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2101

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Expansion: Ingenuity (temporary name)

« on: December 24, 2011, 10:38:20 pm »

Windmill: Interesting idea. It could lead to a Windmill rush: Use Windmills to quickly empty the Estates, and use the +buy to empty the Windmills + 1 other pile. Not sure how fast that would be though.

Pendant: I think this is too strong. You could play all your treasure, then play Pendant so that you'll only have to shuffle the Victory cards and extra Action cards, which becomes less likely as the game goes on. So, it begins to approach a Gold for $4. I do like the synergies though: shuffle in some Victory cards, which could trigger cards like Squire and Fiddler more often.

Academy: I really don't know how to evaluate this. If you don't draw the card, it's an Upgrade variant. If you do draw the card, you go down to a 4 card hand, and if you want to trash a card you go down to 3 cards. Kinda hard to tell how it'll play. Academy chain becomes "2 Cards, 1 Action, $1, discard a card", which seems like a nice take on the "1 card 1 action $1" card that doesn't exist.

2102

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: USE the CLUES to CRACK the CODE

« on: December 24, 2011, 02:44:08 am »

(STUFF)

To be honest, I kept myself from looking at the blacked-out cards that weren't purchased. Thus, I had considered Moneylender as an option for a little while, as it was within the viability range between Jester and Nomad Camp.

However, assuming that was indeed Saboteur, how would Black's Moneylender be trashed? After all, a was in the bin. For that to happen, Manheim needed to have bought a Saboteur as well, but he didn't have one, nor was there a Sab in the trash. Therefore, Loan stuck out as the better option.

Black still has a in the deck. My assumption was that Manheim bought a Moneylender as well, but it was Saboteured before it could be played. Maybe it was a late buy because of all the Copper coming in.

2103

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: USE the CLUES to CRACK the CODE

« on: December 24, 2011, 12:05:55 am »

We know that 1: there are cards that can give curses.
2: There are cards that can trash
3: There are no cards that give VP
4: There is a card that hands out Coppers. I think it's unlikely someone would buy so many Coppers otherwise.

Furthermore, Villages would probably not be bought if was non-terminal, as it's the only action left (unless Swindler did something)

Opening Nomad Camp implies there's a $5 you particularly want. In line with #4 above, my guess is that this $5 is Jester. It would also explain why you have so much Copper: 4 Jesters bombarding you has to do something. Additionally, Jestering a Harem will hand out Curses, which could explain the weird Curse split.

It appears that Black trashed some of his/her Copper, which may have opened up the chance for Jester to discard a Victory card. My guess would be Moneylender. It's a card that you want to trash Copper with, but can't trash any of those Curses with.

Finally, it is clear from the final spread that you had a decent lead. For some reason, you lose your Nomad Camp. Doesn't seem likely you'll pass it, and you only have the 2 Jesters in your deck. So the final action is likely Saboteur, in a last ditch attempt to hit a Province or Duchy and pull ahead.

  = Jester,  = Moneylender,  = Saboteur



Alright, just read Tejayes' post. I didn't want to read anybody's post until I tried solving it myself...Moneylender can't be in it because it comes before Mandarin. I have to agree that Loan is the only good candidate. I don't think there's any other Copper-trasher from Jester to Mandarin.

2104

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Hamlet/Gardens?

« on: December 23, 2011, 11:49:12 pm »

Make a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day.  Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

2105

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How do I make my cards?

« on: December 23, 2011, 04:23:57 pm »

I don't think there's a way to fix this without modifying the template itself, because the location of text boxes is hardcoded. I personally don't have much experience with MSE templates.

Also, from what I could read about the template, the font for Dominion card names is TrajanPro / TrajanPro-Bold. Both are commerical fonts that cost money. Presumably, if you install the font, your fonts for the card names will start working. Or you could modify the font to a font you do have, if you know how to do that.

2106

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Hamlet/Gardens?

« on: December 23, 2011, 04:22:22 am »

I'm pretty sure Hamlet by itself is not good enough for Gardens because of the reasons said in the post, but Hamlet + another enabler is. I tried doing Bureaucrat/Hamlet/Gardens, reasoning that the Silver would make losing money to Hamlet hurt less. It worked, but it was somewhat slow, I think slower than Smithy-BM. Although Bureaucrat isn't the best candidate for a Gardens helper.

In a Workshop game, you're ideally ending the game vary fast, so idk if there's time to transition into Hamlet.

EDIT: Here's the CouncilRoom log. http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111221-221747-e917698b.html
Looking back, I noticed that I opened Bureaucrat/Hamlet (which appears to be worse than the Silver opening).

2107

Game Reports / Saboteur: Counters Fool's Gold strategies?

« on: December 21, 2011, 03:32:14 am »

So, I just played this game
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/21/game-20111221-001722-02f9bb77.html

I decide Bridge/Fool's Gold, RomaNorgy does Saboteur/-. I do a standard "buy lots of Fool's Golds, buy Provinces" deck.

Roma goes for an early Saboteur attack that transitions into a deck that wants to do heavy Saboteur damage. From what I could tell, it uses extra actions to play a bunch of Bridges and Saboteurs, uses Bridge money to buy more components, and eventually leads to Saboteurs that will only hit Provinces. Turns out that setting up that engine is too slow.

However, the interesting bit is around the early/mid-game: In a pure Fool's Gold deck, the only Saboteur targets are the Provinces. This is both good and bad: you always hit VP, but you never hit the buying power. In this game I lost 4 Provinces to Saboteur, not to mention the Golds and Duchies I lost after I gained those as a replacement.

If this game shows anything, it's that in a Fool's Gold board you can't let your opponent get all the Fool's Gold. I'm pretty sure no amount of Saboteuring stops you once you have 10 Fool's Gold. But if you bought some Fool's Gold yourself (say 3-4), and got a Saboteur as well, would that make up for the bad Fool's Gold split?

2108

Game Reports / Re: Avoiding Chapel

« on: December 20, 2011, 03:01:51 pm »

It's pretty difficult to judge exactly how much utility you get out of trashing a card, but here's my thoughts on this:

1) Chapeling down to 1 Copper, 2 Silver for treasure might not have been the best move. Especially when you need money to pick up Wharf/Bazaar as fast as possible, getting 1 component per turn is too slow. My gut reaction is that playing Chapel exactly once might win out, but gut reactions have a tendency to be wrong.
2) More generally, Chapel tends to not be as good where there's a strategy without Chapel that ends the game quickly enough. Most of the time, the tempo you lose early on with Chapel is made up for in the later turns, when your deck takes off. But if the game's fast enough without Chapel, then you might not have the time to regain that tempo. If memory serves correctly, Envoy-BM > Chapel-Envoy-BM > Chapel-BM.

2109

Council Room Feedback / 11 Fool's Gold, -1 Hamlets

« on: December 20, 2011, 04:40:16 am »

http://councilroom.com/search_result?p1_name=Titandrake&p2_name=freshlunch&kingdom=

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111217-225913-eed890e9.html

Not really any major issues, just thought it was funny. From what I see, the -1 Hamlet comes from buying it from Black Market, because Council Room doesn't track what's in the Black Market deck. And 11 Fool's Gold comes because one of them was Theived and gained. So, because the Fool's Gold is gained, the amount in Supply drops by 1, so supply is -1 and there must be 10 - (-1) = 11 in play.

Unless my guesswork is wrong, in which case I'd like to know how I spawned a card out of nowhere.

2110

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Evaluate your best and your worst board

« on: December 18, 2011, 02:01:53 pm »

Best Board:
$7 King's Court
$5 Haggler, Cache, Library, Treasury
$4 Bureaucrat, Mining Village
$3 Wishing Well
$2P Apothecary
$2 Haven

Huh. Wasn't expecting that. I've never tried Apothecary/Cache before, so I'd probably try that. Maybe pick up a KC along the way for KC-Apothecary, and a Haggler or two to give pseudo +Buy.

Worst Board:
$5 Embassy, Cartographer
$4 Silk Road, Spice Merchant, Noble Brigand
$3 Fortune Teller, Develop, Scheme, Oracle
$2 Cellar

Yeah I really don't know how to use Cartographer, and I keep trying to not play Embassy-BM when I really should. I've experimented with Noble Brigand recently, and it's not bad, but I'm probably playing it a bit wrong. Eh, I'd still do Embassy-BM, hope that it gets more money than Brigand steals.

2111

Other Games / Re: MTG

« on: December 16, 2011, 11:37:31 pm »

Casualish player here. First started when Mirrodin came out. I haven't played MTG in a while. But I used to play at local tournaments, usually prereleases or limited, so I didn't have to worry about dropping lots of money on staples. I still read about it though.

2112

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How do I make my cards?

« on: December 16, 2011, 10:40:29 pm »

You could download Magic Set Editor, then use the Dominion template found here: http://mtg.pifro.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1442&sid=f55409765f1d08d30c640d5983523e91

You'd still have to print it out, and then sleeve it on top of existing Dominion cards.

2113

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Text or Images, Which do you use?

« on: December 16, 2011, 02:36:42 am »

Images. I started with it, I got used to it, and I tend to associate cards by image, not by name.

2114

Simulation / Re: Nomad Camp/Fool's Gold

« on: December 13, 2011, 10:55:03 pm »

Somewhat off topic, but this topic got me to try pure FG strategies more, and it definitely feels a bit strong. Just played Mine/Fool's Gold opening, got 4 Provinces in 11 turns. Mine is faster than Spice Merchant, but I would suspect the two perform similarly.

2115

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Greatest Isotropic Moments of 2011

« on: December 13, 2011, 01:15:07 am »

Here's a somewhat silly game.

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111211-221042-6f732b99.html

I open 5/2. So I think "Hey, I can get an early Minion, then embargo Gold and initiate a Minion engine." So I open Minion/Embargo. Then the Minions get embargoed. Then the Embargoes get embargoed.

And then we both decide we don't care what happens anymore, so we mess around. Some highlights include:
Both of us trying to start Worker's Village/Courtyard engines.
sssss buying a Hoard off a Black Market to circumvent the embargo, causing me to buy a Black Market to see if I can get the Tunnel in there (I have a decent Minion advantage.) Of course I don't get it...but I do get to steal some Hoarded Gold with Noble Brigand
Mentions of M.A.D. in the chat
This turn:

   --- sssss's turn 22 ---
   sssss plays a Worker's Village.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions and +1 buy.
   sssss plays a Worker's Village.
   ... (sssss reshuffles.)
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions and +1 buy.
   sssss plays a Worker's Village.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +2 actions and +1 buy.
   sssss plays a Salvager.
   ... trashing a Province for +$8 and +1 buy.
   sssss plays a Copper, a Hoard, and a Silver.
   sssss buys an Estate.
   ... gaining a Gold.
   sssss buys an Estate.
   ... gaining a Gold.
   sssss buys an Estate.
   ... gaining a Gold.
   sssss buys an Estate.
   ... gaining a Gold.
   sssss buys an Estate.
   ... gaining a Gold.
   (sssss draws: a Duchy, a Silver, a Mine, a Copper, and a Gold.)

Here's another from a lot longer ago. Calling it "Silver Overload" until further notice (this was before all the Hinterlands silver cards)
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110821-162740-b8ad1c37.html

Turn 13: Down 4 Provinces to 1
Turn 14: Somehow get the first prize. Notice that Gardens is in the game...
I then proceed to play Trusty Steed to gain 4 Silvers every time I can. End result? 18 Silvers, exactly 50 cards in deck, and just enough Gardens to eek out a win. I still can't believe I pulled it off.

2116

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: December 11, 2011, 06:49:30 pm »

In Titandrake vs ARTjoMS in Chapel Divison, Titandrake concedes due to a combination of scheduling issues and personal desire to stop playing in the tournament.

I forgot to save the logs of the games we did play, so I'll post the CouncilRoom stuff once it's up.
Also I'm abbreviating as Art from now on.

Game 1: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111211-103342-3ad4b6e2.html

Identical starting hands means we both open 2/5. I decide to go for Moneylender, Art goes for Cartographer. Cartographer pays off, with the increased cycling helping pull an early lead. I'm not quite sure why Spy was bought here. Maybe because losing a Moneylender play or an early Gold really hurts. I have some extra Silver instead of Spy, but decide not to buy some Islands along the way, which ends up becoming a mistake. Tiebreaker + removing Estates is useful. I get a Gold advantage, Art gets Cartographer advantage, and I maintain a slim advantage on VP.

Turn 11 I buy Noble Brigand. My logic being that because of Moneylender, we are both low on Copper, so my odds are pretty good to steal something of use. This pays off: I steal a Silver and a Gold, and Art ends up buying a NB as well. I try to end the game, the standard end-game desperate VP grab happens, and I lose in the end.

Game 2: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111211-103936-85cbf197.html

We both do the same strategy (Feast for a good $5, buy a Mint, then HP, Torturer, and Mint gaining Harem shenanigans). Art first gets $5 on turn 7. I get Silver + 4 Copper turn 4. Yeah.

Game 3: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111211-104833-8ba79574.html

Basically the perfect Peddler game. Market, Caravan, Moneylender to remove coppers. We both race to get all the Peddlers we can. Art picks up some Remodels along the way to get some Platinum, while I pick up some Caravans instead. Art uses some Remodels to pick up some Caravans from Estates, but because of all the cantrip-buying many piles are dangerously low. In the end, I can end the game before Art's deck goes off, with the trashed Estates giving me the tiebreaker.

I failed to communicate some time issues, and because of time zones we only had Sunday to play. So in the end, I decided it wouldn't be worth the effort to finish the set and conceded.

2117

2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships

« on: November 29, 2011, 11:03:41 pm »

Chapel Division, #27 Titandrake vs #38 jonnyjack

Titandrake 4 : 2 jonnyjack

Game 1: Titandrake 28-24 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-191149-94a9a94d.html
Game 2: Titandrake 27-21 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-191612-9b5a4f1e.html
Game 3: jonnyjack 46-34 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-192025-4b26a357.html
Game 4: Titandrake 47-35 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-193220-33f2c88a.html
Game 5: jonnyjack 19-2 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-194022-d54de0ec.html
Game 6: Titandrake 36-27 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/29/game-20111129-194353-4133e645.html

An oddly high number of Big Money boards here. Props to jonnyjack for being so nice.

2118

Game Reports / Re: Fun with IGG

« on: November 29, 2011, 07:09:10 pm »

I recently went with IGG rush (on an unregistered account unfortunately, so I don't have the log) and lost, albeit to a deck that ran Scheme/Treasure Map that got it to work after I had bought ~3 IGG (oh, and it was also a Colony game). Surprisingly it was still close, I think 85-79 or something like that. Probably should have tried rushing a 3rd pile instead of transitioning to a Colony game.

2119

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: ABC

« on: November 29, 2011, 01:55:55 am »

That solution is so much cleaner than mine. I though mass Highways would be too slow, so I used Border Village to gain Hagglers. Then I played a bunch of Hagglers, bought some Colonies to gain a bunch of stuff, and ended with a mega-turn where I played 5 Governors trashing 5 Platinum into the last 5 Colonies.

Incidentally, I have been PMed a 7 turn solution. I'll post it up after a few days, in case people still want to work on it.

2120

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: ABC

« on: November 27, 2011, 08:36:07 pm »

Each turn. Although you're free to do the whole game if you'd like...

2121

Puzzles and Challenges / ABC

« on: November 27, 2011, 07:04:52 pm »

In a solitaire game with the following rules:
1. Perfect shuffle luck
2. Actions must be played in alphabetical order
have all 8 Colonies in your deck in as few turns as possible.

Notes on the 2nd rule: TR and KC still play the action, so KC-Bridge is not valid because Bridge is before KC. Additionally, something like KC-KC-Woodcutter-Woodcutter-Woodcutter is not allowed because the play order is

KC -KC (1st copy) - 3 Woodcutter copies - KC (2nd copy) ...
which is not in alphabetical order.

If playing an action would force you to play actions out of alphabetical order (as with Golem or Throne Room), you may not play that action.

Finally, as a benchmark, my current solution gets 8 Colonies in 10 turns.

2122

Dominion Articles / Re: Request: Diadem

« on: November 26, 2011, 05:32:25 pm »

I've gotten Diadem exactly once, here. My logic at the time was "I need to end this game right now, the game likely won't get through another reshuffle, and Diadem is going to at least be a Gold, so it'll be 1 turn faster than BoG". Admittedly, it didn't matter because I already had >50% of total VP available, and with Trusty Steed in my next hand I was getting $8 no matter which one I picked.

However, if I knew I would be drawing the prize instead, then picking Diadem = $3 now rather than +$3 later, which might be enough to push you over the edge for a Province gain.

2123

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: I'm bored: here's a rules nightmare

« on: November 26, 2011, 02:09:37 am »

Perhaps at this point, I should mention that originally, Victory cards stayed as Victory cards and Implosion turned only actions to treasure. Then I decided that hosed Big Money waaaaay too hard. Of course, I forgot I could remove the Duration part and make the card only affect yourself. I might try that. Interesting feedback so far...

One big problem is that this card creates standardized decks. But it does it for one turn (2 for the duration version), which might be okay, especially if some Implosion based strategy is not overly dominant.

2124

Variants and Fan Cards / I'm bored: here's a rules nightmare

« on: November 26, 2011, 01:16:30 am »

Implosion
Cost: $4
Action-Duration
This turn and next turn:
All treasure cards are actions. Their text is "+1 Action. Draw cards equal to how much this card would normally be worth."
All non-treasure cards not named Implosion are Treasures. Their text is "+$ equal to half the cost of this card, rounded down."
(This affects all players)

I am actually considering this as a card, but I am positive there are plenty of reasons not to use it. Let's see who will come up with the most compelling arguments, shall we?

2125

Game Reports / Aggressive Noble Brigand Opening

« on: November 24, 2011, 02:03:30 am »

I just played this game, and would like some thoughts on it.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201111/23/game-20111123-224750-0476a4cf.html

This board was dominated by KC/Grand Market. So, I decide to open Oasis/Silver, buy Bazaars to add non-Copper sources of money while keeping action-density high, then get KC and Grand Market and go nuts.

DarkkeyBoard follows the same general strategy, except opens Noble Brigand/Silver, and proceeds to buy 4 (!) Noble Brigands over the course of the game. They give me a few extra coppers and eat away my Silver. He (or she) then buys a bunch of Bazaars as well, which give the actions to play Noble Brigand repeatedly over the course of the game to steal any Silvers and Golds I have. The net result of this is that the GM split is 3/7, and I only win because of 1st turn advantage + the only KC-KC of the game.

I think buying Noble Brigand early here was the right move. Everything lined up so perfectly. Noble Brigand feeds Copper while taking non-Copper treasure, which is exactly what you want to deny GM money. So, my question is, "On what boards is aggressive Noble Brigand good?"