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Messages - Tombolo

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351
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 31, 2012, 10:23:42 pm »
I suppose buying copper would've helped, but it just feels so...dirty.  Are there any good guidelines for when you should buy copper?  Gardens?  Counting House?  Coppersmith?  Any time you struggle to hit 3?

And at what point is it worth it to switch to a probably inferior strategy because the other guy is pulling off your strategy better than you are?  Again, it makes sense, but I don't really know when else I can apply the idea.

352
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 31, 2012, 11:19:08 am »
Well, this was brutal.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/31/game-20120731-081028-14b61ee3.html

What I went for: BM/IGG/Hoard
What he went for: IGG RUSH
What I wound up with: A positive score!

My opponent opened IGG/Herbalist against my double Silver, and things just went downhill from there.  IGG was almost the only Kingdom card worth buying here, I think, and he got five before I was able to hit $5 with big money.  I tried to give him at least a couple of curses back, but there was no way for me to catch up with his Duchy rush.  I grabbed a few green cards to make it seem like a fight, but...yeah.

I'm aware that I pretty much got killed by my opponents 5/2, but is there something different I could've done?  I was obviously going to get destroyed on IGG, but I decided to grab a couple myself- maybe I should've gone Hoard or Gold early and tried to get ahead on infrastructure?  I didn't see a use for Library or KC, and thusly not really for Quarry, but should I have perhaps gone for Herbalist sooner than I did?  Also, should I have gone harder for Duchies?  I went Gold on 16 and paid $5 for an Estate on 18, primarily because I didn't want to help end the game faster....but is it worth it to give up those points?

353
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 30, 2012, 03:04:32 am »
...Skip Familiar altogether?  Familiar is one of the few cards I am aware you don't need EVERY game, but I will pretty much never ignore. (Well, unless there's Witch or Sea Hag or Mountebank, but if there's strong cursing of some sort I am pretty much guaranteed to go for it.)  That's an interesting question itself, I suppose.  When's it okay to skip good cursers?  Or Chapel?  Or Tac?

That is indeed what I meant with Golem/Tac.  I haven't actually tried it in a serious game, nor am I particularly likely to, but my friend and I played like three games the other day specifically to play with that combo and KC.

354
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 30, 2012, 02:12:29 am »
Man, I frequently miss all the coolest Tac stuff.  I know about Tac/Black Market, and Golem/Tac, but any other nifty tricks I tend to not notice.

355
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 30, 2012, 12:48:38 am »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/29/game-20120729-214027-df4b1262.html

What I went for: Familiar/Tac/stuff
What he went for: Vineyards

I thought I had this game lost- he was picking up vineyards and running out piles quite quickly.  I was able to grab green fairly quickly, however, and caught up before he could end the game.  My deck also seemed to stall out a lot less than his, and I was able to piledrive the provinces for the win! 

-Is Tac/Nothing actually a good open?  Early turns seem like a waste of Tactician...but it's freakin' Tac.  That said, I maybe could've gotten Familiar sooner with Potion/nothing.
-I...had no real idea what to buy at 5 after I got that Tactician, and kinda just went with gut.  Upgrades for curses, Vaults for green.  Any issue with that?  I didn't feel Market would've been that great for my deck, but an early Treasury might've been nice.
-Two Familiars good?
-Was it that good a board for VY?  Market is nice and I guess Great Hall is at least spammable but it didn't really occur to me as a viable option until he almost beat me with it.  Would any of you go Vineyard here, and would you do it any differently than my opponent?
-Should I have tried to grab a few Vineyards?  I don't think it ever really worked out well with my Buys, and it might've just helped end game, but every Vineyard I get is 5 points he doesn't.

356
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic down?
« on: July 29, 2012, 08:51:06 pm »
I'm getting some sort of error page with something chewing on a router or something.  That's new!

357
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 29, 2012, 10:12:51 am »
I have been playing tons of interesting games offline or on the other site with variant cards!  I hit 20 briefly, which I think might be a first, so thanks for the continued help, and if I actually manage to get an interesting isotropic log I will still be posting it.

358
General Discussion / Re: Dominion Cards that put songs in your mind
« on: July 29, 2012, 02:52:15 am »
At the risk of managing to out-nerd an entire forum dedicated to Dominion strategy, here is the soundtrack in my head for every Festival game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WadpQXFbIIY

(because y'know it's a festival and stuff....I'll just be in the corner over here.)

359
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Cards You Horribly Misjudged
« on: July 27, 2012, 04:09:50 pm »
I think I managed to skip the whole "village idiot" phase, but I am only just now getting past being a Great Hall idiot.

360
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan card logistics
« on: July 27, 2012, 01:43:35 pm »
Mostly, people just use substitute cards when they're playing. Like represent your card with Village (put some kind of token on it to remind you). It does depend how many cards you want to use, though. With just one fan card, Blanks work well - can't get those mixed up! With 4+, it can get confusing, but there's not much else you can use.

I can't believe I didn't think of this.

361
Variants and Fan Cards / You may trash a card from your discard pile.
« on: July 27, 2012, 01:41:07 pm »
I'm trying to figure out how to make this work- I think it would be interesting to have such a wide net for possible targets, but in exchange only be able to go one at a time.  It could synergize well with discard for benefits and Chancellor, two things I wouldn't mind boosting a bit.

+1 Action would probably be good, but I feel it needs something more or it's too close to Lookout.  Still, with just that, I feel it could make a decent 3. (It gives you more options than Lookout, but won't help with cycling or setting up your next draw.)  But...is making it spammable really a good thing when the point is quality over quantity?

+Card would be interesting, but it'd mess up the all-important CHANCELLOR SYNERGY.

I had originally thought of adding a way to trash a card from your hand, possibly requiring one before you could do the other, but then I decided that was just kinda boring since the point was to trash from something BESIDES your hand.

Maybe make it a terminal Silver for 3?  Or a +2 Action for....I don't even know what the price would be, but gut says 3-4.

362
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 27, 2012, 12:43:11 pm »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/27/game-20120727-091659-9c61dacd.html

What I went for: Witch/Scheme/Governor
What he went for: Looks like a bit of everything, but mostly Governor/Ghost Ship
What I got: Horribly, horribly destroyed

I tried to slingshot to Witch quickly via.....Spice Merchant and Scheme, which admittedly probably isn't the fastest route, but I wanted to be able to spit out Curses quickly once I picked up Witch, and that seemed a good way to get there.  He got Witch on Turn 3, and I had to wait until 7, and it only went downhill from there.  He was able to assemble a killer Governor/Ghost Ship combo and hit it rather frequently, while I was still trying to hit Witch/Scheme.

-The opening obviously didn't work out.  I didn't want Swindler with Witch out, but...what do?  Spice Merchant/Silver?  Silver/Silver?  Swindler anyway?
-Ghost Ship really picked me apart here.  Did I want one earlier over Witch or Governor or Gold or something?  I tried to put together my own Gov/GS combo, but I got it far too late to make a difference.
-I didn't actually want those Hamlets against Ghost Ship, did I?
-Might Venture have helped at some point?

363
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 27, 2012, 04:38:27 am »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/27/game-20120727-012817-3fcb4004.html

What I went for: POTION CARDS
What he went for: Possession/Double Tac
What I wound up with: I don't even know.

This was an incredibly weird game because Possession.  Familiar and Golem (and in some cases Tac) made for a nice Possession counterdeck, but...that didn't seem to stop either of us from fighting for Possessions.  A whole bunch of weirdness ensues, and despite my propensity to play his Golems and hit Familiar/Tac and his propensity to possess me 2-3 times a turn, I won by a pair of curses.

-Really just one big question here....what do I do?  I feel like Golem/Familiar/Tac/Possession is enough of a liability for Possession that I might've been smarter to just ignore Possession, pick up more Golems and Familiars, and maybe try to run double tac or BM/Golem/Double Familiar or something.  Or maybe could I have just skipped Potions and tried to rush with BM/Tac/Labs before he could do much damage?
-Twice, I hit Tac/Familiar with a Possessed Golem.  I probably shouldn't have played his Golems, huh?
-How does one approach durations with Possession out?  On one hand, a Tactician turn is begging to be Possessed, but on the other hand, it's a dead card for your opponent.  Or Caravan has its own issues.  Does Possession make them less desirable?  ....More?
-Turn 5 I bought Gold over Tac, knowing I had a Feast coming.  Good idea?  Bad idea?  Unimportant?

364
Variants and Fan Cards / Fan card logistics
« on: July 26, 2012, 10:40:47 pm »
So, I'd kinda like to get into trying some of the cards here and testing some of my own, but I have some issues.  I only have one friend who plays Dominion, and we don't get together that often, and I'm not even sure he'd want to bother with variant cards or getting that many sleeves.  I would probably only be able to play fan cards with myself, which honestly would be fine with me, but I don't have the real cards, so I'm not sure of a good way to do so.

-Is there a program or something out there that would help me manipulate cards and handle the rules myself?  I'm thinking something like Apprentice, but that seems like it would work rather poorly with Dominion's mechanics, and I'm not sure how playing against myself would work.
-Is my next best bet just scribbling stuff on index cards or something?  I can't really afford to buy the real cards, and it would be kinda silly anyway since I only have the one friend who plays. (and he owns most of the sets)
-Are there any particularly well respected fan cards?  I assume Archivist and the mini-set winners would be good places to start, but anything else here particularly worthy of use?
-Any tips for playtesting?  Types of kingdoms I should be sure and hit?  Good "default" kingdoms to use?

365
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 25, 2012, 01:39:06 am »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/24/game-20120724-082004-9667375b.html

What I went for: Hamlet/FG with other stuff
What he went for: Ghost Ship/Hamlet

Bleh, this is one of those that I won but I am pretty sure I got lucky.  The idea here was to rush with FG, using Hamlet and Oasis to cycle the deck and get them together, picking up buy and stuff as necessary.  My opponent ran Ghost Ship, which I figured wouldn't hurt FG too bad since I could almost Haven them together, but he ran more of them than I expected, so I wound up with a whoooole lotta three-card hands.  Three-card hands don't work great with discard-for-benefit, for the record.  I was able to pick up FG pretty quickly thanks to Hamlet, but his double Smugglers let him split with me, leaving me with a decidedly mediocre deck with even more problems due to Ghost Ship.  I was somehow able to eke out a win, but not before he came dangerously close.

-Hamlet, Spice Merchant, Herbalist, and to a lesser extent Oasis all seem like decent enablers for FG.  If we throw out Ghost Ship, was I wrong about that?
-His Smugglers let him keep up with my FG spam and it kinda ruined my day to only take 5.  Was it worth it for him, though?
-This...was not a good Ghost Ship counter deck, was it?  Would Hamlet/Vineyard have been better?
-Were Herbalist and Spice Merchant even that helpful for what I was trying to do here?  They didn't seem to be but on paper they looked like good additions. 
-Did I want more Ghost Ships maybe?

366
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 23, 2012, 01:00:16 pm »
I played SO MANY GAMES yesterday but none of them seemed worth posting.  Here's an interesting one from just now though:

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/23/game-20120723-094300-c0fbe803.html

What I went for: Trader/Familiar
What he went for: Familiar/Lab/Trader

I won commandingly here, I think because Trader shut down Familiar so badly.  I am not sure I played optimally though.  I got Familiar on pace with my opponent, and went double Trader as soon after as possible.  He went very heavy Familiar, and pumped my deck with Silver as a result.  He still split curses 5-5 with me and managed to trash most of his, but I think it wound up helping more than hurting.  I thought briefly about Minion, but decided to see what happened if I ignored it- with Familiar and Trader, I figured the deck would be too full of Curse and Silver to really optimize Minion, and I figured those two were more important here.  It also didn't jive well with Caravan or Lab.  I picked up Caravan at 4, City at 5, and Gold at 6.  I would've preferred Lab, but I didn't hit 5 exactly until after Curses had drained.  Cities didn't fully activate though, and I had really low terminal density, so I guess that was a wash either way. 

-How was my early prioritizing?  I thought briefly about opening Trader over Potion just to get my defenses up quickly.  I was also unsure if double Trader was a good call that early, but if anything I might've wanted even more Trader-y goodness.
-Was ignoring Minion the right call here?  I think it was due to synergy but...it's freakin' Minion, so I don't know.
-Did I want more Cities or Labs?  Maybe some terminals?  I almost bought Lab at 6 a couple of times, and a City stack might've been nice even if they never fully activated....which would've given me enough +action for stuff like Adventurer, which might've been nice with a mostly silver deck.  It was resilient and quick enough, though, that more actions might've been a waste of time.
-Two Familiars.  Too many?  Not enough?  For a moment I even thought about ignoring them and seeing if I could just slingshot with Trader.  Might've gone triple Trader in that scenario.

367
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 21, 2012, 05:11:31 pm »
So Goons/BM beats Envoy/BM?  I should really figure out how to work the simulators.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/21/game-20120721-140124-cf6ce7f5.html

What I went for: Vineyard/Market/Haven
What he went for: Market/Bureaucrat?
What I wound up with: The slowest pile rush ever

I decided to try Vineyard here just for fun- I don't have much respect for Vineyard, but it seemed a decentish board to give it a shot with Market.  In retrospect, I don't think it was that great an idea, but things worked out okay somehow.  I am not sure how I managed to take control of this game, but my opponent was able to manage only three Provinces before I ended the game with a comfortable lead.  I tried to slingshot myself fairly quickly, knowing that Market was crucial to both picking up Vineyards and pumping them.  Salvager/Trading Post/Loan might have been overkill, but I dunno since I was able to Salvage them pretty quickly once they outlived their usefulness.  I went for Haven as my third pile since it was a cantrip, but I'm not sure how much it helped.  I figure I needed another cantrip to end the game on piles, though, and my options were fairly limited.  I figured I was kinda screwed with this strategy, but my opponent's deck never really seemed to kick in.  He got more Markets than I realized, which hurt my Vineyards a bit, but....by the time he started catching up in points, it was just a matter of a few more +Buy to shut the game down.

-...Was Vineyard actually that advisable here?  I was able to get Vineyard/Action or 2 actions almost every turn, but...they weren't particularly GREAT actions beyond the +Buy and chainability.
-Salvaging silver and gold- good idea or bad idea here?  It helped me out but I also found myself wishing I had a bit more buying power....but did I actually need that buying power when I was just going for 5P at most?
-On a related note, would it have been advisable to pick up more treasure at some point?
-I didn't really know what to Haven on most turns, since I rarely wanted Salvager and usually needed all the coin I could get.  I eventually just started using them on Vineyards.  Was that a good idea?
-Should I have mixed in more actions instead of going straight for 3-piling once my deck was sufficiently trimmed?  I don't think Forge was a good buy for this deck but maybe some Native Villages and a Bureaucrat or two might've pumped Vineyard more....but would it have been worth taking the time?  I was going for a rush but it was a pretty slow rush.
-Should I have waited longer to green?  My deck might've worked a bit more efficiently if I'd picked up more Markets and Havens before rushing green, but I figured since I needed to hit Potion 8 times it behooved me to start early.  Then again, it might've worked better to load up actions and then buy two Potions...but then he might've been able to pick up a Province or two and three-pile before I could really get rolling.

368
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 20, 2012, 01:47:22 pm »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/20/game-20120720-103443-3d426657.html

What I went for: Trading Post/Goons/Warehouse
What he went for: Envoy/Trading Post

Hrm, I tried the newer, softer Goons strategy, and came up a bit short.  I figured Trading Post would be helpful here, so I opened Warehouse/Feast to get it quickly and cycle it through often.  Even though I intended to not let the Goons buy lure me into Copper, my brain still went "Goons game?  Trashing's good," so I was focused on that even more than hitting $6 at first.  He ramped up more quickly than I did, and I almost caught up at the end, but I couldn't quite seal the deal.

-Did I maybe want Envoy sooner, or to use it a bit more?  I was worried about terminal clash, and only picked it up at all because I noticed how effectively he had used it.  I wasn't quite as action-light as him, though, so it didn't work as well for me.  I'm wondering if Envoy/BM wasn't the way to go here, though, maybe with a Goons or two or Warehouse in there somewhere.
-How was my Goonsing this time?  Were they even really worth pursuing?
-Did I resort to Duchies too early?  Too late?  I wasn't sure what to prefer in late/endgame at 5-7.
-Broke PPR.  Seem like a good idea?

369
It could be worse.  They could all be Chancellors on fire.

370
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 19, 2012, 01:14:00 pm »
What about if I have 2-4 Goons in play?  Is using more buys more viable then?  I almost always maximize my Goons buys even if I have to resort to Copper, so if I'm playing that wrong I should re-evaluate.  Is that a good general principle, or just on that board?

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/19/game-20120719-095725-1f0d8e0b.html

What I went for: Random terminals/Nobles
What he went for: Apothecary/Coppersmith/Bridge
What I wound up with: An unfocused mess that somehow got 7 Provinces

I don't even know what I was doing here, and I feel like it shows, but I somehow won.  I suspect it's mostly because my opponent was trying to experiment.  I am certain I bought too many terminals, which was mitigated somewhat by Nobles....but Nobles probably shouldn't be relied on heavily as a +Action, I reckon.  The thing here was that I didn't see any real combos- just a jumble of mediocre stuff, most of it terminal.  I think I won because I Swindled his Swindler early on and he didn't notice until towards the end. >_>  Swindler did me proud here- hit several Coppers, and gave him a few Lookouts, both of which really hampered what he was trying to do.

-.....What even do I do on this board?  The more I think about it, the more I think maybe I should have just gone BMX with Swindler and/or Explorer or something.  Some boards I just skip the whole "strategy" idea and buy random shiny things, and once in a while it works out.  This is one of them.
-What do I prefer at $5 in midgame here?  With a bunch of terminals already, Explorer's a hard sell, HoP is unlikely to do much better than $4 ever, Bridge would be better if there were cheap cards I wanted, more Lookout or Swindler would be overkill, Coppersmith....is Coppersmith, and Silver just seems lame at $5.
-Apothecary/Coppersmith/Bridge seems a decentish engine.  What went wrong for my opponent besides Swindlers?
-How bad of an idea is it to pick up a bunch of Nobles primarily for +Action?

371
I have no money, so yes, I am probably going to buy it a bit at a time.  I'd actually kinda like it if you could buy a card at a time, but I'm just silly like that.

372
Chancellor is an integral part of the most broken three-card combo in Dominion: Chancellor-Counting House-Coppersmith

Also, the only problem with this is that it needs +Buy.

also villages (to play 3 actions), card draw (to get those actions), and worst of all....copper

Hey man.  Just run Crossroads/Chancellor/Counting House/Coppersmith/Market and you can get, like, two Provinces!

373
Dominion Isotropic / Effect with/without on Councilroom
« on: July 18, 2012, 01:32:52 pm »
Quote
"Effect with" is the number of standard deviations better than expected you perform when you buy or gain the card.
"Effect without" is the number of standard deviations better than expected you perform when you never buy or gain the card.

By "expected," is it referring to the baseline of "how well everybody does with this card," or "how well Tombolo does in general"?  Or some combination of the two or something?

374
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 18, 2012, 01:11:56 pm »
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/18/game-20120718-095737-96f19b2d.html

What I went for: Goons/Familiar/Salvager
What he went for: Lab/Salvager/Goons
What I wound up with: What I wanted plus OMG SILVER

I went for Familiar off the bat, and was surprised when I wasn't fought at all for it.  I think he planned on Salvaging the Curses, and it went pretty well for him, I suppose.  I picked up a Salvager myself, and focused on hitting $6 for Goons while he built a Lab engine.  I picked up a Lab myself- would've liked more, but only hit 5 once before late game.  I kept rolling with Goons and Familiar, going very light on actions.  He was naturally able to Province better than I was, but I actually managed to surge from behind on VP and +Buy, and sneak away with the win at the last second.

-I had no idea what to do with all the $4 turns I kept getting.  I was wary of terminal clash, so I stayed at one Salvager, I don't think I needed multiple Potions, Spy and Oracle didn't impress me, and I didn't want Swindler when I was poised to drain curses on my opponent.  I wound up with a buncha Silver, but is that a bad call?
-Goons.  I know the adage of Dominion is "one good thing beats two decent things," but that applies less with Goons buys, right?  I feel that Silver/Silver was the right choice for my $6 Goons turns, at least this game, but I'd like to hear arguments for Gold/Copper or Gold/nothing if I'm wrong.
-I thought three Familiars was probably too much, but I managed to give him the 9th and 10th Curses on the last turn.  Should I have gotten more?  Fewer?
-Should I have picked up Expand earlier?  It could've helped in endgame, but I don't think I ever hit $7 exactly and my Provinces seem kinda crucial.  Or...would Forge have been good since Goons decks tend to be junky?
-I was worried about terminal clash, but I don't think it was ever an issue.  Could I maybe have picked up an extra one or two?
-How viable is it to just eat Curses like that?  I've had a few games like this where I am the only one picking up a good Curser, and laugh maniacally as I dump all 10 on the other guy, but then as often as not they still give me a good run or even pick up the win.

375
Help! / Re: I will try to post a game here every day.
« on: July 18, 2012, 12:38:06 am »
Had a lot of trouble today finding a game worthy of submission- most of them were either games where my friend and I derped around with kc/golem/tac boards or games where I made some obvious and dumb mistake.  Nevertheless!

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/17/game-20120717-211717-6e0a745c.html

What I went for: Island/Smugglers/IGG
What he went for: IGG RUSH/Tournament/Lighthouse
What I wound up with: IGG/ISLAND RUSH

I'm pretty into Island, and didn't initially see Remodel on the board in the mass of 4's, so the plan was to Smuggle whatever he got, Island away curses and estates, grab an IGG or two, and see what happened.  I quickly got sucked into the IGG fight, and grabbed Remodel when I noticed it was available.  I split IGG 6-4, and then by then most of the Islands were gone.  I thought about trying to 3-pile quickly, but he picked up a Province to take the lead.  I tripped over a Province myself shortly thereafter, though, and he had a string of bad hands, allowing me to drain the Islands without any issues.

-It worked out well, but I don't think I needed both Remodel AND Islands.  And Tournament is as tempting as always, too.  And Horse Traders....what should I prefer at $4 here?
-I suppose it was a good idea on Turn 16, but should I have Remodeled the Curse into an Estate on 11?
-....Smugglers seems to work nicely for an IGG rush, or maybe that's just me.

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