Wow, I'm in the 4th round. Incredible.
I (#37) just won my series against michaeljb (#12) in the Chapel Division 4-2
We played without veto mode, with point counter and with identical starting hands.
Game #1 michaeljb vs Qvist 43-34 (1-0)I was going first but my Smithy / Silver opening lost against the Trader / Silver opening.
Despite he had Trader I tried to use Jester as he bought later his Smithy. His strategy was way faster and I got not much luck with my Jester, so I had no chance to win this very quick game.
Not much to analyze here.
Game #2 Qvist vs michaeljb 69-24 (1-1)This Colony game had a lot of nice cards there: Menagerie, Hunting Party, Mountebank, Vault
This game I liked very much.
Of course we both wanted to reach $5 as quick as possible to go for Mountebank. So he opened Silver / Silver while I tried Shanty Town / Silver
He could buy his Mountebank in turn 3, but my Shanty Town worked out to get to 5 coppers and buy one too in turn 4.
In turn 5 I used Shanty Town once again to get to $5 and bought another Mountebank as michaeljb bought a Gold.
In the next 2 turns I managed to get to $5 again and bought 2 Hunting Parties, he bought a Menagerie and an Ironworks
I didn't understand his Ironworks buy. I know Islands were on the board, but in Colony games with such good cards in the supply they're not that good.
And my Hunting Parties could filter the coppers and curses way better as Island could put them away.
Later he bought an Expand, while I finally added a Gold for my Hunting Party / Menagerie engine.
In turn 10 I bought a Vault to get coins for all the curses and green cards (which turned out as very helpful). michaeljb bought another Expand and expanded his coppers and curses to Menageries which was unfortunately too slow.
In turn 13 and 14 I finally could buy 2 Platinums.
Now the fun could go on. With the exception of turn 18 (where I decided to add one Hunting Party) I bought a Colony or a Province in each turn from turn 17 to turn 25.
Game #3 Qvist vs michaeljb 48-26 (2-1)Another fun game. I like to know how you would've opened here. Going for Chapel is obvious, but I couldn't decide between going for Familiar or directly for Tournament as I could trash the Curses with my Chapel. michaeljb bought a Potion and so I decided to do it too, as I wasn't sure if Chapel alone would do the job. I had more luck as he drew $2P in turn 4 while I got to $4P and could buy the Familiar. I bought my second in turn 6, he got his second in turn 8. So I got an early lead. In turn 10 he drew 3 curses with a Potion and Silver, bad luck again. From there it was easy. In turn 10 I bought my Gold, in turn 11 I massively trashed, in turn 12 I bought the Province and with my deck so slim I got my prize directly in turn 13. There was the next difficult decision for me. Followers wasn't so strong now with no curses left. I thought about Bag of Gold in this slim deck, but was going for Trusty Steed. What would you have bought? I also couldn't decide to use the 4 Silvers option. I decided to buy Golds instead. Then I started going green, maybe a turn too early, but I got a so big lead it didn't matter. I could use Tournament to get Duchies and keep the lead. How would you have played this game?
Game #4 Qvist vs michaeljb 36-35 (3-1)What a close game in which I played pretty badly. Loan / Moneylender wasn't so good as Silver / Moneylender. I just wanted to trash faster but that was dumb.
We both went for IGG of course. I think my best buy was to stop the IGG in turn 5 and buy an Upgrade. In turn 7 I made the mistake and bought a Moat as I thought it could block the curses. I know it couldn't. It turned out not so bad, as it was the only Drawer. And I also made the mistake and forgot to go green earlier as both piles (IGG and curses) would go out quickly. Normally I would have lost at that point. But michaeljb also made a mistake as he later admitted himself. He should've rushed Duchies or Farmland/Silk Road. But he bought green cards equally so it turned out that the 5/3-Silk Road split in my favor with 4VP each was my win. How would you have played that? Would Apothecary be a good alternative for buying IGG? Normally I should've bought Scout, but I had to catch up in the green race.
Game #5 michaeljb vs Qvist 75-40 (2-3)Another fun game, this time not for me. In this Colony game we both opened Ambassador/Ambassador and the ping pong could begin. I added a Crossroads and tried to get a thin deck and could send him 2 estated every turn. I had around 5 cards when he had 20 cards. I thought my plan worked. I wasn't so concerned that he quickly got to King's Court as I thought he couldn't manage to bring the good cards together. So I bought a curse with the intent to clog his deck more. With my thin deck I then tried to get 2-3 Pirate Ships. But at the time his engine began to roll, I was the one who couldn't get the important cards together. I always hit $3 instead of $4 and it was clear I was going to lose. Just look at turn 26 and you know what I mean. Well played michaeljb, I misread the board.
Game #6 Qvist vs michaeljb 50-42 (4-2)Oh no, Possession is there. So the Bishop / Silver opening was clear for me and him. We had nearly identical strategies and added a Warehouse and just going for money only. He then got the first province in turn 7, I got mine in turn 9. But he stopped after his first province and bought a Potion and a Possession. It turned out it wasn't a so good choice. After his Possession buy I decided to buy one more Bishop as a defense. But then I got lucky and got 3 more Provinces in turn 11-13 while his 2 first Possession turns missed. His third Possession turn was a Province for him but with my lead I could now mess my deck up with Duchies and Bishops. He could catch up as his 4th Possession also got him a Province, but with nearly equal score I could buy the last Province and win this game.