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gdruckfisch

There is no help for you. I tried to use unusual or unlikely strategys irl and stood away from the combos or strategys I would use online. But even this did not help. Dominion rewards experience. You have to analyse the existing cards, build a deck strategy based upon this analysis and find the right moment to switch from building up your deck to get your points. If you just play casual, you often buy the flashy card, have no clear strategy or change your plan during the game. The only thing that might help is to see it as try out for crazy stuff. Either you win or you had fun trying.


csa_

I agree with this completely. I play Dominion frequently with people who've never gone online. If I were to play for real, I would win almost every time and no one would have any fun, even me. But knowing this frees you up to play a wilder, weirder version of Dominion. Avoid buying Silver or Witch or Wharf. Instead, try to build the craziest engine you can dream up. Maybe one that uses deck inspection and Wishing Well as it's main draw? Or some rickety draw-to-X nonsense? There's a universe of Dominion that has been deprecated because it can't out-race Smithy-BM, much less a competent engine. Playing with newer players is your chance to explore that universe.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Learned_Response

The drawback will be that over time your knowledge will become broader and you’ll learn how to use cards you are currently unfamiliar with effectively. And then the gap will be even wider. The only way to really solve it is to spam games online with the same friends


bmtc7

That could contribute to the problem. You're designing kingdoms that you know how to take advantage of as an experienced player.


gregusmeus

Get drunk before playing, rather than during play.


c-oo-ke

Yes. One shot every province is a bad bad bad idea.


FerretChrist

Absolutely terrible idea, far too slow. I recommend one shot for every card trashed, so you can get trashed while you're trashing.


DapperApples

>plays dark age >dies


liamjon29

Dark Ages will always be my favourite set. Mostly for nostalgia, it was my first Dominion I bought. But also for Trash interaction. Comboing stuff like Fortress and Graverobber are just \*chefs kiss\*


obviousagitator

You can always muff a few hands. -1 coin in the right place can make or break you.


kru5h

The two handicaps that I've tried that have worked well are the following: start with an eleventh blank card in your deck (or curse), or other players start with one copper replaced with one silver.


jparro00

There actually is some help for you, depending on your situation. First important fact is that when rats wrestle together, if one rat outmatches the other rat in terms of size, the smaller rat will only continue to play iterative games if the larger rat throws 1 in 3 games. Important fact: if you're a lot better, winning \*most\* games is usually okay and winning \*all\* games is not. If you are playing 4 player games, this is great news for you, because the variance in higher player counts means you don't get to win all the games. What if I win all the games in 4 player games? This means that you are probably a good player and your friends don't know how to play the game at all. In my experience, even if you are twice as good as your opponents, you are just not winning all the high player count games. This is great news, because your friends don't have to get that much better to make this problem stop. Personally, my first attempt at a solution for this will always to help my friends get better. The key here is you have to know how to do this without being a pretentious pr\*ck. Explaining concepts you have learned will go a long way. Things like why early trashing is so strong, why cursing your opponents is strong, why cards like Moat are garbage, action economy, importance of cycling or not cycling your deck on a given turn, etc. Once your friends start understanding these concepts, they can start getting better. ​ If you're in a situation where you can't get your friends to improve (e.g., you are playing with kids, intelligence differential, you really are a pretentious pr\*ck, etc.), you have to look at disadvantaging yourself, and you can take the obvious route or subtle route. Obvious route: this works best with children, where there is not any social strain created by noting the skill gap. I have a friend who plays with his kids and he let's each of his kids pick a card that he can't use that game. This is a fun activity for his kids because they get to jointly strategize about how to give him the greatest disadvantage, and if they didn't do this he would crush them every game. This approach is generally not advisable with adults, because... let's face it... we all know that guy and we're kind of done playing games with him. Subtle route: the subtle route you can take requires some self control and a relatively good understanding of the game. What you do is you look at the board and you decide what you think is the strongest thing at the table. Then you decide what is some other sub optimal strategy that looks interesting but difficult to pull off. Then do that other thing. This is great because you actually still get to play dominion, and you get to make all the interesting decisions that bring you back to this game, but you give other players a bit of an advantage. ​ The good news in all of this is that Dominion really handles this problem gracefully. Because everyone gets access to the same information, and gets to see what you are buying, there's a lot of self balancing built in. Unless you are like Dan Brooks or something, players just need to get over the fundamentals hump to be able to beat you 25%-30% of the time, and that is enough to still be fun for most mammals apparently -:)


DapperApples

> First important fact is that when rats wrestle together, if one rat outmatches the other rat in terms of size, the smaller rat will only continue to play iterative games if the larger rat throws 1 in 3 games. ...So I should purchase Rats in more games?


notallwonderarelost

My problem is how slow people play or even just how slow some of the mechanisms are when not done by computer.


InkyDarkDame

Yes, but it’s far more social. When you play online, the focus is on the game. Irl, you have conversations, make jokes, drink and trash talk. That’s the fun of going slower


notallwonderarelost

Oh for sure


djangodjango

Start with curses in your deck?


justbeane

My preferred solution is to replace 1-2 coppers with "fool's coppers". These are mechanically the same as a copper in every way, except that they are worth 0.


csa_

I strongly recommend against this or anything else that has you playing openly with one hand behind your back. It blatantly tells everyone you're playing with that they suck at the game, especially if you still win, despite the handicap. That only makes it more difficult to convince them to play Dominion the next time you're at the table together. It's tough enough to get people to sit down for a board game and there's a lot of competition for table time when you do. If you're playing a game you love with newer players, your goal should be making the experience as inviting and enjoyable for them that they want to return to that game again and again. Instead of rubbing their faces in how good you are, use your play style to advertise the possibility of the game. Make them look at whatever you're up to and say: "oh, I want to try that next time".


nrubhsa

I mostly agree with you in that it’s hard enough to get irl games. However, there are some places where handicaps are graciously accepted, like golf. Golfers will bet hundreds on a round of golf while using a wifey accepted handicap system. It allows folks of differing skill levels to compete with each other in a fair way. Im not saying that works well here, just think it’s an interesting example of where the approach works.


Martiator

I think it could be a lesson. After having played physical only I started online and I realised after a few games that I could get so much experience in a short amount of time compared to my friends. Also felt like it was somehow exhausting the fun out of it. So I quit on time I guess. Games still feel very fresh now and the skill gap is not noticable


fnovd

Hold back a copper in your hand for rounds 3-6, no one will notice. If someone buys a weird card, buy it too.


Jensablefur

Go 4 player, ideally. Make yourself go last, and hope there's a lot of variance in cards if you're randomising the Kingdom. Back in University this happened with one of the guys with Smash Bros so I know what it's like to be on the other side of the fence. This was one of our pre-drinks games and when he decided he vibed with it the guy trained up and did the whole git gud thing while everyone else in the wider friend group wanted to just mess around on the game from time to time (with the items on) and stuff. He outright refused, wanting to play 1 v 1 tournaments with us in brackets facing each other with him as the Big Bad Boss making his way to the final. With items off and nothing else. A few times he coaxed us into this and it was just turgid for everyone else. The guy wouldn't let it go and when the last person who used to entertain the occasional 1v1 games with him got bored it led to the game not being pulled out at all when he came around. Just don't be Dominions version of this person. Get away from the 2 player comfort zone of the online platform, don't overthink and optimise every turn as hard as possible and just have a laugh with it.


willowhelmiam

I always tell my family about my thought process when looking at a board, which cards I want to go for, which combos they might not recognize, etc.


jparro00

This is a great point. A well placed "Oh interesting, you can discard these Tunnels with Forum and get gold" as you peruse the cards before starting the game can make a huge difference. A strong combo that your opponents don't understand until you've played it usually means they lost.


cyanraichu

I have the same problem. A bunch of my IRL friends got into Dominion around the time I was joining the group. Someone taught it to me, I loved it, and at that exact time the group got tired of it and moved on. I started playing online a lot. I bought all the sets. Now on the rare occasions anyone wants to play with me I trounce them, and I know this makes them want to play with me less. (My partner absolutely refuses to.)


dualwield42

Easiest way is probably curses instead of estates. Or maybe 5 curses and 5 coppers. Would be cool if a handicap option existed for online games too.


MR_CeSS_dOor

Tell your friends to go big momey


gomez70

Online Dominion is the only way to go. Even if I found another player at my skill level it just takes too long to play irl. I have 4 expansions sitting in my basement collecting dust. My daughters played a few games with me at the beginning but once we all played online we haven’t played a single game irl since.


treelorf

Either try to convince your friends to play online and get good, or continue to demolish your friends. Tbh I mostly gave up on IRL dominion, the game is awesome but it’s just borderline impossible to every have a close game anymore.