. 

Then begins the ordeal of convincing goko to let me go first.

Game 4: mpsprs starts mpsprs wins, leads 4-0
Log: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413850594755.txt

Only 2 restarts to find this fascinating board.  We both open silver/chapel (again).  This time, I hit five and get to trash, while he doesn't hit 5.  I grab a haggler, and it snowballs from there.  I have a fairly comfortable lead-enough so that my poor end game management doesn't really matter.  I think I should have grabbed a council room much earlier (to reliably draw my deck-I got one late, never saw it).  I didn't even recognize the forge and fortress possibilities until partway through the game.  And I should have been buying province or forge earlier, and using my hagglers to pick up border villages, rather than buying the border villages outright.  Nevertheless, I am able to win comfortably forging province to province and buying a province.

Game 5:  mpsprs starts mpsprs wins, leads 5-0
Log:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413851319952.txt

I open masquerade/silver, but zporiri has a much less fun 5/2.  He opts for stash, and plays (I think) to end up with a fairly thin deck picking up a province every shuffle.  My masq, and margraves mess with some of his turns, and I'm pretty sure that strategy without support is just too slow, and his 5/2 means he is late getting started with the masq and margrave.  I pretty much play masq/margrave big money, and win comfortably.

Game 6: mpsprs starts mpsprs wins, wins 6-0!
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20141020/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1413852365413.txt

I start 5-2, and opt for stonemason overpay for two masquerades.  zporiri goes double ambassador.  I start building a stack of treasuries, zporiri never gets a masq to punish me for that.  I make a bunch of mistakes (mostly failing to take advantage of stonemason overpay).  We both get 3 provinces, but my stonemasons and border villages give me the advantage on duchy dancing, and with two piles already gone, duchies end up as pile 3.  Probably zporiri should have broken ppr when he had the chance,given my advantage on duchies, but I think if I had properly overpaid on stonemason in turn 11, and again on turn 13, I think I'd have been able to end it with a win sooner anyway.


So, for the second season in a row, I open with 6-0.  Let's see if I can maintain fairly strong play, or if I simply continue the high variance play from last season.  Thanks to zporiri for the matches, and good luck with the rest of the season.

224

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Easy Puzzles

« on: October 21, 2014, 08:03:23 pm »

Doesn't conspirator technically fit liopoils puzzle too?  You don't need it in play, but simply to have played it.  One you've played it you don't care if it disappears from play.

225

Dominion Articles / Re: Top 3 cards beginning with the letter U

« on: October 21, 2014, 09:53:06 am »

Why not take on a real challenge:  A ranking of the cards beginning with Q.

1.  Quarry.  This worthless card well deserves its position as the worst card on this list.  Can't even help in big money!

Any objections?