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[CarenNH]

On the Simulate Dominion website, the article on Chapel strategies includes the following:

Variant: Chapelab 1
This is my best chapelab strategy and is using Matt’s trashing rules.

Buy rules:
- CHAPEL: money <5, max 1 chapel
- PROVINCE: always
- DUCHY: provinces left <= 2 [d]
- ESTATE: provinces left <= 1 [e]
- GOLD: always
- LABORATORY: max 4
- SILVER:always
Play rules:
- LABORATORY: always
- CHAPEL: play if it would trash at least one card. Evaluate each card in hand:
  - ESTATE: provinces left <= 4 [f]
  - COPPER: always unless total money would go below 6

I'm confused about the symbols in these rules.  I'm reading <= as "less than or equal to" and >= as "greater than or equal to".  But I have the feeling that's not right, because then some of these rules don't make sense. 

Can someone help clarify this for me please?  Also, what do the [d], [e], and [f] mean?  Thanks!

[Kelume]

That is correct. Which rule in particular does not make sense given your interpretation?

The [d], [e] and [f] symbols represent experimental variables which can be fiddled with, and have been optimized to make the bot as efficient as possible - see http://simulatedominion.wordpress.com/strategies/rule-based/ for more information.

[eHalcyon]

You're reading them right.  Why doesn't it make sense to you?

Buy Duchy if there are 2 or fewer Provinces remaining.
Buy Estate if there is only 1 Province left.

Trash Estate with Chapel if there are 4 or fewer Provinces remaining.... OK, this one is weird.

[CarenNH]

You're reading them right.  Why doesn't it make sense to you?

Buy Duchy if there are 2 or fewer Provinces remaining.
Buy Estate if there is only 1 Province left.

Trash Estate with Chapel if there are 4 or fewer Provinces remaining.... OK, this one is weird.

Wow you guys are quick!

I get the Duchy part.  I don't get why estate says <= when there can't be a <1 province (or is that possible in expansions?  I only have the base set so far).

It's that last one that I thought was weird too.  Wouldn't you want to trash your estates in the early game to clear out your deck (i.e. >= 4 provinces remaining) rather than later?

[Kelume]

It's because the 1 is a variable (so you could tweak it to be 0, 1, 2, ...) and you don't want to change the rule depending on what you end up assigning there.

As for the last bit, I think that should say "unless" before the rule... must be a typo.

[eHalcyon]

You're reading them right.  Why doesn't it make sense to you?

Buy Duchy if there are 2 or fewer Provinces remaining.
Buy Estate if there is only 1 Province left.

Trash Estate with Chapel if there are 4 or fewer Provinces remaining.... OK, this one is weird.

Wow you guys are quick!

I get the Duchy part.  I don't get why estate says <= when there can't be a <1 province (or is that possible in expansions?  I only have the base set so far).

It's that last one that I thought was weird too.  Wouldn't you want to trash your estates in the early game to clear out your deck (i.e. >= 4 provinces remaining) rather than later?

I'm going to guess that the chapel line is a mistake.

As for the first part: Suppose you have 9 buys and a whole lot of money.  Duchies are already gone.  You buy the last Province and still have $16 left.  If the rule was "buy Estate when Province == 1" then you would not buy anything with your $16, because Provinces == 0.

[CarenNH]

Ahhh!  I get it, provinces could be at zero because you just bought the last one and still have money and buys to burn.  So you want to max our your VPs since you're the one ending the game.  That is very clear. 

Should I assume my thought of trashing estates earlier rather than later is correct?

[eHalcyon]

Ahhh!  I get it, provinces could be at zero because you just bought the last one and still have money and buys to burn.  So you want to max our your VPs since you're the one ending the game.  That is very clear. 

Should I assume my thought of trashing estates earlier rather than later is correct?

Yes.

[zahlman]

Okay, jumping in here, this part doesn't make sense to me:

CHAPEL: money <5

... but you start the game with 7 coppers, do those not count or something?

[DStu]

"money" is probably "avaible money this turn". When starting 5/2, you want to start Lab/Chapel and not Chapel/nothing.

You could also move this rule below Lab, would have the same result in this case.

[qmech]

That line must mean money in hand, and the <5 is to stop you opening Chapel/nothing on 5/2.

I'd imagine the Estate trashing rules mean what they obviously must mean in whatever simulator this has been used with, because the strategy doesn't look like it's in a machine-readable form at the moment.