Dominion > Puzzles and Challenges

Can you beat the Lucky Chancellor ?

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gamesou:
Hello everybody,

Here is a puzzle that I hope challenging and fun (I also hope my solution is correct ...)

You play a 2-player Dominion game against an opponent that chooses to go for a Chancellor Big Money strategy. He opens Chancellor/Silver and then buys Province if he can, otherwise Gold, otherwise Silver, otherwise nothing. He always uses the Chancellor ability.

If he is very very very very lucky (or an illusionist), this strategy is powerful. However it's not unbeatable !!!!

The puzzle is to find a Kingdom set (including Chancellor) and a strategy that always wins. No matter how lucky is your opponent, and how unlucky you are, you win.

Ah, something important: you start.

Enjoy !

--
Guillaume

WanderingWinder:
I'm pretty sure that with perfect luck for him and against you, it's impossible. I mean, he's going to open chancellor/silver, buy a gold on turn 3, and then buy a province every turn from then on. The best you can do is delay him one single turn by somehow reducing his handsize. You can also pump him full of all 10 curses, but a) you need to be quite lucky to do that this fast, and b) it doesn't really matter, as he's miles ahead of you. I mean, at worst he'll have every province at the end of turn 11. Beating that is just not happening, at least with worst-case luck.

gamesou:
I agree that it LOOKS impossible. Indeed he will buy the last province on turn 11 (or 12 if you reduced his hand once). So you have to stop him before.

play2draw:
Well, Chancellor/BM, with the best of luck, will end as such:

1: Chancellor
2: Silver
3: Gold
4: Province (Ch/S/G/C/C)
5: Province
...
11: Province

Curses will do nothing except lower the VP count (as with perfect luck, they will never be drawn in hand), and handsize-reduction will only delay one or two turns, taking extra time to buy either gold or silver depending on when you use, say, militia.

Can you get Goons/King'sCourt/Masquerade set up before turn 11? ;D

Now that I think about it, if you can get your deck down to just WorkersVillage/WorkersVillage/Monument/Militia/Masquerade/Curse, the most he'll ever be able to buy are Dutchies (assuming he never gives you the Chancellor). Just keep playing the Monuments and buy a curse every turn until you have enough VP to overtake 8 provinces.

Probably you can open Ironworks/Chapel, Chapel all coins/cash, and use the Ironworks to get the necessary cards, and "Island" away the Chapel at the end... but can this be done quickly enough?

HockeyHippo:
EDIT:

Just re-read the OP

--- Quote ---No matter how lucky is your opponent, and how unlucky you are, you win.

--- End quote ---

Well that rules out my solution because I used perfect shuffling. Sigh

I believe you can get it set up, with perfect shuffling. Check my solution though please.

Turn 1: C/C/C/C/E -> Buy Quarry       
Turn 2: C/C/C/E/E -> Buy Chapel   Deck: (7xCopper, 3 Estates, 1Q, 1Ch)
Reshuffle
Turn 3: C/C/C/C/Q -> Buy KC
Turn 4: E/E/E/C/Ch -> Chapel 3xEstate, 1xCopper     Deck:(2xC) Discard:(KC/Chapel/Q/4xCopper)
Turn5: C/C/(reshuffle)C/Ch/KC -> Chapel 3x Copper      Deck: (C/C/C/Q) Discard:(KC/Chapel)
Turn 6: C/C/C/Q/(reshuffle)Ch -> Buy Goons  Deck: (KC) Discard: (C/C/C/Q/Ch/Goons)
Turn 7: KC(reshuffle)/Goons/Q/Copper/Copper: KC-Goons +3 from Q +2C = 9$ Buy KC + Masq Deck: (Chapel/Copper) Discard: (KC/Goons/Q/2xC/KC/Masq)
Turn 8: Chapel/Copper/KC/KC/Masq: KC->KC->Masqx3(picking up deck)->Goonsx3 Give Chapel/Copper/Copper Trash incoming cards and Buy Monument
Deck:() Discard: (KC/KC/Goons/Monument/Masq/C/Q)
Turn 9: KC/KC/Goons/Monument/Masq Picking up and passing C/Q Trash incoming cards
Turn 10: Implement KC/KC/Goons/Monument/Masq strategy and trash opponent's deck. Once they have nothing left buy remaining provinces to win the game.

I think that works, but I definitely need to check it over. 1 pair of eyes is not enough!

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