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5701

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Blooki's Puzzle #1 - Sad Saboteur

« on: July 28, 2011, 09:05:12 am »

Well, if Bridge isn't allowed, neither is Princess, I think.

I think the stretch of this problem is to focus on the cheap cards and try to come up with something for that.

With Scrying Pool, we could draw a whole bunch of $2's like NV's, Lighthouses, Pawns etc...

5702

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Blooki's Puzzle #1

« on: July 28, 2011, 07:42:13 am »

Yeah, I got Minion as well, but than it becomes just a galore of $2's.

Plus maybe some $6 card that was gained from the trashed Province. Goons or something...

This is not possible, because that card would have been found by the second Saboteur run through from the TR.

5703

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Blooki's Puzzle #1

« on: July 28, 2011, 07:34:03 am »

Yeah, I got Minion as well, but than it becomes just a galore of $2's.

Here's a side question: If villain had KC'd some Bridges, would Saboteur still have worked the way it does? I know Bridge lowers the costs of cards in player's hands, so I guess it doesn't work for cards revealed from player's decks, correct?

Same goes for Swindler.

5704

Dominion Articles / Re: Request : Island

« on: July 27, 2011, 04:43:08 pm »

I've run some quick tests and it seems Island is a clear favourite over Remodel, Moneylender, Steward and even Trading Post.

Terminal collision really hurts it, the Island removes itself from the game, making way for the Militias.
I could probably tweak the second strat to inch a few %'s closer, but Island will still be the winner.

Only Upgrade gets 50-50 with it and Apprentice beats it by a small margin.

This is all done with Geronimoo's simulator, you could easily try it yourself, links are on these forums somewhere.

5705

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 27, 2011, 04:31:05 pm »

Well, if it wasn't for luck, there wouldn't be many people wanting to play each other. Each player would hit his or her ceiling at some point and not many continue from there, only the most driven.

Luck has a tendency of luring people in. Giving them a win every once and a while keeps them coming back.

Hey, I like it that with a little luck and decent play I have a fair chance against someone 10 levels up, but this also means I have to accept that same luck can bite me in the ass when I'm playing someone 10 levels below me.

5706

Dominion Articles / Re: Request: Golem

« on: July 27, 2011, 09:29:11 am »

Golem is helpful when you have:

- A lot of junk you want to skip over
- Critical action cards you want to play as much as you can

But I'm no Golem expert either, so this is as far as my knowledge goes.

Be careful when there are non-optional trashers in your deck, because you have to play both action cards.

5707

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 27, 2011, 08:38:19 am »

Well, I guess even if you run into some games from time to time which are less fun than others, the game is designed to play fast and have enough possibilities to be more challenging the next time.

In my book, that core feeling hasn't changed.

TR is fine the way it is, you just have to anticipate and worry about drawing some trashers or ambassadors.

5708

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Perfect Hand

« on: July 27, 2011, 08:27:35 am »

As far as Bridge solutions are concerned:

KC 2x - Bridge 3x gives you +9$ / -9$ with 9 buys, while KC 2x - Bridge 2x - Princess gives you +6$ / -8$ -12$ with 9 buys, allowing you to clear out the 8 Colonies in a 2p game + 1 Province for 86 VP. In a multiplayer game, you just take 9 Colonies for 90 VP. The hard part is getting a Tournament and a Province first, winning a Tournament and losing them both again! But it's a Perfect Hand puzzle, so I take it's allowed.

NVM: See below why part of my solution doesn't work, oh well, guess I was just too excited to double check.

5709

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Get prizes without winning tournaments

« on: July 27, 2011, 08:09:40 am »

I guess getting either Sabotaged or Swindled doesn't work due to rule restrictions (as with Ambassador)?

5710

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Mysterious Province Buy

« on: July 27, 2011, 07:01:52 am »

Ah, I misunderstood and thought she had just non-Coppers in her hand, while she had ALL non-Coppers in her hand.

That's what you get from not having English as your native language.

5711

Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Mysterious Province Buy

« on: July 27, 2011, 06:42:27 am »

Silver (or Hoard/Harem), Loan, Venture, Talisman, Quarry: Play Loan to trash or discard whatever, Play Venture to dig up a Gold/Harem/Hoard/Silver

Face values from all the cards in your hand = $6 and you have only differently named Treasure cards in your hand.
I believer this fits the problem.

5712

Variants and Fan Cards / Your New Mechanic for Dominion

« on: July 27, 2011, 04:45:20 am »

Dominion cards have several Mechanics, you can draw, attack, react, get actions, money and buys, discard, trash, gain cards and do whatever else the card tells you to do (mainly based on these previous mechanics).

The SeaSide expansion "revolutionized" the Dominion world with its orange Duration cards, which was a very cool thing. Hey, Throne Rooming or King's Courting Duration cards is a bliss. KC a Merchant Ship and basically be guaranteed 2 Province buying turns. KC a Wharf and draw your entire deck twice with multiple buys.

My question for you is: Which new Mechanic would you like to see in Dominion? Not cards, mechanics.

Do you like the mechanics that are out there and don't think Dominion needs any more? Tell us why.
Donald X. still has some expansions up his sleeve so a new mechanic may not be that far fetched to see in future sets.

Maybe you're a fan of Magic (I know a lot of you on this forum are) and would like to see some cards that you can put in play permanently?

Example: Second Chance, cost $6(?)
Action - Permanent
Text: Second Chance stays in play for the rest of the game. You may discard one card and draw another card at the end of every clean-up phase.

Example: Scrooge, cost $6(?)
Action - Permanent
Text: Scrooge stays in play for the rest of the game. If you have played no action cards this turn, + 2$

These are just some examples, please don't criticize them based on what they do or cost (it's the best I could come up with in 1 minute), but share with us if you like this mechanic.


We could always just combine some types with other types, so we could get:
Action - Curse
Treasure - Curse
Treasure - Reaction
Curse - Reaction
Victory - Reaction
Victory - Curse (kind of makes no sense, but I guess you could do a fixed number for one type and a calculated number for the other).
Treasure - Duration

Okay, let's see yours!

5713

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 27, 2011, 03:45:30 am »

Many of the Cursers are so strong that they're must buys. Maybe give them all a clause so they only work while the Curses have not run out: Every other player gains a Curse, if at least one player does, do your bonus thing.

The bonuses is so minor anyway.  Witches become Moats without the reaction effect -- even less than a $2-cost power.  Familiar becomes a cantrip that does nothing at all.  Sea Hag becomes a dead card already.  Mountebank retains some power after the curses run out, but by that time the curses that are already out there will defend against it, so it sort of nerfs itself.

I really don't see what you're going for here.  Or, for that matter, what problem you're trying to solve.  Must-buy cards aren't inherently a problem.

Well, I think any "must-buy" is sort of a problem, because it takes some strategy out of the game. It's very hard to win if you're not actively competing in the Curse race, especially when playing multiplayer. I'd like to see some good examples of games in which one player buys a Curser, the other doesn't and the non-Curser wins. This may cure my addiction to Cursers.

Sure, most of the Cursers don't do much after the Curses have run out, but then the damage has already been done. You have 10 cards that clog up your deck, let alone the -10 VP that you have to fix.

Councilroom lists these stats (Card - Win rate with - Win rate without):

Mountebank - 1.09 ± 0.00 - 0.82 ± 0.01
Witch - 1.08 ±0.00 - 0.85 ± 0.01
Familiar - 1.05± 0.01 - 0.90 ± 0.01
Sea Hag - 1.04 ± 0.01 - 0.94 ±0.01

Disregarding Prizes, VP Cards and Treasures, these are all in the top 10 highest win rate with.
If we sort on win rate without, only Sea Hag falls out of the top 10.


How to nerf these cards? Well, I have always thought it would be nice to have some Curses that are also regular cards, like a card that has -2 VP, but also maybe +1 Card / +1 Action (or just +1 Card if it's too strong) that players can choose to take. Of course, when Swindled, the Swindling player may still choose regular Curses for the others to receive.

5714

Dominion Articles / Re: Request : Island

« on: July 27, 2011, 03:30:18 am »

I have run the Island simulations against BM Militia and BM Envoy again, this time each Island variant was following the same strategy as the other after an initial Island.

While the Island variant wins by a small margin against its pure Militia counterpart (50-48-2), it loses to its Envoy brother (43-54-3).


Guess I have to rethink my Island strategy; it's a card I loved when I was just beginning, then hated when I played more, now I may like it again.

5715

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When do you go for luck?

« on: July 26, 2011, 10:48:44 am »

I sometimes try to catch my opponents off guard by trying to sneakily empty some 3rd pile + 1 Estate (or empty the Estates) if I have lost a GM battle or something like that. It's the Piledriver achievement on Councilroom.

This only works against lower ranked opponents, better ones may take note of this and buy just that single Colony to thwart your plan.

5716

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 26, 2011, 09:03:12 am »

Hehe, funny coincidence.

It's not that I hate the Alchemy set, but it just feels a little underachieving to me, the set only has 12 kingdom cards, 10 of which use Potions.
Another full fledged set with up to 18 Potion cards can really complement this and make both of them great.

5717

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 26, 2011, 08:35:51 am »

Well, why I dislike Alchemy so much is the fact that it doesn't mix as well with other expansions. There are only 10 Potion cards among the 135 total kingdom cards. This means there are a lot of setups with exactly one Alchemy card for which you have to include Potion and you always wonder if you really need the Potion for just that card. Of course, all Alchemy cards are pretty powerful, so it's often a trade-off between an extra Silver or a Potion for only that card and there's always the chance you draw Potion-Copper-Copper-Blank-Blank when you need Familiars.

This is one of the weaknesses of Potion: you buy it for that special card, but when you draw it with too few real Treasure, it's worthless and you need to wait an entire cycle for it to come back around. And later in the game, you're still stuck with that Potion when you'd wish it was a Silver.

I just don't like how the set mixes with other sets because of the Potion. Swindling an Alchemist is not useful.

If they would make another set which uses Potion for a lot of cards, I may be more forgiving about this set.

5718

Game Reports / Re: How would you play this setup?

« on: July 26, 2011, 07:50:27 am »

Okay, so NV isn't a good idea, because of the missing buys.

Was just trying to come up with something else than plain BM with trash, but sometimes it's just that.
Now I see I may have entered my buys in the wrong order, still getting used to the Simulator.

Geronimoo, how have you implemented Remake? Does it pull the trash candidates from a common trashable priority pool? Like Estate first, then Copper, etc? Does it always Remake?

5719

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 26, 2011, 07:20:04 am »

Wasn't trying to motivate anything, but you're welcome. Just stating my opinion. It is different to yours.

I don't mind that your opinion differs, but I'd like to know why as to learn from our differences.

5720

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 26, 2011, 07:03:32 am »

I disagree on pretty much every point.

Thanks for your motivation.

5721

Game Reports / Re: How would you play this setup?

« on: July 26, 2011, 07:02:16 am »

Usually other players will go for Bishop helping you trash. You can go for Remake yourself to increase your trashing speed.

Maybe use some Native Villages to make sure you can buy a Colony sometimes?

Simulating this is not easy, because of some suboptimal NV plays (drawing everything from the mat when $ reaches 8 and no Provinces need to be bought instead of waiting for 9 for Platinum).

5722

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Thought exercise: nerfs and buffs

« on: July 26, 2011, 06:43:04 am »

Nerf Alchemy altogether, it's so sad they made cards which require Potions. I think these cards would have been perfect with normal costs. This expansion is so crappy, it isn't even funny. Sure it has some good cards (University, Familiar, Golem), no denying that, but the whole Potion deal is awful and the fact there are only 13 cards in the box. Swing and miss imho.

Here is how I rate the Alchemy cards in regular $ (more or less):
Transmute $2
Vineyard   $4
Apothecary $4 - Maybe replace Potions with Estates or something
Scrying Pool $4
University $5
Alchemist - Remove this, it's basically a Laboratory without the Potions
Familiar $5
Philosopher's Stone - Remove this, only useful for online play
Golem $5
Possession - Remove this, it's too annoying, or make it so that it's un-TR-able / un-KC-able, perhaps give the possessed player a bonus like +2$ on his own turn


Many of the Cursers are so strong that they're must buys. Maybe give them all a clause so they only work while the Curses have not run out: Every other player gains a Curse, if at least one player does, do your bonus thing.


Grand Market may not be as strong when the +Buy is removed, but they're already sort of nerfed in no-trash setups.


Tournament brings these problems to the table:
1. They are too cheap for an early Peddler / Treasury
2. The prizes have too big of an impact which makes disregarding Tournament a mistake generally
3. The game is often won by the player who gets the first prize, making catching up almost an impossible task

I think it would be good to make Tournament cost $5 in which case the prizes may or may not be nerfed.


Hunting Party is so good, it might be better as a $6. Not only do you get to play your good terminals more often, you also get to control your shuffle moments better.


Ambassador is somewhat of a must buy and so strong because of the seesaw effect. I'm interested to see how it would work if it would cost $5 and lets you return up to 3 copies to the Supply.


King's Court is a beast and the main cause for lop siding a lot of games. You draw KC with Chapel? Bad luck. I draw it with Mountebank and you have no Curses in hand? You lose. I think the difference between TR and this is bigger than $3, would like to see this costing $8, but this makes it another problematic target for Swindled Provinces.


Chapel Change the 4 trashed cards to 3 and see what happens...

5723

Rules Questions / Re: New to the game

« on: July 26, 2011, 05:26:25 am »

The game rulebook shows a setup with Regular cards, Kingdom cards and a Play Area, there's an image somewhere.
Just make sure that every card you play is clear to you and your opponents, this goes for Treasure cards as well.
Since Treasure cards can be hard to distinguish from each other (a big design flaw in my book, why not make the Silvers a Silvery color?), you have to spread them so it's easy to see how many $$$ you can spend. The little numbers in the top left and right corner are not enough, especially with visually challenged people (your (grand)parents maybe ).

Feast's text says "Trash this card. Gain a card costing up to 5 Coins."

This means you can Throne Room it and gain 2 cards. Remember that you always have to do as much as you can from what the card says. You try trashing it, but the card is already trashed. No biggie, continue with the next line and gain another card.

Some cards have different text, like Mining Village: "+1 Card, +2 Actions. You may trash this card immediately. If you do, +2 Coins."
Since you can only effectively trash it once, you can only get the +2 Coins once, but you get the +1 Card and +2 Actions twice when you Throne Room it.

5724

Dominion Articles / Re: Request : Island

« on: July 26, 2011, 04:50:13 am »

My simple simulations have shown that:

BM Island beats BMU: ~55% - 45%
Col BM Island loses to Colony BMU: ~40% - 60%

2 Islands seems to be the optimum in both cases.

Be careful when creating the Buy rule: Count the number of Islands in the Supply (e.g. #Islands in Supply > 6 = buy 2) and use that as a guideline, not the number of Islands in your deck, since they move out of your deck when you play them.


BM Island gets creamed by both BM Militia and BM Envoy (25%-75%) and this demonstrates the problem with Island. While it's not a bad card per se, there are often better alternatives.

5725

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Sets to combat groupthink

« on: July 24, 2011, 02:56:26 pm »

Heavy Saboteuring / Swindling can have a big effect on these cards too, especially with more players when you can be Sabotaged or Swindled 3 times in 1 round.

Minions are only good if you have a bunch of them.
If you play a 4p game and every player has 2 or 3, it's better to have Silvers instead.

Pirate Ships work less good with Chapel-games in which the main source of money comes from Action Cards, not Treasure.

City is less good in fast games, Gardens rushes maybe, but some Chapel examples too.

Tournament is is hard to compete with in groups, because if 3 players are rushing Tournaments and Provinces and you're not, you will likely lose, but I imagine in some fast Chapel-games it can be better to just one Tournament and a Province asap.