A_S00 and I played this board today, cards in supply: Border Village, Colony,
Duke, Forge, Herbalist,
Island, Oasis, Pirate Ship, Platinum, Secret Chamber,
Silk Road, and Warehouse
So, a lot of VP cards in the regular kingdom which makes this a very interesting board with one (okay, two) big question(s): What should you get and when? You basically want all of the Duchies, Dukes, Islands and Silk Roads, but you have to make some choices as to the order.
I started of with Silver/Island, A_S00 went Oasis/Island. I'm not great with Oasis so I just kept it simple with Silver. I followed up with another Island (could've been Silver) and some more Silvers. He bought another Oasis and some Silvers as well.
Now we're at an interesting point in the game. We've both got some coins, so we want to dip into the VP cards. But what? A_S00 dips first into Duchies after I bought my 3rd Island. Of course I have to follow him because of Duke and we split the Duchies 4/4. Now what? Dukes are 4 VP, Silk Roads are capable of getting to 5 if the game lasts long enough. So Duke is the safe choice while Silk Roads is the gamble. I go for Silk Roads and end up with 20 VP cards, making Silk Roads worth as much as Duke anyway.
My opponent only gets to 18 VP cards, so his Silk Roads are only 3 VP.
Still I wonder what swung this game in my direction. Was it the Silvers vs the Oases? I always think Oases are closer to Copper than Silver in terms of what they give you. Markets and such are closer to Silver in $ worth for me. If you for instance start with 4 Coppers and an Oasis and draw a Copper, you still get $5 (same as 5 Coppers), but $6 with Market.
Again, interesting little board (as WanderingWinder would say) so please give us your thoughts.
Full game:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/28/game-20120228-000515-7ba5b663.html