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126

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Early Adventures Impressions

« on: May 04, 2016, 12:26:21 pm »

Right but you have to assume that he'll get his champion up not much after you. (Otherwise you're assuming that you've won whatever happens.) And in that case the attacks do nothing. Sad but true.

I hadn't thought of that, but that's true.  I was starting to think that Warrior could potentially be a bit strong, but if it's always in a Kingdom with an UberMoat, it loses some of its power.  If you're playing a mirror, I guess there's not much you can do.  If not, and your opponent has just picked up one page to get their Champion, you can try to cut them off at one of the piles, for example, if you have every Warrior, they can't advance to Warrior or beyond it.  So you could try some sort of rush there.  Or you could attempt to trash their Champion/Hero with Warriors before they can play it. 

127

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Early Adventures Impressions

« on: May 04, 2016, 11:19:06 am »

With all the new cards and events, and tokens, there's a lot of fun card combinations that you wouldn't think of until you're actually looking at the Kingdom with both of them in it, and sometimes not even then.  It's not like Apprentice-Market Square or Hermit-Market Square, you know about these things and so when both cards show up, it's like "hey, I guess I'm doing that this game".  Adventures opens up a lot more possibilities, especially when you mix them with the other expansions

I had a game with the Page line and Ferry.  My opponent Ferried Markets, and was running the Market Pile, I Ferried Smithies, planning to have a lot of +3 cards +1 action smithies.  I got up to Champion and then had a bunch of Warriors and Pages.  My warriors couldn't touch his Markets, until I realized that I could put my Ferry token on Markets, so that now they cost 3 on my turn.  My Warriors tore his Markets apart.  Did either of us play the Kingdom optimally?  Probably not, but it sure was fun. 

I wonder if this could be a thing with Bridge Troll.  Take your time building up a deck with Champion, that can draw itself, play 1-4 Bridge Trolls, and then a bunch of Pages and Warriors.  Even if you end up really behind in points, Once you play 4 Bridge Trolls you can trash all his Provinces that aren't in his hand.  Play 2 Bridge Trolls and trash all his 5 or 6 cost cards.  You could almost strategically carpet bomb his entire deck. 

128

Goko Dominion Online / Re: What I've learnt from Adventures online...

« on: May 03, 2016, 10:33:03 am »

These are my first games ever with Adventures Cards, so I'm avoiding playing Rated games until I've got a handle on most of these cards.  I've played a bunch of games with a friend of mine, but have also been playing through the campaigns. 

The campaigns are a pretty good way to learn about the cards and to figure out how certain cards might fit into an engine, when to use Card A and to avoid Card B, and when the opposite is true.  However:  as advertised, the AI in the campaigns is not very good.  For all the other expansions, the AI would be really easy the first few levels, but then would at least become challenging once you've hit the 9th or 10th stage of each Act.  Not so in Adventures.  I've yet to have the AI opponent push me at all; at least in the other expansions the AI would play Council Room BM, so you'd be forced to not pick a strategy that's too slow to set up. 

The most annoying thing the AI does is with Port:  I'll settle on my engine, decide what pieces I need to focus on and what cards I need to get them, this card for trashing, etc, and leave the Ports until I need them.  Oops, the Ports are gone already.  It's not uncommon to watch the CPU play Port, play another Port, play 4 coppers, buy a Port and gain another.  Next turn:  play 3 or 4 ports and buy another Port.  It's annoying because A) The AI's deck full of Ports is bad and offers no challenge  B)  I needed 4 Ports or so to make this engine work, and now there's none.  So I still beat the opponents decks easily, but I didn't get my engine going 100% to do it.  This is especially annoying in the 3 player games. 

129

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss... Alchemy!

« on: May 02, 2016, 10:43:11 pm »

Suffice to say, Alchemy is a bucket of fun. 

I agree that Alchemy is lots of fun, and doesn't quite deserve its reputation as the worst expansion (although I guess something has to be the worst, and its probably alchemy).  That being said, fun as it is, it might be the expansion that can be the least fun when someone finds themselves on the wrong side of a blowout.  Case in point, your game above where you probably cursed, Possessed, and spied your opponent into absolute oblivion. 

130

Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Results

« on: April 28, 2016, 10:22:35 pm »

D2:

amoffett11   4
SensaiCAY   2

131

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Alchemy Cards: Scrying Pool

« on: April 28, 2016, 09:30:43 am »

Scrying Pool is one of those cards that while I'm playing it, I'm very aware that "man, my opponent must hate me right now".  Sometimes you're just waiting for the resignation.  Then you get those hands where you've already drawn your deck, but you have to play that last pool or two until you've stuck your opponent with a bad card on top.  It's right up there with Possession or Torturer in cards where you just feel like saying "it's not personal, it's just Dominion".  Scrying Pool is not a card I'd play in a just for fun game. 

All that being said, I love Scrying Pool.  Some of my favourite games will have both Scrying Pool and University, and you're going for a win where on your last turn you gobble up a bunch of action cards, buy and estate, and win by a point.  I once played a game with Scrying Pool, University, Highway and Border Village.  That was a fun game. 

132

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Alchemy Cards: Possession

« on: April 27, 2016, 02:47:17 pm »

Sometimes in a Possession game I'll just build me engine, but as soon as my opponent buys Possession (or sometimes as soon as they buy a Potion, if they didn't already have one) I'll just start greening immediately.  By the time they get around to Possessing me hopefully my deck is not great, and they're behind. 

I had a league recently with Scrying Pool, Steward, Crossroads, Necropolis and Possession.  My end deck had 2 Coppers and Potion for economy, but it could play 4 Possessions in a turn.  I would possess my opponent 4 times, buy a province each time, he would possess me twice, draw my deck, and he can't buy anything.  This is the dream scenario for a Possession mirror, have a deck that's useless for all but Possessing people. 

133

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Alchemy Cards: Apprentice

« on: April 25, 2016, 10:14:00 pm »

Thats wrong, thin deck is luxury that you couldnt afford with apprentice/market square unless you opened with strong trasher. You will fall behind by several turn versus opponent that  primarily builds deck. While apprenticing estates is nice by trashing coppers you lose tempo. A priority is gaining apprentices, so most of time its correct to trash gold for draw as first and gain apprentice than to trash copper and reveal market square, buy market square. Copper trashing will come later once you have 3+ apprentices and already got big turns.

Ya, I wasn't suggesting that you get thin using the Apprentice, like you said, there's hopefully another way to trash your coppers.  You'd never want to spend $5 to buy a card that trashes one copper a turn.  If you can get a thin deck though, say with a Remake, once your coppers are gone you can apprentice your trasher, get two or three gold, and you're off to the races. 

134

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Alchemy Cards: Apprentice

« on: April 22, 2016, 09:14:35 am »

I had a league game yesterday where my opponent and I were playing a mirror, the only difference being is that I got an Apprentice.  I ended up winning running away.  Early on you can just trash your estates, but later you can trash a card costing 4 or 5, even if it's something you still want in your deck, to guarantee a strong turn.  Hopefully if you have some kind of +Buy in you deck, you can make up the difference and get that trashed card back. 

Apprentice is my favourite Alchemy card, I always look for a way to add one or two to my deck.  And Apprentice Market Square is definitely a thing.  Wait until your deck gets really thin, and then start going for Gold.  Your first Gold turn you could get 12-15 (or more!) Gold in hand and a few buys, depending on how many Market Squares and Apprentices you get.  It's not quite Hermit Market Square, but its close. 

135

Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Results

« on: April 21, 2016, 09:04:48 pm »

D2:

amoffett11 3 - 3 SaintO

136

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Throne Room

« on: April 19, 2016, 09:33:05 am »

Did anybody else play their first couple games of Dominion, and play Throne Room -> Throne Room -> Smithy and draw 12 cards?  Or Throne Room -> Throne Room -> Throne Room -> Woodcutter and $16, buy two provinces?  This is how I was taught, and after a couple games I finally read the card closely and said "hey, I don't think that's how this works". 

137

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:32:09 pm »

I feel bad about people who've bought the full set very recently; I feel worse about the people who might buy the full set tomorrow.  Or next month.  Does anyone know what it looks like to someone who may decide to buy everything now?  I assume the price is still the same.  I guess if someone decided to look very hard they could find threads like this one, or the "2016 plan and future" thread over at MF, and read between the lines, but it seems more likely that most people might get the whole thing not knowing about the upcoming switch. 

I'm pretty much at peace now with the fact that I got my money's worth (and more) getting the whole set back when I did in September 2015.  But someone who gets it today?  Not so much.  Someone who spends $90 dollars in September 2016, only to find out that in 4 months it's going to be converted to a $36 year pass might be somewhat unhappy.  It's hard to expect MF to put up a big sign that says "Don't buy this!  Wait for 2017!", but at what point does it become dishonest for them to keep selling the whole set for $90 without some kind of disclaimer?  I feel like we might already be there. 

138

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Moneylender

« on: April 13, 2016, 08:05:18 pm »

Looking back at when I first starting playing Dominion (back when Chapel was only for Witch games to trash curses), Moneylender's name can be a little deceiving.  In life, borrowing money is bad.  There's a negative connotation there.  Like the event Borrow:  you get an extra $1, but there's a cost there, you get 1 less card.  So Moneylender, I'm getting $3, but what is it costing me?  I lose a copper.  Now I need to think about this:  Is it worth losing this copper?  I can't get it back.  Well, unless I buy another.  Maybe I should get a Market, so that I can play Market, play Moneylender, and then buy something + buy another copper to replace the one I lost.  These are things I would think about. 

Then all of a sudden you realize that you're getting $3, and that crummy copper is out of your deck.  What other cards does this apply to?  Maybe I need to go and take a look at that crappy $2 curse-trasher...

139

Rules Questions / Throne Room and Feast vs. Throne Room and MadMan

« on: April 13, 2016, 03:13:10 pm »

Yesterday on the online client, I decided to Throne Room my MadMan to get a very large hand.  I didn't notice that it didn't quite work, so I did it again.   Once I noticed that I couldn't Throne my Madman, I figured it was because it was being returned to the supply.  You play the throne room, you play the Madman, and *woosh* it's back in the supply and beyond my grasping fingers.  But then I thought about Feast.  How is it I can throne Feast and get two cards?  Is the difference between the two the "if you do..."  clause?

I realize that I've probably answered my own question, but it's something I never considered before.  I'm finding lately that I've been playing with cards online for awhile and I'm taking for granted exactly what the wording is on some of them and how that is affecting different combos.  Given the power of MadMan, I imagine that is why that clause is there in the first place, so that it can't be throned. 

140

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion

« on: April 13, 2016, 02:52:56 pm »

As someone who was initially hesitant (and still am), after thinking about it a bit I'm personally going to put the brakes on questions about the pricing model or really any other concerns.  This announcement right now isn't about much more than "hey Stef and SCSN are doing online Dominion in 2017".  Great, sounds good to me.  They know what they're doing. 

January 2017 is a long way away, so they have a lot of time to get this right, so it's seeming a little premature to get into lengthy discussions about how it's all going to work.  This is only Step 1, and while I would have been ok with Step 0:  stick with MF, but if Steps are going to be made, Step 1 at least was the correct one, so I'm optimistic.  I will be looking forward to the developments as they happen.   

141

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion

« on: April 13, 2016, 12:37:28 pm »

It literally states that you can play against AI with the online model

It's more the campaigns that I enjoy.  Keeping the offline expansions seems the wiser move to me, your free year is gone after a year, and now you have nothing.  And if there's another developer switch, will users who opted for the free year be left standing empty-handed, while I will still be able to transfer my kept expansions along?  This is all hypothetical I know, but it seems wiser in the long run to me to hang onto the expansions.  And hey, that way you're paying the new developers immediately, if that's your concern.  But once you let the expansions go, it's an expensive proposition to pay for them a second time. 

142

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion

« on: April 13, 2016, 10:45:10 am »

Back in September I had to decide whether to dive in and pay for the expansions, I was wary of exactly this kind of thing.  It was something like $90 to get them all, which is not exactly cheap.  But once I had them I had them, great.  A good investment.  And Making Fun, despite the way the majority of this community loves to crap on them every chance they get, it works.  They address bugs fairly quickly.  So at this point, there's a working product that I've already paid for, so I'm not going to be thrilled by any decision that changes this.  Still, I came to expect this back when the decision was announced. 

I'm not exactly thrilled about the new pricing model, but I get it.  It's hard to expect people to work for free.  If I'm understanding my choices correctly I can either

A) Get the first year of Dominion Online for free (a $36 value) and never play offline again.  No campaigns or AI games. 
B) Transfer my expansions to Dominion Offline (I don't know, a $55ish value), and start paying the online fee immediately.

I guess I'm stuck with Option B; I do enjoy the campaigns and do play offline sometimes. 

Here's my real fear with this whole process:

I paid $90.  I got 16 months of online and offline Dominion.  (Actually, by the time I've purchased Adventures, and I still plan to, it will more like $100ish dollars).  Once 2017 rolls around, I will keep my offline expansions and then will have to pay $36 through the year.  But what happens if after a year or two, it's decided that this implementation isn't right either, and it gets switched *again* to another developer.  And the new guys say "hey, here's our new pricing model, y'all got to pay for all the expansions *again*.  And the cycle continues.  From what I've seen Making Fun has done an excellent job of honouring player's past purchases; this may not be a financially viable position for the new developers to take, but there it is. 

I really hope that the decision-makers have made the right decision this time and we don't have to make another switch.  I understand that they feel their previous choice (MF) was the wrong one, and they may be right, but ultimately that decision is going to cost me a bit of money.  I am optimistic the new developers know what they're doing and can deliver a good product.  The previous product worked just fine, so the onus will be on them to deliver a better one. 

143

Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Results

« on: April 12, 2016, 11:36:12 pm »

D2:

amoffett11 5
microman   1

144

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Mine

« on: April 12, 2016, 02:51:28 pm »

You need to be careful opening this with a 5/2 opening, ya you trash 5 of your coppers  but now what are you going to buy even a silver with?  Now with Fool's Gold on the board, it's a whole different story.  Open this/Fool's Gold, and you're off to the races. 

145

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What does everyone think is the best village 2.0

« on: April 09, 2016, 09:23:05 pm »

Ironmonger
Herald

146

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What does everyone think is the best village 2.0

« on: April 08, 2016, 08:47:30 am »

1 King's Court
5 Herald

12 Squire
15 Fishing Village

19 Ironmonger
21 Wandering Minstrel

25 Border Village
29 City

I think I've lost track of whether this is supposed to be our favourite village or what we think is the best.  Oh well

147

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Favorite Action-Reaction Bracket

« on: April 07, 2016, 12:28:01 pm »

1. Watchtower
8. Secret Chamber

6. Caravan Guard
3. Trader

5. Moat
4. Horse Traders
Moat is so boring.  The only card I would vote for Moat over is Secret Chamber.  Horse Traders is a much more interesting card.

7. Beggar
2. Market Square
This was close.  Apprentice Market Square or Hermit Market Square etc. is fun, but after watching Beggar be used as Mercenary fuel yesterday, it was a tough decision.  I stuck with Market Square though

148

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What does everyone think is the best village 2.0

« on: April 07, 2016, 09:31:46 am »

1 King's Court     
3 Crossroads

5 Herald
8 Plaza

9 Royal Carriage
12 Squire

13 Fortress
15 Fishing Village   This was my hardest call.  Fortress is often more fun, but it's also just vanilla in games where you can't trash it.  Fishing Village is useful more often. 

18 Shanty Town
19 Ironmonger

21 Wandering Minstrel
24 Lost City

25 Border Village
27 Golem

29 City
32 Coin of the Realm

149

Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Base Set Cards: Gardens

« on: April 07, 2016, 09:25:53 am »

If I was only allowed to put one card from Base into my randomizer deck with the cards from all the other expansions, it would probably be Gardens.  Any time it appears on a board, before you begin you need to stop and consider "Is Gardens a possibility?".  Sometimes it's not, and you move on, sometimes you go for it.  It's a bigger game changer and adds more variety than any other Base Card. 

Oh wait, I forgot about Chapel.  OK, I'm taking two Base Cards.  Chapel and Gardens. 

150

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What does everyone think is the best village?

« on: April 04, 2016, 09:26:44 pm »

Forgotten in the list of pseudo-villages is one of my favourites:  IronMonger.  You get some sifting, you can get some economy, and you can get some +actions.  I've had games where all the components of an engine are there, except a "village", and my opponent goes Big Money or some such.  But they've overlooked IronMonger, which can easily give you all the +actions you need. 

I'm not saying it's the best village, but it might be my favourite, and I think it deserves a mention.