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[JustANewPlayer]

I recently taught someone how to play Dominion at my school's gaming club, using Intrigue only, and after getting the base cards out, told them to pick any 10 piles. The board ended up being:

Courtyard
Great Hall
Shanty Town
Bridge
Wishing Well
Steward
Coppersmith
Scout
Swindler
Conspirator

Since my opponent was new to the game, I purposely avoided playing Big Money, and instead played a Shanty Town/Courtyard/Bridge engine, and won 26-19 after 3-piling those cards, though I'm sure Big Money would have been stronger. I'm curious, though, is there any strategy that could beat Big Money?

[Jack Rudd]

I recently taught someone how to play Dominion at my school's gaming club, using Intrigue only, and after getting the base cards out, told them to pick any 10 piles. The board ended up being:

Courtyard
Great Hall
Shanty Town
Bridge
Wishing Well
Steward
Coppersmith
Scout
Swindler
Conspirator

Since my opponent was new to the game, I purposely avoided playing Big Money, and instead played a Shanty Town/Courtyard/Bridge engine, and won 26-19 after 3-piling those cards, though I'm sure Big Money would have been stronger. I'm curious, though, is there any strategy that could beat Big Money?

Definitely. One of the obvious ones is a Conspirator engine; you've got Great Hall, Wishing Well and Shanty Town, any of which can set up Conspirator nicely.

(Also, Big Money will get killed on this board by just about any strategy involving Swindler. You can't effectively run Big Money when your Coppers get turned into Curses and your Silvers get turned into Shanty Towns/Great Halls/Wishing Wells.)

[Brando Commando]

I purposely avoided playing Big Money, and instead played a Shanty Town/Courtyard/Bridge engine, and won 26-19 after 3-piling those cards, though I'm sure Big Money would have been stronger.

This sounds like a weird situation to three-pile on. Why didn't you exhaust the Provinces?

That aside, I figured at least one player would use Swindler to give out some curses early game. Another strategy (not totally separate) might be to use Steward to trash coppers/curses/estates down, maybe picking up a shanty town for +actions and bridge for +buy, and then focus on conspirators, maybe supported by wishing-wells and/or shanty towns. Finally, that might lead to more bridges.

Then again, I'm a level 28...anybody better want to weigh in? I'd be interested to see what you think.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jack Rudd.

[JustANewPlayer]

I recently taught someone how to play Dominion at my school's gaming club, using Intrigue only, and after getting the base cards out, told them to pick any 10 piles. The board ended up being:

Courtyard
Great Hall
Shanty Town
Bridge
Wishing Well
Steward
Coppersmith
Scout
Swindler
Conspirator

Since my opponent was new to the game, I purposely avoided playing Big Money, and instead played a Shanty Town/Courtyard/Bridge engine, and won 26-19 after 3-piling those cards, though I'm sure Big Money would have been stronger. I'm curious, though, is there any strategy that could beat Big Money?

Definitely. One of the obvious ones is a Conspirator engine; you've got Great Hall, Wishing Well and Shanty Town, any of which can set up Conspirator nicely.

(Also, Big Money will get killed on this board by just about any strategy involving Swindler. You can't effectively run Big Money when your Coppers get turned into Curses and your Silvers get turned into Shanty Towns/Great Halls/Wishing Wells.)

I did buy a few Conspirators, but I guess I didn't quite realize their full potential.

I purposely avoided playing Big Money, and instead played a Shanty Town/Courtyard/Bridge engine, and won 26-19 after 3-piling those cards, though I'm sure Big Money would have been stronger.

This sounds like a weird situation to three-pile on. Why didn't you exhaust the Provinces?

That aside, I figured at least one player would use Swindler to give out some curses early game. Another strategy (not totally separate) might be to use Steward to trash coppers/curses/estates down, maybe picking up a shanty town for +actions and bridge for +buy, and then focus on conspirators, maybe supported by wishing-wells and/or shanty towns. Finally, that might lead to more bridges.

Then again, I'm a level 28...anybody better want to weigh in? I'd be interested to see what you think.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jack Rudd.

I 3-piled the game because my opponent was also buying some of those cards, and knew that I was in the lead. My opponent tried the typical new-player "buy everything" mentality, but neglected to buy Swindler, and I didn't because I forgot how it interacted with Coppers. In hindsight, though, it probably would be very strong here.

[Captain_Frisk]

I'd probably go with double swindler madness - and go where the game takes you.

[werothegreat]

Hmm.  I would probably open Swindler/Steward, get all the Great Halls when I hit $3, picking up a couple Shanty Towns, and Conspirators and a couple Bridges, maybe a Scout.  Then just attack the Provinces.

[DG]

The swindler is the key card here. There's no point tailoring a fine deck with courtyards and conspirators only to find they've been turned into estates and coppersmiths. The coppersmith won't work either once the coppers have been turned to curses. The best cards in the kingdom will be gold and swindlers.

[werothegreat]

The swindler is the key card here. There's no point tailoring a fine deck with courtyards and conspirators only to find they've been turned into estates and coppersmiths. The coppersmith won't work either once the coppers have been turned to curses. The best cards in the kingdom will be gold and swindlers.

Swindler doesn't work quite that fast.

[Stealth Tomato]

Hmm.  I would probably open Swindler/Steward, get all the Great Halls when I hit $3, picking up a couple Shanty Towns, and Conspirators and a couple Bridges, maybe a Scout.  Then just attack the Provinces.

Why take bunches of Great Halls? I suppose they set up Conspirator, but then you have a Conspirator deck with no villages, 2 terminals, no drawing above 5, and no +buys. Also, Wishing Well is better.

If you think Swindler is dominant, probably go BM+Swindler. Else set up a trashing strategy, ignore Swindler at first, and build a Conspirator engine with Bridges. Wishing Well might put the latter over the top, but the former is tough to beat, and the latter will end up with some Coppersmiths, has limited draw power and limited actions, and is severely damaged by losing Bridges.

[DsnowMan]

Solid strategy: Swindler + BM

Fun strategy: Steward (+ Swindler?) into Shanty Towns, Wishing Wells, Great Halls, Conspirators and Bridges.

[Davio]

Would be fun to play 8 Bridges and Swindle a Province into a Curse.

It'll probably work once in every 20 games, but it'll be so worth it.

[HiveMindEmulator]

Would be fun to play 8 Bridges and Swindle a Province into a Curse.

It'll probably work once in every 20 games, but it'll be so worth it.

I'd be surprised if it even worked that often.

[shMerker]

Just the presence of swindler makes it hard to get 8 of anything, much less 8 terminals and the other pieces needed to play them on a single turn.

Highway is way better for that kind of shenanigan anyway.

And also you've just played 8 bridges, why are you not just ending the game now?

[HiveMindEmulator]

And also you've just played 8 bridges, why are you not just ending the game now?

Because your opponent already has more than half the available points?

[Stealth Tomato]

And also you've just played 8 bridges, why are you not just ending the game now?

Because your opponent already has more than half the available points?

"Why did you even buy 8 Bridges?"
"I was bored. Shut up."

[Powerman]

Hmm.  I would probably open Swindler/Steward, get all the Great Halls when I hit $3, picking up a couple Shanty Towns, and Conspirators and a couple Bridges, maybe a Scout.  Then just attack the Provinces.

Scout is obv. strong here. 

[Davio]

And also you've just played 8 bridges, why are you not just ending the game now?

Because your opponent already has more than half the available points?

Because you're trying to convince the others that this is a great game so you keep on buying regular kingdom cards and aim to never buy a Province and win solely on Duchies and Estates.