Anyone really into Dominion?

[QuikSand]

For background

For a fairly long time, this game was my blind spot among the most highly regarded, widely-played new-wave board games out there. I only took it up late last year, but am now pretty immersed as I slide into it. I own three sets, play online a good deal, and have a solid thirst for the game.

There's a whole community of experts out there, and I am drinking from that well, but wanted to see if there's anyone here whom I already "know" who might share the fascination.


If you're here but not that familiar - it's a card-based game that incorporates a lot of what I used to love about collectible card games, without the required incoming investment and knowledge that seems to come with them. Each player starts each game at square one, with a different set of ten stacks of cards (chosen randomly or through some process) from which to build his "deck" for that game. Over time, he makes tactical decisions about improving the deck, versus countering the effects of opponents, versus accumulating the victory points that ultimately determine the winner.

For me, I always sort of enjoyed the mental gymnastics involved with sitting own and thinking through what cards might make a good Magic deck. This game gives you a glimpse of that in every game -- each new board of ten cards presents a different set of possibilities and card combinations, and you need to make strategic decisions based on that field of possibilities that might have never occurred to you before.


Anyway, have at it.

[QuikSand]

If that first link is failing: Dominion

[Vince, Pt. II]

I own three sets - Base, Intrigue, and Prosperity - and really enjoy the game. I don't get it to the table as often as I'd like (I own too many games so we rotate through them slowly), and my gaming groups have trended toward the "have fun" rather than the "win at all costs," so I haven't really poured myself into the strategy of the game.

My anecdotal opinions:

• The Prosperity set trends toward much more expensive cards and upping your purchasing power, and my groups have almost invariably enjoyed this variant less than the others.
• A handful of the cards in the base set feel either overpowered or completely useless; Militia and Witch (and Gold coin cards, to an extent) come to mind on the overpowered side, while Woodcutter comes to mind on the useless side.
• This may be a lack of sufficient plays to really grasp the deeper strategies, but the game feels slightly imbalanced in that lean decks (being able to purge cards) are almost always much stronger than bigger decks. The Gardens card helps with this, but you still need to assemble a HUGE deck before the Gardens are really worth it.
• The Intrigue set introduces a bunch of fun, interactive cards...our group hasn't really played with this set enough to have definitive views on it.
• My major gripe is that some decisions aren't really decisions; if you have enough coins, you buy a Province card. If you're short of that, you buy a Gold coin card. Only if you're short of that do you seem to have a decision to make.

Overall, I love the game: it's an elegant design that is quick to learn, plays in a short amount of time, and offers tons of variation in the board makeup and paths to victory. Our games tend to feel like a race to the purchasing power to pick up Provinces, then just a matter of course; but that first half of the game while people are developing their decks is super intriguing.

[weegeebored]

I have played it three times and gotten my arse kicked three times (all 3-player games). I never played Magic or any other CCG (except for the ill-fated MLB Showdown) so maybe deck-building games aren't my forte. My nephew owns all of the expansions and uses some app to get suitable cards to use in a game. I understand the appeal of Dominion, especially with all of the card variety. But therein lies the rub -- with all of the different cards a player really needs to be sharp enough to find combos or a strategy that works fairly quickly. My lack of CCG experience is probably my downfall, so on gaming nights when Dominion is mentioned I usually do an eye roll.

I much prefer playing Evolution with the Climate expansion. We haven't gotten around to playing it with the Flight expansion as of yet, but I am really looking forward to that.

[Carman Bulldog]

I have Dominion (along with Prosperity - although have not played the latter) and I enjoy it but like Vince, I own far too many games and don't get Dominion to the table enough. I also like to spread my deck-building games around, sometimes Star Realms (own but haven't played Hero Realms), sometimes Paperback (own but haven't yet played Hardback) and sometimes Marvel Legendary.

As a result, I have not had the opportunity to really dive deep and immerse myself in the intricacies of Dominion.

If I end up playing something digital, it usually ends up being Baseball Highlights 2045 on the iPad.

[Fidatelo]

I bought Dominion and I think an expansion a few years ago. It was great at first, but then one of my friends decided to just always buy gold cards and it seemed to basically break the game. Our games turned into all of us using the same strategy all the time, and we quickly lost interest.

[QuikSand]

For those who have offered "like it, but don't get to play much" here's a link to an online site:

Dominion Online

You can play for free using just the base set of cards, including multiplayer live, or against decent AI bots. For a fee, you can subscribe to use several more sets (for something like $3-4/mo) or all of them (for a bit more). I have probably played 15 games live, but definitely hundreds online.

[QuikSand]

My understanding of strategy in the game has evolved, in what seems like a predictable progression.

-ok, i get it, lots of things to do, this is fun
-ok, faster is better mostly
-ok, money really is better, mostly
-but look at all these awesome combos
-no, money really is better, mostly
-well, you actually can beat a money deck pretty often
-big money is the dividing line between good and bad decks

I don't think it's possible to get very deep into this progression playing face to face, in all candor. Jut takes too long. But playing 15 games against credible (if simple) opposition in one night, or seeding certain cards to try specific combos multiple times -- that's what you can get online.

I don't claim that I have conquered the game. I'm still learning a lot about endgame strategy, frex. But overall, I feel pretty confident that the stopping point of "just buy gold" is not the end of the line for this game (like a fair number of people believe).

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

My understanding of strategy in the game has evolved, in what seems like a predictable progression.

-ok, i get it, lots of things to do, this is fun
-ok, faster is better mostly
-ok, money really is better, mostly
-but look at all these awesome combos
-no, money really is better, mostly
-well, you actually can beat a money deck pretty often
-big money is the dividing line between good and bad decks

I don't think it's possible to get very deep into this progression playing face to face, in all candor. Jut takes too long. But playing 15 games against credible (if simple) opposition in one night, or seeding certain cards to try specific combos multiple times -- that's what you can get online.

I don't claim that I have conquered the game. I'm still learning a lot about endgame strategy, frex. But overall, I feel pretty confident that the stopping point of "just buy gold" is not the end of the line for this game (like a fair number of people believe).

This is not super surprising to me - I have played a handful of games online, but truly only a handful. I should get some more plays in, because I would love to get deeper into this strategy development aspect of the game. It hits our table infrequently enough and the "just buy gold" strategy works well enough that like you said, getting past that into the strategy is simply hard to do in person.

[corbes]

We were very into Dominion about 5+ years ago: we ended up with the base set, Intrigue, Seaside, and Alchemy, and often played with the prosperity deck as well when that came out. After that we fell away from that gaming group when our kids were born.

But our kids are now old enough to start learning the game (thanks QS for the tip to get them involved) and they're having fun with it at ages 5 and 7... they are good enough at the "mostly buy money" strategy to legitimately win hands on the strength of their own decisionmaking... it's a fun game to revisit.

[corbes]

+money +cards +action is often an approach I follow, depending on the cards.

Also a fan of trashing coppers and estates early in games where chapel is an option.

[EagleFan]

Like playing that with the family. Fun game, haven't gotten into intense competition games, just fun family competition, so I know I don't have any ideal strategies.

[Umbrella]

I love Dominion. I have base, Intrigue, Seaside, and Prosperity. The more sets you have, the more you have to develop different strategies. Some of the combo cards (like Harem) which combine two different types of cards can lead to some interesting game plays.

One thing to remember is sometimes it is a good strategy to get 3 decks empty before anyone can start buying up all the provinces. I win occasionally doing this with cards that let you draw additional cards, or decks where a lot of curses are being drawn.

I used to play it with my kids a lot. Now that my youngest daughter is grown, she comes over for dinner on the weekends, and we play with her fiancee as well. So it is making a resurgence in my house.

[AnalBumCover]

I had (read: owned, but sold) the Dominion 2nd edition Big Box (Base + Intrigue) and Prosperity. I would have loved to get some playing time with these, but my family just never got past the theme, or lack thereof, with Marvel Legendary and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle already on my shelf.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

My understanding of strategy in the game has evolved, in what seems like a predictable progression.

-ok, i get it, lots of things to do, this is fun
-ok, faster is better mostly
-ok, money really is better, mostly
-but look at all these awesome combos
-no, money really is better, mostly
-well, you actually can beat a money deck pretty often
-big money is the dividing line between good and bad decks

I don't think it's possible to get very deep into this progression playing face to face, in all candor. Jut takes too long. But playing 15 games against credible (if simple) opposition in one night, or seeding certain cards to try specific combos multiple times -- that's what you can get online.

I don't claim that I have conquered the game. I'm still learning a lot about endgame strategy, frex. But overall, I feel pretty confident that the stopping point of "just buy gold" is not the end of the line for this game (like a fair number of people believe).

My old boardgame group played the heck out of it when it came out. I only bought the original game for several reasons:

1) As you mentioned, the fact that deck efficiency translates into more gold and silver, means the game plays nearly the same was each and every time.

2) I never liked the Attack mechanic. Some of the attack cards were painful but fairly benign, others would completely screw you over (I hated the Intrigue set for this reason). Defense cards were not efficient because you could not control when you would have them in hand. Get hit by attacks 3 turns in a row, next turn you draw your 4 defense cards in one draw. That happened WAY too much for my liking.

3) The only scoring cards you typically need are the province cards. This leads to the more money all the time mindset. Duchies and estates are not deck efficient. While dutchies can be justified on occassion, late game, already bought one province this turn, etc., I have never found a good reason to have any estate other than what I started with.

4) Lack of control was another issue. Yes, you have complete control over what goes in your deck, but since you only have one action, one buy, etc., there was rarely any chance to outplay your opponent. Many games came down to who got a lucky early 5 - bronze hand to buy a power card (depended upon the card setup). The other tipping point was an early silver, 4 - bronze hand for an early gold, which then was drawn early. The difference between your first gold being at the top of your shuffle vs. the bottom of your shuffle was huge.

A similar game that I liked a lot more than Dominion is Star Realms, which someone already mentioned in this thread. The concept is the same, but there are four "suits" or races in the game. When you play multiple cards of a race in a turn, those racial cards get bonuses. The object of the game is different as well, you are trying to inflict 50 points of damage on your opponent. This single small change has dramatic impact on the flow of the game.

Instead of always trying to buy province cards (which makes money almost always a good buy), since the end goal of Star Realms is to destroy your opponent, you have to switch from trade/money to attack at some point in the game. Each race has its own way of making the switch, the Blobs have high attack cards for low money. The Star Empire has a lot of extra draws or draw denial cards. The Trade Federation has repair cards at their disposal, and many cards have some attack, repair, and defense all on one card, but at low levels. Finally, the machine cult has cards that provide extra attack, but also allow for some deck efficiency with the ability to cull cards from their deck.

Another change, your defensive cards are always up once played. This is huge, and makes a defensive play style possible. These also make it easier to combo since they are always in play.

Just a few subtle changes make for a much more interesting game. The Blobs want to play a fast game as they tend to run out of gas the longer a game goes on. The Machine Cult has a lot of flexibility, but need to time things right when they begin culling their deck. The Trade Federation prefers longer games where their superior economic might comes into play. The Star Empire is flexible but harder to pull off than the Blob.

The only reason why Star Realms does not get more play in my house is my wife is thematic and prefers games that are not sci-fi.

All that said, my old game group in Memphis played Dominions to death. It was the odd game night when it did not get played. Most of the time there was a group that got 3-4 games in on a game night.

[Ironhead]

I am so disappointed that no one has made an "Anyone really into Domination?" parody thread.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Ironhead

I am so disappointed that no one has made an "Anyone really into Domination?" parody thread.

Yup, thought about that myself as I started this. The old FOFC would have been ON IT.

[Arles]

I play with the wife sometimes, but we find it's more fun with 3+. So, it's fallen behind some of the other 2-player games we have. We have a few of the expansions, is there a "good" expansion/deck set to use for 2-player? It might spark more play with us if we could find that. Overall, we really enjoy it (esp in a group of 3-4).

[PilotMan]

We've played it as a family, and I agree with Arles, that it shines much more with 3-4. I think I like it better than my kids do. My wife isn't a gamer at all. Joking Hazard is about all I can get out of her. I actually wish we'd played it more than we have.

[QuikSand]

Maybe this is a way to spark some discussion here, especially to push past the "just buy money" approach.



What sounds like a good approach with this board?

[QuikSand]

(wow that was randomly selected, using my default setup, but it's a crazy board)

and sorry about the pic size, if I do it again I'll scale down

[QuikSand]

The presence of the Baker (and tokens) makes this trickier than is fair at this level. Sorry about that. A token is set aside, and can be used at any future turn to add one to your coin total. In this game, it can be used if you get a traditional 3/4 start to bump your 4-coin hand to 5 and gain a power card in your first two rounds.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I am scheming about a Lurker / Remodel combination. Keep your deck lean and potentially bleed the supply out before a gold deck can get their engine running.

Edit: Two Lurkers in the same round is essentially a free Action Card from the supply, right?

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Edit: Two Lurkers in the same round is essentially a free Action Card from the supply, right?

Right, trash it then grab it.

Lurker is a weakness with bot opponents online - they don't prioritize it, and so they will sit back and let you just own the trash pile. Against a live opponent, it's more nuanced.

It's a complicated card. It fits into some great combinations, naturally. Pairing it with Remodel isn't bad as that enhances the value of the trash pile that you will expect to have access to.

[MJ4H]

Just dropped in for the first time in awhile and found this thread. I'm a big Dominion fan. Currently my favorite non-chess game (chess will always be my #1 game). I will eventually have all the expansions, but I'm taking it slow to learn as much about each one as I can before adding the next one.


If you can explain the Baker to me (I don't understand the coin token concept just by looking at the card as I apparently don't know whatever expansion it is from) I will take a good look at this kingdom and give my thoughts.


Initially, my thoughts (excluding Baker considerations) are that I would start Silver/Walled Village or Patrol/Lurker. I am admittedly unfamiliar with Pirate Ship, but it at least doesn't use a concept I have no clue about, so I can kind of guess at how it plays.


Remodel/Lurker engine has potential, but I think something like Big Money/Remodel and Remodeling golds to Provinces can work, too. Since Lurkers can only snipe action cards from the trash those two ideas aren't as compatible.


I wonder about Workshopping Remodels, remodeling remodels to golds and then to provinces and then lurking the remodels back into your deck? Sounds fun but probably too slow?


I also haven't considered how to counteract the barrage of Torturers probably coming at us. Remodel is the only trasher and I don't think it can keep up with the curses that we would need to take to keep from discarding all the time, not to mention there isn't anything useful to remodel a curse into. Maybe a Lurker? This just slows it down even more. I'm having trouble beating the big money+village engine, so would be something like that with just a Hoard/Lurker/Patrol or two thrown in for efficiency. The draw/cycling of Patrol could help combat the Torturers.

[Vince, Pt. II]

With the Pirate Ship, are coins on the Pirate Ship Mat permanent? If so, that seems like an insanely strong card, especially for only 4 coins. Not only can you bleed other players of their big money, but you build your own spending power on future turns.

I think my opening strategy is as follows:

• I can guarantee myself Lurker and Patrol as my first two purchases, burning my Coin Token if necessary to get the Patrol.
• On turn three, if I get my Lurker I am trashing Lurkers like they are going out of style. If I get my Patrol, I have at least 3 money and perhaps as much as 7; my spend priority will probably be Gold > Pirate Ship > Lurker. My goal is to be the one in control of the Trash and to speed up the game by running the card stock dry.
• Once I have my Pirate Ship, I focus on getting a Remodel or two so I can keep my own deck lean, using the Patrol to roll through it as quickly as possible. The Pirate Ship will both harass my opponents and combo with my Lurker to pull the trashed Treasure Cards into my own clutches, increasing my buying power to push for Victory Cards. - edit to note that Lurker can't grab Treasure Cards, only Action Cards. Damn.
• I'd like to fit a Walled Village in there somewhere (seems like something you could easily keep in your hand the entire game), but I don't know if I'm getting too cute with this setup already.

While MJ4H's worry about the Torturers is not without merit, Patrol means I will be rolling through so many cards on a regular basis that I should be able to use my Remodels to dump any curses I may take to preserve nice money hands.

With my own catch that Lurkers cannot snipe Treasure Cards from the Trash, I am less excited about this combo...but I think it is still a workable start.

[MJ4H]

So I just read up on the Baker card, which apparently comes from Guilds. This seems to be a pretty important card to the kingdom here. It seems to be a variant of the Peddler card, which can be VERY valuable if you can get them cheaply. The thought comes to mind that you could get them relatively cheaply via double-lurkers? I would definitely consider adding this to my rotation.


I need to look more into the Pirate Ship card, because I haven't really considered how I would deal with that either, yet.


Man, I love this game. Just seeing this thread with the kingdom posted for discussion last night and it's just about all I've thought about since then.

[QuikSand]

A coin token is basically set-aside marker that you can use as part of your buy phase in any subsequent turn (one time). Basically, it's great to tuck away one or more tokens, so (frex) when you end up with an annoying hand that generates a 7, you can spend the token to bump it to get a Province.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

With the Pirate Ship, are coins on the Pirate Ship Mat permanent?

You may use those coins once - when you play the Pirate Ship, you choose whether to attack your opponents, OR to convert the coin(s) gained by doing so previously into usable coins for that turn.

[QuikSand]

Wow, that is really a crazy board. I think my line would be to take a Torturer and Workshop as my opening, planning to load up with multiple Torturers and Walled Villages. Angling toward multiple-torture turns by turn #10 or so.

But there are multiple ways to play this board effectively, including just stockpiling money and using a Patrol to harvest it.

I think this game would play too fast for the Lurker/Remodel strategy to keep up, but it is viable under some circumstances.

[MJ4H]

My initial reaction to your idea was that Torturers don't stack, but I forgot it's "discard 2 cards" and not "discard down to 3." Obviously the drawing portion would still stack, but since I didn't consider it originally because of that error, on revisit you are right, it looks pretty strong.


I think you are right about the Lurker/Remodel stuff being slow. My feeling is that I would probably figure that out at the start and then do it anyway cause it would be fun to try. I think I agree the winner could very well be the big money with patrol and a couple of other things lightly sprinkled around, similar to your idea.


Or the torturers. That would probably be legit fun, too.


On another note, I just played this game. Curious about what you guys would've done. This one is a bit heavy on base set cards, but I only have Intrigue and Prosperity so that will happen sometimes. I have played a few others, like Seaside and Hinterlands, but I don't own them.

[QuikSand]

I would probably go all Village Idiot there, and end up with an action heavy deck supported by 2-4 Villages, plus maybe one Throne Room. Mountebank and Trading Post as the core.

[QuikSand]

So, I have been home sick, and playing online a fair bit the last couple of days.

I have started mostly playing against live opposition, which changes my view on the game a ton compared to the adequate, but never inventive, bots that are always available online.

The website has a scoring system - they assign you to a level, based on your performance (it seems to work more or less like the Elo scoring used in chess). I think you start at level 25, the very top players are around level 60. I got on a great run to start my rated career, won something like 11 of my first 12 games, and rocketed up into the 40s. Now, I am more or less a .500 player at that level, as I am auto-assigned to play against players roughly at my level.

My biggest takeaways are:

-Really need to improve my end-game strategy, against a sharp person there's a good deal of tactical thinking involved in a close game when both decks are starting to slow down, and there are 3, or 2, provinces remaining. Being smarter about, and more prepared for, this situation is a weakness I am working on.

-Being more inventive in seeing the ways a monster deck could be built from a given board. I'm plenty comfortable building, and facing, fairly simple "engine" decks (from the base set, using something like 4x Poacher, 2x Market, and 2x Laboratory to make a deck that expands/draws, and generates lots of coins without lots of big money cards). But now I'm seeing that there's a whole deeper dimension to this - some players basically spend their first ten or more turns doing nothing but building toward a perfect deck that will eventually come together and click, basically winning the whole game in a turn or two. Even when I realize I am up against such a strategy, I am having real trouble sorting out how to respond to it. (It can be marvelous to watch it come together)

Anyway...I don't think it's worth a dynasty thread or anything, but I am really enjoying the game a lot, playing regularly, and thinking about it even more. A lot like I got with poker back in the day. Without the swings, I guess.

[MJ4H]

IT'S WORTH A DYNASTY!

[QuikSand]

(heh)

For now, at least...

I have been sick for almost a week now, mostly home from work, and while tending to kids intermittently, getting in a fair bit of Dominion. I kinda feel dumb about spending my time this way -- it's a lot like the way I got into poker back in the day, but there was, you know, a profit motive there. Here, it's just a competitive instinct at work.

Anyway, I have driven back up to a new high, level 48. Apparently that puts me #2578 overall. Okay, that seems fine. No idea whether that's good or bad for a player with 128 rated games logged. I feel like I am more or less 50/50 against the universe of players I face, and am getting embarrassed pretty infrequently, so that's good.

I am starting to get a better feel for the "super engine deck" potential, and am seeing the better way to build toward it. Mostly, this comes down to "are there cards or card combos on the board that will enable gathering both actions and cards... to the point where you can eventually play a super-hand of nearly your whole deck from a random draw?" It's a subtle judgment...but if you determine it's possible, that seems like a hard strategy to defeat. I have faced plenty of these decks, where the opponent ends up cycling through 15-20-25 cards toward the end, gets pretty much everything he has available, and only then does he bother to go grab victory points toward the end.

Another main consideration where there's big engine potential is whether it will be plausible to add buys. If your opponent really cannot do more than gain one province per turn (and some boards basically dictate this) then your exposure to a late tsunami of VP is limited. But that's rare. More likely, he will eventually be able to generate 20 coins and have enough buys to load up lots of VP as needed, or will have other means to gain VP cards (like Remodel and similar cards).

It seems like a "rush" (gain a lead and exhaust three piles) is the best defense against this is if you're behind, but that's more easily said than done. A quick rush attack generally requires either compounded buys or some other angle to exhaust card piles (like Lurker from above, or cards similar to the Workshop in the base game). Without them, you're taking 20 turns to wipe out 3 piles of 10 and that's not going to work.

Right now, when I sense a super-engine potential, I am basically going all in toward it, even when I play second (a significant disadvantage). Not sure if that's ideal, but it seems to be better than ignoring it and playing a complete alternate strategy. I have too mane losses where I built a standard deck, got a couple provinces ahead, and then got totally swamped as the opponent's deck came together all at once and he crushed me mercilessly. Knowing when to give chase and when to try to cut them off at the pass - that's seemingly an acquired instinct, I'm working on it.

[MJ4H]

Picked up Seaside last week. I think Empires is next on my list to get.


I have a group that likes to play Dominion all evening about once a week. They have Hinterlands and the Base set, I have Base, Intrigue, Prosperity, and now Seaside.


I do most of my playing on Androminion, which is far from optimal, but it lets me play. I might do the half subscription for Dominion.games one day, but the fact that it's a subscription and not a purchase annoys me a lot.


Anyway, I have been watching some gameplay videos and some coaching things on youtube, and it often does come down to the "super-turn," which doesn't surprise me at all. When I first learned the rules, that was how I thought most games would go (it makes sense to not clog up your deck with useless green cards until the very end). Then when I played my first 3 or 4 games of Dominion, there were no +Buy cards. Now that I have expansions, the +Buy cards are more common and that should be more prominent again.

[QuikSand]

Played a fascinating game, edging more further toward actually chronicling this. There's a unique card combo of Sauna/Avanto where the two cards come together in one split stack -- first 5 are Sauna, next 5 are Avanto. It's a potent combination for a monster engine, and typically attracts players to go after them. In my game, I did so aggressively, my opponent only got a couple of them.

Instead, he went in hard on the card Swindler, which grants $2 and reveals the opponent'stop deck card, allowing you to replace it with a like-priced card. My main use here has always been to swap copper for curse, but he used it like mad to neuter my Saunas (turning them into useless Gardens) and after several (perhaps lucky) turns my deck was gutted. I don't like losing, but if I'm going to lose, I at least want to feel like I was legitimately bested. That was awesome.

[MJ4H]

I've found the ineptitude most players have with the Swindler kind of comical. At the end of the year, I had some free time to play Dominion with some of my students who pretty unanimously love Dominion. A lot of them play Magic, so they were already used to the type of game.


We had played enough games to have happened across Swindler a couple of times, and I finally had to resort to just telling them to give curses for coppers. Literally none of them had figured it out.


It's a very disruptive card indeed. It is also a strong ally in rush strategies since it helps deplete stacks very quickly.

[QuikSand]

I am still trying to find the sweet spot for the Lurker card. I got hectored by a highly rated opponent for overplaying it in a recent game, and ending up with a deck that had no real action/money in it (he was correct, though he didn't have to be a prick about it). It's definitely possible to overcommit to the card.

I also just played in a game where both the Bishop (trash-for-$-and-VP) and Lurker were present, and I managed to win it by managing the VP situation to win 12-7 in a rush (closing out the game by emptying three piles, rather than exhausting the provinces). My opponent (higher rated than me) seemed to just miss the potential to wipe out three cards pretty easily -- he shouldn't have allowed me to enter a turn with a VP lead and 4 lurkers in my deck, with only three cards separating us from a game-ender. I had two lurkers in my hand (plus a buy), and trashed two or something, bought the one last Lurker, and it was over easily.

Some more reading, in case anyone's deep into this:
https://dominionstrategy.com/2017/09/26/on-lurker/

[QuikSand]

I've been on tear today, I'm 8-1 including at least 3 wins over players at level 50+. I wonder how much I can move my own rating with a run like that... I'm level 47.7 right now. I think they update the ratings daily. Hmmmmmm...

[QuikSand]

FWIW, I went up to 48.6, rounding up to 49. Green arrow up! (gives me a sense of perspective what it takes to inch up to 52-54, where some of my foes are ranked)

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

But now I'm seeing that there's a whole deeper dimension to this - some players basically spend their first ten or more turns doing nothing but building toward a perfect deck that will eventually come together and click, basically winning the whole game in a turn or two. Even when I realize I am up against such a strategy, I am having real trouble sorting out how to respond to it. (It can be marvelous to watch it come together).

So the Dominion version of a combo deck. Blah.

[Abe Sargent]

I've played Dominion, found it was fun, but prefer the faster dice-building games that came later to be better uses of the core mechanic of drafting your random stuff.

[MJ4H]

I'm subscribed to all the expansions on Dominion Online now. It will take me awhile to get up to speed on the rest of the expansions, but I'm slowly adding cards from the ones I haven't played before. After I do that, I'll start playing real people. I recently bought Empires, so I have a good handle on Events and Landmarks, but the night phase of Nocturne, the Boons, Hexes, Will O' Wisps, all of that are still quite a mystery to me. It will take some time.


I can definitely tell I'm getting better, too. Will probably lose badly to the flesh opponents.

[Poli]

Interesting. I'm going to look into it more.

[QuikSand]

My old poker self is feeling the "swings" here. I had a tough run playing against solid online opposition, felt like I was being soundly outplayed when up against potential superdecks (lots of engine potential) and have withdrawn to playing bots for a while, trying to improve that part of my game. Still love this, just in a trough atm. Rating down to around 46.

[QuikSand]

So, I am still playing a lot in idle time here and there, and am hoping to get going with a "dynasty thread" on this site. Stay tuned.