Dominion > Game Reports

Vault-ing towards Colonies

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philosophyguy:
My opponent in this game did not play well, but I'd still appreciate feedback on my strategy.

Kingdom: Baron, Bishop, Bridge, Colony, Harem, Ironworks, Monument, Pirate Ship, Platinum, Shanty Town, Vault, and Warehouse

I opened with a 5/2 and went for Vault. The initial plan was to keep playing the Vault and discarding to get Golds, then Platinums.

I have a couple of questions. First, should I have been worried about the Pirate Ships against my (very big) money strategy?

Second, was the Bishop on turn 9 a smart or dumb move? My thinking was that I could thin my Coppers/Estates in order to help my Vault get to Platinum/Colony buying power (by making it more likely that I would draw Golds) and counterbalance the VPs my opponent was getting from Harem. I also figured the deck was substantive enough at this point that the risk of colliding terminals was low and if I drew the Bishop with the Vault I could just discard. I also thought my opponent's deck was messy enough that the trashing wouldn't be a huge help to him. The other option I considered was the Monument for the VPs.

Third, are there any combos in this set that jump out at you? Since Shanty is the only village, I didn't think Bridges or Pirate Ships could be powerful enough in a Colony game.

DG:
There's quite a lot going on in that set so I don't think it's simple. It's a reactive set and you need to worry about deck size, hand size, card cycling, vp chips, and a few other problems. Anything could happen. The problem is that nothing can be discounted rather than anything in particular jumping out. I could even see the province pile being exhausted under some strategies so you're not necessarily even vaulting to colonies. Bridges don't come into it though so your poor opponent was chasing a dead end there.

Mean Mr Mustard:
I think you played a decent game; the $5 spent for the Bishop I would have spent on a second Vault instead.  I do not like hand-size reducers with Vault so, like you, I would have also skipped the Shanty Town, and would have had some inhibitions against Warehouse. 

I would not have worried about countering Harem since your opponent wasn't threatening Colonies at all.  I wouldn't have worried at all about Pirate Ship unless it became a problem.

Superdad:
If he is pirate shipping, I don't think you want to bishop coppers away to allow him to hit your bigger money easier - especially not since you are running a vault strategy anyways. If you opened vault and he opened pirate ship, I think you should be fist-pumping, because that's a pretty poor counter to vault in my opinion.

I also think one or two warehouses are okay here, because while your vault turn will have 1 less card, you will be cycling through your deck (i.e. vaulting) more often. I think the net effect at least cancels, and probably leans towards cycling being more important. Not to mention the warehouses keep you from stalling to greening later. With both warehouse and vault, you will be very resistant to greening.

As soon as you have 1 gold (after your first vault), I would have picked up a warehouse or two on any turn with $4 or less, hopefully getting 2 warehouses. I'd then basically just play straight money here, getting a 2nd vault if your deck starts growing and you hit a $5 midgame, then using warehouses and vaults to cycle the deck super quickly, almost acting like pseudo-trashing.

HiveMindEmulator:
^If I'm  going to get a card to help cycle for vaults, I prefer shanty town to warehouse. Warehouse generally cycles faster because it always draws 3 cards, while shanty town only sometimes draws 2, but it's different when you're playing with vaults. You won't play either if you have a vault in your hand. And if you don't have a vault, you'd rather use shanty town to draw into a 6-card vault turn (which buys a colony with a single plat or 2 golds, or buys a plat with a single gold) than use warehouse to draw into a 4-card vault turn (where you may not even be able to buy gold). The only time warehouse provides a greater benefit is if you have no vault in your hand OR in your next 3 cards, as it lets you get though 3 extra non-vault cards instead of only 2, but I think this benefit is much smaller than the loss of ending up with weaker vault turns.

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