Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Echoes Strategy Guide: Age 2  (Read 2460 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Hideyoshi

  • Baron
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 58
  • Respect: +34
    • View Profile
Echoes Strategy Guide: Age 2
« on: April 25, 2013, 04:07:24 am »
+2

Hi everyone, that’s Hideyoshi again~

Ya, I will talk about age 2 first. Age 1 will be left as my last post due to some accident...

Compared to the base set, age 2 cards in echoes do not act as active as the base cards. It may be because some cards in base set are too “powerful”, such as fermentation and mathematics. However, most echoes cards in age 2 are more likely to act better at age 2, as most cards are very useful in age 2 but not in other ages. Not like mathematics, fermentation, or even canal buildings, they are more powerful in later age. Anyway, let’s see how these cards are.

Scoring

(Glassblowing and Scissors can both used for scoring, but I put them in forecasting and board building separately, as they probably do these rather than scoring as their main job)

Crossbow
It is the demanding action to attack cards with bonus in hand. Well, I often consider this as “weaken Oars”, as it attack something too unique mostly, but it do not include a bonus action to “draw a 1” in oars. You may need a statistics of from age 2-10, cards with bonus for each age is 6, except age 6 with 5 only, and age 1 has 9 in total. You need to know that there is only one echoes card in most cases in the new drawing system, unless your opponents use some cards to steal your echoes cards. You may try it if your opponents get an echo card of value 5 or more to let to you to claim a new achievements, but generally crossbow is just useful for its bonus of 3 itself.

Tech Up

Lever
I generally consider it as weak Mathematics. It is helpful for you that you can dogma it at any age for tech up, just like mathematics. However, it has strict restriction that you need at least two cards for you for tech up, which probably need one more turn to draw one more card, or some specific card help you to draw. You may also find it is annoying for just drawing it but not melding as Mathematics in most of the time. Well, the most valuable things compared to Mathematics is that lever is helpful for forecasting as you can meld the card you draw and forecast a useful cards. It is quiet useful with the combination of some cards which foreshadow cards with one value higher, such as almanac with blue cards splaying left. Anyway, this kind of combination may be too complicated…

Linguistics
Compared to its blue partner, lever, linguistics is simpler in the game. You can directly draw a 3 for tech up, and draw a card of value equal to a bonus on your board. You may also choose to foreshadow a 4 rather than draw a 3, but it is not common at age 2 but you may do so at later stage. This card is somehow very simple, just like writing, but you probably need a card with a bonus in order to dogma it to benefit the most. You may also need some card with a bonus of one higher than its age, such as chaturanga with a bonus 3 at age 2. You may need to pay attention to the drawing arrangement of the card, as you will dogma the echo first. Rearrange your hand first depending on which value of echoes card you want to draw.

Pagoda
It is the first card of the series “draw and meld a higher value card” without returning any card (just to exclude Mathematics, as I am talking about something like experiment and atomic theory). However, you need a card with the same color in order to meld the 3; otherwise, you just foreshadow it. To me, unless you have nothing in your hand, it is usually a helpful card for tech up. Compared to lever and linguistics, meld a card is usually better than just drawing a card, as least you can avoid stealing hands. Even you just foreshadow a card, you can forecast it later when you get a 3 in your hand, which is not a difficult job when you repeat pagoda dogma. In real game, pagoda is generally used for several times, until you meld a good card. I usually prevent having a purple card in hand in order to avoid melding a purple card over pagoda, and 3 of the purple cards in age 3 are generally you do not want to meld at age 2 (except novel).

Board Buildings

Chaturanga
You may consider it as Domestication with drawing two cards, but it is strictly restricted to echo cards with bonus only. You may use this to meld the card with bonus rather than just melding it, just like the benefit of domestication, but you may not have the bonus anyway. You may notice that if you meld a card by chaturanga, you may also draw a card with bonus (as you lose the echo card already). It means you can repeat chaturanga again and again, if you continue getting a card with a bonus. If you are lucky, there are 1-2 cards with high bonus in each age, which means you can actually tech up using chaturanga. If you do not have it, you just foreshadow a card. In 2P game, you often draw and foreshadow a 4 or 5, which I often consider it as impractical action at age 2 in real games. That’s why I often use it only when I have a card of bonus.

Watermill
It is somehow like chaturanga as you need a card with bonus too, but in this case you tuck it rather than meld it. I do not like this card anyway, and I often use it for fun only. You may notice that it may include tech up when you continue tucking a card with bonus, such as you tuck a card with a higher bonus. Well, it is a game of luck and somehow too impractical, as you may just stop tucking when you just tuck a card. I may try to use it when my tech is too low compared to others, but in most cases I just leave watermill as a three leaves top yellow card to prevent some leaves attack.

Scissors
It is a funny card to me. You may find it useful, but your opponents may find it annoying when you share it. Well, I do not talk too much about scissors beating paper anyway, as I just saw this happened once only. The main use of scissors is returning a bottom card from your board to your hand, and then you meld or score up to 2 cards from your hand. You must remember something important which beginners may not notice that: actually your number of cards in hand do not increase, unless you do not meld or score a card. It should be used when you have some cards in hand, at least one, for melding or scoring, or you may just consider as meld a bottom card. Scissors is quite useless in most early stage, as you really do not need to return a bottom card. You may consider it as a double scorer or meld two cards like road building, but it is inefficient compared to other scorers and road building at age 2. However, in later stage, it is probably a better card, especially you have some card to draw and tuck a card such as coal, toilet, or even rubber. You can meld the high tech card you have just tucked, with a bonus of scoring or melding another card. Well, a sad fact is that if you splay your green cards right with scissors inside, you may find the echo effect becomes annoying as it is a negative effect of destroying your board in most cases.

Forecasting/Foreshadowing

Glassblowing
It includes an echo effect for scoring a card with bonus from your hand. Well, I do not consider it as a useful scoring effect, as most cards with bonus is actually useful and I prefer melding it rather than scoring it. Generally, I just consider it as a card for foreshadowing a higher card. However, I just do not like foreshadowing a card with too high value, especially at age 2 as a very important age. I generally consider it as a useless card in most of the time. Well, you may draw a 11 by glassblowing anyway, but I never do it. You may find it is useful with the combination of paper and glassblowing with green cards splaying left, which draw and score at the same time.

Board Attacking

Horseshoes
To be frank, I do not like this card. The problem of horseshoes is that the demanding range is too large, which the card just needs no factories and castles. I find it often cannot aim at that I want to steal. It probably just steals something useless in most cases, such as writing. The other problem is that it features castles for demanding but it only has 1 castle on it. Well, melding a 2 is destroying others board at later stage in most cases, but it needs to beware of the using time anyway. Forecast a 2 may be considered as a feedback for you.

Achievements

Toothbrushes
Well, it is a mix of three dogmas. The echo and the first effect may be combined to be considered as a “super code of laws” by tucking a lot of cards. It can be combined with some cards with massive drawing effect, such as paper or even the wheel to help you to get the monument. For me, I consider it as the first card which I consider it can easily claim monument, even easier than masonry. Just want to remind some beginners, do not tuck toothbrushes when you are using fermentation and reformation combo by yellow cards splaying right; otherwise, you will do some silly things as “drawing all the cards and tucking all the cards”. For the last dogma, it returns a 2 as the available achievements. You may find it is not as useful as chopsticks as you need 20 scores to claim a second 2. Well, if you can still claim it after you make the new achievements, just do so.

Some base cards changes

Fermentation
You may find fermentation and reformation combo is less effective in base set, as there are more methods to destroy such combo. In real game, I often use fermentation just drawing some cards up to age 3, rather than continue drawing to find a bicycle. You may need some others for scoring, such as umbrella is a new good way to do so.

Currency
Generally it is the same as in the base game, but you need to avoid a new trap for scoring in the new drawing system. If you do not have any echo cards in your hand, after returning you keep scoring echoes card actually. If you return a 2 at this moment, actually you will go to score a lot of echo 2! Just avoid it by keeping your hand having some echo cards.

Mathematics
Mathematics is somehow more important in echoes game, as you may find it needs more time to draw all the cards at one age. If you do not have any methods to tech up, you may find it is more difficult to catch up the tech with others using Mathematics

Philosophy
Just to remind a trick: philosophy + bell + flute + purple cards splaying left = “Super philosophy”!!

Road Buildings
Well, you just get something new to transfer, such as bangles and plumbing.



Hope all guys like this~
Logged

brokoli

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1119
  • Respect: +786
    • View Profile
Re: Echoes Strategy Guide: Age 2
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2013, 11:47:28 am »
0

I just used Watermill for the first time and it seemed very strong : I gained the monument achievement and quickly went up to Age 6.
Also, I had only three colors, so sometimes I melded cards of an unmelded color...
Logged
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.158 seconds with 20 queries.