[SPOILERS] SevenSpirits trashes three estates and a copper

[NobleHelium]

Yeah, I was surprised too when that dawned on me. I mean, I've played Magic the Gathering forever so I know about small decks yielding up the best cards more often. But copper always felt like a positive card, until I started trashing them and realizing just how quickly the value of your average card exceeds a copper.

Thing is, that made the game boring. You don't need to set up crazy throne room deck-drawing combos... you just buy simple gold and markets and every turn plop down either six coins for more gold or eight for a province. And then you shuffle and draw the same cards over again next turn. :zzz:

I'm not really an advanced player, but the Dominion metagame has moved away from Big Money since the starting sets. Action chains have been more powerful with the later expansions. Hinterlands did increase the power of Silver again (particularly with Jack of all Trades), but I'd still say most games have a stronger action-heavy strategy than a money one.

[SevenSpirits]

I'm not really an advanced player, but the Dominion metagame has moved away from Big Money since the starting sets. Action chains have been more powerful with the later expansions. Hinterlands did increase the power of Silver again (particularly with Jack of all Trades), but I'd still say most games have a stronger action-heavy strategy than a money one.

I don't think T-hawk is talking about big money, rather about big money + chapel (which is often worse, heh).

[SevenSpirits]

Vikings and Japan are both taken... well hm, I was thinking Rome as my last choice here but literally every other player has an axeman or maceman UU, so non-aggressive praets will be guarded against by default.

Starting with mysticism is quite costly; I'm not convinced the extra maintenance reduction on courthouses will make up for that.

[Commodore]

America has Fishing and Malls!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

I actually dislike Org with Aztecs and Sumer...cuts the courthouse discount in half, basically.

Or, another way to think about it, is that it makes your decision to for one particularly favourable strategy so much the better. You've invested into something, why not invest even more for even greater gains.

It's the same principle behind Colossus being strong for those going for a FIN coast economy, or Parthenon being strong for someone who has decided pick a PHI leader and work a ton of specialists. You've made a decision you were going to go for... even stronger.

[mackoti]

Hey Seven you need to update this more for your dedlurker(me).

[SevenSpirits]

Well you haven't missed much. I just played turn 0. Don't have a full micro plan but the next few turns I know. I am getting hunting in 3t exactly by working coast, coast, whale. This doesn't delay growth as with the supermarket I will get 3, 3, 4, 4 food on the first 4 turns. Meanwhile the worker will explore for 2t (next turn it moves NE-SE onto the plains hill) before arriving on the ivory in time to start camping.



Why hunting? Well here is how I see the relative strengths of my tiles once improved in the immediate term:

1) Pig
2) Whale (maybe should be #1)
3) Ivory
4) Rice
5) Town

(Though I will note that they all have different utility and it's nice to be able to emphasize food/hammers/commerce.)

So hunting is not only the tech I can research fastest, but it unlocks a better improvement than agriculture and one that's faster to build. Depending on where the second city ends up going I may even ignore agriculture for a while. Alternately I could get it next after hunting. Other alternatives are Wheel, AH, or BW (least likely).

I do have mining and you might think I should just be mining that grass hill first. But that doesn't seem worth it - I already have 3 tiles that are equal to or better than a grass mine before investing a single worker turn (whale, ivory, and town).

The priority is to get out some warriors, workers and settlers, but I don't know in which order just yet. Have to scout around first. Techwise I will just get worker techs and ignore the early wonders/religions because I'm creative.

[SevenSpirits]

Another turn! I will save the scouting update for next one though. This turn all you get is the census. (Whale and Elephant only just became cultured, and did not fill out the forms.)

[SevenSpirits]

Guess I forgot to mention why I picked Rome. It's a solid civ, has a good and versatile unit available at a tech that looks strong on this map based on the capital's jungle tile (which may well spread unless I can improve the tile 1e of it first), and a UB that will have a (small) effect on the game. And it has the best starting techs that are left (and probably the second best starting techs for Zara overall, second to Japan's Fishing/Wheel). Worrying that it's countered by maceman UUs is a little silly - macemen counter classical era units in general! And praetorians will be a good addition to a mix of other defenders (which will surely include crossbows to counter those mace units).

@Commodore's suggestion of America: I wish it were viable but starting with Fishing and Agriculture together is like biting off your right hand while you stab yourself in the throat.

[SevenSpirits]

Scouting:



Now I have to start planning again...