http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/16/game-20130116-134106-908f0b2c.htmlThis board seemed really weak... the pieces for any kind of elaborate engine just weren't there, the only thing that really stands out is HP. Sure, there's Gardens and CH and Remodel and Haggler, but those kinds of antics don't seem likely to cut the mustard with Colonies out - and there's a dire lack of +Action, not to mention no real +Buy to supplement the options for card gains.
And it really didn't seem like there was a good X for the HP+X plan - of course, a plain HP stack is going to crush pure BM, especially on a Colony board. I guess you don't *really* need an X with Colonies, since Plat+Gold+Silver+Copper buys you a Colony. But hey, Remodel is "$2 of deck-improvement power", and it surely beats flooding yourself with Silver on $4 turns (or skipping them), so I figured I'd try it out.
To my mild surprise, it actually seems to work quite well. The execution was pretty mindless (and I'm thinking I really should skip the Loan and just take Silver, but maybe it's better to get an initial boost to cycling?) - buy HP on 5 (and sometimes 6) and Remodel on 4, and prioritize using Remodel on itself to get extra Gold. It wasn't hard to score the one vital Platinum this way. It seems in practice that the HP filtering means that you don't need to worry too much about getting swamped with useless Remodels, but you can still line up a pair of them pretty often. Then later, towards the end, you get Colony + Province turns, by Remodelling a spare Gold and then buying the Colony.
Basically, the mindless Remodel strategy is pretty slow on its own, but it seems to mix in quite well with an HP stack. They maybe don't exactly *synergize*, but they're pretty good at staying out of each other's way, and you get the benefits of both.
