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[zahlman]

Two players conspire to end the game as quickly as possible. How quickly is that?

- Assume perfect shuffle luck
- You may choose the kingdom
- The players cannot resign; they must end the game either on provinces/colonies or piles; but they don't care who wins.
- The players can cooperate, telling each other what they have in hand if necessary, being nice with Ambassador/Masquerade, etc.
- For the purposes of this challenge, a solution ending on P1's turn is better than one ending on P2's turn for the same turn number.

[Graystripe77]

so basically, the 5-turn 5 colony deck for both players.

[zahlman]

I haven't seen that? That doesn't sound like it can be improved upon, so I guess I didn't really ask anything interesting.

[qmech]

The puzzle that started it all.  It's definitely worth thinking about if you haven't seen it before.

[Chuckleslovakian]

Do Outpost turns count? I think I can do it with an outpost on turn 4 for 2nd player. Probably don't need the outpost though. Obviously you can't end the game on prov/colony before turn 5, but I think on piles might be possible.

[eHalcyon]

Do Outpost turns count? I think I can do it with an outpost on turn 4 for 2nd player. Probably don't need the outpost though. Obviously you can't end the game on prov/colony before turn 5, but I think on piles might be possible.

Are you sure?  The linked puzzle gets 8 Colonies on turn 5 for a single player.  That should be optimizable for 4 Colonies in fewer turns, which both players in this puzzle perform.

[zahlman]

Do Outpost turns count? I think I can do it with an outpost on turn 4 for 2nd player. Probably don't need the outpost though. Obviously you can't end the game on prov/colony before turn 5, but I think on piles might be possible.

Are you sure?  The linked puzzle gets 8 Colonies on turn 5 for a single player.  That should be optimizable for 4 Colonies in fewer turns, which both players in this puzzle perform.

I don't really see how, given the nature of how you get the Colonies. That said, my puzzle as posted only requires Provinces.

I wonder if asymmetry might also help. I.e. one player using Ambassador or Masquerade to feed engine components to the other.

If anyone's interested, I originally got a 3-pile ending on P1's turn 6, by a completely different route. Though I'm guessing KC can improve that one too.

[Chuckleslovakian]

Yeah my solution still had some holes. You can either have player 1 ambassador a kings court, and have player 2 buy piles, or somehow split a lot of low buys equally. Was thinking a KC/Ironworks/Watchtower chain might do it, with some bridges or highways to help. I think the former is the way to go, but still trying to work on it.

Yeah a shockingly big difference between 4 turns and 5 turns with a perfect shuffle puzzle. Here is what it took to get 2 colonies in 4 turns

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=3225.msg65634#msg65634

[Chuckleslovakian]

Finally figured out how to do it on 2nd players 4th turn after trying for the convoluted, it actually ended up being relatively simple

Stealing from most VPs in 4 turns opening. Both players follow the same first 4 turns.

Turn 1: Draw 4 Coppers and Estate. Play 4 Coppers and buy Nomad Camp, putting it on top of deck.
Turn 2: Draw Nomad Camp, 3 Coppers and Estate. Play Nomad Camp and 3 Coppers, and buy Watchtower and Hamlet.
Turn 3: Draw Estate, (reshuffle), Copper, Hamlet, Nomad Camp and Watchtower. Play Hamlet, drawing Copper and discarding Estate and Copper for +1 Action and +1 Buy. Play Nomad Camp then Watchtower, drawing 5 Coppers. Play 6 Copper, buying 2 Hamlets and a Talisman
Turn 4: Draw Estate, Estate, (reshuffle), Estate, Hamlet, Copper. Play Hamlet, drawing Hamlet and discarding Estate and Copper for +1 Action and +1 Buy. Play Hamlet, drawing Hamlet and discarding Estate for +1 buy. Play Hamlet, drawing Watchtower and discarding Estate for +1 buy. Play Watchtower, drawing Nomad Camp, Talisman and 4 coppers. Play Nomad Camp.

With 5 buys, player 1 buys 1 Hamlet, 1 Watchtower, and 3 Curses, gaining 1 Hamlet, 1 Watchtower, and 3 Curses from the Talisman
Player 2 buys 2 Watchtowers, and 2 Curses, gaining 2 Watchtowers, and 2 Curses from the Talisman

Curses, Hamlets, and Watchtowers emptied