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1126

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Puzzle: The Kingmaker

« on: August 04, 2011, 09:44:51 am »

At the time you play action 3, action 4 is in hand.  The Kingmaker card is action 4, but you know before you finish playing action 3 that you can use the fourth action for the Kingmaker.

Sorry I am confused. So you mean you have played action 3 in all the cases you mentioned? Then in your choices, how is "the card" differ from "Kingmaker"? (Since you can choose not to play "the card", it is not action 3. Are you implying you can also play the "Kingmaker" but choose not to end the game?)

1127

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Puzzle: The Kingmaker

« on: August 04, 2011, 05:13:28 am »

Some points need clarification:

(1) so before I play the third action, I already draw the fourth? in the choices you mention "the card" and "Kingmaker", is "the card" the third action, and "Kingmaker" the fourth action?

(2) Is getting 4 points a necessary consequence of playing the Kingmaker, and independent of the order you decide, or is it such that you can choose not to get the points and still decide who wins?

(3) Does your ability to decide the order depend on other players' reasonable choice? Say you play a masquerade

With these questions aside, the only plausible answer I can think of right now is
You drew a Colony, a Province, and a Duchy in hand. You may have used a Hamlet to discard a curse, menagerie to draw three. The last action is Expand and you draw Golem. The only 2 other actions in your deck is Bishop and Ambassador. If you play Expand you can trash a curse and gain an estate. There is only one Colony left in supply, 2 Provinces, and 3 Duchies. If you play Golem, you can choose to reveal any victory card in hand and not returning it; each will end the game and have different player on top since the 28 player sits next to you and the 33 player sits facing you. You can trash the Expand under Bishop for 4 points.
 

1128

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: August 02, 2011, 10:12:04 pm »

Here comes the solution!

Your entire deck contains 5 Horse Traders, 5 Havens, 5 Pearl Divers, 3KCs, 2 Explorers, 2 Bishops, 2 Cellars, and 1 Province.

In the turn before the perfect draw, you set aside a Haven and a Cellar with two Havens. You draw 5 HTs in hand, and either there are no cards in your discard pile, or there are no more cards in your draw deck.

When hit by Goons, you reveal all the HTs and set them all aside. In your turn you draw 5 extra cards and get the 5 HTs back in hand, as well as a Haven and a Cellar which you have set aside last turn. All the remaining cards are now in the draw pile. You play the Cellar, discard all the HTs and draw another 5. Now you play Pearl Divers if you have them until you've played three, moving all the Havens or Cellar to the top of your deck if you see them at the bottom. After you have played three or when you don't have one in hand, you play Haven, setting aside a Cellar if you have it in hand, or otherwise a Haven. After you have set aside both, just continue to play PDs, causing a reshuffle with a single PD unplayed in hand. Now your deck contains only the five HTs you discarded. You play KC*3, Explorer*2 (reveal Province every time), Bishop*2 (trash all the Golds you gain from Explorer) to get 4*6=24 VPs. Do not play your last PD under the last KC chance.


In the cleanup phase, you draw the 5 HTs. Rinse and repeat.

It is easy to count that to set aside a Haven and a Cellar you need 5 Havens total. You need 5 PDs because you need 3 to pull 2 Havens and a Cellar from the bottom of your deck in the worst case, another one to cause a reshuffle, and finally the last one, which you might draw on the one you used to cause a reshuffle, and cannot be played since you will draw a HT otherwise.

In my original intended answer I thought 2 Havens and 4 PDs can do the job. It turns out if Haven is the second-to-last card in the deck with the last one being anything but Cellar, this scheme does not work. I have to set-aside one Haven to help me overcome this situation, which causes another Haven in the deck to be drawn, hence one more PD as well.

1129

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: August 02, 2011, 01:19:58 am »

Ok, here is some further hint to my solution:

1. Suppose you can draw 8 cards in the clean-up phase every turn. Can you use a 8-card deck to generate 20+ VPs per turn, without altering the deck?

2.In the settings (hit by Goons every turn), is there a way to consistently draw the 8 card "payload" by a bunch of other cards, at the same time controlling your draw in the next turn, so that you can "rinse and repeat"?

Without Goons, 2. is pretty easily achieved using Tactician.

1130

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Top Ten Intrigue Cards at Next Level Card Games

« on: August 01, 2011, 11:12:01 pm »

Funny, I actually do think there are quite some situations that steward does trash better. Masquerade is generally better because it draws, not because it trashes. Sometimes that one extra card trash can make a big difference.

If anyone is interested, this game
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110116-133412-fc654593.html
gives me such impression. Evidently we have not yet heard about the KC-Goons-Masq lock down back then. I even chatted to geronimoo (while he is still new) how I think steward is a better card.

Maybe I am just horribly wrong. LOL.

1131

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: August 01, 2011, 09:58:12 am »

You don't have to be sorry. My own problem actually... I somehow just ended up with a very interesting problem (or rather, very interesting solution) and was eager to see what others think about it.

1132

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Pearl Diver

« on: July 31, 2011, 08:18:28 pm »

Didn't notice how the discussion evolved... interesting.

Let me reply the physics question above.

One big difference people easily overlook is that strictly speaking it is the amplitude, not the probability that is the fundamental object in quantum mechanics. The classic experimental setup to verify this is the double slit experiment. if you have a single slit to let electrons pass through, you observe a bell-shape histogram on the screen, which is the probabilistic distribution of the electrons. If you have two relatively close slit, you will observe something very different. There is still a bell-shape envelope, but there are lots of dark spots in the envelope. This is interference.

So the hidden variable theory is basically arguing that quantum mechanics is equivalent to some classical theory with some unknown variables. Basically it is saying that quantum mechanics is just classical mechanics with probabilities.

But it is not. Experimentally one can do the double-slit experiment and see the effect of quantum interference, which can only be described, if the wave function has not only an absolute value (probability), but also a phase.

There is also a neat construction showing that quantum interference in successive quantum measurements can have larger correlations than any classical probabilistic interpretation. That is called Bell's inequality, and if one is interested in it, it is easier to find it on Wikipedia. (Something that I cannot just recall from my mind.)

1133

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's simple puzzle #2: You know you can't but you won't say

« on: July 31, 2011, 07:28:18 pm »

Yeah. Too easy isn't it?

1134

Puzzles and Challenges / allfail's simple puzzle #2: You know you can't but you won't say

« on: July 31, 2011, 06:20:21 pm »

To those who are familiar with the game, there are rules which are easy to follow but hard to explain. There is however, a very easy rule which are always followed and not explained.

There is one, very mysterious kingdom card, which is not allowed to appear in the Black Market deck. No rules have stated this explicitly but no one breaks this rule. What is the card?



--
I'm sorry if this "puzzle" is too easy, but to compensate for the previous not-so-simple puzzle...

1135

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Impossible Score

« on: July 31, 2011, 03:47:13 pm »

Actually 4 of you are playing two sets of two-player games?

1136

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Impossible Score

« on: July 31, 2011, 03:25:44 pm »

This probably does not require a spoiler tag...

(1) Colony?

(2) Out side the box answer: did you count it wrong?

1137

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 31, 2011, 10:05:28 am »

Good point! Indeed it is sort of a loophole in my description. Indeed, even if I implied that your engine works for more than one turn, I cannot deny that your Fairground+Stash engine is a valid answer.

Let me therefore add the following hint/constraint for my intended answer (or some other answer that might exist as well):

In the purest form, I am expecting some engine which after a turn the deck is unchanged. That means without the supply issue you can get points indefinitely, something similar to KC*2 Monument*3. (Only in that example you really don't need the supply at all...)

On the other hand, I think it would also be very interesting, if you can find a way to gain 20+ points, in 5 consecutive turns, with or without adding cards to your deck, for any draw. Since my solution can only last for 5 turns given the supply constraint, I think this should count as a solution as well.

And a clarification which I hope is assumed but can also work as another hint: I said in the description that you just got the perfect draw, this includes the hand you start with in that particular turn, some duration cards you played the turn before that, and the discard pile you end up with after the clean-up phase the turn before. The deck order in that turn, however, is not included. This is because when I said you got the perfect draw, you haven't started the turn. Certainly, after this particular turn you cannot assume any of the above by luck.

1138

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Rules Challenge

« on: July 31, 2011, 01:44:08 am »

For the first two situations, will you play the treasure later in the turn?
In some situations you may be able to get away, say you draw more cards after that. but you have to be careful.
I dunno what happens being caught when doing this

1139

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 30, 2011, 02:55:06 pm »

Didn't see further response after half a day... kind of disappointed 

Let me say some other things about the puzzle. The constraints (no +2 actions, no cards draw two or more than it discards) are actually meant to help. (Unlike some of Blooki's puzzle where the key is in some sense to find a loophole in the constraint ) The intended solution does not need those cards. And I have a feeling that the intended solution is among the simplest that satisfies the conditions (hit by goons every turn, gain 20+ VP every turn, regardless of draw), with or without the constraint.

Therefore, if you find a solution satisfying the condition but not the constraints, you are welcome to post it too. Just one requirement: no Scrying Pool.

The hints are, of course, not necessary to know to solve the puzzle.

1140

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Don't start to flirt before the game is over.

« on: July 30, 2011, 02:26:46 pm »

The answer is very nice! With the worker's village modification above, I would suggest the puzzle to be formulated as:

.....
knowing there are at least 2 treasures and no coppers in your deck and discard pile, you now know you can win by getting the two Provinces, regardless what other cards are and how they are arranged.

What are your remaining 3 cards in hand?

(By the way, saying there is exactly one Silver and exactly 10 cards in the deck, without mentioning anything about the discard pile is not a good way to formulate the puzzle. Your answer is neither constrained or dependent on these conditions. While sometimes a puzzle needs some distractions, this is just going to lead people to think in the wrong direction and wastes lots of their time.)

1141

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Don't start to flirt before the game is over.

« on: July 30, 2011, 11:39:25 am »

What?

So now you say you can demand the silver in the draw pile to be the last card.

What is the rule? Can I demand my draw pile to have no victory cards?

It's more like guessing what you are thinking instead of a real puzzle...

1142

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Don't start to flirt before the game is over.

« on: July 30, 2011, 04:19:51 am »

Ok, I see. The point is that You are not allowed to determine the ordering or the content of the deck, but are able to decide what you have in the discard pile.

It's unlikely that people would know you mean this without being told IMO.

1143

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Don't start to flirt before the game is over.

« on: July 30, 2011, 12:37:44 am »

I guess this doesn't count...
You play a Counting House and pick all the coppers in you discard pile. Play something for +buy and buy the two Provinces.

I guess the question is: are we to suppose that the solution works for any deck that contains one silver as the only treasure, and any discard deck? Or can we assume the deck composition, as long as it does not violate the constraint? If so, using Scrying Pool+Vault makes it very easy.

1144

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Allfail's Simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 29, 2011, 11:48:13 pm »

Ouch. Found a bug in the wording. Yes, the Scrying Pool is off limits. Minion, however, is ok in my standards... I have to change the wording to reflect this. Thank you for reminding me this!

Not that I am saying I use minions though.

1145

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Allfail's Simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 29, 2011, 11:25:16 pm »

I would say so. I didn't use the card. You are welcome to post a solution with the card though.

1146

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Allfail's Simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 29, 2011, 09:24:20 pm »

Yes, yes, and yes.

Edit:

Let me add a hint (Or rather, another constraint):
Presumably, there exists some answer which involves KC on +1 card +1 action cards to draw a large enough hand to work with. My solution does not have this. Also, it is easy to check in my solution that no matter what the draw is, you can gain the same amount of VPs every turn, provided that the supply does not run out.

1147

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Cost This Card #1- Jack's Court

« on: July 29, 2011, 09:20:14 pm »

not unreasonable, but will not happen in practice. The reason might be more from the moral side instead of the game-play side. That aside, I think this card would make a good $5. Note this card is quite a bit more swingy than the original KC. If you draw it with a lack-luster action, whether should you play it? (say, even a market?) If not it is another dead card in hand. The only consistent play I see for this card is to get it only when you can control your draw. I.e., you can draw your whole deck, or you have enough minions. In that situation, the price of the card probably does not matter that much. It is better to be cheaper for some earlier adventurous play.

1148

Puzzles and Challenges / allfail's Not-so-simple Puzzle #1 (and maybe the only 1): Goons Maniac!

« on: July 29, 2011, 05:18:07 pm »

Well, seeing Blooki's interesting puzzles I cannot help but trying to make one myself. Here it is:

One day, you introduce your friends to Dominion. Three newbies are eager to know the awesome game.

Knowing they are smart, you start directly from a random setup. The setup turned out to be pathetic however, as there are no +2 action cards, and no cards that draw two or more than it discards (also excluding Watch Tower and Library). Your friends cannot wait to start the game, so 4 of you nevertheless just sit and start.

"It's ok, without those +actions and +cards, the game shall be simpler and quicker." You think.

Alas, it is not the case. All of your friends, despite being noobs, notice immediately a very powerful card you somehow overlook. Goons. In no time, each of them has more than two copies of it, and practically every single turn everyone is hit by Goons.

"Not fun." Says one of your friends. "Really. We just sit here, not being able to afford much, and forces other to be the same."

This annoys you. As your favorite game ever, you cannot stand someone criticize it. At the same time, the deck you are planning is finally completed. And you just have the perfect draw.

"Really, let me show you why I like the game so much."

From this turn on, you score 20+ VPs every turn. With any kind of draw. (until the supply depleted of course...) Your friends are wowed.  They now become keen Dominion players as well!

What did you do?

Edit: I forgot to warn, that while the constraints are strictly obeyed, the other descriptions may not be so accurate. After all this is a puzzle, and the answer I have in mind is pretty unrealistic to build for in a real game.

Edit2: Sorry the original constraint is incorrect. I meant to say those cards that increases your hand size do not exist...

Edit3: it turns out that the problem is actually somewhat harder than I think. Let me, therefore, gives further hint below:

The first hint:
In my solution, in addition to the cards mentioned below by WanderingWinder, there are several other important cards. The most tricky ones I think, are
Haven and Pearl Diver.


Now If you looked at the hint above, and still have no clue, here is a further hint.
In my solution, You need five of them each.

1149

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Hunt for it, it's mine!

« on: July 29, 2011, 02:04:15 pm »

I think with the constraint this is more or less it. I would probably not going to buy more than 2 silvers, but the difference should be minimal with hunting parties, and without +buys.

The interesting question may be that at some point midway whether you should mine a copper or silver. I dunno, if you have a mix of all of them, it probably does not matter that much either. If you don't, probably you should maintain 1 silver and 1 copper so you can always draw it. That's probably it.

1150

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Blooki's Puzzle #3 - 3's a crowd? Who says?

« on: July 29, 2011, 12:00:42 am »

This is brilliant! Awesome!

I think you can finagle the Action/Treasure balance a bit more. I wouldn't play the Embargoes or Mining Villages at all. All you want is more treasure. It's more important to get as many treasures as possible. More Harems, Stashes (think you forgot them), Talismans, Loans and Quarries please!

Indeed. The answer seemed to be to swap out that two piles with Harems and Stashes and see how many actions can you buy. The treasure counts to 12+10+39+29+9+9+9+9+4-5=125... seems possible, with 50 actions from the supply and the BM deck.

Edit: Forgot potions. It becomes 140 treasures, which should still be manageable. The total $$ must be more than 2500.
It is funny how this absurd number grow to almost ten times the first number you posted!