An unusual 3-player game I played a couple of days ago. The setup:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130929/log.512ba70fe4b0c02658febe25.1380509677579.txtWere it not for the Sea Hag, I would've gone for the Golden Deck without any hesitation. But the Sea Hag made me pause. Two opponents, both playing Sea Hags, would choke my Golden Deck for sure. Looks like I should forget it... or should I?
I opened Chapel/Bishop. I decided to go for the Golden Deck anyway, but with an addition: two Upgrades. My plan was to wait out the inevitable Curse storm, using my Upgrades to get rid of Curses. Also, I would stay away from the Provinces until the Curses ran out. In the meantime, I would get VP chips by trashing other cards: trash Gold/buy Gold, or trash Upgrade/buy Upgrade, etc.
Meanwhile, my LHO (left-hand opponent) ignored Bishops altogether. She opened Chapel/Silver, and went for a traditional Big Money deck. She bought a Sea Hag and a couple of Treasuries, but otherwise just bought money and VP cards. Thanks in part to Bishops played by her opponents, she put together a lean, mean deck; she soon started gobbling up the Provinces.
As for my RHO (right-hand opponent): he opened Silver/Bishop. He put together a sampling of most of the available Kingdom cards; I'm not exactly sure what he had in mind.
Anyway, I stuck to my plan, trashing Curses and staying away from Provinces. With two Curses left, I got rid of an Upgrade; I ditched my last Upgrade when the Curse pile depleted. I now had the official Golden Deck, with no fear of further Curses; I finally bought my first Province at turn 19.
But I didn't have time to celebrate: I faced a crucial decision at turn 20. I knew I was slightly behind my LHO, and there were three Provinces left. Do I trash Province/buy Province, or do I trash Gold/buy Gold? I feared that if I bought a Province, my opponents would gobble up the last two Provinces, and I'd lose in a squeaker. (I guess this is the 3-player version of PPR.)
After some thought, I decided to risk it. I trashed my Province and bought a Province. My LHO also bought a Province, and it was all up to my RHO. As you can see from the log, he could've bought the last Province, by Salvaging one of his own Provinces. But he didn't. He Salvaged a Bishop and bought a Duchy and an Estate. That was the best thing for his own score, but it let me grab the last Province and win.
My RHO was kingmaker, and he king-made me.
Okay, let the criticism begin. Where did we go wrong?
