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[Mean Mr Mustard]

<b> Here Toaday, Here Tomorrow</b>

This week we will all play matches dominated by Seaside.  Each match is seven total games.  Make sure that you set Isotropic's filter system to include exactly six cards chosen at random from Seaside!

Please report your results in this thread, and have your match completed by 18:00 GMT Thursday 12 April.  Good luck and have fun!

If you wish to play future matches, feel free to do so... but wait to post the results in that week's thread.

Please make up outstanding matches before the end of Group Stage and report them in the correct week's thread.  Also, if you spot an error in point totals speak up!

Week 2 Match-ups

Eurasia Group:

Geronimoo (12)
vs
Nucleus ( 12 )

Rabid ( 16 )
vs
Mangsky (10)

lespeutere ( 18 )
vs
Dubdubdubdub ( 8 )

MrEevee (16)
vs
luliin (6)

Central Europe Group:

Fabian ( 20 )
vs
ugasoft (13)

ArjanB (7)
vs
StickaRicka (16)

JanErik (14)
vs
Lekkit (18)

angboy (11)
vs
Tonks77 (13)

Eastern America Group

Wandering Winder (10)
vs
Mic Qsenoch ( 20 )

angrybirds (11)
vs
Masticore (16)

Voltaire (2)
vs
Robz888 ( 16 )

zxcvbn2 (9)
vs
blueblimp (12)

Atlantic Group:

Young Nick ( 16 )
vs
DG ( 8 )

Kirian ( 14 )
vs
Jonts26 (22)

Greystripe77 (6)
vs
fit1one (10)

elahrairah13 (10)
vs
andwilk (12)

[Fabian]

ugasoft beats Fabian 5-2

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-225512-dd81be44.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-225912-397c29e0.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-230336-8d9e30f5.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-231256-d240a7ae.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-232408-5472e03a.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-233228-38d07f0b.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-233753-2e36a0b7.html

I'm (well, I was) 12-1 or 13-1 in tournament matches lifetime I believe, and proceeded to "lose 4-0" (if this was regular best of 7 format) in what felt like 10 minutes to what I believe is the lowest (second lowest?) ranked tournament opponent I've played. That was.. humbling.

If I was a sore loser I would complain like a crazy person about pretty much every game, but I'm not, so I won't Nice playing you ugsaoft, good luck in the rest.

[ugasoft]

ugasoft beats Fabian 5-2

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-225512-dd81be44.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-225912-397c29e0.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-230336-8d9e30f5.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-231256-d240a7ae.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-232408-5472e03a.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-233228-38d07f0b.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/05/game-20120405-233753-2e36a0b7.html

I'm (well, I was) 12-1 or 13-1 in tournament matches lifetime I believe, and proceeded to "lose 4-0" (if this was regular best of 7 format) in what felt like 10 minutes to what I believe is the lowest (second lowest?) ranked tournament opponent I've played. That was.. humbling.

If I was a sore loser I would complain like a crazy person about pretty much every game, but I'm not, so I won't Nice playing you ugsaoft, good luck in the rest.

It was a pleasure for me to play against one of the greatest Dominion player on Iso.
I still cannot believe I won.
I'm sorry for Fabian, which is, in my opinion, still the favorite of our bracket.
Probably with these 10 points I'll do nothing, but this was my best match so far and I'm proud of my playing!
I may have been lucky in a couple of matches, but in game 5 with tactician in play and several goons and KC in deck I got closer to another win, I missed 2 buys (a single KC in 10 cards...). But it's obviously lame and a "troll attempt" to complain with the luck in that match!!

I wish Fabien good luck for the rest of the tournament!

p.s. letting only first player of each bracket passing to next turn is too luck-dependent in my opinion... A single "wrong day" can kill a strong player...
Would be better to let best 2 pass the round, so we'd have 8 players in Mustard and 8 in Kirian. With another two 8-player divisions we could select final four... Is it too late to propose such a change?

[WanderingWinder]

Wow. Just wow. I'm dumbfounded as to the result of that match. At a quick glance, Fabian must have been terribly unlucky. To be fair to ugasoft, I don't think he actually played that much worse strategies than Fabian in most of the games (1 or 2, yes), and had a slightly better strategy, IMO, in maybe one or two of them (but this is very slight, and Fabian is at least as good a player as me overall, so I could be wrong here; I'm specifically referring to the Jack game, where I would actually have preferred just silver/Jack, eventually getting MS; on the other hand, ambassador is not so great with Jack anyway, so maybe lookout is better nevertheless....)
Games 3 and 7 are the most confusing to me, the ones where just looking at it, I'm like 'clearly Fabian's strategy is better here'. Though maybe in game 7, it isn't? I find that a little hard to believe, but maybe it's at least not so lopsided as my gut thinks. The rest, it seems like ugasoft is at least doing something pretty reasonable, so I'd probably give him at least 40% in each of those, though second player in most of them... okay, still scratching my head here.

[lespeutere]

Wow. Just wow. I'm dumbfounded as to the result of that match. At a quick glance, Fabian must have been terribly unlucky. To be fair to ugasoft, I don't think he actually played that much worse strategies than Fabian in most of the games (1 or 2, yes), and had a slightly better strategy, IMO, in maybe one or two of them (but this is very slight, and Fabian is at least as good a player as me overall, so I could be wrong here; I'm specifically referring to the Jack game, where I would actually have preferred just silver/Jack, eventually getting MS; on the other hand, ambassador is not so great with Jack anyway, so maybe lookout is better nevertheless....)
Games 3 and 7 are the most confusing to me, the ones where just looking at it, I'm like 'clearly Fabian's strategy is better here'. Though maybe in game 7, it isn't? I find that a little hard to believe, but maybe it's at least not so lopsided as my gut thinks. The rest, it seems like ugasoft is at least doing something pretty reasonable, so I'd probably give him at least 40% in each of those, though second player in most of them... okay, still scratching my head here.

Good to see I'm not the only one struggling with these logs. There is one point I'd like to disagree with you, though, which is jack/amb. According to councilroom it is a superior opening compared to jack/lookout (which is rated lower than jack/silver) and slightly better than jack/silver. I was pretty surprised, actually but look at the outcome: 2 coppers for ugasoft and 7 for Fabian.
I'm still totally dumbfounded by the mountebank vs. salvager game..

[DG]

I like the salvager opening on game 3 and that's the game Uga won with the worse draws turns 3/4. Uga got the better draws on most of the others but he usually followed a decent plan through to a good conclusion for those wins.

Interestingly the lighthouse strengthens the kingdom for ambassadors in game 2. Ugo gets 5 provinces in 13 turns since he can use the ambassador to shrink the deck then spend two coppers on the lighthouse. The lighthouse then works in good combination with the jack as a superior silver. The village works well in a small deck. It all comes together.

[philosophyguy]

Looking at Game 7, I think ugasoft's strategy gets an edge because of the Inn. Being able to functionally get an extra play of the Pirate Ships in each shuffle tips the balance. There's no doubt that ugasoft had luck in hitting so many early Silvers and Smithies rather than Copper, but the Inn consolidated that advantage really well.

[Geronimoo]

ugasoft had a little more luck, but also played really well. That's a good way to beat the best players in the world. Fabian made a few mistakes, but those might have been out of frustration and only proves he's human and far from unbeatable (like buying Upgrade over Gold mid game when he was initially going Smithy BM is pretty terrible, but ugasoft's Pirate Ships were hitting every time)

[Fabian]

Geronimoo, what do you base that Upgrade vs Gold comment on? Have you done extensive in-depth simulation of the Smithy/BM vs Pirate Ship/Native Village/Inn/Upgrade [with luck] on turn 6 matchup? I wouldn't mind and just ignore it normally, but a lot of people listen to you and view you as an authority figure, so please just stop with the "this is terrible" comments that you make so often towards me. "I think this is terrible" looks a lot better imo, and certainly is a lot more accurate imo.

philosophyguy, I agree Inn is what made his deck in game 7 crushing me completely, but I don't think he gets to that point without some very lucky Pirate Ship'ing earlier in the match, and I would disagree pretty strongly it "gives his strategy an edge". Though maybe if I'd have bought that Gold..

DG, game 3 is actually probably the game I felt I got most unlucky of all the games, though maybe I feel that way because it's (imo) the game where my strategy was so clearly the strongest, and a perfect storm of crap (at this point we were already joking in chat about how ridiculous the games were, and with every Swindler I played it got funnier, especially the last one of course which loses me the game if he has $8 or $10 and 2 buys, which he did) ended up with me exactly 1 point behind, so it just felt more tilting? I dunno.

lespeutere, councilroom opening data is imo not a useful method of evaluation for all sorts of reasons. That said, it's definitely possible Ambassador is good here, though I wouldn't put much stock in the "because look at the end result" argument, either.

WW, your post seems pretty much accurate to me. I'm not sure about the Jack game either and think it's close, but I wouldn't expect Ambassador to crush anything completely here with average draws on both sides.

ugasoft, I definitely think you played well overall and capitalized on your draws very well, I hope you don't take any offense to the discussion here.

[lespeutere]

lespeutere, councilroom opening data is imo not a useful method of evaluation for all sorts of reasons. That said, it's definitely possible Ambassador is good here, though I wouldn't put much stock in the "because look at the end result" argument, either.

Surely you're right about the councilroom data to not be taken as opening directives. I would've thought lookout works better with jack here, though, as you will have thought, too. And not only here, but in general since there is no collision problem and some kind of deck sorting effect. And then councilroom is not that bad for evaluation, either, although there will be people opening jack/amb or jack/lookout who don't know what they're doing.
For the "end result" argument, I'd like to defend that because coppers are not something you buy here in late game to somehow get the last province or like 2 golds you gain from fool's gold when your opponent buys the last province.
Imho most of us were surprised jack/amb worked out that well, and I just liked to point out that maybe those who are (incl me) should not be.

In general I don't think ugasoft should take any offense from the comments and I'm pretty sure he doesn't. As he said he acknowledges you (with full right) as one of the greatest players and is (and should be) proud of this match.

[Fabian]

The thing with the "look at the end result" argument is it's results oriented thinking. It's possible to dig up a log of pretty much any strategy and say "this is strategy is good, it worked perfectly here". Given that an Ambassador/Jack opening is terrible *and* given that an Ambassador/Jack opening proceeds to draw perfectly and crush some other opening, the end result is decks that will look like "2 copper here, 7+ copper there", but it doesn't eliminate the original assertion that Ambassador/Jack opening is terrible.

You can't be sure that a strategy is good just because it worked one time. The same principle applies to match results (I won three in a row against jonts26, clearly I'm much better than him!)

Here's a great recent example of a game where you could be like "wow nicely played man look how insane your deck got!" but as Geronimoo correctly points out, getting insanely lucky does not a good strategy make, and one shouldn't look at the end result to evaluate whether a play/opening/strategy is good unless your sample size is a lot bigger than 1. It's not a convincing argument to say "x is good because look x worked really well here!", in general.

[DG]

I'll agree with Geronimoo. I winced when I was reading the game log and saw that upgrade for 6 coins. Don't need a simulator for that one. The swindler in game 3 is less obvious but the more you look at it, the weaker it looks. It only shines on a very lucky hit of a mountebank or salvager, and even then the replacement will get salvaged out, just like the mountebank was.

[Fabian]

You misunderstand me DG. I'm not saying Geronimoo is wrong (he might very well be right, I don't know just like he doesn't and you don't), I'm saying his way of expressing it is wrong.

As for game 3, agree to disagree I guess. I would point out though that it's impossible to know the your opponent is getting 3+ Salvager on turn 1/2 when deciding whether to buy Swindler or not, but if I understand you correctly buying multiple Salvagers is a good counter to Swindler which you typically don't see (well, I don't anyway)?

[DG]

I wouldn't have played with so many salvagers but I would certainly have played with a salvager. I would certainly rate that as a poor kingdom for a swindler, so if it is good value then it is only on the assumption that it is powerful despite the kingdom.

[Geronimoo]

It's the internet... it's hard to get your point across while taking into consideration other people's feelings, yet making sure you mean it and also do it in a concise manner.

So what I meant to say was: "I think buying the Upgrade is terrible, because Upgrade is a dead draw with the 2 Smithies, and light trashing is known to be bad for Big Money strategies (mostly because of opportunity cost) an it was bought over Gold which is the cornerstone for a succesful Big Money strategy. This looked like a buy out of frustration or a misclick."

But let there be no doubt about it, I respect your game and overall attitude toward the game immensely Fabian.

[Fabian]

<3 let's all kiss and make up yay.

FWIW I think it's a bad buy too, and I for sure was on mad monkey tilt at this point in the game, and match.

[ugasoft]

Wow, how many comments.

@Fabian, I "don't take any offense to the discussion", don't warry, there's no reason for me to feel bad!

I reviewed our matches and I think yes, game 3 was ridicolous. My strategy was inferior and I was expecting to lose... your swindler hit my estates, my golds (replacing with gold), my curses (repacing with curses)... two times you played mounterbank and I had a curse to discard.... and at the end you had best accidental PPR violation ever! I may say I had 4 provinces and a slim deck, so the odds was high to hit a province, but I was truly lucky.

Reviewing other matches I think I played well and in almost any match our strategies were both good. I think I missed the garden match. I'm noob with garden, and I was not able to split them at least 5-3... While I think that the Pirate Ship and the Jack matches my strategies were strong, and luck was not essential.

In the jack matches I was thinking about going asap to the second Jack, but I'm addicted with Ambassador... and there were sources for +action (Mining Village). With no +action card, I don't know if I had changed my strategy...

In the pirate match, I think that with all that enablers (native, inn, bazaar, upgrade) it was the right strategy. If I didn't hit your "big money" but coppers, I would have reached high pirates value in the same way. Only thing that let me think about going in depth with multipirates was the absence of +buys...

[Fabian]

ugasoft, you fail to mention the most deliciously awful thing with the Swindler game, which is that the only Swindler I "hit" turns a copper into a curse which immediately gets reshuffled into your hand which you then immediately discard to my first Mountebank. Just delicious

[Lekkit]

From a tournament strategy perspective, this is probably one of the best upsets that could happen for me. This also shows that anyone's got a chance of knocking off a few games of the top players. I was really happy when I got beaten by WW by "only" 4-3 in the second IsoDom (I think it was). It's soo good for the "lower ranked" players to see that with a bit of luck and not playing terribly it's worth entering these tournaments.

Having played Fabian IRL a few times I kinda feel for his loss, but I'm pretty sure it would be unwise to count him out just yet. Congrats to ugasoft and keep it up Fabian!

[Stick In The Mud]

Grey stripe beats fit1one 4 -3

[blueblimp]

blueblimp 8 - zxcvbn2 6

Altogether mostly very enjoyable engine games, as I expected from Seaside. Many of my favourite cards from the expansion showed up: Tactician, Treasure Map, Ambassador. The only annoying game was Game 2, which was interesting but too long.

Game 1: zxcvbn2 27 - blueblimp 37: BM+Wharf is good
Game 2: zxcvbn2 52 - blueblimp 49: Weird possession slog... masquerade and tactician involved
Game 3: blueblimp 56 - zxcvbn2 28: Caravans key to big Goons turns
Game 4: zxcvbn2 38 - blueblimp 21: Terrible Warehouse/Treasure Map luck
Game 5: blueblimp 29 - zxcvbn2 18: After Ambassador, I built the better draw engine
Game 6: zxcvbn2 17 - blueblimp 30: 5 province megaturn from Ambassador/$10 Pirate Ship/Tactician/Worker's Village
Game 7: zxcvbn2 42 - blueblimp 34: How not to play Silk Road

Detailed comments:

Game 2: Seeing his Masquerade opening and having opened Tactician/Haven myself, I figure I can play a Possession each turn, use his deck to buy VP, and use his Masquerade to pass me his VP--even though I can only play one Possession per turn. This sort of works, but his Possessions disrupt my double Tactician plan, and I get some poor luck on Possession turns, not managing a colony buy while he gets two--although later I pass one of them to me. Really strange game, which in the end I lose by violating PPR.

Game 3: Goons is here, as are villages. The only way to increase hand-size is Caravan, so I identify this as a key card and get a 8-2 split on them. From there, it's much easier for me to get big Goons turns and take the win.

Game 4: This is possibly the worst luck I have ever had with Treasure Map. Despite opening Warehouse/Treasure Map and buying four Warehouses, I don't connect my Treasure Maps until turn 14. I could (and probably should) have bought more Maps, so that's not to say my play here was optimal.

Game 7: He opens Cutpurse/Ambassador without much engine potential, while I open Horse Traders/Silver with intent to go Silk Roads. Should be an easy win, right? But I buy too many Estates early instead of coppers, so once the Estates and Silk Roads are gone, I hit $4 over and over and can't get enough Duchies to win.

[Geronimoo]

Game 7 is very very strange. Your decision to go for Silk Road in response to your opponent's Ambassador is solid. Your opponent then starts making a bunch of mistakes (at least, I would have played these different and they might not be big mistakes):

-turn 4 he buys a Horse Traders while you have no attacks AND he has 3 terminal actions already. Silver would have been better there.
-turn 5 he plays his Ambassador to return 2 Coppers instead of an Estate, but the mistake is he could have played Merchant Ship instead which would lead to 2 good buys
-turn 7 he buys a Potion... Vineyard is nice as extra green for Silk Roads, but buying a Silver instead would have enabled Province buys later in the game which is much nicer green
-turn 17 he doesn't buy Copper yet his deck is getting flooded with green
-turn 19 he buys a Native Village which doesn't help at all to revive his economy (the +VP for Vineyards is hardly worth it)

Yet he wins easily!!! There are 3 reasons for this: he fights you on the Silk Roads, you go for the Estates a little too early and him having the one Merchant Ship. This card is an economy all on its own.

[zxcvbn2]

Yeah, I didn't really decide to go for SR until around turn 4, so that game was really a bad case of me changing my strategy part way through. All of your comments are appreciated for the advice, and I realize I was very lucky.

[blueblimp]

Thanks for your analysis. I may also have bought too many Horse Traders. My reasoning at the time was that between Amb and Cutpurse, they would get triggered enough that they wouldn't significantly clog my deck, but in hindsight I think some of them would have been more helpful as silvers.

A comment on the Vineyards, too: the Potion worked out very well for him. The first time he used it, he bought a Silk Road in the same turn, so arguably the SR+VY turn was superior to getting a single Province. The second time he used it, if that Potion were a silver, he'd have only $7; by that point, the estates were gone, so Duchy+VY is better than Duchy alone. The third and final time he used it, if the Potion were a Silver, he'd have only $3 (and the Estates were gone), so without the Potion he wouldn't be able to get any green at all.

In the end, his VYs accounted for 6 points by themselves, and 4 more points by bumping up his SRs one level, for a total of 10 points, greater than the margin of victory.

[Geronimoo]

He was able to pair his only Potion and only Horse Trader in two critical turns which enabled the Duchy+VY and Silk Road+VY. If he's less lucky he buys only a Vineyard those turns.
It just looks like a bad bet on average (but it might not be as bad as I feel).

[Robz888]

Robz888 8 - 6 Voltaire
I am now 3/3 at barely eeking out each round with a 4/3 win.

Voltaire 24 - 36 Robz888 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-090513-26d5daf0.html
A really boring game with Tactician dominating, due to our 5/2 starts. We also get Ghost Ships, but we have Lighthouses to defend. Well, I get much, much, much luckier, and win for no other reason.

Voltaire 43 - Robz888 32 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-091602-70802669.html
A Sea Hag game with Ghost Ships and slight engine potential, but no trashing. He wins the Curse split, picks up more Golds, Festivals, Ghost Ships, and a Library. It looks over for me, but Treasuries and a Merchant Ship catch me back up. Unfortunately, the Treasuries cause me to pass on Duchies (because then I won't return the Treasuries), and that sort of dooms me. Whoever bought the last Province would have won, but Estates were about to run out and that would have lost me the game, too.

Robz888 49 - 45 Voltaire http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-092800-6608af3c.html
Another Sea Hag game. Salvager ends up being fairly important to both of us, as is Tactician. After we both get a Province or two, I make a conscious effort to switch over to Fairgrounds. My Crossroads ease the greening somewhat, and I win fairly comfortably, despite the close score.

Voltaire 35 - 38 Robz888 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-093911-ad6d81c2.html
This was a real nailbiter. I was deciding between Double Ambassador and Ambassador/Lookout, when he opens Sea Hag/Lookout. That answers that question! I expect to crush him, but my Ambassadors collide constantly, and it isn't really working out. Even scarier, he has two Forges, and Forges a Province into a Province. Time to panic. Thankfully, I stumble my way into an excellent Conspirator engine with great support from Great Halls and Pearl Divers. With a heavy heart, I break PPR, because I'm worried about that Forge and I don't think my deck will stand up well to a Duchy dance. Neither of us can buy the last Province for a couple turns, but finally I do. I should have noticed the Conspirator potential much sooner (I took 2 Silvers over Great Halls early on--yuck), but kudos to him for some original thinking that almost paid off here.

Voltaire 45 - 36 Robz888 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-094759-f4cb1d7e.html
Nothing too exciting going on here, so I go with a Bishop plan. He goes Island/Silver, which doesn't scare me. Well, I don't hit $6 until Turn 12, and by then he already has 3 Provinces. So that's that.

Robz888 26 - Voltaire 34 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-095207-8ce37279.html
I suppose this is my most poorly played game, although I'm not quite sure where I went wrong. I go Ghost Ship with support from Bazaars, a couple Golds, and another Ghost Ship. He buys Gold, and almost nothing else, and beats me easily. I thought Ghost Ship would disrupt a Big Money strategy pretty completely, but two of the times I Ghost Shipped him he had Gold/Gold/Silver and Gold/Gold/Gold still in hand. What to do? We each had a Swindler. His hit mine immediately, but a Silver wasn't that much worse for me and the Swindlers really didn't do damage, otherwise.

Robz888 46 - 37 Voltaire http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-095756-454a338e.html
I'm a little demoralized from my Ghost Ship losing to his No Ship, going into this game. With no engine potential, this is definitely a Wharf Big Money game. He goes Silver/Silver, I go Silver/Feast. I'm not sure which was better. Well, I mean Silver/Silver is definitely better, but I didn't want to take the risk of not getting a Wharf immediately. Although the risk of that is so low, thinking about it now, I'm almost certainly wrong. Anyway, first turn advantage and adequate luck earns me a win in a boring, but close, game.

Thanks to my opponent for the games!

[blueblimp]

He was able to pair his only Potion and only Horse Trader in two critical turns which enabled the Duchy+VY and Silk Road+VY. If he's less lucky he buys only a Vineyard those turns.
It just looks like a bad bet on average (but it might not be as bad as I feel).

In light of a single HT being his only +buy, it does look like a pretty iffy purchase. It might have been good for me to buy some Potions, actually, since I had enough HTs to get a raw 2 points from them, and I had plenty of +buy.

[Voltaire]

Voltaire 45 - 36 Robz888 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-094759-f4cb1d7e.html
Nothing too exciting going on here, so I go with a Bishop plan. He goes Island/Silver, which doesn't scare me. Well, I don't hit $6 until Turn 12, and by then he already has 3 Provinces. So that's that.

I have an "ooo, shiny!" problem with Island. There's got to be something hilariously better than them on the board or else I will always, always opt for them (likely at my own expense). That made it nice to win this one.

Robz888 46 - 37 Voltaire http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/07/game-20120407-095756-454a338e.html
I'm a little demoralized from my Ghost Ship losing to his No Ship, going into this game. With no engine potential, this is definitely a Wharf Big Money game. He goes Silver/Silver, I go Silver/Feast. I'm not sure which was better. Well, I mean Silver/Silver is definitely better, but I didn't want to take the risk of not getting a Wharf immediately. Although the risk of that is so low, thinking about it now, I'm almost certainly wrong. Anyway, first turn advantage and adequate luck earns me a win in a boring, but close, game.

Going into the final match 3-3, I was slightly disappointed to have a Wharf+BM game be the deciding match, but you won it fair and square.

Thanks to my opponent for the games!

Same to you! This has been a most enjoyable tournament, and I've had a lot of fun playing against players much better than myself. Hopefully I've picked up a thing or two.

[ArjanB]

ArjanB - StickaRicka 7-7

Fun games. I think I had the most luck in the series.
Seaside is my best scoring set so I'm glad I tied StickaRicka.

Game 1: ArjanB - StickaRicka 27-39
cards in supply: Bazaar, Chapel, Embargo, Fishing Village, Ghost Ship, Pearl Diver, Spy, Tactician, Throne Room, and Trade Route

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-111455-6346977b.html

My English is not that good but I'll try to write some comments on the games.
My first plan was an sort of FV ghost ship . I thought that double tactician wouldnt work out that much.
Should have bought alot more FV's. StickaRicka begins with Chapel what I thought is maybe to slow with Ghost ships against you.
On turn 13 StickaRicka had no cards to discard for his Tactician, at this point we both thought that I would win. On turn 19 I finally bought my second tactician but that was way to late.
Not really happy with this game.


Game 2 ArjanB - StickaRicka 35-35
cards in supply: Apothecary, Bazaar, Coppersmith, Embargo, Fishing Village, Menagerie, Nobles, Pearl Diver, Potion, Salvager, and Smugglers

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-112516-8958b48b.html

We both have the same plan. FV - nobles - salvager with some bazaars and a Smugglers.
On turn 4 Sticka buys a Potion and I dont know what your plan was? It seems to me that this was a little mistake?
Maybe doing something with the coppersmith?
On turn 14 I thought I was probably winning. 2 province and a duchy up with a good hand.
But then Sticka smuggles a Duchy and buys the last two provinces for the tie.
Quick and nice game.

Game 3 StickaRicka - ArjanB 49- -0

cards in supply: Develop, Ghost Ship, Haven, Lighthouse, Monument, Royal Seal, Smugglers, Spice Merchant, Treasury, and Warehouse

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-113151-a3efe66e.html

Didnt like this game. We both open Monument - Silver. Sticka bought some more Money and hits 8 alot. I didnt and felt behind to never come back. Ugly game.


Game 4 ArjanB - StickaRicka 46-42

cards in supply: Adventurer, Apprentice, Caravan, Lighthouse, Moneylender, Native Village, Sea Hag, Smugglers, Tunnel, and Warehouse

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-114301-6d2cee66.html

2.5 - 0.5 A little bit upset that I didnt won a game yet and a little bit afraid of getting crushed again.

The nect Kingdom was funny and I really liked it. Sticka went for a double Sea Hag , with some drawing power and money. I bought a singel Sea Hag and went for a Tunnel - Warehouse. ( which I hoped it was not to slow)
I was glad that I finally won a game. And also real nice that it did it with a different strategy.


Game 5 StickaRicka - ArjanB 19-53

cards in supply: Caravan, Highway, Hoard, Merchant Ship, Navigator, Pirate Ship, Potion, Rabble, Scrying Pool, Sea Hag, and Wharf

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-115217-dc4f36be.html

No lighthouse this time. Sticka was unlucky to get a 5-2 split. Still he should have gone for the Sea Hag instead of the wharf.
On turn 6 I bought a Hoard over a  Gold. Dont know if that is the best decision but I looooove Hoard.
Sticka buys on turn 9 a Potion. I think that was far to late.
I bought some Wharves and getting some gold from the Hoard and surfed to an easy victory

Game 6 StickaRicka - ArjanB 1 - -4

cards in supply: Bazaar, Bridge, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Pearl Diver, Pirate Ship, Quarry, Tactician, Trade Route, and Witch

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-115919-872a3bbf.html

looool, I wasnt paying attention on three piling. We both went for a double Tactician, with bridges, bazaars and witches to built up some kind of mega turns.

I lost connection after my turn 15 and when I came back the game was over. Sticka tree piled and won the game. I really didnt notice that it was going to be tree piled.


Game 7 ArjanB - StickaRicka 52-32

cards in supply: Ambassador, Festival, Hoard, Island, Lighthouse, Minion, Mountebank, Navigator, Pearl Diver, and Treasury

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120408-120825-d7755d2f.html

The last game that I just have to win to tie the score. Our first ambassador and thankfully the only one.
A lot of attacking card. I got a 5-2 split and open Mountebank - Lighthouse. I wouldnt give my 5-2 split a really huge advantage cause ambassador seems to me a good counter card and there is lighthouse. StickaRicka opens Ambassador - Island.
I went for some  Mountebank - Minions - Hoard to buy green cards. I get a bit lucky for hitting 8 alot.


Thanks to Sticka for the games. I really enjoyed playing against you. I wish you the best luck for the rest of your games.
I would love to hear your comments about the games.

[Lekkit]

I know it's been easter and all, but I still haven't heard anything from JanErik...

[Dubdubdubdub]

Hi everyone,

I'm deeply sorry, but I have to drop out of this competition. I will contact Luliin and lespeutere myself; I was to play both of them tomorrow afternoon (because I missed my match with luliin last week).
It's nothing to worry about, but personal reasons keep me from playing for quite a while.

If I may give a suggestion to make up for luliin and lespeuteres loss of points, I'd advise letting the two of them play each other. Luliin's points would account for her week 2 match, lespeutere's for his week 3 match.

Really, I feel awful, but I can't help it.

[Lekkit]

Sorry to hear that you're dropping out. Hope it's nothing too serious.

[ArjanB]

I know someone who can replace dubdubdubdub if that is oke with everybody?

 

[Rabid]

Rabid 4  - 3  Mangsky    (8 - 6)

Game 1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-094600-817ee608.html
My Governor/lighthouse start should put me way ahead, I think I greened to early and Mangsky very nearly steals this game.

Game 2
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-100033-aea75a27.html
Swindler / cutpurse vs Swindler / Silver.
They don't clash and the cutpurse reduces a few $5 to $4, a well deserved win for Mangsky.

Game 3
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-101557-53cfca80.html
Warehouse / Seahag vs Wharf / Hamlet on a KC Goons board.
My Turn 4 Hag, discards the wharf, and I am way ahead.

Game 4
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-103433-89e4a86b.html
Really hard board, black market + tactician. + attacks.
My 2nd tactician gets swindled and I think I'm in trouble.
But I think my Turn 10 Mint to trash 6 coppers really helped.
Really hard game that I think we both played far from perfectly.

Game 5
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-103906-a6692c7a.html
SeaHag / Smugglers vs Tournament / Smugglers
We both hit lots of gold with our smugglers, I get the first prov on T10, then draw it with tournament, start of next shuffle, giving me a huge lead.

Game 6
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-104238-7b895dac.html
Lighthouse / double jack mirror.
I think I buy to much Money in this game, for example Turn 9 could be a duchy I think?

Game 7
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-105421-48eca028.html
Stange game not quite sure what happened.
I think I was ahead around turn 16, with a 2 to 0 gold lead.
So decide to go for the 3 pile win taking 2 estates.
The next few turns don't go me way, and nice play from Mangsky wins it 15 to 10. (Should have been 12 to 10 two turns earlier)

Thanks for the match Mangsky, good luck with the rest of the event.

[lespeutere]

I know someone who can replace dubdubdubdub if that is oke with everybody?

I wouldn't mind. I think best would be if s/he could repeat Dubdubdubdub's 1st match?!

[WanderingWinder]

Mic Qsenoch 8 - WW 6
4 games to three
etc. etc. etc.

Logs:

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-170423-c783b899.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-171052-13cf814d.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-171537-21734266.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-172035-71f91b5a.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-172818-cd37cff9.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-173510-a31c2d46.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-174045-7b79cd42.html

Videos and commentary to follow...

[Mic Qsenoch]

Game 1 - I choose Jack over Merchant Ship on 5/2, I didn't have a particular reason for doing this and I have no idea which is the better opening here. Maybe it lets me have enough money to finish the game stronger?

Game 2 - WanderingWinder gets a Bishop, which seems really good in a long game like this one. I just play BM Ghost Ship with, I think, too few Ghost Ships. He wins.

Game 3 - Mirror match with Wharf BM, he has more Wharves, I have more money. I get out to a big lead, and he can't catch up, but I imagine this game is decided mostly by shuffle luck.

Game 4 - Minion is on the board. I plan on going for them and get a Lookout to thin my deck, but he gets Minions faster so I switch to money. He buys a bunch of Minions, but still struggles to get to $8.

Game 5 - A Sea Hag slog with Scheme and Wharf. He buys a bunch of Schemes, while I try to pick up silver. We split the curses and I feel like my economy is in better shape. He buys up most of the Native Villages, and I am looking to end it on piles. This is where I make a huge misplay, on Turn 20 I buy two Estates instead of one Scheme. For whatever reason I was thinking $4 was enough to pick up a Scheme and an Estate. I buy the penultimate scheme on my next turn and then he draws a bunch of cards off the mat and plays a Bank for double Province and the win. I definitely should have pulled this one out.

Game 6 - Bazaar, Peddler, Wharf, Feast, Lighthouse. He uses Feast a lot more than me, I just try to buy a lot of Wharves and Peddlers. I get an early lead. I never pick up Gold or Platinum, and his deck is definitely stronger at the end, but I run a third pile out before he can catch up.

Game 7 - I play Ambassador BM, which makes my Amabassador kind of pointless. I also don't notice and completely ignore the synergy between Tactician and Bank, which he uses to great advantage. I am definitely outplayed here.

This series wasn't exactly thrilling. Several mirror matches, which were inevitably decided by shuffle luck. But at least I get my 15 minutes of Dominion fame on the WanderingWinder Youtube channel. Thanks for the games WW.

[blueblimp]

Game 1 - I choose Jack over Merchant Ship on 5/2, I didn't have a particular reason for doing this and I have no idea which is the better opening here. Maybe it lets me have enough money to finish the game stronger?

The simulator likes your 2 jacks 1 lighthouse 1 ship approach over WW's 2 ships 1 jack 1 lighthouse. Favoured 54/42 on a 5/2 start. Bots below. (Except for these purchases, they follow standard BMU rules.)

Code: [Select]

<player name="WanderingWinder Game 1"
 author="blueblimp"
 description="Buy 2 Merchant Ships; 1 Jack once having a Silver; and Lighthouses with $2.">
 <type name="BigMoney"/>
 <type name="TwoPlayer"/>
 <type name="SingleCard"/>
 <type name="Optimized"/>
 <type name="Province"/>
 <type name="Bot"/>
 <type name="UserCreated"/>
   <buy name="Province">
      <condition>
         <left type="getTotalMoney"/>
         <operator type="greaterThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="18.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Duchy">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="4.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Estate">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Gold"/>
   <buy name="Duchy">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="6.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Merchant_Ship">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInDeck" attribute="Merchant_Ship"/>
         <operator type="smallerThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Jack_of_all_Trades">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInDeck" attribute="Jack_of_all_Trades"/>
         <operator type="equalTo" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="0.0"/>
      </condition>
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInDeck" attribute="Silver"/>
         <operator type="greaterThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="0.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Silver"/>
   <buy name="Lighthouse"/>
</player>


Code: [Select]

<player name="Mic Qsenoch Game 1"
 author="blueblimp"
 description="Buy 2 Jacks; 1 Merchant Ship; and Lighthouses with $2.">
 <type name="BigMoney"/>
 <type name="TwoPlayer"/>
 <type name="SingleCard"/>
 <type name="Optimized"/>
 <type name="Province"/>
 <type name="Bot"/>
 <type name="UserCreated"/>
   <buy name="Province">
      <condition>
         <left type="getTotalMoney"/>
         <operator type="greaterThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="18.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Duchy">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="4.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Estate">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Gold"/>
   <buy name="Duchy">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInSupply" attribute="Province"/>
         <operator type="smallerOrEqualThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="6.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Jack_of_all_Trades">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInDeck" attribute="Jack_of_all_Trades"/>
         <operator type="smallerThan" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="2.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Merchant_Ship">
      <condition>
         <left type="countCardsInDeck" attribute="Merchant_Ship"/>
         <operator type="equalTo" />
         <right type="constant" attribute="0.0"/>
      </condition>
   </buy>
   <buy name="Silver"/>
   <buy name="Lighthouse"/>
</player>


[Geronimoo]

Jack is broken... A little surprised WW didn't know that yet

[Dubdubdubdub]

I know someone who can replace dubdubdubdub if that is oke with everybody?

I wouldn't mind. I think best would be if s/he could repeat Dubdubdubdub's 1st match?!

I'm sorry this makes for such an organizational (is that even a word?) mess. It really isn't something serious; I just had some changes in my life that make it impossible to play the next 2 months.

[DG]

DG 4 : 3 Young Nick

DG 78 : 67 Young Nick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-171640-596952ed.html
DG 29 : 34 YoungNick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-172541-3bcfb677.html
DG 22 : 14 Young Nick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-173205-5da39815.html
DG 47 : 21 YoungNick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-174309-43b87cf7.html
DG 27 : 34 YoungNick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-175020-4cc8e0cd.html
DG 43 : 29 YoungNick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-181135-206ba50c.html
DG 17 : 39 YoungNick http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-181633-b9d2abb9.html

First game: Tactician/monument/king's court where we lacked extra buys (or finesse) to keep the decks under control in the endgame, making the result very chancy.

Second game: Mixed drawing engine with border villages.

Third Game: Just my sort of stuff. Sea Hags with transmutes to rescue the deck.

Fourth Game: Tournament/Ambassador game with a tense period before getting the first prize. It then went entirely my way with 3 prizes in a turn followed by lots of eye-catching play to finish.

Fifth Game: Good wharf engine enabled by the cellar. I missed the boat opening with cutpurse.

Sixth Game: I forged a slow but deadly scrying pool deck in an ambassador game. Scrying pool/ghost ship/scrying pool and ambassador can't be fun to play against. I even had to take extra turns buying duchies to overturn his big lead safely. Sorry Nick.

Last game: Another nice fast wharf engine for Nick that wasn't going to be beaten.

Thanks for the games Nick.

[luliin]

I know someone who can replace dubdubdubdub if that is oke with everybody?

I wouldn't mind. I think best would be if s/he could repeat Dubdubdubdub's 1st match?!

I agree with lespeutere.

[ArjanB]

Also replaying the first match? Against Mangsky?

MMM, you agree with this?

loes u will replace dubdubdubdub.

[lespeutere]

Also replaying the first match? Against Mangsky?

MMM, you agree with this?

loes u will replace dubdubdubdub.

If loes u and Mangsky agree. I think it's the fairest option as there is a little difference in levels between loes u and Dubdubdubdub. It might not matter but it might do. And then if luliin and me play each other instead of the matches against Dubdubdubdub we would play each other twice so it would all pretty much thwart the idea of having a league style at this stage of the tournament, imo.

[mangsky]

who gets replaced and what gets replayed? lol

gl rabid! those were awesome games!

[lespeutere]

Dubdubdubdub had to resign from the tournament.
ArjanB suggested loes u as a replacement.

These are facts. We made some suggestions (see above) on how to resolve this and are now looking forward to MMM making a decision.

[mangsky]

so who has to play him all over again?
just me?

[Eevee]

MrEevee beats luliiin 6-1 (12-2)


1. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-075827-777f4967.html
MrEevee 65 - luliin 80
Wharf-BM mirror with colonies. I go first, dont even draw bad, still lose. Dont know where I misplayed if I did though.

2. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-080253-7bc3167f.html
luliin 23 - MrEevee 50
luliin goes for ambassador-ambassador, I open silver-smithy and bigmoney my way to a pretty easy win. I drew well but ambassador looks really ineffective here, i was feeling confident when he opened with one, when he got the 2nd i felt it was almost gg. Didnt even defend myself with lighthouses.

3. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-081031-6907e76f.html
luliin 37 - MrEevee 45
I mirror his silver-mining village, he transitions into wharf-BM by trashing his MV, I have trouble getting to 5 so not only do I keep mine, I actually buy a couple more. MV-wharf engine prevails (trashing them for money in the end is good!), I manage to win. Really close one, I felt I was significantly behind but somehow got there. Mining village is a card I dont feel I play all that well.

4. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-082551-7d9baf3d.html
luliin 30 - MrEevee 43
Very interesting and fun board, it's very nice to see develop shine. I got to 8 with a tactician in hand several times in the end game, makes me feel like buying the tactician was a mistake even though it was probably just bad luck. I buy two potions to score me some 5 point vineyards but draw them always at the wrong time and just province away to the victory. Dont really understand how I got to 8 here this often.

5. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-083304-01142de7.html
luliin 29 - MrEevee 39
Lookout-seahag into governors for us both. I invest pretty heavily on lighthouses and buy some gold, he gets more governors. Happy with how I played, especially the end game.

6. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-083744-4895828f.html
luliin 39 - MrEevee 49
My money is bigger (luckier) in a pretty straightforward island-bazaar mirror. Smugglers is really good for 2nd player.

7. http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/11/game-20120411-084423-daebcf05.html
luliin 27 - MrEevee 45
luliin goes for fishing village-pirate ship, I counter with fishing village - navigator aiming to buy a mint asap to cripple his pirate ships. I manage to do just that and trash 3 coppers on turn 4, meaning he can only get his ships up to 4. When my deck gets thicker I buy a gold which I then mint 4 times, outpost is really good for my deck (especially so because of menageries). Really happy with how I played this one too.

Thanks for the games luliin, good luck for future rounds.

[Tonks77]

Tonks77 beats AngBoy 4-3 (8 Points to Tonks, 6 Points to AngBoy)

Game 1: AngBoy 25 - 29 Tonks77
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-110747-7090e9cf.html

Game 2: AngBoy 78 - 22 Tonks77
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-112354-b7c16650.html
His Ghost ship hit me constantly, leading to a clear win

Game 3: Tonks77 32 - 34 AngBoy
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-113139-1edaaf42.html
Breaking the PPR was no good idea

Game 4: Tonks77 16 - 15 AngBoy
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-114234-41dbd1d9.html
In the last turn I buy the last 3 warehouses and an estate for the close win.

Game 5: AngBoy 30(?) - 33(?) Tonks77
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-114915-1a579457.html
Now it was AngBoy's turn to break the PPR for the loss.

Game 6: AngBoy 44 - 32 Tonks77
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-115632-c1549625.html
Sea Hag was a bad idea against Lighthouses. And the only curse I could give him turns out to be exactly the 10th different one to upgrade his Fairgrounds 

Game 7: Tonks77 18 - AngBoy resigned.
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-121028-2e89c1be.html
I win the ambassador war, transitioning into FV-Wharf-Scrying Pool. After I start giving him curses with Amb he resigns.

Maybe more comments later.

[WanderingWinder]

Videos are up
Game 1: Jack ain't broken, and in fact I think my big mistake, if any, is that I bought one too early (or maybe at all?). Also, should have maybe gone for the third MS over a silver. Anyway, I think the big thing here is first turn advantage. I'm quite in the game, at any rate. Throw the bots out the window on this, at least if you don't really really want to waste a lot of time messing around with the buy conditions. The jack thing isn't so much that I need a silver before I'll get one, it's that I want my deck to be big enough. Maybe I shouldn't grab one at all. Also, note that the lighthouse collided well with the jack... and a big thing here is that I (the MS/Jack player) should not be so keen to trash estates as the sim probably thinks. In any case, I still think that MS>Jack here as an open, though it's gonna be so close it'll be very hard to conclusively tell.

Game 2: If you're playing BM/Ghost ship, you want a LOT of ghost ships. Even over golds. No, seriously. Well, I sorta like bishop because the game's going to be long, but I'm really not sure whether a well-played Ghost ship/BM strategy might just run it over here, without extra actions? NV not the greatest for those, but hey, not terrible. So I think I slightly outplayed him here, a bit less than the difference last game, though still maybe a 55/45 split, plus first turn gets me the win? Not like it was that big a gap in strategy strength.

Game 3: Yeah, mostly shuffle luck together with being second player has me back-footed, I probably green too early, and I get squeezed out. Not a lot going on here.

Game 4: I'm dumbfounded at how well he does here, with so few minions, getting attacked so often, as second player. I actually get points at a reasonably good clip, and don't particularly have problems hitting 8. But my attacks seem to slow him basically not at all. Maybe he just gets lucky draws. Or maybe I really don't understand what's happ'ning.

Game 5: So, can someone tell me how to play scheme/sea hag? Somehow I always seem to do better with just plain old sea hag. I definitely overbought schemes here, but should I get two before switching to silver, or wait for three? Or does it matter how many curses have been given out and stuff? It doesn't help how often I get exactly $2 (that's what all the NVs are about), that it takes me forever to reach $5, or that my sea hag precedes my scheme chain catching up to it. Which means even as first player with so many schemes, I don't win the cure war. Ick. Also don't get to sue the NV-is-soft-counter-to-Hag ability AT ALL. But my opponent botched this one so badly, uncharacteristic based on what I've seen from his overall level of play, or that in the rest of the match. Not only is there the wishy-washy endgames, but he does NOT get enough wharves, prefers gold to bank... just a bunch of little to medium things while he has an advantage that give me a sliver of daylight, then the endgame thing leaves the door open a crack, and it's just enough time for me to burst through and win, doing the strategic points he missed, albeit way, way later.

Game 6: I think this was pretty even/luck decided. I get lots of weird amounts of money with extra buys, and I don't know what to do with them so well. That's what the feasts were largely about. HoP also looks good to me here, but I can't get it to connect so well, and it was probably a waste of time. I also lose the wharf split, and the peddler split decently badly. This is exactly the kind of situation where I feel at my weakest. I know I need to go for the engine, but I'm not sure exactly which components to get and most especially, in which order to get them. And so I'm sure he outplayed me here, though I'd love to here the thoughts of a guy like chwhite or Marin, who I'm sure would wipe the floor with either of us.

Game 7: Ambassador would be terrible here. But then mountebank would be strong. Which makes you want ambassdor to counter. Which makes you not want mountebank. But amb straight up probably loses to some money thing. So it looks like rock paper scissors, except amb player will grab mounte against a non-amb opponent, and win there too, so that's the way you go. And we both do. But the big thing is that I spend my first $6 on a tactician, grab a bank, and ride that, with a touch of luck, to a win.

[andwilk]

andwilk defeats elahrairah13 4-2-1 (9 points - 5 points)

I will post links and comments when I have more time tomorrow.

[RisingJaguar]

...

Game 5:



I haven't watched all the commentary videoes (I actually only watched this one after reading the summary), but it is definitely worth your time.  WW makes a lot of good decisions (decisions surely I would struggle with). 

- Opting long-term benefit of putting schemes back instead of native villages (including when he takes back wharf). 
- Knowing what is needed to win (because he's REALLY behind). WW could have taken his native village pile to fight the greening till 3 pile battle, but he surely would have lost with half the economy without that bank.  He knows he needs a 'mega-turn'ish type thing (and has the tools to somewhat pull it off... schemes, NV pile, wharves). 
- Sacrificing native village store ups essentially for his 4 biggest purchases only (2 wharves, bank, last turn). 
- His general use of native village (I think personally I would opt to 'scheme' native villages more often, I was thinking to soft-counter the sea-hag but I think it would've been a bad idea as its like a guessing game.  Not great in the long-term). 

I am guessing his thoughts here but I'm confident these ideas were in his mind.  This is a pretty good game to show the steps to come back (as subtle as they are).  Essentially if you are behind, you cannot always continue with the same 'safe' (but overall optimal) play that your opponent is playing.  If they are ways ahead, playing the same will not surpass them. 

Most of the time, the logs are just as good as the video, but this really shows his thought process more.   Also, that last sea hag had a 50/50 shot of knocking off your bank.  That would have been devastating. 

[Kirian]

Kirian falls 2-5 to jonts26

Kirian 21-43 jonts26 Ambassador double-hits twice FTL
Kirian 25-36 jonts26 T3 Tactician into T6 Maps
Kirian 39-31 jonts26 Sea Hag lucks out, Outpost strikes out
Kirian 11-15 jonts26 FV/Wharf/Mountebank --> Three-pile
Kirian 35-36 jonts26 Stables blunder loses a close game
Kirian 39-48 jonts26 Extra Lighthouses turn $5s into $6s
Kirian 27-24 jonts26 Remake's virtual +Buy saves the day

More analysis at a later time; I'm actually happy with a 5-2 loss to #5 on the leaderboard, especially when several of them were close.  I think jonts was recording these so you can all watch my mistakes on video!

[Geronimoo]

I haven't heard from my opponent Nucleus.

[andwilk]

andwilk defeats elahrairah13 4-2-1 (9 points - 5 points)

I will post links and comments when I have more time tomorrow.

Game 1: andwilk 44, elahrairah13 38 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-160124-7b7b288f.html)
A suspiciously long game where I am able to buy out the last province for the win on turn 25.  I don't know why this game took so many turns.  Only attack was Cutpurse and Stables was in play.  Also, it seemed that my opponent was getting poor draws on Tacticians turns.  elahrairah13 was 3/6 converting Tactitian turns into a Province while I did not pick one up until right before my last reshuffle, was able to use it, and on my lone Tactician turn, buy the last Province.

Game 2: andwilk 36, elahrairah13 36 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-161106-18af7e67.html)
We both open Lighthouse/Margrave eventually builing into BV/Margrave and adding a Salvager.  I tie the game on my final turn by buying a Province and an Estate.

Game 3: andwilk 36, elahrairah13 27 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-161726-258ba190.html)
Interesting game.  My opponent held the momentum early on while I was able to come back in the mid-game.  I open Fishing Village/Steward for thinning my deck and extra actions to play multiple Witches while my opponent opens Silver/Silver for a quick jump to the $5+ cards.  On turn 3, elahrairah13 draws $7 and picks up an early KC.  This leads to an early KC/Witch on turn 7 to hand me the first 3 curses of the game.  I honestly thought it was over after that but I had mananged my deck well up to that point, combined with some good draws, and my extra Witch, I was able to split the Curses 5-5.  I was able to keep my deck cleaner with Steward which helped lead me to victory.

Game 4: andwilk 22, elahrairah13 16 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-162408-6cfb9e19.html)
Minion was the key card here and I won the battle for them 6-4.  I ended the game by gaining the last 3 Islands (3rd pile) through University and buying a Province.

Game 5: andwilk 41, elahrairah13 37 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-164748-fb342c4b.html)
A 36-turn Ambassador arms race where I end up with 6 of them eventually to make sure I don't lose the tennis match.  I made sure not to pass him too many Coppers since he added Apothecaries to his deck.  This one basically came down to who could buy out the last Island (3rd pile) or final Province and eke out a victory.

Game 6: elahrairah13 38, andwilk 27  (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-164748-fb342c4b.html)
elahrairah13's more straightforward use of JoaTs lead to a victory.  I try some shenanigans with Lookout & Haven with JoaTs and it didn't work out as well as I had planned.

Game 7: elahrairah13 41, andwilk 38 (http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120411-165607-f3b3c2b2.html)
An early Goons for elahrairah13 prompts me to go Duchy/Duke since I didn't think I could win a Province race.  I wasn't able to get enough of a margin (4-3 on Duchies/4-4 on Dukes) for it to matter.

Great series... some interesting sets in there.  Of note is that Pirate Ship appeared on the board in 5 of the 7 games (2,3,4,6, and 7) and not a single copy of the card was ever bought throughout the series.

[DG]

So, can someone tell me how to play scheme/sea hag? Somehow I always seem to do better with just plain old sea hag. I definitely overbought schemes here, but should I get two before switching to silver, or wait for three? Or does it matter how many curses have been given out and stuff? It doesn't help how often I get exactly $2 (that's what all the NVs are about), that it takes me forever to reach $5, or that my sea hag precedes my scheme chain catching up to it. Which means even as first player with so many schemes, I don't win the cure war. Ick. Also don't get to sue the NV-is-soft-counter-to-Hag ability AT ALL.

Yeah that's an interesting one. Getting the economy for 5 coin hands with the sea hag is vital so early silvers are really important. I'd use the native villages here to primarily shrink the deck and keep as much on the mat as long as reasonably possible, especially with wharf + bank available mid/late game. The soft counter to the sea hag only works while the cards remain on the mat. I think you got far too many native villages in this game (although the 2 cost hands were themselves a problem), reducing spending unless you emptied the mat frequently. I'd actually have looked to schemes already in your deck for a transition with apprentice, driving the apprentice through the deck on one cycle trashing the rubbish then rebuilding with wharf, bank, and a power economy. I don't think this needs to be a three pile ending.

[jonts26]

Kirian 21-43 jonts26 Ambassador double-hits twice FTL
Kirian 25-36 jonts26 T3 Tactician into T6 Maps
Kirian 39-31 jonts26 Sea Hag lucks out, Outpost strikes out
Kirian 11-15 jonts26 FV/Wharf/Mountebank --> Three-pile
Kirian 35-36 jonts26 Stables blunder loses a close game
Kirian 39-48 jonts26 Extra Lighthouses turn $5s into $6s
Kirian 27-24 jonts26 Remake's virtual +Buy saves the day

A very fun match against Kirian. A few close games which could have gone either way. I did record the matches, but the audio got all messed up. I'm going to re-record the audio, probably sometime this weekend, and post them then. But for now, I'll use written words.

Game 1 - Ambassador, Caravan, Treasury, Expand
Ambassador makes an early appearance. We both open Amb/Caravan. Treasury is a very strong card with ambassador so I actually forgo a second Amb for silver, hoping to stock up on  couple treasuries. I even prefer the first one to Gold, trying to keep as many cantrips in my deck so as not to get too clogged too early. Kirian gets a second amb early, and has it collide several times, with predictable results. I use Expand to speed up the end game.

Game 2 - Tactician, Treasure Map, Salvager, Pawn
We open 5/2 with Tactician. I opt for Pawn, he goes Native Village. I think Pawn has to be the right opening here. It brings me up to $8, which is what I need to get two Maps. I do pull my Tactician turn 3, which is huge, and perhaps a little fortunate (~50%). Kirian does not draw Tact until turn 4, which puts him a turn behind. However, it should be noted that if he did get tact turn 3, he couldn't have afforded double maps because of his opening. Turn 5 I get a little more fortunate to draw tactician again, setting up a Map collision for turn 6. Kirian doesn't get his maps off until turn 8, so I buy a salvager to speed up the game and press my advantage.

Game 3 - Tactician, Sea Hag, Outpost, Lookout
Another 5/2 split with tactician. I consider opening Sea Hag, but figure if I can get one early enough the tactician is more useful as an open. Well I get some unfortunate early luck. Kirian draws 4 for a sea hag, I settle for a lookout which gets flipped by his hag before I can play it. Once I do get a hag, it gets flipped before I can play it. Now being at a severe disadvantage, I need to switch up my plan. Tactician/Outpost is a bit unreliable, but potentially powerful. With curses, it's even more unreliable, but I was hoping the havens I had would help me line things up, which they really didn't that much. That said, this game came down to the final turn anyway. 2 Provinces left, tie score, Kirian had just played a tactician and was likely to get at least a province. I was looking at $8, 3 buys and an outpost. My only hope is to be able to run piles. 3 Tunnels and a Haven left. I play outpost, buying 2 tunnels and a haven and then draw ... $2. Kirian double provinces to win.

Game 4 - Mountebank, Wharf, Fishing Village, Warehouse, Salvager
Guess what? We open 5/2. And while Mr. tactician is back, we both opt to open Mountebank. I focus hard on the wharves and fishing villages. Kirian spreads himself out a bit more getting a bit of everything. I think in the end my more focused wharf/FV engine let me better control the end game and ultimately 3 pile it with the lead. I actually never got around to buying any treasures.

Game 5 - Witch, Smugglers, Trade Route
In a stunning turn of events, we both open 5/2. Witch is the clear open. He opts for a moat and I pass my $2. I play pretty much Witch/Big Money. I do get an early smugglers, thinking with the curses and being second player, I'd get some decent use out of it. Despite his moat and first position, we split the curses evenly, which is really what you have to hope for as 2P. The game is decently uninteresting, though the end game has some good aspects. With 2 provinces and no duchies left, I have a decent lead. Kirian needs either both provinces or one provinces and about half of the estates. Once I hit my final reshuffle, I start hitting the estates hard. Kirian has an interesting choice of whether to not fall behind on them, or let me drain them by myself hoping to get 2 province hands. At this point, with all the junk, provinces are not too likely. He opts to fight on the estates. He does get his 1 province but I eek out just enough estates for a 1 point win.

Game 6 - Ambassador, Lighthouse, Haggler
Ambassadors and Sea Hags and a lighthouse. We both open amb/lighthouse. I miss my amb in the first shuffle, but my more steady dedication to getting lighthouses helps me not worry about his attacks. I was planning on getting a Haggler at some point, but I wasn't going to prefer it to Gold and it was a long while before I drew exactly $5. He buys spies, which I think is probably a mistake, as the attack is unlikely to hit anyway and he needs to build his economy more. Still, a close game which I close out buying the last province.

Game 7 - Remake, Caravan, Menagerie, Warehouse, Haven, Merchant Ship, Scheme
This is my favorite game of the set. Just a beautiful example of dominion at its most elegant. It's not often 4 provinces in 12 turns isn't enough. I open remake/scheme to his remake/warehouse. We both get perfect turn 3's, though the ceiling on scheme/remake is higher. This sets us both up for very fast engines. I opt for a menagerie, warehouse deal, using scheme and haven to keep it triggering every turn. I buy provinces from turns 9-12 and could have kept going at least a couple more before I had the chance of missing. Kirian starts with a menagerie but transitions to caravan for his main draw. He buys provinces starting turn 10. I do think he got a little fortunate to not miss a province turn as he was only drawing 2/3 to 4/5 of his deck the last couple turns and if he misses his lone Gold even once, I win. However, I should have noted his 3 caravans and 2 havens in play on turn 12 and figured he stood a good shot of grabbing province/duchy to close it out. I should have bought duchy, and forced the draw on turn 13.


All in all, a great series. Thanks for the games!

[Geronimoo]

Geronimoo wins 4 and ties once (9 points), Nucleus wins 2 and ties once (5 points)

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-122816-495b7a29.html
Geronimoo 35 - Nucleus 22
Salvager, Fool's Gold, Alchemist
Seaside, hmmm, I don't expect many good things, because Ambassador is not my greatest card. But I'm happy to go first against my lower level opponent (lvl 18). Alchemist is probably not horrible here, but I still prefer a Fool's Gold big money strategy. Salvager is a decent addition. Nucleus builds a nice Alchemist stack and starts buying Provinces and Alchemist in the same turn, but in the end the big money's tempo is too high to overcome.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-124433-4890da07.html
Geronimoo 49 - Nucleus 21
Tournament, Chapel (with Haven, Peddler)
We both open Tournament/Chapel, but I trash a little less aggressively to buy Haven to enable Peddler buys and have a little more deck control. I also make sure I get a Gold as fast as possible by not trashing too many Coppers. This gives me the first Province and that's pretty much game over.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-125620-e00f3bfa.html
Geronimoo 31- Nucleus 24
Treasure Map, King's Court, Merchant Ship, Jester
My opponent opens Treasure Map, clearly hoping to get lucky. I definitely don't want to follow his lead because there's a King's Court on the board which is quite strong with Merchant Ship. I open Salvager/Woodcutter because I hope the extra action for KC will make up for a possible collision in the early game. Nucleus makes a mistake buying a Jester turn 3 over a second Treasure Map and I get a Jester hoping to expand his deck a little with junk so his TM's don't collide. Turn 6 I hit his TM with my Jester and since I sure don't want TM, I have to give it to him (is this awful??). TM collision happens turn 10 which is very late and I like my chances. His second TM collision is turn 13, but by then I already had a double Province turn thanks to KC'd Merchant Ships. It's still pretty close in the end, but I eke out a win thx to KC.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-130542-3c2d567d.html
Nucleus 35 - Geronimoo 32
Smithy, Ambassador
The board looks very much like a Big Money game, so I hope my opponent will open Ambassador. Unfortunately he opens Smithy. If I just follow his lead, I don't like my chances much, because he can't make many mistakes using this strategy. So I open Ambassador, hope he chokes on Provinces while I get the Fairgrounds to 6VP and catch up. I feel pretty good when he buys an Ambassador as well, which is clearly a mistake, but unfortunately he gets an Embassy a while later and I know he won't be choking anytime soon, so I start greening aggressively and pray for lucky draws. His final turn features an Embassy for a close win!

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-131814-abf11161.html
Nucleus 38 - Geronimoo 27
Ambassador, Pirate Ship
I open Ambassador/Pirate Ship and Nucleus opens Ambassador/Mining Village. I figured the Ambassador can keep feeding him Coppers to Pirate Ship. Unfortunately my Pirate Ships Copper trashing accelerate his deck trimming and the tempo swings in his favor. Quite sure I made a few mistakes here like buying a second Ambassador, not enough Pirate Ships and buying Haven over Silver.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-132517-3e5dfa11.html
Geronimoo 25 - Nucleus 25
Tactician, Lighthouse, Mint, Salvager
I consider the Ligthouse/Mint opening that Nucleus goes for, but I decide against it. It's probably not as bad on this board because of Salvager to trash the Mint/Estates. I have a pretty big tempo advantage early on, but Nucleus catches up which I didn't really expect and we tie!

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-133403-a5cd44a3.html
Geronimo 27 - Nucleus resigned
Caravan, Hoard, Vault
I open Caravan/Silver which I don't like on most boards because of the possible string of $4 buys in the following turns, but here the Caravan is very good with Vault so I take the risk. My opponent opens the even slower Caravan/Fishing Village. In the long game his opening leaves more options, but unfortunately this board is not likely to produce long games. I manage to get 4 Provinces in 10 turns and then Nucleus stops playing and eventually resigns. I bet he was confused how he got crushed so hard...

I'm not too unhappy about my playing except the Pirate Ship fiasco. Nucleus didn't really chat during the game, but the games were good! Thx for playing and gl in the next rounds!

[WanderingWinder]

Geronimoo wins 4 and ties once (9 points), Nucleus wins 2 and ties once (5 points)

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-122816-495b7a29.html
Geronimoo 35 - Nucleus 22
Salvager, Fool's Gold, Alchemist
Seaside, hmmm, I don't expect many good things, because Ambassador is not my greatest card. But I'm happy to go first against my lower level opponent (lvl 18). Alchemist is probably not horrible here, but I still prefer a Fool's Gold big money strategy. Salvager is a decent addition. Nucleus builds a nice Alchemist stack and starts buying Provinces and Alchemist in the same turn, but in the end the big money's tempo is too high to overcome.

I expect salvager is actually pretty good for this. Alchemist is weak against regular BM, this goodness, especially with salvager to speed the game even further, I would expect to just stomp.
But I'm interested in your assessment of seaside. You should only expect to see ambassador like one-and-a-half times. Although I guess the set probably offers combo more goodies than it does BM? I mean, let's see, it gives BM Wharf, merchant ship, generally sea hag, and... that's about it, no? Whereas it gives combo Ambassador, FV, Wharf, Tactician... by the way, isn't this the strongest set overall, at least of the large sets? Even over Prosperity, which has a better top end but falls off more?

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-124433-4890da07.html
Geronimoo 49 - Nucleus 21
Tournament, Chapel (with Haven, Peddler)
We both open Tournament/Chapel, but I trash a little less aggressively to buy Haven to enable Peddler buys and have a little more deck control. I also make sure I get a Gold as fast as possible by not trashing too many Coppers. This gives me the first Province and that's pretty much game over.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-125620-e00f3bfa.html
Geronimoo 31- Nucleus 24
Treasure Map, King's Court, Merchant Ship, Jester
My opponent opens Treasure Map, clearly hoping to get lucky. I definitely don't want to follow his lead because there's a King's Court on the board which is quite strong with Merchant Ship. I open Salvager/Woodcutter because I hope the extra action for KC will make up for a possible collision in the early game. Nucleus makes a mistake buying a Jester turn 3 over a second Treasure Map and I get a Jester hoping to expand his deck a little with junk so his TM's don't collide. Turn 6 I hit his TM with my Jester and since I sure don't want TM, I have to give it to him (is this awful??). TM collision happens turn 10 which is very late and I like my chances. His second TM collision is turn 13, but by then I already had a double Province turn thanks to KC'd Merchant Ships. It's still pretty close in the end, but I eke out a win thx to KC.

Is the risk of collision actually that bad a thing anyway? Like, often you'll be able to salvage the woodcutter profitably, no? Anyway, a treasure mapping opponent seems to be not the time you want Jester (actually, this is generally going to be true when your strategies diverge, similarly to tribute actually), but not a lot to say here.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-130542-3c2d567d.html

Nucleus 35 - Geronimoo 32
Smithy, Ambassador
The board looks very much like a Big Money game, so I hope my opponent will open Ambassador. Unfortunately he opens Smithy. If I just follow his lead, I don't like my chances much, because he can't make many mistakes using this strategy. So I open Ambassador, hope he chokes on Provinces while I get the Fairgrounds to 6VP and catch up. I feel pretty good when he buys an Ambassador as well, which is clearly a mistake, but unfortunately he gets an Embassy a while later and I know he won't be choking anytime soon, so I start greening aggressively and pray for lucky draws. His final turn features an Embassy for a close win!

Now, this seems the most interesting board by far! Fairgrounds , well, I guess they help you long-term with your ambassador. But somehow, that just seems so weak here. I mean there's no support at all. And actually, I think it's quite possible to misplay the Smithy/BM. People do it all the time. Also, the fairgrounds wrinkle is going to throw that off a bit anyway. But I'm surprised you don't mention anything else as important cards. Because Merchant Ship and Embassy also seem important to me. And they're pretty darn close to each other straight-up in terms of BM power. My guess is that, on 4/3, opening smithy and then getting embassy as a second terminal later is probably the way to go here. Probably pick up something else at some point to get 4 point fairgrounds if the game goes long enough... but it likely won't.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-131814-abf11161.html
Nucleus 38 - Geronimoo 27
Ambassador, Pirate Ship
I open Ambassador/Pirate Ship and Nucleus opens Ambassador/Mining Village. I figured the Ambassador can keep feeding him Coppers to Pirate Ship. Unfortunately my Pirate Ships Copper trashing accelerate his deck trimming and the tempo swings in his favor. Quite sure I made a few mistakes here like buying a second Ambassador, not enough Pirate Ships and buying Haven over Silver.

Hmmph. Pirate ship needs more than just a village (particularly one that fights with PS itself at a price point) to be successful, and I'm not sure that ambassador helps you more than him. Eh, maybe it can work, but it just seems like so much trouble to get what a more straightforward strategy can get you, and probably slower. Big point being that there's no +buy, so even if you do get up to you're grand plan, with mega-ships and his deck sorta in tatters, it might be too late. But I dunno, maybe it can work.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-132517-3e5dfa11.html
Geronimoo 25 - Nucleus 25
Tactician, Lighthouse, Mint, Salvager
I consider the Ligthouse/Mint opening that Nucleus goes for, but I decide against it. It's probably not as bad on this board because of Salvager to trash the Mint/Estates. I have a pretty big tempo advantage early on, but Nucleus catches up which I didn't really expect and we tie!

I think I'd go for the lighthouse/mint without much hesitation. Salvager is going to be big goodies for it. You have to be FAST if you want to beat it out, and well, I guess you are sorta, but I'd have put my money on his strategy here, at least generally.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/12/game-20120412-133403-a5cd44a3.html
Geronimo 27 - Nucleus resigned
Caravan, Hoard, Vault
I open Caravan/Silver which I don't like on most boards because of the possible string of $4 buys in the following turns, but here the Caravan is very good with Vault so I take the risk. My opponent opens the even slower Caravan/Fishing Village. In the long game his opening leaves more options, but unfortunately this board is not likely to produce long games. I manage to get 4 Provinces in 10 turns and then Nucleus stops playing and eventually resigns. I bet he was confused how he got crushed so hard...

I'm not too unhappy about my playing except the Pirate Ship fiasco. Nucleus didn't really chat during the game, but the games were good! Thx for playing and gl in the next rounds!

Well, I still don't think you actually want to open caravan here, even with the vault present. A quick sim shows them basically tied, though with optimization, not to mention that the sim misplays vault rather notably, who knows? And my gut tells me that the later benefits of the caravans are slight enough over silver to not justify the early hit you're taking. But then, I guess that maybe the 5 for vault is the key price-point you want to make sure you hit here, and caravan does that like almost as much as silver? Eh, maybe. I'm not sure. What I do know is that if for whatever reason, caravans aren't being contested, opening silver over caravan starts to look like a no-brainer. Not that you can really count on that...

[Geronimoo]

I wonder how other high level players handle playing a lower level when the dominant strategy is Big Money. The lower level has fewer opportunities to make mistakes so your edge is going to be smaller. I will sometimes deviate from optimal strategy and hope I can get my opponent to make mistakes if he tries to copy me.

[blueblimp]

I'm not so high level, but in my experience playing auto-matched opponents, lower level players will often get too fancy in BM games. (Conversely, sometimes they won't play fancy enough in engine games.) So it can work to just play normally and wait for mistakes.

On the other hand, I imagine most of my wins against 40+ players might come from BM games, so that's not good advice for a 40+ playing a 30+.

[Young Nick]

DG 4 : 3 Young Nick

Just some fun notes from our series: In our first game, I was merely $1 short of winning on 1-2 turns, if I remember correctly. It happens, but it certainly was frustrating nonetheless.

In game 3, I got my butt kicked by not buying Transmute! A shocking concept in itself, more interestingly he used it to trash 4 curses on 6 plays, meaning it was primarily used to trash a card for no benefit.

In game 4, with just one Province in deck, DG takes three prizes on Turn 13. Needless to say, this game was not close.

Game 6 certainly took me by surprise. Without mass trashing (only Ambassador, Lookout), I thought I had an easy W when DG opened with Potion. No strong trashing, no +buy, and me opening Ambassador/Ambassador. Any SP engine seemed all but impossible. I'm still miffed by this one, but man, did I get destroyed. I would love for someone better than me to tell me what was the proper way to play this match. Also worth noting that DG could have easily won much sooner had he gone for Vineyards. I'm not sure why he chose not to.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-181135-206ba50c.html

A general trend was that the more interesting the game was, the more likely I was to lose. My wins were either standard engine or something slightly simpler. I never had seen myself as that type of player, but the games speak for themselves.

[paddyodoors]

Game 6 certainly took me by surprise. Without mass trashing (only Ambassador, Lookout), I thought I had an easy W when DG opened with Potion. No strong trashing, no +buy, and me opening Ambassador/Ambassador. Any SP engine seemed all but impossible. I'm still miffed by this one, but man, did I get destroyed. I would love for someone better than me to tell me what was the proper way to play this match. Also worth noting that DG could have easily won much sooner had he gone for Vineyards. I'm not sure why he chose not to.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/10/game-20120410-181135-206ba50c.html

Well, it looks like his first three SP plays hit (& discard) Ambassador, Ambassador, and Sea Hag.  Making you miss those key cards so early in the 27-turn game has a huge effect.

[JanErik]

Lekkit and I finally played our games.
I was able to take 5 games, so the final score is JanErik 10 - 4 Lekkit.

Game 1
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-055712-0e0d2fd9.html
Game 2
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-060332-c19c386e.html
Game 3
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-061013-8063d646.html
Game 4
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-061626-bb4bb9fe.html
Game 5
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-062014-36304e96.html
Game 6
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-063005-1a361fd5.html
Game 7
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-063534-54839ed4.html

Im looking forward to play against Lekkit more often, as he always stayed friendly, although I got very lucky sometimes.
He also uses a lot of "unconventional" strategies, wich made the games more interesting.

[angrybirds]

Masticore defeats angrybirds 4-2-1

4 of our games featured Ambassador pretty heavily... especially the last 3.

Game 1: angrybirds 42 masticore 39 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-102534-98325c3c.html  Ambassador war. Amb/Amb vs Amb/Lighthouse.  I ended up getting 6 lighthouses and only won the game on the last turn with some Farmland trashing

Game 2: tie 30 each  http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-103118-1801f56c.html  I went T Maps of a 5/2 opening with Herbalist. Masticore went Fool's Gold both with Warehouse complementing.  Masticore broke pentultimate province rule despite fearing a Province/Estate buy for me. I had to end it with a tie to get a point.

Game 3: Masticore 31 angrybirds 30 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-103549-f7b5a2ee.html  Bishop beats DoubleJack with lighthouse. I end it because of bad math to lose by one... But if I had bought a Duchy, Masticore would have ended it the next turn.

Game 4: Masticore 34 angrybirds 25 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-104258-89ad78b8.html  Tactician/Salvager beats Tactician messy deck. Go figure.  The salvager made the game go really fast and I couldn't quite get all my cards to work in cooperation with each other. Kind of lame for the only game that featured Tactician

Game 5: Masticore 62, angrybirds 38 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-105713-8d8de1f3.html Fishing Villages with Ambassador early. This game was extremely close midgame as I had realized that he was ahead and tried to backdoor into Silk Roads. We ended up splitting them, neither then had enough steam to get to provinces and he rolled to victory late.

Game 6: angrybirds 26, Masticore 25 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-110631-3de8866f.html Another Ambassador war, this time with both Witch and Ghost Ship around. I go Ghost Ship, he adds Witch. Neither buy anything else but money and ends up being a fast game despite the attacks. Masticore breaks PPR again, but this time I am able to win instead of tie.

Game 7: Masticore 32, angrybirds 14 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201204/14/game-20120414-112058-b8cfe92e.html Masticore played well here, but I really lost this game because I didn't want to have another Ambassador slog so tried something new. On the board was SeaHag, Ambassador, Ghost Ship, Markets, Havens and Universities. I decide to open University and get a bunch of Ghost Ships, Ambassadors and Markets. At the end we both thought just spamming markets might have been a good idea.  Well my deck turns into a mess and Masticore is able to 3 pile end it with Havens and markets out along with enough Duchies for him to win despite the ugliness.

These games showed I am very weak at Ambassador and Seaside in general.  Thanks for the games... They were a blast.

[jonts26]

Round 3 videos are up.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Game 7

[Geronimoo]

Round 3 videos are up.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Game 7

Very well played, jonts! Game 7 was nice. These vids along with WW's should be mandatory study material!

[ugasoft]

Lekkit and I finally played our games.
I was able to take 5 games, so the final score is JanErik 10 - 4 Lekkit.

This should be current classification of our division:

24 Fabian
24 JanErik
23 ugasoft
23 StickaRicka
22 Lekkit
21 Tonks77
17 angboy
14 ArjanB

6 players in 3 points... good luck to everyone

[jonts26]

Eastern Group

Name	Record	Points
Young Nick	11-10-0	22
DG	11-6-0	22
Kirian	9-12-0	18
jonts26	16-5-0	32
greystripe77	7-10-0	14
Fit1one	8-13-0	16
elahrairah13	7-13-1	15
andwilk	10-10-1	21

Still waiting on the 4 final Round 2 games between DG and greystripe.

And Round 4 matchups for my group:
jonts26 vs young nick
fit1one vs DG
andwilk vs Kirian
greystripe vs elarairah

[Lekkit]

This should be current classification of our division:

24 Fabian
24 JanErik
23 ugasoft
23 StickaRicka
22 Lekkit
21 Tonks77
17 angboy
14 ArjanB

6 players in 3 points... good luck to everyone

It's intense!

[Eevee]

Round 3 videos are up.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Game 7

Very well played, jonts! Game 7 was nice. These vids along with WW's should be mandatory study material!

Yeah its awesome you take the time to make these. Thanks a lot!

[Rabid]

Round 3 videos are up.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Game 7

Excellent videos thanks.

Game 2, jonts turn 6, did you consider playing treasure map before pawn?

[jonts26]

Round 3 videos are up.

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Game 7

Excellent videos thanks.

Game 2, jonts turn 6, did you consider playing treasure map before pawn?

Nope, but that would have been the smart play.

[loes u]

loes u beats Lespeutere 5-2

1: Lespeutere  http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-113957-5717738a.html
2: Loes u http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-115847-97320091.html
3: Loes u http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-121004-6f5207ae.html
4: Loes u http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-121950-4beb9b49.html
5: Lespeutere http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-122837-13543b37.html
6: Loes u http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-124158-fca5cdd9.html
7: Loes u http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/08/game-20120508-125051-fd3ff9ab.html

Thanks for the games Lespeutere!

Greets Loes

[Geronimoo]

Loes is really destroying us lvl 40s

[lespeutere]

Well, she climbed 5 levels in one day by beating you 4:3, so level 28 is a pretty inaccurate estimation, I guess ;-). Besides that, I played poorly. The whole evening, it's pretty disappointing. Although I never really felt like level 43 or 44 even.

As a sidenote: no fishing villages, no wharves at all.