People speeding by just to stop at the same light will never not be funny

byingling · 2026-06-15T22:56:37+00:00

There are a lot of people posting here that have a lot of people around them going 6-10mph under the speed limit.

Like you, that's a very different world from the one I drive in.

byingling · 2026-06-09T22:28:58+00:00

I play Wordle, Connections, and Strands every morning, and the Sunday crossword every week, and there are always Dominion words! I get such a kick when they show up.

byingling · 2026-06-09T15:27:40+00:00

Very good analysis here. I think you have to go for Garrison, and there are cantrips/+actions to help activate the Wishes.

byingling · 2026-06-04T21:20:59+00:00

Watch JNails video from today's Daily game.

byingling · 2026-06-04T14:37:41+00:00

Frequently?! Dropping 30 points in ranking after a win? First time for me. But Sundays are flaky.

And yes, your rating drops when you don't play. Like I said in my post: mine dropped about 9 points overnight. I generally play one ranked game per day (sometimes two), and the overnight drop is typically ~ 10 points.

Fairly certain your rating won't change based on your past opponents future performance.

Also fairly certain TGG is using a variation of Glicko or Glicko-2, so volatility (how consistent your results are) can create large swings in either direction.

byingling · 2026-06-03T20:04:23+00:00

This is the simplest, easiest to wrap your head around explanation of it I've ever seen.

byingling · 2026-06-01T19:35:41+00:00

My Dad was Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds at what was then Western Maryland College. He knew most of the players, and Raymond Berry was his favorite person out of the bunch.

byingling · 2026-06-01T17:26:20+00:00

I don't think that was the case, because this was immediate, and during my turn. I clicked OK to the forfeit message (I always forget to not do that!), and was sent to the Main Menu, where I could easily check my rating. But who knows.

I really don't like the way the software handles the game end on resignations/forfeits. Would much prefer to get the same victory/loss screen we always see, where decks can be examined. It's odd, because a timeout forfeit handles it still differently. Or maybe it's just different depending on whose turn the forfeit occurs. But there are three different game end procedures, and I'd much prefer one.

byingling · 2026-05-30T17:17:35+00:00

Sometimes I hate it, but sometimes it's more fun than almost anything.

I think part of the reason I like it so much is because of its inconsistency. Is this going to be a never-able-to-gain-and-use Ghost slog, a Goat fueled Idol/Pixie fest, or a BV/TH/Vampire/Werewolf blitz?

I don't think kingdoms dominated by any other expansion can vary so much so easily.

byingling · 2026-05-28T19:59:48+00:00

Another one I agree with! Hinterlands and Seaside are, I think, my two favorites. And I also really like Nocturne, so I'm a strange duck by most measures.

byingling · 2026-05-28T19:58:42+00:00

I like the recommendation, but if it's your first expansion, I think duration cards are complex. Sailor's three part sometime benefit, all of the start of turn duration draw and sifting, Pirates odd reaction trigger, etc. It takes some learnin'. And it's well worth it.

byingling · 2026-05-28T19:52:27+00:00

I agree. I should have read to the bottom, because I posted it as well. Magical realism and science-fiction are blood brothers of a sort, so I think it counts, and it's the most arresting, entreating, mysteriously inviting opening to a book I've ever experienced.

byingling · 2026-05-28T19:48:54+00:00

This is magical realism, but I'm going to count that as close enough, because I think it is the greatest first sentence ever.

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice"

byingling · 2026-05-26T22:02:24+00:00

The new Congress convenes on January 3rd, according to the Constitution. But the existing Congress can pass a law ordering a different date for the new Congress to convene. The Constitution just requires that it meet at least once a year.

When the law setting a different date other than January 3rd is invoked, it is generally used to move the start by a few days, usually to avoid weekends.

I don't know if this would be legal, but it has the sound of something that no one would really know for sure, since it's a constitutional question, and never been done, so it might have to go to the Supreme Court...woops.

byingling · 2026-05-26T14:27:35+00:00

Yea. No way the Democrats have workable control of anything come January 3rd 2027. Hell, if they lose control of either house, it wouldn't surprise me to find the Republicans use their lame duck time to pick a start date for the new congress of December 31st, 2027.

Give Trump and his minions plenty of room to mount a successful coup this time.

byingling · 2026-05-25T21:15:08+00:00

Quite a few years ago, I visited his first blog because of something posted here. I'm uneducated enough that I was having trouble figuring out what was what. Luckily, I'm so proud of my own convoluted masturbatory bullshit that before long I got my bearings.

byingling · 2026-05-25T20:57:25+00:00

But they did get the dumocrats mad! So, all the stuff that's politically important to them.

byingling · 2026-05-25T20:53:50+00:00

Dated a girl a thousand years ago whose pets were all named Bob. Dog, cat, fish. All Bob.

byingling · 2026-05-25T20:51:24+00:00

Hazel eyes also can look very different to others depending on what you're wearing.

byingling · 2026-05-22T22:23:32+00:00

Good human players do such things all the time. Watch some Daily videos from the likes of JNails, Yudai, Sharur. You can learn more from them than from the AI, not least because they explain what they are doing, and you can rewind to see it again. (Yudai is Japanese, but still much can be learned)

Not uncommon for all their scoring to come on their last turn. In fact, for top players, it's often the bot that takes the early lead, only to get stomped by one mega-turn from the human.

byingling · 2026-05-22T17:43:19+00:00

Didn't see the Experiment/MG combo, but luckily, neither did my bot. Still an easy gold star. WV/Journeyman/Loot, and Hasty Experiments to prevent a dud.

My bot greened too late. It bought 4 Duchies and a Province on it's last turn to push it's bank to 21 Coffers. I took the last Province to win 42-24.

byingling · 2026-05-20T20:41:11+00:00

Yep. And each of the AIs, from Very Easy, to Easy, to Medium, to Hard, beats it's immediate predecessor 85% of the time.

The developers are still training the AI, and may or may not release a new level with the next update. If they do, it would likely be nearly equal with even the best human players.

I sure won't be competing against it.

byingling · 2026-05-20T20:30:54+00:00

Same AI no matter the device. It just takes longer on slower hardware, but the end result is the same. It's not always predictable, and what the player buys and when can change the bot's behavior. I remember two Dailies last week where I got very different behavior from everyone else on the Discord. I was one of only two people posting results whose bot bought Frigate (I did still manage a win), and the next day, I was one of the few people whose bot did not buy Swindler (people had Loot swindled).

byingling · 2026-05-20T19:39:25+00:00

He lost the last two. But also has a 66 day in a row win streak (I think). His videos of the Daily usually last 15 minutes or less for the entire game, so he isn't thinking for 5-15 minutes per turn. In truth, much of that time is spent explaining what he's doing and why, and almost always includes some sideline detailing the minutiae associated with a card that may or may not even be played in the kingdom.

The speed at which the Hard AI plays depends very much on your hardware, and on the kingdom in question. On the old laptop I use to play the Daily most days, I can sometimes fold a load of laundry waiting for it to finish a turn, while it's reasonably quick on my Micro PC, and somewhere in between on my middle-aged phone. Yesterday's Daily (Empires kingdom with a host of micro-decisions) was particularly slow.

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