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Author Topic: Are promos worth it?  (Read 15569 times)

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LittleFish

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Are promos worth it?
« on: January 04, 2019, 04:59:49 pm »
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Is if worth it to buy the promos? They're 5 dollars each on BGG store. Are they worth it?

EDIT: What one should I buy? I think I'll get them in increments of 2 to lower the shipping. Any ideas?
« Last Edit: January 06, 2019, 12:31:49 pm by LittleFish »
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ThetaSigma12

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 05:25:11 pm »
+3

Depends on the Promo. I'd say at least Black Market is worth it, and probably pass on at least Walled Village and Envoy.
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crj

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2019, 11:48:53 pm »
+3

My personal favourite promo, for what it's worth, is Prince. A nifty effect, but a price so high you've got an interesting decision to make: will buying it let you gain at least one extra Province?
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ackmondual

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2019, 04:07:57 am »
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I did a mini-review of the first 5 here....
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/10398721#10398721

FWIW, try to value them by how much you'll actually use them.  Sure, the regular sets come with many more cards, but it wouldn't be saying much if you didn't like say, half of them.

As far as the rest of them go, Summons isn't too shabby, nor Dismantle.
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greybirdofprey

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2019, 06:07:47 am »
+2

Depends, do you want the 100% achievement?
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LittleFish

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2019, 09:11:10 am »
+1

My personal favourite promo, for what it's worth, is Prince. A nifty effect, but a price so high you've got an interesting decision to make: will buying it let you gain at least one extra Province?
I meant the USD cost on BGG not the cost to get the card in your deck
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UmbrageOfSnow

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2019, 02:08:21 pm »
+1

Depends on the Promo. I'd say at least Black Market is worth it, and probably pass on at least Walled Village and Envoy.

They aren't that exciting, but I actually really like Walled Village for another generic village and Envoy for being a weirder smithy.  If I were going to skip a promo it'd be Sauna/Avanto, but really I like them all.  Prince and Summon are the most fun though.
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2019, 11:13:20 pm »
+3

I did a mini-review of the first 5 here....
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/10398721#10398721

FWIW, try to value them by how much you'll actually use them.  Sure, the regular sets come with many more cards, but it wouldn't be saying much if you didn't like say, half of them.

As far as the rest of them go, Summons isn't too shabby, nor Dismantle.
You lost all credibility to me when you rated Governor and Stash as 5/5, but Black Market only 3/5.

To the OP, personally, I'd say the majority of the promos are skippable. I think the only three I'd pay for are Black Market, Prince, and Summon.

trivialknot

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2019, 11:53:07 pm »
+3

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.

The promo I most recommend is Governor.  It's a very centralizing card, and difficult to figure out too.  If you like centralizing cards, then second and third place would be Black Market, and Sauna/Avanto.  If you prefer cards of more middling strength, try Prince, Summon, Dismantle, and Envoy.  Stash is widely regarded as very weak, and Walled Village is basically never better than village.
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2019, 12:11:08 am »
0

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.
Just grab one copy each of 20-30 cards that aren't in the current kingdom. What's so hard about that?

The promo I most recommend is Governor.  It's a very centralizing card, and difficult to figure out too.  If you like centralizing cards, then second and third place would be Black Market, and Sauna/Avanto.  If you prefer cards of more middling strength, try Prince, Summon, Dismantle, and Envoy.  Stash is widely regarded as very weak, and Walled Village is basically never better than village.
I don't like Governor or (to a lesser extent) Sauna/Avanto because they're so centralizing.
Black Market is centralizing in a completely different way than those. The unique thing it does it let you buy cards not otherwise available that game. Black Market itself isn't a power card, but it's fun.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2019, 12:13:08 am by LibraryAdventurer »
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trivialknot

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2019, 12:20:08 am »
+5

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.
Just grab one copy each of 20-30 cards that aren't in the current kingdom. What's so hard about that?
What's hard about it, is that it already takes a long time to setup and put away Dominion, with only 10 kingdom cards, and now this is tripling-quadrupling that time.
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2019, 01:12:43 am »
0

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.
Just grab one copy each of 20-30 cards that aren't in the current kingdom. What's so hard about that?
What's hard about it, is that it already takes a long time to setup and put away Dominion, with only 10 kingdom cards, and now this is tripling-quadrupling that time.
Sounds like you need a better storage solution to keep it from taking so long.
(Sorry, I don't have one I can recommend. The one I use involves a suitcase-like carrying case which was originally made for cassette tapes. I'm pretty sure they don't make them anymore.)
« Last Edit: January 06, 2019, 01:14:33 am by LibraryAdventurer »
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trivialknot

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2019, 03:03:57 am »
+3

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.
Just grab one copy each of 20-30 cards that aren't in the current kingdom. What's so hard about that?
What's hard about it, is that it already takes a long time to setup and put away Dominion, with only 10 kingdom cards, and now this is tripling-quadrupling that time.
Sounds like you need a better storage solution to keep it from taking so long.
(Sorry, I don't have one I can recommend. The one I use involves a suitcase-like carrying case which was originally made for cassette tapes. I'm pretty sure they don't make them anymore.)
It's literally the time it takes to find the correct divider and take/return the appropriate card, but times 30.  I think you're just a lot more patient than me.

My partner said that when he used to play with Black Market, they would use the randomizers, and only take out the cards when they were bought.  This sounds less irritating, although the issue is we don't keep the randomizers on hand.  I think if we were to ever buy a copy of Black Market, I'd just pack it some randomizers and just use the same ones every time.
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Commodore Chuckles

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2019, 12:12:54 pm »
+1

The promo I most recommend is Governor.  It's a very centralizing card, and difficult to figure out too.  If you like centralizing cards, then second and third place would be Black Market, and Sauna/Avanto.  If you prefer cards of more middling strength, try Prince, Summon, Dismantle, and Envoy.  Stash is widely regarded as very weak, and Walled Village is basically never better than village.
I don't like Governor or (to a lesser extent) Sauna/Avanto because they're so centralizing.
Black Market is centralizing in a completely different way than those. The unique thing it does it let you buy cards not otherwise available that game. Black Market itself isn't a power card, but it's fun.

Saunavanto is just plain unfun. It does too many useful things at once. The chaining interaction is very neat but it should never have had the trashing. The trashing is also grating because it's luck-based.

Very mixed feelings about Governor. I dislike how centralizing it is, but at the same time it's usually a genuinely interesting card. It has so many interactions: it synergizes with other Gold-gainers, other TFBs, handsize attacks, thinners in general, and a bunch of other stuff. The main reason I dislike it is simply because I'm so bad at using it. It offers so many options, and I somehow always end up picking the wrong ones.

Black Market is one of my favorite cards, if not my very favorite. It's virtually always a must-buy, but I wouldn't really call it centralizing in the same way other cards are. There's no "Black Market deck"; your strategy is completely different depending on what Black Market cards you actually buy (and Black Market itself is a stop card). To me it's the perfect promo: completely wacky idea, involving every single other card in the game instead of just ones from a particular set.
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ackmondual

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2019, 11:40:58 pm »
0

I did a mini-review of the first 5 here....
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/10398721#10398721

FWIW, try to value them by how much you'll actually use them.  Sure, the regular sets come with many more cards, but it wouldn't be saying much if you didn't like say, half of them.

As far as the rest of them go, Summons isn't too shabby, nor Dismantle.
You lost all credibility to me when you rated Governor and Stash as 5/5, but Black Market only 3/5.
My choices then were more so based on "cult of the new", and trying out the new cards as they came out.  Black Market was rated on how it kind of was a pain in the neck to set up.  And that was back when there were only 4 expansions.

Later on, I was shocked to come onto this site to find out the general consensus is that Gold is not that great since it still stifles engines.  As I'm sure you're aware, your typical Dominion group does have a thing with "going for the Gold".  I take it the disdain for Stash is it's just a "glorified Silver", while Governor helps your opponents too much?
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ackmondual

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #15 on: January 09, 2019, 11:47:36 pm »
0

For people who think Black Market is one of the best: how do you do the setup IRL?  It sounds unusable.
Just grab one copy each of 20-30 cards that aren't in the current kingdom. What's so hard about that?
What's hard about it, is that it already takes a long time to setup and put away Dominion, with only 10 kingdom cards, and now this is tripling-quadrupling that time.
Sounds like you need a better storage solution to keep it from taking so long.
(Sorry, I don't have one I can recommend. The one I use involves a suitcase-like carrying case which was originally made for cassette tapes. I'm pretty sure they don't make them anymore.)
It's literally the time it takes to find the correct divider and take/return the appropriate card, but times 30.  I think you're just a lot more patient than me.

My partner said that when he used to play with Black Market, they would use the randomizers, and only take out the cards when they were bought.  This sounds less irritating, although the issue is we don't keep the randomizers on hand.  I think if we were to ever buy a copy of Black Market, I'd just pack it some randomizers and just use the same ones every time.
That's what we did in one group back when Prosperity was the latest and greatest.  Of course, there weren't as many randomizers back then.  These days, few people carry them around.

Another suggestion is the grab the blanks and use them as proxies.  Put labels on them, and have an impromptu chart that can identify what all the cards are.  E.g.
BM#1 = Courtier,
BM#2 = Junk Dealer
BM#3 = Duchess
etc.

You'd need to know what the cards do ahead of time, or have an illustration of the cards on head (on your phone/a printout), but saving the hassles of hunting down individual cards, and then having to put them away afterwards could be worth it.
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Tozar

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2019, 08:13:22 pm »
0

My favorites are probably Governor and Envoy. My least favorite is probably Dismantle, though, frankly, I don't dislike any of them.  I do like Black Market, but I only play with it when I play online -- I just haven't come up with an easy way to incorporate it IRL.
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Cave-o-sapien

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #17 on: January 11, 2019, 06:26:37 pm »
+1

My favorites are probably Governor and Envoy. My least favorite is probably Dismantle, though, frankly, I don't dislike any of them.  I do like Black Market, but I only play with it when I play online -- I just haven't come up with an easy way to incorporate it IRL.

Two good options:

1) Use a randomizer app that includes a black market. That way you're only fishing for the card if someone buys it.

2) Make the Black market deck from the blue-backed placeholder cards. Sure, you'll be able to identify tell if a card in someone else's hand came from the Black Market, but that's a minor bit of info leak in exchange for much easier setup.
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ackmondual

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #18 on: January 11, 2019, 08:08:16 pm »
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My favorites are probably Governor and Envoy. My least favorite is probably Dismantle, though, frankly, I don't dislike any of them.  I do like Black Market, but I only play with it when I play online -- I just haven't come up with an easy way to incorporate it IRL.

Two good options:

1) Use a randomizer app that includes a black market. That way you're only fishing for the card if someone buys it.
Can you suggest one?  I've tried a few, and some of them have BM options to select which ones you'd like to white/blacklist, but none of them actually implement a "virtual deck", and the rest of it (flipping up 3 cards, bottom decking the rest, etc.)

2) Make the Black market deck from the blue-backed placeholder cards. Sure, you'll be able to identify tell if a card in someone else's hand came from the Black Market, but that's a minor bit of info leak in exchange for much easier setup.
Doesn't help those who leave out randomizers.
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spiralstaircase

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #19 on: January 12, 2019, 03:25:47 am »
+1

2) Make the Black market deck from the blue-backed placeholder cards. Sure, you'll be able to identify tell if a card in someone else's hand came from the Black Market, but that's a minor bit of info leak in exchange for much easier setup.
Doesn't help those who leave out randomizers.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this"
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Donald X.

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2019, 03:36:06 am »
+5

Two good options:

1) Use a randomizer app that includes a black market. That way you're only fishing for the card if someone buys it.

2) Make the Black market deck from the blue-backed placeholder cards. Sure, you'll be able to identify tell if a card in someone else's hand came from the Black Market, but that's a minor bit of info leak in exchange for much easier setup.
3) Use one card from each pile for randomizers, rather than the blue-backed cards. Add it to the pile to play, put any copy back in the randomizer deck after a game. Then the randomizer deck can be used for Black Market with no work at all (skipping sideways cards as they come up). This is what I do! I just never wanted to print an 11th copy of everything.
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greybirdofprey

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2019, 07:48:03 am »
0

My favorites are probably Governor and Envoy. My least favorite is probably Dismantle, though, frankly, I don't dislike any of them.  I do like Black Market, but I only play with it when I play online -- I just haven't come up with an easy way to incorporate it IRL.

Two good options:

1) Use a randomizer app that includes a black market. That way you're only fishing for the card if someone buys it.

2) Make the Black market deck from the blue-backed placeholder cards. Sure, you'll be able to identify tell if a card in someone else's hand came from the Black Market, but that's a minor bit of info leak in exchange for much easier setup.

Alternatively program your own randomizer because the ones you could find didn't include the functionality you wanted. :/
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crj

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2019, 10:35:37 am »
+2

3) Use one card from each pile for randomizers
The trouble with that is it stinks for playing random or semi-random kingdoms. If you ever want to choose a pile, you have to go digging in the randomizers for the missing card. )-8
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Donald X.

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #23 on: January 12, 2019, 05:15:07 pm »
0

3) Use one card from each pile for randomizers
The trouble with that is it stinks for playing random or semi-random kingdoms. If you ever want to choose a pile, you have to go digging in the randomizers for the missing card. )-8
I don't know why you say "random" there - it makes random kingdoms exactly as well as the randomizer deck does, with exactly as much searching for cards. Instead of turning over a random randomizer card and looking for the pile of 10, I turn over a random card and look for the pile of 9 to add to it. It's just exactly the same.

For needing a particular card, well as it happens I also keep each expansion separate - I deal out 5 random Seaside cards, 5 random Renaissance cards. So if I want to specifically test Swashbuckler, I turn over the pile of 25 cards and it's easy to find. But yes if you shuffled them all together it would take a while to find the 10th copy of something.
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crj

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Re: Are promos worth it?
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2019, 06:45:05 pm »
+2

I don't know why you say "random" there
Because I'm an idiot and I meant non-random.
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