My wife and I were playing earlier today and we had this random setup:
Courtyard, Workshop, Scheme, Mining Village, Gardens, Pirate Ship, Royal Seal, Stables, Farmland, Bank.
My wife went for more of a modified BM approach, eventually with 2 Banks in her deck, and I went for Gardens. I was thrown off guard at first when I realized there were no +buys to help in getting the quick 2's. I used Pirate Ship to get a few coins to help with my purchases, though of course, it helped thin out some of her coppers. At least it hit one of her Banks along the way. At first I was focusing on Mining Villages and Workshops. For some reason, I forgot to add some Schemes early in order to put my Workshops back on top and use them to keep grabbing Gardens and Mining Villages. (I'm still getting used to the Hinterlands cards.) So by the time I got a couple Schemes, I didn't get much benefit out of them in the long run. My wife got two of the Gardens. I also managed to get 3 Provinces. I had a deck of 42 cards. So I got my Gardens worth 4 each. My wife got 5 Provinces, a couple of Duchies, and even 2 Farmlands. She also bought one extra Estate on her last turn. (I ended the game buying the last Province.) We had run out Gardens and Mining Villages. The final score ended up 46 to 45 in her favor.
So what is a good tactic to winning a Gardens game when there is no source of +Buy, especially if my opponent has a facilitator like Bank to strengthen her purchasing power. Is the Pirate Ship a real waste of time, providing too much help to her and not enough to me? As it progressed, I twice had hands with double Pirate ship and was able to buy 2 Provinces that way. So it seemed to pay off in the long run for me even though it helped give her some early trashing that she would not have been able to get otherwise.
No one bought Royal Seal. It didn't seem to really add anything to the game in any way, and I never bought a Farmland since it would require me to trash something to get something, which works against the idea of Gardens to keep adding as many cards as possible.
I look forward to your comments. Thanks.