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401

Dominion General Discussion / Straightforward vs. Article cards

« on: September 01, 2012, 12:25:14 am »

I love reading the articles posted on the main site, and even tried my hand at writing a couple (not that any were posted). But looking through the Dark Ages cards, I've noticed that while some of them could definitely be the subject of an article, and most definitely deserve one, such as Band of Misfits or Count, given the depth of strategy possible with them, other cards seem rather simple, and not really something you could really write several paragraphs about. For instance, Bandit Camp - it's a Village that gives you Spoils. Villages have been discussed at length. Spoils - I could definitely see a Spoils article being written, which would touch upon Bandit Camp and the other two, but most of it would pertain to the use of the Spoils themselves (when to use them, etc).

Now, a lot of Dark Ages cards probably do merit an article, and we'll probably be seeing a few in the next couple months, once people have taken the time to assess the power of these cards, and they may be obscenely complicated, or simple in a grand, strategy-altering way. But which cards do you think really need no introduction at all?

My pick: Bandit Camp

402

Game Reports / 248 Victory Points.

« on: August 31, 2012, 01:03:35 pm »

http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20120831/log.503e9bc84e423bf9a00654c2.1346432490848.txt

403

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Band of Misfits and the "Cool effect, but wastes my turn buying" cards

« on: August 30, 2012, 08:37:06 am »

As you may have noticed in Dominion, there are certain cards which can do some pretty neat things, but you usually don't want too many, and you'd rather spend your turns getting better cards instead, especially since most of them are not just game-specific, but turn-specific. They tend to be on the cheap side. So what Band of Misfits lets you do is play them without having to buy them, exactly when you need them, and then be better cards when necessary. Examples might be Smugglers, Trade Route, or Herbalist. Like Trade Route, but didn't want to spend a turn buying an Estate? Well, once Provinces and Duchies have been bought, make Band of Misfits a Trade Route, and let it do its powerhouse thing without having to worry about colliding it properly. And how many times have you had a Smugglers in hand when your opponent only buys a Province? With just Bands of Misfits, you need only have a Smugglers when he picks up a Gold or Grand Market. And ALWAYS make sure that Potion goes back under your Alchemist stack.

404

Variants and Fan Cards / Card: Gift Receipt

« on: August 28, 2012, 12:35:49 am »

(couldn't think of a Medieval-y name that hadn't been taken already)

Gift Receipt
Action - $1/$2 (can't decide)

Trash a card. You may gain a card of the same or lower cost.

A cheap trasher to consider when Chapel isn't around. Sure, it only gets rid of your Coppers one at a time (it's no Remake), but it can turn your Estates into Cellars or Squires or Lighthouses, and later on you can turn that Moneylender in for a Smithy. Particularly effective for turning Peddlers into Provinces.

I was inspired while thinking of Swindler, and wanting a way to reverse that Swindling.

405

Dominion General Discussion / Hinterlands First Game?

« on: August 28, 2012, 12:01:45 am »

As we know, Hinterlands was, at one point, a standalone, meaning that the cards had to be (and at some level are) a tad on the simpler side, at least in terms of play, if not strategy. With that in mind, I'd like to try to come up with a first game setup using Hinterlands cards. I always introduce new players with the First Game setup recommended in the Base set (sometimes throwing in Trading Post, Cutpurse, Salvager and Secret Chamber to replace Mine, Militia, Remodel and Moat, respectively), but after a while it does get a bit tedious, and I feel like I intimidate new players since I can play that setup so well (hint: open Remodel). Now, I have tried a conglomerate setup with Intrigue/Seaside, which has been discussed (Secret Chamber, Courtyard, Pearl Diver, Woodcutter, Smugglers, Warehouse, Cutpurse, Salvager, Bazaar, Trading Post) to mixed results, but I'd really like to see if one could be made with Hinterlands.

I was able to introduce Embassy and Border Village in a second game to a new player, and he handled them rather well.

First thoughts:

Oasis
Nomad Camp
Margrave
Tunnel?

406

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Want to try: Beggar/Gardens

« on: August 27, 2012, 08:19:40 am »

Given Beggar's ability to both give you +$3 this turn AND flood your deck with Copper, I'd really like to try it out in a Gardens game. If you opened Beggar/Beggar, I'm pretty sure you could quickly run out the Beggar, Gardens and Duchy piles (maybe Copper, who knows). Anyone want to try this for me while I wait for my copy to arrive?

407

Dominion General Discussion / A USE FOR SCOUT

« on: August 24, 2012, 12:46:58 am »

I was just looking over the Dark Ages cards again, and was pondering Armory. It doesn't have any of the restrictions that later Workshop variants have had (Talisman, Haggler - can't get Victory cards) - the negative is the top-decking here. So if you manage to play enough Highways to Armory a Province, it goes on top of your deck and messes with your next turn. Hmm... Well that's not very good. Seems we need a card... that takes Victory cards from the top of your deck... and puts them somewhere else... HMMMMMMMMMMMM...

408

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card: Orchard

« on: August 20, 2012, 08:16:11 pm »

Orchard
Victory - $4

1 VP

-----

When you gain this, +1 VP.

When you trash this, +1 VP.

409

Variants and Fan Cards / Charity - a $1 cost card

« on: August 18, 2012, 02:22:55 pm »

Charity
Action - $1

+1 Buy
Reveal the top 5 cards of your deck. Discard one revealed card per card in your hand. Put the remaining revealed cards in your hand.

My intent was to create a $1 card. Following upon Donald X's comment to my observation that Poor House was the only $1 card in Dark Ages (he said it's hard to make a card cost $1 and still be a card you'd want and yet fair to the price), I thought how best to achieve this, and ended up going with something analogous to Poor House. In the beginning, this will be +1 Buy, +1 Card, which I think is pretty fairly priced at $1. Obviously, this card would do best with Fishing Villages and Festivals.

Perhaps something like "Draw 4 cards, then discard down to 5" would have been more homologous to Poor House, but Warehouse already does that.

FAQ: If you have 5 or more cards in hand, just discard the 5 revealed cards, and don't draw anything. Don't discard anything else.

410

Goko Dominion Online / Nice website...

« on: August 17, 2012, 05:04:44 pm »

I'll give Goko this - they certainly know how to design a website. It looks very professional. That being said, they have no idea how to set a deadline. They should take a look at Blizzard, a company infamous for not releasing on time, mainly because they want to be absolutely sure that their product works properly. Given, Diablo III's launch was a humongous cockup, but previously they had released games that worked practically perfectly.

411

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Counterfeit/Horn of Plenty

« on: August 17, 2012, 12:10:06 pm »

Think about it. If you're using Horn of Plenty to get a Victory card, you're trashing it anyway. The gaining isn't dependent on the trashing, so if you Counterfeit a Horn of Plenty, you get two Victory cards, while only trashing one Horn of Plenty. Add to that the extra card in play from Counterfeit, and the +Buy.

And sure, you could say that "well, I could have just bought another Horn of Plenty rather than a Counterfeit." But think about it some more. One Horn of Plenty with Counterfeit would be the same as two Horns of Plenty, yes. But two Horns of Plenty... now you're getting four victory cards, as opposed to just three. Three - you get six, rather than four... you can see that instead of buying eight Horns of Plenty to snag Provinces, just get four, and one Counterfeit.

412

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Only one $1?

« on: August 16, 2012, 06:10:18 pm »

When Poor House was shown in the first preview, I was expecting a fair number of $1 cards in this set. After all, Prosperity gave us four $7 cards. But despite expectations that this would be the flip side to Prosperity, we only see three $2 cards (the same as a normal-sized set), and one $1 card (not counting the Shelters). Instead, we have a massive number of $3, $4 and $5 cards, with even two $6 cards.

This further reinforces in my mind that it's actually Seaside that is the flip side to Prosperity, at least in terms of cost - it has nothing more expensive than $5, and it has five $2 cards.

So why only one $1?

413

Dominion General Discussion / The Cantrip with Extra

« on: August 15, 2012, 11:06:30 am »

Having played Dominion for over a year and a half now, I've noticed (as I'm sure you have) that there are quite a few cards that just have +1 Card, +1 Action, and then some text. These are often very powerful cards, but there are some weak ones in there as well. What they all have in common as that when we first look at them we think "+1 Card, +1 Action, murgh, this card doesn't do very much... oh wait!"

Now, for them to qualify (in my completely subjective opinion), they have to have ONLY +1 Card, +1 Action, and text. No other guaranteed vanilla bonuses. Scout does not count, since it does not have a +1 Card, and Great Hall does not count, because 1 VP is a vanilla bonus. Here they are by set:

Base: Spy

Intrigue: Wishing Well, Upgrade

Seaside: Haven, Pearl Diver

Alchemy: Apothecary, Familiar

Prosperity: N/A

Cornucopia: Hamlet, Hunting Party

Hinterlands: Scheme, Cartographer, Highway

Dark Ages: Rats (possibly others?)

I considered Caravan, but the text is simply stating that the extra +1 Card happens on your next turn, rather than, say, Hamlet, whose text dictates prerequisite activities (discarding) to get the extra vanilla bonuses.

414

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Play the previewed Kingdom!

« on: August 13, 2012, 11:36:14 am »

Let's say the 9 previewed Kingdom cards are on the board (and for shits and giggles, vanilla Village to make 10). How would you play it?

I think the most powerful opening would be Squire/Graverobber. Once you were able to collide them, you could trash Squire for 2 Cultists, and start filling your opponent's deck with junk. Once the Ruins start to deplete, you Squire/Graverob into a few Pillages, which will be all the more devastating with most of your opponent's hand filled with Ruins. Then, use your Spoils (and the +Buys from Squire) to take all the Provinces.

415

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Steward/Overgrown Estate

« on: August 12, 2012, 06:46:13 pm »

Let's say I have a Steward, a Copper, and all three of my Shelters in hand.

I play Necropolis.
I play Steward, electing to trash.
I trash Overgrown Estate.

Here's where I'm slightly confused:

Do I:

a) Trash two cards at the same time, only getting their "when you trash" benefits after they're both trashed?
or
b) Trash Overgrown Estate, drawing 1 card, which I can then trash, instead of a card that was originally in my hand before I played Steward?

416

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / How will they fit?

« on: August 11, 2012, 10:54:11 am »

So, not to say I've lost faith in Donald X (far from it), but I'm very curious as to how all the Dark Ages cards are going to fit in their box. I was playing IRL Dominion last night, and looking at the box, I find myself skeptical that even taking out the Curses, Base Victories and Base Treasures, that the box will be able to contain 10 more kingdom cards, 2 upgrade stacks, a Spoils pile, a Ruins pile, and Shelters. Oh, and extra space for all those Rats.

417

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Dark Ages Limericks

« on: August 10, 2012, 08:26:58 am »

Last turn I bought just one Rat
But now they're all over the flat
Estates (and Golds, too)
Are all flushed down the loo
My hand: Rats Rats Rats Rats Rats.

418

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Dominion: Jumanji

« on: August 09, 2012, 08:34:44 pm »

More than any other expansion, I'm really visualizing what these cards are doing. I can really imagine Graverobbers going at the trash pile with their shovels. So I could totally see, once we finally get a physical copy, this expansion coming to life like Jumanji. Play Rats, and a horde of rodents come pouring out of the walls. Play Pillage, and the Capital One barbarians charge at your house. Play Hermit, an old man comes and digs around in your trash. You get the idea.

419

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Self-Referencing Cards

« on: August 09, 2012, 02:13:34 pm »

I think we have a record in this expansion for cards that mention themselves on themselves - Madman, Spoils, Rats and Cultist all do this. Actually, do any other cards in the other sets reference themselves? All I can think of are Transmute and Golem...

420

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / New Cards In Toto

« on: August 09, 2012, 12:14:39 pm »

Figured it might prove... instructive? To take a look at all the new cards as they would be in the diehrstraits spoilers site. Maybe we'd see some new connections.

421

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Did... did Transmute just get better?

« on: August 07, 2012, 09:28:43 pm »

Think about it - Transmute a Feodum for the Silvers, and you get a Gold. The Gold isn't adding to your VP total, but it's certainly helping your economy. Ruins? Transmutes own Ruins. Cultist me? Thanks, I'll just turn those all into Duchies! That's probably the best thing to happen to them - no other trasher will give a card a $5 leap in cost.

422

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Sage Jokes

« on: August 07, 2012, 04:27:21 pm »

Since Sage skips over cheaper cards, this seems to fit thematically to me. And it can be the butt of jokes. I'll start:

Sage skips Chapel - they know there is no God.

Sage skips Fool's Gold - they're not fooled.

Sage skips Poor House - the intellectual elite can't be bothered with the needs of the poor.

423

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / The Feel of Dark Ages

« on: August 07, 2012, 01:36:35 pm »

With the first preview, the first three cards seemed to hark back to a purely medieval theme, something which hadn't been evoked since Intrigue. I think this is possibly why they seemed so much like fan cards (that, along with the trash-gaining and the $1 cost). But Graverobber and Poor House seem really gritty, and they, along with Sage, really feel like they'd fit in the actual Dark Ages.

The second preview seemed to me more exotic (perhaps the brighter colors), much like the Hinterlands previews were. With the Hinterlands previews, you got a feel for the aesthetic of the set pretty quickly. But in two days we have two different artistic directions for Dark Ages.

Permeating all of this is a sort of sense of finality. I realize there is one more expansion to come after this, but Dark Ages really feels like the last stand - a way for Donald X to really go out with a bang with his series - the Dark Knight Rises of deck-building card games, if you will. Just looking at the Ruined Market is almost like seeing the corpse of an old friend dredged up on the banks of a river. This is the post-apocalyptic expansion. I forsee this expansion being very aggressive and very violent. Even just with the Graverobber, I've been getting images of players fighting over the good stuff in the trash like vultures, in ways they would never have fought over cards from their supply piles.

But destructive or not, this set looks like it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun. Morituri te salutant, Donald X.

424

Dominion Isotropic / Black Market?

« on: August 05, 2012, 06:53:18 pm »

Was just thinking - is there a prize on iso for buying every card in the Black Market deck?

425

Dominion General Discussion / Shelter and Baron?

« on: August 05, 2012, 05:58:30 pm »

I just realized something... if Shelters are supposed to replace starting Estates, then in games using them, Baron is essentially useless. The chief thing Baron has going for it is that it can make Baron/Estate magically turn into Silver/Silver with a +Buy, and if you don't have any Estates in your deck to begin with, it gets a lot harder to collide the two. I mean, you could always use it to gain Estates and as a source of +Buy, but who just wants to accumulate Estates?

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