"Russian roulette" - TheMirrorMan - EgorK : 4 - 2
Next match : up against EgorK (EK). A very nice Russian guy that amazed in the GokoDom match. So I knew I had to watch out. And boy did I feel it.
Game 1 : "Black market rules" - EK begins, EK wins.
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401457375684.txtBlack Market, Great Hall, Bishop, Caravan, Cutpurse, Plaza, Walled Village, Embassy, Outpost, Witch
No shelters, provinces.
Ah here we go again. The black market. This time, a lack of trashing and +buy. Egor owns the very special Walled Village card which to me is ... often utter useless. Witch is there for junking.
So what to open here ? Plaza is probably a bit too early here, so I go Caravan/BM, while Egor takes BM/cutpurse. Bit surprise, but hey, there's enough villages on the board to play them.
The cutpurse ends up working nicely, since he 2x hits my hand getting it to $2. But the worst thing of all ...
T6 he picks up Ambassador (oh dear, I am in deep trouble), I pick up a Horse traders.
T9 he picks up ... chapel. Yeah, and then I get serious snowballing. I need to pick up witch to do something but all the curses just get thrown back to me and I still can't get any trasher out of the deck.
Even when he buys golds and I shove back silvers in with Embassy ... His deck is just too clean.
Conclusion : just got screwed by the Black Market. Not much more to say.
Game 2 : "Here comes the mirror man" - MM begins, MM wins.
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401458421973.txtDoctor, Fortune Teller, Masquerade, Plaza, Quarry, Remake, Young Witch, Butcher, Inn, Library, Wharf
No shelters, provinces.
Bane : Fortune teller.
I start in game 2 and on this board I am really happy with first player advantage. We both have 3/4. YW is out of the question with such an engine going on and Masq on the board. 3 is Masq, what is 4 ? We both opt for Quarry, given Inn/Plaza/Wharf/...
It's a back and forth but as starting player I always have that starting edge. For the endgame, I pick up a quick Butcher. The moment the greens are almost over, he stocks up on coins but he needs about $20 to get anywhere. He tries to, but just too little.
Not much more to say, stupid mirror.
Game 3 : "Is rebuild really that good ?" - MM begins, MM wins.
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401459047190.txtBeggar, Stonemason, Armory, Bureaucrat, Gardens, Island, Remodel, Rebuild, Tribute, Wharf
Shelters, provinces.
Yeay, no estates Goko ?! And you reward us with ... Rebuild.
Now, there's a lot of stuff on the board. To me this seems to be centered around Gardens somewhat, with beggar, bureaucrat, armory ... But maybe Wharf ? Rebuild (with shelters, I dunno) ?
It's a bit of a think. I've got 4/3 and at one point I even consider doing SM for 2 beggars ... Then think ... that's going to be REALLY slow. So I decide on bureaucrat/beggar.
In hindsight, this could be an error - if he picks up a beggar here, he gets 2 silvers which of course get his gardens count up too.
However, Egor doesn't pick up any of them and just goes for plain Silver/Silver. I'm surprised, this means he's NOT going for gardens.
No, he goes straight for rebuild. So I follow suit. Now of course, this requires some precaution : you don't want to trash your gardens, so you need to buy an extra green inbetween.
He is quick in getting the duchies - which signals me not to pick up estates but beggars at $2. He does get to the five duchies (rebuilding some islands, I think he should have taken the gardens instead), but I've already remodeled 2 into provinces and am getting my gardens in. Since the duchies are gone, he needs to contest the gardens now but his deck is just too small to get any points out of it and he can't rebuild them anymore into decent stuff.
In the end, I have him cornered - he can't get a province anymore (1 left), the islands have one left too, so his rebuilds become useless. I don't really get much extra money, but now I can piledrive estates. I win.
Game 4 : "In Russia, Gold fools YOU!" - MM begins, MM wins
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401459639403.txtFool's Gold, Forager, Village, Bishop, Gardens, Mining Village, Spice Merchant, Golem, Merchant Guild, Upgrade
No shelters, provinces.
Well I don't know what Egor was thinking here but this looks like a FG board to me. He apparently had Villages/MG/Gardens in mind, but that seems so awfully slow.
He opens nothing (?) first turn - that means he doesn't want FG - and then Upgrade.
It gets ugly prettly fast with Spice merchant/forager. I'm already at 7 FGs and 1 province on turn 8. He decides to go for the Gardens as an outer, but it's just not that good, since he needs to trash some stuff again with forager ... I just pick some gardens up myself and he's left without any decent way to end the game.
Game 5 : "In Belgium ... Gold fools ME!" - EK begins, EK wins.
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401460123126.txtCrossroads, Fool's Gold, Alchemist, Caravan, Coppersmith, Rats, Cultist, Market, Saboteur, Torturer
No shelters, provinces.
Cultist is central on this board and with CR being the only village ... It's going to be Cultist Big Money.
So I think, "hey, let's be smart - take Fool's Golds!" - even though there is no +buy you will get them in your hand with your cultists.
Well, no. especially since Silver/Silver for EK gives him a quick cultist ... or 5. I've got 8 ruins in my deck. and I'm down by two provinces ... I take in some extra FG (hey, stick with the plan!) but Egor empties the cultists with 2 provinces up and then just takes the remaining FGs. No question here : outplayed. Well done Egor.
Game 6 : "Shot by the greens" - EK begins, MM wins.
Log :
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401460505582.txtSteward, Swindler, Bridge, Silk Road, Cultist, Journeyman, Margrave, Merchant Ship, Witch, Forge
No shelters, provinces.
Safe to say - this is SURELY a cultist board.
And I'm of course delighted with my 5/2 here against his 3/4. My cultist appears t3 but I then have some trouble finding them in my deck.
We split cultists 4/4 but I hit Egor with the ruins harder : 6 for him, 4 for me. We build up the money Now I see an ending appearing of course : out of cultists and you're already two piles down. So at $5, I decide to buy an intermediary duchy. Egor does not follow and continues buying money. Consequently I just pick up more cultists. I've got more draw, he's got an extra gold.
It turns out this just worked a little bit better. Duchies suddenly get low and with stuff like a silk road at a cheap $4 ... I take the last win.
Thanks for the games EgorK! Nice to have played with the Walled village (even though we didn't buy it).
Four down, two to go ...