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126

Puzzles and Challenges / Most VP in 3 Turns

« on: August 24, 2012, 02:50:03 am »

Given that it's possible to end the game in 4 turns thanks to necropolis and some other powerful cards, what's the best that can be done for turn 3 in a solitaire game. Outpost turns don't count.

Rough effort:
Buy Nomad camp
Play nomad camp, buy Tunnel/Estate
Play nomad camp, buy Tunnel/Estate

5 estates+2 tunnels=9VP

2nd attempt:
Open procession/workshop
Procession the workshop, gain 2 tunnels, trash the workshop, gain an island, buy a tunnel

Total: 3 estates+3 tunnels+1 island=11 VP

127

Puzzles and Challenges / Most +buys in a turn (Dark Ages Edition)

« on: August 22, 2012, 06:58:40 pm »

What's the most buys you can get in a turn? (outpost and possession turns count as individual turns)

You do not have to prove that you can use the buys (so Contraband is always OK)

Possible Leads:
Playing Contraband and Counterfeit in the Black Market
Shenanigans with Mandarin to play the same Contrabands over and over again
Procession/Throne Room/Band of Misfits/King's Court on +buy cards
Playing the tactician from the black market in the previous turn

128

Puzzles and Challenges / No Card Left Untrashed

« on: August 22, 2012, 05:59:05 pm »

What's the fewest cards you can have in the supply and in your deck at the end of a solitaire game if:

A) The game is just a regular Province Game
B) The game is a Colony game

The game end conditions are the same as usual.
The spoils pile and other such cards do not count as being in the supply, but if they are in your deck at the end of the game they do count.

You do not need to provide a full game log, or show every step (but you can if you want, Celestial Chameleon)

129

Puzzles and Challenges / The Ultimate Challenge: All in, All gone

« on: August 22, 2012, 04:53:55 pm »

You play a solitaire game of a variant of dominion where all kingdom cards are available. With perfect shuffle luck, what's the fastest you can empty the whole supply?

Notes:
*All official Dominion cards from Base to Dark Ages, including promo cards, are in the supply
*The basic treasure piles contain the treasures from both the Base Set and Intrigue, and must be emptied
*Other supply piles have 10 cards except for victory cards, which have 8, and Rats, which has 20 (as usual)
*You start with Shelters instead of 3 estates
*The game still ends when the province pile, the colony pile or any other 3 piles are all empty
*Black Market is in the supply and can be played, but the Black Market deck does not contain any cards
*Outpost and Possession Turns count as turns towards the total. However both cards are in the supply and all 10 of each must be gained to satisfy the challenge.
*You may trash as many cards as you wish - the only requirement is that all supply piles are empty when the game ends
*A deck of 10 ruins of your choice is in the supply, and all 10 must be gained
*Tournament Prizes, Madman, Mercenary and Spoils need not be obtained (but can be if you wish)
*One of the $2 or $3 cards is Young Witch's Bane (but it doesn't matter)

130

Puzzles and Challenges / Speed Challenge: Scavenge that Stash

« on: August 22, 2012, 02:26:18 pm »

An early discovered combo with Dark Ages was Scavenger+Stash. With 2 Scavengers and 3 Stashes, you can reliably gain a province every turn regardless of the composition of the deck (providing you aren't hit with a minion or militia style attack).

With this, I propose the following challenge:
What's the fastest you can get required cards and using the combo, reliably buy provinces with
Easy: Perfect shuffle luck
Hard: Rotten shuffle luck (note that this means you'll need an extra scavenger, extra stash or some other way of guaranteeing it works every time)
Extra Hard: Rotten shuffle luck, and you get hit with a single Sea Hag every turn after 2 (you're player 2, and player 1 opened Sage/Sea Hag and has perfect shuffle luck)

131

Variants and Fan Cards / More Ruins - Post your ideas too

« on: August 18, 2012, 03:33:14 am »

All Cost 0 and are action/ruins unless otherwise noted. I've designed them all to resemble another card and to be largely useless in most situations. They're not all meant to be equally bad (and some may be strictly better than others), but they're all meant to be bad.

Abandoned Feast: Trash this. Gain a card costing up to 2 and a ruins
Ruined Chapel: Trash a card from your hand that isn't a Treasure, a Victory Card, a Shelter or a Ruins
Ruined Council Room: +2 cards, each other player draws a card
Ruined Lab: +1 card, +1 action, discard an action card
Throne Ruin: Play an action card twice, then trash it. Gain a ruins.
Ruined Cellar: Discard any number of actions or treasures from your hand. For each card you discarded, +1 card
Ruined Workshop: Gain a card that isn't an action or treasure costing up to 2. Put it on top of your deck
Ruined Moat (Action/Reaction/Ruins): Trash this card, gain a ruins. Reveal and discard to prevent an attack. If you do, gain a ruins.

Ruined Courtyard: +1 card. Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Once Great Hall: (Action/Victory/Ruins) +1 action. Worth 0VP
Broken Bridge: +$2. Each card costs $1 more
Ruined Ironworks: Gain a card costing 0. If it's a treasure, $1. If it's an action, +1 action. If it's a curse, +2 cards

Ruined Lighthouse (Action/Duration/Ruins): +1 action. At the start of your next turn +$1, gain a ruins. While this is in play, attacks have no effect.
Shipwreck: +$2. Each player may put a card from their hand on top of their deck (you must). Each other player may trash a treasure.
Ruined Treasury: +$1. Immediately put this card on top of your deck.
Ruined Wharf (Action/Duration/Ruins): +1 card. At the start of your next turn, +1 buy, discard down to 4 cards in hand.

Ruiniversity: +2 actions. Gain a ruins

Ruined Watchtower: Draw until you have 4 cards in hand
Desecrated Monument: -1VP. +$2.
Ruined Mint: Trash a card that isn't a ruins. Gain a copper
Robbed Vault: Discard any number of cards from your hand. For each treasure you discarded, +$1.
Ruined Counting House: Gain a copper; put it in your hand.

Ruined Stables: Discard a treasure. If you do, +2 cards.

132

Dominion General Discussion / Why is Curse a base card?

« on: August 17, 2012, 12:47:52 am »

We saw from Dark Ages a new type of "curse" entirely contained within that set. Why wasn't this done with the original "Curse" (rearranging the expansions so that "Curse" comes in a single expansion)? You could have saved room in the Base Set and Intrigue for more kingdom cards, and had a completely game changing expansion come out the other end.

The only thing I can think of is awkwardness with Familiar (but that could be fixed by making it a promo card) and a bit of redundancy like Witch and Young Witch being in the same set.

133

Dominion: Dark Ages Previews / Puzzle: If the Shelters were in the supply, when would you buy them?

« on: August 14, 2012, 12:36:38 pm »

Assume there are 10 in the supply (8/12 for overgrown estate)

Beginner: Necropolis
Advanced: Overgrown Estate
Expert: Hovel

134

Variants and Fan Cards / Cards for the following mechanics?

« on: July 15, 2012, 10:30:48 pm »

These mechanics could be eiether drawbacks and benefits (or both at once)

1) "Immediately put this card on top of your deck"

2) "+1 buy. If you have any unused buys, put this card on top of your deck."

3) "In games using this card, reveal your hand at the end of your buy phase. If this card is in your hand, put it on top of your deck."

4) "In games using this card, reveal your hand at the end of your buy phase. If this card is in your hand, trash it."

135

Dominion General Discussion / Why does Adventurer cost 6?

« on: July 14, 2012, 02:56:43 am »

I'm sure this is a dead horse, but why is adventurer so expensive?

If you think of it as a terminal money card, it gives you the average value of all your treasures*2 right? Terminal Silver is reasonably priced at $2, and that's what adventurer would give if you opened with it. In order for it to on average, give you terminal gold (which is valued at $5 in various other threads), you need to have 7 silvers if you don't trash any of your starting coppers (and if there's trashing available you wouldn't need a card like adventurer in the first place). It does have the effect of skipping through dead cards and accelerating your deck for reshuffles, but it also skips through actions that you might want to use and I wouldn't put too much value on that effect. I can understand it will be a very strong card late game when you've got a lot of clutter in your deck, but cost isn't so relevant late game. I'd say Adventurer would be perfectly reasonable at $4 (or even $3 if it weren't for +buys).

Have any simulations been run with Adventurer at different costs?

136

Puzzles and Challenges / Speed Challenge: Fastest Pin

« on: July 03, 2012, 03:27:44 pm »

Playing masquerade with an empty hand allows you to trash an opponent's card, and combined with cards such as Goons and King's Court, can allow you to reduce your opponent's hand size to nothing. These combos are more of a curiosity than a strategy, but the challenge here is to see how quickly they can be set up. With perfect shuffle luck, what's the quickest you can set up a masquerade pin?

Rules:
You may use any combination of cards to set up the "pin" (defined as being able to reliably leave the opponent with an empty hand every turn)
You do not have to prove that you can win the game, only that you can pin the opponent
Normal Dominion rules apply

To get you started, a sample pin is your entire deck consisting of:
Village/Militia/King's Court/Masquerade

Or if you want to be a bit cleverer:
Minion/Throne Room/Throne Room/Outpost/Masquerade

137

Variants and Fan Cards / Single card ideas

« on: June 11, 2012, 07:49:05 pm »

I liked seeing the constraints Donald had to work with in the secret histories. One of them us rounding off expansions to have the right number of cards. This made me come up with a few ideas that aim to change the game without taking up much space in the box.

Without further ado

Deed
Cost: 7
Action
+1 Card, +1 Action
You may return this card to the top of your deck.
---
When you buy this, instead of gaining this card, put your deck in your discard pile, gain a card costing less than this, and put it on top of your deck.

When this card is trashed, return it to its supply pile.

Burden
Cost: 0
Action/Curse
-3vp
Trash this card
---
When this card its trashed, place it on top of the curse supply pile
Setup: Place this card on top of the curse pile. When called upon by another card, this card is named "curse"

Fool
Cost: 1
+1 Action
Return this card to the top of any supply pile
---
When you gain this card, +1 buy
Setup: Place this card on top of the province supply pile. The supply pile now has fool's name and cost. The supply pile "fool" is on top of can not be called upon by any card.

Ambush
Cost: 3
Special (red border)
When you gain this, place it anywhere inside any supply pile.
When this card appears on top of a supply pile, the current player trashes the top card of his discard pile if it is not a province or colony, then gains a curse. After this, return Ambush to its supply pile.
You may not inspect supply piles in games using Ambush


Guardian
Cost: 0*
Action/Reaction
+1 card
When another player uses an attack, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, no players are affected by the attack, and you may give this card to a player of your choice, putting it in his hand.
Gain this card when you use an attack
(This card is not in the supply)

Anyone else have ideas for single cards (kingdom or otherwise)?

138

Puzzles and Challenges / Better "you must" than "you may"; A card design challenge

« on: March 23, 2012, 11:42:37 pm »

Your challenge in this topic is to design a card, with the text "you may " in it, that gets better if you replace it with "you must". I define better as if both cards are in the supply and the same price, you'd buy the latter every time.

Things that I don't count as making a card better:
* Having fewer clicks in isotropic/less analysis paralysis
* Making the card more balanced/fair (it has to be objectively BETTER)
* Making the card less wordy
* Removing the moral burden of having to "pull the trigger" (so if torturer had a "you may" clause you couldn't justify playing it by saying "I need it for the cards")

139

Variants and Fan Cards / Cards That Use The Bottom of The Deck

« on: March 15, 2012, 06:10:33 am »

I like pearl diver, and think that other cards could use the bottom of the deck as a place for safekeeping/something that will come back eventually/a pocket for deck density.

Here are a few of my ideas:

Mermaid:
Action
Cost: 3
+1 action
Draw the top and bottom card of your deck
Return one card from your hand to the bottom of your deck

Trio:
Action
Cost: 3
+1 action
You may return cards to the bottom of your deck. For every card you return to the bottom of your deck, +1 card
Then, for every card you return to the top of your deck, +1 coin

Pearl:
Treasure
Cost: 5
If this is the first treasure you play this turn, worth 3, otherwise worth 2.
During the clean up phase, you must return either one or two pearls to the bottom of your deck instead of discarding.

Rear Admiral:
Action/Attack
Cost: 4
+1 Card, +1 Coin
Each other player returns cards to the bottom of their deck until they have 3 cards in hand

Reserves:
Action
Cost: 5
+1 action
If you have not played any other actions this turn:
Draw up to 10 cards in hand
Return 5 cards to the bottom of your deck


Scrapper:
Action
Cost: 2
+1 Card
+1 Buy
Return all treasures played this turn to the bottom of your deck

Dweller
Action/Attack
Cost: 3
Each player (including you) reveals the bottom card of their deck. He either puts it on top of his deck or discards it; your choice.
Then, +1 Card, +1 Coin

Oppressor
Action/Attack
Cost: 3
+$2
Each other player may return a card to the bottom of their deck and draw a card. Then, if the bottom card of their deck is not a curse, they gain a curse and place it on the bottom of the deck.

Flea Market
Action
Cost: 4
The player to your left reveals the bottom card of his deck. If it's not a province or colony, you may gain a copy of that card or trash up to 2 copies of that card from your hand. If you do neither, +1 action.

The cards are mostly just variants of other cards (Laboratory, Cellar+Secret Chamber, Stash, Militia/Ghost Ship, Tactician, Herbalist) but the bottom of the deck adds some interesting twists. For example, the choice of what to "discard" when hit by rear admiral isn't very obvious since those 2 victory cards you "discard" are likely to return together, and you can't really expect when.

Any comments?

Any other ideas for cards that use the bottom of the deck as a mechanic?

EDIT: Added 3 ideas from later posts.

140

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Expansion - Dominion: Conflict

« on: February 01, 2012, 01:04:11 pm »

All kinds of feedback, from costs and names to concepts, and from unconstructive criticism to blind praise will be much appreciated.

The expansion is a small box expansion with 150 cards (I like working within the same constraints as donald X).

There are some rules clarifications to fit in with some of the stranger cards in the expansion:
*Each supply pile is named after the cards in it when the game is first set up
*When you are instructed to gain a card, you gain the top card from that supply pile
*When you buy a card, do things in the following order: "Buy" the card -> Resolve any When Buy effects -> Gain the card -> Resolve any when gain effects
*When you are instructed to return a card to the supply, return it to the top
*URGENT cards are coloured red, and you follow the red text on the card if the conditions are met
*RULE cards are also coloured red, and remain in play until add a rule that must be followed for the rest of the game
*There is only one of each Italics card in the supply pile. They have blue backs, and also function as the randomisers for the card they refer to.
*When all players gain a card, they do so in a clockwise order from the player whose turn it currently is, starting to the player to the left.
*In every card's text, Curse refers to the type of card, not the card named "Curse".

Without further ado, the cards. The theme is cards with a mind of their own. There's also a focus on interactivity. The "special" component of the expansion is the single cards that you can put on top of existing piles to spice up the game.


Ambush:
Cost:3
Action/URGENT
+1 Card, +1 Action
You may place this card anywhere inside any supply pile.
---
When this card appears on top of a supply pile other than "Ambush": Trash this card. If any cards were gained this turn, trash them. If it's your turn, you must either trash or discard all cards in play; you must at least trash the treasure or attack card of highest cost in play.

Uncertainty
Cost:3
RULE
You may not count the number of cards in a supply pile or otherwise view their contents. You may trash this rule when all 10 "Ambush" cards are in the trash pile.
---
When you gain this card, gain an Ambush and immediately put this into play

Setup: Place this card on top of the Ambush supply pile

Arms Dealer
Cost: 5
Action
+1 action
+1 buy
While an Arms Dealer is in play, when you gain an action or treasure card, you may make all other players gain a copy of it as well. If you do, +1 coin, and you may then choose to return the gained card to the supply pile. If you do, +coin equal to the price of that card.

Tactic
Cost: 3
Action
You may immediately buy a card. If it's an action or treasure card, play it.


Maneuver
Special/URGENT
Cost: 0
If there are 2 empty supply piles and this card is on top of a supply pile: Trash this card
When you buy this card, +1 card, +1 action. You cannot gain this card.

Setup: Place this card at the bottom of the "First Strike" supply pile.


Lifeline
Cost: 5
Action/Reaction
+1 Card. +1 action. If you drew this card as part of an action, you may reveal it. If you do, +1 card.
On the back of the card: URGENT: If you are not currently drawing cards as part of an action or attack, when this card appears on the top of your deck, place it in your hand. This does not count as a draw. You may shuffle this card anywhere into your deck.

Missionary
Cost: 4
Action
Name a card other than "Province" or "Colony". Gain that card and put it in your hand.  Reveal your hand, and trash all cards of that name in your hand and in play.

Racketeer:
Cost:2
Action
+1 card. +1 action. Gain a card from the supply pile with "Racket" on top of it.

Racket:
Cost: 7
Special
While this card is on top of a supply pile, when you are instructed to gain a card from this supply pile other than by playing "Racket", gain a curse instead. When you buy this card, move it to any kingdom's supply pile. If you move it from the Racketeer supply pile, gain a racketeer and put it on top of your deck. Setup: Place this on top of the racketeer supply pile.

Relic:
Cost: 5
Action
+1 Coin, +1 Card
---
When this card is in the supply, when you buy a curse, gain a Relic and a Silver. If you gain a Relic any other way, gain a Gold and a Curse.

Salesman:
Cost: 4
Action
 +1 card, +1 action +1 buy. Reveal the top card of the sale deck.  You may either, buy a copy of it for 2 less than its price during the buy phase, or trash a card of value at least 2 less than it to gain a copy of it it. During the clean up phase, shuffle the sale deck. Setup: Create a sale deck from the randomiser cards of the kingdom cards in the supply.

Scrapyard:
Cost: 4
Action/Reaction
+2 Actions
+1 Card
Trash a card from your hand
If there is a card of cost 6 or higher in the trash pile, +1 coin, +1 buy
---
When you trash cards as the result of an action, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, +1 card. You may only do this once per action.

Settlers
Cost: 5
Action/Attack/Victory
Each other player gains a curse
Worth 1 VP for every 2 curses (rounded down) in the deck of the player with the most curses in it

Tower
Action/Victory
Cost: 4
You may move the Foundation card to the bottom of any kingdom card's supply pile.

Worth 1 VP for every 2 cards in the supply pile with "Foundation" in it (rounded up).

Foundation
Special/URGENT
If it's your turn: If this card is on top of a supply pile, immediately move it to the bottom of a kingdom's supply pile of your choice. Setup: Place this card at the bottom of the "tower" supply pile

Warchest
Cost: 4
Treasure
Value: 2
When you play this, gain a copper in hand, then set aside at least one treasure from your hand.
You may trash this card from your hand at any time.
When this card is trashed, place all the set aside treasures in your hand.

White Elephant
Cost: 4
Action
+2 VP Chips. If you this card is in your hand during the clean up phase, trash it instead, and gain a curse.

Pride
Cost: 4
RULE
You must reveal your hand at the beginning of your cleanup phase. You may Trash this rule if all 10 White Elephants are in the trash pile.

When you gain this, gain a White Elephant, and you must immediately place this card in play
Setup: Place this card on top of the White Elephant deck


Also, 3 special cards that retrofit to existing piles as variants

Conflict:
Cost: 0
RULE
Estates have a cost of 0 during the buy phase
Trash this rule when a player gains any victory card other than "Duchy", whether it is in play or not.
---
When you gain this, gain an Estate and play this card immediately

Setup: Place this card on top of the Estate supply pile.


Burden:
Cost: 0
Action/Curse
Worth -3 VP
+1 action. Gain a curse in hand, then trash this card. When this card is trashed, place it on top of the "Curse" supply pile. Setup: Place this card on top of the Curse supply pile

Rare Coin:
Cost: 0
Treasure
Worth 1 coin
When you play this card, you may gain a copper. Then, trash this card. When this card is trashed, place it on top of the "Copper" supply pile. Coin Setup: Place this card on top of the "Copper" supply pile

More Clarifications:
*Cards with unique blue cards can't appear in the black market or sale deck (so it's a bit ironic that Salesman is in this expansion).
*Lifeline has no special text or symbols on the back of its randomiser card. If you use randomiser cards for "black market" for convenience, you should still gain a regular copy of the lifeline card if you buy it.
*The immediate buy for "Tactic" works exactly the same as the buy in "Black Market". You may play as many treasures as you want and there's no obligation to buy anything. In fact, its name is a nod to its combination with Tactician.
*The wording of Scrapyard is such that if you trash multiple cards using the same action (eg Chapel, Steward, Remake), you still only draw a single card. However if you play 2 Remodels or Feasts (for example), you can draw a card for each Remodel you play by revealing Scrapyard.