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201

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Aleimon Thimble's top 30 favorite cards

« on: September 06, 2016, 07:00:06 pm »

13. Merchant Guild

It’s like Goons, but weaker and therefore more balanced. I have called it a poor man’s Goons before, which is not quite doing it justice, quite frankly, because Merchant Guild rocks. A Merchant Guild engine builds just like a Goons engine, except you can add the payload cards maybe a bit later, and Merchant Guild absolutely requires a strong engine to work.  Interestingly, I thought it looked very weak at first, with its ‘Herbalist something something’ look, but I was pleasantly surprised by its usefulness.

I don't see the similarity with Goons except for being broadly in the Woodcutter Buy and Coins family. Goons is alt-VP, Merchant Guild is a card which provides you some Coin tokens in the middle- and endgame. You can usually start with Goons earlier than with Merchant Guild.
While I don't get all the intricacies of Merchant Guild I am pretty sure that it can be a great card in a deck with few Action cards. Sure, using it in an engine where you can play more than one per turn makes the card really shine but with BM hat you can actually buy a Copper for a Coin token far earlier than in an engine due to the slower cycling (i.e. the Copper won't hurt you as often as you draw it fewer times).

202

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 05, 2016, 08:55:35 pm »

Saddle isn't exciting and like TR (variants) you can only buy it after some time, after you have a decent Action density but as a conditional cheaper Lab the card seems totally fine.

203

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 05, 2016, 07:44:14 pm »

If you can play ranger everyturn, that's +$2, +5 cards every turn.

Huh? Ranger doesn't provide a coin but a buy. What you probably meant that if you play two Rangers they provide 2 Buys and 5 Cards.
Don't see the big insight though, it is just what the card does. ^^

About Jackpot, it is like Archive a double Duration and not a Reserve. It makes no sense at all to give the card the Reserve type. Tracking doesn't become easier just because you put the card on the Tavern mat as this is the only card with mandatory calling so it could easily be forgotten.
You can put tokens on it or turn the card or whatever if you need help with tracking.

I seriously doubt that a card which, relative to Merchant Ship, sacrifices 1 coin at turn one for the sake of 3 extra coins at turn 3 is worse than that benchmark card.

204

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: September 05, 2016, 01:09:25 am »

I think this is fine at its price. cards are roughly equivalent to a cost of (Overlord is the most clear cut case) but this Event debtifies all 5s and has the Chancellor bonus which has to be worth something.

205

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 04, 2016, 01:37:23 pm »

Doesn't seem to be more complicated to track than Archive and trivial compared to Throne Room (variant) tracking.
I don't think that a card should get an extra type just to make tracking easier.

You make a good point about missing more shuffles than an ordinary Duration but I still think that this is roughly comparable in strength to Merchant Ship. At a price of 4 you can always open with it, play it (most likely) on turn 3 or 4 and even if it misses the second shuffle you get a total of 6 coins. That's brilliant in the early game.

206

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Unlimited action

« on: September 04, 2016, 01:24:52 pm »

I think that 4 is the right price but I'd probably prefer Port (and Busting Village with no Settlers in my deck) over this in most Kingdoms. Even if they provide a shitload of actions you still need several of these villages, especially so as they don't draw.
In other words village density is more important than not drawing a card but providing a lot of actions. The marginal benefit of an extra action of a village beyond the second one decreases quickly.

207

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 04, 2016, 01:17:34 pm »

Then I fail to see why Jackpot is a Reserve.
It could just be a Duration like Archive that stays in play for 3 turns, provides 1 this turn, 2 next turn and 3 in the turn after the next turn.

I think it is far too strong for 4. Archive is a Double Lab smeared over 3 turns at a cost of 5 whereas Jackout provides 6 coins smeared over 3 turns at a cost of 4. You can also compare it to Merchant Ship. For giving up 1 Coin in the current turn you get 3 Coins two turns later. This is probably good more often than not so Jackpot has to cost at least 5.

208

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: September 03, 2016, 01:04:56 am »

Another small remark about the cost of Blessing: If you have a 5 Coppers in hand, you can't both trash a Copper and buy a $5. So if the only junk you have in hand is Copper, Blessing at least has you choose whether you play or trash that. Having -$1 for 7 turns isn't the world, but it's not free.

I don't think Blessing makes sense as an event.

Delve is also an Event that simulates a rule change and as you pointed out, Landmarks are not global permaevents but global permaevents that relate to VPs so you cannot implement a rule change via Landmarks.

Let's consider Blessing at $1. How much does it cost me to trash a Copper with Blessing? Yes, $1, but don't forget that i didn't play the Copper. So, $2. But trashing Coppers with an overhead of $1, that's exactly what Bonfire does. Sure, there i can't trash Estates, and here i have to pay the overhead for every single Copper, not sets of two. But still, it's much too similar for me. Also i don't like the implication for the opening. Trash 2 Estates, have a $3 and a $2 turn? Yuk. Trash one Estate, have a $5 and a $1 turn? Nice. I prefer a variant that pushes the 3/4 opening instead, as that's quite often the worse one, either way.

Great analysis. I totally agree with you now that you should test this Event at a cost of zero.

I'm sorry i have to say this, but no. I don't want the event to be witty or requiring clever play. I don't want you to lose an additional $1, or have to decide between buying it or another card. I want it to be straightforward, in your face, no shennanigans, "you can trash a card per turn for free". And it will stay like this until i play it. And if i find that's no fun, well, i guess it wasn't a good idea.

I think this is partly influenced by game design philosophy. Do you want your game to be complex due to rule and play complexity (e.g. wargames or basically anything from 'What's your Game') or complex in spite of simple rules (Knizia, Kramer, abstracts like Chess)?
In general I am agnostic about this but in the case of DOminion I lean more towards complex cards while being very well aware that more often than not simpler cards achieve much more in terms of making the game more complex.

209

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: 2016 Treasure Chest Design Contest - Part 9: Hinterlands (Results!)

« on: September 02, 2016, 06:13:47 am »

I'm not really convinced that Mountain Dwellers "only works in Big Money decks".  3 whole treasures is not enough to constitute a big money deck.  If anything, a draw engine would help you draw enough treasure to get Mountain dwellers to work consistently.  It's also worth pointing out that the value of a peddler is proportional to the fraction of your deck you draw every turn.  Seems like the optimal use of Mountain dwellers is a draw engine with ~4 treasures in it.

I agree. Mountain Dweller is an Action card which forces you to play a mixed strategy, i.e. to use some Treasures in your deck instead of just relying on the card itself and potentially other Action cards that provide coins.

One could argue that a conditional Peddler with an on-buy Treasure-in-play-Expand is too bland but in my opinion it is an excellent card precisely because it forces you to balance the Treasure density in your deck well.

210

Dominion: Empires Previews / Re: Empires - A second look

« on: September 02, 2016, 12:57:22 am »

After having played multiple empires games now, here are my second thoughts on the expansion.

Empires can turn really frustrating (with legionary). Once you breach a certain threshold and got your deck into position i fell like empire cards really shine. Wild hunt becomes a real beast, that, if you are set up well can control and lets you pick up VP tokens and tons of cards each turn. Overlord, as the name suggests, can, depending on the board, be the dominant card. I've played several rounds only buying overlord and winning the game. Empires often brings real power into the kingdom.
But that power comes at a cost. The cost is diversity. Were previously 2 or 3 potential successful tactics on the board the landmarks in particular, events and empire cards often reduce it to one, competing strategy.

I feel this loss of versatility is the biggest weakness, especially if we gaze into the future to potentially new expansions.
Empire is a power boost and if new expansions want to compete with it i fear there will be more dominating cards dividing the game into pre empires and post empires or empires will keep dominating unless the sting of some of its bites get softened.

In very short: Empires offers extremely strong cards. These cards are dominating enough to wipe out alternative strategies on the the board. Its very hard for inexperienced players to compete.

I totally disagree with that. Before Empires you might have had Kingdoms in which you had the choice to go for Gardens or Provinces or had to decide how many VPs you are going to make via Goons.
I agree though that Landmarks kinda force your play. It is kinda like Terra Mystica where the faction you play dictates how you gotta play. But you do not have to go for it: at the end you still got two choices, how many VPs to make via Landmarks and how many via ordinary greening. Previously you often had Kingdoms in which you only won via Provinces.

I don't see how the ways to achieve a particular VP goal have been diminished in Empires.
Take e.g. Groundskepper, it is pretty difficult to determine how many you should get, whether having one or two in your deck really makes greening earlier or getting those Duchies more attractive and so on.

In short, I feel like Dominion opened up more.

211

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: September 02, 2016, 12:50:35 am »

Blessing seems cool.  My gut reaction is that it would be more interesting at $1 since you have a trade off to consider.  It is still pretty automatic, but if there isn't a $2 worth gaining, you probably don't do this on your opening 3C2E turn.

The reason that this Event would be more interesting at a cost of 1 or 2 is simply Bonfire. Bonfire is "terminal" and costs 3 and I cannot imagine a situation in which you would ever go for Bonfire in the presence of Blessing. So Blessing is overpowered and should cost 1 or 2.
The usual caveat is of course that if you want to emulate a rule change with a zero cost Event these balance and power considerations are moot.

Blessing isn't to overpowered. It takes at least ten turns to trash all your starting cards.

Ten turns to start all your starting hands is incredibly quick. Only multi-trashers like Chapel or Remak can beat that but with cantrip trashers like Junk Dealer you usually need longer

It would be overpowered relative to Bonfire at a cost of 0 instead of 1 or 2 if it were intended to be an ordinary Event.
But as it is meant to be an Event that simulated a rule change power and balance considerations are moot.

212

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: September 01, 2016, 03:22:48 am »

Maybe something like adding a "discard a card from your hand" before the trashing.

It would have to be conditional though "Discard a card from your hand. If you did, trash a card from your hand.". Otherwise you could e.g. play all Treasures but 1 Copper and then trash the Copper from your hand without having to "pay" the discard cost.
I like the idea. Early on it could be cheaper than a coin cost of 1 as you'd still have junk to discard but as you quickly thin your deck with Blessing you will have to discard something better than Copper during the later part of the game which is not a big issue as trashing becomes weaker anyway.

213

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 01, 2016, 12:49:02 am »

About Cavalry, normally (i.e. you have 5 cards in hand when you play Cavalry) this is equivalent to draw 2 cards, discard 3, draw 3, everybody else down to 3.
So it draws the same amount of cards as Embassy but split up so it is worse. It is better than Embassy as there is no Silver gift and as there is the discard attack.
Hard to tell as it is a draw up to X but my guess is that this is closer to being a 5 than a 4.

Celebration seems pretty strong compared to Monument (but then again you need the 2 cards in hand so perhaps it is OK) and Equestrian Village is totally crazy, converting every sifter into a monster.

And it also costs

I took this into account. Relative to Momument it provides an extra coin and an extra buy and while the trashing could be tricky (e.g. rarely Throne-able) I think that it is more of an asset than a liability.

214

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: September 01, 2016, 12:41:58 am »

Celebration seems pretty strong compared to Monument (but then again you need the 2 cards in hand so perhaps it is OK) and Equestrian Village is totally crazy, converting every sifter into a monster.
About Cavalry, normally (i.e. you have 5 cards in hand when you play Cavalry) this is equivalent to draw 2 cards, discard 3, draw 3, everybody else down to 3.
So it draws the same amount of cards as Embassy but split up so it is worse. It is better than Embassy as there is no Silver gift and as there is the discard attack.
Hard to tell as it is a draw up to X but my guess is that this is closer to being a 5 than a 4.

215

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: September 01, 2016, 12:39:38 am »

Blessing seems cool.  My gut reaction is that it would be more interesting at $1 since you have a trade off to consider.  It is still pretty automatic, but if there isn't a $2 worth gaining, you probably don't do this on your opening 3C2E turn.

The reason that this Event would be more interesting at a cost of 1 or 2 is simply Bonfire. Bonfire is "terminal" and costs 3 and I cannot imagine a situation in which you would ever go for Bonfire in the presence of Blessing. So Blessing is overpowered and should cost 1 or 2.
The usual caveat is of course that if you want to emulate a rule change with a zero cost Event these balance and power considerations are moot.

216

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: August 30, 2016, 06:11:15 am »

I think that the coin cost estimate (of course this is anything but precise and jsut a mental tool as we are so used to coin costs) of 8D cards is 6$. So at the first glance it seems to be OK as it is not much stronger but more expensive than Stables during the early game. But unlike Stables which sucks in games with decent trashing Scientist is good in nearly all Kingdoms (Lab is only bad in the presence of draw to X cards).
I'd test it at 8D and 9D.

217

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Asper's Cards

« on: August 29, 2016, 01:43:29 pm »

Scholar and Inquisition seem fine although not particular exciting.

Scientist is potentially too good for a Debt card. But the Debt you gotta take might be weak enough in the opening to make this actually a viable Double Lab.

218

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Historian / Antiquarian

« on: August 24, 2016, 03:05:21 pm »

My mistake, I somehow thought that you will draw the topdecked card but of course you will draw from the discard pile.
I don't know, it has advantages  (you can prepare your next hand) and disadvantages (as you said, you will run out of the discard pile respectively out of good cards out of the discard pile faster).
Seems needlessly complex for my taste.

219

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Civilization (Beta)

« on: August 24, 2016, 12:27:49 pm »

This might need some clarification concerning the order of flashing. Normally this isn't necessary as a fixed amount of cards is flashed simultaneously but here the amount of cards you flash is up for choice and matters significantly.

220

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Historian / Antiquarian

« on: August 24, 2016, 03:36:00 am »

This card is similar to Gubump's Granary and Cookielord's Beachcomb in terms of drawing from the discard pile.
While this sounds incredibly strong we all know since Settlers that you do very often not have a discard pile to draw from. I find it hard to judge the power level of Historian but my hunch is that it is OK. Sure, it will be brilliant if you draw all your good stuff shortly before shuffling but sometimes it will simply do nothing.
I would consider to reduce it to simply drawing from the discard pile. All the topdecking does is putting one good card on top of your deck for the next turn.

221

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon

« on: August 23, 2016, 03:09:25 pm »

One issue worth considering with Conflagration is that the different back adds shuffling accountability problems. Since you can tell where Conflagration is in your deck, you could keep shuffling until it appears where you want it (probably at the bottom?).  Stash addresses that issue by explicitly letting you push Stash wherever you want. You could do the same. Or you could rule that players shuffle with their eyes averted or something?

I use an alternative junk card with a different back that also triggers when you draw it; naturally such cards require that you look away while shuffling to really randomize your deck. I think this is pretty obvious and doesn't require an explicit rule (although actual rule books do of course point this shuffling issue out: "Core Worlds - Revolution" comes to mind). The point of shuffling is after all that you randomize your deck.

222

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon

« on: August 23, 2016, 11:46:50 am »

Thanks for the wording tips, I adapated them.

I made Conflagration weaker via making it turn non-Ruins Action cards into Ruins. That junk might hurt more than an absent Action card but on the other hand that Ruins is also "food" for the next Conflagration so it won't eat through your deck so fast.
I also got rid of the negative VP, the card is potentially too nasty anyway.

I also made Dragon evade the "buy and play it as early as possible to build it up like Pirate Ship" issue via enabling it to play and trash the Treasures on the mat at the beginning of the Buy phase. Of course the huge disadvantage of this is the scaling issue, with 3 players this is much better than with 2.

223

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon

« on: August 23, 2016, 11:05:33 am »

If I tell you to jump out of the window and you say that you cannot jump out of the window life, thankfully, just goes on.

I find this very funny as you try to think like a computer program who direly wants to be caught in a causal loop instead of a common sensical human being who gets that when a card says "trash X" and card X says "I cannot be trashed" the game will not freeze but happily go on.

224

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon

« on: August 23, 2016, 10:59:34 am »

On top of that, there's the whole rules issue Conflagration's trashing rule causes.

Which rule issue?

Jack Rudd plays a Swindler
...gaining $2
...Tristan reveals a Conflagration
...

Conflagaration should probably have a price of 0.

I don't think he was talking about the price. What do you do with the card? Swindler says to trash it. It says it can't be trashed.

As the gaining part of Swindler is not conditional upon the trashing actually happening you simply gain a card with a price of 0. Still no rule issue.

Nothing ever tells it to be discarded. It just sits there being revealed.

No idea about which part you don't get.
When you draw the card you gotta reveal it, trash an Action or Victory card and then the game goes on.
Later you discard like any other card during the Clean-up phase.

225

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon

« on: August 23, 2016, 10:53:47 am »

On top of that, there's the whole rules issue Conflagration's trashing rule causes.

Which rule issue?

Jack Rudd plays a Swindler
...gaining $2
...Tristan reveals a Conflagration
...

Conflagaration should probably have a price of 0.
Still not perceiving the rule issue.

Does Conflagration have a different back, like Stash?

Yep:

Conflagration is meant to have a different back like Stash so that there are no "not playing honest" issues.