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[flies]

My sense is that this term, and the focus on it as an element of strategy, is relatively new (like a year old).  perhaps there's already an article on it that I haven't found.  This article might want to be quite short, but it ought to be on the wiki.  Here are some thoughts to get the ball rolling.

What is endgame control (EGC), and why is it important?  Having the ability to choose to end the game is nice, but you don't really have "control" unless you can end it and win.  So EGC is the ability to end the game when you want to while holding or grabbing the lead.  Contrariewise, EGC involves preventing your opponent from doing the same.

Dominion games end on piles or province/colony, so decks have EGC when they allow you to gain a bunch of cards all at once - but again, you also need points.  So gainers in general help, but trash-for-benefit cards like Remodel, Salvager, and Counterfeit help a lot because they provide gains that exceed your average buying power.  Goons is very nice as well in providing points and gains.

EGC is nice even in the mid-game because it can force your opponent to buy victory cards defensively instead of building.  In the end of the game, EGC allows you to come from behind or nail down your opponent's coffin when you're ahead.  When the score is close, you often find the lead switching from turn to turn; in this case, EGC means you can pick up the lead without letting your opponent come back.

Most big-money strategies lack EGC because they have no gains.  They have trouble ending the game while ahead, and they have even more difficulty coming from behind.  It seems to me that this is one of the reasons while money strategies are generally weak even when they provide slightly more points/turn: if I'm behind with engine, a big turn might allow me to pick up the lead and end it.  Doing this with most money strategies is hard.  (Counterfeit and Wharf are notable BM enablers whose gains provide EGC; this is one of the reasons Counterfeit so good for BM.)

One of the subtleties of EGC is that it's not just about deck composition.  It's also tactical.  This is why you have to take time to calculate at the end of a game.  Decisions you make at the beginning of your turn may determine whether you have enough gains to end it - or whether you have enough cash to take an insurmountable lead.  In my games with Stef, I've found he's exceptional at this, and I think end-game tactics are part of what separate the 30-somethings from the 40+ players.

So far, what I've written doesn't really account for the fact that EGC should also mean the ability to prevent your opponent from ending on a win.  To accomplish that, you basically have to stake out a lead and/or keep piles from getting too low.

Your thoughts?

[DG]

I've got a buys and gains article mostly written and this covers some of the same ground. Using buys and gains you can
 - aggressively end the game on piles
 - have more defensive options when switching to other vp cards, such as duchies or alternate vp
 - become more difficult to defend against as you can score highly in one turn or empty more cards from the supply
 - contribute more to the scoring of alternate vp cards
 - acquire key (vp) cards quickly
 - delay greening with the knowledge you can score more later (and gain more engine components each turn meanwhile)
 
Buys tend to give you the facility to do all these things as needed, provided you have the coins and buys each turn. You can get many of those benefits by gaining cards but gaining cards always has some restriction and you need to plan ahead to make sure those restrictions will fit your end game strategy. On the other hand, you don't necessarily need any coin income to get the end game benefit of card gaining.

[qmech]

My earliest online Dominion memory (BSW!) was of having a comfortable lead on Provinces and seeing my opponent switch to buy Duchies.  They got loads, I stalled, and they finished off the Provinces for a win.  It hadn't occurred to me that you didn't just want to power through the Provinces as fast as you can.

I think you're right that endgame control has become more well-known recently.  The penny dropped for me in a game against Stef when I got hit by an Upgrade storm that seemed to come out of nowhere: in fact, he'd been buying Upgrades for several turns exactly so that he could end the game on his terms.

Understanding this issue is part of what's converted me to the new consensus that engines are viable on a huge proportion of boards.  Previously I could pick out boards where BM would get a majority of the Provinces before an engine can get going, but it's no use having a soft lead (less than half the total VP) if you can't convert it into a win.

[flies]

On the other hand, you don't necessarily need any coin income to get the end game benefit of card gaining.

double-tac strategies relying on gains (and no/little buying) are among the coolest engines IMO.

Understanding this issue is part of what's converted me to the new consensus that engines are viable on a huge proportion of boards.  Previously I could pick out boards where BM would get a majority of the Provinces before an engine can get going, but it's no use having a soft lead (less than half the total VP) if you can't convert it into a win.

Exactly.

[blueblimp]

My feeling about endgame tactics is that there are so many different special case tactics (which is why it's fun) that it's better to keep in mind some general principles to guide your play:

• What do you need to happen to win the game? Even if it's a bit of a long shot, you need to go for it or you will lose. This can pull out some surprise wins from behind. Also, don't be lazy and calculate if necessary. If you need to double Province, then make sure you can actually have $16 and 2 buys.
• What does your opponent need to happen to win the game? Try to anticipate this and structure your turn so that your opponent can't receive a winning scenario on their turn. On the other hand, you sometimes need to risk it anyway, because of #1.
• Whose deck will do better in an extended endgame? That player, even if already ahead, does not need to rush the endgame and should avoid draining piles unnecessarily. The other player may want to drain piles even if behind, because shortening the endgame may allow for some fluke luck to pull out a victory.

[MarkowKette]

I think getting your deck to a point where it has a greater endgame controll than your opponents matters most in engine mirrors. Once you have the capability to end on piles in less than 2 turns your opponent basically cant buy any more of the important engine components he might need. This is especially true for bridge-engines (or highway if there is good +buy).
Example:
You might have a weaker deck than your opponent with a lot of villages and bridges but very few draw cards
and your opponent already draws his deck and plays more bridges in a turn on average, but he can't buy the 2 or 3 more bridges/villages that he still needs to get to multi province turns because you have the potential to pile out if you get really lucky.

Against a BM strategy endgame controll is rarely important because once you overpower his VP lead you usually already won.(In the cases where you can catch up on points but the BM strategy might win on the last Province if it gets lucky on the next turn you usually don't want to already take the lead)