Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheMirrorMan]

Yeah I've gone down a whole lot but what I saw now just leaves me whimpering ... I don't get what I do wrong in these games. Am I just that bad ?

So the last two games I played were the following :
http://gokologs.drunkensailor.org/static/logprettifier.html?20140531/log.50785f090cf28ed55d9d72bf.1401580760150.txt

Code: [Select]

University, Swindler, Bureaucrat, Navigator, Spy, Catacombs, Ghost Ship, Mine, Adventurer, Peddler
So looking at this board, I see University + catacombs and swindler. I prefer catacombs over ghost ship here for two reasons :

1) It's highly likely that I'm going to swindle the cards after the ghost ship so my opponent just puts back the bad cards or the greens.
2) Catacombs helps me take something else but the junk I put back.

Well that looks like Potion + Swindler to me.

I swindle his potion into a bureaucrat and a gold into an adventurer. It just doesn't prove enough. I can't seem to find any province to swindle into a peddler and my spies only hit silvers and curses ...
But the game that frustrated me the most was the following :

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140531/log.50785f090cf28ed55d9d72bf.1401582665611.txt

Code: [Select]

Masterpiece, Armory, Death Cart, Farming Village, Ironworks, Navigator, Thief, Council Room, Highway, Torturer
Agreed, you don't have double buy. But this has all sorts of interesting stuff, notably Farming village/Torturer looks an enduring combo here.

Now my opening is a mistake, I should get IW/silver instead of FV/silver (I think ?), but what follows is ... awful.

Also Highway/Armory and or IW looks so interesting on this board, even without double buy, 4 highways and you can pick up a province with the IW. So this should work together with the engine ... I think ?

I get a lucky torturer T3, my opponent has $6 at T4 and takes ... a gold ?!

He gets a torturer at T6 and then only buys one FV, one highway and nothing else but money.

I'm desperately cycling my deck over and over again but can't get ANY good combo out of it. He takes a few curses, but constantly hits eight and in the end just takes some duchies to get over 42 (he has 2 curses).
I don't get it. Am I overdoing my engines here ?

[SCSN]

In game 1 I don't see any other option than opening double Swindler and doing something moneyish. Without trashing and a village that draws and with this one awfully disgusting card the engine just isn't going to work.

Game 2: open Silver/Silver, getting to 5 is the utmost priority and I don't see the point of opening Farming Village.

T6, T7: Torturer > Farming Village > Highway > Ironworks

T8: Nothing > Silver

Setting up the Torturer chain should have utmost priority. Until you have that going, every card that isn't either a Farming Village or a Torturer is basically a Curse. Curses are bad cards. Don't buy them.

T9+: Don't get Provinces. Keep building the engine instead. Start adding Highways and 2 Ironworks once your opponent plays with an empty hand each turn (but before that's the case only buy FVs and Torturers), then gradually work towards something big.

[TheMirrorMan]

Curses are bad cards. Don't buy them.

You remind me of Mr. Mackey from South Park ... "Curses are bad, 'mkay" - and put a smile on my face.

Thanks for the feedback SCSN.

[dondon151]

Taking the first game as played, you definitely want a Ghost Ship, you should prefer Spy over Peddler, and giving your opponent the Adventurer was a bit of a mistake.

[Awaclus]

In game 1 I don't see any other option than opening double Swindler and doing something moneyish. Without trashing and a village that draws and with this one awfully disgusting card the engine just isn't going to work.

I don't think that trashing and a village that draws is that important when your draw is as good as Catacombs is, but having no village without a Potion cost really kills the engine here.

[brokoli]

I'm surprised by your replies, Awaclus and SheCantSayNo. I would have gone for university/Catacombs/Ghost ship/Swindler engine too. Is university that bad as the only village ?
Interesting detail (though not relevant for the general board analysis) that catacomb/swindler interaction. Too bad there is no +buy for piledriving Peddler, because it would also defend well against swindler (for the Peddler => Province thing)

[Awaclus]

I'm surprised by your replies, Awaclus and SheCantSayNo. I would have gone for university/Catacombs/Ghost ship/Swindler engine too. Is university that bad as the only village ?

Not always, but here, you need lots of Catacombs to draw all of the cards that you want to draw. Additionally, you want to play Ghost Ships and Swindlers which both are terminal Actions. It takes a long time to buy all of the Universities you need, especially with all the Ghost Ships that further slow your cycling down.

[Monsieur X]

In game 1 I don't see any other option than opening double Swindler and doing something moneyish. Without trashing and a village that draws and with this one awfully disgusting card the engine just isn't going to work.

Game 2: open Silver/Silver, getting to 5 is the utmost priority and I don't see the point of opening Farming Village.

T6, T7: Torturer > Farming Village > Highway > Ironworks

T8: Nothing > Silver

Setting up the Torturer chain should have utmost priority. Until you have that going, every card that isn't either a Farming Village or a Torturer is basically a Curse. Curses are bad cards. Don't buy them.

T9+: Don't get Provinces. Keep building the engine instead. Start adding Highways and 2 Ironworks once your opponent plays with an empty hand each turn (but before that's the case only buy FVs and Torturers), then gradually work towards something big.

On turn 1/2, i would probably have opened ironwork/silver thinking the most important is not to have the first torturer, but the first torturer's chain. For sure there are less probability to have 5 turn 3/4. dont know what is better.
In any case, avoid opening village here and in any game. The only situation i see it can be good is maybe worker village in some situations where peddler split is crucial. You lose time to build your game.


On your game 1, i agree with SCSN. The engine seems very difficult here with university as village and no possbility to trash. Sure catacomb is very good drawer, but how many universities do you need to make the engine working (5, 6?)
Maybe thats possible to do it but that would need luck, and to be perfectly executed
 I probably would have taken also only swindlers and money, opening double swindler.

[Awaclus]

I probably would have taken also only swindlers and money, opening double swindler.

I think you want either Catacombs or Ghost Ship in addition to that, depending on what your opponent is doing.

[dondon151]

On turn 1/2, i would probably have opened ironwork/silver thinking the most important is not to have the first torturer, but the first torturer's chain. For sure there are less probability to have 5 turn 3/4. dont know what is better.

If you open IW/Silver, it's basically as if you opened FV/Silver after the first reshuffle, plus you now have an IW to get in the way of your draws.

I'd imagine -Stef- would end up opening FV/Silver, somehow win the Torturer split and get his chain running first. But I would personally be more conservative and open Silver/Silver. Getting the first Torturer does matter, because the attack can prevent an opponent from getting his own Torturer or force him to take a Curse.

[qmech]

In Game 2, Council Room has buy, but you're not going to be able to buy one until you've got your opponent locked down by Torturers, at which point you've already won.