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[gman314]

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201208/28/game-20120828-093244-c1458c9f.html

The card that jumped out to me on this board was Hunting Party so I immediately started looking for terminal silvers. The available choices were Steward, Bridge, Venture (not an action, but still works!) and Coppersmith (Not guaranteed +$2 and outclassed by Bridge). Thinking that I might not actually play the HP strategy, I decided to go for Steward since it could fit into an HP stack or into a KC game. (Although, I very often ignore KC on Province boards). While trashing isn't hugely beneficial for the HP stack, if you can quickly eliminate the estates (which I didn't) you can speed it up significantly by having one less name in your deck. So, I opened Steward/Silver and started trashing a bit. Being stuck with $2 after trashing turns, I opted to buy Havens, rationalizing that they could set aside excess HPs and money. Or, if I set aside an Estate, it could find a Steward and if I set aside a Province, that could be an extra name in my hand so that HPs find good stuff.

With my deck hitting $8 with only one HP I thought "well, may as well buy a province" and it seems to have worked! Getting 3 in a row was definitely awesome. And then having 4 after 11 turns pretty much sealed the win.

But, my opponent wasn't exactly playing well. (See what he draws after turn 8 and compare with what he plays on turn 9). So, I'm wondering, was my strategy actually good or not? Should I have waited for Provinces? Would it have been a better strategy to go for KC-KC-B-B-B with support from Steward's trashing and Lab's drawing? (EDIT: And Havens)

[DG]

A point of interest here is that hunting parties alone will not draw the duplicate cards needed for a big king's court/bridge hand. I suspect you can still just start with bridge/silver and buy hunting parties until the first king's court. The first play of king's court with bridge will buy the extra laboratories, king's courts, and bridges to set up the big turn. You may even be able to prepare it exactly by buying an inn (last).

I suspect a steward based approach will mean the bridge will clash if bought early, or too late if bought late, with nothing in between.

[gman314]

A point of interest here is that hunting parties alone will not draw the duplicate cards needed for a big king's court/bridge hand.

Yeah, if I were to go that way, I would buy Labs over Hunting Parties.

[carstimon]

A point of interest here is that hunting parties alone will not draw the duplicate cards needed for a big king's court/bridge hand.

Nah, I think it works out just as well, if not better, than lab.  If you draw KC KC HP x x after buying sufficient bridge and KC then you'll get there.  A KC'd HP will probably get you another KC, bridge, and hunting party.  Just play KC on
1) KC, first priority
2) Bridge, if you will still have 2 KC-zaps left in the chain (so you can hit hunting party, then whatever hunting party draws)
3) Hunting party

I'm almost certain I've used this, and I'm absolutely certain that it's been used against me but in a colony game.

[ehunt]

I would open steward silver here (or maybe even steward steward) and trash aggressively. The race to kc kc bridge bridge bridge should dominate. You need seven provinces to beat the megaturn (assuming enough +buy to pick up a couple estates) and even hunting  party is not fast enough.

[hdu88]

One thing to keep in mind: King's Courting a Haven causes the King's Court to stay in play until the end of next turn, so avoid this if possible.

Also, Hunting Party has some difficulty finding the second King's Court, so Lab might work better. Edit: Seems like Hunting Party is better overall though, due to being able to find the first KC.

After some testing, Ironworks seems really good at overkill (as in you can start your turn with a single Ironworks in your deck and empty 5-6 piles by the end of your turn), but I'm not sure if it speeds up your game, either bought at the beginning or later in the game. It seems to take ~12-13 turns either way.