Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[AJD]

Here's a game I won in a different way than I expected:

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/09/game-20120809-122232-d5d224e3.html

Duke, Embassy, Hoard, Lookout, Merchant Ship, Minion, Mint, Monument, Thief, and Warehouse

My opponent went Lookout/Minion. I decided to go Hoard/Duke: buy Hoard on $6 if no Hoard in hand, and Duchies with Hoard in hand up to about 5 of them, at which point I'd start picking up Dukes as well. I ignored Minion altogether.

I never got to the Dukes. Enough Gold was coming in from my Hoard-aided Duchy purchases that even after being attacked by Minion I could hit $8 with some regularity and I figured, hey, why not run out the provinces while I'm in the lead? So the game ended when I had five Duchies and three Provinces; I never actually got around to buying Dukes in my Duke-centric strategy.

[Kahryl]

I've had this happen a lot. Hoard is the worst offender at doing this for me too. I come up with a Duchy/Duke purchase strategy, hit $8 early and think "meh, might as well not waste it", and grab the Province. Then it happens again, and again and by turn 12 I have 3 Provinces and 3 Duchies. I tend to win these games as least as often as I lose them though.

Advanced players have told me that "if you're going to go for Duke, really commit to it. Don't buy Provinces because you're only helping the other player run out the pile". But is it really so bad to give circumstance some leeway? It's not like the duchies you start out grabbing become useless if you swap to provinces.

[^_^_^_^]

The thing is, it really is pretty circumstantial in my opinion and takes a lot of experience to tell which really is the best option. I'll stop there

[kn1tt3r]

I think if your really intended to dedicate to Duchy/Duke, you should have bought Duchies on turn 9 and 10, where you got Merchant Ship and Hoard instead (with already 2 Hoards and several Golds in your deck).

You've won, and you probably would have won either way, but I think the outcome was closer than it needed to be.

[paulbaxter]

Were you to buy just 4 dukes, each duchy would be worth 7 VPs. Unless you think your opponent is going to race you on the remaining dukes and duchies, you would likely do better to stick with those. Purchasing a duchy with $8 is not wasting money when your duchy is worth more than a province.

[^_^_^_^]

Plus, if he tries to compete for them without a deck designed for D&D his deck gets clogged and slows to a halt, during which you can spend buying everything, 3piling, basically making your deck better, stronger, winner, won.