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[Corpsified]

Hi there. Just discovered isotropic last week and already almost 100 games in lol. Very addictive. Anyway I consider myself pretty newbish, but I occasionally have flashes of knowing what I'm doing. Earlier today was one such flash. I saw the board for this game and thought I had one of those moments of clarity.

I decided I really didn't want to deal with pirates since he got first buy. I looked and decided that black market plus bazaar plus pearl divers might get me enough actions/+$ to buy enough of the provinces to win before he could shift gears.

Obviously, I failed, but I still think the idea was sound. Is anyone willing to take a look and tell me:

1. Was it a stupid idea to try to go money-less on this board?
2. If it WASNT a stupid idea, where did I go wrong?
3. Was there a black market card I should have bought that I skipped?

It was agonizingly close, maybe it was just luck of the draw?

Anyway, glad to join this thoughtful and interesting community, see you all on Iso.

[tko]

The attacks by Pirate Ship trashes your Copper on turns 4, 5, 7, and 10 - that is a benefit to you improving your deck quality (you don't want those Copper).  Bad luck is losing an early Silver purchase - you were smart to design your deck to avoid that issue.

Bazaar/Pearl Diver aren't top tier opening buys though you don't have a lot of options here, and I don't mind how Pearl Diver adds an element to help hide your treasure... 3 Pearl Divers might have been overkill.  On Turn 10, buying a Silver could have improved your buying power more than a 3rd Pearl Diver.

After that, the game is so close it's hard for me to say as I still don't fully understand how to successfully employ the Penultimate Province Rule to my advantage.

What strikes me in this kingdom is that Tactician and Black Market are a nice combo (described here). I personally find it difficult to pull off consistently as you need plus-actions.  In short, the combo is that Black Market allows you to play your Treasure, then later, when you play Tactician, you still get to spend that coin.  Actions that add coin are also good, and the Bazaar in your kingdom helps with both +actions and adding coin.  I also have issues where I play the Black Market, play ALL the treasure in my hand, and then I don't have any cards to discard to Tactician... so don't make the same mistakes I often make and remember to keep a card to discard.

Here are some game logs where I got the combo a couple times, though my play isn't stellar:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110723-080750-f47ac142.html
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110828-022542-212eae1a.html

Also in this kingdom, if a player picks up Possession, they can get lucky and possess a turn that you played Tactician.  I got lucky like this once - I might have lost this game without that lucky turn:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110820-044855-82cd5b3b.html

Thanks for posting that game log.  It was an interesting one to read through and I agree playing on isotropic is very addictive.

[chesskidnate]

I'd personally suggest buying a potion at some point because apothecary isn't terrible and it would be amazing if you could grab a possession since his deck will take some time to get provinces and when he starts getting them he will probably have a very good economy. As the poster above me notes bm/tactician is a good combo and additionally the tactician would help you to get enough cash for the possession. Of course, the potion buy risks being trashed but it seems like its worth the risk. as to good BM cards that you passed, I think anything that drew as much as smithy(rabble/torturer) would've been a very helpful addition to your deck, and it probably was worth not getting the province and instead grabbing mountebanc although this isn't as clear. best would probably be opening tactician/pearl diver then trying for an early black market and potion buy. also you will want a second tactician and this could probably get a possession shockingly early. combine that with the fact that you found trashing in the black market deck and you'll probably have no trouble in the long run playing tactician each turn to discard one card after having played a long chain and possessing him about three times.

[philosophyguy]

I think you played pretty well, actually. The challenge is that his Pirate Ships hit almost every time, and it's really hard to stop a $4 ship in a Province game.

[Corpsified]

Looking back, and based on the excellent feedback received so far, I think my main mistakes were trying this strategy without faster ways to trash out the coppers and not buying tacticians. The tactician/bm combo is just too good with the bazaars for the +actions, I won't forget that little trick for the future.

Also I agree I went overboard on pearl divers, that is one of my weaknesses in general I think, overvaluing cantrips. I think a gold or silver buy at some point in the late mid-late game after he was already using his pirate ships for $$ instead of attack might have helped as well, as pointed out earlier.

Oh well, live and learn, it was a fun game and made me think a lot after the fact, which is what Dominion is all about, right?

[Mean Mr Mustard]

I hardly bother defending against Pirate Ships.  Usually a faster strategy will win, and while I do sometimes lose against a powered-up Ship it happens less than you would think.

Pirate ships work well with some boards but like Saboteur and Bridge without the ability to play multiples on several turns they usually are too unwieldy to compete against a more focused deck.  Too often Pirate Ship will improve rather than hinder an opponent's deck, and I personally don't mind losing an odd Silver or Gold as a balance to having half or more of my Coppers removed for me.  The trick is to build an economy that can outpace a late-game Ship.

[DG]

The tactician really opens up strategies for you here.

Your final deck was actually always going to clog with provinces. The caravan and steward struggled to repeatedly provide hands with many black markets with bazaars for 8 coins. The tactician would have solved this but there may have been other ways too if you'd seen this coming in advance.

[Corpsified]

Thanks for the opinions, it's very nice to have more veteran players give insights. Great forums!

Yeah clogging was what I was worried about from the beginning, but I just jumped in with both feet anyway. Tactician def would have helped.