Two games. Sadly I forgot to open the log of the first, so I'll scoop it up from councilroom and post it later.
Had the pleasure of playing twice against ARTjoMS, a level 43 player, currently 18th in the rankings. Won both times.
The first game (link to come) I'll admit I played worse and came out ahead. Chat log as follows:
22:37 Asklepios: good luck
22:40 Asklepios: considering bank as your second card?
22:40 ARTjoMS: no
22:40 Asklepios: shows what i know!
22:40 Asklepios: I was thinking you have +buy, and I don't
22:40 ARTjoMS: yes
22:40 ARTjoMS: thats true
22:40 Asklepios: my path is a lot more linear it seems
22:41 Asklepios: oooh
22:41 Asklepios: didn't see that coming
22:42 Asklepios: nice
22:42 Asklepios: shame you can't haggle nobles eh?
22:43 Asklepios: and here was me thinking i'd negated highway by taking out council room
22:44 Asklepios: so glad to see the spice merchant played for cards!
22:44 Asklepios: i think you still have this though
22:44 Asklepios: i'd need a great draw with forge to pull this off now
22:45 Asklepios: daaaamn
22:45 Asklepios: after the game would you mind sharing your thoughts?
22:45 ARTjoMS: i dont mind
22:46 Asklepios: thanks, always seeking to learn from higher ranked and better players
22:47 Asklepios: that was the luck i needed
22:47 ARTjoMS: it was huge luck
22:47 Asklepios: definitely
22:47 Asklepios: anything you can suggest re: my gameplan?
22:47 ARTjoMS: well spice merchh is obv way better than caravan
22:47 Asklepios: yeah i forgot it gives buys
22:47 ARTjoMS: and u had no buy all the game
22:47 ARTjoMS: and going green too early
22:48 Asklepios: ?
22:48 Asklepios: Surprised by that I have to sayAn explanation: first up, he vetoed herbalist, then me councilroom. Reason for me was because of Highways presence, and I thought that if we ditched all the +buys I'd take that card out of the equation and make a simpler game. Simpler game = more chance of me keeping up with a better player's strategy.
Of course, I forgot the +buy from spice merchant. That's why I'm not a top tier player: I make mistakes like that quite a lot.
I opened caravan/silver, my good opponent spice merchant/silver. We both went for Haggler early, and both played mildly for crossroads/nobles as a combo, likely with the thinking that any turn buying a province ought to have some haggling going on too.
Soon, I started greening - too early, according to my opponent's postgame analysis, though I felt that as he had +buys and I didn't, it was best to rush for VP as quick as possible, and crossroads would soften the green's impact on the deck.
My best gain, I think was my haggled forge, which accounted for two of my final provinces, and gave me the win. Actually, I'd bought the forge mostly to forge provinces to provinces, and thus up the tempo, but as it turned out I got lucky with a final turn of $8 of coin, and $8 of forgeable stuff.
That game, I admit, my strategy was worse (though by no means uberweak, just worse), and I lucked into a win.
The second game is the one I really want to discuss...
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/02/game-20120502-150457-c16a8d68.htmlThis game I won as well, though again my opponent pointed out that I had "extreme good luck".
I agreed that I was lucky to get ghost ship straight after the reshuffle, though to be fair it also drew my hunting party dead. And after that, I think my strategy was solid. Buy and use hunting parties to get bank + coins, to buy a province at a time. Reject duchies till the endgame. He played a jester based counter, I think with the view of seeding me with curses to slow down hunting parties, and was building for a big buy turn.
But I disagree that I won through "extreme luck". Particularly galling was his response to my comment that
"I think I had a solid strategy, I thought" as
"the difference is you think, I know." As in
"I know Dominion better, so don't question me" And yes, he called me a noob, hence the title of this thread.
To my mind, I took a simple linear approach, and he went for a more compelx one. He went with moneylender to slim his deck, I went with Feast to get to $5 and a ghost ship quickly, then aimed for Hunting Parties to make sure I could keep drawing it.
My dilemma here, of course, is that the rankings reflect that ARTjoMS is a statistically significantly better player than me. Sadly he wasn't inclined to stick around to tell me what was wrong with my strategy the second game, or in what way I was so lucky. Thus I turn to dominionstrategy, and the other 40+ players in particular, to tell me if it was just luck that won my second game. I know I'm only a low 30s player, and I've not been able to ever get above 34, so likely I am missing something that smarter and better players have spotted.
I seek to learn! WW? Anyone?