Thanks for the interesting games and postgame chats, Adam. I just got kicked out of Goko so I couldn't say bye.
I'm going to add some comments as well, probably tomorrow. First I want to watch your videos to see if my assessment of the games is correct.
Edit: I've had some time to think about the matches, and review the logs and videos.
Game 1 Game logDuring the game I felt that my terminals and my villages weren't distributed very favorably (meaning either collisions or village chains). Now I feel my draws were actually a bit better than Adam's, so there is no point blaming shuffle luck in this game. Rather, I noticed three differences in our play, which finally decided the game:
- Second Quarry. Adam got one, I didn't. Simple story.
It helped a lot getting Goons and then buying stuff with Goons in play.
- Second Goons. Adam got his very early, while I bought my second as an act of desperation when it was already too late. I should have gotten it instead of Altar, which was a distraction (also for Adam later). Goons was the key card here to score points, so having more than one helped scoring points more frequently and made strong double Goons turns (of which Adam had two) possible. Furthermore, Goons was the stronger attack compared to Ghost Ship at least in the second part of the game, as both of us had multiple cards that countered Ghost Ship (see next point).
- Wishing Well instead of Sage. Both did a good job countering Ghost Ship. Wishing Well lets you return the two cards to your hand (which is good if you have a strong hand), Sage lets you skip two cards (which is good if you have a weak hand). The usual disadvantage of Sage didn't apply here, as we didn't aim at green cards that much. So the best play may have been to start with some Sages to draw past the Coppers and Estates and then switch to Wishing Wells again when the density of good card has increased. Instead, Adam went for Wells, I went for Sages. However, I underestimated the control Wishing Wells offer you for designing your turns. In comparison, I was stuck with the Sages drawing just the next 'good' card.
These were my minor mistakes, I think, but on this level you just don't get away with these.
Game 2 Game log So here we have Masquerade-BM vs. Vineyards. The first one is quite good, but Vineyards clearly lack support. No +buy, no spammable cheap cards like Vagrant, Wishing Well, Sage (see last game
), Candlestick Maker, Haven, Menagerie, Great Hall etc. And the only gainer is Hermit, which is terminal and lets you only gain cards that cost up to $3, which in addition are quite bad here: Doctor and Duchess, and of course Hermit (which of course is not a bad card at all, but in this context not optimal either). Ah, yeah, and there is Transmute. So I decide to go with Masquerade-BM and take some risk as second player in what seems to become a mirror. My second starting card is Hermit to trash faster and gain Silvers. But then they don't only collide, they do so in turn 5. After three turns I'm so much behind it's not even funny. Thus I switch to Vineyards and buy a Potion, expecting Masq-BM to get some problems buying all the Provinces.
Of course Masq-Hermit is not an optimal start for Vineyards. Hermit is good, but I'm not sure what the best start would've been. Mining Village? Another Hermit? Even Spy? Potion already?
Our goals are clear now, but I think both of us don't play it optimally. I don't like Adam's Taxman, but his Hermit did a good job for his longevity. My biggest mistake is to buy the Vineyards too late. I really needed all of them, but only got 5. I needed more Potions early, and Transmute should've been a Vineyard already. In addition, I completely messed up a turn with Mining Village, Mining Village, Hermit, Potion, Copper in hand. I wanted to buy Vineyard anyway, so playing Hermit, gaining Hermit, buying Vineyard would've been the correct play. Instead I got greedy, played the Mining Villages (hoping for more Hermits), triggered the shuffle and drew..Potion and Silver.
Here I lost two Potion plays.
I'm not sure if I'd had a chance to win the game if I had played that better, but now I certainly didn't have.
Also, Adam played it very well (except for the Taxman
), staying calm and building enough economy to get to 8 Provinces reasonably quick.
Game 3 Game log This game has been already been subject of discussion during the last days. There is not much more to add from my side. I don't believe I played my Rebuild optimally, but Rebuild was the wrong decision here anyway. I was just afraid Rebuild could be too fast with all that support, so I went for it myself. That was a mistake. Adam played the engine instead, and won.