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26

Help! / HP-Vault only hits $8 3 times in 15 turns

« on: December 20, 2012, 11:02:17 pm »

This is a loser's bracket tournament game where I try to use HP-Vault, as does my opponent. I open silver-silver to avoid having more unique cards to his moneylender silver. I buy vault before the HP. Then pick up 2 of those. I basically play with BM rules from here on out, except turn 10 where I pick up a duchy (could have been gold) thinking there's a good chance we split provinces 4-4 and I'm first player and will need the tiebreaker. Is that my major mistake? Did I need another HP? Should I buy HP before Vault? I feel like this strategy should get me to $8 more than 3 times in 15 turns? He has a moneylender and woodcutter and is faster?

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/20/game-20121220-181450-9b408f1c.html

Edit: My guess is there's just not enough money in my deck, plus I have 4 duchies. That early duchy instead of gold was probably the problem.

27

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 20, 2012, 10:52:33 pm »

Here are the logs for games 1, 6 & 7. And some thoughts from a lower level player.

Game 1 log: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/20/game-20121220-180349-a6bb8326.html
Very ugly Possession slog where I buy early green to destroy my deck for the Possession shenanigans to follow. Which works just well enough.

Game 2: This one is close. I break PPR turn 16 knowing I need the last Province to win and figuring my ghost ship will keep him from buying it next turn. The ghost ship works and holds him to an estate. I know I have to province next turn or lose. I feel my deck is good enough to do this, but I draw $7 of course and game over.

Game 3: I feel like HP-vault should get to $8 more than 3 times in 15 turns. The turn 8 province should maybe be a gold, but I'm basically playing with BM rules so IDK. The turn 10 duchy is probably a mistake though, cause it could've been gold as well.

Game 4: Yeah not that interesting. BM with caravans, a rabble and a market for me.

Game 5: I'm not good with scrying pool so I hope to ignore it. Trying to get to apprentice the peddlers, but there's no +buy so that was probably a bad plan. Anyway I don't get enough apprentices or peddlers because I worry that his deck is going too fast and I probably green a bit too early. The SP was probably the better choice anyway.

Game 6: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/20/game-20121220-183641-d8374748.html
He doesn't really contest FG in a colony game. I use the FG to get platina and prefer Nobles at 6 for the draw. Also an early Jester doesn't hurt.

Game 7: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/20/game-20121220-184626-d5bd37f5.html
Sort of an ugly board. And I think going first did hurt me here. Ignoring familiar, the only real option I think is Rabble BM. The game took 26 turns with only 1 province bought, so that might've worked. I ended up with all 10 curses anyway even with having the first familiar, which of course I don't get until turn 5. Moat.

Thanks to ibavly for putting up with my scheduling issues and being very flexible. I was 1 coin away from the next round, but them's the breaks. Good luck to ibavly moving forward. Also, much love to insomniac and mith for organizing this and giving us losers a second chance.

28

Game Reports / Colony game win without platinum

« on: December 20, 2012, 12:28:52 am »

I am usually terrible at Colony games and this board doesn't look all that great to me, but I somehow manage 5 colonies (trashing 1) in 18 turns without buying a platinum (which is probably a mistake). Anyway I thought it was interesting.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/19/game-20121219-211609-7b8033e8.html

The key cards here are trade route, fool's gold, apprentice and there is swindler and ambassador. Thankfully, my opponent doesn't really use the attacks, he buys a swindler which could really hurt my slim FG deck plans, but only plays it twice before trashing it. This board didn't look like an 18 turn colony emptying board to me, but maybe I just underestimate FG. Any thoughts are welcome.

29

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 15, 2012, 11:42:02 am »

Thanks for the games Dekryr, were fun. I have to disagree with you on the second game, I think if you went for an engine you could have caught up, I kept having way more money than I was spending. To be fair though, in short Council Room games first player advantage is huge.

I completely agree. The engine is superior in this game. I probably did have a chance if I had gone engine from the start. I actually edited the post this morning when thinking about this game on my drive to work. You picked the better strategy here for sure.

Thanks for the games as well.

30

Game Reports / Re: Game from the tournament - how would you open?

« on: December 15, 2012, 10:49:39 am »

I'm not that good, but my thought was chapel/jack here as well. With that open I wonder if Adventurer becomes a solid card. Interested to hear what others think?

31

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 15, 2012, 10:40:38 am »

At this point I am the highest number left and we are re-seeding right? So, uh, has olneyce signed up for this shindig?

 

32

Loser's Bracket / Re: Rats! Division (Losers Bracket) - Bracket and Results

« on: December 14, 2012, 08:45:29 pm »

Dekryr beats Forge!!! 4-1 We played random sets, no point counter, no identical starting hands.

Game 1: Dekryr 38 Forge!!! 33 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-164910-a4732351.html

Pretty clear vineyards game here with alchemist and apothecary. Also, Horse Traders is a solid card here. I open silver, potion wanting alchemists and horse traders. We split vineyards but my alchemists help me get a province and duchy to win. Neither of us had ever played a vineyards game before, so this was interesting for both of us.

Game 2: Forge!!! 48 Dekryr 21 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-165718-4adb8452.html

Forge!!! gets the 5-2 to my 4-3 and he has first position. I try for Council Room BM with Bank, but I don't play this right, Venture is not better than silver here cause it can make me miss Council Room.  His engine type strategy is better anyway and he outplays me for the decisive victory.

Game 3: Dekryr 56 Forge!!! 45 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-170648-27b806bf.html

Interesting board here with FG, alt VP in silk roads and harem with expand. He doesn't challenge me for the FG and I smuggle some Farming villages from him which smooths out my deck a bit. I'm basically going Fool's Gold BM here and an expand helps  me even the silk road split. Then I try to grab estates as the 3rd pile but pick up bigger VP when available.

Game 4: Dekryr 57 Forge!!! 41 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-171505-02170373.html

More green cards here in the form of tunnel and island. Margrave is the only attack but we both avoid it with tunnels out there. This could be a mistake and he picks one up late. HT and Harvest are tunnel enablers as well as. He opens HT/tunnel to my HT/silver. I think this is closer than the score looks. He has 4 labs and more gold than me at the end. I lose the tunnel split but make up for it with islands. I think my opening silver helps my economy earlier than his tunnel opening and I probably got better shuffle luck here.

Game 5: Dekryr 48 Forge!!! 32 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/14/game-20121214-172320-ddae499f.html

Another fool's gold game and I get a 5-2 here allowing me to open FG margrave. I basically run a Margrave BM deck with FG as my primary buying power. Again he doesn't challenge for FG and I win the split 7-1. His Margrave also helps me line up my FGs better which allows me to stall out less in the end.

Thanks to Forge!!! for the games. He stayed up later than usual to accommodate my weird schedule. I appreciate it. My first tourney win, who's next?

33

Help! / Re: Possession & Alchemist

« on: December 08, 2012, 08:13:53 am »

Your early native village is worth thinking about though. What does it do for your deck in the early, mid, and late game?

I figured the pseudo-trashing of native village could help me a bit early. That was really the only thought. Didn't think about its uselessness when possessed. Also, I'm not good enough to realize when to just skip my buy on turn 3. But thanks it's a good lesson to learn.

34

Help! / Re: Possession & Alchemist

« on: December 07, 2012, 06:37:32 pm »

You got bad luck. Your Potion missed the reshuffle, and you drew it with only $2. That's game over right there.

I think there is strong incentive to go the Alchemist/Possession route here, because nothing else is very strong. The other option is a Rabble engine. Expand can play a key role as a pseudo-Buy, but there just isn't enough going in the non-Potion department. So I think you were right to seek Alchemists and Possession, and you just got truly dreadful luck.

I figured as much, thanks for the confirmation. I don t think I'm very good with Possession so the confirmation is good to have. I'll have to start posting some games where I can actually get strategy advice.

35

Help! / Possession & Alchemist

« on: December 07, 2012, 12:24:15 pm »

This is my first time posting one of these...so here goes. I attached the game log (I saved the log instead of the link so I can't just post a link).

We both open potion-silver. I'm 2nd but think that the alchemist and possession are too good to ignore the potion here, so I mirror the opening. Turn 3 sucks with $2 but I grab the NV and then hit a $6 turn 4. I think the early gold will really help my economy so I take it, not sure if this is correct. I guess rabble could be better here?? Anyway I draw my potion with $2 and can't get an alchemist until turn 8, while my opponent buys a possession next turn (turn 9). Am I screwed now? Should I just try to bomb my deck and rush island and estates to mitigate possession damage? There's no + buy so that's probably too slow. Should I have ignored the potion opening and tried to build a village rabble drawing engine and hope it doesn't get possessed too much? With schemes I'll probably get possessed pretty often? I have no idea what to do here? Is it just bad luck or did I have options?

36

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket Sign-Ups - 15/64

« on: December 07, 2012, 09:29:00 am »

I think it could get complicated trying to add people from later rounds as they lose, but I guess it would depend on the number of people we have in this bracket to start. My main concern with adding people would be it slowing down the loser's bracket tourney. If they lose on Saturday do they have to sign up for loser's by Monday?? so that the loser's tourney can stay on the weekly schedule? I think it's do-able just harder on the people running it.

Also, I would not be opposed at all to letting in people who missed the main tourney. It seems like those extra numbers would help more than hurt at this point.

37

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: December 06, 2012, 04:36:10 pm »

Villages The term village does  not just specifically refer to the Domion card Village; it is a Dominion term for any card that give +2 actions, and usually some other + as well. These cards usually (but not always) have the word village in

Spelling mistake. Dominion (should probably specify as "the Dominion base card") is what I believe you meant to say.

Haha thanks typing a bit fast without spell check on the tablet.

38

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket Sign-Ups - 8/64

« on: December 06, 2012, 03:09:38 pm »

I'm in.

39

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: December 06, 2012, 01:07:54 pm »

4. Control what you put into your deck.
·   This topic may not have the greatest title, but it means: pay attention to what you put into your deck. 
·   You are not required to buy a card every turn.
·   You are not required to use all your buys.
·   You are not required to use all your money. Just because a card is more expensive that doesn't it automatically make it better for your deck than a less expensive card.

Take out the "it" here.

Done, thanks.

40

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: December 06, 2012, 01:05:48 pm »

I appreciate all the feedback. The goal of the village section is to help them avoid becoming village idiots, while introducing engine building without actually calling it engine building, and thus avoiding adding a whole new concept. I am looking for a nice simple ratio to give them the engine idea without getting overly complex. I think 1 more village than terminal may be better than the 1:1 ratio, but I don't want them to think that opening with village is a good idea. I'm also trying to control the length of the article. I'll work on it and see what I can do.

Again thanks to all for the feedback and keep it coming.

Village section has been edited.

41

2012 / Re: Chapel Division: Brackets and Results

« on: December 04, 2012, 11:14:30 am »

Don't worry Robz, I'll take care of Stef for you....:/

czechvarmander defeats Dekryr 4-1.

Game 1: Dekryr 42, czechvarmander 33
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/04/game-20121204-063354-c3422aac.html

No 3 or 4 cost cards. King's Court is a trap here I'm almost certain. Vault-BM loses to Vault with a few Hunting Parties thrown in. I debated between Embassy BM and Vault BM here, but in hindsight adding Hunting Parties seem so obvious. I BLAME MY NERVES.

Game 2: czechvarmander 49, Dekryr 31
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/04/game-20121204-064334-25c0b301.html

A really fun, Wharf, Mint, Fool's Gold game. Turns into a slog at the end. I won the Fool's Gold split, helped by the fact that he sacrificed one of his FG's to the Mint.

Game 3: czechvarmander 25, Dekryr 22
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/04/game-20121204-065004-94df8f3d.html

A Witch game with some Hoard, Great Hall. Buying out the last curse for the win is always cheeky.

Game 4: czechvarmander 36, Dekryr 15
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/04/game-20121204-070417-64d0cc8e.html

Scrying Pool, Possession game. He bought far too many treasures and an Apprentice. Oasis and a thin Scrying Pool deck go great, and once the FV, Oasis, Scrying Pool, Possession deck is up and running it's all over essentially.

Game 5: czechvarmander 31, Dekryr 20
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/04/game-20121204-071308-981a6eeb.html

A chapel/Minion game. Again he bought too many treasures and not enough Minions, a caravan/chapel opening can really stop your early economy although he did hit 5 early. Caravans and Minions don't go great together, and chapelling away your coppers can hurt your Bank. I played a straight forward trashed down Minion deck.

I was really excited to play and Dekryr was a great opponent, friendly, fast and excellent to play against.

A perspective from the loser  .

Game 1: We were both thinking vault BM and going second I still followed his vault purchase (I considered vault better than Embassy here). I saw he was pretty much straight Vault-BM and I got a couple HPs to let me see my vault more. I am really excited to win this game. I've only been playing for a couple months and czech is double my level. Obviously this was a great start. Unfortunately, this is my best game and I make mistakes from here on out that prevent me from winning any more.

Game 2: Fool's Gold game. I am bad with fool's gold, but to ignore it is death. I trash an FG thinking the mint will allow me to get it back and see my FG more often. Clearly a mistake as I lose the split and therefore the game. I also never got a 2nd wharf which hurt.

Game 3: We both go silver-silver to get witches. Which works, neither one misses the 2nd shuffle. I pick up a turn 4 cellar hoping it will let me cycle more and see the witch more, but it doesn't work. I end up getting cursed more early (I think just due to bad shuffle luck, he isn't cycling faster than I am, but the cellar isn't helping that much.) I get a couple moats to slow the cursing down, but playing 1 early is a mistake cause I draw both my Witches dead  (unlucky, draw 2 cards both witches but I shouldn't have played it in the first place). My 2 witches seem glued together in the midgame. I play a witch late, which is a huge mistake cause he can buy out the curses to win. Not sure I could have come back, but I gave myself no chance.

Game 4: I buy too much treasure for Scrying Pool (I'm just not good enough with that card) and miss the SP-oasis synergy. But that being said I actually build a decent deck (he buys lots of Provinces with my deck at least). I think I make a turn 9 mistake buying the Province instead of the Possession. I think my deck is better at this point, but his Scrying Pool engine is just about to get started. Then I get to watch him use my deck to buy out the Provinces, always enjoyable

Game 5: I buy too much treasure again and not enough minions. I felt like I got a bit unlucky here as well with his minions. I didn't think my deck was terrible, but his minions seemed to never cause me to discard a bad hand. I always discarded good ones, but his slim minion deck was superior here. Can't really complain about luck though, because I got a very lucky turn 3 and 4.

All in all I got outplayed by a superior opponent. Congrats to czechvarmander. Thanks to all the folks who are putting this on. I had a great time. Nice that us noobies can play some tourneys.

42

General Discussion / Re: College football

« on: November 30, 2012, 06:45:05 pm »

I'm a Georgia Bulldog fan, got my Master's there. Really hoping they can pull one out tomorrow and then crush the Irish to continue the SEC dominance in college football.

Being from the Midwest and fairly young I grew up in a time where Notre Dame was no longer a dominant football power, but still got talked about an absurd amount. This really made me dislike them. I don't mind them getting pub when they have good teams and deserve it, but it annoyed me that they got press for being great years ago. It's cool, they used to be great, they're not now. Why don't we talk about some top 25 teams?

So I hate to do it, but I have to say Notre Dame is a good team this year. The defense is legit and keeps them in enough games that they were able to win every one so far. I don't think they are one of the 2 best teams in the country, hell Georgia probably isn't either, but the system doesn't work that way. So they get to play in the championship and hopefully UGA does too.

43

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: November 27, 2012, 06:33:23 pm »

Edited. Draft 3 is now the opening post.

Edits:
Fixed turn numbers for BM and Smithy-BM.
Hopefully, made silver test concept simpler.
Added a line about trashing to pair actions together
Added section about greening.

I appreciate all the feedback. I am trying to keep this as a beginner guide. I know there's more but I'm trying to sort what is necessary and what is advanced, otherwise it gets very long. Therefore, no specific engine discussion, engine concepts are in the terminal and village sections. I dislike PPR as a beginner concept because IMO it doesn't apply more than it applies, which makes it a bad beginner concept.

Please leave continue to leave feedback. Thanks for the help.

44

Other Games / Re: Has anyone played Eclipse?

« on: November 21, 2012, 08:45:56 am »

I have played Eclipse (1x), and Twilight Imperium (10x)

I think I prefer TI. 

Core differences:

Eclipse plays much faster (no more than 1/2 the time of TI3 game)
You get to design your own ships in Eclipse
There are more ship types in TI
TI has a simpler resource model
Combat is less meaningful in TI (~1/3 of your VP in eclipse come from combat)

I just found that as the leader, it was much harder to maintain control in eclipse relative to to TI3 - as you can't take away someone elses VPs, and if the other players want to gang up on you, they potentially harm themselves by doing so.

Thus, the end of the game politics were very frustrating in Eclipse.

I don't mind the extra time, but you have to realize that Eclipse is a game that you can potentially bring out on a normal game day, play it, and then play something else.

TI3 - that is your whole day and then some.

Thanks for the input. I think most of those differences would make me, personally, prefer Eclipse. I'd  rather get 2 games in in a day than 1. I like the ship building and importance of battling. The less endgame control is annoying, but sounds like Eclipse would be better for me. Again thanks for the input.

45

Other Games / Re: Has anyone played Eclipse?

« on: November 20, 2012, 03:35:04 pm »

TI:3 = Twilight Imperium 3rd edition?? No haven't played that. My friends have Catan, Spartacus, Ticket to Ride, and obviously Dominion. Dominion is what really got me back into board games. I haven't played the others much.

46

Other Games / Has anyone played Eclipse?

« on: November 20, 2012, 02:03:08 pm »

I'm looking for a fun game as a Christmas gift that I can play with friends. Eclipse won BGG's Game of the year for 2012. We don't mind long games, playing a decent amount of Spartacus lately, but was wondering if anyone played it and what they thought.

47

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: November 20, 2012, 01:32:32 pm »

Shamelessly bumping my own thread. Didn't realize that editing wouldn't bump. A draft of the guide is now the opening post of the thread. Please leave feedback.

48

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: November 16, 2012, 11:44:21 am »

[Is it legal to count your deck?]

You may count your draw deck, but not your discard.

Thanks meant to look that up before posting.

49

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: November 16, 2012, 11:33:06 am »

Draft 2 is posted. Is it too long? I think the openings and attacks section could be removed if necessary.

50

Dominion Articles / Re: Beginner Strategy Guide Idea

« on: November 16, 2012, 10:46:27 am »

I am getting close to finishing this. I will post what I have here and you all can comment and make suggestions.  I think when it's actually finalized it will need a new thread because I think the article should be the first thing on the thread. It is rather long and I'm positive won't fit in 1 post and I didn't save posts at the beginning of this thread. 

As far as giving different strategies for different levels. I think that may be difficult. Putting this together and trying to keep it beginner or noob friendly was difficult enough. But we can always parcel out what I have and try to fit it into different categories if everyone thinks that will be better.

I'll post the first part of what I have shortly.