How Does The "Franz" L-Deck Occupation Work? We played with Agricola: The Goodies for the first time last night, and while it was very silly, it didn't have the negative impact on gameplay that I'd feared.  However, the Occupation cards from the L-deck created all sorts of rules questions for us that we weren't quite equipped to answer.  But that's where this site comes in!

The text of the "Franz" occupation reads:

  At any time, you can give this card to
  a player who has spent too long
  thinking about their turn, and place
  one of your family members instead.
  (This player misses a turn, but can use the Franz card later.) If you
  played Franz during the game and
  passed him to another player, you can
  say "I am not Franz!" and receive 1
  Bonus point.

What happened in our first-ever-time-playing-the-Goodies Agricola game last night was this.  I (to my shame!) was taking way too long over my turn.  One of the other players called me on it and passed me Franz from his hand. I was the last player, and he didn't have a family member to place instead.  To make matters even more crazy, the Simplifier was in play: "Occupations with more than 4 lines of text have no effect for the remainder of the game."

I queried multiple things about this play.  One, can you pass me Franz directly from your hand? Don't you have to actually play an Occupation before you use it? Two, even if Franz breaks the rules and can be played from hand, can he played with the Simplifier effect in play? Three, can you play Franz if you don't have a family member to place instead?  (The Franz-playing player argued that the card wouldn't do anything anyway because of the Simplifier being in play, but that he was still entitled to pass it to me.)

Four, what on earth does the last line on the card mean?  I keep reading and re-reading it and can't parse its meaning. Does it imply that if you actually spent an action playing the Franz occupation (as opposed to just passing it on after getting it from someone else), you get 1 Bonus point every time you Franz someone?  That's the interpretation I'm leaning towards having thought about it for a while, but it seemed very ambiguous last night.

Can someone spell out how Franz works, in a way that will clear up all of the above confusion?

The last sentence on the German card is a bit clearer:

Wenn du Franz ausgespielt hast und bei Spielende nicht mehr hast, kannst du "Ich bin nicht Franz!" sagen und erhaelst 1 Sonderpunkt.

That is: "If you played Franz and don't have it any more at the game's end...".

Which says that you only receive the bonus point at the end of the game. The condition here is slightly different from the one on the English card. If you play the card, pass it, get it back, and play it again, you do not receive the bonus point. The German card is not clear about what happens if you play it, pass it, get it back, and keep it in your hand.

As for your other questions: I think you're right. The card has to be played first before it has any effect, just like any other occupation. In combination with the Simplifier, Franz has no effect: it cannot be passed to another player, and gives no bonus point.


What's the name of this board game about a Middle East oil war? I'm trying to find a board game which I knew when I was a kid. Nobody let me play it.

It's played in the Middle East. It has oil pipelines to link territories, oil tanker ships, perhaps an oil drill, dictator (a hand), artillery (tank), a head piece (sorry I don't remember what it is), and if I'm not wrong it has a king and a warrior or spy too. I don't remember if it had money, dice, etc.

The objective, if I remember correctly, was to gain power, economy control, etc. It has some similarities to Risk and Diplomacy.

With help from Pat Ludwig's answer I found out the right game.

It's The Game of Nations.

This game probably was release to exploit the first oil big crisis in 1972. Good to know that the world changed :-)


Does an action which gives you +2 Advance Civilization require they be used together? There are several planets which provide +2 economy / diplomacy (e.g., Padraigin-3110). Do those have to be used to advance a single ship 2 spaces in orbit, or can they be used to advance 2 separate ships 1 space each?

Update: Added a picture showing Padraigin-3110.

The text of Padraigin-3110 says "Spend 2 culture to advance +2 diplomacy".

Looking through the deck for similar cards to Padraigin-3110, I came across 1 essentially identical card, Nakagawakozi (spend energy to improve economy, rather than spending culture to improve diplomacy, but same general idea). I came across 2 other cards which allow you to regress a ship -2 (Jorg) or advance a ship +2 (Terra-Bettia).

Jorg specifically mentions that you must regress a single ship by -2. Terra-Bettia is a bit more ambiguous, but does mention advancing "a ship" +2, implying that it must be a single ship.

In the absence of any clarifications from the designer / manufacturer, and given there are similar cards to Padraigin which specifically mention the action must be performed on a single ship, while Padraigin does not specifically mention the same, the benefit of Padraigin-3110 seems to be equivalent to rolling two separate dice, each containing the diplomacy symbol. Similarly, taking the action at Nakagawakozi would be equivalent to rolling two economy symbols on the dice. That is, you can advance one ship +2, or two ships +1.


Gin Rummy with Jokers Is there any known variant of Gin-Rummy that includes the Jokers?

If yes then, what are the rules about jokers?

How much deadwood a joker counts?
Can be used only for Runs or also for Sets?

A similar question on BGG: (with no good answer)

  Aside from the fact that jokers are forbidden in Gin Rummy, does
  anyone know what the next nearest, "quais-official" rules are for
  including Jokers in Gin Rummy?

Various sites (e.g., rummyculture) list rummy variants with jokers, but not Gin Rummy specifically. But the rules could be adapted directly. Suggested set of rules:

Jokers are worth 30, as in most versions of Rummikub
Discarded jokers cannot be picked up from the discard pile (optional)
Jokers can be used in sets or runs, but not to make a 5-card set (the "missing" card must be one that exists).


What mechanics exist that trigger Burning Vengeance? Burning Vengeance is an enchantment that states:

  Whenever you cast a spell from your graveyard, Burning Vengeance deals
  2 damage to target creature or player.

I know the Flashback keyword will activate Burning Vengeance, but the Oracle text on Gatherer leads me to believe that there are other ways to trigger its ability.  What other mechanics exist in Modern that will trigger Burning Vengeance?

Non-flashback options include:

(Standard/Modern) Creatures you can cast from the graveyard, like Gravecrawler and Havengul Lich.
(Modern) Retrace cards like Raven's Crime, Worm Harvest, Flame Jab.
(Modern) Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, especially played with Tribal cards like Nameless Inversion -- this is a "real" Modern deck, although not "tier 1".
(Modern) Toshiro Umezawa, although really that's flashback by another name.
(Modern) Chandra Ablaze.

Overall I feel like it plays best in a "Jund"-style deck (basically a huge pile of two-for-ones, building up card advantage incrementally while pressuring the opponent to keep tempo). In particular, I could see using Burning Vengeance in place of Seismic Assault in an Aggro Loam variant that doesn't mind losing a little bit of speed for card advantage -- pitching a land to Raven's Crime and getting your Burning Vengeance trigger only cost {B} more than pitching it to Seismic Assault, but you get to force your opponent to discard.

I don't like trying to combo out in one turn with Burning Vengeance because I feel like it's weaker than Pyromancer's Swath in that kind of deck.


When a Creature dies, does the Enchantment Creature attached to that Creature go in the graveyard? Or can you place that Enchantment Creature as a Creature on the battlefield after the Creature it was attached to dies?

Depends on the situation. Normally, when a creature dies (goes to the graveyard) or gets exiled, all attached enchantments are moved to the graveyard as well.

  704.5n If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player,
  that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.

Unless you have a bestow enchantment:

  702.102e If an Aura with bestow is attached to an illegal object or player, it becomes unattached. This is an exception to rule 704.5n.

Of course, that has also has its exceptions, for example when a player casts End Hostilities, then all creatures, and its attached permanents are destroyed.


How are Minor Improvement and Occupation cards meant to be selected for play? I'm reasonably experienced playing Agricola - but the family friendly version only, because the people I've played with find the game complicated enough as it is.

I understand how the minor improvements and occupations are supposed to be used; at the start of the game each player will have seven occupations and seven minor improvements, which they'll play through out the game.

The question is - how do I decide which deck (E, I, K) to use, and how do I select nPlayers * 7 occupations and minor improvements from it?

From what I've seen, the purpose of the different decks is to provide differing levels of complexity to game, the E deck being more suitable for beginners and the K deck for very experienced players.

I also see there are various ways to distribute the initial seven cards, a draft commonly being used, as suggested in this question.

Say I am playing with a draft, with three players. Do I just randomly select 21 minor improvements from the E deck?

Can someone please provide a step by step guide to setting up the game, from deciding which deck to use, to selecting the cards for draft/mulligan and then drafting them?

The decks you use are completely at the discretion of the players.  I like to use all the decks I own.  Some people like to use certain decks.  Some people like to ensure a particular distribution of cards from each deck, but I find that tedious.  Here's how I set things up:

Set up the game board normally.
Shuffle all Minor Improvements together from all decks.
Remove all Occupations that carry a number greater than the number of players in the game (this number appears in a colored square and is either 1+, 3+ or 4+).
Shuffle all remaining Occupations together from all decks.
Randomly deal out 7 (or more) Occupations to each player.
Randomly deal out 7 (or more) Minor Improvements to each player.

(The next two steps are the drafting steps, which you can skip if you want to.)

Each player chooses on Occupation and one Minor Improvement to keep, then passes the rest of their dealt cards to the person on their left/right.
Repeat the previous step until all cards have been chosen.
If you chose to deal more than 7 Occs/Minors, each player discards until they have 7 each.
Play the game.


Did a bridge column make errors in discussing a hand? This is from yesterday's New York Post. North-South are playing at four spades. Vulnerable, they had bid 1 spade, 2 spades, 4 spades, no opposing bids. Here's the hand:

        North
        (s) AQ9
        (h) K63
        (d) 854
        (c) 7432

  West                  East

(s) 53                 (s) 42
(h) JT97               (h) AQ852
(d) QT72               (d) 963
(c) Q98                (c) KT5

         South
        (s) KJT876
        (h) 4
        (d) AKJ
        (c) AJ6

South has six easy trump tricks, two side aces and a king for an easy nine. The tenth trick will come from a finesse or end play into one of South's minor suit tenaces.

West leads the Jack of hearts, which East correctly overtakes with the Queen in order to lead a diamond to West's Queen. South intercepts with the King, and leads a trump to dummy in order to lead a low club. East covers with the King. All understandable so far. Here's where I think the narrative goes wrong, with a focus on the part in bold:

"South took the ace, led a trump to dummy, and returned a second club, five Jack, Queen. He ruffed the next heart, lost another club, and got to dummy with a trump to pitch his Jack of diamonds on the good club."

Doesn't South need to cover East's five of clubs with the six so that West wins with the nine? Then cover the T with the Jack on the third round so West wins with the queen? All to keep East off lead. Because otherwise, East wins on the third round and shoots another diamond through South.

The narrative also attributed South's difficulty to "good play" by the defenders. It's true that East played well, but it seems to me to be only "ordinarily" well.

My understanding is that the issue in the club distribution. For instance, if East has KQx of clubs instead of KT5, he has a forced win of a club, and the chance to take the minor finesse diamonds. Ditto if clubs split 4-2, and East has KQ. If clubs split 2-4, South can win only if West has KQ or KT so East doesn't get the lead.

Is my understanding correct?

No; swap the club 5 and 6 and South still makes the hand. Deal it out with a deck of cards and see.

If West wins the second club and returns a diamond the diamond loser has been eliminated; if West returns a club the 4th club is now set up for the diamond pitch; if West returns a trump or heart Declarer wins and leads out the 3rd round of clubs, wins the diamond return by East and goes to board with 3rd round of trumps to pitch the losing diamond.


Can someone counter a creature ability with a counter target creature? If I activate a creature ability that puts creatures on the battlefield, can my opponet counter it with a counter target creature spell?

No, you can't counter an ability with an effect that says counter target spell. You can only counter a spell

One of the reasons why people play  aether vial, because you can't counter creatures put into play with aether vial

You need to pay attention to the wording of the ability.  Because if the ability says that you can "cast" the creature such as  Garruk's Horde, than it does take the form of spell, and can therefore be countered.

But if the ability says to put it onto the battlefield than it's not a spell, and can't be countered


Blocking with First Strike + Deathtouch Rule 509.3 says:

  Third, for each blocking creature, the defending player announces that creature's damage assignment order, which consists of the creatures it's blocking in an order of that player's choice. (During the combat damage step, a blocking creature can't assign combat damage to a creature it's blocking unless each creature ahead of that blocked creature in its order is assigned lethal damage.) This turn-based action doesn't use the stack.

Rule 702.2b says:

  Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage, regardless of that creature's toughness.

And in Unhinged there are creatures with 1/2 power(for example Little Girl)(so basically it looks like there's no minimum damage a creature can deal).

Now let's imagine I have monstrous Hundred Handed One on the battlefield(so it is a 6/8 creature that can block up to 100 creatures).

Now assume I gave my monstrous Hundred Handed One First Strike and Deathtouch. During my opponents combat phase he declares 10 3/3 creatures without any abilities as attackers.

So the question for this scenario:

Would I be able to block them all dead? Or will I have to assign 3 damage to first creature and 3 damage to second creature? Or can I only assign minimal of 1 damage per creature that would kill 6 of the attacking creatures my opponent controls?

107.1a You can’t choose a fractional number, deal fractional damage, gain fractional life, and so on. If a spell or ability could generate a fractional number, the spell or ability will tell you whether to round up or down.

Normally, you must pick an integer number of damage. So in a normal game, a 6/8 Hundred Handed One with First Strike and Deathtouch only kills 6 of the blockers. The remaining four 3/3 survive to deal 12 damage to Hundred Handed One, killing it.

In an Unhinged/Unglued game, 107.1a is modified.

  For right now (and I reserve the right to change this with future Un sets), whenever you choose a number, if that number is written as p/q in lowest terms, q must be 1 or 2. If you stopped taking math in high school, for any fraction the greatest legal denominator is 2. And if you've mentally repressed all math-related knowledge, the only fraction you can choose is {1/2} (and yes, 1{1/2}, 2{1/2}, etc. is fair game).

  Does this mean that while playing silver-bordered cards I can break up Pyrotechnics to deal {1/2} damage to eight creatures (trust me, I can come up with a reason)?

  Yes. Yes, you can.

Hundred Handed One can now deal 1/2 damage to 12 creatures. In a Unhinged/Unglued game, and only in such a game, HHO will survive the scenario unscathed. It would take 15 3/3 attackers to kill HHO.


Starting a Skaven army: Pros and Cons? After playing much Warhammer 40K and building some Space Marine and Orks, I've been looking into starting a Warhammer Fantasy army, more specifically Skaven, because of the cool-looking models and the challenge towards my painting skills to make them look beautiful.
Although I've looked into types of armies and lore, from a strictly-gameplay point of view, I know nothing.
What types of Skaven armies work or not, and which races are they good or weak against?

This is not from me, but I approve it :)
Skaven pros -

They have access to vast arrays of troops/troop types, and can get them in vast quantities.
The leadership rules they come with over-ride what would be a fatal
weakness and combined with the new re-roll of all leadership tests
allowed by the BSB and the general's leadership in a 24" diameter
bubble they have the same Ld as dwarfs, ie impregnable.
They have excellent magic capacity and at least one game ending
spell, which is now far easier to cast now in 8th irresistibly.
The new initiative strikes first regardless of charge now makes even
their weaker troops likely to inflict a credible ammount of damage on
all but the most heavily armoured foes.
The Storm Banner can, for a tiny cost eradicate their greatest
weakness - being squelched by template weapons and shot to death -
yes it affects their own troops to, but this is generally less
detrimental to them than it is against other armies such as DE, HE,
WE, Dwarfs, Empire, OK of which (generally) most of their opponents
will come from.

Cons -

Such a large quantity of troops on the table means the potential for
being bottlenecked against terrain, the newer terrain rules have
nearly removed this as a problem for skaven now.
The ability to be lose all their Ld bonuses by being flanked was a
great problem, but in 8th the most common flanking units, fast
cavalry have been hit by needing full ranks to break ranks. To give
the fast cav enough ranks to both survive getting to the flanks and
then (as ranks are counted after combat now) last long enough to be
able to break the ranks is an option. This falls under analysis though
as with 2.5k or 3k skaven can build a battle line that stretches from
table edge to table edge and presents no flanks to the enemy.
Overall I believe skaven have really been boosted a vast amount in
8th, but regardless of numbers they will die in droves in HtH against
any and all opponents, it's just a case of will they fail their
stubborn ld 10 re-rollable break tests over the course of the game?


Why are the decks in Agricola called Komplex, Interactive and Easy? Komplex - presumably from the german for Complex, but in what way are they complex? More difficult to play or to be able to play them, less beneficial, or do they complicate the overall game?

Interactive - Given the Komplex and Easy names, you would expect this to be called Intermediate, as another named difficulty level. How are these cards any more interactive than any of the others? Is it to do with synergies?

Easy - same as question for Komplex, how are these actually any easier to play with than the others?

I ask this because I've now played with all of the decks (including mixed decks) and haven't really noticed any difference in game difficulty. If anything, the excellent buffs included in the Komplex pack seemed to make gameplay easier...

My own thoughts:

Komplex Deck - Yes. The rules for all occupations and minor improvements are more complex than E-Deck. Some improvements are harder to play. For instance, the Plow(plow 3 fields a time) improvement can be played as a combo in Plow and also Sow but in Complex Deck, this is forbidden. But there are more bonus points can be collected via minors. More occupations can play additional round-action. Better oven(+5 points), better masion( +2 on stone rooms ).

Interactive Deck - There are some special minors that create additional actions allowing other players to play and the owner benefits with food, such as Tavern. Moreover, some occupations are buyers ( reed buyer, wood buyer etc.,) that can hijack other player's resource. More occupations are doing with other players instead of round-actions.

Easy Deck - All occupations and improvements are usually doing ONE particular action. And the prerequisite for them are not as hard/complex as Komplex.

In my opinion, I would not mix all these decks. I think some occupations of E-Deck/I-Deck are significantly powerful than K-Deck. For example, Fisherman, Backer, Well builder(+Village Well + Water Carrier, this combination is the most cost-efficiency food generator, I think) etc..


Is it okay to have a multi-language deck? I want to buy a few booster pack from a local shop that only gets them in French. Is it generally acceptable to show up to a tournament with cards in different languages?

Yes.

Under official Magic, they're all the same card regardless of the printed language. From the comprehensive rules:

  201.2. A card’s name is always considered to be the English version of its name, regardless of printed language.

From the tournament rules:

  It is not required that players play with cards that are printed in the native language of the area in which the tournament is being run. If a player needs to know what a card does, either because it is in a language they cannot read, or it is a textless printing, they may call for a judge and ask for the Oracle text.


Please help identifying board game similar to Mouse Trap This is a game from likely the 70's or 80's. A board game similar to Mouse Trap in that, you set up a bunch of precarious pieces, and at the end the sequence is triggered and all the pieces jump or spin or do whatever they do. Except this game involved a circus I think. I recall 2 circus performers spinning around a pole, opposite each other, from the top downward.

It is a fleeting memory, and has been bugging me for years!

I found here on board game geek a reference to Flying Finnegan.

It was a circus game like mouse trap.


Starting a new board in Carrom In Carrom, does the winner of a board automatically start the next one? If not does the starting player, play white Carrom men?

From: https://icf-media.beepworld.de/laws-of-carrom.htm

Relevant rules:
43) The player who is to break shall have the white C/m during that board leaving the black C/m to his opponent. The Queen shall be the common C/m.

49) a) i) In the first game the player who chooses to break the first board shall have the white C/m. The turn to break shall pass alternately during the game.

49) a) ii) In the second game the player who did not have the first turn to break shall have his turn first.

49) a) iii) In the third game, the turn to break passes on to the first player.

Summary:
a) Whomever is breaking plays the white c/m.
b) The first break of the first game will be taken by whomever is chosen to break first.  The second board of the first game will be broken by the other player, and so on.
c) The first break of the second game will be taken by the player who did not have the first break in the first game.
d) The first break of the third game will be taken by the player who did have the first break in the first game.

Sample match can be seen here: https://youtu.be/MTLHyG5ov44


I am really confused on how corpseweft works? So I'm relatively new to magic and recently went to a local draft. In one of my matches, my opponent played Corpseweft and activated its ability to exile 3 creatures from their graveyard and summoned a 2/2, 4/4, and 6/6 black Zombie Horror creature token. Which means he has 3 zombie horrors summoned all at one time. My first question is that shouldn't it actually just be a single 6/6 black Zombie Horror creature token? I kept reading over the card and didn't think it was played correctly, but they insisted me that's how it works. Again, I'm new so I didn't want to further doubt a player more experienced than me.

I have searched around the internet for discussions on this card but there was little information I found. From the little information I did stumble upon though, it seemed like a back and forth argument in which I wasn't sure which side was right. Could someone please clarify all this?

You were correct. When your opponent activated Corpseweft's ability and exiled 3 creature cards from their graveyard, they should have put a single 6/6 black Zombie Horror creature token into play. There is nothing in the text of the ability about putting multiple tokens into play.

In the future, if you have a disagreement like this over how a card or rule works, you should always call a judge. Resolving disputes like this is their primary function.


Space Marine Charge & Rapid Fire In the 6th edition, the "Declare Charge" rule specifies that if the unit shot a Rapid Fire weapon then they can't charge.

Tactical Space Marines have a bolter (24ps range) and a bolter pistol (12ps range) as basic equipment.

I understand that within a 12ps range, I can't shoot the bolter (not even as single shot) and charge. I also understand that within the 12ps range, I can only shoot as rapid fire (two shots)

But within the same 12ps range, can I decide to shoot with the pistol and then charge?
My understanding would be "yes".

When a model is armed with multiple separate ranged weapons, you only have to follow the restrictions of the ones you use.  So if you choose to fire your Bolt Pistol instead of the Bolt Gun you are free to charge in the same turn.  Pistols have no restriction against assaulting after using them.

If you choose to fire the bolt gun at either its full or rapid fire range you cannot assault.


Will Shipbreaker Kraken cause creatures to stay on the battlefield when hit by Scourge of Fleets? If I use Shipbreaker Kraken on my opponent and tap four creatures. The next turn I use Scourge of Fleets.

Do all cards go back to their hand or do the cards I picked stay on the battlefield when I used shipbreaker kraken?

The cards go back to the hand. The only thing Shipbreaker Kraken can do to them is cause them to not untap. It doesn't do anything to keep them on the battlefield if they get sent back to a hand by Scourge.

In fact, it gets even worse. If you Scourge them back to your opponent's hand, and they play them again, they will be allowed to untap as normal. This is because once it goes to the hand and gets recast, it's a different "object". The "object" that was (let's call it frozen) frozen by the Kraken is not the same "object" that they play, even if it's the same physical card.

Long story short, if you're planning to throw out a Scourge of Fleets, try not to double dip on the ones that you target with the Kraken.

Bit of an aside that's a little too long for a comment:

This sets aside the fact that you're playing both Scourge of Fleets and Shipbreaker Kraken in the same deck. I'd have to say such a deck would be woefully underpowered in all formats, barring commander. Both creatures fill the same role: a large body with a mass removal effect. Given their mana costs, for any 60 card deck you can expect it to be too slow to use both of these. Simply put, one of these will be better than the other for a given deck/matchup. Even if you play 4 of the best one, would you really want to play 5 of these big guys?


Is exchanging life the same as losing life? So say I'm playing a Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck and I tap Tree of Perdition exchanging a life total of 40 from one of my opponents with Tree of Perdition's toughness of 13. Do the opponents count as having lost 27 life, or was it different because it was just exchanged? Could I cast a 27/27 Endless One, just to name one example, or was there no actual loss of life?

The relevant rules governing exchanges of life totals are these:

701.9c. When life totals are exchanged, each player gains or loses the amount of life necessary to equal the other player's previous life total. Replacement effects may modify these gains and losses, and triggered abilities may trigger on them. A player who can't gain life can't be given a higher life total this way, and a player who can't lose life can't be given a lower life total this way (see rules 118.7-8).
701.9g. A spell or ability may instruct a player to exchange two numerical values. In such an exchange, each value becomes equal to the previous value of the other. If either of those values is a life total, the affected player gains or loses the amount of life necessary to equal the other value. Replacement effects may modify this gain or loss, and triggered abilities may trigger on it. A player who can't gain life can't be given a higher life total this way, and a player who can't lose life can't be given a lower life total this way (see rules 118.7-8). If either of those values is a power or toughness, a continuous effect is created setting that power or toughness to the other value (see rule 613.3b). This rule does not apply to spells and abilities that switch a creature's power and toughness.

In both cases, an exchange does cause a gain or loss of life. So yes, in the situation you describe, your opponent has lost 27 life and Rakdos's abilities will recognize that.


How bad would it to be to allow partial house renovation in Agricola? In explaining this game to people over Christmas, several people independently balked at the idea that the whole house must be upgraded at once.

Is there a strong reason to enforce this rule? After a few games, it seems like it'd be pretty harmless to allow renovation one room at a time. (New rooms would always be of the highest type, and cards requiring a clay or stone house would only function after complete conversion.) The scoring already supports this easily, and I think the major consequence would be increased availability of expansion-after-renovation. Because each upgrade costs a reed in addition to the materials for the rooms, and because actions are always the most precious resource, it'd still be much more efficient to upgrade all at once.

So, given that people felt strongly that a piecemeal construction should be allowed, how problematic of a house rule would this be?

As a bonus, what about allowing individual rooms to be constructed of any material at any time? (With this, unless all of your rooms are converted to clay, new clay rooms would also cost some amount of wood, and similarly going straight to stone would cost additional wood and clay.) This idea adds some complication for not much real gameplay gain, but for some reason people found the arbitrary rules of home construction more jarring to the immersive game story than, oh, say, the idea that only one person in a community can sow a field on the same day.

I think the house rule will be harmless, and also that after playing a few games, no one will take advantage of partial renovation - because it's a terrible idea. It also introduces unnecessary complexity.

Balance: The only balance consequence I see is that the Renovation action can be taken much more often than in standard Agricola. In principle, you could use this to deny the action to other players. In practice though, I doubt it would be worth it - there are plenty more valuable things to do than renovate, in most games.
Strategy: You simply do not have time to upgrade individual rooms. As you point out, that's expensive in reed, but critically, it's using an action each time. And what for? Renovating a single room to Clay gets you a measly one point. If you also require that subsequent rooms must be built of the more expensive material, and that the house doesn't count as Clay until all rooms are completed, then partial renovation is clearly a terrible idea.
Complexity: There is already a mechanism for handling surplus goods - purchasing of Improvements. The idea of Renovation is that it's a major action, that takes careful preparation and timing, and may or may not be a good idea, depending on your resources, whether you can buy a Major Improvement at the same time, and whether you need a better house for your Minors or Occupations. In gameplay terms, partial renovation serves no useful purpose.

The second rule, about building houses from arbitrary building resources, has the potential for greater impact, but again is complex. It makes it easier to build rooms, while removing the resource niche effect that players get by Renovating. For example, one reason to Renovate to clay might be to make use of clay resources, while everyone else fights it out for wood for their rooms. This house rule would remove that tactical possibility, which is a shame. This is important because rooms are required to have children, and your workers drive the economic engine of the game (this is the reason that cards like Wet Nurse are so powerful). So messing with the room mechanic is not a great idea.

Overall, I think this is a solution in search of a problem. Bear in mind that the many, many Occupations and Minor Improvements allow all sorts of interesting game adjustments, including building options and alternatives. For example the Conservator lets you Renovate to stone in a single action. My advice is to tell your players to deal with the rules as they are, get them more experienced, and move them on to the full game as quickly as possible. With 14 different cards to manage each game, they'll have more than enough to worry about without needing to take issue with odd questions of building realism.


Monopoly and component limits Games tend to have one of two philosophies on running out of pieces: the Risk philosophy, where pieces are theoretically infinite and you can use any suitable substitute; and the Monopoly philosophy, where components are limited and you cannot take an action requiring a component if the game is out of that component.

In Monopoly itself, the rules say you cannot build more houses and/or hotels than the pieces supplied with the game.  Unlimited houses and hotels is a common enough house rule that it is included as an option in many computer game adaptation of Monopoly.  Implementing this house rule is fairly easy to do if you have multiple monopoly sets, and even if you don't, the even build rule means that you can indicate the build state of an evenly developed monopoly with 2+ houses by simply putting the houses/hotel on one property in the group.

So why does Monopoly have this rule in the first place?  Is this just a historic artifact where early 1900's board game designers thought people would get confused about using substitute pieces or alternative representation of the game state?  Is there some compelling strategic depth that this component limit adds to the game?

Keeping 4 houses on your property(ies) is a very simple strategy that reduces the length of the game quite dramatically. Tying up 8 or 12 houses prevents other players from buying those houses, keeping rents on their properties low, while increasing rents on your own. On many properties, the difference in rent between 4 houses and a hotel is relatively small and is quite easily offset by the lower rents you'll pay when landing on your opponents' properties. The moment you buy a hotel, though, those 4 (or 8, or 12) houses immediately become available for somebody else to buy.

In addition, if your opponent does buy hotels and is later forced to sell them to pay a debt, using all houses on your own property could force them to tear down all improvements. See this question for further explanation. This costs them more money to build back up and lowers the amounts you pay in the meantime.

Using the "unlimited houses/hotels" house rule is probably the number one mistake people make when trying to play a short game. Computer games against AI can be played in 15-30 minutes using the correct rules; 4 player human games will take a bit longer due to thinking time and socializing, but should stay well within an hour. Hours-long games are almost entirely due to house rules preventing people from losing money as quickly as they otherwise would.


Can the Xxcha predict a special victory for Sol or Hakan? The Xxcha have the ability to predict a winner (solo or from an alliance).

Can they use this ability to predict the special win conditions?

IE: Can the Xxcha player predict a Hakan victory on turn 8 (from his special condition, and not from normal strongholds?)

If so, then the Xxcha player's best choice is to do this (imho) since then all he has to do is make sure no one wins by the end of the game, and have at least 1 unit in one of Sols special win location (preventing Sol from winning, and thus giving the win to Hakan - and subsequently to themselves)

From the rulebook on page 14 (emphasis in rulebook):

Xxcha victory
At the start of the game, the Xxcha player predicts a player and a game round. He records this prediction by choosing a race prediction token and a round prediction token. He places the chosen tokens facedown next to his race sheet and returns all unchosen prediction tokens to the game box (without revealing them).
If the chosen player wins (alone or as an ally, even as the Xxcha’s ally) with any victory condition during the predicted game round, the Xxcha player wins the game instead.

Both the Sol and Hacan Special Victories count as a victory condition. The Xxcha player could predict a Hacan win on turn 8, and whether they Hacan win by stongholds or they win because no one else has, the Xxcha could snatch victory away. This seems like a doable strategy, as long as alliances aren't working to get the game done as fast as possible.


Response to "convenient" minor bid My partner opened 1 Club. I held:

 S: J732
 H: -
 D: Axxxx
 C: QJxx

She was upset that I bid two clubs rather than 1 Spade. I did not think the Spade suit was good enough to bid. What do you think.

On another "convenient" minor open I had 4 Spades and 4 Hearts, both with two honors, and 8 points. I bid 1 NT, which I thought would indicate that I could support either suit.

I had the same partner both times and caught a lot of flack over these bids. Was my thinking wrong?

Assuming you are playing some simple form of standard american, yes your thinking was wrong on both hands.

Usually the responder is supposed to "bid up the line", giving preference to majors in case she has a 6-9 point hand.

With the first hand, you can either bid 1D or 1S. The reason to bid 1S instead of 1D is that the auction 1C-1D-1H-1S might have a special meaning (4th suit bids can have special meanings) and might show a stronger hand than what you have. Suit quality considerations are very rare when responding at the one level and your hand is not one of those rare hands.

With the second hand, you must bid 1H, and if partner bids 1S you can raise to 2S. 1NT actually denies a 4 card major.

The scoring in bridge gives preference to majors and as a result most bidding systems give preference to the majors. Bypassing 4 card majors when responding is usually considered bad.


Is upgraded icebreaker strength per subroutine If I pay credits to upgrade the strength of my ice breaker do I have to pay to do that for every subroutine or does the upgraded strength last for the whole encounter?

Whole encounter.
From the rules (emphasis theirs):

  This strength increase lasts only while the current piece of ice is
  being encountered, unless otherwise noted by card abilities. After an
  encounter with a piece of ice, the icebreaker’s strength returns to
  the value shown on its card


What happens if I flip a token face down? Lets say I have a Voidmage Apprentice and make a token copy of it. What happens if I target the token copy with Master of the Veil? Do I get a face-down token creature? Does it stay face up?

Yes, you can turn the token face down. It becomes a colorless 2/2 creature with no name or abilities. You can then turn it face up by paying its morph cost.

The first few rules about face-down cards say the following:

  707.1. Some cards allow spells and permanents to be face down.
  707.2. Face-down spells and face-down permanents have no characteristics other than those listed by the ability or rules that allowed the spell or permanent to be face down. Any listed characteristics are the copiable values of that object’s characteristics. (See rule 613, “Interaction of Continuous Effects,” and rule 706, “Copying Objects.”)

  707.2a If a face-up permanent is turned face down by a spell or ability that doesn’t list any characteristics for that object, it becomes a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, and no mana cost. A permanent that enters the battlefield face down also has these characteristics unless otherwise specified by the effect that put it onto the battlefield face down or allowed it to be cast face down. These values are the copiable values of that object’s characteristics.

These rules say that permanents can be turned face-down, and there are no exceptions for tokens here or anywhere else. The token will have the face-down status and the characteristics described in rule 707.2a. Then rule 702.36e from the Morph rules says this:

  Any time you have priority, you may turn a face-down permanent you control with a morph ability face up. This is a special action; it doesn’t use the stack (see rule 116). To do this, show all players what the permanent’s morph cost would be if it were face up, pay that cost, then turn the permanent face up. (If the permanent wouldn’t have a morph cost if it were face up, it can’t be turned face up this way.) The morph effect on it ends, and it regains its normal characteristics. Any abilities relating to the permanent entering the battlefield don’t trigger when it’s turned face up and don’t have any effect, because the permanent has already entered the battlefield.

Again, this allows you to unmorph any permanent that would have a morph ability if it were face up, and there are no exceptions for tokens.


Can a mandatory trigger be missed? At Theros Beyond Death prerelease, I was playing with Furious Rise for the first time. It happened to me to forget about the card at the end of my turn and only remember at the beginning of the turn of my opponent, and saying so. He told me I had missed the trigger, and I didn't argue much as that was my fault. However I know this is not an optional trigger, I must exile the top card of my library at my end step. The only part that is optional is being allowed to play the exiled card.

I didn't think about calling a judge at that time, but since that was a mandatory action and there wasn't lots of actions from both of us after the missed trigger, were we supposed to rewind and fix the game state? I only thought about the fact that by not exiling the card, I could not play it and was losing on card advantage so not fixing the game was "fair" to my opponent. However, I forgot that one card would could have been permanently exiled and the effect have changed much more the outcome of the game.

How am I supposed to handle a mandatory effect without calling a judge? Were we supposed to rewind the game state to fix it if both had agreed?

You should pretty much always call a judge when something weird like that happens. Don't think of this as starting a confrontation with the judge or with your opponent - judges are simply the experts in how to fix weird things, and in doing so such that both players will usually think they were treated fairly. That said, if you called the judge over, they would probably just put the missed trigger on the stack at that point. Here's the guidelines from the Judging at Regular Rules Enforcement Level (REL) document (emphasis added):

  [Triggered] abilities are considered missed if the player did not acknowledge the ability in any way at the point
  that it required choices or had a visible in-game effect. If the ability includes the word “may,” assume the
  player chose not to perform it. Otherwise, put the ability on the stack unless you think it would be too
  disruptive - don’t add it to the stack if significant decisions have been made based on the effect not
  happening! Unlike other illegal actions (which must be pointed out), players may choose whether or not to
  point out their opponent's missed triggers.

Since the trigger was mandatory and since no significant decisions had happened since, the bold line says that the ability should go on the stack when noticed.

(At higher RELs, the Magic Infraction Procedure Guide has a lot more to say on how to handle missed triggers. You can read that yourself to see how your specific case would be handled in a Competitive setting, but ultimately calling over a judge and letting them handle it is the right move either way. By Tournament Rules, intentionally missing your mandatory trigger is Cheating at any REL.)


Blocker with First Strike and Blocker with Double Strike I'm playing Magic Duels: Origins and I blocked a 2/2 with a 1/1 double strike and a 1/1 first strike. My interpretation is that that equals 2 damage during the first strike phase and 1 damage during the combat phase from my creatures, and 2 damage during the combat phase from his. However, this resulted in all three creatures being destroyed. Is there an interaction between first strike and double strike I'm unaware of, or is the game coded wrong?

This sounds like it is a bug. Since the way the Combat Damage Step works is

Each player decides how their creatures will deal damage
If any creatures have First Strike or Double Strike they deal their damage
State Based Actions are checked, anything that triggers off of damage happens, players get priority
Any creatures with Double Strike or that didn't deal damage in the first Combat Damage Step deal their damage

So what should have happened is what you were expecting, your creatures deal 1 damage each in the first Combat Damage Step, then when SBAs are checked it should have died due to having damage marked on it equal to its toughness.


Does the elephant get bigger when I bring in the ballista? Fairgrounds Trumpeter:

  At the beginning of each end step, if a +1/+1 counter was placed on a permanent under your control this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Fairgrounds Trumpeter.

Walking Ballista:

  Walking Ballista enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

If I bring in a new Walking Ballista - then it enters the game with the +1/+1 counters already on it. Technically you could interpret that as meaning that the +1/+1 counters were not placed on it that turn - they were already there as it entered the battlefield.

So does the trumpeter trumpet louder and the crowd cheer more when they see the ballista walk onto the field?

(Obviously if a new counter is added after the Ballista is on the field then it would, this is specifically about the replacement ability on entering the battlefield).

Yes, you get the counter on Trumpeter.

When an ability is looking out for counters being placed on an object, the game also counts cards that enter the battlefield with counters as having had those "placed" on it: it will trigger abilities like Trumpeter's, Hardened Scales would give the Ballista another +1/+1 counter, etc.

  121.6. Some spells and abilities refer to counters being “placed” on an object. This refers to putting counters on that object while it’s on the battlefield and also to an object that’s given counters as it enters the battlefield.


What happens if I push another mech with skewer? If my mech has a skewer card and I push someone else into a mech do I get the minion on my card?  Or alternatively if they have skewer and I push them into a minion do they get the minion?

Here is the text on Skewer:

SKEWER
[1] Move forward 1 space.
[2] Move forward 2 spaces.
[3] Move forward 3 spaces.
If Skewer kills a Minion, place it on this card (max of 1). Before drawing damage, you may instead scrap the Minion.

Here are the rules for "stomp" (under the Minions section):

Minions will also die if a Mech stomps on them (moves
into the same space).

And, finally, the relevant rules for "Push":

Player Mechs can Push [..] other player Mechs [...].
[...]
Executing a Move Command that would put the Mech into a space containing another Mech [...] pushes that object forward in the same direction, which could push another Mech [...].

Now that we have the rules established, here is your first question:

If my Mech has a Skewer card and I push someone else into a Mech do I get the minion on my card?

In light of the cited rules, the answer is... unclear. The answer depends on your interpretation of what exact event is taking place when the minion is killed.
That is, is the stomp a sub-event within Skewer or is stomp a result of Skewer? If your interpretation is the former, then yes the minion would be placed on the card. If your interpretation is the latter, then no.
At this time, there is no official clarification that distinguishes the granularity of stomp within the context if its causal action that could be used to resolve this ambiguity. My personal interpretation is the Skewer is triggering stomp and thus the minion is not killed via Skewer directly. This interpretation also makes more thematic sense as the pushed Mech does not necessary have Skewer equipped (and thus it has nothing to physically skewer with!).
We do have enough information to firmly answer your second question, however:

If another player has Skewer and I push them into a minion do they get the minion?

The answer is no, they do not gain the minion. The card specifically says "If Skewer kills a Minion".
Killing a minion any other way does not trigger the ability. If the card could be triggered by other means, the text would have been written as such (e.g., "When your Mech kills a minion...").
Regardless of the thematic implications, the rules are clear.
Source: Printed rules (rulebook and card)


Why is Skullclamp banned? The following card is banned in current tournament formats:

  Equipped creature gets +1/-1.  When equipped creature is put into a graveyard, draw two cards.  Cast 1, equip 1 (artifact).

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Skullclamp

Usually when a card is banned, I can figure out what the reason is, but for the life of me I can't figure out why this card is so dangerous. Its ability is good but not game-breaking, and I can't think of anything that it would pair with to become game-breaking.

Basically it's because it buffers you very, very well against creature loss. If you're playing a weenie deck it protects you from deck-clearing spells. Or if you're sacrificing creatures, this card gives you extremely cheap, essentially unlimited new draws. The equip ability means you can just reuse it over and over again.

It's also very wide-ranging - almost any competitive deck is going to be better off having a few of these around, so it distorts the format. The basis for that statement is discussed in this very detailed article from the development team:

  Skullclamp was banned in Standard, frankly, because it was everywhere.
  Every competitive deck either had four in the main deck, had four in
  the sideboard, or was built to try and defend against it. And there
  were a lot more successful decks in the first two categories than in
  the third. Such representation is completely unhealthy for the format.
  Your deck has to either have Skullclamps, or have Skullclamp in its
  crosshairs—a definitive case of a card “warping the metagame.”
  Look, for example, at the Top 8 decks from Ohio Valley Regionals. Or
  at those from the more recent German Nationals. Combined, those 16
  decks contained 58 out of a possible 64 Skullclamps. Never in my
  memory have I ever seen a card show up in those numbers.

It's interesting to note that the development team themselves completely underestimated the power of this card. The story of how it made it to release, discussed in the linked article, is quite fascinating.


What happens if I play Quagmire/Bear Trap on myself on AR 7? Quagmire* says the following:

  On next action round, US player must discard an Operations card worth 2 or more and roll 1-4 to cancel this event. Repeat each US player Action round until successful or no appropriate cards remain. If out of appropriate cards the US player may only play scoring cards until the next turn.

I know this can be used on AR 6 to discard an undesirable card with sufficient Ops on turn 7.  But what happens if you play it on turn 7?

It says "on next action round" at the beginning. Does that mean AR 1 on the next turn? Or does it go away at the end of the turn?

Quagmire/Bear Trap don't go away at the end of the turn !
From the FAQ:

46
Q. Does a Beartrap or Quagmire end when the turn ends or will it continue into the next
turn?
A. The end of a turn will not end a Beartrap or Quagmire. Only the required die roll will
do so. Remember that neither card affects headline phase.

So, if you play it in AR7 you will not play AR1 of the next turn (except you played it in TURN10), you just discard a card and try your luck.


Will Repercussion deal damage to a controller beyond a creature's toughness? Repercussion's text reads as follows:

  Whenever a creature is dealt damage, Repercussion deals that much damage to that creature's controller.

So: if, for example, a 1/1 creature is dealt 10 damage with Repercussion in play, does its controller take 10 damage or 1?

The controller takes 10 damage. A creature's toughness does not limit the damage it can take. Toughness just indicates how much damage is enough to destroy it.


Can you buy a property after being sent by a chance card? Imagine I roll the dice and land on a chance card space. The chance card sends me forward to a property space. Can I buy it?

I haven't been able to find a clear straight answer to this question online nor in the rulebook.

Yes. From the official rules, "whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price."


Angel's Grace and Phyrexian Unlife I am at -10 life from Ad Nauseam but I don't lose due to Phyrexian Unlife. If my opponent attacks me with all their creatures (for infect-> poison counters) and I use Angel's Grace what happens to my life total? I know it doesn't go back to 1 but do I get poison counters or just one poison or does nothing happens?

Similarly,

If my health is already below zero and I don't have Phyrexian Unlife if my opponent keeps attacking on the turn I'm still using Angel Grace what happens?

thanks

In the first scenario,
Your opponent's creatures deal damage to you in the form of poison counters.[CR 702.89b] This damage does not reduce your life total, so it's not affected by Angel's Grace. Even if you now have ten or more poison counters, you do not lose at this time because of Angel's Grace.
Eventually, your turn ends and the continuous effect Angel's Grace's created to keep you alive ends. Specifically, this happens in the Cleanup Step[CR 514.2]. At this point, state-based actions are checked and you lose if you have ten or more poison counters.[CR 514.3, 704.5c]

702.89b Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes the player to get that many poison counters.

In the second scenario,
Everyone's life totals are checked whenever someone is about to get priority (when someone gets to cast a spell or activate an ability except when instructed by an effect)[CR 116.5].
If your health is below zero, and you don't have Phyrexian Unlife to keep you alive, then you've already lost. As soon as Ad Nauseam finished resolving, before anyone could have done anything else and before the attackers could deal their damage, state-based actions were performed[CR 601.2h] and you lost the game for having having non-positive life.[CR 704.5a]

601.2h Once the steps described in 601.2a–g are completed, the spell becomes cast. Any abilities that trigger when a spell is cast or put onto the stack trigger at this time. If the spell’s controller had priority before casting it, he or she gets priority.
116.5. Each time a player would get priority, the game first performs all applicable state-based actions as a single event [...]

Do note that Angel's Grace cannot raise your life total. As stated in a ruling, "If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1."


Can I use the Finger of God on other players' turns? In Monty Python Fluxx, the Finger of God reads:

  If you have this on the table you may smite (i.e. discard) any Creeper. After smiting, you must put this card back into your hand.

Can I use it during someone else's turn? The card doesn't specify. The card "Excalibur", for example, clearly stresses "during your turn" for a similar action.

Yes you can. The action clarifier makes sure the card is not overpowered--there have to be reprecussions. For the card "Excalibur," the reprecussion is that you can only play it on your turn. For "Finger of God," the reprecussion is that it goes back into your hand. Since you have to wait until your next turn to play it again, it is what keeps it in check.


Copy Tokens and Clarion Ultimatum Is it possible to use Clarion Ultimatum to search for a permanent in my deck using a token created by something like Cackling Counterpart or Fated Infatuation as one of the chosen permanents?

For example, if I cast Cackling Counterpart on my own Cavalier of Dawn, then cast Clarion Ultimatum, can I select the original Cavalier of Dawn, the token, and then get two more Cavaliers from my deck (and ultimately destroy up to two more nonland permanents on the field)?

Yes, you can do that. When you copy an object, the name is copied as well:

706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.

Tokens are not an exception here.

111.3. The spell or ability that creates a token may define the values of any number of characteristics for the token. This becomes the token’s “text.”
111.4. A spell or ability that creates a token sets both its name and its subtype(s). If the spell or ability doesn’t specify the name of the token, its name is the same as its subtype(s). A “Goblin Scout creature token,” for example, is named “Goblin Scout” and has the creature subtypes Goblin and Scout. Once a token is on the battlefield, changing its name doesn’t change its subtype, and vice versa.

So normally the token would have a name defined by either the effect that created it or the type name, but because it was created as a copy in your case, the name was copied as well.


Can you chase away the robber if your knight is not active at the beginning of your turn? Can you use your knight to chase away the robber if it was inactive at the beginning of your turn?

No.

According to the rules,

  A knight may not be activated and then perform an action on the same turn.


When should I choose to redesign my Alhambra? My family and I have played several games of Alhambra now, and while we're still relative beginners, we've noticed that we rarely if ever choose to redesign our Alhambras (move tiles to or from our boards). In fact, I think its happened less than 5 times in our past 5 games. Is this normal? The only time we really redesign is after we've bought a tile we couldn't use to deprive someone else of it and have nothing better to do with our turn. Otherwise, its just way too expensive in terms of lost opportunities to take money or buy tiles.

When should a player choose to redesign their Alhambra?

As far as I'm concerned, your intuitions through play are correct.  Redesigning your Alhambra is an action of last resort, rather than an action a player is likely to take multiple times per game.  Quite often I don't redesign my Alhambra at all during the course of a game.  If you can construct a reasonably expansive Alhambra where it is easy to add new tiles no matter what their configuration of walls, you may well not need to resort to a redesign at any point in the game.

On the other hand, just because a strategy is not that universally great, doesn't mean you shouldn't use it if circumstances dictate that it is the right one.  I find that, in the early game, going all-out for walls tends to be beneficial, and if you do this you may end up in a situation where there are tiles you want to buy but can't currently place.  In such cases, it makes sense to grab those tiles for your reserve and use a redesign action at some point in the second or third round to make your Alhambra easier to expand.  Likewise, it would often seem foolish to pass up on a tile that you can buy for exact money, just because you can't place it.  You can offset the action you lose by placing the tile in your reserve with the action you've gained by buying for exact.

Generally taking a good money card, or combination of money cards, will be the correct play, before or after buying a tile for exact price.  On the other hand, I usually find that at least once per game you will be confronted with a mediocre selection of money (let's say 5 5 4 4, in unappealing colours).  Such occasions give you a prime opportunity for a redesign of your Alhambra, and dump the inferior money picks on your opponents instead of yourself.  Would you really rather pick up a poor money card, and open up much better picks for your neighbour?  Sometimes picking up the money that is available is an actively unappealing option, and this gives you a prime chance to perform a useful Alhambra redesign action instead.

In short, most of the time an Alhambra redesign is not the optimum play, but there will usually be at least one occasion during a game where there isn't much else you need to do with your turn, making it not a bad play at all.  The player who remains flexible and gives himself the opportunity to change  their strategy via a well-timed Alhambra redesign will win more games, on average, than the player who fixates on a one-track strategy that can be stymied by a bad run of luck. (Case in point: I played against someone who ended the game with about 9 tiles in their reserve the other week. If they'd been imaginative enough to do an Alhambra redesign to open up their board at some point, instead of waiting for the tiles to arrive that would fit into their wall arrangement... they'd definitely have done a lot better in that game.)


What is this round board game on a turn table? The board has 32 sections with 4 peg holes in each section. There are 4 numbered pegs each a different color.  There are 4 die with numbers 1 through 6 following the same colors as the pegs.  It is mounted on a turn table.  Does anyone know what game this is?

It looks like a home made tabletop version of Horse Racing.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Horse-Racing-Game/

You roll the dice and move the horse along the number that's on its die.  The first to cross the finish line wins.


In Pinochle, what is the probability of a thousand aces and a double run in one hand? What are the odds of getting a hand containing:
A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ Tx Kx Qx Jx Tx Kx Qx Jx for some suit x, and another four unspecified cards.

Rules Background

Double-deck Pinochle is a four player game using a deck of 80 cards (four lots of ATKQJ in each of ♣♦♥♠) (cf. Wikipedia and this rules page).

A double run is two sets ATKQJ in whichever suit is declared trumps. Trumps is decided by a bidding mechanism, but for this question we'll assume that the bidding was won by the player in question, and trumps were chosen to match the hand. Consequently we're interested in the chance of being dealt two sets of ATKQJ both in the same suit.

"A thousand aces" is a term from standard (single-deck) Pinochle, and refers to two "rounds" of aces (i.e. A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ x 2). In standard Pinochle this is all of the aces in the deck and is worth 1000 points. In double-deck Pinochle this is only half the aces, so is much more common and is only worth 100 points.

Melds in Pinochle are allowed to reuse cards (as long as they are different types of melds), and so the aces for the runs can be reused for the double run. Consequently the required cards for the hand are A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ Tx Kx Qx Jx Tx Kx Qx Jx for some suit x, which leaves four cards unspecified.

TLDR: This will happen roughly once every 1.7 million hands.
Rules Background
Double-deck Pinochle is a four player game using a deck of 80 cards (four lots of ATKQJ in each of ♣♦♥♠) (cf. Wikipedia and this rules page).
A double run is two sets ATKQJ in whichever suit is declared trumps.  Trumps is decided by a bidding mechanism, but for this answer we'll assume that the bidding was won by the player in question, and trumps were chosen to match the hand.  Consequently we're interested in the chance of being dealt two sets of ATKQJ both in the same suit.
"A thousand aces" is a term from standard (single-deck) Pinochle, and refers to two "arounds" of aces (i.e. A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ x 2).  In standard Pinochle this is all of the aces in the deck and is worth 1000 points.  In double-deck Pinochle this is only half the aces, so is much more common and is only worth 100 points.
Melds in Pinochle are allowed to reuse cards (as long as they are different types of melds), and so the aces for the runs can be reused in the arounds.  Consequently the required cards for the hand are A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ A♣ A♦ A♥ A♠ Tx Kx Qx Jx Tx Kx Qx Jx for some suit x, which leaves four cards unspecified.
Simulation
The calculation of this seemed quite involved (although see L. Scott Johnson's full calculation), so I wrote a Python script to estimate the probability:
import random
from multiprocessing.dummy import Pool as ThreadPool

suits='CDHS'
ranks='ATKQJ'
cards = [r+s for s in suits for r in ranks] * 4

def simulate(_):
    matches = 0
    for i in range(innerLoops):
        hand = random.sample(cards, 20)
        if hand.count('AC') >= 2 and hand.count('AD') >= 2 and hand.count('AH') >= 2 and hand.count('AS') >= 2:
            for s in suits:
                if hand.count('T'+s) >= 2 and hand.count('K'+s) >= 2 and hand.count('Q'+s) >= 2 and hand.count('J'+s) >= 2:
                    matches += 1
                    break
    return matches

poolSize = 8
pool = ThreadPool(poolSize)
loops = 100000000
innerLoops = loops / poolSize
for j in range(5):
    results = pool.map(simulate, range(poolSize))
    print('{} / {}'.format(sum(results), loops))

When I ran this the output was:
58 / 100000000
65 / 100000000
61 / 100000000
57 / 100000000
54 / 100000000

Combining these results gives an average of about 295 times in five hundred million hands, or 1/1694915.  This result supports the full calculation by L. Scott Johnson.


Why doesn't a go board have an 'I' ('i') column? I'm really confused, but it seems to be the convention that there is no "I":
The rows are numbered 1 to 19...

Zeiss isn't completely correct, this is actually the less common reason for omitting the I. The more common reason why I is often omitted where it would normally be expected between H and J is because in sans serif fonts the uppercase "I" is completely identical to the lowercase "l" (L). In a go board if you see a move noted in uppercase as I6 or lowercase as l6 without any other context you could not tell the difference in these fonts.

Confusion between a letter and a number would be much less common, since the letter in go is given first and the number is given second for hybrid notation, but confusion between L and I would be possible and is avoided by not including an I at all, thus guaranteeing that L and l both refer to the L column.

(for anyone with an interest in typography, this was actually intentional, allowing the lowercase l to be used in place of an uppercase I made it easier on the typesetters, they had more available of both that way and had less different symbols to worry about. Same way p and d or b and q are the same just rotated)


Do we have Go endgame tablebases, just like Chess? I am a relative newcomer to Go and more interested in the programming aspects of designing a Go Engine.

 Do Go engines use a systematic list of Endgame positions with known wins, the way chess engines do? And do professional-level Go players memorize a list of endgame positions as part of their training?

Some online digging turned up  this Wikipedia article  and  computer science paper  suggesting that Solving Go Endgames by computer is really hard problem, guaranteed to take up plenty of time. Perhaps that's the reason why Go endgame tablebases don't exist / aren't widely used?

I know much more about Go than chess, so I don't know how accurate my guesses about chess endgames will be, but... I think chess tends to be at its simplest in the endgame (like Go), and there is little information in the endgame about how the rest of the game progressed (unlike Go). And, there are  algorithms for winning (in some cases) that generalize to a large number of positions. E.g., if white has a Queen and a King, and black only has a King, unless the Q is about to be captured white will win, regardless of position.

In Go, the endgame is also the simplest part of the game, in that it is the only part of the game in which the score and the value of each move can be calculated very precisely, however position is everything, and you will never see two games end with the same board position. In chess, you can generalize many positions to what pieces remain, but in Go the only generalization is the score count and the number of points still remaining to be taken.

It would be utterly impractical to rely on whole-board level tables in Go, however many small areas of the board will fit common patterns, which are memorized by Go players and programmed into computers alike. A medium-level example would be bent four in the corner is dead, but you'll see that this relatively common position is not at all obvious to a beginner and comes with several caveats (no un-removable ko-threats, surrounding group must be alive with 2 eyes), and while relatively common, it is somewhat of a special case.

Something like knowing where to play to kill (or save!) bulky five (and many many other shapes) should be automatic for a human or computer.

Programming a computer to play good yose is a very hard problem, but is one of the few aspects of Go at which computers can beat professional Go players, as it is all calculation and, while difficult, the theory is well-understood. To do it effectively the program must be able to estimate the current score, identify the moves left on the board that are worth points, and sort them in order of worth---not trivial. This article might be a good place to start.

Summary: There is a place for systematic lists of positions in Go programs, but they won't be useful for whole-board positions. The program needs to be able to evaluate the life/death status of every group on the board, and it is in these one or two group positions that lists will be most useful---and they'll be valuable throughout the game. In trying to attack opponent's groups, your program's goal won't be just to recognize shapes from the list, but rather to force the opponent into shapes that it knows are dead, while maintaining live shapes itself. See also Common Corner Shapes.

In writing a Go program, I would give you the same advice as I would a person learning Go: start on a small board, even as small as 5x5 until you have the rules down. Move up to 7x7, and then stay with 9x9 for a long time before you even think of trying 13x13.

Good luck!


What Are The Official Rules for Carcassonne: The River? I played a game of Carcassonne last night with some friends, using amongst other expansions, the river.

Their "house rule" was that both the river Source and Lake tiles do NOT wrap around: on each tile there was a corner that they designated a boundary between one pasture and the next.  I'm pretty sure that in my edition of the rules it specifies that these tiles DO wrap.  But I'm not a rules lawyer, I'm perfectly happy to play a variant, as long as it's clearly stated from the outset!

They had another rule for playing with the river, though, and in this case I realize I have no idea whether it's "official" or not: neither the Source or the Lake tiles counted as a "turn", so in both cases no meeple could be placed, and the player whose turn it was drew another tile.

Does anyone know for sure whether the Source and Lake tiles "count" for the purposes of taking a turn?  (I can't even remember whether the starting tile from the basic game "counts", right now...)

Lance is right on the starting tile -- according to the rules (emphasis mine):

  Remove the special starting tile from the game.  Instead, begin the game by laying the spring that starts the river.  Set aside the lake tile and shuffle the remaining 10 river tiles face down and draw from these before drawing from the tiles from the normal game.  These tiles are played and followers may be played as in the normal game with one exception: a river tile may not be placed so that the river makes a "U" turn.  Followers may not be placed on rivers.  Once these 10 river tiles have been played, the next player plays the lake and then play continues with the normal tiles.

In regards to the Source and Lake, we've always played that they connect in all directions.  The following links seem to back this up:

According to the PDF rules from ModernJive:

  The statement from Hans im Glück is "Officially, the farm goes around the spring. So it is a connected farm. I personally prefer to use it as a division, since otherwise, despite the river, there is still only one large farm."

And then from Carcassonne Central is this (although the confirmation link in the thread is no longer valid):

  Yes, officially the farm does go around the spring.


Can We Find a Middle Ground on the Russia First Turn Attack Rule In Allies and Axis? Some (mainly Axis) players refuse to play Axis and Allies if Russia is allowed to attack on the first turn. Other (mainly Russian) players argue that Russia is unfairly hobbled if it has to play strict defense at that time.

Some would argue that if Russia captures a territory (Norway, Ukraine, Manchuria) on the first turn, the Axis have too few IPCs between them to have a fair chance. Others might counterargue that the Axis have a chance to capture them back and regain their income, which is calculated as of the end of their turn.

Perhaps a more important reason for the dispute is that Russia gets to "kill" a fighter in those territories with a first turn attack, at the cost of an infantry unit. That's a difference of 9 or even 10 IPCs (the fighter has only a 2/3 chance hitting the 3 IPC infantry).

My "fix" for this problem is to allow Germany to move the fighters in e.g. Ukraine and Norway back to, say, Eastern Europe, and likewise, Japan its Manchuria-based fighter back to Kwantung before the game starts, thus modifying the original setup. Then allow Russia a first turn attack. That way, the Russian player gets the opportunity to capture a territory, but not to kill a fighter.

No matter which side you are on in this debate, are you satisfied with this compromise? Would you still choose Russia if the Axis can now "protect" their fighters? If Axis, will you now play the game with a Russia first turn attack option? Or will this remain a sore point that could prevent certain players from playing the game with certain others?

Another option (in addition to the fighter option, perhaps) would be to prohibit (or limit) what German naval units can be attacked by Russia on the opening move.

When I play Russia and am allowed to attack on the opening move I aim to:

Wipe out the transport and sub in the Baltic Sea Zone with my two fighters. This carries a bit of risk because if the transport hits I lose a fighter and Russian fighters are essential. Another downer for the Germans when I make this move is that their sub is pinned in the Baltic Sea Zone since the UK Sea Zone is occupied.
Remove the German sub from the Span Sea Zone. If I'm feeling lucky I'll use just my Russian sub, but more generally I use my sub and transport.

With these moves, Germany is going to have a hard time taking out both the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets in the first turn, and will likely suffer some crippling loses if they attempt to do so. That means:

Less chance for Germany to take and hold Africa for any appreciable amount of time,
A quicker introduction of the "shuck-shuck" strategy, and
Less chance of any sort of counter-attack against the UK sea zone in an attempt to slow the inevitable.

In short, successfully weakening the German navy at the very start of the game puts even more pressure on Japan to break through to Russia before the US gets into full "shuck-shuck" swing.


Largest card size for board games What's the largest card size in a board game that's still current (in print sometime in the 21st century)?

I'm looking for cards that are used as cards, not as placemats.  This means that the cards are used in a deck or a pile containing multiple cards at a time.

(A good answer would be in both inches and millimeters.)

This PDF from maydaygames.com contains the sizes of cards for just about every modern game.  It looks like the largest one on there is for Planechase at 89mm x 127mm (3.5" x 5").


Deathtouch/Monstrosity Interaction Alice has a Wildfire Cerberus and a Bow of Nylea, and Bob has a tapped 3/3 Beast token.

Alice attacks with the Cerberus, and activates its Monstrosity. In response, Bob targets the Cerberus with Vanish into Memory.

When everything resolves, will Bob still have his Beast token?

It depends on if Vanish into Memory is cast before or after the Monstrous ability resolves.
If Vanish into Memory is cast in response to the Monstrosity ability then the Beast will survive because when the ability resolves the Cerberus is no longer on the battlefield to trigger, and thus doesn't deal damage.
Gatherer Ruling:

An ability that triggers when a creature becomes monstrous won’t trigger if that creature isn’t on the battlefield when its monstrosity ability resolves.

If Vanish into Memory is cast in response to the triggered ability the the Beast will die because the ability uses Last Known Information to determine if the Cerberus had deathtouch. Basically the game looks back in time to how the Cerberus last existed on the battlefield to determine effects of the damage like deathtouch.

112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability. Note that some abilities cause a source to do something (for example, “Prodigal Pyromancer deals 1 damage to target creature or player”) rather than the ability doing anything directly. In these cases, any activated or triggered ability that references information about the source because the effect needs to be divided checks that information when the ability is put onto the stack. Otherwise, it will check that information when it resolves. In both instances, if the source is no longer in the zone it’s expected to be in at that time, its last known information is used. The source can still perform the action even though it no longer exists.
702.2e If an object changes zones before an effect causes it to deal damage, its last known information is used to determine whether it had deathtouch.


Where can I find the value of cards from the Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game? I've got a bunch of old Dragon Ball Z Trading Cards from 2000-2004 that I'm trying to find values of, but I can't seem to find anywhere that gives me prices for any of these old cards. Is there somewhere I can go to find old card prices?

I've found sites like RetroDBZCCG, but it only shows images not prices.

You have a few options actually.

TCGPlayer: Will give you market price and median
Ebay  : Will give you what people are asking for the cards
AlternativeWorld: Seems a bit outdated, but it may help.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Also I noted that in your question you referred to it as CCG (Collectible Card Game). If you do your searches with TCG (Trading Card Game) it probably turns out more results.


Karlov of the Ghost Council and multiple counters when I have Karlov of the Ghost Council and Righteous Cause on the battlefield and I attack with three creatures, does Karlos get six +1/+1 counters or only two counters since the creatures attack simultaneously?

Not sure whether the word "whenever" triggers for each creature or whether the attack counts as one trigger.

Thank you again!

Karlov will get 6 +1/+1 counters with Righteous Cause. This is because the trigger says "Whenever a creature attacks", so it triggers for each creature. If however it had been worded like Path of Bravery, which says "Whenever one or more creatures you control attack", that would only be one instance of life gain and thus only 2 +1/+1 counters.


Pandemic's difficulty seems to rest on the placement of the first epidemic card in the deck It's impossible to get an outbreak until the first epidemic has occurred.

As such the placement of the first epidemic in the player deck has a large effect on the game. If near the bottom, it allows the players to go through several turns before the game starts become risky. At that point they may have already cleaned up most of the disease cubes and largely mitigated the risk.

Now of course, having more epidemic cards in the deck increases the chance that one will be near the top. Also - if one isn't near the top, then it means that there's a higher concentration of later on.

However this does still seem like quite an unkiltering dynamic of the game, where a large amount of how the game goes is down to luck.

The question is - does this dynamic have a significant effect on the game, and how can it be mitigated?

One option I've considered, is that you might shuffle all except one card into the player deck, and then take the top 10 cards off, and without looking, shuffle the last one in. So there's guaranteed to be an epidemic in the first 11 cards.

According to the official instructions (page 3), the player deck is prepared by first splitting it into multiple piles of roughly-equal size (one pile per Epidemic card) and shuffling exactly one Epidemic card into each pile.  These piles are then stacked on top of each other.

So even in an easy 4-Epidemic game, there will guaranteed be one Epidemic card in the top quarter of the deck (which, being a 59-card 57-card 49-card 48-card reasonably-sized deck, would be within the first 15 12 cards or so); this could be on the bottom of the top quarter, yes, but it's impossible for it to be anywhere near the bottom of the deck.  And even if it is on the bottom of the top quarter, it wouldn't affect the concentration of the remaining three at all, since they're shuffled independently into the second, third and fourth quarters of the deck respectively.

So far as concentration is concerned, the absolute worst case scenario is that you'll get two Epidemic cards in a row; one from the very bottom of its quarter, and the second from the very top of the next quarter.

So while yes, exactly where the first Epidemic occurs in the deck could have a significant effect on how the rest of the game plays out, it's not near as problematic as you've presented as long as the deck is prepared properly.


Doubleton Negating High-Card Points I play bridge casually and mostly have learned from other players (and occasionally from online resources). While playing recently another player suggested that I was counting my hand's points incorrectly and the justification was something I've never heard before.

The hand I was holding had 13 high-card points and a doubleton consisting of QJ. After my hand was revealed (I was dummy) we discussed the point-count of my hand and one player suggested that I should have only counted it as 11 points because the 1 point for the doubleton replaced the three points for the honors in that suit.

Is this a common point-counting technique and, if so, what is it's utility?

I've never heard of that method.  I don't think it's very common, nor do I think it's sensible.  A more common and better variant is to not count both distribution and high card points for a suit unless the honor is an A (for a singleton or doubleton) or a K (for a doubleton).  Thus, QJ doubleton would be worth 3 points but not 4.

The rationale for the rule that was suggested is no doubt that your honors are unprotected -- if the opponents play AK, your honors drop.  The reason this is wrong is that if you partner has at least one of the A, the K, or the 10 (which happens more than 2/3 of the time), your QJ doubleton becomes valuable again.  Even if partner is missing all those cards, you still have a decent chance of winning a trick with one of your honors provided you don't end up dummy, because the opponents will have to guess how to play the suit.  Another way to see that it is wrong to value the holding at 1 point is that QJ doubleton is clearly much better than xx doubleton, which would also be worth 1 point.

The more advanced answer is that the value of this holding depends strongly on what partner has and to a lesser extent on the contract.  Therefore, you should re-evaluate your hand during the bidding as you get more information about your partner's hand and the opponent's hands.  For instance, if partner seems to be reasonably strong in this suit, your QJ doubleton is probably valuable -- it could be worth 2 or even more tricks.  On the other hand, if your LHO seems to have all the cards in the suit, your QJ doubleton may only be valuable for the fact that it is a doubleton.


How does Blood Sun interact with Cavern of Souls? How does Blood Sun interact with Cavern of Souls? Does the interaction depend on the order in which the cards are played? If I use the cavern's second mana ability and I never chose a creature type, what happens? Does the Cavern produce mana that can't be spent on anything?

If Blood Sun was on the battlefield already when Cavern of Souls entered, then the third ability will produce mana that can't be spent on anything. Otherwise, the third ability will function as normal.

As of the 2017 Ixalan rules update*, Blood Moon's ability will stop Cavern of Souls' first ability from working as it enters the battlefield:

  614.12. Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. (See rules 614.1c–d.) Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.

If you never choose a creature type, then this affects Cavern of Souls third ability because it is linked to the first ability:

  Linked Abilities

    607.1. An object may have two abilities printed on it such that one of them causes actions to be taken or objects or players to be affected and the other one directly refers to those actions, objects, or players. If so, these two abilities are linked: the second refers only to actions that were taken or objects or players that were affected by the first, and not by any other ability.

    607.2. There are different kinds of linked abilities.

      607.2d If an object has an ability printed on it that causes a player to “choose a [value]” and an ability printed on it that refers to “the chosen [value],” “the last chosen [value],” or similar, those abilities are linked. The second ability refers only to a choice made as a result of the first ability.

When you produce mana with the third ability, the list of things it can be spent on is {creature spells of the chosen type}. That list happens to be empty, as you never chose a type, so there's nothing you can spend it on.

However, if Blood Sun only entered the battlefield after Cavern of Souls had; then it would not affect the third ability. Even though the Enters the Battlefield ability would be gone now, the creature type was already chosen; that choice is still "a choice made as a result of the first ability".

*Previous to the rules update, Blood Sun's ability wouldn't have effected Cavern of Souls until after it entered the battlefield, when the choice would have already been made.


Can I tap a creature in response to an instant? I am try to figure out Crypt Sliver's ability better. I was wondering if my opponent casts an instant to destroy target creature, during his or her turn, if I could respond by tapping a creature (perhaps the targeted creature if its untapped) to regenerate my creature before the spell is resolved?

Yes, you can tap activate the abilities of a permanent in response to an instant.

Yes, it will save your Sliver. To regenerate something is to give it a shield that will prevent (replace) destruction the next time it would be destroyed that turn.

The system governing when you can cast a spell and activate abilities is called "priority", and you will get priority at some point between when a spell is cast and when it resolves.

That means that you can activate abilities in response to a spell. Restriction to activating the ability apply as normal.

Equip, Loyalty abilities and any other ability that specifically mention they can only be activated "as a sorcery" cannot be activated in response to another spell or ability.
If the tap or untap symbol is in the activation cost, the creature must have been under your control since the start of your turn (must not have summoning sickness).
You must be able to pay the cost. (e.g. The creature cannot already be tapped if the ability has the tap symbol in its cost.)

Say you have

Crypt Sliver (henceforth known as "C")
Battering Sliver (some other sliver henceforth known as "B")
Armor Sliver (some other sliver henceforth known as "A")

Say your opponent casts Hero's Downfall targeting "B".

In response, you can cast instant spells and activate abilities, including the "{T}: Regenerate target Sliver." ability of any of your Slivers.

Say you activate "A"'s ability targeting "B". The stack now contains the ability that grants regeneration and Hero's Downfall. The ability that grants regeneration resolves first because it was added to the stack last. This gives a regeneration to "B".

  614.8. Regeneration is a destruction-replacement effect. The word “instead” doesn’t appear on the card but is implicit in the definition of regeneration. “Regenerate [permanent]” means “The next time [permanent] would be destroyed this turn, instead remove all damage marked on it and tap it. If it’s an attacking or blocking creature, remove it from combat.” Abilities that trigger from damage being dealt still trigger even if the permanent regenerates. See rule 701.12.

Next, Hero's Downfall resolves. It would destroy "B" but for the regeneration shield. Instead, "B" is tapped, it's removed from combat, and any marked damage is cleared.

Note: It would have been much better to use "B"'s "{T}: Regenerate target Sliver." ability targeting itself since it will end up tapped anyway, but you might not be able to if it's already tapped or if it has summoning sickness.


What's the lifetime of Wicked Wolf's +1/+1 counters? Do Wicked Wolf's +1/+1 counters stay after the turn is over?
It says:

  Sacrifice a food: Put a +1/+1 counter on Wicked Wolf. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it.

I was reading the rules and it said that you can sacrifice foods to add counters to it even when it is tapped, but will the counters stay?

The counters will stay; "until end of turn" refers to gaining indestructible.

Note that you cannot "put a +1/+1 counter on Wicked Wolf until end of turn". Putting a counter on a thing is a specific act that happens in one moment; it does not work in English (or in MTG rules) to give it a duration. If a counter were going to be temporary, it would need a separate instruction to remove that counter at the end of the turn, like this:

  Put a +1/+1 counter on Wicked Wolf. Remove it at the end of the turn".


With both Seafarers and Cities & Knights expansions, how many victory points should I play to? I've recently gotten Cities & Knights and plan to play it with my existing Seafarers of Catan expansion once I get the hang of it.  Looking through the manuals for both Seafarers of Catan and Catan: Cities & Knights, I can't find how many victory point should I play to when combining the expansions.

Both expansions can be played together, but it doesn't say how many victory points to play to.  I assume since Cities & Knights increases the number of victory points you play on the base settlers map, it would do the same for the Seafarers maps, but I can't find a reference for this.

When playing a Seafarers Scenario with Cities & Knights, do you play to the number of victory points for the scenario, or do you increase the number of victory points you play too?

The rules for Seafarers (pdf) do not address combining the two expansions. The rules for Cities and Knights (pdf) do address combining the two games (page 13), warning that only certain scenarios work well, and providing rules for things like how to treat ships as roads and how a knight can chase away the pirate. They do not, however, specify how many victory points to play to. The FAQ on combining the two expansions addresses a few questions, but not the victory point question.
There is a thread on BoardGameGeek about combining the two expansions, in which two separate people mention that the official rule is to add 2 victory points to the Seafarers scenario if you're playing with Cities and Knights. According to Daniel Johnson:

Also, Klaus Teuber's website has a FAQ at http://www.klausteuber.com/en/index.php?page=seefahrer_staedte_und_ritter.html with a few questions that might not be answered by the Almanac.
...
2. The victory point goal should be 2 more than in the Seafarers scenario.

Sadly, the site linked to seems to have been reorganized, and that link just redirects to the home page of catan.com. However, this seems to be the best answer that is available so far; to add two victory points to the conditions listed in the Seafarers scenario.
I have never tried this, as I tend to prefer not to combine expansions in games. I find that in general, combining too many expansions makes a game bog down too much. I love Seafarers, and find Cities and Knights nice too, but combining them would just add too many extra things to think about, and too many confusing interactions (like this one) that need to be answered in separate rules, FAQs, and the like.


Boggle: What is the dice configuration for Boggle in various languages? This is the dice configuration for the English Boggle:

Other variants and discussions concerning letter distributions for English can be found here:

The Boggle cube redesign and its effect on the difficulty of Boggle,
Boggle - Everything2.com,
Letter Distribution | BoardGameGeek,
Talk:Boggle (Wikipedia).

I am interested in the 16 dice configurations for also other languages (Spanish in particular) and I am unable to find it anywhere online.

Versions I have managed to find so far:

Czech 16 dice version,

English 25 dice version:

Spanish 25 dice version:

Italian 25 dice version:

This French page gives the following configuration for a 16 die Boggle version:

ETUKNO EVGTIN DECAMP IELRUW
EHIFSE RECALS ENTDOS OFXRIA
NAVEDZ EIOATA GLENYU BMAQJO
TLIBRA SPULTE AIMSOR ENHRIS

According to this French wikipedia article it is the configuration for the 'international' edition of Boggle.

I assume it is also the configuration for the Portugese 16-die version, since it is used for a Portugese Excel version of Boggle (see here).


Can you place two Buddha statues on the same turn? In Ghost Stories, players are Buddhist monks trying to stave off invading ghosts before yielding to their (nigh-inevitable) deaths. Each monk chooses one of two similar special abilities at the beginning of the game. The Blue Monk has the potential to make the same action twice in one turn - using a villager twice, or exorcizing ghosts twice.

The Buddhist Shrine, when you use it, lets you pick up a Buddha statue, which you can place on a future turn to instantly kill a ghost that arrives there. The rules seem to assume that you will only have one Buddha statue at a time, and only place one at a time, but the Blue Monk can easily pick up two statues in one turn.

Can a Blue Monk carrying two statues place both of them on the same turn, in different ghost locations, if they're standing at a corner of the village?

Yes, you can do this, even if you're not the blue monk (if, for example, you picked up the statues on different turns). From the rulebook, pages 6-7:

  It may be possible to place two Buddha’s in the same turn, when the Taoist stands on a corner tile and the two corresponding ghost spaces are free.