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[jsh357]

I played a game last Saturday with my friends in person (4 player).  Board had Cultist and Transmute without anything to really counter the Cultist... other than the Transmute.  Now, I've heard people suggest Transmute is great with Ruins before, but seeing is believing.  Three of us went for Cultist while the fourth opened Potion/something.  We ended up clogged up with Ruins while he was able to quickly nab a Duchy lead.  By the time we had all caught on to the idea and started doing the same, he had already won, piling out Duchy, Estate and Fishing Village.  (On that note, Cultist is a great Transmute target in the same situation... gain a Duchy, draw 3 cards)

I love that previously 'useless' cards are starting to see some great combos in Dark Ages. 

[eHalcyon]

It might be less that Transmute was a good counter to Ruins and more that the Transmute player went for the alternate strategy.  That is, with three people handing out Ruins, the fourth player wouldn't have made a real impact by going for Cultist.  Put another way -- there are 30 Ruins to hand out.  If he had gone for Cultist, maybe the would have split Ruins 7/7/8/8.  Instead, he skips Cultist and they split 6/7/7/10.  By skipping Cultist he gets more Ruins, but everyone else is slowed down too and he has an advantage in that he can clear Ruins and pick up Duchies quickly.

I wonder what would happen if only one player went for Cultist and the rest went for Transmute.  Maybe Duchies would pile out quickly but the lone Cultist player would have a slick enough deck to go for Provinces uncontested (since the others are clogged with Ruins and Duchies).

It's an interesting interaction though.  Maybe you'd want both Transmute and Cultists, in which case the question is what order to pursue the cards...

[clb]

I think that this is a great example of an assertion that someone else made (sorry - don't remember who, when, where) that in 3- and 4-player games, choosing a divergent strategy can be very strong. Everyone going Cultist and Transmute does not give a distinct advantage, but one player choosing a strategy that can compete and handle the others' strategy allows him to walk away with the game.
On a side note, with three people going for Cultists, I would have expected Ruins to be a candidate for one of the depleted piles. Perhaps each player only having 2 or 3 Cultists means that they wouldn't see as much use and hence not deplete Ruins.

[Davio]

This is why I love 3- or 4-player Dominion in real life, there's so much more strategy space! 

[eHalcyon]

I think that this is a great example of an assertion that someone else made (sorry - don't remember who, when, where) that in 3- and 4-player games, choosing a divergent strategy can be very strong. Everyone going Cultist and Transmute does not give a distinct advantage, but one player choosing a strategy that can compete and handle the others' strategy allows him to walk away with the game.
On a side note, with three people going for Cultists, I would have expected Ruins to be a candidate for one of the depleted piles. Perhaps each player only having 2 or 3 Cultists means that they wouldn't see as much use and hence not deplete Ruins.

I think it was an article by Stef.

[jsh357]

I think that this is a great example of an assertion that someone else made (sorry - don't remember who, when, where) that in 3- and 4-player games, choosing a divergent strategy can be very strong. Everyone going Cultist and Transmute does not give a distinct advantage, but one player choosing a strategy that can compete and handle the others' strategy allows him to walk away with the game.
On a side note, with three people going for Cultists, I would have expected Ruins to be a candidate for one of the depleted piles. Perhaps each player only having 2 or 3 Cultists means that they wouldn't see as much use and hence not deplete Ruins.

The Ruins didn't get near emptying.  I stopped playing my Cultist later on to Transmute it, not sure about the other players.  At that point feeding others Actions wasn't helping anything.