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76

Dominion Articles / Re: How's about some Multiplayer

« on: June 08, 2012, 10:57:10 am »

I enjoyed the article, but I also have to say that I learned more from WW's reply. I would think removing the "group think" and "collusion" paragraphs and adding most of WW's advice would make for a great article.

77

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic is still down

« on: June 08, 2012, 09:42:59 am »

The good news is that it's under warranty, I got the express replacement option when I bought it, and they have the motherboard in stock, so they say it'll be replaced by the end of day tomorrow.  So you have at least about 24 hours in which you'll have to find something else to do.  :-)

Thanks for the update!
By the way: What you have done for dominion by coding and running isotropic is really tremendous. Even if and when isotropic will get shut down once the official server starts running, we will have a better server than we would have without isotropic. Isotropic set standards and expectations, and it sounds like those in charge of the official server are quite aware of them, and are willing to put in the work to satisfy them.

But that was just a "by the way", I really hope isotropic is back online soon so I can get my dominion fix!!!

78

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Will Scout Ever Get Better?

« on: June 04, 2012, 09:15:16 am »

IMO Scout is best not in very green decks, but in combination with another type-specific card drawer (scrying pool, apothecary). More of these and scout will get better.

79

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which Cards Are Most Luck-Dependent?

« on: June 04, 2012, 08:36:58 am »

I am afraid of posting in this thread since rrenaud could prove anything wrong with half an hour of coding... 

80

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What cards are the most fun?

« on: June 03, 2012, 08:18:13 pm »

Menagerie is my #1 choice.

This.

81

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which Cards are the least fun?

« on: June 03, 2012, 08:16:00 pm »

Wow I really love masquerade. No other card except possession links the two decks as much. There are the obvious points, such as "Opponent plays a militia? Better know whether he has already played his masquerade this shuffle." But there are also many subtle points, e.g. that it makes heavy trashing almost unplayable, and sometimes even light trashing undesirable. Thinking of getting a second masquerade? Depends a lot on the opponent's deck, doesn't it?

82

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Why do you enjoy Dominion?

« on: May 29, 2012, 11:57:55 am »

Great article, wonderfully written as always.

83

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The first Dominion quiz

« on: May 29, 2012, 10:56:37 am »

The other question where more than half the community got it wrong was the Tactician/Secret Chamber into Laboratory. As pointed out a Wharf will be far superior depending on the other cards in the kingdom. This was probably not a good question for a quiz (or needed to be formulated differently).

Grrr! I should have known that you would insert a question where you can prove widespread bias against silver

(I am not sure I would have gotten it wrong in an actual game though - I am ware that wharfs don't really mind copper in a Province game, so actually playing a Colony game it's probably apparent that silver is a substantial part of the economy.)

84

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Attention-whoring thread.... I did it!!

« on: May 29, 2012, 06:31:50 am »

Finally back to level 40...

85

Dominion Articles / Re: Taking risks & driving the P2 seat

« on: May 29, 2012, 06:29:30 am »

Unfortunately I don't recall the BM deck, but from what I remember it was fairly dull overall. In particulary, hardly any plus buys.

Embargos cut both ways - he is already picking one up on turn 2, and can easily embargo the highways/labs/vineyards.
So I don't think it's as clear-cut as you make it.

86

Dominion Articles / Re: Taking risks & driving the P2 seat

« on: May 29, 2012, 04:59:19 am »

Really nice article!

Here is a game where I chose a swingy strategy on purpose:

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120528-080750-ea2e2993.html

Cards in supply (key cards in bold):
Black Market, Embargo, Embassy, Highway, Laboratory, Pearl Diver, Potion, Scout, Spice Merchant, Treasure Map, and Vineyard

I am second player and my opponents opens 5/2 and chooses Embassy. An Embassy is not an elite opening, but still a pretty strong one - it is one of the fastest BM type cards, I would guess it's better than Envoy/Silver.
I draw 4/3 and it seems I would be behind on any strategy close to BM, and Labs/Highways are not a strong combination without a reliable +buy. So I decide to open Spice Merchant/Black Market and hope to get lucky underground. In the actual game this works fantastically as I get a tournament on turn 5, and a Hunting party on turn 10. Winning Followers on turn 11 essentially decides the game.

So it worked, and it makes for a good story for this thread. But was my logic correct, and does the story actually hold up? That is still not clear to me. For example, yes I am behind, but Embassy is also quite swingy by itself (for example, there is a huge difference between drawing it in turn 3 or turn 4), so just going for Embassy myself is already a high-variance strategy. Also, maybe my strategy was just good by itself? Even if I don't immediately get lucky via BM, I can hope for some synergy between Labs/Highways with the unreliable +buy from Spice Merchant, the virtual +buy from Black Market, and maybe some actual +buys found in the Black Market.

As usual, it's more complicated in an actual game than in theory...

87

Dominion General Discussion / Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $3 cards

« on: May 27, 2012, 08:28:12 pm »

I agree that Develop is underrated - it is certainly better than I had thought originally. Basically whenever you are building an engine where you need cards in the range $4/$5/$6 or $5/$6/$7, develops gives you a $5 value at the cost of two places in your hand and an action, plus topdecking the two new cards - that usually pretty good value.

I also think using it on curses or sea hags etc. can very occasionally be useful - basically when the game is going to be very long, and you have some card draw e.g. via labs, and you want to transition slowly into having a decent hand. Could be a colony game, or a goons game, etc.

88

Game Reports / Re: Not a gg?

« on: May 27, 2012, 11:37:36 am »

Heh, I didn't mean to imply anything about your play, or that your victory was undeserved. Reading it here I can see how it can come across the wrong way though - sorry.

I fully understand that "gg" has become a shorthand for "Thanks for the game", but sometimes I still take it to mean "This was a good game." When the latter is wasn't really the case, I sometimes make a joke (hence the smiley!) about it. For me a good game is one that is interesting, well-played by both sides, and reasonably close for most of the way. Here, two of the three weren't the case (not well played by me, and it was basically decided early on).

The reason he couldn't get any $6 hands was because he spent $5 on Lighthouses on turns 6, 8, 9 AND 13.

I certainly didn't play very well but I don't see why this decision in particular is a big deal - Lighthouse has almost the same buying power as all the $5 cards in the game (unless it misses reshuffles, which is a pretty big "unless" to admit), and given that it protects against Mountebank, it's certainly not a lot worse than the $5 cards in the game.

My spice merchant purchase on turn 5 on the other hand...if I want to buy it at all, I should open with it.

89

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Question about bridge

« on: May 27, 2012, 07:32:28 am »

@Jrisch: I am not sure we really disagree much. You asked when I would buy bridge when I wouldn't buy woodcutter, which is a pretty low bar.

FV, don't really agree. Without draw your fv/bridge chains don't have a particularly high yield and a double bridge when you are going for vp isn't all that great. Without draw the combo doesn't synergize well.

Agree it's not a great synergy, but good enough to make it worth buying over other non-exciting strategies.

Conspirator suffers the same problem as peddler, you don't really want terminals to activate it, again, possibly better than silver (though somewhat less clearly 1 terminal and a conspirator in hand is pretty awful)

Now here I really disagree - probably you want to buy many cheap cantrips to activate your conspirators, and a bridge helps you to pick them up (and is of course great to have once you get conspirators going).

90

Dominion Articles / Re: The Thing With... Duration Cards

« on: May 26, 2012, 01:47:33 pm »

Does that then mean that in a BM + X game, you would buy one or two more wharfs (wharves?) than you would smithys?

That's correct. I believe (could be wrong) you want 1-2 smithys (2 smithys situationally, not every game) and 3 wharves or so in BM games.

I would put it this way: in BM+Smithy game, I only want one smithy - I might pick up a 2nd one very late. In a BM+Wharf game, the first two $5+ buys should always be Wharfs (even if you could buy a gold instead).

91

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Question about bridge

« on: May 26, 2012, 01:42:43 pm »

In addition to jomini's post:

- When Peddler is on the board (cantrip+bridge -> $3 peddlers is pretty cool)
- With Fishing village on the board - you can safely spam FV/bridges with your $3/4 buys, and just one double bridge turn probably makes it worth it.
- Obviously when I want to get a conspirator engine going.
- When I can aim for multiple bridge turns by starting with heavy trashing.

92

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Greatest Isotropic Moments of 2012

« on: May 26, 2012, 01:33:17 pm »

In which it takes us 28 turns to empty the Provinces, with the strongest attack being....

NOBLE BRIGAND

There were 4 coppers left in the supply at the end of the game (20 in the trash).


http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/26/game-20120526-102706-df919603.html

93

Dominion General Discussion / Re: A little running joke between me and theory

« on: May 26, 2012, 06:54:20 am »

TheBride plays a Bishop.
... getting +$1 and +1 ▼.
... TheBride trashes a Marriage and gets +(∞ - 1)/2  ▼.

 

proof that playing dominion too ruthlessly can destroy a marriage.

What is the point of Bishoping it if you would get more points playing it?

That's what I thought, too, but my wife insisted on getting married in church

94

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Overrated and Underrated

« on: May 24, 2012, 05:46:31 pm »

Village is a pretty reasonable opening if you plan to pick up ambassadors at turn 2 and 3 - I never know whether it's superior to opening double ambassador and picking up a village at turn 3 or 4.

95

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Re: Dominion: Dark Ages on Rio Grande Games' Website

« on: May 24, 2012, 04:04:07 am »

BUM
$4
Action - reaction

If you play this, you gain $1 this turn for every 3 cards in the trash.
When another player trashes a card, you may reveal this card. If you do, pick up that card from the trash.

96

Help! / Re: I need help learning how to Torture people

« on: May 23, 2012, 12:48:48 pm »

I agree with what paddyodoors said - you really crippled your economy by trashing coppers without even buying silver, and not being able to play your moneylender for a while due to lack of action.
Imagine your first scheme being a silver, and then some of your subsequent scheme buys being Walled villages instead - you would have a much better hand. (E.g. after turn 14 you have 3 Torturues, 2 WV, and 5 schemes, which is definitely not enough villages for turn 14 in a torturer game!)
Also, you took way too many curses - several times I noticed you taking  a curse instead of discarding a copper and a dead card.

97

Game Reports / Re: Harvest's don't work if you draw your deck

« on: May 23, 2012, 10:06:27 am »

Agree with jonts and WW, Merchant Ship beats Lab and Stables easily.

98

Game Reports / Re: The Mythical Saboteur Pin

« on: May 23, 2012, 06:09:10 am »

I have seen Saboteur as the keycard (not that rare with a KC or TR-fueled enginge), and of course I have seen Treasure map as the keycard - but never both in the same kingdom!

99

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Overrated and Underrated

« on: May 23, 2012, 03:49:02 am »

Lighthouse, Vineyard, Monument, Wharf, Witch, Vault, Menagerie, and Hunting Party are all very highly rated cards...

Yet I still see players with reasonable levels
- buying just two lighthouses then silvers with a Witch already in my hand,
- buying a gold or a market before the second wharf (or a market before the 3rd wharf on a board with a good village),
- going for an elaborate strategy when Hunting Party+X is dominant,
- not realizing when they can plan their buying strategy completely around making menageries fire almost every time, etc.

(I am not sure I agree that vineyard is underrated, I also see people going for it when they shouldn't.)

100

Game Reports / Re: Insane Kings Court/City/Haggler game

« on: May 22, 2012, 11:05:02 am »

Opponent resigned turn 15 (I don't blame him, the turn before was ridiculous)

Might be related to him drawing KC KC KC without an action also...