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[arishipshape]

Hello! I am attempting to start a Dominion YouTubing series, where I play dominion games and commentate on them. I am good at dominion in my opinion (I only lost because I hadn't played base in so long I forgot about gardens), and would absolutely love any tips or feedback I can get.



The next video will be up tonight. Thanks for the feedback, if you give any!

EDIT: This thread died, so I will have every episode conveniently located in this first post:

[Simon Jester]

Hello! I am attempting to start a Dominion YouTubing series, where I play dominion games and commentate on them. I am good at dominion in my opinion (I only lost because I hadn't played base in so long I forgot about gardens), and would absolutely love any tips or feedback I can get.



The next video will be up tonight. Thanks for the feedback, if you give any!

Hilarious video in so many ways!

I like your production "attempt" and your high energy, it reminds me of Adam Hortons videos, which in my opinion is still the best ones out there. Also props for daring to start with a game you misplayed quite severly, as a learning experience that is probably better than the ones where you just cruise to victory since you were able to explain midgame what you missed and why it crushed you in the end.

Another thing that was hilarious, but on another level, was when you hit early on and declared it a jackpot because Gold is such an awesome card. No, it's not. Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine. It was that buy more than anything else that doomed you from what I can see. Workshop/Gardens is really strong in itself on a baseboard, but against weaker players a good engine should be able to outpace it. An engine cluttered with treasures is not a good engine however.

I think it will be fun to follow your journey to be an actual good player if you are able to keep it up! Nice vid!

[aku_chi]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

[Screwyioux]

I like the video and definitely hope you keep making them!

I don't agree with all of your analysis, but I do think you gave it pretty well and effectively communicated what you were doing and why. Whether or not you were "right" or it worked out doesn't matter so much as we can watch the game play out and evaluate your thought process for ourselves, and there's value in that.

I'd give two pieces of advice:

- Use the kingdom viewer in the upper right at the beginning. No need to read the whole kingdom, just bring that up for a few seconds, the viewer can pause to read the cards if they need to.

- No need to spend more time doing base-only games, in my opinion. At this point, the base set isn't really that representative of the rest of the game anyway and there are lots of videos that focus on it already.

Keep it up!

[Awaclus]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

But there is definitely a lot of truth in it.

[Simon Jester]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

Why would it be hyperbole? If your goal is to build an engine every stop card is an obstacle you need to come around in some way. Of course you need some economy but if you are dependent on Gold to get that maybe that is a sign that engine is not the right call after all. On this board there was plenty of options that was better than Gold for the deck OP tried to build. Early Golds, as with Skulk or Wedding, is another story but buying Gold on an early is so rarely the right call for the engine that I wouldn't say my statement is hyperbole at all. Rather I'm wrong, but how in that case?

[arishipshape]

Thank you all so much for the advice! Would it be OK if I mentioned you guys in my next video, and amend my gold statement?
Imho, if noob dominion players see this channel for the first time, they might be bamboozled if episode 2 starts them off with night cards, potion cards, villa, black market, and coin tokens. I love the new expansions, I just want to have a solid "base" for newbies to watch. Thoughts?

[Screwyioux]

There are arguments both ways. I imagine someone who's watching games of Dominion played out online (that aren't rules tutorials) will be familiar with the mechanics enough to follow the game without trouble and base-only games could just be re-treading old ground.

I would suggest to that end framing your videos more as en exploration than a tutorial either way, which makes me think there's more value in exploring the rest of the game than sticking to base-only.

[Simon Jester]

Thank you all so much for the advice! Would it be OK if I mentioned you guys in my next video, and amend my gold statement?
Imho, if noob dominion players see this channel for the first time, they might be bamboozled if episode 2 starts them off with night cards, potion cards, villa, black market, and coin tokens. I love the new expansions, I just want to have a solid "base" for newbies to watch. Thoughts?

Do expansion per expansion maybe? Those kingdoms are pretty fun and if it's hard to get people to join your custom board I would happily help if needed.

No problem with mentioning the forums, I don't think

[Screwyioux]

There are arguments both ways. I imagine someone who's watching games of Dominion played out online (that aren't rules tutorials) will be familiar with the mechanics enough to follow the game without trouble and base-only games could just be re-treading old ground.

I would suggest to that end framing your videos more as en exploration than a tutorial either way, which makes me think there's more value in exploring the rest of the game than sticking to base-only.

Yeah I'll second that if you want an opponent for your vids myself and others here would be more than happy to help out!

[arishipshape]

You guys are literally the best. I should be available tonight for a few recorded games. Unfortunately, I already used the only time my house is silent (when everybody is gone) today to record. Whatever evenings work for you guys work for me. I decided to do 2 games per episode: 1 base with a random person, and 1 expansion one. I'll stop doing the base and just do 2 games per episode after about 10 or so episodes. Best of both worlds! Experts can skip base, noobs can skip expansions! 1 episode per expansion is brilliant! I think I will do that starting with episode 3. In addition to the base game segment for noobs.

[aku_chi]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

Why would it be hyperbole? If your goal is to build an engine every stop card is an obstacle you need to come around in some way. Of course you need some economy but if you are dependent on Gold to get that maybe that is a sign that engine is not the right call after all. On this board there was plenty of options that was better than Gold for the deck OP tried to build. Early Golds, as with Skulk or Wedding, is another story but buying Gold on an early is so rarely the right call for the engine that I wouldn't say my statement is hyperbole at all. Rather I'm wrong, but how in that case?

You made a very strong statement, such that a single counterexample can rebut it; but, I'll provide several.

• You're trying to buy a key $7 card to kickstart your engine.  Silvers are less reliable to hit $7 early and can get in the way. Sometimes you can get an early Gold. Inheritance, Forge, and Expand (as only Estate trashing) are all potential motivations to want an early Gold.  Check out this game Dan Brooks played where an early Gold was a key part of the build to get an early Forge.
• Spiking $8 in the middle game.  Gold is also better at spiking $8, which is occasionally valuable to do before you get full control of your deck.  Pathfinding and Province (in a Tournament game) provide motivation for Gold in the middle turns.
• +buy on demand.  Travelling Fair, Villa, and Forum ameliorate having too much economy on a single turn.  Sometimes (rarely) it's correct to pick up Gold on an early $6 to use it later to get multiple engine components more efficiently.
• Before heavy trashing.  This is most common (and still uncommon) with Donate, where you might have an opportunity to pick up a Gold on turn 3 before Donating.
• Card defense.  Gold is especially valuable against certain cards from the opponent, notably Swindler and Chariot Race.  It can pay off to buy an earlyish Gold in games where these cards are dominant.
• Gold has special significance.  Sometimes (not always) games with Encampment sufficiently reward an early Gold.  This is really easy to see with Encampment + Gear.

[Commodore Chuckles]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

Why would it be hyperbole? If your goal is to build an engine every stop card is an obstacle you need to come around in some way. Of course you need some economy but if you are dependent on Gold to get that maybe that is a sign that engine is not the right call after all. On this board there was plenty of options that was better than Gold for the deck OP tried to build. Early Golds, as with Skulk or Wedding, is another story but buying Gold on an early is so rarely the right call for the engine that I wouldn't say my statement is hyperbole at all. Rather I'm wrong, but how in that case?

You made a very strong statement, such that a single counterexample can rebut it; but, I'll provide several.

• You're trying to buy a key $7 card to kickstart your engine.  Silvers are less reliable to hit $7 early and can get in the way. Sometimes you can get an early Gold. Inheritance, Forge, and Expand (as only Estate trashing) are all potential motivations to want an early Gold.  Check out this game Dan Brooks played where an early Gold was a key part of the build to get an early Forge.
• Spiking $8 in the middle game.  Gold is also better at spiking $8, which is occasionally valuable to do before you get full control of your deck.  Pathfinding and Province (in a Tournament game) provide motivation for Gold in the middle turns.
• +buy on demand.  Travelling Fair, Villa, and Forum ameliorate having too much economy on a single turn.  Sometimes (rarely) it's correct to pick up Gold on an early $6 to use it later to get multiple engine components more efficiently.
• Before heavy trashing.  This is most common (and still uncommon) with Donate, where you might have an opportunity to pick up a Gold on turn 3 before Donating.
• Card defense.  Gold is especially valuable against certain cards from the opponent, notably Swindler and Chariot Race.  It can pay off to buy an earlyish Gold in games where these cards are dominant.
• Gold has special significance.  Sometimes (not always) games with Encampment sufficiently reward an early Gold.  This is really easy to see with Encampment + Gear.

Well done. Too much Gold is always bad for an engine, but that certainly doesn't mean it's a bad idea to get one or two Golds to kickstart things.

[Awaclus]

Well done. Too much Gold is always bad for an engine, but that certainly doesn't mean it's a bad idea to get one or two Golds to kickstart things.

That depends on what things you're "kickstarting" with the Golds. If you're already (almost) drawing your deck and you get one or two Golds at that point to kickstart greening or more explosive engine building, that's fine when there isn't any better payload. However, usually it is a bad idea to get one or two Golds to kickstart buying the engine components because if they cost $3-6 which they usually do, the +cards engine component is at least roughly as easy to acquire as the Gold, at least roughly as useful for your early economy, and additionally it cycles your deck instead of being a stop card and it's an engine component while it does all that.

[arishipshape]

Episode 2 is live! Here it is!

This one took alot out of me. Most of today, in fact. I hope you guys find the cuts funny.

[Simon Jester]

Gold, when not gained, is a shiny curse and something you want to avoid buying when building any form of engine.

This is hyperbole and should not be taken literally.

Why would it be hyperbole? If your goal is to build an engine every stop card is an obstacle you need to come around in some way. Of course you need some economy but if you are dependent on Gold to get that maybe that is a sign that engine is not the right call after all. On this board there was plenty of options that was better than Gold for the deck OP tried to build. Early Golds, as with Skulk or Wedding, is another story but buying Gold on an early is so rarely the right call for the engine that I wouldn't say my statement is hyperbole at all. Rather I'm wrong, but how in that case?

You made a very strong statement, such that a single counterexample can rebut it; but, I'll provide several.

• You're trying to buy a key $7 card to kickstart your engine.  Silvers are less reliable to hit $7 early and can get in the way. Sometimes you can get an early Gold. Inheritance, Forge, and Expand (as only Estate trashing) are all potential motivations to want an early Gold.  Check out this game Dan Brooks played where an early Gold was a key part of the build to get an early Forge.
• Spiking $8 in the middle game.  Gold is also better at spiking $8, which is occasionally valuable to do before you get full control of your deck.  Pathfinding and Province (in a Tournament game) provide motivation for Gold in the middle turns.
• +buy on demand.  Travelling Fair, Villa, and Forum ameliorate having too much economy on a single turn.  Sometimes (rarely) it's correct to pick up Gold on an early $6 to use it later to get multiple engine components more efficiently.
• Before heavy trashing.  This is most common (and still uncommon) with Donate, where you might have an opportunity to pick up a Gold on turn 3 before Donating.
• Card defense.  Gold is especially valuable against certain cards from the opponent, notably Swindler and Chariot Race.  It can pay off to buy an earlyish Gold in games where these cards are dominant.
• Gold has special significance.  Sometimes (not always) games with Encampment sufficiently reward an early Gold.  This is really easy to see with Encampment + Gear.

Nah, counterexamples don't stop rules of thumb from being legitimate. A key in Dominion is to spot kingdoms where these rules breaks down and where you shouldn't follow them, but without them it's hard to know what to do at all when trying to improve from one level to the next. All of these rules comes with an implicit "unless you have a reason to differ", I guess "avoid" isn't mild enough for that be heard for you there, but I didn't say "never buy Gold", that would be exaggerated, but that you regularly want to avoid it is still true.

[Simon Jester]

Episode 2 is live! Here it is!

This one took alot out of me. Most of today, in fact. I hope you guys find the cuts funny.

Coolcool! First off, nice work once again, it's easy to watch this even though it shows somewhat that you just began (as it should).

One thing: Please don't laugh at your opponents even if they are playing badly. There can be multiple reasons why they choose a subpar strategy (experimenting, playing unfocused or whatever) and it just makes you look tacky. You may explain why you think it's bad, but if you tease them and then they manage to beat you, you just come off as pathetic. Don't risk that.

Then I want to say that don't mix high energy with just being too speedy. Here you often speak way too fast and your voice is weird in a way it wasn't in the first vid. Try to remember to be cool when recording, I know that it's easy to be hyped and I don't ask you to be boring or try to be anyone other than yourself, just try to remember that you have an audience and try to have your voice and mind grounded somewhat. You have time, no stress, no need to jump over every second word to get your point across. If you are more patient you can also analyse the kingdom better and don't miss any combos again. I you don't have any standard way to analyse the kingdom, uhm, get one. No, but we can help you out I'm sure, but it's a bit cringy to see you just flailing out in the kingdom with barely a plan. Fun the couple first few times, but not in the long run.

Anyhow, nice overall, just trying to give some constructive criticism. Keep it up, if you will

[arishipshape]

Thanks for the feedback!
I completely agree that laughing at my foe is a risk. However, when I see overconfident YouTubers fail, I find it hilarious. Regardless, I will cut back on it. Speed is difficult to cut back on in such a fast paced game as Dominion, but i'll do my darndest to slow down. Any tips on how to get all my points across while staying within the time of the game? I also find kingdom analysis hard to do while still showing my foe that i'm not afk. If I sit there for 5 minutes at the start reasoning, my foe may resign or try to have me kicked. And many people don't have chat activated, so saying "i'm thinking" wouldn't even change anything. Thus, I do all my thinking on the fly. Any tips on ways to analyze the kingdom quickly? Thanks again for the feedback.

[Simon Jester]

(Will edit out after game) Is anyone on that wants to play a game of intrigue for my third episode?

Thanks for the feedback!
I completely agree that laughing at my foe is a risk. However, when I see overconfident YouTubers fail, I find it hilarious. Regardless, I will cut back on it. Speed is difficult to cut back on in such a fast paced game as Dominion, but i'll do my darndest to slow down. Any tips on how to get all my points across while staying within the time of the game? I also find kingdom analysis hard to do while still showing my foe that i'm not afk. If I sit there for 5 minutes at the start reasoning, my foe may resign or try to have me kicked. And many people don't have chat activated, so saying "i'm thinking" wouldn't even change anything. Thus, I do all my thinking on the fly. Any tips on ways to analyze the kingdom quickly? Thanks again for the feedback.

I see, but I felt that you were a bit rushed as in overexcited/stressed over being recording. Might be projecting since I have done some podcasting myself and I know how easy it is to get a bit overwhelmed by being in front of a mic to the point that one sounds just plain weird. The point being merely that you really have much time to say whatever you want, even though it might not seem so. (As an exercise, try to speak spontanously for a minute straight about a random topic, it's way longer than you might think.) Just be relaxed, and it'll be fine and a bit more enjoyable to listen to.

Can you have chat deactivatated? In any case, start the game and even play your first hand of treasures, then if you stop it should be clear for the opponent that you are thinking. You don't need 5 minutes, just go through the kingdom, spot the engine pieces, attacks and so on, see if there is any rush/slog strategies viable and then you're good to go. No biggie really, you will get naturally better with more experience, but I think it's good to keep it in mind.

Sending PM when I could be available  

[arishipshape]

Episode 3 is live!

I had so many problems trying to make this episode. I ran out of time and couldn't do any funny intros, analysis, or cuts. Sorry. Feel free to skip this one. Or just cut to the end for the funny realization.

[Qvist]

First match I watched, so my first feedback on your gameplay. I am not the best player either, but here are my 5cents.
Why are you gaining a million Gold when you are only buying 1 Province a turn? You said there is no way to increase your handsize, but there is Moat. I think the goal is to gain only as much Gold as you need and go through your whole deck each turn and then double/triple Provincing. This means, you only want 1 Tunnel and Courtier is totally pointless here. Here is an example where I go for triple Province for reference: #21448693 Depending on what your opponent does you could then also add a Potion and buy an additional Vineyard each turn.
And when you bought Worker's Village for $11 you totally didn't want a free Forum with it? You had no way to increase your handsize so 5 Golds is the max, so you had no way for a double Province, even though you were hoping for it. Also you definitely should have gotten the Duchy, with so much sifting and so many Golds, why do you think your deck would suffer from it?

I like your video though as a whole, keep em coming.

[arishipshape]

First match I watched, so my first feedback on your gameplay. I am not the best player either, but here are my 5cents.
Why are you gaining a million Gold when you are only buying 1 Province a turn? You said there is no way to increase your handsize, but there is Moat. I think the goal is to gain only as much Gold as you need and go through your whole deck each turn and then double/triple Provincing. This means, you only want 1 Tunnel and Courtier is totally pointless here. Here is an example where I go for triple Province for reference: #21448693 Depending on what your opponent does you could then also add a Potion and buy an additional Vineyard each turn.
And when you bought Worker's Village for $11 you totally didn't want a free Forum with it? You had no way to increase your handsize so 5 Golds is the max, so you had no way for a double Province, even though you were hoping for it. Also you definitely should have gotten the Duchy, with so much sifting and so many Golds, why do you think your deck would suffer from it?

I like your video though as a whole, keep em coming.

Yes, not my best work. I was rushed (because I only had 2 hours to get the video live), saw my foe buying up the tunnels and panicked. If you wanna see me better, see episode 2. I do lots of funny edits and actually thinking. Thanks for the advice regardless.

[arishipshape]

Episode 4 is live!

Feedback?

EDIT: I recently received a message from "Jake". He says he is a fellow dominion tuber and would like to skype/play me for one of my videos. However, I got it as a do not reply email. How would I go about responding?

[heron]

I recently received a message from "Jake". He says he is a fellow dominion tuber and would like to skype/play me for one of my videos. However, I got it as a do not reply email. How would I go about responding?

Maybe look in your "messages" tab near the top of the forum website and you can reply there? If it was a message from this forum anyway. If it's from youtube I don't know.

[LittleFish]

I suscribed