Print

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

[jotheonah]

I've long been of the opinion that my favorite trasher is somebody else's Bishop, and I really enjoy boards where I can ignore the Bishop, make optimal use of the free trashing, and beat the Bishop player, even with their token lead.  Here's one where I use his Bishop, Lookout, and NV to trash/pseudotrash down to nothing and then buy two treasure maps:

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120213-211543-f97f6736.html

Here's one where I ignore Bishop to go for a pure Vineyards rush and just barely win:

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120210-223808-b8b0a3dd.html

A weird factor there is the Bishop-Possession-Shanty Town interaction, where the player Possessing me can make full use of my hands, where as I get stuck because I don't want to play his Bishop and his Shanty Town won't work unless I do. (This happens at least twice).

I'm not sure if either of these strategies would have worked against optimal play - the second one, in particular, I reckon was a lucky win. But it might change the way some people think about the Bishop. Thoughts?

[Captain_Frisk]

I have started to come around on bishop. 

At first - I was bishop happy.  Trashing is good, permanent VP is good, wooohooo!

Later I started ignoring bishop, particularly in colony games, where the incremental VP tokens don't matter as much as "how can i get platinum and fast?".

I now generally look at bishop as a situational card.  I like it mid game, where the trashing benefit to your opponent isn't as useful as it is in those first few turns, but you you can still play it a decent # of times for points.

And of course, there's the golden deck: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120119-132339-9334fe7d.html

In that game: WanderingWinder absolutely schools me because he knows EXACTLY how to build that deck with chapel and bishop.  When I saw him buy the bishop... i was thinking... man, we already have chapel, what is he going to do with bishop?  I proceeded to play autopilot chapel mode... good enough to beat your average lvl 20.

On turn 9, I realize I have a problem.  On turn 12, I have to concede.

[jotheonah]

I know what you mean. Bishop is not exactly a trap card, but it is a card with a pretty complex strategy space, and whether to buy one or not is a crucial and often difficult decision.