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[lympi]

One of my friends and I thought it would be fun to do a Dominion podcast.

This was the result.

I think it turn out well enough. I imagine if we did more, we'd get better at it (fewer "ahhs" and "umms" and the like). And as I mentioned in the episode, we could maybe have special guests from the Dominion community to swing by and teach us a thing or two.

Here's a direct link to the MP3.

Or, if you'd prefer to "subscribe" in your podcast app, you can do that here. (There's no guarantee that link will continue to work if we decide to turn this into an ongoing thing.)

Anyway, it was fun, so if people like it, we'll probably do more.

Any feedback you have would be great. Ideas for new segments, critiques, criticisms, et cetera... input is appreciated.

Sidenote: we're not too keen on the "The Unofficial Dominion Podcast" name, so if you like the show and you have any ideas for a name, we're all ears on that front as well.

[Robz888]

I can't get it to play.

[Archetype]

How about "The Council Room"

Awesome idea!

[Robz888]

There's already a Council Room site, though. Maybe something more Podcasty? Like, the Overgrown Estate?

[Mic Qsenoch]

I listened to the whole thing, and I enjoyed it very much. I found your voices easy to listen to, and I had no trouble understanding what both of you were saying. I wrote some things down while I listened, but they probably aren't that useful because I don't know anything about podcasting, mostly it is just critiques of your Dominion strategy advice/comments. One idea I had: you two should play a few games against each other before the podcast and choose the most interesting one to talk about your strategies for that game. So the listeners can get the ideas behind both players' decisions.

Game:
This board looks real good for Vineyards. They are a counter to Ruins as you pointed out, but there’s also two cheap cantrips: Oasis and Great Hall. And as was mentioned GM is a great card for Vineyards as it provides +buy and is a cantrip. I think estates should be remade into Oases primarily (maybe one Silver). A second Remake might be necessary to thin the deck sufficiently. Not much to say about the game itself, your opponent throws it away on last turn.

A general Vineyards strategy point: one of you said something about only getting to use the potion once per shuffle (and it was implied that your deck would only have a single potion). This highlights why vineyards decks often need more than one potion, something that isn't true for most other Alchemy cards.

Forager
The theoretical “Forager only” deck will be terrible. Forager as your main source of cash isn't going to work in most games. If you get the Foragers to $4 then you are using two cards to generate $4 and they are basically Silvers. Forager can be worth more on some boards, but it isn't likely and can require a high opportunity cost from the Forager player (trashing Gold will usually be awful). Not to mention, that your opponent can immediately gain the advantage without bending over backwards to increase the value of their own Foragers. I wouldn't suggest buying back Coppers unless you are greening heavily (in a slog) or you are drawing your deck entirely every turn.

Random Board: 5/2 has to be Mountebank/Embargo. Remodel cannot handle the Curses/Copper from Mountebank. After you get the Mountebank you just want to get as many Hunting Parties as you can. And some Throne Rooms. Remodel and Hoard could be useful in the end game. All of this will depend somewhat on what is Embargo'd. Tribute is much weaker whenever the decks are filled with Curses.

Edit: Another thing I thought of, you guys shouldn't be afraid to be a little bit antagonistic towards one another if you disagree. Some (friendly) back and forth is entertaining. For example, when -dg- suggested Remodel could handle trashing the junk from Mountebank you disagreed but not very forcefully. Tell him he's wrong!

[jsh357]

Loved the Podcast, had many of the same issues MicQ mentions above.  (I would have opened with Mountebank on that board 100% of the time, no question)  You guys have good radio voices and rapport with one another, which is very important for this kind of thing.

Not sure about format suggestions... there isn't too much else you can talk about on the show without it getting to where an article would be better?  (Obviously barring any events like Guilds, new promos, tournaments, etc)

[Blueswan]

I also very much agree with Mic Qsenoch.

Anyway, I was thrilled to hear this. It is no more than a week ago that I searched the net for Dominion podcasts. We really need one! So keep up the good work!

However, I did find one strange discrepancy, if you will. You explain to listeners what a 4/3 or 5/2 split is and even explain what the game is about. However, you don't explain what the cards in the two mentioned kingdoms do. I think that will alienate a lot of potential listeners. It took me hundreds of games to learn all the cards just by name. Infact, I just earlier today lost a game (and a hundred ranking points) to a stupid bot on Goko because I mixed up Silk Road and Feodum (it was a board with Trader and Silk Road, so I went with a heavy silver-gaining "Feodum" strategy, only to realize at the end that Silk Road wasn't the VP card that gave you points for silvers but for having VP cards).

So please tell the listeners what the cards do in the kingdoms you discuss. It won't have to take more than a couple of minutes.

[Schneau]

So please tell the listeners what the cards do in the kingdoms you discuss. It won't have to take more than a couple of minutes.

I'd either do this, or skip explaining things like 5/2 vs 4/3 openings. You have to figure out what your target audience is, and tailor the podcast to that audience. I think most people on f.ds would prefer the "assume the audience knows Dominion and the cards" approach, but if you want to attract listeners with less experience, then you'll need to give more info.

[Blueswan]

So please tell the listeners what the cards do in the kingdoms you discuss. It won't have to take more than a couple of minutes.

I'd either do this, or skip explaining things like 5/2 vs 4/3 openings. You have to figure out what your target audience is, and tailor the podcast to that audience. I think most people on f.ds would prefer the "assume the audience knows Dominion and the cards" approach, but if you want to attract listeners with less experience, then you'll need to give more info.

Since it really only takes a couple of minutes to mention what the cards do, I think that is the way to go. There are lots of people out there who love Dominion but don't know every card by heart - especially amongst the people who mainly play IRL, I would assume.

[WheresMyElephant]

It's a nice idea but I'm a little skeptical that people will be able to retain much from a two-minute summary of ten cards. If you can cut out some nonessential cards and blend it with the strategic discussion so they have some context to help them remember things, then maybe. Otherwise though, maybe you should just put pictures of the cards up on your website or something and encourage confused players to use it as an aid.

[AdamH]

I love the idea of a Dominion podcast. I hope you make more of them.

Was this your first attempt at making a podcast? It certainly takes a few to get the chemistry and logistics worked out. I suggest you make like 5 of them the way you want and see how it goes before you decide whether or not you want to continue, and also before you take on suggestions for how to make them better (like I'm about to offer).

I think when you talk about the games you've already played, it would be good to have an authoritative tone when you do. I think you're already accessible enough by your personalities, so you could only gain by really knowing what you're talking about and speaking on a high level. Perhaps it would be beneficial for you to post here and get some commentary on the games you plan to talk about before doing so on the podcast.

Talking about random games: I think this is a great idea. I wonder if there's a way to have you or other people play those games and report back for further discussion? Knowing what you're talking about here is not important, it's understanding your thought process when assessing a new kingdom.

A note on disagreement: I think you two should disagree with each other as much as possible. You should get as much benefit out of having two people host as you can, and disagreeing with each other is such a good way to do that. You also get two shots at guessing the correct thing to do if you don't know, which helps with authority. I think if there's any argument to be made against what the other guy said, you should make it. Disagree like 90% of the time! It's fun!

[Qvist]

I like the idea about a Podcast too and I enjoyed listening to it.

Now with Guilds talking about the new cards might be a good idea.
Focussing two cards each episode is great, keep that up.
I'm not sure if I like fully random boards, but I like that approach and would add a little bit of education to it (not sure about your skill level), like how to setup an engine or a BM strategy here or which of both you think is dominant or if there's a combo available and how to set it up
The wiki is also a very good ressource about strategy btw and maybe there are some articles you might want to discuss.
Interviewing players might be a good idea although I don't know how many would join you.
Another thing you could do regularly would be doing some comments/commentary of ongoing tournaments (if you follow them).

[jmieden]

I loved it! Please make another! It was definitely higher than beginner level, but I thought it was great. Thanks for putting this together.

[lympi]

Hey everyone. Thanks for all your feedback on the first episode. I'm glad (and pleasantly surprised) so many people listened to it and enjoyed it.

I just posted episode two. Dan and I mixed it up a bit this time around by recapping an old isotropic game and discussing the five cards that Donald previewed from Guilds. I think it turned out pretty well... hopefully you think so too.

Additionally, we also made this an "enhanced" podcast with rotating album art, so you can see the cards we're talking about, as a few people here and on BGG said that would be helpful. We aim to please.

Anyway, you can subscribe to the podcast here, or, if you have trouble with that (or have trouble listening to the "enhanced" AAC file), you can download the MP3 version here.

Thanks again for all your feedback! We're still figuring out our target audience. I think a lot of the people on f.ds are way better than we are at Dominion, so it's tough to teach you guys anything, but at the very least I hope you find us entertaining.

[jsh357]

For some reason I can't get RSS Live to subscribe to this (man, I miss Google Reader) but I will keep listening if you keep posting them here.  Now to actually listen to this!

My thoughts on the game: Open Embargo/Horse Traders (or Embargo/Minion given the chance).  Embargo can work anti-Minions or block the City pile, or block Horse Traders.  If you open 5/2, blocking HT is deliciously evil since you can play Minions with less fear of HT nullifying your attacks.  I prefer HT to Quarry here, as all the actions I want are $5 or less and blocking Minion is great.  Within the first 2 shuffles I want a Trade Route (trashing) and hopefully a City.  My goal is to build an engine with TR/Minion/Conspirator using HT as a +Buy, but work around any Embargo tokens that get put down.

That said this is 3 player so building the engine could potentially not be worth it.  Building up to Colonies should be fairly easy unless a key card gets Embargoed.

Was great hearing thoughts on Guilds (the obvious subject to discuss).

One thing you can try in the future is to look at a game log between two really high level players, talk about how you'd approach them, then analyze what the players actually did.

[Qvist]

Where's episode 1? 

I liked your talk about the Guilds cards and which one you like and dislike.
But I didn't understand why you took a so old game to analyze. Analyzing a game to then say "I can't remember" hasn't a so big value, I think. I still enjoyed it, but I think it's improvable.
Some more suggestions regarding that. I would structure this segment like that.

1.) Naming the cards and explaining them. Telling if it's a Colony game or a Shelter game. You do this great already (even though it's skippable for experienced players, but keep doing this)
2.) Analyzing the board: Is this a BM or engine board? So, are there villages, attacks, +buy/gainers, draw for an engine or not? Is there a combo or at least some synergies or counters - like Horse Traders as a defense against Minion, Horse Traders/Trade Route's +Buy for Quarry etc? What are the dominating cards? - You do that, but not very structured and probably too late while you're already talking about how the game went. So, before talking about the openings I like to hear about possible strategies. For example "That's an obvious engine game - you could go for Minion where you need trashing, so Trade Route could be important. But there's Horse Traders on the board which is a great counter. Enough to ignore Minion? Not sure. Also, there's City. As this is a 3 player game, Cities are more interesting as the piles run out faster, especially if 2 players go for, let's say Minion, one could basically ignore them and go straight for Cities. Also there's Throne Room and Conspirator, both very strong cards that synergize well with both City and Minion..." and so on so fourth. It doesn't need to high level comments or even true, but hearing your thoughts when you look at the kingdom would be great, just to see all the possibilities how to play this board.
3.) Transitioning from that: How to setup your strategy and what to open with. "I want to go for Minions, that's why I want to open Horse Traders/Silver or something like that" You talk about the openings already, with the analysis of the board beforehand this information has more value.
4.) Going through the game and what you did well is not talking about each turn. But some more suggestions. Look at turns 3-5 (first reshuffle) and talk about how your initial thoughts turned out. As this was a 3-player game - what is his strategy? In this particalur game for example, you could look at turn 4 where you both went for a Minion, but SadPanda got a City over Minion instead as he saw you both going for Minions. This was a crucial point in the game in my opinion. Then look at the mid game (~turns 6-10, depending on the board of course) Here you both went for more Minions while he got Horse Traders as counter and more Cities. Craig saw the risk of one pile being emptied and started buying Cities too while you didn't. Then the end game. This you made well here. You talked about your "error" emptying the City pile (your first one) which gave Sad Panda the possibility for this first big turn and the same thing again later with the Minions.
5.) Summary: Draw a conclusion out of the game. What can you learn from this game? How would you play this game differently the next time? Refer to your thoughts before the game and what was true and what not.

Please don't get me wrong, I like hearing the podcast and keep doing that. You asked for suggestions and improvements and these were my thoughts.

One thing you can try in the future is to look at a game log between two really high level players, talk about how you'd approach them, then analyze what the players actually did.

Great suggestion, IMO.

[Blueswan]

I enjoyed it. Please keep doing these. I agree with everything Qvist wrote as to how you could make it even better.

As for games to analyze, there are plenty of really really interesting games posted on this very forum. Some of the crazy things Stef manages to pull off might be worth a look.

[lympi]

Hey Gang. It's been a month, but we're back with another episode of the podcast. The podcast, which has a new name:

This Is Not In The Supply.

Fancy, right?

Anyway, this one is light on strategy and heavy on Dominion "news," which is unfortunate, because we recorded it a couple weeks ago. Yikes. But hey, we got it online with mere minutes left on the Dominion Storage Case project on Kickstarter that we talk about during the episode. So at least there's that.

As always, you can subscribe here, or download an MP3 version directly here.

We also now have a twitter account you can follow! How 2007 of us!

The next episode will come sooner rather than later. Promise.

Anyway, enjoy, and as always, feedback is appreciated.

[Schneau]

I just subscribed using iTunes. I am able to download the second episode, but not the most recent one -- it says to check the URL and try again. Any ideas what's going on?

[lympi]

Yikes… let me take a look. I had a little trouble uploading it, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised downloading is problematic.

(If you're using the link in the iTunes Store… please, uh, don't do that yet? Sorry, that feed still needs some work.)

[jsh357]

Thanks guys, really enjoyed this episode.

[Schneau]

I used the subscribe link you gave in your post, and pasted it into iTunes using the "File -> Subscribe to Podcast" option, and pasted in the link. I hope that info helps!

[lympi]

Hey all. I swear we're trying to do these podcasts faster, but life keeps getting the way.

Stupid life.

Anyway, episode 4 went live late last night. It features Dan and myself discussing Goko's full card list, pre-game Kingdom analyzation strategies, a random game rundown, and a recap of an interesting game Dan played recently. Check it out.

Per usual, you can subscribe, or download an MP3 version of this episode (does anyone do that?).

The iTunes feed is also fixed up if you're into that sort of thing, and if you were following us on twitter you would have already listened to the episode by now.

Thanks for listening, folks. The download numbers keep going up, which is crazy. Soon we'll be able to retire to a Province all our own.

Well, maybe more like a Duchy.

Possibly an Estate.

…

Let's be honest, it's gonna be a Curse.

[Schneau]

I'm still getting the same error I was getting before when trying to use the iTunes subscription. Is anyone else getting this error?

[AdamH]

download an MP3 version of this episode (does anyone do that?).

I download the MP3s