opkopk
3001
I suggest we all friend/challenge him at once. At least one of us will win and that will be some solace. Even if he has no idea. We’ll know.
Just to be clear, we didn’t lose, the Hivemind lost. Thanks to MEETINGS, we get to privatize glory and socialize shame.
Did I think that there was no way we can get rid of the Noxious Soul? I DO NOT RECALL.
Remember when I accurately predicted Akam’s downfall and the methods thereof? (nevermind that some nameless others did also.) EXECUTIVE BONUS PLEASE.
We killed Noxious Soul! Noxious Soul was good for us.
Haha, awesome. If you could change your Playdek name on demand, we could all add [QT3] tags to our names. Then he’d know what’s what!
I don’t know if we could have won that. He had a very strong start with Belthar, which we were couldn’t do anything about. It was an uphill battle from the very beginning. Which isn’t to say that the God of Gamblers beat us. He played some hands very well, and seemed to get a lot more mileage out of, for instance, the Honey Sirens than I ever am able to.
Seeing other people’s thought processes is always interesting. A lot of others would go offensive when I go defensive, and vice versa. And I too often fall into the mentality that I need to use up every last rune, or just buy the most expensive thing I can, even when it’s counter-productive. Bloaty 30+ card decks are not the norm for me, but they aren’t unusual either. Some of which is stuff I know I need to work on. I know I have bad habits from online async play - I get lazy about tracking my opponent’s hand / deck, etc.
Tyjenks
3005
You are all obnoxious pricks right after I lose.
I’ve hesitated to chime in afterward with this opinion for several reasons: I’m very new to this game; many of my comments or suggestions reflected that inexperience; I was nearly always wrong, while most of you were right. I learned a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. But…I still think we should have banished Akam when we had the chance. We left him there, and Jakeb took him, however improbably, on the very next turn. This was in round 8. Akam was how he got the Cog Maw (6 pts) on the next turn. I haven’t traced it further than that, but I’m guessing we’ll find additional gets Akam enabled, and the sum gain will look a lot like the card value margin of victory.
opkopk
3007
I think this illustrates Gus’s Meetings poster. It’s entirely possible that none of us individually would have made the same set of decisions. It’s entirely possible that any one of us could have done better.
Further proof that Ascension is awesome.
Could we have won? There are certainly games where I can pinpoint the moment I lost, but I think that’s pretty hard to do most of the time.
If, for example, we had gone for the Stags, would that honor generation have been enough to make a difference (my best estimation is that if that we had ended the game earlier, we would have only lost by 4 or 5)? Would chaining off the Spider Witch or Dandelion Witch have helped, assuming that our deck managed to put those cards together? Would being more aggressive with our monster-banishing (since we wouldn’t have been going for them ourselves) have cut him off at the knees? Maybe, but the domino effect of these decisions could have spiraled the game in many other directions.
I will say that I think that it was up for grabs in the early-to-mid game. Like Dave said, I think the Cobra Kiss made some “interesting” choices early on, but they panned out pretty well.
opkopk
3009
To make matters worse I played probably three games with him during that Hive game. Lost every one. Maybe he’s onto something. Or more likely he’s The Debbil.
Did not see that at all!
Played him many times before! Playing him is like playing Pacman, you usually end up with a medal for trying.
Speaking of which, I wanna see Pacman vs the Hive Mind!
A medal for trying… Ha!
There was far less consensus in the Hive this time than any other time, and I chalk that up to Ascension maturing through these new decks, opening up new avenues and strategies. Oh plus more obnoxious pricks.
…and that the Hive Mind games are a whole lot of fun. I find myself back here multiple times today, wanting more. Shouldn’t Dave be required to always be running Hive Mind games? Mystery conferences or not?
opkopk
3013
Did I hear once that someone on here had gathered some amount of raw data about Ascension games? Number of turns? Number of points? Number of decisions? EV of cards?
I wish it was easier to log and collect that kind of stuff. Maybe something like that could be part of the new engine when (if) it comes out next year.
Absolutely. The consensus part, I mean. And the debates are what make the Hive Mind and the Exhibition Matches great. As a card-carrying wuss, I thought the tone was getting a little hostile this time, but I don’t think we need to get all Robert’s Rules of Order about it.
But I say let’s see who wants to put their money where their mouth is. Dave has faced the Hive Mind. Who here is wo/man enough to do the same? We could do it the Exhibition Match Thread to keep this one clear. It would require a Hive Mind Queen to take screenshots and actually play against the challenger.
Any takers?
Thraeg
3015
We should make playing the hivemind the secret final boss for the winner of each month’s league playoffs.
opkopk
3016
I wouldn’t mind if anyone else wants me to play. Hell, I’ll do dang near anything to play more Ascension. I’d like to do it on either side. More hive action or fending it off.
Now bear in mind that I’m not especially good at Ascension… :-)
Lantz
3018
I’m not very fond of these larger deck (2+3+4 in this case) games because I feel like there’s just such massive variability in what can show up during a game, it’s really hard to put together a cohesive strategy. It feels like whoever gets the better luck in the first couple rounds is at a massive advantage. In this game the hive mind managed to put together a good banish/cycling hand and nothing good would show up on the board to fill the deck with anything worth cycling too.
Obviously someone is going to win, but in smaller deck games I feel like I can earn victories and screw up and lose games. In large combo decks I feel like I’m mostly along for the ride with the deal.
This is a terrific idea. We should each take our turn against the Hive Mind. I wouldn’t be much competition, but I’d certainly give it a try. Fun!
Feel free to resurrect that thread with an open challenge. We probably don’t want more than 1 game going at a time, but there aren’t any rules about who can post or anything :)
