I played 8 dark ages games last night. We played the da only reco sets, as well as the reco sets combined with prosperity and cornocopia. we also played a game with ten of the fifteen that aren't in the reco davonly sets, and one with the five remaining cards and five random cards.
The first game was 2p, the others were all 4p.
Some thoughts:
1- first of all - very fun! Lots of card combos here Everywhere.
2- Ruins hurt. A lot. Marauder is as good or maybe better than Sea Hag (I think better). Hunting Party in particular gets demolished. Sage was much better at getting through stuff (but didn't supply the draw)
3- cultist chains are hard to set up, but it doesn't matter much. It may not be as bad as witch, but it's still pretty bad
4- fairgrounds is a killer card in DAs. In the reco game we figured fg could be worth 14 points (10 cards+7 base+mad man+3 shelters+5 ruins+9 other knights = 35. Getting to that level is basically impossible. Getting them to 6-8 though is pretty easy.
5- piles run out a lot in 4p...
6- best combo of the night: alter + rebuild. Alter turns anything into rebuild or duchy. Rebuilds turn your duchies and estate into provinces. Or they drive down the province pile. That game was over super fast.
7- rats ate a ton of fun, but man I did not play them well the first time...
8- feodom is a good card. Granted we played with hermit, squire, and bureaucrat, but it was pretty great. Since your support is silver, your deck is really resistant to the early greening. I think the pattern is (1) get cards that give silver, (2) buy feodoms while playing the cards that give silver, (3) after feodom is empty use all those silvers to buy duchies and provinces (and more silver). As fun as any of the alt vp cards.
9- procession is now my latest favorite card. So much fun- especially with this set. It's a bit like develop in that you need cards at the right price point, but it let's you have big turns and then upgrade your engine parts into better parts. Turns like:
Procession -> procession -> cultist (draw 7 cards, gain a hunting grounds), (cultist, draw two more) / procession -> squire (+2 actions/+2 buys/+2$, gain cultist, watchtower) / hunting grounds (draw 8 cards, gain duchy). Trash two processions, gain two cultists. Play some more cards, buy more processions and a ton more stuff.
10- squire is a great card. Second favorite 2-card combo: squire/peddler (it was mixed with procession but just those two are awesome). Necropolis, squire (+2 actions), squire x2 (+4 buys), pick up 5 peddlers. Also a good combo: squire, quarry. Basically +2 buys in some situations is obsene...
That's it for now.
Ed
Author
Topic: Dark Ages reco sets findings (Read 2018 times)