PrelimsThe format was random assignment to one of the seven sets. Some tables had four players, some had three players (most four players). The winner of each game was to move 3 tables ‘down’. The second place would move 2 tables. The third place a single table. And the fourth place would stay put and play the same set again (getting an “advantage” by being more experienced on the set I suppose. This worked given the experience level of many of the players was low. I think an experience player who had to re-play a set where play order matters a lot and they got unlucky in start position – and it may happen again… As it was it didn’t matter as I don’t think any top players came 4th during prelims).
Shiloh thought that play order didn’t matter. Something I disagreed with strongly. To his credit he said, we could randomize start order in whatever way we wanted with the players at the table (I volunteered to go first if the other players didn’t think it mattered
). Our tables randomly determined starting player and then rotated around in whatever order we happened to be sitting in.
I’ll start with a description of my games and end with some commentary.
First GameMy first game was a three-player game with Table C (Set 1). The full list of cards:
Cellar, Chapel, Feast, Gardens, Lab, Smithy, Village, Thief, Workshop, Witch
This was by far the simplest set of the day. There was no question this was a Workshop/Gardens rush (with Cellar as the third pile). I drew 2nd player, so I was a little worried already. 1st player in a Workshop/Gardens rush should almost win by default. But the first player (Invincible Overlord) didn’t open Workshop so I got more comfortable.
Then I looked at my hand: 5 coppers. Opening 5/2 may be worse than starting second player.
I opened Workshop/Cellar and hoped for the best.
The IO made a functional engine of Villages, Smithy’s and Labs with money (I think the fourth best option on the table – after W/G, Witch, and Smithy+BM). The third player did not seem to have any idea what he was doing. He purchased a Feast and used it to get a Smithy I think at one point. All players ignored Witch (which was too bad – it turns out that if I had opened Witch/Cellar I may have been in better shape as Witch on this board likely beats anything except Workshop/Gardens and no one else went W/G).
I ended up emptying the Workshop pile on my own and then turning to Gardens. I picked up most of the Gardens, but both other players grabbed a few themselves. Then I turned to Estates. IO had picked up enough Provinces that the game was going to be tight. I was keeping track of both cards and points. On my turn I picked up an Estate (leaving two) and getting to 49 cards. Then both players (including the one that was WAY behind) picked up Estates and ended the game. I thought I had lost.
But I counted my cards and it turns out I actually had 50 (this wasn't the last time that I miscounted during the tournament). I got my first win. Barely.
First learning: Even when the strategy is VERY clear and your strategy is perfect and your opponents do not play close to optimally, it’s still possible to lose in Dominion.
Game 2:I advanced 3 tables to Table F (Set 2)
Here are the cards: Adventurer, Council Room, Festival, Market, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Spy, Throne Room
This was by far the worse set of the bunch. In theory there is a cool combo here: Open Militia/Silver. Then pick up Festivals (over Gold) and Council Rooms, one more Militia and Throne Rooms. Basically build a deck that draws itself using Council Rooms and then Militia’s everyone back down to 3 cards.
The other option is to just play Militia-BM.
GoBlue and I tested this set on Saturday morning. The Militia-BM destroys the fun combo (Moat makes a big difference. The BM player can pick up Moat on a $2 turn and, with the draw from CR gets it in his hand often enough that he can get his own mega turn right after the F-CR-M draw). I think a Village addition to this board or the removal of Moat would have made it a lot more interesting.
So I did the simple thing on this board and went BM with Festivals and Militias. I was player three this time.
Player one had no idea what they were doing. Player two was playing ‘OK’. Bough more actions than he should have. Bought money. Bought Council Room, but didn’t commit to it.
I ended up drawing $7 a lot and picked up more Gold than I needed (but I wasn’t ready for Duchies yet). Just before a reshuffle I picked up two Remodels on $4 draws – thinking I could turn one of my many Golds into a Province. No such luck. I ended up drawing them together. At least I remodeled a Remodel into a Duchy and used two silvers and a copper to pick up a second Duchy. But if those Remodels had been Silvers I could have just got a Province and had a much better deck for the next cycle.
I ended up getting second after the 1st player picked up the second last province and the 2ndplayer the last. Losing by 2 points with $10 in hand. Ah well – first player wins on a big money board. No big surprise.
Game 3:The interesting thing with the rotation format is that if you win a game you play people who came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So since I came 2nd, this was my first game against someone who had just won. Everyone thought he was the guy to beat at the table. Apparently he was known in the Detroit gaming community as being good at Dominion (I asked him, but he said he doesn’t play online).
It was also my first four-player game. Here was the set:
Conspirator, Courtyard, Mining Village, Minion, Saboteur, Secret Chamber, Steward, Trading Post, Tribute
This was a more interesting set. In a two player match I think the strategy is Mining Village-Conspirator-Minion. Rush the Minions, then pick up Provinces. When the Minions are running out of steam, start trashing Mining Villages ensuring you pick up a Province every turn (No +buy means you really need that province)
But in a 4-player match things look a lot different. If everyone rushes Minions then they turn out to be not a lot better than Silvers (2-3 Minions will not get you very far). If the other three players are going that route, the best play may be starting with Courtyard-Steward, and then transitioning to Mining Village-Conspirator. I would have to watch the other players carefully.
I started second player, but I was second to the local superstar – the guy I was most worried about.
Then I looked at my hand - $5. 5/2 on this board is as fantastic as it is terrible on the Workshop/Gardens board. I could open Trading Post/Courtyard and then move into either of the two strategies I was considering depending on what everyone else did. And a Trading Post open on its own can often win you a game. I was feeling pretty comfortable.
Until Local Superstar opened Trading Post.
The good news was his $2 selection was Secret Chamber. Which is a nice defense against Minion, but not as good as the flexibility and deck acceleration a Courtyard gives you.
The other two players fell behind very fast.
Trading Post gives you very good odds of hitting $5. And when I drew it with Courtyard I would just push it back a turn, as long as it didn’t cause a reshuffle. I ended up getting a bunch of Minions unopposed (starting by thinking they were as good as Silvers, but then realizing I could just do a 2p Minion strategy since no one else was doing it).
Local Superstar went the Tribute route which only accelerated my deck flow.
The game was relatively close on Provinces when L.S. picked up a Saboteur (as he said: For S&Gs – Shits and Giggles). I think it was a pretty big mistake. He hit my Trading Post later that I converted into an Estate. But it didn’t matter. My Minion Engine in the streamlined deck the Trading Post gave me let me start picking up Provinces (or more Minions) every turn. I won by a good margin. It would have been closer if he hadn’t gone Sab, but the outcome would have been the same.
Game 4:I was hoping to play this set from the beginning: Bank, Contraband, Expand, Goons, Rabble, Royal Seal, Mint, Monument, Watchtower, Worker’s Village
Goons is my best card according to Council Room and this was a Goons paradise – Worker’s Village for the actions (and more buys), Rabble/Watchtower for the draw, play multiple Goons, then buy a TON of copper (from the Goons and WV +buys) and trash with the Watchtower. Boom.
Even though the strategy here should be as obvious as the Workshop/Gardens the execution is a lot more nuanced, and I knew I was good at this particular nuance.
It was a three player match, but I was pretty confident that Worker’s Villages would become the limiting factor later in the game. It’s dangerous to get too many too early, but if you don’t get them early they may not be there. I over invested in them (I think I ended up with 6-7 of them) which put me behind at the start of the game. The other two players went heavily into Rabbles – which hurt a surprising amount in multiplayer. Since Rabbles stack getting hit by two at the start of the game almost ensures your next hand with have a couple of Estates. The must be devastating in the end game after you’ve greened even a little (which wasn’t a problem on this board).
I took a risk about midgame and bought a mint – trashing 5 copper and a silver. It took me VERY low in cash (I think I had $4 in treasure left), but dramatically increased the odds I hit a mega turn, which I desperately needed. Turns after that usually looked like this:
WV-WV-Watchtower (draw 4 cards – since I had almost always been hit by a Goon)-WV-WV-Rabble-WV-Rabble-WV-WV-Goons
Buy a bunch of copper and trash with Watchtower.
I managed one mega turn with two Goons which caught me up, but not ahead as the player who went first (I went third) had picked up a bunch of green.
At this point we were very low on piles. Player one (who was leading) picked up a Goons leaving one behind. Player 3 then had a choice- pick up the last Goons and then game ends with him in third. Or buy some Green and get into second place. Then I (presumably) buy the Goons and end the game ahead.
Since placement in the tournament didn’t matter he hesitated, “Wow. I guess this makes me kingmaker.”
He chose not to buy the Goons. I thanked him and had another big turn (only one Goons played though, bur lots of WV) and ended it. More on kingmaking later.
Game 5:At this point I was 3-1. It was pretty clear that I was going to the semi-finals. It looked like you were only going to need 2 wins to make it, so I had room to spare. That and I was playing in a 3-player game with two people who had yet to win a game all day. I decided to play around a little with a somewhat interesting set:
Baron, Bridge, Duke, Great Hall, Ironworks, Masquerade, Nobles, Pawn, Torturer, Upgrade
I figured the right way to play with was Masquerade/Ironworks, and then use IW to pick up Great Halls, Masq to trash Estates/Coppers and otherwise just go big money.
But I thought there might be something fun with using Ironworks to pick up a ton of $4 cards and use Upgrade to convert them all into Duchies and Dukes.
I opened 5/2 (which happened way more than it should have over the course of the day – twice to my advantage, but otherwise terrible). I picked up an Upgrade and gave my alternative strategy a go.
It didn’t work at all. After the Great Halls and Ironworks were gone I had killed my economy and my Upgrades couldn’t connect with my Ironworks. I started picking up Bridges to just end it on piles (I was ahead).
On what I thought could be my last turn I was ready to end it, but I would have left 1 bridge. And if the player to my left picked up a Province and the third player picked up the last bridge I would lose. I left what I thought were 2 bridges so I could end it next turn.
No province purchase.
Somehow I had messed up and left three bridges. I drew two more Ironworks and was left with the same dilemma as the turn before. I picked up one bridge.
No province purchase.
This time I drew a single Ironworks and couldn’t end it again. I kept picking up Estates so I wouldn’t fall too far behind. I didn’t know what was going on with the Masquerade trades between the other two players, but I still thought I was ahead (which shows just how far I was ahead with three dead turns in a row)
No province purchase, but this time the third player picked up the last Nobles and ended it there.
Scores were tallied and I tied the third player (not the second one that was ahead when I started this freeze-up). We had the same number of turns though, so we both got a win.
I qualified for finals with a 4-1 record (the one loss the second place finish on the big-money board)
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Topic: Tournament Write-up: Detroit Metro Gamers, June 22nd, 2012 (Read 11287 times)