Understanding influence and using it properly I'm an amateur player, mostly-self taught with some help on KGS by a few awesome people. I think I now know my way around the board, and am not a complete plonker anymore, just a regular plonker :)

Most of things I've read about Go I understand easily, but the advice of "using influence to fight", otherwise known as "don't use influence to make territory" still eludes me somewhat.

If I understood correctly, the "main" purpose of influence is to create territory while attacking your opponent.(?) But what happens when your opponent doesn't give you a chance to be attacked and simply gradually reduces your influence? Does it mean I have to start a fight to be able to use influence correctly?

In the end, territory wins games, so why shouldn't I create territory with influence if I have a chance to do so?

First of all, are you confusing influence and thickness? See my answer here for the difference.

Influence and thickness obviously have to lead to territory in the end, the questions is, how?

The rationale behind "Do not use thickness to make territory" is to not use it directly in a crude way. Imagine a situation like this:

$$Wcm1 Black's direction of attack is bad
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . 1 . 2 . . . X O . O O O . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . X X X X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

The extension to B2 is poor direction, as it, while creating some territory, is not using the wall to the fullest. White can think about attaching to the corner stone or simply extending to gain at least part of a base, and black will have a hard time attacking. Compare to this:

$$Wcm1 Right direction
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . 2 . 1 . . . . . X O . O O O . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . X X X X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

White does not have any base and is even forced to jump to the center, not having a single eye. Black can look forward to keep attacking. At the same time, black made some territory in the upper left.

$$Wcm1 Extending is difficult
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . 2 . 1 . . 3 . . X O . O O O . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . X X X X X O . |
$$ | . . . . . . 4 . . 5 . . . . . . . X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |

Using thickness to attack

The word thickness, as used in Go, is approximately synonymous with strength A group of stones is thick if it contains few or no weak points and is not vulnerable to attack. It should be obvious that thickness is a good thing to have. Your opponent must be extremely cautious in the vicinity of your thickness, for he will not find any useful kikashi to play against it should his stones get into trouble. Backed up by thickness, you can attack with carefree abandon. Also, in a ko fight the player whose groups are thick will have the advantage. Hence, in the first half of the game, building thickness is just as important as making territory. The key idea in handling thickness is to treat it with respect and not to play too close to it, whether it be your opponent’s thickness or your own.

Let's consider another example.

$$Wcm1 White is very thick but horribly abuses the value
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . X . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . X . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . O . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . 2 . . O O O X . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . O , . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . X . 1 . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

The white extension to 1 in this example is, well, hideous. Clearly Black 2 is a larger move than White 1, fixing black's problems and creating territory.

Instead, white should invade like this:

$$Wcm1 Use the thickness to attack
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . X . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . X . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 0 . . . . . . O X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . 8 9 . . . . . O . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . X . 6 7 . . . 2 . . O O O X . . . |
$$ | . . . 4 5 . . . . , . . . . O , . . . |
$$ | . . . X 3 . . 1 . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

Continuation

$$Bcm1 Use the thickness to attack
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . X . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . X . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 1 2 . . 9 . . O X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O . . . . . O . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O . 4 . X . . O O O X . . . |
$$ | . . . X O 3 . . . , . . . . O , . . . |
$$ | . . . X O 5 . O . X . a . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . 6 7 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

Black has some difficulty finding severe moves. Due to the presence of White’s thickness he had to make defensive plays at 2 (dia1) and 9 (dia2), and the invasion was a success for White. Note that 'a' still remains as a large yose point for her.

$$Bcm1 Black can hardly fight back
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . X . , . . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . X . X . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . X O . . . . . O X . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . X O . . 2 . . O . O X . . . . |
$$ | . . X . X O . O . X . . O O O X . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . . . , . . . . O , . . . |
$$ | . . . X O X . O . X . . 3 . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . 1 O X O . . . 4 . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

If Black had used 18 in the last diagram to capture three stones, as with 1 in this diagram, he would have suffered a big loss. White 2 captures a large territory. It is pointless for Black to extend into the teeth of White’s thickness with 3. White 4, in conjunction with White’s thickness, deprives Black of eyes.

When your opponent has made thickness, you should try to deal with it by establishing some stones a safe distance away from it. After making such a base, you can approach more closely. However, slowly approaching thickness is, well, slow - it means you won't make points as quickly. This is a drawback of allowing your opponent to have thickness.

Creating a moyo

$$Wcm1 Nice moyo for black, thanks to the newly created thickness.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1 . . |
$$ | . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7 . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . # . . . . . X 5 . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

In response to White 1, the niken takabasami of Black 2 in conjunction with Black , is a good strategy. The 3-3 invasion of the corner with White 3 is the usual continuation and with the sequence to 8, Black has made thickness on the outside while White has taken profit in the corner. The marked stone has now become an ideally placed as it is a good extension from both the shimari in the upper right corner and the wall on the lower right side.

Overconcentration

You probably already know this situation:

$$Bcm1 Note that the white extension is 2 space, not 3 space at 'a'.
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X . 2 . . . . .
$$ | . . . . 1 O . . O a .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . .
$$ +----------------------

By kicking at 1, black can force overconcentration of the white group.

The very same idea can be used to counter bad use of thickness. I've found a great example for this:

$$Wcm1 Imagine this situation.
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . . . . X . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . X , . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . X . . . . . , . . O O X X O . . |
$$ | . . . . . 1 . . . . . . O X O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

White is trying to use her thickness to create territory on the lower edge. We can make use of this wrong attempt.

$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . 4 . . . . . . . X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . X 5 1 2 . . , . . O O X X O . . |
$$ | . . . . 3 O 6 . . . . . O X O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

Black should play tsuke-osae with 1 and 3. The sequence to Black 7, which is joseki, will follow, leaving Black with a large profit in the corner and White with thickness along the lower side. But what is this thickness worth?

$$
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . O . . . . . . . X . . X . . |
$$ | . . . X X X O . b , a . O O X X O . . |
$$ | . . . . X O O . . . . . O X O O X X . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . O X O . O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

If White were to make an extension from his formation on the lower left side, the ideal
point would be at 'a'. On the other hand, the ideal point for an extension from the
formation on the lower right side would be at 'b'. The sphere of influence of these two
formations overlap. Eventually, White may have to play on one of these points to prevent Black from invading. But, for White to play on one of the points will result in overconcentration.


What if a player forgot to take the noble tile? A player has all the cards to be visited by one noble, but at the end of their turn they forgot about the noble tile. If another player in their turn also have all the cards for this noble who gets the noble tile?

Taking a noble is not optional, so the player who actually earned it first should get the noble as soon as it's discovered that he should have gotten it. By continuing to the next player without giving the noble to the person who earned it, an illegal mistake has been made, and if an illegal mistake can be easily fixed, then it should be.

Rules quote:

  It is impossible to refuse the visit from a noble, which is not considered to be an action.


Arkham Horror - Are you allowed to take injury/madness while fighting with The Great Old One last game we were playing, we were forced to fight with The Great Old One - Ithaqua. We came to a point, where a player lost all his stamina(and later, sanity). However, the question arised - are you allowed to take Injury card, instead of biting the dust?
Rules aren't too clear for this one(imho). On the one hand, the rules say, that if your stamina/sanity reaches 0, you can take them - but at the same time it doesn't explicitly mention the case when you're fighting with The Great Old One. Plus, playing with Injury/Madness is easier than without, and making the game easier doesn't look like Arkham Horror :)

Did I miss something? Is there some clarification? What should I do in this case?

PS. We're playing with Dunwitch Horror, The Black Pharaoh, and The King in Yellow expansions, if that makes a difference.

No, you can't do that. Short version: the Ancient One devours you as soon as you're reduced to 0, so by the time the Injury/Madness tries to change how you recover after your're reduced to 0, you're already gone.

In combat with the Ancient One, you're devoured if you're reduced to zero Stamina/Sanity:

  Any investigator reduced to 0 Sanity or Stamina by the Ancient One’s attack is devoured. If an investigator is devoured during the final battle with the Ancient One, that player is eliminated from the game (i.e., the player does not draw a new character).

You're devoured, not just knocked unconscious or driven insane. You don't get to choose which way you want to get knocked unconscious (item loss vs Injury), because the Ancient One ate you.

The rules for Injuries (Madnesses are similar):

  When an investigator is reduced to 0 stamina, he may choose to gain an Injury card. If he does this, he does not lose any items or Clue tokens for being knocked unconscious, and his Stamina is restored to its maximum value instead of to 1. However, the investigator must still move to either St. Mary's Hospital or Lost in Time and Space, as appropriate.

You still get your Sanity/Stamina reduced to 0 - you just recover afterwards in a different way. So the Ancient One text still applies, and you're still devoured. You don't have the painful recovery (recover to 1, lose items, etc) afterwards that you can replace with the Injury/Madness. You can't take an Injury any more than you can say, "okay, he got me - I'll drop my useless item and keep on going!" Getting devoured is permanent.

Finally, this is just common sense. If adding Injury/Madness to the game somehow let you stay in the fight, then the Dunwich Horror expansion would make the final battle way, way easier. The expansion isn't meant to make radical changes like that.


How many buildings can I buy per turn in Queendomino? The instructions state you can

  (Optional) Construct a building on an open red construction square.

I am assuming the convention is that you can buy one building per moved Meeple?

If you look at the rules,

  You must take the following actions, in the outlined order (Note that only actions A and E are mandatory. The rest are optional):

you can see that you can play each action at most 1 times.

For action C (Building):

  C - (Optional) Construct a Building:You need to have at least 1 “Town”
  square still in construction in order to construct a building, whether
  this is a square that was added to your territory during a previous
  round or the current one.

It clearly states a building, so you can only construct one for action C and because there is only one (or none) action C in your turn, you can only construct one building per turn.


Do morph cards suffer summoning sickness When you have the card face down then you morph the card to face up, does it suffer summoning sickness? My friend has lots of them in his deck and I'm not too sure and would like to know whether they suffer from summoning sickness the turn they are morphed.

Playing creatures face down and turning them face up (commonly called morphing/unmorphing) has no effect on them having summoning sickness. Unless they have haste, they have summoning sickness until they've been in play since the beginning of your most recent turn, whether they've been turned face up or not.

For example, if you play a creature face down then immediately turn it face up, it still has summoning sickness until your next turn. Similarly, if you play a creature face down, wait til it no longer has summoning sickness, and then turn it face up, it still doesn't have summoning sickness.

Morph does have a lot of interesting rules associated with it, but a morphed creature is still a creature. Morph means:

  You may cast this card as a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost by paying {3} rather than paying its mana cost.

There's nothing in there about having haste, so like all creatures, it has summoning sickness. (It can't attack, and its activated abilities with a tap or untap symbol in their costs can't be activated unless it's been under your control since the beginning of your most recent turn.)

Similarly, turning it face up has its share of rules, but all it really does is turn the creature face up:

  [pay the cost] ... turn the permanent face up. ... The morph effect on it ends, and it regains its normal characteristics.

It's still the same creature it was before, so if it already had summoning sickness, it still does, and if it didn't have summoning sickness, it still doesn't.


What are bidding sequences in which the responder is likely to be the "captain" of the partnership? I can think of two: The first one is when the opener bids no trump. Then the responder knows that the opener has a "balanced" hand, and 15-17 high card points for 1NT, 20-21 for 2NT, etc.

Another example is when the opener bids 2 clubs (strong), the responder 2 diamonds (waiting), and the opener bids a suit (or no trump). Then the responder knows opener's strength (22+ points) and preferred suit.

In these cases, the responder is "captain," because he knows his own hand, and has a pretty good idea of opener's. The opener, on the other hand, should "dance to his partner's tune" because he can't match his partner's knowledge of the combined holdings.

Are these the main instances, or are there other instances of responders' captaincies that I have missed?

In addition to Opener's notrump openings, whenever Opener rebids notrump to show one of the gap-ranges in the opening notrump structure (typically after opening one of a suit or 1C/2C strong) Responder becomes Captain by virtue of a better grasp of combined partnership holdings.

Likewise if Opener makes a splinter raise of Responder's response then Responder becomes Captain.

Either Opener or Responder also becomes Captain by making a Blackwood or Gerber Ace-asking call, an area where beginners and intermediates often err by having the wrong hand makes this call.

Also Responder becomes Captain, at least temporarily, by making a Fourth-Suit Forcing (FSF) call at the second round. Consequently you will see this call made by experts on a three card suit from time-to-time as a prepared rebid, often revealing on the third round a hand too strong for an immediate splinter raise, which would have given Captaincy to Opener without properly revealing Responder's strength).

It's important to note that Captaincy can change during the auction, and these situations should be well discussed by any ongoing partnership as they are rife with possibilities for gross over- and under-bidding. Even in world-class play it is not unheard of to see slam played in part-score, which is a sure sign that a Captaincy change error occurred. It is especially important to discuss how and when these occur in competitive auctions.


How does Chains of Mephistopheles interact with Dredge If Chains of Mephistopheles is on the battlefield, and I would use my a draw other than my first for the turn to trigger a dredge effect like Dakmor Salvage. What happens?

First, let's look at a flowchart explaining how Chains of Mephistopheles works.
Now, when you go to draw a card (other than the one that is a turn based action during your draw step) you have 2 replacement effects trying to replace that draw, the Chains and Dredge. You get to choose which one to apply first (616.1).

If you choose to apply Dredge first you can no longer apply the Chains since you are no longer drawing a card (614.6).
If you choose to apply the Chains effect first you can still Dredge as long as you would draw a card after discarding, if you mill (because you had no cards to discard) you cannot apply Dredge.

616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object’s controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order.
614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn trigger abilities. Note that the modified event may contain instructions that can’t be carried out, in which case the impossible instruction is simply ignored.


Is Risk a computationally difficult game I have a free Risk app on my phone. I am amazed by how bad the AI plays even on the highest setting. Is Risk a computationally challenging game to implement in AI or is the app just bad?

Disclaimer: I have some programming background but haven't ever actually tried to make a Risk AI, so this isn't 100% definitive.

Although making a "perfect" Risk AI might be, it seems like it wouldn't in theory. At the end of the day, Risk is a resource management game, and that's something a computer can do.

For starters, the combat mechanism is fairly straightforward. There's only 6 basic types of fights (1-1,2-1,3-1,1-2,2-2,3-2), and everything else is just an extension of those parameters. The average value and variance of these can easily be hard-coded, so it's simple for the computer to calculate the probabilities. And one of those, the 3-2, is the most common by far. I would imagine the average advantage of an attacker in that fight (quick Google search showed 0.158 men per roll) would be an important number in Risk strategy as a whole. The only other source of luck, the cards, can be estimated as well.

After that, there's the risk-reward decisions. What's the value in holding territory, vs. the risk of over-extending? Well, the value is the armies, and that can be calculated. There's 0.33 for the territory, some large number for the card if it's the first attack, some amount for the inroads to a continent, and some amount for the possibility of a elimination and the cards that could come with it. The value of the cards can be determined (but I imagine that it would be large enough to turn into "Always take over something if it's even remotely possible, and if there's a good chance of taking someone out without completely destroying the current defensive position go for it, especially if a set is guaranteed.") The continent effect can also be easily calculated by determine the probability of wiping the continent (which is just a bunch of battles that are already well defined.)

The risk of being overrun would be along the lines of "this is how many armies my opponent is mustering. If he puts them all on his front line what happens to my income?" and uses that to determine what sized defense force is good enough. In a situation where continents aren't a thing, it might be far more reasonable to not worry about defense and focus on attacks (since the attacker has the advantage in all situations with more than 3 armies.)

The map positioning would be a bit more difficult, but I'm sure that it can be solved, even with just simulations worst case.

The problem with a Risk AI is two fold:

1) A computer will not be able to perform effective diplomacy. Regardless of how much player history the game remembers, there's still a human element of "who has the target on their back" that a computer will just not be able to match. Especially in games with multiple humans and multiple bots, the bots don't "know" if the humans are in an alliance or not. It'll see weakly defended borders and think "Well, as long as my borders are bigger, they'll go for the easier prey instead" without knowing that it's because of a mutual agreement.

2) What's the value in it? Thought it might not be 100% be "winning humans are happy humans, let the humans win," I'm sure that a minor part of it. However, the bigger question is the luck vs. skill curve. Unless or until a game becomes 100% luckless, there will eventually be a point where further thought or processing just doesn't make sense. Especially in a situation where the human using the device just wants to get to their next turn. Especially in Risk, where variance is high and there's little way of being able to mitigate it, it doesn't make sense to make a bot that does the "perfect move every time" because the advantage gained is dwarfed by the variance. Especially when the computer can just as easily manipulate said variance ever so slightly.....

I remember playing an old PC Risk game where the computer would Ping-Pong between 4 different battles, as it re-calculates after each roll what the most profitable attack would be. So they do exist. But I would imagine that for most apps out there AI is just tacked on. Heck, there's a non zero chance the difficulty just determines how much the computer "cheats" and the actual AI decision making is just always the same (I'm sure some manager eventually determined that a "high-end Risk bot" would not increase revenue enough to warrant the development time.)

At the end of the day, Risk is NOT a game where people at the end of it will think "Wow, the AI in this game was remarkable! They're always able to find ways to hit weak points, and have just enough people on defense to prevent mass invasions. I was beaten hands down by tactics alone, and the computer didn't cheat at all!" Why, then, bother with making a really difficult bot?


Official Rules for Hand and Foot? Some friends of ours taught us "Hand and Foot" but I have never seen any official rules for it. What I have seen varies from site to site quite a bit. I am curious if someone could tell me the history of Hand and Foot and if there are some official rules, or at least a recommended set of rules.

Try http://www.hand8foot.com/rulesandscoring/  , might be helpful for you


How to view cards in the stack below the top card in MTG Arena? Fairly often in MTG Arena, my opponent will cast a spell that triggers effects that go on top of the original spell in the stack.  How can I see the full text of the original spell or anything else below the top card in the stack?

I need to be able to see such details to decide whether to react (e.g. cast a counterspell).  I'm not sure whether this is a design flaw or I'm just being dense.

There are two things two answer that question:

You can simply examine the cards on the stack by right-clicking on them. Then it will open in the large preview (usually on the left on the screen).
It is nevertheless a design flaw, as the way of doing this is not very intuitive (in my point of view) and also not "real like", as it would be if the stack was unfolding while hovering over it.


Is giving away items as bribes to other players restricted to table cards? Under "trading" in the Munchkin instructions it states that:

  You may trade Items (but not other cards) with other players. You may only trade Items from the table - not from your hand.

but in the following paragraph it says:

  You may also give Items away without trade, to bribe other players - "I'll give you my Flaming Armor if you won't help Bog fight that dragon!" You may show your hand to others. Like we could stop you.

In the "Asking For Help" section it says:

  You can bribe someone to help. In fact, you'll probably have to. You may offer your helper any Item(s) you are currently carrying, or any number of the Treasure cards the monster has.

And at the beginning of the "Turn Phases" section it says:

  At the start of your turn, you may play cards, switch items from "in use" to "carried" or vice versa, trade items with other players, and sell items for levels

This would mean that carried items are those in your hand and would cause bribes to function differently than standard trading. Does this mean that "bribes" can only be given from you hand?

It clearly says that you can't trade non-items or items in your hands, and there's nothing contradicting that.

Being able to reveal your hand does not imply you can trade cards in your hand. You might show your hand to reveal that you are able to affect a combat as a threat or to show you can meet a promise.

Being able to trade carried items does not mean you can trade items in your hand. Carried items are not in your hand. Quite the opposite, the items you carry are on the table. ("[Cards in play] are the cards on the table in front of you, showing your Race and Class (if any) and the Items you are carrying.") Not all of the items are you are carrying are in use because some are single use items, some aren't usable by your race or class, some items would occupy an item slot that's already occupied, etc.


Can the Allies win this game, given that Russia is falling? Can the Allies win a two on three game of the U.S. and UK against Germany, Japan, and a soon to be conquered Russia described below? If so, how?

My brother, my friend and I all sat down last night and we started playing an Axis and Allies game, (Axis and Allies 1942 Second Edition). After about two hours of playing my friend and I, (Allies, with him playing the USSR and America, and me playing the UK) were in trouble as my brother, (Axis, playing both Germany and Japan) was able to capture Moscow with 11 Panzer Tanks. My friend playing the USSR and his second time playing the game immediately proceeded to launch a counter attack on Moscow. He was able to take back Moscow, but at a very heavy cost. left both of the IC countries undefended and Germany just strolled into Russia and took them both. My friend only has 4 tanks left on Russia and no other units available to help.

Side-Note: All of the German controlled African Countries have fallen, but Germany has 8 Submarines in the Atlantic.

The good news is that while this was going on, my brother left the Japanese Navy wide open to attack and both the UK and the US navies took advantage of this. Now Japan is only left with 1 Battleship, 1 Aircraft Carrier, and 1 Cruiser guarding Japan while the US navy, ( 1 Battleship, 2 Cruisers, 2 Destroyers, 1 Aircraft Carrier, 3 Submarines, and 3 fighters are all within striking range of the Japan homeland his turn. All of the Japanese countries on Asia have fallen either by the US or the UK, and 1/4 of the Island Territories have been conquered. I was wondering what my friend and I could do to improve our chances of beating Germany, as they are most likely going to take Moscow in the next to or three turns. The next time that we play is going to be on 11/20/2014, so any advice would be helpful!

This is a tough one. But it appears to indicate that under certain circumstances, the U.S. and Britain together could have won, even if Russia is falling. Your game illustrates how.

1) Secure North Africa, and with it, the road to the Middle East and India.

2) Using India as a base, reclaim China, Indochina, and some of the Pacific Islands from Japan. This is something you accomplished in the game that the Allies failed to achieve in real life.

Doing a rough count: the U.S. starts with 36 IPCS, and Britain with 30. You've added 3 or so in Africa, and perhaps 11 in "greater China" for a total of about 80. The Axis have 29 for the original Germany minus North Africa, will soon get 24 for Russia, and have about 14 left for Japan, a total of 67. That's more than the 57 they started with, so they've "come up."

One advantage for you is that you've "sluffed" your weakest player and country (Russia), and "consolidated." Also, Japan is "half gone." The end game is an alliance between America, Britain, (Japan and China), the latter two controlled by the former two, versus Germany and Russia (the latter under German occupation). That will win most games of Allies and Axis. Probably the "real life" version as well.

One idea: Ship at least American infantry and tanks across the Pacific, where the Japanese navy is in its death throes, to China, rather than across the Atlantic (where there are eight German submarines. Have them conquer the remaining Japanese Pacific islands along the way to reduce Japan's income, before heading for China, and ultimately Siberian Russia (you want to reduce the Axis to 29 for Germany, 24 for Russia and 8 for Japan, or 61). Use British land forces for harassing the Germans in France, Norway, and the Middle East/Southern Russia.


Should reckoning effects be executed as if done simultaneously? Should reckoning effects on an investigator's conditions execute as if done simultaneously (starting with the lead investigator)?  Two situations come to mind here.

1) If a reckoning effect condition results in my investigator being blessed or cursed, should I wait until after resolving all other reckoning effects to put the new condition into play (i.e. not benefit from the blessed condition for the other reckoning effects)?  This would effectively be like executing the effects simultanously.

2) If a reckoning effect kills my investigator, should I resolve all other effects as well? The case I am thinking of is where the Dark Pact roll of 1 results in another investigator being devoured.  If my investigator dies from another effect, does he get to skip resolving this dark pact or should he have to resolve it as well, as if simultaneous?

Mostly, this question came to mind because of a recent answer on this question.

You get to determine the order of the effects, but they do not happen simultaneously. Thus you should resolve curse effect first and blessings last.

Do note that if a reckoning effect causes you to gain a card (e.g. a condition) that has its own reckoning effect you do not have to resolve the reckoning effect on the new card until the next reckoning. Basically, once the reckoning phase begins, the list of things that need to be resolved is fixed for that round.

And, yes, if your investigator is defeated by a reckoning effect you do not continue to resolve reckoning effects on his/her remaining items. Defeats are immediate and you discard all conditions and tokens (except clues) and set the investigator aside along with his possessions. This can also cause you to loose beneficial effects that the investigator was providing to others on his/her space. So, again, the order you resolve the effects does matter, even between investigators where you are supposed to follow the usual turn order (lead first, then clockwise).

The case in the question you cite is a little less clear. Lost in time and space usually allows an investigator to skip resolving reckoning effects. But you could argue that all the items' reckoning effects are triggered already (just unresolved) and since you take the items with you you have to continue to resolve them all.


How does each copy of a spell cast to Zada, Hedron Grinder count towards Storm abilities? Zada, Hedron Grinder allows you to copy spells for all your other creatures, as long as it only targets him. Thus, you will be casting a potentially large number of spells. Does every copy of the spell count towards a storm count?

Unfortunately no. Storm counts how many spells were cast, where Zada just copies spells already on the stack.

Storm

  When you cast this spell, put a copy of it onto the stack for each other spell that was cast before it this turn. If the spell has any targets, you may choose new targets for any of the copies

Zada

  Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only Zada, Hedron Grinder, copy that spell for each other creature you control that the spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those creatures.


What happens to target creature when Essence Scatter is played? When one plays Essence Scatter, does the target creature go back to the opponent's hand, or does it go to their graveyard?

Essence Scatter counters a creature spell, and countering a spell is defined in the Comprehensive Rules 701.5a:

To counter a spell or ability means to cancel it, removing it from the stack. It doesn’t resolve and none of its effects occur. A countered spell is put into its owner’s graveyard.

Note that technically there is never a creature in this case: a spell becomes a creature only when it enters the battlefield.


Does damage of Echoed Voice (Toucannon SUM) increment each turn? My brother and I were playing another round of Pokémon TCG, and we encountered an argument that we can't solve involving Toucannon's Echoed Voice attack.

Me: Echoed Voice does 60 damage on the first round, 60 + 60 on the second and 60 on the third. (The damage resets it's increment on the third round)

My brother: Echoed Voice does 60 damage on the first round, 60 * 2 on the second, 60 * 3 on the third and so on. (The increment continues)

Who's right? I would like to find out as soon as possible!

[CC] Echoed Voice 60
  During your next turn, this Pokémon's Echoed Voice attack does 60 more damage (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

"does 60 more damage" adds damage to the base damage, 60 here. It basically checks if you used the attack last turn, if yes, bonus damage applies. There's no increment.

None of you is right here. The damage goes 60-120-120-120... if the attack is used every turn.

This follows official ruling from The Rules Compendium EX:

  == EXTRA COMET PUNCH (Metagross ex - EX:Hidden Legends)

  Q. Metagross-EX's "Extra Comet Punch" attack says, "During your next turn, E.C.P. does 50 damage plus 50 more damage". Does this mean that on the first turn I do 50, then on the second consecutive turn 100, then on the third consecutive turn 150, then 200, etc.?

  A. No, but it does mean that whenever you do Extra Comet Punch in consecutive turns you add +50 to the base damage of the attack. So on the first turn you would do 50, then second turn does 100 (Base 50 plus extra 50 from previous turn), then third turn does 100 (again, Base 50 plus extra 50 from previous turn), etc. But don't forget, benching or switching Metagross-EX ends this effect! (Jun 17, 2004 PUI Rules Team)

And also another official ruling from The Rulings Compendium LVX:

  Silver Wind (Mothim - OP Series 7; Mothim - Secret Wonders; Dustox ex - Legend Maker; Others)

  Q. If I use Silver Wind once, then I use it again on my next turn, it would do 60 damage (assuming there's no weakness or resistance, and that neither active Pokémon is switched out). On the third turn would it do +30 more damage (bringing it up to 90), and on the fourth 120 damage, and so on?

  A. Sorry, but Silver Wind only adds 30 to the base damage done by the attack; it is not cumulative in the manner you suggest. (Jun 17, 2004 PUI Rules Team)

Joe pointed out in comment that there is also another official ruling in the latest version of compendium, The Rulings Compendium Black and White:

  Meteor Mash    (Metagross - Celestial Storm)

  Q. If I use Metagross' "Meteor Mash" attack several turns in succession, does the damage keep piling up as 60, 120, 180, 240, etc.?

  A. No, Meteor Mash tops out at 120. It only adds +60 to the base 60 damage, it does not accumulate on successive turns. (Celestial Storm FAQ; Aug 2, 2018 TPCi Rules Team)


Green clubs and blue diamonds I really like the idea of making and playing cards with blue diamonds and green clubs. Each color is a separate color then.
Is there some arguments against it? Do you know some games where this would be a bad idea?

There are already some games that use this type of deck; such as Tichu. A Tichu deck contains 4 suits in 4 different colors (although they are not the same traditional 4 suits).

For most games out there; this idea would make the games slightly easier to play; because it would be easier to distinguish a Spade from a Club, and a Heart from a Diamond. Most traditional trick-taking or melding games would benefit from this.

However, there are a few games where not only suit, but color, also matters:

Canasta - Red 3s have separate rules from black 3s. It doesn't matter whether a 3 is a Spade or a Club, but it does matter if it's black. To play Canasta with your custom deck; you would have to remember that both a Club and a Spade have one rule, while a Heart and a Diamond have another rule.

Klondike Solitaire - Red cards can be moved onto black cards and vice-versa. So again, this would be more difficulty to play with your custom deck; as you would have to look for cards of 2 different specific suits rather than just look for cards of a specific color.


Does "Swarm" AI card affect all Locust on the map? In the Gears of War board game there are AI cards.  These cards generally refer to AI's that fit a specific criteria (like "all wretch with 3 spaces").  However the Swarm card reads:

  Each Locust that is 5 or more moment away from the nearest COG figure moves until it is 4 movement away from the nearest COG figure

Does this mean all Locust that aren't near you pile up in one spot that is 4 away from where you are standing?

Source

Yes it is part of the game mechanics to bring the distant locust back into the game. Most of the "For Each" Locust AI cards only move the figures one or two areas and only spawn Locust if there are no figures in play of the listed type. Rules of play book suggest that if there is no space to place the piece off the edge of the map.

With that said it could be possible to have Locust type A, B, and C at the far end of the map with minimal effects on the player from Locust AI card if there was no card like this.


What Other Bidding Approaches Are There? My parents taught me how to play bridge. They grew up in the 1970s when Precision Club was popular and they taught me how to play strong club. When I grew up, SAYC and 2/1 were beaten into me. Now, I live in England where people play Acol.

Now, I'm wondering what other (legal) approaches are there? There are 5 card majors, 4 card majors, strong opening bids, etc. but what else is out there?

“legal” is a meaningless question without knowing where you are, and, in many regions, some methods are only legal at higher levels of play.

Some of the more common uncommon system types (systems may also fit into more than one category):

Canapé: opening the shorter of your two suits. (How they bid one-suited and balanced hands varies.) This was used a fair amount by the Italian Blue Team in their heyday, and Blue Team Club is an example.
Non-strong forcing openings: There’s a forcing opening that isn’t necessarily strong. Polish Club is a well-known example.
Forcing pass: pass promises strength (often opening values), and most or all initial bids therefore deny it. There’s usually one opening bid reserved for the truly awful hands, and the rest show some strength. These methods are banned in a lot of regions, and are (IIRC) fairly regulated even in international events.
Strong pass: Pass contains both the terrible hands and some stronger, but limited hands. Many opening bids are still limited to intermediate values, but the initial pass is itself passable, so the systems are less weird. (AFAIK, these methods are pretty uncommon.)
Relay methods: Don’t govern the opening bid as such, but in some auctions (generally strong ones) the players don’t mutually describe their hands. Instead, one player uses atrificial bids, often simply the next available bid, and their partner responds, providing succesively more information until their partner thinks they can place the contract.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some broad categories.

In addition, there are lots of individual systems whose designers decide that some particular attribute of the hand should be emphasized in some way, and build a system around that. So, you might have a system where 1C and 1D deny or promise a 4-card major; or a system where opening 1 major denies 5 cards, showing 4 or 6+; or a system that opens 4-card majors, but only on minimum opening hands.


How is infect a fair mechanic? Thee infect mechanic from Scars of Mirrodin has never seemed fair to me in any way.

All of the game's win conditions have always been equally difficult to achieve: dealing 20 damage, milling an entire library down, or meeting the conditions for one of the other win cards, like Battle of Wits, etc. All of them take a fair amount of time, none are much faster than the others really.

But with infect, you only have to deal 10 damage. It renders the normal life totals pointless. I have trouble thinking of it as some special win-condition when all it really means is that "dealing 10 damage is enough to win," and you can just ignore life totals.

I don't see how infect is considered fair or balanced. Can someone maybe give me some insight as to why it doesn't get more backlash from the community?

Prior to Scars of Mirrodin, there were so few creatures with it that it was hard to achieve a victory that way. Scars of Mirrodin changed that, hence my present confusion.

Infect isn't just "dealing 10 damage is enough to win". It's "dealing 10 damage with creatures with Infect is enough to win," which means that you have to go all-in on Infect to do well with it. This means that Infect decks are very creature heavy and are very vulnerable to board wipes; a single Terminus can set you back several turns.

Infect creatures are also generally easier to remove than other creatures. A total of 4 Infect creatures have abilities that make them more difficult to remove: Blightsteel Colossus, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Tel-Jilad Fallen, and Toxic Nim. Every Infect creature can be removed with Path to Exile, and most can be killed with Lightning Bolt.

Plus, besides Blighted Agent, Infect creatures can be blocked like any other. My 2/2 Infect for 3, like Contagious Nim, still trades with your Grizzly Bears. And that extra mana can make the difference. By turn 4 or 5, the player not playing Infect should have creatures that are bigger than the player playing Infect. And attacking into a group of larger creatures still ends up with your creatures dead, even if they did have Infect.

Overall, cheap Infect creatures with cheap pump spells can get close to victory shockingly fast. But they can also be stopped by cheap removal and countermagic.

Blightsteel Colossus is a special case: it costs so much that Infect decks don't play it; instead it's mostly played as another win condition in decks that can cheat creatures onto the battlefield, and those also play other ridiculously powerful creatures like Griselbrand, Iona, Shield of Emeria, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.


If I fail a spell check to gain a combat check bonus, am I unable to equip another item? When I use my hand slot to attempt to cast a spell, and it fails, am I unable to equip a different item or spell in that hand?

That hand is used up for the combat round.  Next round you may equip other items/spells with that hand.

This is covered in the FAQ.

  Q: During combat, how long does a failed attempt to cast
  a spell use up an investigator’s available hand(s)?

  A: A failed attempt to cast a spell uses the specified number
  of hands for an entire round of combat (i.e., for one
  iteration of combat steps 2 and 3.). In subsequent rounds
  of combat, the investigator may switch to a new weapon
  or try to cast a different spell.


Clarification on Privileged Attacks When making a Privileged Attack, the rules say that no one else can "interfere" with it. "Interfere" is defined by the rules as spending money from your Illuminati group to aid either side. Can the attacking group and the defender group still spend money during a privileged attack? Can their respective Illuminati?

Yes, the attacker and defender groups and Illuminatis can spend money during a Privileged Attack.  A Privileged Attack only means that external parties are forbidden from interfering.

I think you can justify this solely by reference to the traditional usages of English words: you don't "interfere" in your own attack on someone by bringing more resources to bear; neither do you "interfere" in your own defence by using everything in your power to defend yourself.  To "interfere", both generally and also in this specific case, means to "intrude into the affairs of others".  Attacker and defender are not "others" in this case, and can get involved in the struggle to the maximum of their ability and financial resources...


Phase 10 - acquiring cards after completing a phase After laying down the required cards that complete a phase, does the player continue to draw cards or does he play only the cards that remain in his hand?

Yes, they keep drawing

A player still does all the steps of a turn, regardless of whether or not they have completed their phase (i.e. Draw, lay down a phase if they haven't already and can, optionally add any additional card(s) to a laid-down phase, discard).

This allows more time for other players to finish their own phase while still making 'finished' players try and scramble to empty their hands on completed phases to avoid getting points.


Can you identify this likely chess variant? I frequent a thrifting board game thread on BGG (BoardGameGeek). Recently a nice copy of a supposed chess variant appeared and we cannot seem to identify it.

From that post the game is described thusly:

The board has nine slots on both sides for pieces and it came with 9 pieces for each player. Pieces look like chess pieces with two rooks, two bishops, a king, and 4 pawns per side.
Did determine the designer is Arne Basse and the game appears to be from the 60's.

Designers name doesn't appear to help much other that to affirm that is is likely on of their designs as it is similar to regular chess board in material composition. That does lead to the only only other mention of this game, I could find, from chessvariants.com

It was passed onto me from my parents, They said it was called "Viking Chess", but I haven't been able to find it among the variants at your website under that name (perhaps I have not looked hard enough).
It has 9 pieces per side (king, two bishops, two castles, 4 pawns). It has a spiral board with 36 cross shape places and a star in the middle.
I am trying to remember the rules as the original set are lost. My faint recollection was that each piece "entered" the spiral from the sides.

Between the two posts it was surmised that this is not the following:

Viking Chess
a Morra-Board
Byzantine Chess
Circular Chess

Determination based on board layout and piece composition.
Can you identify this game?

Michael Ireland, the person who posted their copy on chessvairants.com, remembered some details, and replied with some added information (original post here). I will quote it here:

Viking Chess Rules as best as they can be remembered – November 28, 2020
The goal of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king as in regular chess.
Board: The board is made up of "rings" linking "crosses" (the spaces).  There is a centre >space, the “star”, in the middle.
Pieces: There is a king, 2 rooks (flat tops), 2 bishops (spikes) and 4 pawns per side.
All pieces start off the board.
On their first turn (white goes first) each player places their king anywhere on the >board on any space except the centre space (I believe that no piece could start on the >centre star because it gives too much of an advantage to start there - but I am not 100% >certain of the rule).
In the second and subsequent turns, each player can either move an existing piece on the >board or bring another piece onto the board as per turn 1.
Different pieces move differently as follows:

Pawn moves one space in any direction
Rook moves up to 3 spaces up or down, or one space to the side
Bishop moves up to 3 spaces around one of the rings, or one space up or down.
King can move up to 3 spaces in any direction up or down

Once placed on the board a piece can enter the centre space or through it.
A player takes an opponent's piece by moving a piece into their opponent's piece's space.  >Once a piece is removed from the board it cannot return.  I do not believe there is a >rule to promote a pawn to a Bishop or Rook.
The King is the strongest piece on the board combining both the Rook's move (3 up or >down) and the Bishop's move (3 around a ring in either direction).
If the King is taken/mated the game is over.


Eye of the Storm and Kicker Costs If Rite of Replication is exiled with Eye of the Storm, can people pay the kicker cost to still get 5 tokens?

Yes, you can pay the kicker costs for the each copy if you want the extra tokens.

Some cards copy spells on the stack directly. You cannot choose to pay kicker for those spells, the choice and additional costs are copied from the original.

In this case, however, the whole card is copied, and you may cast it as a new spell without paying its mana cost. In that case, you are free to decide whether or not to pay the kicker costs, which are additional costs and have nothing to do with the spell's mana costs:

  702.32a Kicker is a static ability that functions while the spell with kicker is on the stack. “Kicker [cost]” means “You may pay an additional [cost] as you cast this spell.” Paying a spell’s kicker cost(s) follows the rules for paying additional costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h.

Note that you may also pay the kicker costs for the original Rite, but that would be a waste of mana, because the original is exiled and does not resolve. Neither paying nor not paying the kicker on the original Rite has any effect on the copies.


How do game designers come up with suggested (or minimum) age requirements for games? Is there a standard formula or procedure for determining suggested (or minimum) age requirements for games? Or do a few game designers just sit around and discuss for a few minutes and then just come up with a best guess? What criteria are used, if any?

I ask because we (my Wife and I and son who just turned 7) can't make sense of the age recommendations for some games. The latest was Pandemic, which my son bought with his own money. Required age? 13+. Neither the rules nor the strategy are all that hard. I played a vastly more complicated game (both rules and strategy) as a teenager, Squad Leader, whose recommended age was about the same: 14+. Meanwhile, Rat-a-tat Cat has a suggested minimum age of 6+. Though the graphics of this last game are clearly aimed for kids, the strategy is sophisticated  (think of it as a starter game for poker) and the rules have enough nuance that we kept finding new ways we hadn't got the rules right until the 4th read (though perhaps this could be attributed to poorly written rules).

I would especially love to see answers from professional game designers or people who have discussed this issue with game designers but if none are available I'm happy to hear from game enthusiasts who have thought about this.

According to this and this, the government has a role in labeling of products that can be used by children, and that 13 is the youngest recommended age you can put without doing additional testing (though sometimes even that is not sufficient). The lower the age, the more robust the testing required, particularly for things recommended under age 3. The rules were different when Squad Leader came out, which could be why it says 14+.

The general rule of thumb in the industry seems to be to put the highest age you can that you don't think will adversely impact your marketing. For Pandemic, this is pure speculation, but if it were me, I would assume that any parent who's OK buying a game for their family in which you can lose and the world's population will succumb to disease either knows their children well enough to know if they can handle it or doesn't really care about theme in games (either way, 13+ probably wouldn't scare them either). Gamewright's core demographic is parents of young children, and they're sold in more mainstream stores than Z-Man Games (generally speaking), so it would make sense that they'd want Rat-A-Tat-Cat to be listed as young as reasonably possible to actually play the game, even if they aren't getting the most out of it.


In Catacombs, how do the remaining party members deal with a dead Hero's possession? The rules (3rd edition) say that

  Only the hero who owns the item may use it and items cannot be given away or traded.

and that

  Players may, but are not obligated to, pool their gold

The Resurrect Hero Service description also seems to imply that a dead player keeps his/her possessions

  The hero returns to life with all of his or her gold coins and unused Item and/or Spell cards.

Is it still possible in this case to add the dead hero's gold in the pool (for instance to pay for his/her resurrection)?

No.

The game rules, pg 11 (12 of the pdf) say:

  At this point, that hero is out of the game unless the remaining heroes reach Althea the Healer and resurrect the dead hero (see page 16). Due to this possibility, the dead hero retains control of any spells, gold coins and or items that he or she has collected. Dead heroes may not use their gold coins or offer them to other players in any special room until successfully resurrected.


How much should the University cost? I once read that the main regret in the design of Puerto Rico was over-pricing the University. Anyone have any guesses (or statistical analysis) as to the "correct" price?

I've read many people saying the same thing - the university is overpriced.  I read one group who attempted to find the true value of the buildings by playing for two years and varying prices based on whether they were bought, and how well the people who bought them did.   The write up contains a downloadable copy of their results and final prices for all the buildings.

In their games, most of the prices have seemed to stay fairly close to the original prices.  A rough summary of the exceptions from the base game:

Small Market ~ 2 gold
Small Warehouse ~ 4 gold (with 3 players)
Office ~ 3/4 gold
Large Warehouse ~ 5 gold (with 4 players)
Factory ~ 8 gold
University ~ 7 gold
Harbor ~ 9/10 gold (with 3 players)

There's plenty more that could be drawn from their results too, I'd recommend giving it a read.

The results aren't perfect for a number of reasons.  Firstly they changed the rules to allow all buildings from the base game and first expansion to be available to them every game.  Secondly (as noted above) the power of some buildings vary with the number of players.  There are hardly any games played with two or five players, and not many more with four.  Thirdly, the same people play many of the games, and their preferences bias the results.

To go back to your question though.  If you're interested from a theoretical point of view then this data suggests the university should be about seven gold.  Personally I think that seems about right.

However if you're interested because you want to play with different prices then I suggest trying it!  I read somewhere of a variant where before the start of a game a few buildings are increased/decreased in price by players putting red/green counters on them.  If your group thinks the university is too expensive then it will get more green counters, and you should end up with more interesting in-game decisions.


Do I get to use non-bonus abilities from items I don't have equipped? For the abilities underneath the "+N to combat check", for instance, am I allowed to use them when I don't have them equipped? I believe the answer is yes but I was hoping to find documentation. I think most of these likely involve exhausting the card, which further makes me think it likely is allowed.

Page 6 of the Arkham Horror FAQ here says

Q: Do I have to be using the Bullwhip or Cross in combat to gain their special abilities?
A: No, in the case of these two cards, you do not have to use them in combat to make use of their secondary abilities.

This implies to me that any other such weapon that has a secondary ability (i.e. one that isn't +N to combat checks or something similar) can also be used similarly without being equipped.


Which game does this die belong to? My brother found a d6 die that had numbers 50, 100, 200, 500, 50 and 200 instead of normal 1-6. Which game is this die from?

Looks like this belongs to Monopoly Express:


Card Chess with Playing Cards? What is the name of the card game where you have two players and a "board" of cards 4 cards by 13 cards. The cards are face down. Each player takes a turn by either flipping a card (first card flip determines your colour, either black or red) or moving a card horizontally or vertically (up, down, left or right). The object of the game is to conquer the board. Ace can eat the face card (K, Q or J). K can Q, Q can eat J, J can eat 10 and so on. Card of the same rank can be eaten (eg 8 Hearts can eat 8 Spades if 8S is flipped next to 8H and it's red's turn. So it's like chess but with playing cards. I assume this game originated from China, but cannot confirm. Anyone who's played this and knows the name, please let me know so I can search for the app for my phone! Thank you

This sounds like the game Banqi (also called Half Chess or Dark Chess) but where you replaced the playing tokens with playing cards, the board size is increased, and the number of each available "piece" is always four.  This game is instead played on half of a Xianqi board with the pieces used for the Xianqi game (In order of strength: 5 pawns, 2 cannons, 2 knights, 2 rooks, 2 guards, 2 elephants, and a king for each player)

There are examples of it on the google play store under the name "Chinese Dark Chess" such as this one by Xidea.

The brief overview of the rules are that on your turn you may either move a revealed piece of your color, or flip over an unrevealed piece.  The first piece that is flipped by the first player determines the players' colors.

When moving a piece it may only move to an orthogonally adjacent square that is unoccupied, or it may move into an orthogonally adjacent square occupied by an opponent's piece that is of the same "strength" or lower, thereby removing the opponent's piece in the process.  In the case of ties the attacker wins and is not destroyed in the process.

Depending on which regional variant you are playing, cannons may have an alternate attack style, instead attacking as they do in a normal game of Xianqi by jumping over another piece to attack the second piece in its path, regardless of strength.  Further, a pawn may be able to capture a king (similar to how spies can capture field marshals in stratego).

The winner of the game is determined when the opponent has no legal moves available remaining.


I Don't Understand Scab-Clan Charger's Ability I have Scab-Clan Charger and I don't understand the following:

  Discard Scab-Clan Charger: Target attacking creature gets +2/+4 until
  end of turn

Alright, so the discard makes sense.  What is "Target attacking creature"?

An attacking creature is one that was declared as an attacker earlier in the current combat phase, or a creature placed "on the battlefield attacking" in the current combat phase (e.g. Geist of Saint Traft's angel).

Say you attack with a 3/3 and it's blocked by a 4/4. You could discard a Scab-Clan Charger from your hand to make your 3/3 a 5/7 until the end of the turn. It would survive, and the 4/4 would die (instead of the other way around).


How to prevent heroes running past my defenses? I'm playing as Imperium with four other players. We did first main and secondary missions, both ending the same way in Rebel favour. On the second to last round one Hero, who was the least damaged, used both his actions to move, gaining 10 movement points, then he simply ran through my squad. He had to move through 2 tiles occupied by my soldiers, leaving him 6 tiles of free movement. Enough to hide behind corner. It was last activation in round, so as new one began Rebels started with that player. He exhausted himself for movement to reach an objective and used both actions to activate it. He passed the test on the first try, and I couldn't do anything to stop that.

Similar thing happened mid-mission - one rebel stormed through defenses, got wounded next round, but still managed to activate terminal while others were on the way to next one. As he was wounded and slow I moved my troops to defend third (last) objective, and then situation above happened.

I was happy with result, game ended with two heroes wounded, third in the bring of and completely exhausted, and forth with half health that managed to finish. However I am posotive that without that rush I'd hold them off long enough. How can I stop them from doing that again?

There are usually about three things you can do to slow rebels down:

Big damage, forcing them to rest - the most obvious way, but very situational if it will work enough to slow them down for a specific round or objective (though it is always good, the closer to wounding you get them the better—it just may not be enough if your one goal is objective positioning denial)
Stun - Stuns (and other Harmful conditions, but stuns are the most effective) reduce their action choices and uses, which is a big help
Figure blocking - get your figures in their way (most heroes have to use extra movement points to go through you) or park them on/around the objective you wish to deny (they can't stop their movement temporarily on you to perform an Interact); lots of small figures in one deployment card (Troopers for example) or Large figures work well for this, but you get enough of anything and it can get the job done

Personally, I would generally only use the third option as a last resort. For one, it jams you up so it's more difficult to attack because of a lack of line of sight for the figures in the back of your denial pile. But mostly because it's not too fun to play with nor against that tactic. But it is a viable tactic nonetheless.


In Arkham Horror, how many gates wakes the Ancient One? If the max number of gates allowed on the board is, for example, 6, does the Ancient One wake up on the 6th or 7th gate?

I'm pretty sure that the answer to that should be that the Ancient One wakes up on the 7th gate, but I'm not too sure.

Additionally and as a clarification, all gates count regardless of if they are on the expansion boards, right? It's the monsters that don't count if they're outside Arkham itself.

See page 20 of the rulebook.  It has a table with the number of players vs. the number of open gates with the note:

  The number of open gates that will immediately awaken the
  Ancient One depends on the number of players.

For 5 players, the number is 6.  When the sixth gate is opened, the Ancient One will awaken immediately.

Gates count towards the total wherever they are.  Do remember that when playing with more than one large expansion board you should count the total number of players as one less than actual for most purposes including the number of open gates needed to awaken the ancient one.


Nightveil Specter - Do I have to play the cards in order they were exiled? Nightveil Specter has the following ability:

  Whenever Nightveil Specter deals combat damage to a player, that
  player exiles the top card of his or her library.

  You may play cards exiled with Nightveil Specter.

As I understand the rules text, I can play the card whenever it is legal to play, say a land: I can play one land in one of my main phase. But, can I play the exiled land form last turn? And what if in the meantime I exiled another card?

Example:

First I exile a Forest
Then I exile a Scavenging Ooze

Can I play the land first and then the ooze?

See the rulings for this card on Gatherer: Gatherer: Nightveil Specter

  The card is exiled face up. All players may look at it.
  Playing a card exiled with Nightveil Specter follows all the normal rules for playing that card. You must pay its costs, and you must
  follow all timing restrictions, for example.
  Nightveil Specter’s last ability applies to cards exiled with that specific Nightveil Specter, not any other creature named Nightveil Specter. You should keep cards exiled by different Nightveil Specters separate.

The cards are effectively put to one side, to be used as you see fit. It's as if they are added to your hand. You can play them when you choose, but you have to follow the usual rules for playing those cards, including costs and timings. So you're still restricted to playing one land per turn.

The order of exile isn't relevant here, only the copy of the Specter that exiled the card. So if it was exiled last turn it’s still available to you. This is because exile is effectively a place, the card has been removed from the game, and it stays that way until something changes its state… like you choosing to play it.


Why does the Happy Anniversary box come with two evil counters for every player? The back of the box lists the four player-colored cubes as "evil counters". I don't see four more elsewhere. Is it just a mistake that the box comes with twice as many as needed? Or are they useful for some other purpose?

I have the same "Happy Anniversary" edition of Dungeon Lords and can only find one cube of each colour for the evil-o-meter.  So unless I suspect in your case its just a minor packing error and you have 4 extra cubes.


Order of resolution of creatures abilities triggered by combat damage If multiple creatures that have an ability that gets triggered when the creature deals damage to an opponent, in what order should those abilities be resolved?

For example, if I attack with an Hypnotic Specter and a Guul Draz Specter and both are not blocked, should my opponent discard a card at random and then choose and discard one, or viceversa?

If my opponent has 3 cards in hand, 2 of which are bad and one is good, if he discards randomly first, he has a probability of 1/3 to discard the good card, and if he chooses first he has a probability of 1/2 to discard the good card, so I think that in this case the order does matter...

Maybe I'm just overthinking :)

Every player puts the abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order that player chooses, starting with the player whose turn it is.

Since you control both triggers from your creatures, you may put them on the stack in any order. The ability you put on last will resolve first.

  603.3b If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, each player, in APNAP order, puts triggered abilities he or she controls on the stack in any order he or she chooses. (See rule 101.4.) Then the game once again checks for and resolves state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority.


How to clone a Legendary permanent? I want to clone Geist of Saint Traft without falling prey to the legend rule and without using Mirror Gallery. Are there any cards that allow you to copy a card's text without copying its name? I was unable to find any but might have failed to search the right wording.

Sakashima the Impostor copies a creature except its name; Spark Double copies a creature or planeswalker except it loses legendary.
The rule that is responsible for preventing the existence of multiple identical legendaries is the so called "legend rule". It is a state-based action:

704.5j If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

There is also Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, but it only copies creatures that go to your opponent's graveyard, so the creature you want to copy has to go to your opponent's graveyard somehow, which requires either elaborate setup, or that your opponent also happens to play Geist.
Both creatures restrict you to one additional Geist each, because the legend rule still applies to Lazav and Sakashima, respectively.
Helm of the Host creates non-legendary token copies of the equipped creature. It costs 4 mana to cast and 5 mana to equip, but it lets you get any number of copies with only 1 reusable card invested.
If your group allows Un-sets, there is also Rules Lawyer, which makes state-based actions not apply to you and your creatures, which disables the legend rule check.
Any creature with Mutate and a second copy of the legendary creature will allow you to avoid the Legend rule.  Mutate your first legendary creature, and be sure to put the mutation on the top.  Then, case your second legendary creature.  This is a "thing" with Gemrazer and Toski, Bearer of Secrets in standard as of March 2021.


What dice to use in a game that revolves around triangles? I am currently in the process of prototyping a game that revolves around triangles. I want my players to roll 3d4 dice to move, but am worried about the effects it might have vs. a traditional 2d6 setup.

The reasons I want to use d4s are:

They are triangular prisms.

and

I can use three of them and still only have a maximum of 12 rolled at any one time.

I am worried about the rolls always being just a few numbers. For 2d6, the odds of rolling a 12 (or the lowest #) are 1 in 36. For 3d4, the odds are 1 in 64, making my rolls less diverse. I seem to roll 7, 8 or 9 every time I roll 3d4.

I need to know if this would pose any problem to the movement factor in my game (for now, assume it has 40 squares).

Doing some research shows you will still 5-9 range but it will be slightly more when you are using d4. Now if that difference causes a problem that would be up to you to decide. One other thing to note is you will no longer be able to roll a 2.

This comes from https://anydice.com/program/51b6

#    |  % for 2d6   |  % for 3d4   |
2    |   2.777778   |     0.0000   |
3    |   5.555556   |     1.5625   |
4    |   8.333333   |     4.6875   |
5    |   11.11111   |     9.3750   |
6    |   13.88889   |     15.625   |
7    |   16.66667   |     18.750   |
8    |   13.88889   |     18.750   |
9    |   11.11111   |     15.625   |
10   |   8.333333   |     9.3750   |
11   |   5.555556   |     4.6875   |
12   |   2.777778   |     1.5625   |


Do Untap triggers still trigger when the creature is untapped? I control an untapped Goblin Sharpshooter, My opponent controls a 3/3 Beast Token, I Cast Lightning Bolt on the Beast, to kill it. Do I have to tap my Sharpshooter before the beast dies to get the trigger allowing me to untap it? Or will it trigger regardless, allowing me to ping with the trigger on the stack?

This is relevant as being able to wait gives me the opportunity to know that my sharpshooter will definitely untap before I tap it.

You do not need to tap it before the creature dies, you will have an opportunity before the untap trigger resolves.

Goblin Sharpshooter does not contain an intervening "if" clause, but rather a normal triggered ability [CR 603.1]. This means that whenever the event occurs, "a creature dies," an untap trigger is placed on the stack [CR 603.1] . As with all objects, you and your opponent have the opportunity to cast spells and activate abilities in response to to the objects on the stack before they resolve [CR 116.4].

Intervening "if" clauses require that the event that they are checking is true when being placed on the stack and when resolving [CR 603.4]. For Goblin Sharpshooter to not trigger because it is untapped would require a triggered ability like:

Whenever a creature dies, if ~this~ is tapped, untap it.

  603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect]."

  603.2. Whenever a game event or game state matches a triggered ability's trigger event, that ability automatically triggers. The ability doesn't do anything at this point.

  603.4. A triggered ability may read "When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect]." When the trigger event occurs, the ability checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only if it is; otherwise it does nothing. [...]

  116.4. If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.


Robo Rally - Alternative rules for option cards? Robo Rally is a fun game but the option cards totally break it if a person just sits on the wrench and hammer and collects them all.

Has anyone tried a house rule to discourage this behaviour?  How did it work out?

This uses the online PDF from http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/roborally.pdf

You aren't allowed to "sit" anywhere.

First: You have to play cards. If you time-out, the player to the right plays random cards to fill out your non-locked registers. (p. 4) Locked registers WILL be played.

Second:
All movement Cards used but not locked are discarded, as are unused. (p. 4, 8) New ones will be drawn.

Third:
You only get one draw of an option card per turn, and only if you END the turn (and thus also Register 5's phase) on it. Crossing it during the turn doesn't get you the card. (p. 8)

fourth:
The odds are not good in 3p or more that you'll get the cards needed to return to your start space.

Camping on a repair spot is thus not as easy as it may seem. Especially since you retain only locked cards. If one gets consistently lucky enough to have the ability to return to start spot with cards alone, it's great. If one is using terrain, it's skill, more than luck.

In short, I suspect the problem isn't the option cards, but a misread of the rules.

If there was no misread, one simple solution is to use a 1 per space limit; put a (custom) player token on each upgrade spot, and when you draw an option card, put that token on it. When it's lost, put the token on an upgrade slot where you don't have one.

I've never felt it needed, and the people I've known who did usually were making one of three mistakes:
1) retaining unused programming cards, thus being able to plan multiple turns ahead
2) retaining used programming cards. This makes it a VERY different game.
3) allowing repairs and upgrades each register phase, rather than only at the end of the turn. This makes camping on a spot far more worthwhile.


Can I put more than one Master Builder in the King's Court? I played my first game of The Pillars of the Earth today with 3 other people. I had a question about the King's Court which was not specifically addressed in the rules. If I have already placed a Master Builder there, may I place a second (or even third?) there in order to potentially "force" other players to have to pay taxes? Doing say may result in them losing victory points if they can't pay, so I thought it was an interesting strategic possibility. The owner of the game has only played a couple times, and also only with 2 players, so he hadn't come across the situation before.

I know that often, there are likely better opportunities to take which will result in a greater net gain for yourself than that loss for your opponents, but I was wondering if it was at least possible. The decision we came to was that it wasn't explicitly stated in the rules that you couldn't so we allowed it as a possibility, though no one took it in the game. Is this allowed?

After taking another pass through the rules, I see no reason this would be forbidden.  That being said, I see no case where this would be a good play.  You gain nothing by placing a second builder here, and at best you are causing one player to pay taxes.  I suppose in the very narrow situation where 1) this is the last space (and therefore you know which player will have to pay), 2) you know the player who will have to pay will not be able to afford it and therefore lose victory points, 3) that player is in first place, and 4) you are in second place that this play could be worthwhile.  However, even in this case it seems likely that the player targeted could make up the one or two points they would lose (two to five divided by two, rounded down) with the action they choose instead.  I think it is always going to be preferable to take another action instead.


Can you revive the creature you sacrificed with Hell's Caretaker? Can you revive the creature you sacrificed with Hell's Caretaker?

Doing so to re-trigger "enters the battlefield" effects.

No

The steps to casting a spell or activating an ability are:

601.2a) Place card or ability on stack.
601.2b-d) Make choices, including targets.
601.2e) Determine total cost.
601.2f) Activate mana abilities.
601.2g) Pay the previously determined cost.

The sacrificed creature is only moved to the graveyard in step 5, but you need to pick a card in the graveyard in step 2.


Can thieves shoot through the hostages? In Act 3 of the board game Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist Board Game, there is a hostages tile on the board.  When the Thieves team Shoots, are they able to shoot though the hostages at John? Or do the hostages block the necessary line of sight?

The hostages tile counts as two obstacle spaces for John to shoot through (p.18), so they do not block line of sight.

Given that, I'd say that the Thieves can also shoot through the hostage tile (and it counts as two obstacle spaces when they do) as well.


A card game with a mat on the table and chips in the kitty We used to play a card game with a mat on the table. We had to put chips in the kitty and also in 8 other piles on the mat.
Whoever won the hand got the kitty.
What's the name of this game?

My best guess is Tripoley. The main pictures on Board Game Geek show a plastic version, but this image shows a version with a mat. There is a Kitty pile, and 8 other piles. Each hand has a Hearts phase, a Poker phase, and a Rummy phase.


Can I conquer anywhere if I have no pieces left on the board? I came across the following scenario this weekend:

Suppose, in a single turn, all of a player's remaining elves are wiped off the board and returned to his hand, leaving him without any elves in play. On his next turn can he start from anywhere (that would be a legal starting territory), since he has no adjacent territories to attack?

Absolutely, the rulebook (on page 4) under the section on Enemy Loss & Withdrawals explicitly covers this:

  If all of a player's Regions were attacked this turn, leaving him with some Race tokens in hand but none on the board, he may redeploy these as if he was doing a First Conquest, on his next turn.

As stated in the other answer, you can also voluntarily withdraw troops from some or all regions.


If something is exiled and checked for simultaneously, does the check yield "true"? I have on my board 3 copies of Biovisionary, which have

  At the beginning of the end step, if you control four or more creatures named Biovisionary, you win the game.

Then, I cast Splinter Twin enchanting a Biovisionary. That card states:

  Enchanted creature has "Tap: Create a token that's a copy of this creature. That token has haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step." `

I tap the enchanted Biovisionary to clone it and end my turn. Now what?

Whenever you control sources that would put spells or abilities on the stack simultaneously, you control in which order they are placed on the stack. So at the beginning of your end step, you can place these abilities on the stack in such an order that the "You win" effect happens before the "Exile token" effect. From the comprehensive rules:

  405.3. If an effect puts two or more objects on the stack at the same time, those controlled by the activeplayer are put on lowest, followed by each other player’s objects in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).
  If a player controls more than one of these objects, that player chooses their relative order on the stack.

(emphasis added to highlight the relevant part)


Secret Mission Axis and Allies My friend and I sat down one day and made up some "Secret Missions" for all of the countries in the board game Axis and Allies. For example, if Japan takes Western United States, they are immune from counter-attack for one turn. Also, if Russia takes Berlin within 3 turns, they receive an additional 15 IPC's from the bank.

There were 3 Secret Missions for each country, but I want to add more.

Do any of you have any more suggestions?

Please post them here as answers.

Here are the Secret Missions! Sorry it took so long!!!

Russia (U.S.S.R.)

-Take Berlin by Round 5 and gain 25 extra IPC's from the bank
-Take 3 German territories in ONE round and get 2 free tanks in any territory you control that has a factory (paying attention to the production limit)
-Take 3 Japanese territories and get 3 free infantry in ANY territory you own (not including the ones you took that turn)

Germany

-Take London by Round 2 and gain 1/2 of the air units you used in the attack (rounding down to the nearest whole number. Example: you send 5 planes, you get 2 extra)
-Control Algeria, Libya, Anglo-Egypt Sudan, Trans-Jordan, and Persia for ONE whole round and get 2 free tanks in Anglo-Egypt Sudan
-Take all of Africa by Round 3 and get a Battleship in the Mediterranean sea; take all of Africa by Round 4 and get a Cruiser in the Mediterranean

United Kingdom

-Destroy 3 Japanese boats and get 1 free Cruiser in a sea zone bordering one of your territories
-Destory all German boats (leaving none on the board) and get 3 free Fighters in the U.K.
-Take Western Europe by round 2 and all of the units left in W.E. gain a +1 to their defense for the first round of marriage

Japan

-Do the "Pearl Harbor" attack and lose no units and get 2 free Fighters in Japan
-Take China AND India by Round 3 and gain one free tank in any Japanese territory in Asia (excpet the ones just taken)
-Take the Western United States and become immune from counter-attack for one turn

United States

-Take both North African territories AND one European territory by Round 4 and get 2 free Artillery in any territory you own that is NOT in Europe (except ones you have just taken)
-Liberate an ally's capital and gain 10 IPC's from the bank
-Take one island every round for 3 consecutive rounds and gain one Transport and 2 Infantry in Hawaii (if you own it; if not, put it in the Western U.S.)

Pacific Dominance
For each turn that Japan controls all of the Pacific islands at the end of a full turn they are rewarded with a free transport or submarine to be placed at a factory of their choice at the start of their turn. (This would require Japanese control of Hawaii, Midway, Australia, and New Zealand.)
Germans in the Atlantic
Similar to the Sink the Convoys variant proposed by GWLlosa, if Germany has one or more non-transport naval vessels in the Atlantic Ocean at the end of a full turn, the UK must roll the die and surrender that many IPCs.


Bang the bullet - Barrel After my barrel fails, can I use a missed card from my hand to fend off a Bang! card?

Or does it mean that I will immediately take a hit?

You can still use a Missed card like normal if the barrel fails. From the rules:

  Example. C is the target of A's BANG! C has a Barrel card in play: this card lets him “draw!” to cancel a BANG! card. So, C flips the top card of the deck and puts it on the discard pile: it's a 4 of Hearts. The use of the Barrel is successful and cancels the BANG! If the flipped card were of a different suit, then the Barrel would have had no effect, but C could have still tried to cancel the BANG! with a Missed! card.


For Shield ability, does Riot Trooper gain 1 power token per figure, or just 1 total? The wording on Riot Trooper deployment cards is literally:

  Shield: At the end of your activation, if you have no block power token, gain 1 block power token.

As per Card Interpretations on page 2 of the rules reference, "you" refers to a figure.

Does this mean that just after the end of each activation, each of the two Riot Trooper figures will have a block power token on it (even if both ended the activation with no block power tokens)?

Each figure would gain a block power token.
In addition to what the original rulebook says on page 2, page 4 of Heart of the Empire's rulebook, says this about power tokens:

  Various cards and abilities in Heart of the Empire allow figures to gain power tokens.

So power tokens are bounded to a figure and not the player who controls it.
In this case, if you control two Riot Troopers who depleted their block power tokens, both of them would gain their own token. If controlling two Riot Troopers and just one of them lost all of its block power tokens, he would win a new one.


Overseer of the Damned board wipe What happens with Overseer of the Damned in the case of a board wipe? I know that all the creatures die at the same time, so do I still get zombies or is that ability mulled by the fact that Overseer is now gone?

Assuming your opponent had two copies of Grizzly Bear it would result in all three creatures being destroyed and afterwards you placing two 2/2 Black Zombie creature tokens into play tapped.

Overseer of the Damned has a triggered ability which is placed onto the stack the next time a player would get priority. Put more succinctly, the ability doesn't go onto the stack until after the board wipe has finished resolving.


If I have an Equipment equipped to something and it's enchanted by Ensoul Artifact, how is that handled? Imagine I have an Equipment attached to something, e.g. a Chariot of Victory on a Runeclaw Bear. I then enchant that equipment with Ensoul Artifact.

Would the Equipment card still grant its effects to the creature it was attached to? Additionally, would it still be able to attack? Or is it treated more like an enchanted creature?

An Equipment Creature can't be attached to anything, so there is no Equipped Creature to which to grant a boon. If a Chariot of Victory was animated using Ensoul Artifact, it would not grant First Strike, Trample and Haste to anything, much less itself.

  301.5a The creature an Equipment is attached to is called the “equipped creature.” The Equipment is attached to, or “equips,” that creature.

It's impossible to use the Equip ability of Creature Equipment.

  301.5c An Equipment that’s also a creature can’t equip a creature. [...]

If for some reason an Creature Equipment is attached to an object or player, it will cease to be when State-Based actions are performed.

  704.5q If a creature is attached to an object or player, it becomes unattached and remains on the battlefield. Similarly, if a permanent that’s neither an Aura, an Equipment, nor a Fortification is attached to an object or player, it becomes unattached and remains on the battlefield.


Playing duplicate bridge against players from some event I am organizing a Bridge club in my workplace and I want it to be Duplicate Bridge one, but currently sometimes we don't get 8 people to join the meeting (I hope, in the future the club will grow).

So I had an idea, that if there are 4 people beside me, I could duplicate deals from some international event (without saying what event it would be) and make them play these deals.

My questions are:

Is the idea fair and will it help players learn?
How should it be scored (is it OK e.g. to score always against open room or do I have to use some other way)
Do you know of any other people that utilized this way?

There was formerly a product called Doop (which as far as I can tell is no longer printed) that used a similar idea. They would provide hand records from old regional tournaments along with the scores produced for those hands. It would operate like so:

Each player is given a deck of cards and the list of hands for their seat (so e.g. North gets a list of the North hands). At hand 1, each player makes the first hand for their direction out of their deck of cards. The hand is played (duplicate style, with each player keeping their own cards after playing them), and the score recorded. Then hand 2 is played, etc. At the end of play, compare the recorded scores with those recorded for the earlier tournament and record the match point score.

You have some choices with regard to movement. If you have exactly four players, you might choose to play with the same partner throughout. You might also rotate players so that each player plays a set number of hands with each other player.

You can find hand records and scores for tournaments in a number of places. For example, you can find results from recent Allendale, NJ sectional tournaments at http://www.bridge-njba.org/, or from a regional played in New York City in December 2013 at http://gnyba.org/PILOT/wordpress/?p=2596.


How easy is it to start Magic from scratch? I'm currently trying to get into a card game and am now wondering how easy it might be to get into Magic with no experience whatsoever. I heard about a Magic online game/something you can download, so I guess I could start there so I don't have to spend a whole lot of money on cards. But I feel like Magic is way more complex, thus more difficult to learn, than other card games.

Some extra information, I've always been learning quickly in school and stuff, I'm in my early 20s and have played Yu-Gi-Oh for some years, if this might help in any way.

Magic the Gathering is actually one of the easiest TCG to get in.

It has entry products aimed at beginners or people trying to get in mainly :

Construction Kits
Give a lot of lands (you need them for basically anything) and
quite a lot of cards of each color and some of each dual color. The
power level isn't especially high, but it also contain boosters. All
in all, a very fine way to start a collection. There's a leaflet in
the kit with advice on "How to build a balanced deck ?" which will help you to
tinker with the deck on your own.
Planeswalker decks
Give you access to every card
types (or so) there is in magic, you've got some unique cards and
staple commons/uncommons. The decks' plans are usually quite
straightforward and made with playability in mind, they aren't
competitive, but they surely can be played as in.

N.B. Premade decks in previous times were either stupidly powerful or
contained especially potent cards (e.g. Rats deck of Kamigawa, Elf deck
of Lorwyn etc) or gimmicky at best (all the other Kamigawa decks
etc). The cards in it weren't especially useful outside of the deck's
theme, so it was kinda hard to learn Magic with them. Nowadays you've
got planeswalker decks.
Challenger decks
Tournement ready decks. These products usually are quite competitive and allow one to see the meta and explain how the deck works, usually they are quite    instructive.
Game Night
Contain 5 decks made on a theme based on the color (graveyard is actually
useful + zombies for black etc). These decks aren't
especially powerful but are made for beginners to "feel" what each
color is about, as well as get a taste for multiplayer. I found it quite instructive.

The main difference between Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh is the resource management, you can play as many monsters as you want every turn, but you need to pay the cost. Which depends on the land cards. All in all, the Magic rules are quite simple,
 but card interaction isn't. You'll understand quite all of it very quickly by playing.

MTGArena (the latest video game version of Magic) is also a very good way to learn the rules, and get a feel for how phases work and how the game plays out. The theme decks that are given in the beginning are not very strong though, and some of them are barely playable as is. MTG Arena is a Free-to-play version of Magic so it is the easiest version to try things out in.


Does Admin Privilege allow you to set your robot to any priority level? The upgrade card Admin Privilge says

  Once per round, you may give your robot priority for one register.

Does this mean I can make it go first, last, or anything in between?  Having admin privilege would imply I would be able to alter this setting to any level.

Priority is based on proximity to the Radar Antenna ... only one robot has priority at a time, and the robot with priority is the one that moves. Admin Privileges lets you gain priority at any time, so you can go earlier in the turn, but you can not go later in the turn than when your robots priority should occur.

C|Spin|Zoom|Hammer

If C is the Antenna, and you are Zoom bot, Admin Privs would let you go before Spin bot, but not after Hammer bot.


Can a Suppression Bonds cancel out another Suppression Bonds? Can you use a Suppression Bonds on a Suppression Bonds to use a creature that was Suppression Bonded and cancel it out?

You can enchant one copy of Suppression Bonds with another, but it won't do anything.

The text of Suppression Bonds states "Enchant nonland permanent. Enchanted permanent can't attack or block, and its activated abilities can't be activated."

So Suppression Bonds is a nonland permanent, meaning it's a legal target for another Suppression Bonds. However, it prevents its target from three things:

Attacking
Blocking
Using activated abilities, which are abilities where you pay a cost to cause an effect, and are written in the form "Cost: Effect".

Since Suppression Bonds isn't a creature, it won't be attacking or blocking (unless there's another effect that changes that), so nothing will happen on that front. And its ability is not an activated ability, but a continuous effect, so it is not affected by Suppression Bonds being cast on it.


Do Zombicide: Black Plague quests last a lot longer than suggested? I bought Zombicide: Black Plague and we played the three first quests (0, 1 and 2). None of us played the other versions.

Now what surprises me. The quests 1 and 2 have an estimated time of 60 minutes. Is it actually possible to complete these that fast ?

For both, we needed more than 2 hours..

Note: having no zombicide experience at all doesn't help, for sure, but the difference for these supposed easy quests is pretty huge.

We too played the first couple of quests in Zombicide: Black Plague and it took us about 2 hours for quests 2 and 3 and we have played previous Zombicide games.
The first quest we played with 2 people (each controlling 2 survivors) and it took us about an hour and a half, but that included a lot of rules checking (there are huge differences in the rules between earlier Zombicide games and Zombicide: Black Plague).

Game designers give these estimates based on play tester feedback. Play testers may have played through a number of different versions of the same map, be more focussed on continuous gameplay than a group of players and have more experience with the rules and various skills.

I would treat the given times as "minimum" and probably add an hour to an hour and a half to these estimates.

The upside to these estimates is that if you want to convince your friends to play one more game before they have to go, you tell them "it'll only take an hour, see here it says so in the quest description."