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Messages - aku_chi

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576
I think Miser belongs in the bottom tier.  I've played with Miser a half dozen times now, and I've never seen it pay off.  Every time someone gets one, they end up regretting it.  It's just too slow.  Removing one Copper from your deck with a terminal action is almost always a net downside (Moneylender provides +3 coin and is still merely average).  So you need to use the second ability enough times to make up for the lost value early.  If Miser is worth +3 coins, you'll certainly get a few uses of it, but terminal gold is meh.  You can't get 4 coins from Miser until you've played it at least five times!  And Miser doesn't help to cycle your deck much.  Now, you could dream of buying and using multiple Misers to speed this up, but it's terminal and you need a source of +buy to take advantage of it.  Too much work, not enough upside.

577
Also, Steward and Amulet should be right next to each other. They're both very strong and fulfill very similar roles.
Not necessarily.  Steward is significantly better in engines.  Amulet misses a lot more shuffles, so the trashing and coin from Stewart is better.  And the cards from Steward are much better than Amulet's Silver gaining in an engine.  On the flip side, Amulet is significantly better for big money and slogs.  Amulet's Silver gaining is great and selective trashing is better than fast trashing.  It could be that these advantages and disadvantages cancel out and they are similarly valuable/impactful, but that isn't necessarily the case.

I expect Ferry to raise in the rankings as more people play with it.  I ranked it at #3 (though I didn't rank Urchin due to unfamiliarity).  It's bonkers.  5-cost cards become super easy to gain.  And with something like Goons or Grand Market, it's game-warping.

For what it's worth, I support Ambassador > Masquerade.  In my mind, Ambassador is the most impactful card in the game.  I'm almost never going to ignore it, and it is always going to change the game significantly.  While Masquerade is just as ignorable, it isn't usually as impactful.

578
Nothing too surprising in the third set of rankings.  I ranked Hermit a good deal higher, but I find it very difficult to evaluate.  Madman is crazy good, but one-shot - and you need to forfeit a buy to get it.  Something to note: buying an event is not considered buying a card, so it's easier to work around Hermit's condition in games with events.

579
Scheme + Sea Hag/Young Witch seems to fall into the same trap as Sage + junker.  Maybe it's a good opening if there aren't any great 5+ cost cards.
non-terminal?  Scheme + Tournament/Ironmonger, perhaps?
I don't think it falls into the same trap as Sage+junker because you can keep topdecking Scheme until you play your junker and unlike Sage it doesn't fizzle if it's in the same hand as the junker. Also Scheme doesn't get worse as the game goes on like Sage does.
Right.  Scheme is better than Sage.  But the similarity is, if you open with them + junker, you're giving up on 5+ coin hands in turns 3 and 4.  Which, on most boards, seems unwise.  But I can see it being the best play on some boards.

580
Yeah, I think "Scheme is low impact" is the biggest understatement of this thread, really. It can be absolutely critical to getting early attacks off, heavy trashing early, and general reliability of an engine. Some games it does relatively little, but other games it's completely essential.
Perhaps this is a learning moment for me.  When would you open with Scheme?
Scheme + Militia/Cutpurse/Marauder seems pretty strong.
Scheme + Remake/Spice Merchant should be good.
Scheme + Sea Hag/Young Witch seems to fall into the same trap as Sage + junker.  Maybe it's a good opening if there aren't any great 5+ cost cards.
Would you ever open Scheme + Ambassador/Steward/Swindler/Hermit instead of the double opening?
Should Scheme be opened with a non-terminal?  Scheme + Tournament/Ironmonger, perhaps?

581
More surprises for me:
Plan, Smugglers, and Doctor so low.
Expedition and Scheme so high.

Plan: This is baffling for me, especially since Bonfire is so much higher.  When building an engine, you often want 5+ copies of at least one card - preferably ASAP.  Getting a trashing effect whenever you buy a copy is great!  You can count on getting rid of all of your starting Estates and 2+ Coppers with an early plan.  Plan is at its best when you can open with it on a 3/4 with a great 4-cost card (like Tournament, Ironmonger, Advisor, Herald, Conspirator, or the Village variants).  It's much better than Bonfire in this case (-2 Coppers vs. -1 Estate with additional trashing just a buy away).  Anti-synergizes with gainers, though.
Smugglers: In an engine mirror, this card is just too good to pass up.  Gaining 5-6 cost cards from Smugglers and purchasing another piece during your buy phase is super powerful.  If your opponent tries to play around it, then it works a little like an attack.  This is one of my favorite gainers; I might take it over (or in addition to) Ironworks.
Doctor: The on-play effect is pretty strong (especially with Spy-effects).  I believe it's the only card that can trash more than 1 card from outside of the hand/play.  The overbuy effect can be very powerful, especially with a 5/2 opening, or an early 6-7 coins on turn 3.

Expedition: Is countered HARD by handsize attacks.  Otherwise, decent lategame if you have an unlucky turn and there are no good 3- cost cards.  Situational and low-impact.
Scheme: A solid card, but low impact.  Scheme rarely contributes substantially to my strategy, it just adds a little bit of reliability at the expense of deck cycling.

Addition: In Tunnel's defense, it is still 2VP for 3 coins.  So, even ignoring the Gold-gaining (which is situationally good), it can be an important element in maximizing VP in the endgame.  11 coins is enough for 8 VP.  6 coins is enough for 4 VP.  With 8 coins and two Provinces in the pile, you can opt for Duchy+Tunnel for 5 VP.

582
I suppose I don't value Mint very highly, either.  And Bonfire is a good deal weaker.  Of course, it's certainly possible that I am undervaluing Bonfire.  If so, I look forward to losing a game due to competent use of Bonfire.  If there aren't any good 5+ cost cards, I would look favorably towards opening Bonfire + Remodel (or similar).

583
Bonfire: Limited copper-trashing with no benefit.  You want to use this early in the game, otherwise you're likely to have treasures you don't want to trash and/or more than 3 coins.  But you really need more cards early in the game to improve the quality of your deck.  I'm not impressed.  Maybe Bonfire is more valuable when paired with a decent Estate trasher that also gains non-treasures (Remodel, Transmogrify, Develop)?  I guess you can trash Ruins, too.  Meh.

Well, I don't know. If you have 4 Coppers and a Steward in hand, do you trash two Coppers and buy nothing? Usually you do. Bonfire is the same thing, only without first having to buy Steward. Being able to trash on T1/T2 is pretty big as well.
I often begrudgingly trash the Coppers with Stewart in that situation.  But it's a bad beat.  I'd rather have an Estate or two to trash.  Or, a 2-cost card worth buying.  Or, a powerful 6-cost card worth buying.  And I know that, with Stewart, I will have an opportunity to remove my pure trash (Estates) soon.  If I use Bonfire early, I'm reducing the purchasing power of my deck.  I would only do so if I had another good way to trash my Estates.  Even in the rare situations where I would consider Bonfire, I'm not thrilled about it; its impact is low.

584
The big surprises here for me are:
Masterpiece, Develop, and Loan so low.
Sage, Oasis, and Bonfire so high.

Masterpiece: So, you're playing big money or a Duke/Silk Road rush.  You have 7 coins (or 8+ coins early, or 5-6 coins in a Duke/Silk Road rush).  What to do...?  Overbuy Masterpiece and be very happy!  It's a pretty limited card, but when Silver is what you want, Masterpiece hits the spot.
Develop: Tricky to use, for sure.  It has a lot of potential in the right kingdom and in tandem with limited gainers (often Silver/Gold gainers).  Even at its worst (well, ignoring Poor House), it's a decent Estate trasher.  Top-decking the gained card(s) can be a big tempo advantage.
Loan: In treasure-less decks, it's like a Junk Dealer that can only trash Coppers.  Junk Dealer is amazing, and so is Loan - in decks where you don't plan to buy or gain additional treasures.  Loan becomes frustrating the moment you add a single treasure you don't want to trash, but it can still have some value if you plan to add treasures late.  I find that treasure-less decks are more and more common as expansions are added, so I look more fondly on Loan.

Sage: Maybe I don't know the right time to get this card, but I've been disappointed every time I've bought it.  Sure, you can find your other opening buy easier.  So it sounds like it might be good with something like Sea Hag or Young Witch, but you really need economy with those cards.  Maybe it's decent with Militia or Cutpurse?  I dunno.  Later in the game (especially with trashing) it approaches a cantrip.  Once you start greening, the filtering is much worse than Farming Village.  And you don't want multiples of Sage.  It's SO low-impact.  It's the Pearl Diver of three coin cards, in my mind.
Oasis: This is a pretty lackluster card.  Sure, if you have only one or two and haven't trashed heavily, it's as good as a Peddler (and better in unusual circumstances).  But Peddler is a card I want to have a bunch of.  I don't get excited about one or two.  Caravan Guard is bad, but Oasis is worse, IMO.
Bonfire: Limited copper-trashing with no benefit.  You want to use this early in the game, otherwise you're likely to have treasures you don't want to trash and/or more than 3 coins.  But you really need more cards early in the game to improve the quality of your deck.  I'm not impressed.  Maybe Bonfire is more valuable when paired with a decent Estate trasher that also gains non-treasures (Remodel, Transmogrify, Develop)?  I guess you can trash Ruins, too.  Meh.

585
It's like you say deck accelerators help. But, you mention things like Ironmonger and Spice Merchant. With good to great trashing, the travellers become much better and easier to get quickly. And, why wouldn't you buy them on your opening buys even for $3, and about 50% of the time you will pay $2 because you are opening 5/2 (although I swear I open 3/4 more often).
You only have a 16.7% chance of opening 2/5 or 5/2...

Deck thinning helps, but terminal trashing is a risk.  Peasant, Soldier, Warrior, and Hero are all terminal.  You need to play them.  By the time you get Warrior, trashing is less important and you might have some action splitters.  But the Peasant line and terminal trashing has more significant antisynergy.

The thing is the impact they have on the game which is huge. Champion's impact is bigger than KC. Teacher is probably even bigger than KC as well when you get down to it. Peasant can turn into a TR that is also a gainer. With what games I have played, I would say they are hardly overrated. I have seen games where an engine was not possible at all suddenly come to life. Like every time these cards are on the board, the possibility of an engine is very strong even if you don't have any normal engine components.
Champion and Teacher are probably better than King's Court.  They also cost a LOT in time and opportunity cost.  You can't buy Champion for 7 coins.  If you could, that would be a better card than Page.

Concerning the last point: I'm skeptical.  In those games you've played, did everyone invest in Travellers?  If so, it's not surprising that the game slowed down and Champion/Teacher got huge value.  Travellers are better if everyone invests in them.  On boards where "an engine was not possible", I would like to see a Traveller strategy compete with big money.

Also, minus the whole travller exchange thing, Herbalist and Peasant are almost the same card. The money top-decking thing of Herbalist is super-weak and you rarely ever want to top-deck your treasures. Hell, in the Ruins section I mention how Herbalist and Ruined Market are almost the same card, and it's true.
I would be very unlikely to buy an Herbalist unless I expected to get some value out of the treasure top-decking.  Then again, I find the concept of buying Ruined Market incredulous.

586
I've played quite a lot of Adventures (2-4 player games) and I think the Travellers are a bit overrated.

The first thing to realize is that they're costed like Chapel.  By and large, you want to buy one copy of a Traveller and you want it in your opening buy.  So, like Chapel, the Travellers are often going to cost you three coins and an opening buy.  (Caveat: I have bought multiple Peasants for multiple Disciples.  I think this is a reasonable approach on some boards.)

Then there is the opportunity cost.  Page and Peasant have terrible on-play effects.  Herbalist and Pearl Diver are rightly at the bottom of the rankings, and Peasant and Page are strictly worse.  They're even worse than that, because you need to play them on turns 3 or 4 (Herbalist and Pearl Diver are better in the mid-game) - and you probably payed three coins for them.  Soldier is a poor card.  How realistic is it to have another attack in play on turns 5-7, when you play it?  You would need an action splitter or Urchin.  So, it's terminal silver and an attack that probably does nothing (it might do something in multiplayer games).  Treasure Hunter is a really powerful Silver gainer (especially in multiplayer), but it increases decksize, which is detrimental to Travellers.  So, it isn't until turn ~8-12 that you begin to get positive value out of your opening three-coin purchase.

Then there's the speed to get to the good stuff.  You need to see your Traveller five times before you hit the jackpot.  Without support, but also without ever missing your shuffle, you should expect to see Champion/Teacher around turn 15-17.  And Teacher does nothing until the following turn.  There are a lot of kingdoms where that is just too slow.  If it ever misses your shuffle (very likely without support), you won't see Champion/Teacher until turn 18 at the earliest.  Forget about it!  Thankfully, the Peasant line has a fantastic penultimate card in Disciple.  When I buy Peasant, I often have Disciple as a goal.  Exchanging for Teacher is an option if everything is going well.  Hero is not a great consolation prize (better with Bank or Platinum).

With the right support, the Travellers can be fantastic, for sure.  Deck accelerators like Ironmonger and Spice Merchant synergize very well.  Alternate VP lengthens the game, which makes it very likely that Champion/Teacher will get great value.  All said, the Travellers are great cards.  But so are Stonemason, Hamlet, Squire, Courtyard, and Fools Gold.

587
Ferry + Stonemason

Maximize the overbuy effect of Stonemason by making it cost 0!  Now you can get a Stonemason and two 4-cost actions for 4 coins, or a Stonemason and two 5-cost actions for 5 coins!  Why reduce the cost of one action when you can reduce the cost of ALL actions?

588
People keep talking about how raze removes itself from your deck.  This is the exact same thing with ratcatcher.  The only difference is that you don't get the extra card's worth of sifting when you remove ratcatcher from your deck.  The fact that you can choose when it's effect takes place is also huge!  You can wait until you get that curse in your hand before you use it!
With Raze I ask myself how often are you going to trash something costing more than Estate. For more expensive cards I'd rather trash-for-benefit on the level of Remodel.
Granted.  I would rarely trash high-value cards with Raze.  But that's no different from Ratcatcher!  If Raze trashes an Estate, a Copper (because there was no Estate in hand), an Estate, and then itself, I'm pretty pleased.  It can generally trash those three cards faster than Ratcatcher can trash two junk cards.

589
I find it interesting that Raze is below Ratcatcher apparently. I feel like Raze is stronger:

- it is a faster trasher. Ratcatcher needs two turn to take effect.
- Raze is a bit worse at trashing Copper, granted. I don't think that's huge.
- on the other hand, Raze is better for trashing Estates.
- both remove themselves from your deck when no longer needed. But Raze gives a benefit when doing that.
- Raze has some mid- to late-game utility, Ratcatcher doesn't.
Agreed, though I think Raze and Ratcatcher are very similar in value.  Raze is a very solid Estate trasher that removes itself.  Raze is not good at trashing Copper, Curses, and Ruins.  I would never buy Raze for Copper trashing and I would only buy it in response to heavy junking if there was no other option.  (However, having bought Raze for trashing Estates, I might trash a Copper if I drew it in a hand without Estates.)  Lookout is pretty comparable to Raze.  In both cases, you trash a card, discard a card from your deck, and end up with [hand-1] cards and net 0 actions.  The advantage of Lookout is that it can trash Coppers, Curses, and Ruins.  The advantage of Raze is that you have more cards to choose to trash from, and it can remove itself for benefit whenever you want to.

Ratcatcher is slow.  It misses your second reshuffle 7/12 times, as opposed to Raze's 2/12 (assuming no other card draw).  This problem never really goes away.  Like Raze and Lookout, Ratcatcher leaves you with [hand-1] cards and net 0 actions.  It can trash anything, like Lookout.  You can choose from 5 cards, which could be better or worse than Raze.  But, you don't get any deck filtering.  You can also wait until you find the Curse you want to trash.  However, with good draw or sifting, the junk might keep missing your starting hands!  Ratcatcher is especially poor against hand reduction attacks like Militia.

Ultimately, it comes down to how much you value Copper-trashing.  I'm meh on Copper trashing.  I want to trash my Estates in 90% of games.  I'll do it with Raze or Ratcatcher, if I have no better options.  Raze is better for this.  I only get excited about Copper trashing in the presence of certain really strong trashers (Spice Merchant and cards that can trash 2+ cards in one go).  Sure, I'll probably trash some Coppers with Ratcatcher once my Estates are gone.  But not many; Ratcatcher is too slow.

Bonus: Raze is better at trashing Rats than Ratcatcher!

590
Don't forget the Events!  Especially when you have an awkward amount of coin in your buy phase.

591
Funny, I have the biggest disagreement with the two cards that have the most deviation, I rated both of them quite a bit lower, can anybody jump to their defense?

I consider Alm not very strong at all. Sure, you open with it 90% of the time(rather it matters 90% of the time), but afterwards? It may be quite neat neat to get a four cost instead of a three cost some time, but a lot of the times there is a viable card to buy for less, too. And it treasure less decks it's a workshop that costs a buy instead of an action and you can not gain+play it, so that's not really great either.

Well maybe you can trash more rigoriously, but that's about it.
I think Alms is the most underrated card on the list so far (I ranked it 6th).  Here is why I think it's one of the cards with the highest impact:
  • Alms dramatically changes opening buy/gains.
  • Alms makes heavy trashing less costly.
  • Alms makes early gainers more valuable.
  • Alms makes early coin less valuable.
  • Alms makes virtual money decks with +buy more viable.
  • Alms reduces the effectiveness of early attacks like Militia and Cutpurse by providing a floor on the worst possible hand.
  • Alms smooths out bad hands early due to shuffle luck.
  • If you use Alms, you don't play any of your treasures, so you deny information to your opponent(s).
Now that I think on it, I might have underranked it at 6th!  I will be shocked if Alms doesn't rise in the next set of rankings.

I had Traveling Fair >> Save > Borrow, but they were all in the middle.  They all smooth out awkward buys, but I think +buy and top-decking is the most impactful of the bunch.

I also had Coin of the Realm > Crossroads: right in the middle of the pack.  They are tricky to compare, though.

592
I'm pretty surprised that Haven isn't in the bottom 10.  I had it below Moat, Embargo, Vagrant, Scouting Party, and Quest.  In my experience, it doesn't change the game much.  Generally, it's slightly useful (better than Pearl Diver), but it rarely shines and it often hurts.  Moat and Embargo seem pretty underrated here.  +2 cards isn't so bad in a thin deck with a lot of villages, and the attack stopping is a significant upside on most boards.  Moat gets better in 3 and 4 player games, which should factor into the ranking, IMO.  I don't buy Embargo often, but it's impact on the game is significant (even if no-one buys it!).  It stops most combos in their tracks and rewards divergent strategies.  I'll admit that it is difficult to evaluate.  I also had Duchess higher: it makes it easier to grab Duchies earlier on a non-significant number of boards.  That's a larger impact than Pearl Diver or Herbalist usually have, IMO.

593
Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Bridge and Royal Carriage
« on: October 21, 2015, 11:13:46 am »
I've edited the wiki page and the original post to reflect the latest knowledge gathered by others.  Feel free to make additional edits.

The synergy section is most speculative right now.  I'm positive that Ferry speeds up the combo (it speeds up everything).  Save should have a minor positive impact.  I have a strong suspicion that adding Warehouse or Dungeon after 1 or 2 Silvers would improve the deck, but I haven't confirmed this.  I suspect that opening with other cards (like Amulet, Jack of all Trades, Squire, and Ironmonger) would accelerate the combo, but I haven't tested.  Some of these cards might only accelerate the combo in the face of certain attacks.  Also, I don't know if cards like Jack of all Trades and Ironmonger should count as synergies if they help the non-combo player at least as much.

594
Dominion Articles / Re: Combo: Bridge and Royal Carriage
« on: October 20, 2015, 06:31:05 pm »
I was first introduced to this combo in a 3-player real-space Dominion game.  My two opponents went for Royal Carriages and Bridges with an eye towards Duchies and Dukes.  I decided to employ a more boring big-money approach and grab Provinces, hoping that they would split Duchies.  I was impressed with the synergy between Royal Carriage and Bridge as my opponents were grabbing Duchies and Dukes, but the game was pretty even when Duchies and Dukes ran out; I thought I might have a chance to grab the remaining Provinces and win.  My eyes were opened when one of my opponents had a post-green mega-turn and bought 4 Provinces.  That got me thinking: this isn't just synergy, this is a combo.

Bridge is the key.  The more you play, the more value each Bridge provides.  7 is the magic number where you can trivially buy 8 Provinces.  It is very hard to play 7 Bridges in one turn.  In fact, I think there are only three realistic ways:
  • Native Village
  • King's Court (with a supporting engine)
  • Royal Carriage
The first two have combo articles on the wiki.  Royal Carriage does not.  I will go further.  I think Royal Carriage might be the best combo piece for Bridge.  The Native Village strategy relies on obtaining 7+ Bridges and 6+ Native Villages.  If either of these piles are in contention, it fails pretty hard.  Also, in my limited experience, it is slow unless you can buy out both piles (and then you have to fear a 3-pile ending).  King's Court and Bridge is fast and powerful and only requires a few components, but it is conditional on a lot of support.  Non-terminal draw is key, and trashing or sifting are also needed.  Royal Carriage and Bridge does not rely on as many components as Native Village and Bridge and does not require support (but it is aided by it).

I played a few Solitaire games with nothing else in the kingdom.  In all games, I limited myself to 7 Royal Carriages (important) and 5 Bridges (less important) - to simulate some contention over these cards.  Because the strategy involves rushing to Royal Carriages, I think it is fair to suppose that one wins the split, but it's worth testing how good the strategy is with 5 or 6 Royal Carriages.  My best game resulted in 8 Provinces on turn 12.  I recorded what I bought on each turn, but not what I had in hand or played.
Turn 1: Buy Bridge
Turn 2: Buy Silver
Turn 3: Buy Royal Carriage
Turn 4: Buy Silver
Turn 5: Buy Royal Carriage
Turn 6: Buy Royal Carriage
Turn 7: Buy nothing (I must have had 3 Estates)
Turn 8: Buy Royal Carriage
Turn 9: Call 2 Royal Carriages and buy 3 Royal Carriages and a Bridge
Turn 10: Buy Bridge
Turn 11: Buy nothing (my hand included a lot of Royal Carriages)
Turn 12: Call 6 Royal Carriages and buy 8 Provinces.

I followed that up with another game with very poor shuffle luck (Bridge and Silver both missed turns 3 and 4 and my luck didn't much improve).  I still managed to get 7 Provinces and 3 Duchies by turn 16.
Turn 1: Buy Bridge
Turn 2: Buy Silver
Turn 3: Buy Silver
Turn 4: Buy Silver (*groan)
Turn 5: Buy Royal Carriage and Silver
Turn 6: Buy Bridge
Turn 7: Buy nothing (I must have had 3 Estates)
Turn 8: Call a Royal Carriage and buy two Royal Carriages and a Silver
Turn 9: Buy Royal Carriage and a Bridge
Turn 10: Buy Royal Carriage and a Bridge
Turn 11: Buy Silver (I chose not to call a Royal Carriage)
Turn 12: Buy nothing (I might have had enough for a Silver, but I didn't want it at this point)
Turn 13: Buy Royal Carriage (right before my last shuffle)
Turn 14: Duchy
Turn 15: Duchy
Turn 16: Call 6 Royal Carriages and buy 7 Provinces and a Duchy (I must not have had any treasure in my hand).

595
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2015 Edition
« on: October 20, 2015, 09:25:03 am »
Hi, Qvist.  I have been enjoying myself recently ranking cards; thank you for the website.  I've used the card duels to start my rankings and then massaged the remaining list manually.  I did this for each cost and then the Events and complete lists.

Recently, however, I've encountered a frustration that I don't know how to deal with.  I wanted to re-arrange a couple cards in the 5-cost list.  So, I switched to the list-based rank mode, made my change, and saved.  However, now I see several cards in the wrong position (radically wrong, in some cases).  Every time I try to remedy this with the list-based form, something else gets messed up?  I thought that the list-based rank mode would be authoritative.  What can I do to get the rankings I prefer?

596
Dominion Articles / Combo: Bridge and Royal Carriage
« on: October 20, 2015, 01:16:21 am »
This combo is similar to Native Village and Bridge; the goal is to end the game with a megaturn where you play and replay Bridge several times to buy out the remaining Provinces (and perhaps some Duchies).  Multiple Royal Carriages can replay the same Bridge.  The condition for the megaturn is 6+ Royal Carriages in reserve and a Bridge and 1 additional coin in hand.  If some Provinces are gone, you can also end the game with 5 Royal Carriages in reserve, a Bridge and sufficient coin in hand (6 additional coin for 6 Provinces, 4 additional coin for 5 Provinces).

Strategy (without supporting cards):
  • Open with Bridge and Silver.
  • Buy Royal Carriage whenever you can.
  • Buy Silver with 3 or 4 coins.  Buy an extra Bridge or two if the opportunity presents itself and you aren't worried about collisions.
  • Use Royal Carriage on Bridge to buy more Royal Carriages (as many as you can - 6 may be required for a Province-rush strategy).
  • Once you have 6+ Royal Carriages in reserve (or 5 with the coin to buy out Provinces), play a Bridge and re-play it 5+ times.  Buy out the Provinces and as many Duchies as you can.

The speed of this combo depends on shuffle luck.  With very good luck, it is possible to buy all eight Provinces in 12 or fewer turns.  With poor luck, it is still possible to buy out the remaining Provinces and several Duchies by turn 16.  If Royal Carriages are contested, it is important to get at least 6.  However, 5 Royal Carriages are enough to buy the majority of Provinces and several Duchies.  Bridges are not heavily contested with this strategy.  1 is sufficient; 3 is plenty.

This strategy is moderately affected by attacks.  Ghost Ship is the most debilitating; it makes it harder to reach 5 coins to buy Royal Carriage, and it reduces the speed at which you can play and use Royal Carriages.  Discard attacks are an inconvenience; invest in more Silver.  Junking attacks slow this combo down a little; sifting becomes extraordinarily valuable.  Trashing attacks can hurt if they hit Royal Carriage; buy more copies than you need and keep them in reserve longer.

Synergies:
  • Sifting (find your Royal Carriages faster to set up the megaturn)
  • Estate trashing
  • Ferry (make it trivial to get Royal Carriages)
  • Save (save your Bridge until the last turn before your shuffle to maximize the impact of your Royal Carriages)
  • Colony games (your opponent is less likely to compete over Provinces, and you can end the game with your megaturn before your opponent can get 5+ Colonies)

Anti-Synergies:
  • Ghost Ship
  • Embargo (an early embargo on Royal Carriages kills the strategy)

597
Dominion Articles / Re: Combo : Counting House/Travelling Fair
« on: July 15, 2015, 09:44:17 am »
I think an easy way to stop this would be for the other player to buy counting houses especially if there is a tfb or any strong trashing  it seems in order for this to work you need to be able to buy lots of counting houses more than 6
Not necessarily.  It depends on when you draw your first Counting House.  In the solitaire game I logged above, I got 55 victory points by turn 12 with four Counting Houses.  It would have been very difficult (and counterproductive) for an opponent to grab 7+ Counting Houses in that time, unless they were employing this strategy themselves.

Feel free to check my math.  I edited out some notes where I'm trying to figure out when to topdeck versus discard (it's rather obvious you always discard once this gets going but the early turns still aren't clear to me).

1. 3 coin = 2 copper, discard.
2. 4 coin = 3 copper, top deck.
3. 5 coin = First CH.  SHUFFLE.  16 cards in deck.
4. 4 coin + CH (unlucky) = 3 coin, discard.
5. 3 coin = 2 copper, top deck.
6. 5 coin = Second CH (a bit of luck, I think).  19 cards in deck.
7. 4 coin= 3 copper, discard.
8. 4 coin = 3 copper, discard.
9. 3 coin + both CH, resulting in 17 coin = our 13-coin engine starts.
   ○ TF x6, put 2 copper in discard and the 13-coin engine on top.
10. 4 coin + CH, resulting in 23 copper = 1st Province.
11. 4 coin + CH, resulting in 27 copper = 2nd Province + 2 copper
12. 4 coin + CH, resulting in 33 copper = 3rd & 4th Provinces
13. 4 coin + 6th CH, resulting in 37 copper = 5th & 6th Provinces + 2 copper
14. 4 coin + 7th CH, resulting in 43 copper = (8th CH) = 7th-9th Provinces
TheEmerged, I would have played out the end slightly differently.  If I follow the log correctly, you have 7 cards in your deck on turn 9.  I would start by buying a Province immediately and got to 8 Provinces on turn 13.
9. 3 coin + both CH, resulting in 17 coin = buy Counting House, Province, Copper, top-deck. <- 10 cards in deck
10. 3 coin + CH, resulting in 20 copper = buy Counting House, Province, 2 Coppers, top-deck <- 9 cards in deck
11. 3 coin + CH, resulting in 23 copper = buy Counting House, Province, 4 Coppers, top-deck <- 10 cards in deck
12. 4 coin + CH, resulting in 27 copper = buy Counting House, 2 Provinces, Copper, top-deck <- 9 cards in deck
13. 1 coin + CH, resulting in 28 copper = buy 3 Provinces

It might have been worthwhile to discard some of the gained coppers on turns 9 or 10, to liberate more of the coppers in your deck.

As for buying the second Counting House pre-combo, I have mixed feelings.  On the upside, it eliminates the chance of drawing your only Counting House with an empty discard pile and it will result in the combo beginning earlier in the third shuffle (on average).  On the other side, it's almost impossible to take advantage of a Counting House in your deck once you begin the combo, and the opportunity cost is 3 coppers in your deck and one more Counting House in the pile.  I can't decide if it makes more or less sense to get a second pre-combo Counting House if they are contested.

598
Dominion Articles / Re: Combo : Counting House/Travelling Fair
« on: July 01, 2015, 12:39:51 am »
This thread motivated me to play some Counting House, Travelling Fair solitaire.

My conclusion: this combo is the real deal.  Even when I got one of the worst starts for the combo (4/3, no Counting House until turn 9), I managed to get 55 victory points by turn 12.  And I only needed to buy 4 Counting Houses!

Turn 1: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (on top)
Turn 2: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (in discard)
-- Shuffle --
Turn 3: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (on top)
Turn 4: CCCCC - buy Counting House
Turn 5: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (in discard)
-- Shuffle --
Turn 6: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (in discard)
Turn 7: CCCCC - buy 3 copper (in discard)
Turn 8: CCCCE - buy 3 copper (in discard)
Turn 9: HCCCE - buy Counting House + 2 Provinces (on top)
Turn 10: HCCPP - buy Counting House + Copper + 2 Provinces (on top)
Turn 11: HCCPP - buy Counting House + 2 Copper + 2 Provinces (on top)
Turn 12: HCCPP - buy 2 Provinces + 1 Duchy + 1 Estate

The power of conditionally top-decking cards adds a lot of reliability to the combo.  Early on, you want to keep track of where your Estates are to decide if it's worth top-decking for (a chance at) a Counting House or discarding to accelerate to your reshuffle.  Once you have purchased a Counting House, you want to trigger a reshuffle with 4 cards in your deck (to minimize the chance of a wasted Counting House).  When you're searching for your Counting House you only want to top-deck to ensure that you can draw Counting House without triggering a reshuffle.  Once you start the combo, I think you always want to top-deck everything, to provide some buffer cards in your deck so you can go double-Province earlier.

Great find, gamesou!

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