What's this game featuring a 15x15 peg board, and 60 pegs for the two sides? [The game was made by my husband’s grandfather in 1974, but we don’t know the name or the rules. Each end has 60 pegs. The playing space is 15 across and 15 spaces wide. Thanks for any help you can give. We’d love to play this.]

Use of pegs instead of "stones" suggests Gramps was imitating the commercial game "Pegity", which predates Pente by a number of years.  Pegity was played on a hole grid, with pegs (all plastic when my family played it in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though apparently originally wood).

I haven't seen a set in forty years so don't recall the grid dimension.  The main play difference between Pegity and go-moku (and the later, unexpanded Pente) was four different colors of pegs, at least in the plastic version -- the game still revolved around forming a row of 5 on rows, columns, or diagonals.


Does Dormant Sliver mean Slivers can no longer attack? Dormant Sliver

{2}{G}{U}
Creature -- Sliver
2/2.
All Sliver creatures have defender.
All Slivers have "When this permanent enters the battlefield, draw a card."

It would seem if all Slivers have defender then they could no longer attack and would be like a wall. Or am I missing something?

Yes (you aren't missing anything).  With Dormant Sliver in play, no slivers will be able to attack.

As per the comp. rules:

  702.3b A creature with defender can't attack.


Saboteur - ladder card When playing Saboteur card game for 2, where can you put the ladder card? Can you e.g. put it next to a brown card, once it has been turned and there is no gold on it?

The can never be placed next to a goal card even if there is no gold on the card.

Rules

  Path with a Ladder (4 in game)
  The path on this card is always
  connected to the Start Card and to
  all other cards with a ladder.
  It always has to touch a path card
  and cannot be placed next to a goal
  card


Finding the CIN of MTG Cards for collection on recent (2017-ish) MTG cards I collect MTG cards and after hoarding a huge collection I'm trying to get it all organized now from this mess.

I've found an xls file that has almost all of the cards on it but it's not updated for the latest 2-3 sets.  I can find an input all the information required for those but I don't know where to find the info for this "CIN" column - it looks like it is just the abbreviation of the set name and then the card number within the set?  How do I know what the abbreviation is and is there anywhere I can just look up this information?

"CIN" probably stands for "Card Identification Number" or something similar, just based on context. This does not appear to be a commonly used term online when discussing Magic: the Gathering.

The abbreviation for each set is officially decided by Wizards. You can find these abbreviations at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_sets or http://mtg.wikia.com/wiki/Set.


When will playing Rubber Bridge vs. Duplicate Bridge affect your decisions? In Rubber Bridge, you are trying to get more points than your opponents. In Duplicate Bridge, you are trying to get more points than the other people playing the same hand later on do. For a while I thought this wouldn't make a difference, but then I've noticed bridge columns occasionally offering different suggestions depending on which is being played, and couldn't make sense of it, because in either situation you're goal is to get as many points as possible.

When would you make a different decision based on if you were playing Rubber vs. Duplicate Bridge? How are the strategies different for them? After looking at a complete record of the decisions players made in a bridge hand, how can I tell if it was played at Duplicate or Rubber? What does it take to be good at Duplicate after you've become pretty good at Rubber?

I wholly agree with thesun's answer, particularly "you must squeeze every ounce of potential out of your cards".  But since you've posed particular queries at the end of your question:

Part-scores are the most obvious difference.  If you have strong Hearts, but not strong enough for slam, a Rubber player looks at the scoresheet; with 60 points below the line, there is no point going above 2H unless forced (overtricks score the same as bid tricks, and there is no risk of failure).  A Duplicate player knows there is no line: bid to 4H if you can make it.  Similarly with honours: a marginal hand with KQJT, worth bidding at Rubber because of the cushion 100 honours will give, is not worth bidding at Duplicate.

Strategy: again, Rubber bridge is about making the best of your situation, while Duplicate is about making the best of your cards, Take sacrifices: a Duplicate player knows that if he goes one down doubled but stops opponents making a game, he has done well out of that hand.  At Rubber bridge, you have saved the rubber for now, but if the opponents win a few hands later, all your sacrifice achieved was to cost you a few hundred points.  More generally, if by strategy you mean scoring as many points as possible (as I think you should), any change in the scoring method will affect your strategy.

Usually, you can't tell under which system a particular hand was played; obviously, if one side started with 30 below the line it was at Rubber, and if two declarers took different routes it was Duplicate.

And if you are really a good Rubber bridge player, you will be (or are) a good Duplicate player.  'Good', of course, is compared to 20 or 30 others, rather than 3, and you may find that your system is too ill-defined to be acceptable without work: but it's the same game, and just as enjoyable if not more so.


Unstable Unicorns - what is the definition of "effect"? There is a card 'blinding light' that says 'all your unicorns are treated as basic unicorns with no special effects' -  But what is a special effect?  The rules define obvious words like "draw" and "play" but not "effect".
For example, 'annoying flying unicorn' has the text:

When this card enters your Stable, you may choose a player. That
player must DISCARD a card. If this card is sacrificed or destroyed,
return it to your hand.

What part of that is an effect? Is it the second half of the sentence, "discard a card"?  Is it the whole sentence, "That player must DISCARD a card"?  Is it only the condition?  The action?  Sentences with "may" in it?  Maybe its the second sentence - "Return it to your hand"!?
(I have a friend who says the second part is not an effect.  Therefore if I play 'blinding light' and then 'unicorn poison' on her card, she gets to put the card back in her hand.  The reasonings are many - there is an element of choice in the second part, or because the card is no long in the stable, or maybe because it is the third sentence in the card.  Point is, 'effect' is not defined.')
So can anyone define 'effect'?

Blinding Light treats your unicorns as if they have no text on them at all, except "Basic Unicorn." So if the Annoying Flying Unicorn is sacrificed or destroyed in your stable, it just gets discarded like any other dead unicorn. When you play a unicorn into a stable that already has Blinding Light, it does nothing – just like a Basic Unicorn.
When I looked up Blinding Light, I found this image, which has much less ambiguous text:

No mention of "special" effects, just all Unicorn card effects, i.e. all of the text at the bottom of a Unicorn card. (If your Unicorns were all Pandas, they would be unaffected by this card.)


trigger priority and response to said triggers mtg if there are two voltaic servant triggers, can i respond to the second trigger after the first trigger resolves? For example; I tap steel overseer during my turn. At the end of my turn my two voltaic servants trigger to untap a target artifact. I untap my steel overseer for the first trigger and in response to the second trigger I tap steel overseer again. After that the second trigger goes off and I will have effectively tapped steel overseer 2 times and untapped 3 times because of the two voltaic servants. Is this correct?

Yes, this is correct.

Rule 117.1b states:

  117.1b A player may activate an activated ability any time they have priority.

And rule 117.3b states:

  117.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

Based on that, you will receive priority after the first trigger resolves, and may activate Steel Overseer's ability, putting it on the stack. After that resolves and each player passes priority, the Voltaic Servant's ability still on the stack resolves normally, untapping target artifact.


Does Ada Wong's Level 1 ability trigger Infected text? In the Resident Evil Deck Building Game (base set), Ada Wong's level 1 ability allows her to look at the first card in the Mansion and choose to leave it on top or move it to the bottom. It is unclear whether the effect of the Infected would be applied or not, given that there is no actual combat.

Most of the effect text is obviously inconsequential; the Infected is neither defeated nor revealed so none of the effect text that triggers on defeat or reveal would apply anyway.  However, the Hunter and the Uroboros Aheri cards in the base set both trigger when the Infected in question is not defeated.

In particular, the text on the Uroboros Aheri card reads:

  If this Infected was not defeated, shuffle it into the Mansion

Although Ada's ability doesn't actually "defeat" anything, it's unclear whether the effect text applies at all.  If the card is placed on the bottom of the Mansion and the effect text is skipped entirely, that makes this the only way to guarantee the position of the Uroboros Aheri card without triggering a reshuffle, which just feels wrong to me.

So the question lies: Does Ada's ability bypass the Infected card entirely, effects and all, or would the effects still trigger (when applicable)?

Ada Wong's ability allows her to look at the top card of the mansion deck, and either leave it on top, or place it on the bottom of the mansion deck. Although the rule book is unclear about a lot of aspects of the game, I don't think it is unclear what to do about Infected with Effects. The rules say that if an infected is revealed and it has an effect, take note of it, and apply it when the effect says so. Ada Wong's ability allows her to look at the card, not reveal it (a specific game term, that would make the top card open information), so no effects are triggered. I can also be determined from the rules, that only after revealing the top card of the mansion that you either defeat the infected and add it as a decoration to your character, or not defeat it is placed on the bottom of the mansion deck. So, any infected effects that trigger on not being defeated would only do so after being revealed.


Can we move the chair when we're playing? While playing carrom, if we're seated in a chair. Can we reposition the chair to play the shot better?

No, you are not allowed to move the chair (nor the table).

According to this site:

  The players are not allowed to lift and move the chair or table to reposition themselves for strike. However, players can change their positions without moving the seat.


Problems with learning curve and player elimination in Eclipse I've just played my first games of Eclipse, and I kind of like it, but it hase some features that kinda bug me.

First of all - player elimination. For the first two games, I got crushed around round 5-6. Worse still, I was not eradicated, so I got to sit at the table feeling bored and frustrated, being able to do nothing of meaning but still not being able to leave and play something else. I know this is typical for Amerithrash games, but I would like to at least mitigate this effect in some way, or at least make the game shorter.

Second of all - randomness everywhere! In this game, you've got two enemies. The other players, and the game's random elements. Not only do you have to learn how to play and what to do in the first place, you learn how to work your way around the bad tile/technology draws AND you have to fight your opponents! This means you need at least a few games followed by a good analysis to start playing at least somewhat correctly.

Those two elements make a killer combo. The random tile draw mechanism just helps you make a bad decision or provides hurdles to get through before you can get to the realisation of your plans/hunting down other players. In both my games I put a loop around my own neck, but that would be fine - if it wouldnt mean sitting at the table for another hour doing nothing.

While I like the game, I like the theme, I like the action economy and almost simultaneous actions, the technology and ship building, but I cant imagine showing it to my playgroup. A game that needs  at least 4 plays to get a real hang of it, while each of them takes at least 2-3 hours and makes someone miserable for half of that time WONT see enough table time to our group to like it.

I really like most parts of the game:

Space theme
Tile placement
Fleet production and battles with other players using it
Resource/economy management
Some sort of tech upgrades for military/economy
Actions tied to economy with increasing costs per action (another example of a game using this mechanic would be the Expansion to Attack!) and players doing only one action at once to prevent huge downtimes.
I like that military conquest is not only way to win the game, and usually its not enough to win by itself.

What can I do to get the play experience of the elements mentioned above without discouraging my playgroup at the game introduction stage? How do I get all the cool stuff from eclipse without getting the steep learning curve and hard knocks during learning the game?

Full disclosure: I have never played eclipse.

From what you describe about what you like and what you don't like I have some suggestions to make this game shorter and easier to learn.

House rules to the rescue!

I would start by making the game semi random. In really though draw based games where I am struggling with a multifaceted mechanic, I remove some of the facets so that I can focus on learning how to play with the others. In this case I would say eliminate an amount of 'bad' tiles/cards to perhaps focus on one facet of the game's strategy.

A game that does this flawlessly(where I got the idea) is Fluxx. With each 'flavor' of Fluxx there are new keepers and other cards added that are not core to the game. By removing them you can get the hang of the game and then incorporate the new content, modifying your strategy as you go.

This strategy often comes with a minimum of two benefits: it makes it easier to play at the outset and it also will usually unbalance the game and thus shorten time to a win condition.

If you don't like the idea of playing with fewer tiles or removing some of the bad ones, set up a limited number of times that you can 're-draw' if you truly think the card you drew is going to ruin you.(Think bennies from Savage Worlds)

This allows you to keep most of the balance and length of the game, but allow for exceptions with new players who are struggling to learn the strategy that may be totally destroyed by one bad draw because they had no idea that horrible thing could happen and thus never planned for it..

I would also enforce a team play situation: You can not win if player X has lost the game. In another answer I made this same suggestion. Play with 'conditional' alliances until there are only two players left, then it is all out war. This has the benefit of freeing up at least two players to play something else while the game goes on.

By eliminating some of the randomness and by enforcing 'conditional' alliances, you will see that the games will become shorter and the mechanics can be focused on. Eventually when everyone has a handle on the most basic strategy, you can include all the games original content little by little.

This also adds the benefit of making the game a bit 'new' each time you play and can make it a bit more interesting to learn.


What is a quick way to test or simulate card strategies for deck building games? Dominion is the specific example I would like to play with but this certainly applies to any game that involves decks of cards being shuffled and drawn.

I often see references to various simulations that people have run or built to test theories but whenever I dig through their code I seem to discover their simulation was custom-built for one or two test cases.

The question I am asking: How are people making these simulations so quickly? I assume that there are a few preferred (or common) ways to do this seeing how many times I see people talking about their simulations. What is a good starter kit for me to learn how to do my own?

Answers that will help: Specific languages, libraries, helpful mathematic formulae, links to projects, and typical pitfalls to avoid.

I admit I don't have much experience in actually doing this, so I have no idea how well any of these actually work and can't make any guarantees myself. But I'm sure there are others who can, and these are probably some great starting points:

dominion simulator python framework

similar project

vdom java simulator

A sourceforge project

Dominionsim is also mentioned here

Here are some I found for Magic: The Gathering. Once again, I can't make any personal guarantees:

MTG Studio (don't know if it actually supports simulations)

Magic Workstation

If you are anyone else has more feedback on any of these, I'd love to here it!


Do the armies you get for a continent have to go on the continent? In RISK, when it is your turn and you have all the countries for a continent, do you have to place the bonus armies on the continent or can they go anywhere you have armies on the board?

Looking at the rules here They say with emphasis mine:-

  Territories. At the beginning of every turn (including your first),
  count the number of territories you currently occupy, then divide the
  total by three (ignore any fraction). The answer is the number of
  armies you receive. Place the new armies on any territory you already
  occupy. Example: 11 territories = 3 armies 14 territories = 4 armies
  17 territories = 5 armies You will always receive at least 3 armies on
  a turn, even if you occupy fewer than 9 territories.

  Continents. In addition, at the beginning of your turn you will
  receive armies for each continent you control. (To control a
  continent, you must occupy all its territories at the start of your
  turn.) To find the exact number of armies you’ll receive for each
  continent, look at the chart in the lower left-hand corner of the game
  board.

To clarify, you relieve armies on any territory you control.  There is nothing in the rules for continent bonuses that say ,just go on the continent.  it just says "you receive them" and the rule above that is to place any territory you control.


What are the rules for Dragonflights in the WoW TCG? As the title says.  I recently purchased a Twilight of the Dragons and War of the Elements booster box.  I got 24 packs of cards from each set and it stuck me that I didn't know the rules behind the Dragonflights or Elementals respectively.

Can anyone explain these rules or link to rules for them online?  A google search turned up nothing.

Both of the sets that you listed follow the same standard rules as the rest of the sets, however, seeing as UDE no longer supports the game, it makes it difficult to ask them questions. The most up-to-date rule set that I could find can be found here: http://www.cryptozoic.com/sites/default/files/uploads/files/wow_cr_v601_120409.pdf


First modern Naughts and Crosses/Tic Tac Toe? When was Naughts and Crosses first released in its current form?

I see there were Egyptian and the Roman versions, but these are very different games.

Having spent a little while looking into this, the only clear thing is that there is no firm evidence for any distant historical first date for Tic Tac Toe. Although many people claim the Romans played this game, in the form of Terni Lapilli, and point to the large number of historical boards that exist, scratched into walls, this seems unlikely, not least because Tic Tac Toe isn't a very interesting game:

  Terni Lapilli is considered to be identical to modern Tic-Tac-Toe.
  However, although Terni Lapilli boards are found throughout the
  Empire, scratched on walls, floors, and roofs, no X's and O's
  accompany the markings. Obviously playing pieces were being used for
  this game and the would surely be the same ones used for both
  Latrunculi and Tabula. Bolesden says that three pieces were used in
  this game but if that is true, this is not Tic-Tac-Toe.

  Judging from the number of Terni Lapilli boards found around Rome it
  would seem this game was more popular than Tic-Tac-Toe, and therefore
  we must conclude that it was not, in fact, Tic-Tac-Toe since this is
  not really a game and could not sustain such interest.

Three Men's Morris, on the other hand, which uses an identical board, is much more challenging, and has a board from Egypt dated to 1400 BCE.

One suggestion is that the etymology of "Tic-Tac-Toe" is based on "Tit-Tat-Toe" (as in tit-for-tat retaliation), apparently from the 16th Century, but this is completely unsubstantiated.

Wikipedia's information, dated definitively to 1864 and widely re-gurgitated across the internet, is based on the OED, which quotes a Boston periodical, The Living Age:

  1864   Littell's Living Age 22 Oct. 182/1   Mr Babbage..has proceeded
  some way towards the invention of an automaton intended to play at the
  very simple game called indifferently ‘noughts and crosses’ or
  ‘tit-tat-to’.

You can read the full reference for yourself online: The Living Age, 22 October 1864, p.182.

It is known is that there are many historical examples of so-called "games of alignment", from all around the world:

  ...in Europe, Asia, and Africa many people have long been playing similar
  games which require the alignment of five or nine symbols in a row.
  Most of these latter games are played on boards scratched in the
  earth, carved into wooden or stone benches, or cardboard or wooden
  boards constructed for these variations. There are at least nine
  different board configurations for these games.

  These games are grouped together because they all have the same
  purpose - that is for two players to each place a symbol on the board,
  one symbol at a time during alternate turns of play, with the goal of
  aligning a series of agreed upon symbols in a "row", while at the same
  time attempting to prevent the other player from doing the same thing.
  In each version of the game, as the number of symbols are increased,
  the goal does not change, nor does the primary mode of play. In
  versions using five or nine symbols, additional procedures are added
  to the play of the game.

It seems very likely that the game existed in the distant past, but being a less than engrossing pastime for anyone other than young children, distant historical references are lacking.

Key references for further research:

H.J.A. Murray, A History of Board Games Other Than Chess
Claudia Zaslavsky, Tic Tac Toe: And Other Three-In-A Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer
R.C. Bell, Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations
An extensive bibliography of books covering board game history
Many links to period board game references and reconstructions


Rune of spellbreaking on multiple runelords If I have rune of spellbreaking on multiple rune smiths can I use it once on each of them? It says one use only, does that mean one use only on that character or for the entire army?

I believe this is intended to mean "one use only" per rune item which has the rune.

I cannot find anywhere this is stated outright in the 8th ed rules, but this is how such items have always been played, at least in my personal and tournament experience.

It would be odd for them to let you take more than one  and then limit you to only using one of the Runes you paid for.

The term has been used in numerous previous editions, and in those cases you could buy multiple "one use only" Dispel Scrolls etc in your army and each scroll could be used "once", not one scroll despite how many you had.


Is it possible to have a Draw in Stratego? If both flags are blocked by bombs, and there are no miners left, The rules state that if you have no movable pieces left you lose the game.
What if each player has one moveable piece left, and the one with the lower piece simply runs away?
If the player can't be caught, he can't lose, and a draw would need to be called, correct?

I've not found any reference to rules concerning draws in any of the rules pdfs on line.  The rules do say

A piece cannot move back and forth between the same two squares in
three consecutive turns

If a player had no legal move other than "moving back and forth" they would lose as unable to play.
It is possible that a piece could never be caught in a game of Stratego if they were being chased around any of the 4 empty lake spaces.  This situation doesn't seem to be covered in official rules but it does seem to be covered in the International Stratego Federation rules.   I don't know if they have any official affiliation with any Stratego publisher.  They say

It is not allowed to continuously chase one or more pieces of the
opponent endlessly. The continuous chaser may not play a chasing move
which would lead to a position on the board which has already taken
place.

Those rules also say

A match ends in draw when:

at the end of the official playing the match has not ended yet.
both players agree to a draw.
the arbiter declares the game a draw.
both players have no movable pieces anymore.
both personal clock times have run out and this is mentioned by at least one of both players.

I should stress these are the. ISF rules and not in any published version. People playing at home would be unlikely to use a clock for example.
So whilst the rules do not officially call the situation you give a draw, it seem sensible to me that both players should agree to this if the game is impossible to end otherwise.


How can I get the trait clips in Betrayal at House on the Hill to stay on? Betrayal at House on the Hill features character pentagons with 4 traits that can increase or decrease and are marked by clips.

I find (at least with my copy) that the clips slip and slide too easily; we often lose track of our stats.

We've tried blu-tack but we aren't sure if that will damage the cardboard. We've tried writing them down but we still lose track as the stat tracker isn't always told/listening.

So is there a better way to keep track of traits? Preferably an improvement on the clips.

This is a common complaint. The sliders are just too big. Solutions that have worked for others include:

Using an alternative print-out, with washers for tracking
Wrapping each side of the character card with sticky tape, for thickness
Laminating the cards
Applying some PVA glue inside the sliders, and letting it dry before use


Detailed MTG card List Is there a way to obtain a detailed list from WotC’s The Gatherer of magic cards? What I am looking for is a way to enter a list of magic cards and to get a print off of the card details in a nice rowed format, something that I can cut and copy directly into Sheets or MS Excel.

Name  – Cost – Type     -  Text       -  P/T

Name1 – 1W   – Creature – Flying      – 1/1
Name2 –  U   – Instant  – Draw a Card – “”
...

I see one of the Gatherer’s default displays is Text only, but the layout it uses is very scattered and not copy-paste friendly. Any work-arounds for that are also acceptable answers.

The most complete collection of card data I'm aware of is mtgjson, which offers a variety of data structuring to choose from, and has everything you asked for. It is used by a number of MtG-themed web pages, and due to its structure is well-suited for both applications, and purposes such as yours.

However, to get it into a layout of your choice, you'd have to parse the data and write a script to output it, which might not be feasible for everyone.

Another option would be Gatherer Extractor, a tool to extract pictures and text data from Gatherer (WotC's official card database) and according to that thread export as CSV or XML.

Unfortunately, the thread I could find and download are dubious at best, and the Github page is quite dated, making it difficult at best to decide on the trustworthyness on either.


In Catan Cities & Knights, can you use a Knight action before you roll the dice? In base Catan, the rules allow you to play a Knight card before you roll the dice. Obviously, there are no Development Cards in Cities and Knights, and instead there are physical knight tokens.

The rule book doesn't seem to specifically address if you can use your activated Knight token to chase away the Robber on your turn before you roll the dice.

Since the rules do not specifically say you can, and by default the dice roll is usually always required as the first action of your turn, our group agrees to play that you can only use a Knight action after you roll the dice.

Are we missing something in the rules? Does a Catan FAQ somewhere answer this?

Here is a link to the Completely Annotated Rules & Almanac for Catan Cities and Knights by Derek Whaley on BGG.

I don't know how official this can be, but the turn overview on page 8 makes it quite clear that you can't use a Knight action before rolling the dice:

  The player who placed the last city takes the first turn. Each player,
  going clockwise around the table, performs the following actions, in
  the order listed:

  You must roll all 3 dice.
  The results of the event (symbol) die are resolved)
  Progress Cards may be drawn (depending on the result of the event die).
  All players produce the commodities indicated by the red and yellow dice.
  You may do any or all of the following in any order:

  Trade resources and/or commodities with the bank and/or players.
  Build roads, settlements, cities, knights, city walls, and/or city improvements.
  Activate, promote, and/or perform actions with your knights.
  Play any number of Progress Cards.

  Note: The “Alchemist” Progress Card can only be played before the dice are rolled. It is the only Progress Card that can be used before
  the dice are rolled and the results resolved


Does anybody need the 6th epidemic card in Pandemic? 4 epidemic cards in the pile are easy in Pandemic. 5 cards - it is interesting. Our win / lose ratio is about 50% with 5 epidemic cards. But I can't imagine how to play with 6 epidemic cards. Are you just very lucky to win this way, or are there are some strategy secrets I still don't get?

Btw there is a 7th epidemic card in the expansion "On the Brink".

Is there anybody who usually plays (and wins) with 6 or 7 epidemic cards on the pile? What's your secret?

We play with six epidemics most of the time and win about half our games, which is a good ratio for us.  My husband and I play a lot of two-player games, but we also play with three and four players and use six epidemics unless we have beginners.

We use a house rule of dealing two roles per player and letting the players choose.  Discussion is permitted.

The key to playing with six epidemics, in my experience, is to be ruthless in not wasting actions.  Yes, that isolated city with three cubes will have an outbreak soon; absorb it if you've got spare capacity so you can focus on getting the cards together for a cure or attacking bigger problems.  It can be tempting to say "while I'm in the neighborhood anyway why don't I...?", but you should always look at whether there are more pressing demands first.


Can I activate an enchantment energy ability during an opponents turn? The card in question is Consulate Surveillance, which states: "Pay two energy counters: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn by a source of your choice."

Can I activate that ability  during my oponents turn? And if so can I do so after he or she attacks or do I have to activate it at the begining of the turn?

You can activate an activated ability at any time that you could cast an instant. This includes on your opponents' turns. Being an energy-related ability has no bearing on this.

There are several different times throughout a turn that each player receives priority, which is when that player can act. In terms of combat, you could activate it either when the combat phase begins, or after your opponent declares his attackers, or after you declare your blockers.


What does "played from your hand" actually mean? With the Myojin cycle of cards, each of them will enter with a divinity counter if they are played from the hand. Does this mean they will enter the battlefield with a counter if they went from the hand to the battlefield, regardless of how? Or is this an old wording that in more modern days would be to cast.

Myojin of Cleansing Fire

This is old wording. You may check the Gatherer for the most recent wording of cards. Currently that Myojin's gatherer text says the following instead:

  Myojin of Cleansing Fire enters the battlefield with a divinity counter on it if you cast it from your hand.

"Cast from your hand" means you took it from your hand, cast it onto the stack, and then it entered the battlefield.

This is as opposed to:

simply being put onto the battlefield without being cast (e.g. via Champion of Rhonas)
being returned from your graveyard to the battlefield (Rescue from the Underworld)
being cast from a zone other than your own hand:

from the graveyard (Havengul Lich)
from exile (Daxos of Meletis)
from your library (Vizier of the Menagerie)
from the command zone in a game of Commander
from someone else's hand (Desertion or Sen Triplets).


If I have so few armies I can't attack any more, do I lose the game? When starting Risk you are spread out and a few bad turns of the dice can leave you so thin you have nothing to attack with. There is nothing in the rules about this. Am I to assume you have lost at that point?

Most certainly not!

You will still receive armies and be able to attack in a future turn, as the rules make clear (see page 6: Getting and Placing New Armies - Territories) that every player with at least one territory receives at least three armies each turn for territories, even if owning fewer than 9 territories.

In order to not be a target of other players while you are weak, it is best to hold as few cards as possible, ideally zero, until you are strong enough to have a chance at defending your self, so don't attack at all.


Pokemon cards banned in unlimited In the new pokemon Ban List it says that FoGP and Archeops are banned in Expanded.

It kind of makes sense to say that, since they're not in Standard, but does that mean they're not banned in Unlimited?

i.e. am I allowed to make a deck with these cards if it was an unlimited deck?

Yes, I know they're not banned yet but you know what I mean.

The list of banned cards on Pokemon.com has a separate section listing the cards banned in Unlimited. Right now, there are no cards listed there.
Note that the Unlimited format consists of all cards that are, or ever have been, in Standard. From Bulbapedia:

The Unlimited format of the Pokémon Trading Card Game allows any card that was once playable in Play! Pokémon tournaments [...] can be used.
Because of the lack of restrictions in Unlimited, decks can use combinations of cards which are not legal in Standard format or Expanded format play. Cards such as Porygon2 and Seeker which never appeared in the same Standard format, are frequently used together.

So, if the cards you named were ever in the Standard rotation, and are not explicitly named in the 'Banned'-list under the 'Unlimited' header, you're good to build a deck around 'em.


What happens if a creature has 'cant be blocked' and 'must be blocked' Lets say i have a creature that says it can't be blocked, like a Slither Blade, and then you cast Bloodscent targeting it. Would one override the other or would it be unblockable?

Note that Bloodscent says “all creature able to”; not just “all creatures.” If a creature can’t be blocked then another creature is not “able to” block it; just like if that other creature were tapped or said “this creature cannot block”. So “can’t block” wins and the block doesn’t happen.

509.1c The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must block, or that it must block if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of blockers is illegal.

Note that missing blocking requirements is only illegal if those requirements could be met without disobeying restrictions. So you are free to ignore requirements if obeying them would cause you to disobey restrictions.
There is no such loophole for disobeying restrictions:

509.1b The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met). If any restrictions are being disobeyed, the declaration of blockers is illegal.

So you must always obey restrictions, while you only need to obey requirements when they don’t cause you to disobey restrictions.


Can a double jump move backwards in Checkers/Draughts? In Checkers, can a non-kinged piece jump backwards as the second jump in a double jump?

This depends on the variation you're playing. A lot of variations allow capturing backwards with regular pieces (called men). The English variation is probably the most common that doesn't allow backwards capturing. By the international rules, capturing backwards is allowed (and mandatory if it results in the largest capture group).

There's an extensive list on Wikipedia, describing which variations allow backwards capturing by men, and which don't.


How can you ever buy a development card with 14 tokens? How can you ever buy a development card with 14 tokens? as you can never reach this amount, even when you draw +3 on your turn, the max you can reach is 13, and you cant use them to purchase the card as your tuen is over?

I don't think players are meant to by a level 3 development card with just gem tokens. As you righty say, buying a development card costing 14 or more with just gem tokens would be impossible. Are you are aware that development cards count as bonuses? If you look at the rules here they say-

  The bonuses a player has from development cards acquired on previous
  turns provide discounts on the purchase of new cards. Each bonus of a
  given color is equal to a token of that color. Thus, if a player has 2
  blue bonuses and wants to purchase a card which costs 2 blue tokens
  and 1 green token, the player must only spend 1 green token. If a
  player has enough development cards (and therefore bonuses), they can
  even purchase a card without spending any tokens.

So a player can buy a development card costing 14 tokens provided that the cost is reduced by bonuses for previously bought development cards.


Can Uncommon Magic cards be sold individually for a profit? [Background: this was previously part of a longer question which has been edited into multiple smaller questions. I’ve already researched selling Magic cards, including reading through How do I find out a fair price for my Magic the Gathering cards? and Where can I sell my Magic: The Gathering cards?, and am getting into finer detail.]

I've noticed on eBay that many Uncommons seem to be sold individually. Assuming I have the time and interest in doing this (I have both), does anyone have experience selling uncommons like this? Generally speaking, can you even sell them profitably or do you just end up selling them in bulk?

Just some uncommon cards can sell individually, like Path to Exile, Skullclamp(before banned). You can check eBay or website like Card Kingdom, Magic Cards Info and so on to track the price.


Laboratory maniac and not being able to win the game I have a Laboratory Maniac and my opponent has a Platinum Angel and I have 0 cards in my library.

I can't win because of the Platinum Angel, but does this mean that I lose because the ability from Laboratory Maniac will be prevented or will only the part be prevented that wins me the game?

You neither lose nor win the game, and the game continues.

What would normally make you lose the game when drawing from an empty library is a state-based action.

  704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from a library with no cards in it since the last time state-based actions were checked, he or she loses the game.

Laboratory Maniac's ability creates a replacement effect. Replacement effects replace the original event - in this case the card draw itself - with something else. Since you never draw a card from an empty library with this card under your control, the state-based action will never apply.

With a Platinum Angel under your opponent's control, its continuous effect simply prevents you from winning the game. It does not, however, interact with Laboratory Maniac's ability in any other way, meaning its replacement effect will still replace the event of you drawing a card.

In the end, all effects combined could be summarized to something like this:

  If you would draw a card from a library with no cards in it, instead nothing happens.

The game will go on normally until either your opponent wins, you lose the game in another way, or either creature is destroyed/stripped of it's ability - in the last case, the next time you would draw a card, you either lose or win the game (depending on the remaining creature).


Processioning a Madman We had an interesting scenario.  I processioned a Madman, which we thought would give me +4 actions and +6 cards (I had three in my hand, so draw three twice).  Was that the correct play when using the procession card, or does the madman action end after the first play, netting me  +2 actions and +3 cards?

Do exactly what it says on the card, in the order it says it. So:

Procession says you may play an action card from your hand twice. You pick Madman.

You play Madman once. You get +2 actions, and then return it to the Madman pile. If you do, +1 card per card in your hand - you did, so +3 cards.

You play Madman a second time. You get +2 actions again, and try to return it to the Madman pile, but you can't - it's already there. If you do, +1 card per card in your hand - you didn't, so you don't get any cards. (This kind of situation is exactly why it says "if you do".)

Procession says to trash the action card - but you can't, since you don't have it anymore. Oh well.

Procession says to gain an action card costing exactly one more than it - you try to do this, but the Madman costs zero, and there probably isn't anything that costs 1, so you don't gain anything.

So adding up: you get +4 actions, +3 cards, and the Madman is back in the pile. (That wasn't one of your suggestions.)


Magic The Gathering - Jace, Cunning Castaway's +1 I'm confused by this ruling for Jace, Cunning Castaway:

  The delayed triggered ability created by Jace’s first ability can trigger more than once in a turn if creatures you control deal combat damage at different times in a turn (most likely because one or more has first strike) or if creatures you control deal combat damage to more than one player at once.

I'm not sure because of it saying it can trigger more than once if creatures do combat damage at different times.

If I activate Jace's +1 Ability and attack with two creatures, and both do combat damage in the same combat damage assignment step, do I draw two cards or one?

If I attack with two double strike creatures and they both do combat damage, do I then draw four cards?

You draw cards equal to the number of combat damage steps where your creatures have dealt damage.

If you attack with any number creatures, none having first strike or double strike, there is only one combat damage step. The delayed trigger will be met once.

If the creatures you control do damage during the first strike and the non-first strike combat damage step (eg. a creature with double strike or mix of creatures with and without first strike), the delayed trigger will be met twice.

If you have multiple combat phases during the same turn, the delayed trigger will be met once for each non-first strike and first strike combat damage step that occurs.

Combat damage is dealt all at once (or in two steps if you have first/double strikers) instead of once per creature. To break it down (simplified) combat looks like this:

Attacking Player declares attackers
Defending Player declares blockers
Combat Damage Step (Comp Rules 510):
a. If at least one creature has First Strike or Double Strike, only creatures with first strike or double strike assign damage this step.
b. Players announce how their creatures will assign damage (eg. Attacker is blocked by multiple creatures, trample etc.)
c. All assigned damage is dealt simultaneously. (Jace's Ability Triggers here).
d. If this Damage step was for first/double strikers only return to step 3.b but this time all creatures except first strikers get to assign damage. If not proceed to step 4.
End of Combat Step


Does the bonus die for Captain of the Guard's Battle Steed ability have to be assigned a target color before the roll? One of the new heroes in Expansion #1 is Captain of the Guard, and he gets a bonus die when initiating attack in a new location. Does this extra die have to be assigned to a color of minion on that location?

For instance, I move to a location with 1 red and 1 blue minion, I can roll 1 red and 1 blue die, plus 1 bonus (assume I choose a green die for my bonus). If this is my roll: Red 3; Blue 2; Green 5.  Can I use the green die to eliminate the blue minion? Can I  choose after the roll, or do I have to assign a color to my bonus before the roll?

The Elf Lord character has a similar bonus, but has to choose before the roll. The Captain of the Guard character card does not specify. We played a game last night with both of these characters, and for the Elf Lord, he chose before the roll. For the Captain, I used my bonus die as a wild card and assigned it based on the roll results. I want to know of I played correctly or not.

I am looking for official errata or clarification from the game designer. I've been told it exists, but have not found it for this question.

This is not a wildcard -- instead, you choose which die to focus on.  If you're in an area with 2 red minions, and 1 blue minion, you can roll 3-1, or 2-2.

Link:  Official Clarification by Richard Launius (designer.)


Can I save my Bristling Hydra by responding to removal with something that gives me energy? If I attack with Bristling Hydra and my opponent plays Vraska's Contempt to exile it, can I play Harnessed Lightning to get 3 energy to give my hydra hexproof?

Yes. Players get priority after each spell or ability resolves (starting with the Active Player).[CR 116.3b]

Harnessed Lightning is an instant, so it may be cast in response to Vraska's Contempt. Harnessed Lightning needs to target a creature. You could target your own Bristling Hydra and choose to deal no damage to it on resolution. (It might be safer to target an opponent's creature, but I'm assuming there are no other creatures on the 'field.) As the last spell or ability added to the stack, it resolves next.

After Harnessed Lightning resolves, you can activate Bristling Hydra's activated ability. As the last spell or ability added to the stack, it resolves next.

Finally, Vraska's Contempt would resolve, but is countered by the rules for having only illegal targets. Your opponent doesn't even get the 2 life.

The following is the game flow in detail:

NAP casts Vraska's Contempt targeting NAP's Bristling Hydra.
NAP passes priority.
AP casts Harnessed Lightning targeting their Bristling Hydra.
AP passes priority.
NAP passes priority.
Harnessed Lightning resolves:

AP gains 3 energy.
AP chooses not to pay any.
AP deals no damage to their Bristling Hydra.

AP activates Bristling Hydra activated ability
AP passes priority.
NAP passes priority.
Bristling Hydra activated ability resolves:

AP puts a +1/+1 counter on their Bristling Hydra.
Their Bristling Hydra gains Hexproof.

AP passes priority.
NAP passes priority.
Vraska's Contempt is countered by the rules for having only illegal targets.

The following is how the above might be voiced (using tournament shortcuts):

NAP: I cast Vraska's Contempt targeting your Bristling Hydra. [Implicitly passes.]
AP: In response, I cast Harnessed Lightning targeting my Bristling Hydra. [Implicitly passes.]
NAP: Pass.
AP: Harnessed Lightning resolves. I pay nothing.
AP: In response to Vraska's Contempt, I activate Bristling Hydra's activated ability. [Implicitly passes.]
NAP: Pass.
AP: Bristling Hydra's ability resolves.
AP: [Proposes a shortcut:] Vraska's Contempt is countered.
NAP: [Accepts shortcut:] ok.


How should your strategy in Power Grid change after about 10 to 12 cities? This episode of The Little Metal Dog Show has an interview with Friedemann Friese where he talks about the design of the Power Grid: The Robots, and mentions that the robots can do well up to about 10 to 12 cities, but after that do very poorly because that's the point in the game where typically human players have to change their strategy in order to win.  (That part of the interview begins at 20 minutes 50 seconds.)   However, he doesn't go into any detail about what this change typically involves.

I'm interested in how experienced players of Power Grid would say that their strategy changes at this point in the game?  (I'm a very inexperienced player, although I've loved the games that I've played.)

It has been a little while since I have played Power Grid, but I will take a stab at this.

In the early and mid-game the decisions that have to be made are fairly straightforward and tactical like improving power plant efficiency/capacity and expanding into reasonably priced cities.  Power plant prices are generally based on their expected monetary output for the medium length duration.

Towards the end of the game, players need to more seriously plan out the how they will get to the last turn of the game by optimizing power plants, carefully selecting which cities to expand into, and budgeting and/or hoarding resources to ensure production.  The decisions are more subtle and tend to interleave with the decisions of the other players in ways that can be difficult to model.

For example, buying a power plant in the end game usually has very little to do with how much money it will make.  Instead, making sure you can power the target number of cities in paramount and, in some cases, making sure a rival cannot power the target number of cities is also a factor.  Because of the way the power plant deck is stacked, there is a lot of information that human players can remember that a robot player cannot easily track, like the odds that the next power plant to appear will meet the needs of a player currently bidding.

Another example would be in how to expand a network in the late game.  Sometimes there is more value in spending extra money to limit the options of another player even though a cheaper city is available.

I believe these are the types of changes in focus late in the game that make a simple procedural robot difficult to create.  The economic engine building and expansion phase of the game is just straightforward, but how that engine is leveraged to create a victory is tricky.


Why is the Warhammer Fantasy species "Cold One" named as such? The Warhammer Fantasy universe has a raptor like species called "Cold one", used as mounts by Lizardmen and Dark Elves. Why are the creatures called "Cold one"?

2 reasons that I could find:

It is a reference to the people that use them. Only cold-blooded people can   ride them without a problem
They see all warm-blooded things as prey, so they are the cold ones and the enemy the warm ones

Source: http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cold_Ones


What expansions for Carcassonne add variety without changing the character too much? I've been playing a fair amount of Carcassonne with the basic tiles and the original River expansion. What other expansion packs will add a bit of variety to the game but without changing the character too much? I've heard Inns and Cathedrals is pretty good but don't know about any of the others. I'm especially interested in any that work well with 2 players.

Carcassonne: Traders & Builders

The chance with the builder to draw two tiles can make a huge impact on the game so it adds a dimension all on it's own. I however personally prefer not playing with the Traders part (the cloth, wine and grain tokens) just the builder and the tiles.

Carcassonne: Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars

Bridges makes for some interesting escapes and castles is a new fun thing to do with those small cities. As above I preferably skip parts of this expansion which is Bazaars (tile auction).

Carcassonne: Inns & Cathedrals

Pretty straight forward expansion that adds Inns (a road with an inn somewhere along it's path is worth 2 points when complete (0 if left unfinished) per tile. Cathedrals are in cities and makes the city tiles worth 3 points if completed (0 if not completed) per tile. Great ways to remove others points if drawn late in the game. Also the big meeple/guy is in here iirc.

Carcassonne: The River II

This one, unlike first expansion can split and create two streams.

Finally I just recently started added Carcassonne: The Cult to my bag. Works just like cloisters but if you put it next to a cloister only the one scoring first gets any points. So far it's fun but it's only some 5 tiles or so.


International rules for a king how many moves can the king take if there are no opposition pieces to jump? We started to place international rules and just watch a video on youtube that seems to indicate, that a king cannot move unlimited spaces if there are no opposition pieces to jump. Is this correct?

Second question, Is my assumption correct in as much that once a king has jumped one or more pieces in one direction, that after jumping the last opposition piece the king can be moved beyond the last jump piece to any square beyond that will allow the king to take another direction if there is an opposition piece that can be jumped. Is that correct?

In international rules, the King can move any distance along a diagonal. This holds true whether jumping over a piece or not.

A king is still subject to the rule that it must make a jump if it can, and it must make as many jumps as it can.

So after jumping over a piece, you can choose how far beyond that piece to land. But if one of the spaces beyond the captured piece would allow the king to turn and capture another piece, it must choose to do that.

I would not think of it as the king moving along the diagonal after a jump; but rather as the jump landing on any square beyond the captured piece.

Reference: https://www.itsyourturn.com/t_helptopic2130.html#helpitem1330


What card sleeves should I get for Cards Against Humanity? They measure 63mm wide by 88mm tall.

The base set has 550 cards (460 White cards and 90 Black cards).

The expansion has 100 cards (80 White cards and 20 Black cards) plus 12 blank cards (8 white, 4 black).

For the uninitiated, Cards Against Humanity.

None, but I am betting this was a trick question. The cards dimensions are fairly close to the standard dimensions of a Magic: the Gathering card. The cheapest card sleeves you could buy are the aptly named penny sleeves. These sleeves will run you on average $0.01 US. Since Cards Against Humanity runs 550 cards in the base set, you would be spending $5.50 to sleeve the cards, slightly over 20% the cost of buying a complete replacement of the entire game. I suppose if you buy online, and sufficient quantity, you might be able to reduce the cost of the sleeves by 20%-30%.

Sleeving will increase the thickness, so it will not fit in the original box. There are other issues with sleeving. Sleeves of any sort make shuffling more difficult. Penny sleeves are also notoriously slippery because they don't have textured backs (Like Dragon Shield or other high quality sleeves). High quality sleeves would cost you more than the original game itself to sleeve. Games are meant to be played, and this game wouldn't suffer much from having marked cards. As an Apples-to-Apples clone, the only danger of marked cards is that the judge might know which card you or another player through in the pot. This problem can be eliminated by having the judge close his eyes, look away, and having someone else shuffle the cards before giving them to the judge (we usually do this anyway to prevent the top card being the card from the person who decided last).

I would recommend against sleeving.


At what stage does combat actually start? (Question based on the third edition)

A couple of combat scenarios had us a little confused.

Scenario 1:

Day starts
Player 1 moves into city where Dracula currently is.

Does combat start immediately?
Even though Player 2 would be able to get into that city during their move?

Scenario 2:

Night starts
There are 2 hunters in the same city with Dracula.
Player 1 needs to take an action.

Does combat start immediately?

Assuming you ask about 3rd edition rules. From rules reference:

  If a hunter is on Dracula’s current location during dawn or dusk, he
  must start a combat with Dracula.

And also:

  Dawn occurs before day, and dusk occurs before night.

So, combat with Dracula only happens between action phases, not immediately.

EDIT:
To clarify your scenarious:

Scenario 1: Other Hunters continue to do their actions for this phase, then combat occurs. Since movement normally only allowed during the Day, I assume combat would happen at Dusk, and night effects on combat cards would apply.

Scenario 2: Since it's just beginning of the Night, it means that combat at Dusk has just concluded (for described situation to arise Dracula already was in the city when Hunters moved in during the Day). So all Hunters carry on their actions. THEN it's Dracula's move, and if Dracula stays in the same city with Hunters or moves to city with another Hunter, combat at Dawn occurs.


What game uses dice with shields, fleur-de-lis and rapier hilts? A while ago I bought some dice from the "discount dice jar" of mismatched dice at my local games store. The store personnel claim to have no idea where these dice came from.

From what I can gather, the symbols on the dice are shields, fleur-de-lis, and the basket hilt of a rapier (or similar renaissance-era sword). The blue dice show two of each symbol, whereas the red dice show three shields and three swordhilts. Dice are 15mm in size.

So, which game uses this kind of dice?

The dice are from the game "Mousquetaires du Roy" ("The King's Musketeers")

Board Game Geek Entry


Monopoly Deal - Can you switch your cards after charging rent on them? If you have one property and another wild card, can you put them together as a set and charge rent on them, and then place the wild card separately, all on your turn? (to save your set from a deal breaker card)

The original rules state that

  [y]ou can move a wild card around between sets on any turn. This does NOT count as one of the 3 cards you can play per turn (as it's already on the table).

and

  [i]f you replace a wild card with a property card of the right colour and can't use it as part of another set leave it in your property area - you might need it later!

The rules appear to presume that all properties of the same colour are always placed together.

The first rule allows you to move the wild card (double or rainbow) between two sets, presumably only if in legal positions.

The second implies that if you can put a wild card into a set, you must put it into a set.

While you can move a wild card out of a complete set to an incomplete set, you cannot move the wild card from any set to be alone.


Ferries and Tunnels in Ticket to Ride Expansions My wife and I play a lot of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries but recently we discovered we'd been playing Ferries incorrectly.  Oops!

A ferry is depicted on the board as, e.g., 4 red spaces and 2 more red spaces with locomotive motifs.  We'd been playing under the assumption that, to claim this route, you needed to play exactly 4 red cards and 2 locomotives.  It seems, though, that there are several fine points to the rules that we hadn't noticed.

(a) You can always use any 3 cards in place of a locomotive.
(b) You can always play an extra locomotive in place of a coloured card.

So, for instance, you could buy the abovementioned red route with 3 red cards and 3 locomotives, 1 red card and 5 locomotives, or even 6 locomotives.  You could also buy it with 4 red cards and 6 blue cards.

Our big question arising from these revelations: do these rules stack? That is to say, can I buy this route with 3 red cards and 9 yellow cards?  Eighteen assorted cards none of which are locomotives and reds?

Tunnels I think - I hope - we've gotten pretty much correct.  You state you're trying to build a tunnel of, for example, 3 green cards.  You flip over a green card, a red card, and a locomotive from the deck.  We've assumed that you can now build your tunnel by adding two cards in any combination of green or locomotive to the initial three greens (i.e., you don't have to match the quality of the cards you flipped, just the quantity).

However, our confusion over ferries possibly creates a new question.  If I had only 4 green cards (and no locos) in my hand... can I pay one extra green and three cards of any colour, in place of a locomotive to build my tunnel?  I'm inclined to think not, but I just don't know for sure any more!

No,

These rules do not stack.

You can only in 3 cards to fill the designated locomotive spots.
You can use locomotives to fill in the colored spots.

You cannot use the first to get a locomotive and then trade that in for the colored card.

This question was asked of designer Alan Moon, on BGG and his response was as I have given here.


Is Avalon worth getting if I already own The Resistance I have a copy of the resistance which my group of friends really enjoys. I noticed that there's a game called Avalon in my local games store and am not sure if it is the same game re-skinned, or if it brings something new. Is there any value in buying Avalon?

There are several new mechanics brought in the game with Avalon. The major ones play around two new characters Merlin and The Assassin. Merlin allows the good side to have some knowledge of who is good/evil but on the flip side The Assassin allows for the evil side to turn a loss into a victory by figuring out who is Merlin. In addition to those two there are some characters that add some other flair into the game such as a good character who knows who Merlin is with the flip side of an evil character to pretends to be Merlin and a evil character who is unknown to the rest of his team. There are some other characters that where kick starter specific and not sure if you can still get them or not but are worth getting.

Overall I think the changes to Avalon add a lot to the game and make it a little more interesting then the basic game of resistance.


In Game of Thrones, is it possible to moving back units after winning a combat following March Order? May I move back some of the units after winning a combat? I mean, if there is time for defeated troops to retreat there will definitely be time for winning troops to move back as well. Does that not make sense?

I couldn't find any mention in the rulebook specifying that the winning units all have to stay in the conquered territory, that some (or even all) cannot move back after winning. I don't see why you can move back if you lose but you can't move back if you win? It should be even easier for winners to move back as they should be in better shape.

The attacker does not have the opportunity to retreat if the attacker wins the combat.  The only allowance for retreating is for the losing army:

  After suffering casualties, the losing army must retreat from the embattled area (supporting units do not retreat.)

There is no mention of what happens to the winning units after combat because nothing needs to happen to them.  Combat began by them moving to the territory they are trying to conquer.  Thus, all that needs to happen in cleanup following an attacker victory is the removal of order tokens:

  After combat is completed, remove the attacking player’s March
  Order token from the game board.

  If the combat was won by the attacker, remove any Order token the
  defender had assigned to the embattled area (if one remains) as well
  as any Power token in the area (which would exist if the defending
  player had previously established control there, see page 24)

One pseudo-exception to this is Loras Tyrell, who moves the march order with the attacking units if they are victorious.  You can use Loras to move attacking units back to their original territory after they win a battle, but doing so is not a retreat (these units will remain upright) and is not immediate (this cannot be done before your next turn in order resolution).


What happens when you blink a cipher-ed creature? if I have a cipher ability encoded on a creature, and I cast a Restoration Angel, thus exiling and returning the creature to play, does the creature still have the cipher ability?

How about creatures returning from the graveyard (undying ability)?

The creature ceases to exist (permanently) as soon as it leaves the battlefield for any reason.

  400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are seven exceptions to this rule:

None of the exception help cipher. That leaves the card with cipher in exile, encoding a creature that no longer exists, and which will therefore never deal any combat damage again.

When the card returns to the battlefield, it becomes yet again another object. This is why it comes back untapped, untransformed, with summoning sickness, without any counters it used to have, and of course, without any cards encoded on it.

There is a rule to remind you of this:

  702.97c The card with cipher remains encoded on the chosen creature as long as the card with cipher remains exiled and the creature remains on the battlefield. The card remains encoded on that object even if it changes controller or stops being a creature, as long as it remains on the battlefield.


Munchkin with 7-12 players I am wondering on what modifications could we make to Munchkin for a better overall gameplay when adapting it to be played with 7-12 players.

I am currently worried with the following issues:

Number of cards (the quantity of cards available is limited, and more players means more consumption)
Cards turnover (it will probably result in a more frequent used cards pile recycling, leveraging repeated cards usage)
Time (it will last more to finish a full round, and consequently a full game)
Balancing interferences (when it's in my turn it might have from 6 up to 11 allies or enemies, very likely to leverage the number of interferences, which could lead to be almost impossible to win a game - almost always there will be someone that can disturb you from winning, turning it into an endless game)

But feel free to also address any additional aspect I haven't covered.

In addition to getting more cards for the deck, have more people go at the same time.

This concept works for games of 8, 9, 10, and 12 players. Games of 7 and 11 present a prime problem.

Plan. Have two or three players kick open the door at the same time. Each takes a card off the top of the Door pile, but keeps it face down in front of them. Then, they kick it open simultaneously, and commence the fighting.

The active players should be equally separated around the table. In their seating positions, 1 through X, the bolded seats are active. As an example, consider 8 and 9:
8: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 divisible by 2
9: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  divisible by 3

A game of 10 players would be similar to one by 8, while 12 could follow either.

An additional level of complexity could be added by limiting the range a player has. For a game with 2 active players, an active player and those sitting right next to him can't hamper or aid the other active player. In a game with 3 active players, the non-active players can only target the active player immediately to their left and right, but not the far player.


If I concede with a morph card on the stack, do I have to reveal the card to my opponent? I understand that if a morph card is on the battlefield at the end of the game, I have to reveal it to my opponent, but what if my opponent responds to me casting the morph with a counterspell.  If I concede with the morph still on the stack, do I have to reveal it?

Yes, you must reveal the card to all players.

  707.9. If a face-down permanent moves from the battlefield to any other zone, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. If a face-down spell moves from the stack to any zone other than the battlefield, its owner must reveal it to all players as he or she moves it. If a player leaves the game, all face-down permanents and spells owned by that player must be revealed to all players. At the end of each game, all face-down permanents and spells must be revealed to all players.

The other players must be able to check that you were allowed to play that card face-down. Otherwise, you could cheat by playing a non-morph card as a morph creature and never be forced to reveal that card.


Is there a maximum amount of energy that can be attached to one Pokémon? I bought the Mewtwo EX tin and he has an ability called "Shatter Shot".

  This attack does 30 damage multiplied by the amount of "psychic" energy you have on this Pokémon.

I have a bunch of Psychic type energy. Is there a maximum amount of energy you can have on one Pokémon?

There is no limit.

Each turn you can only attach one energy to one of your Pokémon (either a benched or active Pokémon), and there is no rule limiting the total energy.

The downside of lots of energy on one Pokémon is that if your Mewtwo gets knocked out, all attached energy is put into the discard pile.


Definitions of verbalisations in card games, specifically UNO and DOS In the card game DOS, the sequel to UNO, there is a rule stating:

  DOS RULE: If you ever have EXACTLY TWO CARDS in your hand, you must shout out "DOS!" (meaning "two"). If you forget to do so and another player calls out "DOS!" before you do, you must immediately draw two cards as a penalty.If this happens during your turn, do not add the penalty cards to your hand until the end of your turn.

At what exact moment is it considered that one have "said 'DOS!'"? Is simply producing the start of the word "DOS" vocally the moment that I've said it, or can I be caught if my opponent starts to say it to catch me but I finish the word before my opponent? How do other games handle this issue?

It doesn't say in the rules and since both words ("UNO" & "DOS") are so short it really shouldn't be an issue...

http://www.mattelgames.com/sites/mattel_games/files/2018-03/FRM36-0970-G2_IS_web.pdf

But, I would say that it's quite clear that as soon as someone starts to say the word, no one else is allowed to also say it - but faster.

You could compare it to the first person to press a button or the first person to shout their name in a game show.
The first person to press the button gets to answer - Not the first person to press and also release the button...
The first person to start saying their name gets to answer - Otherwise the person with a short name would always be favoured over the one with a long name...


Tabletop game similar to Civilization, set in Antiquity I played this game a few years ago and suddenly feel the need to find it again.

The board represented most of Europe and North Africa. Each player had an empire and was represented by a historical figure (Julius Cesar, Cleopatra, Hammurabi, etc. I forget who represented the Greeks. Not Alexander the Great). Each empire had some advantage (the Greeks produced 1 extra ship each round).

The map was divided into territories, some with resources which could be exploited. Something like wood, grain, metal, etc.

Can anyone identify what it was?


Scrabble premium word score question In the following scenario, does a double word premium apply to both words made on the same turn? Player 1 plays the word "book". Player 2 plays the word "shot", placing the "s" on a double word score space, and also forming the word "books".

Yes.

From the rules,

  When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word.

(Emphasis mine.)


Void Winnower against Sunforger Does the use of Sunforger's unattach ability negate the ability of Void Winnower and let me use spells with an even converted mana cost?

No you can not cast CMC 0, 2 or 4 spells with Sunforger while your opponent controls a Void Winnower.
Sunforger's ability gives your CMC 4 or less spells an alternate cost, but it doesn't actually change their CMC.

117.9: Some spells have alternative costs. An alternative cost is a cost listed in a spell's text, or applied to it from another effect, that its controller may pay rather than paying the spell's mana cost. Alternative costs are usually phrased, "You may [action] rather than pay [this object's] mana cost," or "You may cast [this object] without paying its mana cost." Note that some alternative costs are listed in keywords; see rule 702.
117.9c: An alternative cost doesn't change a spell's mana cost, only what its controller has to pay to cast it. Spells and abilities that ask for that spell's mana cost still see the original value.

So even though you aren't actually paying for the spell, Void Winnower's ability still sees it as an even Mana Cost and prevents you from casting it.
Interesting side note brought up by @ikegami in the comments: Even though you can't actually cast the spells, you can still attempt to use Sunforger's ability, so if you will be able to pay RW, unattach Sunforger, look through your library, then shuffle it. Might be useful if you need to shuffle your library for some reason (ie. you control an Experimental Frenzy and have a land stuck on top).


Do you re-determine player order in this exceptional case? Power Grid Rules:

  At the beginning of the game draw lots for player order.

  Because the player order is chosen randomly at the beginning of the
  game, the players re-determine the player order after auctioning the
  power plants (after phase 2). As no player has any cities at this
  time, the new player order is determined solely by the numbers of the
  power plants (see phase 1).

In our games, at this point, player order has seen rearranged.
Then, at the start of the 2nd round, we never change the player order because nothing has changed.

However, the rules state that :

  The players do not have to choose their starting cities in the first
  round. They can start their networks in later rounds to influence
  their positions in the playing order.

Question
If I don't choose a starting city in round 1, does that mean that, at the start of Round 2, Phase 1 : Determine Player Order, which we always skip because everyone has usually placed a first city in round 1, do I get sent to the last place in the player order because I have no cities on the board?

If you are the only one to build no cities in round 1, you will go last in round 2.

The determine turn order step in round 2 is not straightforward at all; in most games I see, players build different numbers of cities in round 1, ranging from 1 to 3.  That your play group has been skipping the turn order step in round 2 means you have probably been playing wrong in one way or another.

My best guess of the mistake you are making is it sounds like you are only allowing players to build a single city in round 1.  Players can build multiple cities in round 1 (there is nothing in the rules that prevents you from buying more cities on the same turn you buy your starting city).  Most players usually do buy multiple cities on round 1, as many of the early power plants can power more than one city.  The adjusting of turn order in round 2 is an important mechanic to balance against this: players who buy a power plant that can only power one city in round 1 can then build only 1 city to get the a better turn slot on round 2 (later in turn order is better) to make up for their lost income.


Can Parallax Wave track a card moved by with Void Attendant? Let's say you remove a creature with Parallax Wave, then put it in its owner's graveyard with the Void Attendant and then the Parallax is destroyed.
Does the creature go back to the battlefield or is the Parallax trigger unable to see that creature anymore ?

I read about rule 400.7, but there seems to be an exception about public zones and whatnot, I'm just not 100% sure of what would happen.

Thanks !

As you know, the general rule is that an object that changes zones becomes an entirely new object (400.7). Then there are a bunch of exceptions to that rule which each allow an object to be tracked across one zone change - these exceptions are 400.7a-i as well as e.g. 406.6, which is the rule that allows linked abilities like Parallax Wave's to work. However, none of these exceptions will track an object across a second zone change, so Void Attendant will break Parallax Wave's tracking.

Intuitively, nothing is supposed to track an object across an unexpected zone change, but many effects legitimately need to track something across one expected zone change - e.g. it would be silly if a flicker effect wasn't allowed to find the creature it just temporarily exiled. Thus, the exceptions mostly boil down to "If an effect expects an object's zone to change, then it can track the object across the expected zone change." The public zone exception you mention (400.7h) is indeed somewhat anomalous because it can occasionally cause an effect that was trying to track one expected zone change to instead track one unexpected change. For example, in this scenario, Banishing Light attempted to move a commander to exile and instead the commander moved to the command zone. However according to the accepted answer, Banishing Light is trying to track the commander and did ultimately move it to some public zone, so 400.7h allows it to still find the commander even though the one zone change to a public zone wasn't the expected zone change. Note however that even in this unusual edge case, all tracking is still limited to one zone change.


Sinister Shadow Games and Dimensional Fissure Can I activate 'Sinister Shadow Games' if Dimensional Fissure has already been activated and, if I can, do I get the second effect to flip up a face down Shaddoll?

Sinister Shadow Games

  Send 1 "Shaddoll" card from your Deck to the
  Graveyard, then you can change any number of face-down Defense
  Position "Shaddoll" monsters you control to face-up Defense Position.

Dimensional Fissure

  Any monster sent to the Graveyard is banished instead.

Sinister Shadow Games can be activated even if the effect of Dimensional Fissure is active.  When Sinister Shadow Games resolves, the "Shaddoll" card will be banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard.

Because a "Shaddoll" card was not sent to the Graveyard, the second effect that flips a "Shaddoll" monster face-up will not resolve.

Problem-Solving Card Text can be applied to reach this conclusion. Effects which take the form "Do A, then do B" are such that A and B are sequential components. A resolves, then B resolves. For effects worded this way, if A does not resolve properly for any reason, B should not be resolved either. So if Sinister Shadow Games does not send a "Shaddoll" card from your Main Deck to the Graveyard (even if it banishes one instead), no "Shaddoll" monsters will be flipped face-up.


Did Balance change when its wording was changed? I noticed that the original text of Balance, from Alpha, says that someone must discard some number of lands to equalize (sorta).

In the most recent reprint, I notice they have to choose some number and get rid of the rest. Is this the same for the old print? (Is it the same card after all?)

Was old magic kind of like Pokemon (in that when it says discard an energy from this card it means send to the discard pile) where any card not destroyed by battle is considered discarded?

Yes, "discard" was once used to describe removal of permanents from the battlefield like "sacrifice" does now.  Consider the original text on City in a Bottle and Golgothian Sylex, which have you "discard [cards] from play" — they're obviously not talking about discarding cards in your hand!


Second line invasion of two-space extension The two-space extension is a very common pattern and forms a base. I've found lots of material here, and here, and elsewhere on how it cannot be cut and how to defend against various invasions.

Nevertheless, in one of my games I was confronted with the following non-standard invasion:

$$cm1 Non-standard invasion of two-space extension
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . . O . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Question 1: Ignoring the three marked stones, how would one usually defend this invasion? Is J17 correct here?

Considering the option for black to connect up to the left and the white wall at the right, I played H18, which resulted in utter chaos and a miserable result for white. Below is my failed attempt at defending against this invasion.

$$cm1 Failed defense
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 1 . 3 4 . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . 5 O 7 . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . 6 . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

With this, Black was able to connect to the right. I've been playing around with various options, but couldn't find anything useful.

Question 2: Is white 2 above already a horrible mistake? Or does there exist a follow-up after black 3 that kills the invading stones?

Question 3: How strong is the two-space extension? In the initial situation where black invades at 1, what is the best white can expect to get?

Question 4: I found myself at quite a lack of knowledge when it comes to defending such non-standard attacks, however, most resources (like SL) only cover the typical attacks. Is it worthwhile to invest a lot of time into learning how to deal with strange attacks? Or should one expect to get this simply by experience?

The 2 space extension is generally regarded as very hard to cut and thus solid, providing at least 1 eye with various options to gain a lot more eyespace easily.

However, invasions and attacks are still possible. The B1 move in your diagram is actually a standard invasion with the marked black stone around.

$$cm1 A possible invasion of two-space extension
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . . O . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Influence

One usual aim of this move is to either create center influence like this:

$$cm1 Influence, part 1
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B 9 W 3 6 W . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . 5 4 8 . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . |

.

$$Wcm1 Influence, part 2
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 4 O X 3 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B X W X O W . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . 2 X O O . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 1 X . . . . . . . . . . |

(B9 and the atari may be different on certain boards.)

$$Wcm1 Influence, result
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . X O . O . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B X W . O W . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . X X O O . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . |

This can be good depending on the global situation. Of course, white gets super strong, so black should only consider this if there is no useful attack on the 2 space extension anyway and the center is important.

Base robbing

Another idea is to use this invasion to steal eyespace and gain some territory. It is usual if there is a black stone on either side of the extension.

$$cm1 Base robbing, simple variation
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . a 1 3 b . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . W 2 4 W . B . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

A and B are miai to connect the stones out, so black can consider an outside move to attack - or he can firmly link up his 2 stones to either side to rid white of any sente moves near the edge.

This way, white ends up with a solid, but eyeless group with good center access. Depending on the board, this can be good for either player.

$$cm1 Base robbing, white resistance
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . W . . W . B . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

However, white may think about resisting like this. this move can be good, but usually black 1 is only played if black can follow up like this:

$$cm1 Base robbing, black counter
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O X . 1 a . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . W c b W . B . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . d . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

A and B are miai now, so the black stones are out and white has a weaker shape than by playing C to begin with. In some cases, black plays the B-D exchange before B1.

$$Bcm1 White resistance, another idea
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X 2 . O . . O . X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Sometimes, white can try a kind-of-sente move instead of replying directly. If black answers the move, white can play more aggressively against the invasion stone. If black follows up the invasion, an exchange could take place. This should be considered carefully before invading at 1.

Depending on the board, white may dislike the invasion on the second line, and thus plays a tobi to strengthen her group:

$$Wcm1 Defend
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . e . . . . . . d . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . W . . W . B . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . a b c 1 . . . . . . . . |

Any of A, B, C are thinkable just as well, and in some cases a tsuke at D or E is reasonable, too. This requires some reading, as D and E tend to lead to a huge exchange.

By the way, keep in mind that base robbing can be beneficial to white on certain boards. That's one of the reasons white, instead of the second line invasion, an attack at black 1 or a is usual in this shape, too, as well as moves on top of B or C.

Actual game

In the actual game, white had some extra stones to the right, which changes the situation significantly.

$$cm1 Simple answer
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 3 1 4 . . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B 5 O 2 . O . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

White could simply answer at W2, connecting firmly. Black cannot play 3 at 4 because then white would play 3 and thanks to the white stones on the right, black dies inside.

Thus black has to connect out, allowing white to get a reasonable shape with the tiger mouth at 4 in sente. Black 5 is played on the third instead of the second line because it has far greater influence on the center and the strength of the white group.

$$cm1 Strong answer
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . 2 1 . 5 . . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . B . O . 3 O 6 . Q X . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . 4 . . . . X , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

White can also consider the strong-hand descend at 2, blocking the connection out. Black will play 3 and 5, to which white avoids the self-destructing reply to the right of 5 and instead simply nobis at 6. Black is now forced to find a way to connect out or live locally  - I'll leave the tsumego as an exercise for the reader.

Related joseki shape

$$cm1 Simple answer
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . B . O . . O 3 . X . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |

In this very common joseki shape white is supposed to have a very solid group with enough eyespace to be difficult to attack. However, with the marked black stone in place, the invasion of B1 is an astonishing threat. The details are too long to list here, but if white blocks at 2, black will play the tesuji of 3 and it is very hard for white to find an answer that doesn't lose half the group, base, and yose.

Answering your further questions

  Question 3: How strong is the two-space extension? In the initial situation where black
  invades at 1, what is the best white can expect to get?

The 2 space extension is stable. It is not alive locally, it is not strong, but it is stable in the sense of being connected and thus difficult to fiendishly attack. Prefer this extension when you don't like the idea of being split.

$$Wcm1 Solid
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . X . . . . a 1 b . O . X . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . c . . . . . , X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

For instance, in this shape, a wide extension to A would immediately be invaded at B. White could think about playing 1 at C, aiming for a light shape, but that offers a range of difficult to handle invasions that you need to be comfortable with.

Also, leep in mind that "killing" is not always the best answer to moves that are either unusual or bad. Sometimes letting the opponent live is the best punishment. Remember the idea of the sacrifice in the 'influence' section of this answer - in that case, maybe just go for center influence (connect instead of block) when the center is of more value.

And contrarily, you'll be astonished how much dan players hate living sometimes. I remember a high dan friend of mind talking about a game he played against a pro: "I lived everywhere by crawling on the second line. It was atrocious, I could not find a good way to die."

  Question 4: I found myself at quite a lack of knowledge when it comes to defending
  such non-standard attacks, however, most resources (like SL) only cover the
  typical attacks. Is it worthwhile to invest a lot of time into learning how to deal
  with strange attacks? Or should one expect to get this simply by experience?

Midgame joseki as those presented in this answer are very useful. Either learn them by playing tons of games and remembering the best shapes, or look them up in books. I remember there was a pretty thorough discussion of the 2 space extension in "Shape up!" by  Charles Matthews. Eventually, as a dan player, you'll be forced to remember them from study though since (at least Western) books rarely cover deep variations for specific boards or new inventions.


Is there a bid that is "forcing to four?" The question arises from this example hand:. The whole hand is included for reference, although you get to see only your own cards when you bid.

You are North with (s) AK4 (h) Q98 (d)976 (c) AT86. South bids one diamond, and you respond 2NT (13-15, forcing). Partner bids three diamonds.

The cliche is that an "opening hand opposite an opening hand equals game." That implies that "13+13=26 points and is good enough for a major suit game. But it takes about 29 to make a minor suit game.

Suppose South has a bare minimum such as (s)J7 (h)42 (d)AK8542 (c)K43

Can a forcing bid such as 2NT be only "forcing to four" (of a suit)? That is, not to game in a minor if you can't see your way to the eleventh trick? If you bid three spades to show your strength in the suit, and South signs off at four diamonds, can you pass?

Yes - many pairs play that "forcing to game" actually means forcing to 3N.

As always, this is up to partnership agreement.


How many cards do you trash when you play a Chapel after having bought a Sewers? Chapel reads

  Trash up to 4 cards from your hand.

Sewers reads

  When you trash a card other than from this, you may trash a card from your hand.

Because the cards Chapel trashes are all at once, do you get to trash up to 4 more cards, or 1?

According to this Dominion Wiki you may

  trash an additional card for each card trashed.

It specifically gives example with Chapel.


In Go (board game) under Chinese rulings how does the scoring of empty territory work? I am reading up on the Chinese rules of Go and have trouble understanding the ‘area scoring’ rules they use.

I get that each player gets a point for each stone that is alive, for each empty field in their territory and for each empty field in neither territory, but how exactly is any of this figured out?
As far as I understand it, after a game both players agree on which stones are dead and which empty positions count towards which player's territory. This doesn't seem very satisfying.

If I were to write a computer program that is supposed to score a given board state at the end of the game, how would such a machine make these decisions? It can't, can it?

I can see how this would work in case of eyes, as there is no way of placing an opponent's stone there, but for everything bigger then that it seems obscure to me how that decision (black, white, neutral territory) is made.

It's already clear for you that a group with two eyes is alive.

By extension, a group that has enough room for two eyes is alive, even if the eyes are not formed.

At the end of the game, the human players would indicate - by a click for example - which stones are dead. The computer can then do the scoring.

If you expect the computer to figure out which stones are dead, then it needs to know how to play. There is now open source software that can do it, such as Leela Zero.


In Settlers of Catan, what are ways to "hide" your strength until the end? For instance, is accumulating cards less visible/threatening than accumulating resources, settlements or roads?

Conversely, is building "basic strength" (e.g. settlements and cities) less provocative than going after a single resource? Yet could this be more effective (because it allows you to pursue multiple resources) than obviously trying to "corner" one?

Hoarding developments cards is a great way. Here's a few specifics on that, along with a few ways that don't involve development cards (note that you usually don't want to exploit your hidden strength until you think it will propel you to victory):

Hold off using a Monopoly card even if you get it very early in the
game. Wait for exactly that right moment when there are many of one
resource that you can monopolize and efficiently convert into several
settlements/cities/dev cards.
Hold off using a Road Building card until it results in you getting
longest road and a new settlement all on the same turn.
Hold off using a Year of Plenty card until you happen to have a card
combo in your hand where employing it results in a 3 victory point
turn.
Have a couple roads that go off to horribly unproductive locations -
but are nonetheless potential settlement sites. Many people
automatically assume you'll never build there - but you will on the
turn it vaults you to victory.
People often have no clue that you'll have longest road with
just 2-3 more road links closing 1 or 2 loops. Do this on purpose,
particularly if you have a hidden road building development card.
If playing with the Seafarers expansion, have extra ships available
that you will eventually use to build a surprise settlement, or
better yet a surprise settlement on a new island that gets you a
victory point bonus, or best of all combine with leaping to longest
road. But of course try not to make it obvious you're planning this.

Of course, if you have a hand of 7 unplayed development cards, you will be greatly feared so all the hidden strength tactics involving development cards work best when you have 2-3 unplayed cards.
Perhaps the most important hidden strength:
Gear your initial settlement placement and early building towards the end game. In other words - go for ore and grain, with a little sheep thrown in. You will fall behind in the beginning but so long as you get at least 1 additional settlement, you'll have no problems towards the end of the game while others stall out. Taken to extremes, it's possible to win with only 2 settlements, as I did here (nobody realized how strong I was until the game was just about over - those 15 development cards were all mine, though I didn't have enough turns to play them all!):