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[awildnoobappeared]

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131014/log.516d07bbe4b082c74d7a90a7.1381744208453.txt
Embargo, Fortune Teller, Shanty Town, Watchtower, Coppersmith, Thief, Wandering Minstrel, Harvest, Stables, Adventurer

I just played out this 35 turn uber-slog. Granted, it's a very weak board and there's no real trashing or any +buy to be found, but surely this should not take 35 turns to end? (though I had won by about turn 25 as I had an unassailable lead, and ended up ending the game by buying out double-Embargoed Watchtowers)

We both started out with Coppersmith as there's just not a lot else out there as a starter, but after that our strategies diverge, I hit Stables hard with Shanty Towns and an early Thief (intention - steal Coppers to boost Stables and hurt him a little), while my opponent just doesn't seem to do much of any use.

My Thief was super effective, hitting Golds the first 2 times I played it - obviously that hurts like hell and possibly decided the game. Eventually he picks up a couple of his own but they either whiff or hit when it's far too late.

So my question is, surely neither of us played that well if the game stretched out to 35 turns and the Provinces still weren't gone? Surely there must have been a better strategy out there, perhaps involving Fortune Teller or Harvest (!!!) for virtual money (especially with Thief around and decent potential to play it often, though neither of us did?)

[Awaclus]

I would open Silver/Fortune Teller and then go for Stables and Golds. Embargoing Stables could hurt though.

[SCSN]

In a Province game, Thief is good only when you're playing an engine and need to slow down an opponent who's playing a trimmed money deck (if he still has all his Coppers Thief is pointless), and possibly with FG or Harem, but I doubt it.

Coppersmith (preferably in multiples) is good only if you have a way to somewhat reliably draw alot of Coppers and have some source of +buy to go with it.

Neither condition is met here, so I would completely ignore both. I even think Thief actively hurts your deck here, in the sense that I expect a player who starts with a free Thief in his deck in addition to his  Coppers and Estates to be the underdog. That may or may not turn out to be true, but Thief is certainly worse than Silver.

I agree with Awaclus that opening Fortune Teller/Silver is best (getting Stables on $5 and Golds on $6), though I'm not at all concerned about Embargo: you can play around any one thing that he Embargoes quite easily, and if he Embargos multiple things that means he has wasted valuable early purchases on Embargos, so you're way ahead already and the Embargoes hurt him just as much because there's no alternative way of gaining stuff, so the only workaround is only gaining important stuff when you have Watchtower in hand, which slows him down even more.

Also, your execution seems really inconsistent: on T14 you get your first Duchy for $7, but then on T15, after triggering a reshuffle during your turn, you get another Stables for $5 and on T16 a Gold for $6? If you think you need more Golds and Stables you want to get them before the Duchy, especially if you expect to reshuffle between the Duchy and the Stables/Gold buy.

And all your Shanty Towns should have been Silvers. Well, one or maaybe two is fine for the draw, but you really went overboard on them and you didn't actually have that great of an economy.

[DG]

Coppersmith is a non starter here. It has the wrong sort of drawing support and gets worse with thief, fortune teller, and embargo. Thief is a non-starter here as well since it just strengthens adventurer and harvest, enough to make them worth a terminal action. The basic way to play is fortune teller and stables.

When you see your opponent going on an embargo/watchtower strategy you do have to pause a little. Here he didn't get a second watchtower quickly and he never embargoed the provinces, but what could you do if he had done? Well you can consider buying one watchtower when you see your opponent lining it all up and that one watchtower will allow you to buy more and exhaust curses. Adventurer and harvest are good value in a curse ridden deck anyway.

[dondon151]

In a Province game, Thief is good only when you're playing an engine and need to slow down an opponent who's playing a trimmed money deck (if he still has all his Coppers Thief is pointless), and possibly with FG or Harem, but I doubt it.

If your opponent hasn't been greening optimally for a long game, you'd be happy to trash one of his Coppers anyway.

[awildnoobappeared]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it confirms my first thought - I misplayed the board, but my opponent misplayed it more than I did.