| Score | Percentile | Paths |
|---|
This simulator runs every possible shuffle of the Big Money Strategy in a game of Dominion. Instead of simulating just one player, I'm simulating the entire Multiverse of Luck. If your score is higher than a row of the table, you are beating that percentage of every possible Big Money Player.
The Benchmark
The Big Money Strategy is simple, works in every game (because it uses nothing but Coins), and is relatively effective. The simplest version of the strategy is:
- Buy a Province.
- If you can't buy a Province, Buy a Gold.
- If you can't buy a Gold, Buy a Silver.
Big Money is a good benchmark to compare any strategy to. If you cannot beat Big Money by weaving together the powers available in the store, you are not considering a worthwhile strategy.
- Rounds 1-7
:- 3 VP
- Rounds 8-10
:- 9 VP
- Rounds 11-13
:- 15 VP
- Rounds 14-15
:- 21 VP
- Rounds 16-17
:- 27 VP
- Rounds 18-20
:- 33 VP
- Rounds 21+
:- 39 VP
The luckiest Big Money Players will buy their first Province on Round 5 and will have bought every Province after Round 16.
Chris, WTF?
Every time you draw 5 cards from your Deck, you get one of many hands you could have drawn. Think of the 3/4 vs. 2/5 opening hand split. After those first two hands, with the first shuffle of your discard pile, the possibilities EXPLODE. You can see the sheer number of ways our Big Money Player could have gotten to their current score in the "Paths" column!
From that number, we derive a "Percentile" for each "Score". If you are beating a row on the table, you are beating that percent of Big Money Players. Any rows above that are Big Money attempts lucky enough to be doing better than you. Hover over the Paths number to see an example deck.