The board: Great Hall, Island, Monument, Smithy, Counting House, Mountebank, Wharf, Adventurer, Expand, King's Court, +Colony and Platinum
Overall, nothing too exciting - King's Court could be good, but the only +actions is Great Hall, so it'd rely on itself mostly to chain, which is risky. Especially when there's Mountebank there to mess things up. Wharf gives extra buys, Monument could be useful for extra points and getting to $5 early for Mountebanks.
This game was against my housemate (who will almost certainly complain about me posting this game, just for fun
), so we're in different rooms but can shout at each other quite easily. Neither of us are that great (I was peaking at about 25-28 on Iso, but have been a bit out of practice since, he's probably about 25 nowadays, likely slightly better than me, but has a tendency to do... interesting things)
I open, and see my 3 coppers, and start thinking about my strategy, which I've summarised above. But then Joe opens, and gets a 5/2, going for Mountebank. Can I win against that? There's something in the kingdom that makes me think I can.
"Challenge accepted!" I shout out of the room.
Four turns later, and I haven't hit $5. Challenge failed, I think. I need to hit $5 to get my strategy running. I start taking the curses from Mountebank, and he grabs another. This... could go wrong. But I hit $5, and grab a Wharf - the extra buy and cards will be valuable, especially if I get a little luck. I hit $5 a few turns later, and this time... it's Counting House time!
Twenty turns later, and I take the last Province with $11, to edge out a 2 point win. I walk (okay, run) out of my room, barge into Joe's room. "Challenge complete!" followed by laughter at his inability to win the game.
http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20121022/log.505c7f4ca2e6c78ad2ed5ba1.1350942467002.txtSo some comments on the game: Neither of us player perfectly. I think I should have taken Monument over Counting House, and probably should have taken a Mountebank of my own. And I question that Wharf buy still. Joe expanded his Mountebanks probably a little early - giving my a copper is good for me, but the curses still make them more painful. And not taking Wharves after that, I'm still not sure why.
But still, winning against a first turn 5/2 Mountebank without hitting $5 turns 3-4 with Smithy/Silver is a pretty steep slope to climb. So I'm pretty happy about this game, overall.
