Carcassonne Flying Machines + Ferries Today we were playing Carcassonne with two of the mini expansions, Flying Machines and Ferries. The following situation occured:

The yellow player is launching one of his meeple from the bottom left corner and rolled a 3. This puts him on the ferry piece. The ferry is connecting the bottom and left sides of the lake.

The questions we had now, are these:

Which of the three road pieces would be considered valid placement for the meeple?
Can the yellow player move the ferry?

To answer the first half of the question:

Which of the three road pieces would be considered valid placements for the meeple?

(cited from the Complete Annotated Rules ver 7.4 pages 142-143 available here)
Alternatively, the player may place a follower as a flier on a flying machine symbol to get the follower in the game.[378][379]  The flying machine symbol has an arrow showing the direction (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) in which the follower will fly.  Now the player rolls the die.  The die result is the distance that the follower will fly (1 to 3 tiles in a straight line).
If possible, the follower must be placed on the resulting landscape tile representing the end of the flight.  The active player can choose which feature to place the follower on.  However, the following rules must be followed:

The follower must only be deployed to an unfinished[380] structure (road, city, or cloister). [381][382][383][384]

The follower may be placed on a feature that is unoccupied[385] or already occupied (either by one's own follower or an opposing follower).

The follower may not be placed on a field segment, even if there is not a farmer on the field already.

The follower may not be placed in a location where no landscape tile is located.

Further:

(cited from the Complete Annotated Rules ver 7.4 page 136)
The ferry connects the ends of the road to form a continuous road.  A road segment without a ferry on a lake is closed at this end.

According to your picture, at the time the road from the lake to the city is considered to be complete at the time and as such the flier could not be placed there.  The remaining two segments which each have the ferry attached are legal locations to put the flier.
(It is worth mentioning that if the die roll had instead been a 1 or a 2, that there would be no legal placement and the follower returned to your supply.  As it is pictured, I would have instead simply occupied the road instead of using the flying machine or I would have tried placing the flying machine somewhere else.)

Can the yellow player move the ferry?

(cited from the Complete Annotated Rules ver 7.4 page 137)
If a player places his landscape tile and extends a road that includes a ferry,[364] the player may move the ferry, but he or she is not required to do so.  The ferry must always connect 2 road ends.  The player may move the ferry such that it no longer connects to the road that has just been extended.  If there are two ferries on the road that was just extended, the player may only move the first ferry in the road - the ferry that is closest to the tile that was just placed.[365]

It continues to read:

The sequence of actions relating to lakes and ferries:

Place (lake) tile

Place follower

Place ferry (if new lake tile placed)[366]

Move ferries on other lakes (if placed tile extends a ferry road)[367]

Score features (if needed)

[364] The road must include a wooden ferry to allow movement of that ferry in this situation.  Thus if adding onto a road that ends at a lake without the wooden ferry connect, the ferry cannot be moved.
[366] The RGG version of the rules incorrectly adds "if he placed a follower on the road" here, even though there is no such stipulation in the body of the rules.
[367] The RGG version of the rules incorrectly adds the requirement "if he placed a follower on the road" here, even though there is no such stipulation in the body of the rules.

It is my understanding then that the only reason why you will ever move a ferrry is because of the road connected to the ferry extending through the addition of a landscape tile that connects to the road.  As the tile placed in the turn in question did not in fact extend the road connected to the lake, the ferry may not be moved.  Nowhere does it mention that having placed a follower on the road (but not extending the road) will allow the ferry to be moved.


How does Reputation Tile swapping work? After combat has finished and you have drawn between 1 and 5 Reputation Tiles, can you exchange any Reputation Tiles you have on your Reputation Track for any that you draw from the bag? So if I have a space with a 1 Reputation tile and I draw a 4 from the bag can I swap the 1 for the 4? And what happens to the 1 - does it go back in the bag or into a discard pile?

From the rulebook, page 21, emphasis mine:

  You may not draw more than five tiles. Choose one of the tiles and place it face down on your Reputation Track. Put the rest of the tiles back in the bag. If the track is full, you may return any of your Reputation Tiles (including the one you just drew or one from the track) in the bag. The tiles are drawn in the order the players entered the hex, so that the player who first entered the hex will draw all his tiles first.

So you can put the 1 back in the bag if your reputation track is full to free a space to place the 4.


What happens if you manifest a creature card with morph? If a player manifests a creature card with the morph ability, can that player pay the morph cost to turn it face up?

For example, if Anthony casts Formless Nurturing to manifest Abomination of Gudul, can he pay the morph cost of {2}{B}{G}{U} instead of the creature cost of {3}{B}{G}{U} to turn it face up?

Yes. If a creature card with Morph is manifested, the permanent it becomes may be flipped for either its creature cost or its morph cost. This is covered by the following rule introduced in Fate Reforged:

  701.31c If a card with morph is manifested, its controller may use the procedure described in rule 702.36d to turn a face-down permanent with morph face up rather than the procedure described above to turn a manifested permanent face up.

In your specific example, Anthony may choose to pay either {2}{B}{G}{U} or {3}{B}{G}{U} to flip Abomination of Gudul at any time he has priority.

For reference:

  702.36d Any time you have priority, you may turn a face-down permanent you control face up. This is a special action; it doesn’t use the stack (see rule 115). 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.


How do I combine regular Munchkin with Munchkin Zombies? I have Munchkin 1 & 2 and recently I was given Munchkin Zombies. At the instructions of the latter, it is said that I combine these three (any kind of Munchkin to be honest), but it doesn't say how.

How can I combine Munchkin 1 & 2 with Munchkin Zombies 1?

Shuffle them all together.

That is why this is a great gateway game but unfortunately it is also a little silly since so many cards have different backings when they are added to the core set. (Sorry, personal opinion)

You are a zombie - that is how you start, you have no powers when there is no mojo - you can discard a mojo to become a plain zombie.

Shuffle, deal.


Redeeming sets on Magic the Gathering Online I just got a full set from a treasure chest and was wondering if I need to open it to redeem it or if I need to leave the set in my Other Product section of MTGO.

In order to redeem the set you will need to open the full set.

However you can always try purchasing a Redemption Request for the set that you have before you open it, the request will stay in your Other Products until it can either be processed using the cards in your inventory, or two redemption attempts have failed.


Skip card points count against you? We are playing phase 10, and our rules say “To use, simply discard the skip card on your turn by placing it in front of the player you’ve chosen to skip instead of placing it on the discard pile.”
So what happens when player 1 lays a skip card in front of player 3, but player 2 goes out before player 3 can place that skip card on the discard pile for their turn? Do you count those points or has it already technically been played?

No, if you played/discarded the skip card on your turn then it is no longer in your hand; only cards that are in your hand count against you.
The rules say

Players total the cards left in their hands.

and

The winner of the hand scores zero. All remaining players score points against them, for cards still in their hands, as follow:

Note that there's really no difference between discarding a skip card on your turn and discarding any other card, in terms of how it affects you. The card is only placed in front of a specific player to remind them that their turn is getting skipped. Older versions of the rules don't say to do this. It doesn't matter if the card is physically in the discard pile or in front of a player; it has already been played/discarded by you.


Why Does Magic Use The "Paris Mulligan" Rule? In the early days, Magic had crazy, subpar mulligan rules: you could shuffle up and draw a new 7 if your hand had no lands or all lands, otherwise you were out of luck.  A long time ago the Paris Mulligan rule was introduced and it seems to have stuck.  If you don't like your hand, throw it back and draw 6.  If you don't like that one, try again drawing 5, and so on.

This seems like a pretty good rule and I didn't question it, but recently I've been playing "Duels of the Planeswalkers" on XBox (incidentally, if anyone else has that and wants to challenge me, let me know!).  The mulligan rule there is a little different.  You can throw your hand back and draw a new 7 once for free.  After that Paris rules are in force: every subsequent time you mulligan your hand size goes down by one.

It seems to me that this "lenient mulligan" rule is really good for the game.  Magic is a game with a large element of randomness from the shuffle.  Quite often players will draw a 7-card hand that's basically unplayable and have to throw it back, unless they're crazy gamblers with nothing left to lose.  If your opponent keeps and you mulligan to 6, you're at a significant disadvantage already.  If you have to mulligan to 5 or fewer, you'd better hope somebody up there likes you.

Does anyone know (or have an informed idea) why Magic retains a mulligan rule that allows unbalanced games to happen as often as they do?  It just feels like the XBox mulligan would allow players to play their decks "as they were meant to work" more often, and have to battle against long odds much less often.  What is the defence for the continued predominance in the Magic world of the Paris mulligan rule?

A few points:

"Good for the game" is drastically different if you are playing competitively or casually. Competitive Magic should encourage good deck building and make it as fair as possible to each player. Paris mulligan vs. lenient paris mulligan isn't going to drastically change the fairness between the two players at the table and adds more complexity to an otherwise already complex game.
Learning when to mulligan is actually a very useful skill in Magic. Making it easier to stomach doesn't necessarily make it a better mechanic. Designing (and testing) decks with 7, 6, 5 card hands is very important. Likewise when playing against particular decks. Some decks struggle against a 1 card advantage. Some decks shrug it off and keep pounding.
Real life Magic mulligan problems can often be solved by shuffling properly. People can get lazy in their shuffles and tournament nerves can make it worse. Take the time to adequately shuffle your deck each time you draw a hand. This is especially true after a mulligan: Simply cut-shuffling a few times will result in you drawing the exact same cards you just threw back.
When playing casually, I recommend players just draw back up to 7 after a mulligan. I would rather play against a deck's best chance than roll over someone with a 5 card start. Casual games should be fun more than fair; if the lenient paris mulligan is more fun for your play group then that is how you should play.


Do rounds progress independently from scenes? A crossfire card is drawn at the start of each round. When a scene is ended in the Crossfire mission, do rounds reset so the next player to go draws the crossfire, or are rounds independent from the boundaries of where scene endings fall?

Rounds are independent from where scenarios begin and end. In fact, when I play we are cognizant of that and will try to make sure a scenario finishes right before the next Crossfire card is drawn


How did a player survive 24 commander damage? I'm referring to this clip from streamer CovertGoBlue. He had pumped his commander (Illuna, Apex of Wishes mutated on top of a 2/2 Zombie token created by Field of the Dead) to 24/24 and then damaged the opponent. While he soon won, why didn't he win the instant after that attack? His commander had dealt 21 damage to the opponent.

According to the video title, this clip comes from a brawl game, not a commander game.
There's no commander damage in brawl


How many of each fish does Traders and Barbarians have? How many 1, 2, and 3 fish tiles are in the Traders and Barbarians expansion and Traders and Barbarians 5-6 Player extension? The most I've garnered from various web sites is that there are 20 fish tiles total in the base expansion and 14 more fish tiles in the extension, but I would like a breakdown.

According to the World of Catan Wiki:

Edit: According to this base game photo and this expansion photo  from BoardGameGeek:

Base game (Total 30 tokens):

29 Fish tokens:
  11 1-Fish
  10 2-Fish
  8 3-Fish
1 "Old Shoe" token

Expansion (Total 14 tokens):

14 Fish tokens:
  4 1-Fish
  5 2-Fish
  5 3-Fish


When Does a Player's Turn End We had an issue come up tonight playing TtR.  Nearing the end of the game one player claimed a route, including placing the trains and turning in the train cards, leaving that player with only 5 trains left.  That player still needed to claim a 6 train route.  Realizing the mistake, the player immediately called for a change in which route he was claiming.  This happened BEFORE the next player did anything with their turn.  Player in question feels the next player did not start their turn, so it was still his turn and could change his mind.  Two other players in the game felt the player's turn ended when he placed his trains and turned in the cards.  The player in question lost.  There is nothing in the rules.  In Monopoly, it is still your turn until the next player rolls the dice.  Since there is no clear movement like this, when does a player's turn end in Ticket to Ride?

As far as the game is concerned, you have ended your turn and the next player has been instructed to take theirs.[1] And since the rules say take-backsies are only allowed if... Wait a sec, there are no rules concerning take-backsies in Ticket to Ride. In fact, I've never see a game that allows take-backsies.
It doesn't mean you can't take back the move, but how that works is something your group will have to decide. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with allowing the change since nothing was done based on the move that was performed. But this is my opinion. What your group allows/tolerates is up your group's business.

One of the expansions has an optional second action you can take. So, in that game, you may not have ended your turn.


Can I discard a spell not drawn by Magick Shoppe? When you gain this card, immediately gain 2 Spells. Then discard 1 Spell and this card.

This wording implies that I can keep both Spells and discard a previously owned Spell, but it kind of breaks the idea of going shopping for spells and picking from a wide selection. Ruling?

The text is unambiguous.
Have in mind it's not worded "Then discard 1 of these Spells and this card." while it could be.
There is no relevant ruling, as this is not a rules issue.


In Scrabble if you use all your letters to make up a word, do you get an extra points? In Scrabble, if you are able to use all your letters to make a word, do you get
any extra points?

Yes, assuming you have a full hand of seven tiles. From the rules:

  BINGO! If you play seven tiles on a turn, it's a Bingo. You score a premium of 50 points after totaling your score for the turn.

If you have fewer than 7 tiles at the end of the game, playing them all doesn't get you this bonus.


Lethal damage while controlling Sower of Discord? I recently played a game of commander with a single opponent. When I played Sower of Discord, I selected my opponent and myself. I then swung with Serra Avatar. If damage is taken and the amount is enough to kill the opponent, who wins? Does anyone win?

You win.
Sower of Discord's third ability is a triggered ability, so the life loss taken by you would happen "long after" the game has already ended.

State-based actions are what causes a player to lose for having a non-positive life total.

704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:
704.5a If a player has 0 or less life, that player loses the game.

SBA are checked whenever a player is about to gain priority.

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 117, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no state-based actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

So your opponent loses the game before the triggered ability is even placed on the stack. The game ends immediately when that happens.

104.2a A player still in the game wins the game if that player’s opponents have all left the game. This happens immediately and overrides all effects that would preclude that player from winning the game.
104.1. A game ends immediately when a player wins, when the game is a draw, or when the game is restarted.

It doesn't matter that you would also have lost if the game had continued.


Can I control a planeswalker with Confiscate? Can I control a planeswalker with Confiscate? Is a planeswalker a permanent that can be the target of Confiscate?

Yes. All cards and tokens on the battlefield are permanents, including Planeswalkers.

110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a permanent as it’s moved to another zone by an effect or rule.
110.4. There are five permanent types: artifact, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker. Instant and sorcery cards can’t enter the battlefield and thus can’t be permanents. Some tribal cards can enter the battlefield and some can’t, depending on their other card types. See section 3, “Card Types.”


Interaction of Pyxis of Pandemonium with Altar of the Brood I play Pyxis of Pandemonium in a mill deck. I also run Undead Alchemist and Altar of the Brood. I understand that when Pyxis's 7-cost ability resolves, all relevant permanents enter at the same time, so does that mean the mill that would happen would only be a result of any Altars already on the field?

In addition, what of the zombies resulting from that mill? Would they be a separate resolution following the Pyxis ability or would they resolve during the Pyxis? Also would they then include any Altars and Pyxis that entered the battlefield by the ability of Pyxis?

If Altar of the Brood enters the battlefield at the same time as other permanents, it would trigger for each of those permanents.

  603.6a Enters-the-battlefield abilities trigger when a permanent enters the battlefield. These are written, “When [this object] enters the battlefield, . . . ” or “Whenever a [type] enters the battlefield, . . .” Each time an event puts one or more permanents onto the battlefield, all permanents on the battlefield (including the newcomers) are checked for any enters-the-battlefield triggers that match the event.

That means all of your Altars (both you already have on the battlefield and those entering it due to Pyxis of Pandemonium will trigger.

Basically what would happen: Pyxis's ability resolves, and a lot of permanents (possibly including other Altars) will enter the battlefield. There will now be a lot of triggers from all the Altars you have on the stack. They will start resolving one by one, sometimes triggering Undead Alchemist's ability (which then goes on stack and resolves). The zombies entering will also trigger all of the Altars and will be put on stack.


Changing player turn order In Belfort I find it confusing when turn order is changed.  Do you immediately swap turn markers during the placement phase?  Do the turns take effect immediately (still in the placement phase) or do you wait until the actions phase?

The changing of player order is accomplished via use of the Kings Camp. During Placement phase, players can place a worker in the Kings Camp. The first player to play a worker in the Kings Camp puts the worker on the space with the "1" on it. The second player puts their worker on the space with a "2". Each player may only place the maximum of 1 worker in the Kings Camp.

Resolution of player order then occurs in the next phase (as part of the Collection phase). The first player to place then gets to decide which player order they want to be. If they already control the number they wanted, they simply turn it over (to the gray side). Otherwise, they switch their crest with another player and then turn their crest over to the gray side. NOTE: the player whose crest was swapped remains with the colored side up.

If a second player had a worker in the Kings Camp, they now can swap with any player except the player who's crest has the colored side up (i.e. they can't claim the crest # from the player who went before them in the Kings Camp). This continues until all players in the Kings Camp have had an opportunity to act.

After the Collections phase ends, all players now turn their crests so that the colored side is facing up. Now the Action phase now begins. However the order of this phase is determined by the player order as shown on the crests. Thus the player with the crest #1 now acts first, taking all of their actions, followed by the player with crest #2, etc.

This new player order will also be in effect during the placement phase of the next round.


In Articulate would using Girl Band as the description for Girls Aloud violate the rules Could the good people of Stack Exchange settle an argument - "not so recent girl band" was used as a description for Girls Aloud. Does the fact girl is a word in both the clue and the question violate the rules, or is the fact it's clearly meant more generally in the clue (e.g. it could have just as easily been Sugababes) mean it's ok?

Thanks.

No, you may not give that clue. It's the word, not the exact meaning, that is disallowed. The example given in the Taboo rules is that if "baseball" is part of the answer then you may not use "base" or "ball" - and both of those words have much broader meanings than just their baseball meanings.


Is "create a token" the same as "put a token onto the battlefield" in Kaladesh? I'm looking at the new Kaladesh set, and there's the word "create", as in:

  Create two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens. (from Servo Exhibition)

Does that mean the same thing as:

  Put two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens onto the battlefield.

or is there some subtle difference I'm missing?

(The fact that the Oracle Text for Raise the Alarm now uses "create" tells me that it probably means the same thing, but I'm not sure.)

It's identical; it's just a new way of writing it introduced in Kaladesh. The release notes explain it:

“Create” is a new term for an old concept: the act of putting a token onto the battlefield.
[...]

To create a token, put it onto the battlefield under your control.

This new term doesn’t represent any functional change from tokens as you’ve known them. No rules for tokens or putting them onto the battlefield are changing other than the words used to present this game concept. The text of older cards that create tokens will be updated.


I dont stay in the US. Can I create and distribute my own version of Monopoly that is personalized for my city? I would like to change mostly the names, currency etc and make it relatable to my city here in Africa. Will the US Company sue me for distributing the game in my local town? Also i wanted to understand if the name "Monopoly" is a trade name or if its just the name of the game.

The vast majority of countries in the world are either signatories to the Berne Convention or the TRIPS Agreement, both of which ensure that copyright is protected in those jurisdictions. As such, what you're suggesting is a copyright violation and could definitely lead to legal difficulties for you.

Will the US Company sue me for distributing the game in my local town?

We can't tell you Hasbro will do about a small scale copyright violation. They certainly have taken legal action to protect their brand in the past though.

Also i wanted to understand if the name "Monopoly" is a trade name or if its just the name of the game.

Monopoly is a registered trade mark in both the US and the UK, and has been successfully defended in both jurisdictions (after a change to the primary legislation in the US). For other jurisdictions, you will probably need to do your own research.


Is sharing your ports with other players legal? Catan 5th edition.

Assuming I have a settlement on say a 2:1 sheep port.

Can I let others use my port in exchange for a small/no commission? If yes, are there rules governing when they might be allowed to do this? Are they restricted to use it only on my turn out can they also use my port on their own turn as well?

Is it mandatory for me to pocket a commission ( say 3 sheep for 1 ore, where I pocket the extra sheep)? Or may I let others use it on goodwill?

Ports/harbors enhance the maritime trade. This is a trade between one player and the bank. You can only use maritime trade during your turn. So it is not possible to offer port services to other players.

From the rules:

  You can also trade without the other players! During your turn, you can always trade at 4:1 by putting 4 identical resoirce cards back in their stack and taing a 1 resource card of your choice for it. If you have a settlement or city on a harbor, you can trade with the bank more favorably: at either 3:1 ratio or, in certain harbors, at 2:1 (trading resource type shown).

However, you can trade the turn of the player owning the port in several steps. Using your example (Player A wants to trade 3 sheep for an ore with player B who does not have an ore yet.

On his turn, Player B trades a wood (or an other non sheep/ore) for two sheep with player A.
Player B uses his port to trade two sheep for one ore.
Player B trades the ore for the sheep and the wood.

The effect is the same. It is only possible on the turn of the player owning the port


Merciless Eviction, how far does all go? Got Merciless Eviction from a booster, and it states that you can choose one and then exile all artifacts, creatures, enchantments or planeswalkers. Does this mean that all instances in graveyards and in players' decks actually get removed as well as cards on the battlefield?

No.
Unless the rules text specifically mentions cards in another zone, only permanents (cards on the battlefield and tokens) are affected by spells and effects.
Rule reference:

109.2. If a spell or ability uses a description of an object that includes a card type or subtype, but doesn't include the word "card," "spell," "source," or "scheme," it means a permanent of that card type or subtype on the battlefield.


Game With Space Battles This was a 4 player game ( I think tops ). Each player had their homeworld in their own galaxy separated in different sections on the board. You could attach boosters and rockets on your ships to make them more powerful. There were scouter ships and big battle ships because each ship could hold many cannons or no cannons at all in some cases. One of the ways to win was to destroy everybody but there was 1 more way to win that I cannot remember, I think it was to boost to the middle of the board.

There was also crystals on planets in your galaxy and each planet was connected with a blueish line between them you could travel. Playing certain cards would create additional paths that were permanent. You could also set up defending turrets on bases you've explored and captured. I remember you could require resources from worlds and things would end up in your scrapyard which was your own player board.

I believe there was battle with NPCs to capture small planets in a territory and all battles were a combination of dice rolling and card play.

The main board came in a few pieces but it was in a circularish with a center piece that may have been empty / space in the center. I'm not sure when this came out or what the title could have been. The board was a very unique piece of it I think.

I'm fairly certain it was not Star Wars, Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica.

Is it possible that you mean Exodus Proxima Centauri? https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122842/exodus-proxima-centauri

I never played this game but I once saw it at a fair.


When is a backgammon not a backgammon? So here is the basic idea: My opponent has put one of my checkers on the bar and begins bearing off.  A turn or two later, I get a lucky roll and move off the bar, putting one of my opponent's checkers on the bar.  Assuming I already had my home area covered, I continue to roll until I start bearing off, when my opponent encounters some serious bad luck in the rolling department and isn't able to move his checker off the bar until his last turn.  On my next roll I get lucky again, role doubles, and I'm done.

Since I have borne off all my checkers, and my opponent still has a checker in my home area, is this a backgammon, or has the fact that my opponent has borne off at least one checker make this only a cube?  I was always taught that cube is only when the loser has all their checkers in their home area and have borne off at least one checker, however another answer here, as well as wikipedia seem to indicate otherwise.

A backgammon occurs when you have borne off ALL your checkers, and BOTH of the following are true: 1) Your opponent has at least one checker in your home area and 2) Your opponent has borne off NO checkers.

In this situation, your opponent had ALREADY begun bearing off checkers when he got hit. So the fact that this checker was in your home board has no bearing on "backgammon." (And if he had gotten it out of your home board before you bore off, there would have been no gammon.)

The cube can operate with or without a gammon or backgammon, so you get the value of the cube in this instance. If you're playing "Jacoby Rule," you can't score a gammon or backgammon without the cube's being turned.


If Dragonlord Silumgar dies during combat, when does the creature he stole change control? I play Dragonlord Silumgar and take control of the only creature my opponent has.

On my next turn I swing with Silumgar and the other player's creature I took control of. That player casts Divine Verdict targeting Dragonlord Silumgar and destroys him.

Now, does the creature I took control of return to the other player before combat damage has been dealt, or at the end step?

The control over the creature changes immediately.

As the ability text on Dragonlord Silumgar states, the change of control effect ends as soon as you lose control of Silumgar, which also happens when Silumgar gets destroyed. A creature that changes control is removed from combat, which means, among others, that it will deal no more combat damage during that combat phase.

  506.4. A permanent is removed from combat if it leaves the battlefield, if its controller changes, [..] A creature that’s removed from combat stops being an attacking, blocking, blocked, and/or unblocked creature. [..]


Is it ever a good idea to research weapons development? In Axis & Allies (2nd Edition Rules), is it every a smart move to spend IPCs to research weapons development?

I usually forego doing any weapons development, but I play with others who spend 5 IPC every turn or who will turn to researching weapons development when their cause looks close to hopeless.

Ok, so I asked a question over at math.stackexchange.com to get some advise on how to analyze the various weapon development options (see How to analyze risk vs. reward for spending on research and development work). Mike Spivey suggested using a decision tree, which I had some familiarity with from past classes in probability and statistics. In short, the decision tree calculates the expected value for spending 0 through 30 IPC on a turn for weapons development research.

To construct this decision tree (see below), I made some assumptions:

Heavy bombers are the only weapons development "worth" anything. In short, any money spent that resulted in discovering a tech other than heavy bombers was considered wasted.
Discovering the heavy bombers tech is worth some amount of IPCs. Because this value may differ per player (that is, I may be willing to pay, say, 50 IPC to get heavy bombers while someone else may be willing to pay 100), I created an Excel spreadsheet where this "worth" could be plugged in and the expected value would be computed for spending 0 to 30 IPC on a turn for rolling for techs.

Here is the decision tree I constructed to compute the expected values for spending 0 to 30 IPC in a turn, meaning paying for 0 to 6 rolls of the die.

The expected value of one of the rolls is computed by adding together the value (the amount in the bottommost boxes) times the probability of getting there for a particular branch in the tree.  I presume the player has a purse of 30 IPC at the start of their turn.

For instance, if you do zero rolls (the far left branch) then you have an expected outcome of 100% * 30, or 30 IPC. In other words, you'll always end up with a purse of 30 IPC after the rolls. However, if you decide to spend money to do one roll then you have a ~2.75%  chance of getting Heavy Bombers (1/36). Doing so yields a purse of 25 + X, where X is the "worth" of having heavy bombers. There is ~97.25% chance that you will not get heavy bombers, in which case you have a purse of 25 IPC. So the expected value of one roll is 2.75% * (25 + X) + 97.25% * 25. Of course, the actual hard number depends on X, which is what heavy bombers is worth to you.

I created a very simple Excel spreadsheet that calculated all seven expected values for a given value of X, where X was a number in a particular cell. Using this spreadsheet I could play with X to see at what point it actually makes sense to roll for weapons development.

The chart below shows how the expected value changes as the value of X grows. The X-axis shows the expected outcome for zero to six rolls. The series show how the expected value changes as the value of the heavy bombers tech (X) increases. Here I show the expected value for six different values: 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, and 270.

Note how at a "worth" of 180, heavy bombers have the same expected value regardless of how many times you roll the die. If the value is lower, however, it makes sense to abstain from weapons development altogether; if its higher to you, spend every last penny you have on development!

Personally, I think heavy bombers are not worth this much. 180 IPC is the combined budget of 5-10 turns. It is equivalent to purchasing 12 standard bombers. Forgoing any sort of unit procurement for that many turns, just to get heavy bombers, is a suicidal thought.

In closing, keep in mind that this is a very simple model. It presumes heavy bombers are the only worthwhile tech. It does not factor in that if you discover other technologies, that the odds of discovering heavy bombers actually increase since if you roll an initial 6 you get to keep rolling for your discovered tech until you discover a new one. Also, the analysis presumes the player is in a vacuum of sorts and does not factor in that he must spend certain amounts of IPCs to hold his territories from the enemy, not to mention the monies needed to go on the offensive.


Interactions of multiple Parallel Lives If I have two Parallel Lives, and I have a Doomed Traveler that just died, how many Spirit tokens would I put into play?

Four.
For each instance of Parallel Lives (or Doubling Season) in play, double each instance of a token that would enter play.
Parallel Lives' effect is a replacement effect. It replaces "Put X creature tokens into play under your control" with "Put 2X creature tokens into play under your control."
Thus, two Parallel Lives' would quadruple tokens, three would be eight times, and four would be sixteen.  Effectively, for each token placement, replace every token with two tokens for each instance of Parallel Lives.
Appropriate comp rules:

614.5. A replacement effect doesn't invoke itself repeatedly; it gets only one opportunity to affect an event or any modified events that may replace it.
Example: A player controls two permanents, each with an ability that reads "If a creature you control would deal damage to a creature or player, it deals double that damage to that creature or player instead." A creature that normally deals 2 damage will deal 8 damage -- not just 4, and not an infinite amount.

EDIT: Relevant Oracle text mentioned by @AlexP:

9/22/2011 - If you control two Parallel Lives, then the number of tokens created is four times the original number. If you control three, then the number of tokens created is eight times the original number, and so on.


OZ fluxx Tin Woodman vs the Fighting Trees The "Tin Woodman" can chop down the "Fighting Trees", now the question is: is this ability played as an action (like playing one card) or a free action, my searches have been unable to find out, is this ability an action or a free action?

According to The Rules:

  Optional actions allowed by new Rules, Keepers, etc., may be performed at any point...

...during the turn sequence. This would include chopping down the Fighting Trees.


What are some common tactics to make runs against servers with unrezzed ICE in Netrunner? When I play as a runner, I tend to be apprehensive about unrezzed ICE unless I have a breaker of each type and a pile of credits. Naturally, neither of those things are in place early in the game, and some decks might not even be able to get all 3 breaker types out during the play (if they even exist in the deck).

So far, I've played the core Shaper deck a few times, as well as the core Criminal deck once (fun fact, the only way to break code gates in it is with Crypsis or bypass with Femme Fatale, both of which seem very expensive). I'm trying to keep the pool of cards small so it's less overwhelming to keep track of which cards do what. So, I'm sticking to the core set for the moment, although the corp decks I run against could have cards from any set. I am starting to look at decks that others have built, particularly some Shaper Dagger/Paintbrush decks (which is raising it's own set of questions, which I'll probably ask later).

So, early in the game when your rig is incomplete or non-existent and unrezzed ICE is out on the board, what are some common tactics in dealing with them? Is it usually "safe" to simply facecheck ICE early on?

Obviously it depends on the game-state, but here are some tips:

Be aware of how much money the Corp has. The less they have, the less dangerous the ICE they can afford to rez. (Also, don't forget that the more aggressively you run, the more they rez and the less money they have for other plans.)
Run on click one, especially against HB. Judge the threat of bioroids, which are cheap for how dangerous they are, but can be safely face-checked if you have clicks to spare.
Run with redundant cards, especially against Jinteki. You should already be aware of traps in Jinteki servers, but ICE can also hurt you. Related to this, if you have something you absolutely have to keep, get it on the table if you suspect damage from ICE. If you lose one card from a hand of five, of course you'll lose the one you could least afford to!
Run with a click (and two credits) to spare, especially against NBN (and some Weyland). Tags are a genuine threat, and Corps won't ever try to tag you without having something nasty round the corner. Scorched Earth is a game-defining card. Your last click should be reserved for clearing a tag until you know you won't need to.
Don't install any programs. Counter-intuitive, and kind of contradictory to installing cards you need, this makes you particularly resilient against program-trashing strategies. It's surprisingly viable to run very aggressively with no rig. Once you're being consistently kept out, slow down, build a rig and come back ready.
Forewarned is forearmed. Run HQ and R&D aggressively from the start. Missing an agenda is not a waste of a click at the start of the game. Learn from what you do see. You'll almost certainly see ICE at some point, so log it. Especially watch for out-of-faction ICE, or ICE that would be particularly punishing. (Obviously, this applies to more than just ICE.)


Chess puzzle: white to move In this chess puzzle, white is to move. Find a checkmate for black.

Either I understand it wrong, or your puzzle is flawed...

   White to move: 1. Qxg6+ Kh8 (forced) 2. Rh5+, and now either
 2... Nxh5 3. Qg8# or
 2... Bh6 3. Rxh6#
 There is no checkmate for black in these variations.


What are good standard tactics for Dominion? Googling reveals several sites listing standard tactics for Dominion. Let's collect ideas here, and discuss and judge them using the voting system.

One tactic per post please.

Remove Your Bad Cards

This involves slimming your deck down as small as possible by trashing or otherwise removing your starting Estates and Coppers (as well as any Curses you have ended up with).

Common cards that can enable this strategy (with set in parantheses):

Multiple Card Trash:

Chapel (B) - 4 cards
Forge (P) - Any number of cards from your hand
Steward (I) - 2 cards

Single Card Trash:

Apprentice (A)
Bishop (P)
Expand (P)
Loan (P)
Lookout (S)
Masquerade (I)
Moneylender (B)
Mine (B)
Remodel (B)
Salvager (S)
Trade Route (P)
Trading Post (I)
Transmute (A)
Upgrade (I)

Remove Cards From Play:

Island (S)
Native Village (S)

Removing your starting Copper and Estates will let you draw your more powerful cards that you've bought more often.


Do you need to reveal which specific tunnel you’re attempting to claim? In Ticket To Ride, if you want to claim a tunnel path, you go through the process of laying out your cards for the tunnel and drawing 3 cards to determine if you’re required to pay more cards. My question is: are you required to say which particular tunnel path you’re trying to claim, or do you only say the color and length of the tunnel, revealing which particular tunnel only once you’ve successfully claimed it (after drawing the 3 cards and paying up if needed)?

The rules don’t specifically mention this, but it seems like an important distinction to make. If the player fails to claim the tunnel, then his opponents either will or won’t have an additional advantage, depending on whether or not they know which tunnel it was (assuming there are multiple tunnels of the same length/color still available).

Yes, you need to indicate which tunnel you are attempting to claim.

This has been a somewhat contentious question among other players; because you are correct that the rulebook doesn't not directly address this. However, Alan Moon, the designer of the game, stated1 that you do reveal which route you are attempting.

Source:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/303859/how-claim-tunnel-definitive-answer/page/1

1 We only have the word of a BGG user that Alan Moon did indeed say this. But I did not see suggestions by the BGG population at large that it was a lie.


What is this four-player card game with only Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces? Deck dealt contains only Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Four players. Each player gives one card to his neighbour in each round. Each player tries to get pairs and gets rid of them. Once one person is finished, everyone tries to put his hand on the pile of cards (the cards not used in the deck, penalty cards) in the middle of the table.

The last one has to take the penalty card.

In my family (Austria), it is called "HAUSDEPP". So it lasts a little longer than EZEL ;)

We dont place a hand in the center, but have #numer_of_players-1 walnuts in the center of the table, and everyone needs to grab one, as soon as one player reaches 4 equals and grabs the first.

Apparently, the game is "well known" under that name. Could not find official rules, but several references. You can also take bottle caps in the center:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28527236@N05/3361355864


Which adventure should I start in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Card Game? I've heard I should start with Adventure B, but it's a really hard adventure! Is this really true? Or should I start with the seemingly easier Adventure 1?

To clarify: What is the "official" starting adventure in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous? Or is there an official one?

Paizo has actually admitted that Wrath of the Righteous ended up a little harder than intended. In particular, the B scenarios are considered by some to be harder than the #1 scenarios.
Fortunately, this is addressed in the FAQ:

Resolution: Make one or both of these changes only if you're looking for an easier time with Wrath B scenarios:
On the B and C henchman Tangle Trap, add the line "If defeated, you may immediately attempt to close the location this henchman came from."
Move some or all of the following cards from Set B and/or C to Set 1, and change their set indicators to 1: the barrier Arboreal Blight (B & C), the monster Carrion Golem (B & C), and 1 of the Demonic Horde barriers in B and/or the Demonic Horde barrier currently in C. Then move some or all of the following cards from Set 1 to Set B, and change their set indicators to B: the monster Accursed Priest and the barrier Poisoned Spiked Pit Trap.


How does Golos, Tireless Pilgrim interact with double-faced cards? From the Ixalan set, we received double faced cards with lands on the back.  I believe they count as all types on both sides while not on the field.  Therefore:

When Golos, Tireless Pilgrim activates his ETB and I pick Gold-Forge Garrison as my land, which side does it enter as?

You can't pick a double-faced card that is a land only on the back

Double-faced cards only count as their front face while not on the battlefield. From the rules on double-faced cards:

  711.4a While a double-faced card is outside the game, in a zone other than the battlefield, or on the battlefield with its front face up, it has only the characteristics of its front face.

You cannot choose Gold-Forge Garrison as your land, as its front face is not a land.

I think you're getting DFC rules mixed up with split cards, which do have the attributes of both halves while they're not being cast:

  708.4 In every zone except the stack, the characteristics of a split card are those of its two halves combined. This is a change from previous rules.

A double-faced card you chose would enter front face up

A double-faced card always enters with its front face up unless it enters “transformed”. If you choose a double-faced card that is a land on its front face, like Westvale Abbey, Golos would not put it onto the battlefield transformed, so you would get the front face.

  711.8 A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. If a spell or ability puts it onto the battlefield “transformed,” it enters the battlefield with its back face up.


Does Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar die to Fall of the Thran? With a Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar in play, a Fall of the Thran resolves. Is there a span of time between when lands are destroyed and lands exist in the graveyard where no lands exist? If not, what mechanism keeps Multani from being 0/0?

Multani does not die to Fall of the Thran, or any other mass land destruction effect, for two different reasons.

First, there is no such thing as being "between zones". When lands get destroyed, they go directly from the battlefield to the graveyard. So, there is never a time when Multani is a 0/0.

Second, dying due to having 0 toughness is a state based action, and those are never checked in the middle of a spell or ability resolving. So even if a similar effect caused Multani to briefly be a 0/0 in the middle of resolution, Multani would stay alive if it has more than 0 toughness after the effect is done resolving.


In what order are replacement effects chosen with respect to damage prevention? How are replacement effects handled in multiplayer? Here's a concrete example.

Player A, B, and C are seated around the table. It is Player A's turn.
Player A has a Furnace Of Rath (double all damage), and Hostility (prevent damage to opponents, and create 3/1 tokens instead) in play.
Player A casts Volcanic Fallout (2 damage to each creature and player).
Player B responds with Hallow (prevent all damage from spell, gain life equal to damage prevented).
No one has any more responses, no other permanents are in play.

What possible different life totals and 3/1 tokens are generated when the stack resolves?
Who gets to make the choice(s)?

Do the possibilities change if Player B or Player C are the active player? What are
the possible results?

One of the rulings for Furnace of Rath states:

  If multiple effects modify how damage will be dealt, the player who would be dealt damage or the controller of the creature that would be dealt damage chooses the order to apply the effects. For example, Mending Hands says, "Prevent the next 4 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn." Suppose a spell would deal 5 damage to a player who has cast Mending Hands targeting himself or herself. That player can either (a) prevent 4 damage first and then let Furnace of Rath double the remaining 1 damage, taking 2 damage, or (b) double the damage to 10 and then prevent 4 damage, taking 6 damage.

This ruling is the result of Comprehensive rule 616.1

  616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object's controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).

There are some caveats under rules 616.1a-e which specify when some effects must be applied first, but I don't see that they apply in this particular case.

So therefore, since each player and their creatures are taking damage, they each get to decide the order to apply the replacement effects. They decide how the damage will be applied to them and their creatures in APNAP order.

  101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the player seated to the active player's left) makes any choices required, followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the "Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order" rule.

There are three replacement effects. I will summarize:

Furnace of Wrath: Double the damage.
Hostility: Prevent damage to opponent, get 3/1 token for each 1 damage.
Hallow: Prevent all damage, gain life

This means there are six possible orders the replacement effects are applied. If Hallow is applied first, the order of the next two effects is irrelevant. Each player gets to choose the order the effects are applied, and they are applied simultaneously! So it doesn't really matter who's turn it is, although that might affect each player's choices.

Volcanic Fallout does 2 damage to each creature and each player. I will use Y as the number of creatures the selecting player controls. Each player chooses the order they are applied to themselves and their creatures, so here's the possible results for replacement effects:

123: 4 tokens if player B or C, 4Y life (4 + 4Y life if player A)
132: 0 tokens, 4 + 4Y life
213: 2 tokens if player B or C, 4Y life (4 + 4Y life if player A)
231: 2 tokens if player B or C, 2Y life (2 + 2Y life if player A)
312 or 321: 0 tokens, 2 + 2Y life

Player A, presumably, wants to maximize the number of tokens generated so will choose order 123. Player B will presumably want to minimize the number of tokens and maximize their life gain so will choose 132. Player C, presumably, doesn't want tokens and wants to minimize player B's life gain so will choose 312 or 321.

But if damage is applied simultaneously, we have contradictory results! What happens? The key is CR 616.1. Player A has no control over the order of replacement effects for the damage taken by his opponents, so unless, for some reason, Players B or C want him to get tokens, he won't. Even if Player A chooses order 123, that order only applies to the damage applied to Player A and the creatures controlled by Player A.

Therefore Player A should choose order 231, 312 or 321.

Basically it's as if Volcanic Fallout was split into three spells, and each player chooses the order that the damage applied to them and their creatures is prevented and doubled. The amount of life gained by player B will be determined by the number of creatures on the board, as this will affect everyone's decision.

Whew! I hope I interpreted this right! A real head-scratcher.


Crucible of Worlds and Burgeoning Crucible of Worlds says:

  You may play land cards from your graveyard.

Burgeoning says:

  Whenever an opponent plays a land, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.

So, if I have both on the battlefield, whenever one of my opponents plays a land, may a put a land from my graveyard onto the battlefield?

My guess is not, based on the wording of the cards.  Because Burgeoning is not allowing me to "play a land" it is having me "put a land onto the battlefield" which is a different action.

Is this interpretation correct?  (I'd rather it be the other way...)

You guessed right!  (Sorry.)  There are (at least) two reasons this combo doesn't work.

First: "Playing a land" is different than "putting a land card from your hand onto the battlefield."  They're not interchangeable.305.4  This means that the choice you can make for Burgeoning's effect is not changed by Crucible of Worlds.

Second: Crucible of Worlds doesn't affect the separation between the hand and the graveyard.  It simply allows you to take the "play a land" action with cards from an additional zone.  Since Burgeoning uses the phrase "a land card from your hand," the land that you choose cannot be in the graveyard.

  305.4 Effects may also allow players to “put” lands onto the battlefield. This isn’t the same as “playing a land” and doesn’t count as a land played during the current turn.


What was the largest flop in board game history? The history of videogames is full of games that failed to turn a profit. There are also a handful of games that are maligned by critics, and are regarded as flops. E.T. and Pacman are arguably some of the first examples of video game flops (not in total sales, but in lower than expected sales that resulted in a financial loss). Battlefield Earth, Diakatana, APB and others for the PC that missed release dates and when finally released did abysmal sales.

What is the largest flop in board game history? I know the stakes in board games are much smaller, with print runs in the low thousands usually, but surely there must be an example of a board game that had much lower than expected sales, and the publisher took a big loss.

I'm going to use a bit of lateral thinking to answer this question - since our site is Board Games: Stack Exchange but we spend about half our time here talking about card games, hopefully a trading card game is a valid answer.

The biggest ever "board/card game flop" that I can think of is Netrunner.  Given that Magic the Gathering had recently been such a surprise smash hit, getting Richard Garfield back into the studio to produce a sequel based on ultra-cool-at-the-time Cyberpunk trappings must have seemed like a guaranteed moneymaker.  If I remember correctly, the consensus among the gaming cognoscenti was that it was a better game mechanically and production-values-wise than Magic.

And yet Netrunner sold terribly, and was cancelled a couple of years later, before its second expansion could even be released; in 1999 Pyramid magazine named Netrunner as one of "The Millennium's Most Underrated Games".  Of course there's been a happy ending to the story since then, with it having been rereleased in the form on Android: Netrunner to critical acclaim and I hope moderate success, but as gaming flop stories go, I think you'll have a hard time finding a game with bigger expectations behind it than Netrunner doing quite as badly as Netrunner did.


multiple lines in spell abilities - why new paragraph sometimes I have a question regarding the structure of rules text in regards to abilities and effects.

Incinerate reads:

  Incinerate deals 3 damage to target creature or player. A creature dealt damage this way can't be regenerated this turn.

All of that text is on a single line.

Remand reads:

  Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, put it into its owner's hand instead of into that player's graveyard.

  Draw a card.

Here, much like Incinerate, we seem to have a Spell Ability that generates a one-shot effect as well as a continuous effect - both on a single line.

Remand differs, however, in that it seems to also generate a 2nd one-shot effect.

This question is perhaps pedantic, but I'm trying to reconcile the following.

Abilities generate one or more effects,

  609.1. An effect is something that happens in the game as a result of a spell or ability. When a spell, activated ability, or triggered ability resolves, it may create one or more one-shot or continuous effects.

...but sometimes these effects are listed in separate paragraphs, as if they were themselves abilities (like alternate costs etc.), and sometimes these effects are listed in one paragraph and are seemingly sharing a subject, or "linked" in some way.

I can find traces in the rules of linked abilities, but the sentences that begin each of the above cards' rules text seem more like linked-effects of a single ability (the spell ability), and I can't find anything mentioning that.

What does the extra paragraph/line break signify?  Why is it there sometimes and not there others?

According to the following, which calls out what paragraph breaks mean, Remand's 2nd paragraph could be interpreted (obviously incorrectly) as an "ability".

  112.2c An object may have multiple abilities. If the object is represented by a card, then aside from certain defined abilities that may be strung together on a single line (see rule 702, "Keyword Abilities"), each paragraph break in a card's text marks a separate ability.

Does Remand generate 2 effects or 3 upon resolving the spell ability?

The paragraph breaks are only there for clarity. You always do everything the card says, and there's nothing in the game that tries to count how many effects a spell had. That said, Wizards is pretty consistent about doing this for readability, I think in roughly the way you've noted.

Incinerate is all in one paragraph because it's all related; the second sentence wouldn't make any sense without the first. It has a one-shot effect (dealing damage) and also creates a related continuous effect (no regeneration) that lasts until the end of the turn.

Remand does two entirely separate things, so they split it up to make it read more easily. The first part is a one-shot effect (counter the spell) with a related replacement effect (if it's countered, return it to hand instead). The second part is another one-shot effect (draw a card). It would do exactly the same thing if the paragraph break were removed, though - and in fact, if it were the effect of an activated ability on a permanent instead of a spell on its own, it would presumably be written as one paragraph.

The instructions you follow while resolving an instant or sorcery are spell abilities (112.3a), so in combination with 112.2c, I believe that technically means that Incinerate has one spell ability and Remand has two. I can't think of anything in the rules or the game that actually cares about that fact, though. The rules really only even mention spell abilities in a couple places where they need a phrase to specify that something is part of resolving a spell, like the first part of Cipher (the part that lets you encode the spell). Splitting abilities on paragraph breaks is far more important on permanents, where they might be activated or triggered abilities that really need to be clearly delineated. For example, on Dragon Tempest, it's important that the two paragraphs are separate abilities!

Yes, linked abilities do exist, and two linked abilities are often put in multiple paragraphs (like Oblivion Ring). But the paragraph break isn't what makes something a linked ability. There are a variety of things that indicate a linked ability (e.g. "cards exiled with X") but only one mentions paragraph breaks and in fact requires them to be in the same paragraph to be linked (static abilities and triggered abilities in the same paragraph are linked). There's none of that going on here.


Church Warden vs Reed Hut in Round 14 I'm playing an online game of Agricola right now and we've just reached Round 14.

I have a 3-room Wooden Hut with 4 Family Members in it, and a Reed Hut containing my fifth token. I have also played the Church Warden.

Obviously I'd quite like to convert my Reed Hut person into a Family Member for 3 extra points this turn, but what is the interaction with the Church Warden?  I see at least three possibilities:

(1) I can use the Reed Hut person to carry out a Family Growth action at any time, at which point he converts to a newborn.  Would get +3 VP from the Church Warden.

(2) I can only use the Reed Hut person to carry out a Family Growth as my fifth action of the turn (in the unlikely event that Family Growth Without Room is still available then!), at which point he converts to newborn.  Would get +3 VP from the Church Warden.

(3) I can use a Family Member to carry out Family Growth at any time but this will immediately wipe out my Reed Hut person.  I won't get VP from the Church Warden and all I will have achieved is saving myself 1 Food.

Is anyone confident enough to offer a definitive ruling for this corner case?

The Unofficial Agricola Compendium doesn't mention this combination explicitly, but I think the answer is option 3 from your list.

Option 1 contradicts clarification B from the Reed Hut section, and both options 1 and 2 are contradicted by clarification E:

  Reed Hut (K138)
  ...
  B. The occupant of the Reed Hut is placed after your family members [ref]...
  ...
  E. You can move this person into your home with a family growth action later. That family growth action must be taken by another family member. [ref]

Both reference links are from the compendium, but seem to be broken.

For completeness, here's the ruling about newborns and the Church Warden in round 14.

  Church Warden (I227)
  ...
  B. A player who only gets a 5th family member in round 14 does not receive the bonus points, unless the new family member takes an action that round because of the Adoptive Parents.

The one thing I couldn't find was whether you'd get Church Warden points by taking an action with the Reed Hut person.  I would say that you can, based on the card's wording, as I think that although the Reed Hut person is not a 'family member', they are a 'person':

  At the end of the game, any player who performed actions with at least 5 people in round 14 receives 3 bonus points.


in Go, why does this setup make a false-eye? I am an absolute beginner, trying to learn.

Let's consider that board (from a tutorial at http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/):

It's black's turn to play. The topic is to avoid a false eye at D9.

According to the tutorial, if I play at E8, I do not have a false eye:

But, if I play anywhere else and white plays at E8, I do have a false eye:

I do not understand how having a white stone, at the diagonal, would make a false eye.
Can anyone explain?

As the right most eye does not have a solid chain it is still vulnerable.

This combined white's coverage on 8 means that when white takes E8 white will easily be able to move E9 into atari; after E8 white's next move would be F9, G8 or G9, which black cannot effectively block within the available two moves.


Discarding Coins in Splendor In Splendor there is a max coin limit of 10. If I exceed that limit by one, Would I need to return the most recently acquired coins, or could I return any in my hoard?

The rules:

  A player can never have more than 10 tokens at the end of
  their turn (including jokers). If this happens, they must return
  tokens until they only have 10 left. A player can return all or
  some of those they’ve just drawn.

You may return any of your tokens. The wording in the rules just confirms that the tokens you return can include any of the ones you just took.


What's the proper etiquette when a Euchre trick is earned? When a team has 3 tricks and the other scores a trick, you can throw in all the cards because you know the team of 3 tricks will get one point only. There is no sense playing out the final trick. I have played both ways and do not have a preference as long as everybody is consistent.

What's the best way to determine the "speed" at which the game is played?

When I used to play a lot of Euchre the side that didn't call trump would often toss in their cards after taking one trick conceding the rest of the tricks to the caller.

Sometimes all it would take is to show the left bower after the right had been played on the first trick.

Each group has to decide what they are comfortable with, but I think the more you play the faster you will get.


Boosting Sails, in Pirate's Cove We were playing the Days of Wonder game Pirate's Cove earlier this evening; it's a lot of fun but the rules aren't exactly watertight, and more than once I felt there was considerable ambiguity in how they should be interpreted. Here's one that I remember:

You play the battle card that gives you a bonus of +6 to your Sails, when your Sails are the weakest aspect of your ship. Does this bonus only extend as far as letting you fire first in combat, i.e. if you get hit on your sails a couple of times are you still out for the count? Or do you have to be hit six extra times to be eliminated? I suspect the answer is the former, but as I've narrowly lost the game at least once because my Sails got speedily knocked down despite receiving the bonus from this card, I'd love to find out that the latter was true!

Sails aren't strengthened; how would you track hits?

Because Blow me down! is a Battle card, it lasts only for the duration of the battle. Damage to any of the ship's sections is represented physically (e.g., moving a ring, turning a card sideways). Likewise, the results of repair/upgrade are represented physically and they require discarding a payment (e.g., gold, the Going on the account event card). If it made your sails temporarily able to take six more hits, how would that be represented without losing track of your sails' real strength?

(Note: This argument is weakened by the fact that the answer, "the same way as you'd track the legendary pirates' hull," is quite a reasonable counter-argument.)


Missile rule clarification "Any player (even those not involved in the battle) may discard
Missile(s) after dice are rolled, but before troops are removed.
For each Missile discarded in this way, the player can change
one die in the combat roll to an unmodifiable 6. A player may
discard multiple Missiles to change multiple dice per battle.

Players may discard Missiles in any order and may respond to
another player using a Missile by using a second (or more). If
two or more players are trying to play a Missile at the same time,
priority goes to the current player (attacker), then the defender,
then each player clockwise around the table from the attacker."

A few questions here really first, "unmodifiable 6" (1)does that mean it can only be a 6? and(2) does that prevent another missile from "modifying" it to something else?

I play with a group who has routinely messed this up either way. For instance a single die was changed from 6 to 1 and back again several times just last week. If it gets changed to a 6 it can't change back according to the rule I read. But I am only one at a table of 5. Any help in this would be appreciated.

Missiles change a die into a '6' only. A missile can never modify a die to anything else.

Perhaps a non-spoilerific example might clarify.

An attack roll on a Ammo Shortage territory is 6,5,1 versus a defense roll of 5,5. The defender's high die is reduced by 1 because of the Ammo Shortage's -1 modifier making their roll 5,4. The defender uses a missile on the '4' making it an unmodifable '6' (Ammo Shortage can no longer affect it), and the attacker loses 2 troops instead of the defender (6,5,1 vs 6,5 after missile instead of 6,5,1 vs 5,4 before missile)


Does Into the Wilds stack? The enchantment Into the Wilds allows a player to look at the top card of their library and play it if it's a land.

If I have 4 Into the Wilds in play, can I look at the top card four times, and, in theory, play 4 lands before my draw step?

They do stack, but only if you get the right cards on top of your library.

Into the Wilds has a triggered ability. At the beginning of your upkeep, four triggered abilities (one for each copy of Into the Wilds) are put on the stack, and we resolve then one at at time.

So if the first trigger resolving reveals a land card and you put it into play, then the next trigger will reveal a new card. But if it doesn't reveals a land card, then next ones will just reveal the same card again.

So they stack only so far as they keep revealing lands. As soon as one reveal a non land card, the remaining ones are just redundant (unless of course you somehow change the top card or your library before the next trigger resolves. There are a lot of cards that would allow you to do that).


What exactly does the "If you do [...]" clause on Mimic Vat check for? Mimic Vat has two abilities. The one I am concerned with is:

  Imprint — Whenever a nontoken creature dies, you may exile that card. If you do, return each other card exiled with Mimic Vat to its owner's graveyard.

Anthony controls his commander, Ezuri, Renegade Leader. He also controls Mimic Vat with Llanowar Elves imprinted. The following occurs:

Ezuri dies
Mimic Vat triggers and resolves
Anthony chooses to Exile Ezuri
Anthony replaces the event, "exile that card", by sending Ezuri to the Command zone

We are not done following Mimic Vat's instructions.

  If you do, return each other card exiled with Mimic Vat to its owner's graveyard.

This is where I get confused. I see two possible interpretations of "If you do":

"If you [exile that card], ..."
"If you [choose to exile that card], ..."

Which interpretation is correct? Have we satisfied the condition? Does Llanowar Elves end up in its owner's graveyard, or does it remain in exile?

With the current Commander rules, there is no longer the mentioned replacement effect. Instead, if the commander moves to the graveyard or exile, its owner can then move it to the command zone as a state-based action afterward [CR 903.9]. That simplifies this scenario considerably: now you choose to exile the commander, and you do exile the commander, and then it moves to the command zone afterward. The condition is satisfied, and the Llanowar Elves moves to the graveyard.

Under the previous Commander rules, this worked as follows:
The correct interpretation is the second option. You have satisfied the condition, and Llanowar Elves ends up in its owner's graveyard. This is because rule 117.12 says

Some spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities read, "[Do something]. If [a player] [does or doesn't], [effect]." or "[A player] may [do something]. If [that player] [does or doesn't], [effect]." The action [do something] is a cost, paid when the spell or ability resolves. The "If [a player] [does or doesn't]" clause checks whether the player chose to pay an optional cost or started to pay a mandatory cost, regardless of what events actually occurred.

in addition, rule 117.11 says

The actions performed when paying a cost may be modified by effects. Even if they are, meaning the actions that are performed don't match the actions that are called for, the cost has still been paid.

In this specific scenario, the cost of moving Ezuri to the exile zone is replaced by moving it to the command zone, but the cost still counts as paid.


Double the rent doubles the house value also in monopoly deal If there is one full set of blue card the rent value is 8m, with a house on it it is 11m.
If a player plays double the rent cards, what amount should be payed? 8+8+3m or 11+11m?

22m - the rent is the total you need to pay, house and property, not just the base value of the property with the houses added in afterwards.


What is the timing of "you may pay" abilities? With abilities that allow a player to pay for optional effects, is that payment made as the ability resolves or as it goes onto the stack?

If it's made as it resolves, do you have the opportunity to use mana abilities at that time to pay for it, or do you need to fill up your mana pool prior to the ability resolving?

A good example of a card that does this is Dromar, the Banisher. This has a triggered ability with the option to pay. How about with static abilities that give the opportunity to pay, such as Archangel of Tithes? When exactly do you have the opportunity to pay that?

112.2c Each paragraph break in a card’s text marks a separate ability.

  603.1. Triggered abilities begin with the word “when,” “whenever,” or “at.”

Dromar's triggered ability is all one ability. It resolves all at once. "If you do" is not a separate trigger phrase.

Dromar's ability triggers.
Dromar's ability resolves. Follow the instructions of the ability in order:

You may pay [cost]. You may also activate mana abilities at this time.
If you do, choose a color.
Return all creatures of that color to their owners' hands. (If you didn't choose a color because you didn't pay the cost, no creatures match.)

  116.1d A player may activate a mana ability whenever an effect asks for a mana payment (even in the middle of resolving an ability). No player gets priority in the middle of a resolving ability.

Archangel's static ability functions when you declare attackers or blockers.  In other words, you declare and pay at the same time.

You attack with X creatures and pay {X}.

No player gets priority in between when you declare and when you pay. This is covered by rules 508.1 through 508.3, which are too lengthy to quote, but you can find them in the Comprehensive Rules if you want a more detailed explanation.


Why are two different "Well" cards included in the new version of Agricola? In the updated Mayfair edition of Agricola, I found two Major Improvement cards for the Well. One costs three stone and one wood (as it did in the original version of the game), the other costs three stone and one clay. In other respects the cards were identical. In a scan through the rules, I could only find mention of the Well costing stone and wood, and no indication of when or how the "stone and clay" card should be used - though I did spot a picture of the "stone and clay" card in one of the illustrations.

What is the purpose of the two alternative versions of the Well, and how do I decide which one to use?

The Well that shows three Stone and one Clay is a misprint, which was packaged up with the rest of the cards. The other well was included separately from the rest of the cards as a replacement to fix it. So you should only use the one that is the same as the original version, that costs three Stone and one Wood.

Sources for this information:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1695453/2016-version-extra-well-major-improvement-card-box

and

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1587110/extra-well-card


Where can I find D4 dice that are truncated tetrahedrons? The points are truncated (so it technically has 8 sides). The die cannot come to rest on these small, truncated, sides, which have the opposite large side number printed on their face.

These seem like a much better design for D4s, does anyone know where I can get some?

Here's the sort of thing I'm talking about:

I'm looking for something less ornate and thus much cheaper ;)

Pick up a bag of Chessex Blank d4s. (It's product number CHX29301, ask your Favorite Local Game Store). Grab a Dremel or Power Sander and take off the points. Then sharpie (or carve) the numbers in by hand. That's going to be your cheap route, unless someone decides to kickstart a project like this. Certainly cheaper than buying 3d printed versions.


Can I activate an ability if that ability has no legal targets? If an opponent gains control of my turn using Cruel Entertainment could they spend all my mana on Phyrexian Reclamation if I don't have any creatures in my graveyard?

The rulings on Cruel Entertainment state:

While controlling another player, the controlling player makes all choices and decisions that the player being controlled is allowed to make or is told to make during that turn. This includes choices about what spells to cast or what abilities to activate, as well as any decisions called for by a triggered ability or anything else.
The controlling player can’t make any illegal decisions or illegal choices—that player can’t do anything that the player being controlled couldn’t do. The controlling player can’t make choices or decisions for that player that aren’t called for by the game rules or by any cards, permanents, spells, abilities, and so on.

So it comes down to whether, if it were a normal turn, the player could choose to activate Phrexian Reclamation's ability despite there being no legal targets.
Well, the comprehensive rules state that:

602.2. To activate an ability is to put it onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect. Only an object’s controller (or its owner, if it doesn’t have a controller) can activate its activated ability unless the object specifically says otherwise. Activating an ability follows the steps listed below, in order. If, at any point during the activation of an ability, a player is unable to comply with any of those steps, the activation is illegal; the game returns to the moment before that ability started to be activated (see rule 720, “Handling Illegal Actions”).

Then it goes on to say that as part of activating the ability, the ability's controller must choose all relevant targets. Thus, if there are no legal targets for the ability, it is illegal to activate the ability and the game reverts back to the point just before the controlling player tried to activate it.
However, suppose there is one legal target (i.e. creature in the active player's graveyard). Then the controlling player could activate the ability, paying the appropriate cost. Before it resolves, they can then activate the ability again, targeting the same creature (since it's a new instance of the ability, and the creature is still in the graveyard). They can then keep doing that as long as they have the mana/life to do so. Then, the topmost copy of the ability on the stack will resolve, putting that creature in the player's hand. All other copies of the ability will then try to resolve, but since their target is no longer legal, they will be countered with no effect - except that the mana and life used to pay the cost is gone.


Simic Manipulator and polymorphist's jest combo Once Polymorhist Jest is cast by an opponent during your attacking phase can a defending player also legally take full control over a target creature by tapping Simic Manipulator’s ability?

The only interaction between Polymorphic Jest and Simic Manipulator is that Polymorphic Jest can reduce a creature’s power, which reduces the number of counters you must remove from Simic in order to take control of it. So after Polymorphic Jest resolves; all the opponent’s creatures will be a 1/1 until end of turn, meaning that Simic can take control of one of them by removing just 1 counter.


How to count a word covering both triple and double word cells? In my game I managed to produce a word womanizers which covers both "double word" and "triple word" squares. Should I myltiply final count by 2, 3 or 6?

According to the rules:

  Premium Word Squares: The score for an entire word is doubled when one
  of its letters is placed on a pink square: it is tripled when one of
  its letters is placed on a red square. Include premiums for double or
  triple letter values, if any, before doubling or tripling the word
  score. If a word is formed that covers two premium word squares, the
  score is doubled and then re-doubled (4 times the letter count), or
  tripled and then re-tripled (9 times the letter count).* NOTE: the
  center square is a pink square, which doubles the score for the first
  word.

Which means:

If the word (or the extention of a word) covers two double word squares, the value of the word counts 4 times.
If the word (or the extention of a word) covers two tripple word squares, the value of the word counts 9 times.

Note 1: The 2x and 3x only count once, in the turn they are covered.

Note 2: On the standard board, there are no 2x and 3x fields in a single row or column, so it is not possible to have a 2x and a 3x in the same word. And yes the start field (2xword) is in line with (3xword) but there are 8 tiles needed so it is not possible in a single turn. If there was a board containing these fields it would be logical to asume that they count for 6. (


Gods have summon sickness? Let's say I have a god in the battlefield for more than one turn. And this turn I summon a creature that "completes" my devotion to the god. Can the god attack this turn? or it is affected by the summon sickness?

The god can attack the turn it becomes a creature, as long as you had it for more than 1 turn like you said. Summoning sickness only affects a creature if it entered the battlefield since the beginning of your turn, and it did not enter the battlefield upon meeting its devotion requirement, it simply changed to a creature. This won't trigger "when enters the battlefield" triggers either.

  302.6. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the “summoning sickness” rule.

The god creature HAS been under your control since the beginning of your turn; it just wasn't a creature before.


How to deal with B/G/W Abzan Warriors with many +1/+1 Counters? My dad has a B/W/G Abzan Warrior deck that build counters like crazy.  He has Ajani Pridemate and this card called Retribution of the Ancients. I play B/W life gain Vampires, and lost because of it.  Is there a way I could stop him from building counters, or using Retribution of the Ancients?

I wouldn't metagame too much against his deck, because doing so essentially makes your deck worse in a vacuum (i.e. worse against any other deck besides his).  You should want to improve your deck overall while simultaneously improving your match-up against him; or at least hold the quality of your deck constant while improving your match-up against him.  Doing so also manages to avoid the appearance of excessively targeting his deck (doing this in a casual setting can lead to hurt feelings or be interpreted as poor sportsmanship, plus you probably want your deck to be good against other opponents too).  Also, attempt to keep your vampire count and your creature count up so that your own proactive strategy doesn't get watered down (although not all of my advice follows this rule, because you are forced to make trade-offs between fulfilling your vampire requirements and meeting other needs, and there won't always be a perfect vampire card for any given need).

So, here are some options that can help counter his strategy to a degree.

Efficient creature removal, to destroy his largely buffed creatures.  Some financially inexpensive examples include Go For The Throat, Journey To Nowhere, Swords to Plowshares, Gatekeeper of Malakir.  These are good options because killing an Ajani Pridemate can be very disruptive to his game plan, and at the same time, a modest amount of creature removal is broadly useful against most decks.  These cards are reasonably efficient, since they only cost 1-2 mana, or give you bonus value in the case of Gatekeeper of Malakir.  Shriekmaw can kill a creature for 2 mana, with the upside that you can pay more to get a 3/2 Fear.  Consuming Vapors can kill 2 of his creatures while also feeding your life gain synergy.
Efficient enchantment removal, to get Retribution off the board.  War Priest of Thune can destroy enchantments for cheap while adding value.  This has merit because enchantment removal is usually dead against many decks, but War Priest of Thune is not a totally dead card when the opponent isn't playing enchantments.  Collective Effort is another enchantment destruction spell that has ways of being live even when the opponent doesn't control enchantments, and it has ways of delivering added value on top of the enchantment destruction.
Disruptive hand destruction.  Hymn to Tourach can potentially derail a strategy if it nabs key cards; and at the same time, it is very efficient.  There are other financially cheap, efficient discard spells, like Gerrard's Verdict and Duress.  But Hymn To Torach is best in that it can hit either half of the combo, doesn't give the opponent a choice in what to discard, can win games by causing mana screw, and it's broadly effective against any opponent.
A small number of flexible removal spells, Oblivion Rings (or Mortify).  This can address whichever is currently more pressing between enchantment and creature.  But it is less cost-efficient, so you should not play a lot of them.  Again, it's a big play if you're able to destroy an Ajani Pridemate or a Retribution of the Ancients.  But since these cards allow a broad range of targets, they are rarely dead cards against any other deck.  Or you could play Vindicate, which is the better and pricier version.
Efficient deathtouch vampires like Gifted Aetherborn or Vampire Nighthawk.  Gifted Aetherborn seems almost automatic.  Vampire Nighthawk feeds into your vampire synergy, and as a 2/3 with 3 abilities for 3 mana, it is reasonably efficient.  But the fact that it has deathtouch makes it capable of trading with a 15/15 Ajani Pridemate.  Basilisk Collar is another high quality card you can use to confer deathtouch to various creatures on your team so that several of your small creatures can trade with several of his large creatures.  If Basilisk Collar doesn't fit your budget, then Gorgon's Head is a lower quality card that serves the same purpose for financially cheaper.  However, be careful not to lower your creature count too far, and of course, playing equipment with a low creature count is not a good combo.
A powerful proactive strategy.  In other words, winning via a powerful offense, rather than a reactive defense.  This is good especially because it helps you beat any opponent, not just a particular deck.  I would have to see the match-up to surmise the most efficient path to ending the game.  However, assuming you can assemble a board full of small attackers, you might be able to represent a powerful attack using an offensive force multiplier like Sorin, Lord of Inistrad, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Sword of Light and Shadow, or Hero of Bladehold.  The Sorins and the Hero are all good at boosting the power of your whole team, making them more effective attackers.  The Sword of Light and Shadow (and other powerful equipment) is good at boosting one creature at a time, and then when that creature dies, boosting another one, therefore leading to many favorable trades.  Some other generally powerful vampires might include Vampire Nocturnus, Khalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Drana, Liberator of Malakir
Gas.  Gas, of course, being a term meaning a steady stream of playable cards in hand and other sorts of fuel.  Since Retribution of the Ancients stands the risk of killing all of your creatures, you need ways of drawing more cards, creating many creatures (and creature tokens), recurring creatures from the graveyard, and so on.  Bloodghast is a very good, recursive vampire (although it's no good for blocking, so it really just helps keep pressure on).  Bloodline Keeper is good vampire for creating many token creatures.  Skeletal Vampire is kind of a clunky card, but it's another vampire that generates tokens.  Lingering Souls is another good B/W token producer.  Phyrexian Arena is a decent card for providing a constant stream of card drawing.  Grave Titan is a non-vampire, but it is a prolific token generator.
Repeatable creature destruction like Royal Assassin, Intrepid Hero, Deathbringer Liege, Avatar of Woe, Gideon Jura, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Visara the Dreadful, Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, Spear of Heliod, or a Shriekmaw + Grim Harvest combo.  The virtue of repeatable creature destruction is that it can yield significant card advantage, disrupt a lot of the things his deck wants to do, and put you in a position to inevitably win the game.  A lot of these are unfortunately rather vulnerable to being destroyed by Retribution's ability (especially the 1/1's), and the card quality of most of these options is only medium.


Can you target a creature with my creatures enter the battlefield ability if they both enter the battlefield at the same time? I have a single copy of Meteor Golem in my sideboard to go against Show and Tell decks, but I am wondering if my opponent show and tells their Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, can I show my Meteor Golem, target it and destroy their Emrakul?

Yes, you can do this.

All creatures will enter the battlefield at the same time; but even if they didn't that wouldn't matter here. Meteor Golem's triggered ability is only put on the stack after the Show and Tell is finished fully resolving.

  603.3. Once an ability has triggered, its controller puts it on the stack as an object that’s not a card the next time a player would receive priority.

and

  116.3b The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.

So you do not need to choose targets for Meteor Golem's ability until Show and Tell is done resolving; and all chosen permanents are on the battlefield.

However, as pointed out by @John in a comment; all choices will be revealed simultaneously, so you cannot "respond" to your opponent's choice of Emrakul by choosing Meteor Golem. You would have already had to make your choice before you know your opponent's choice.

From the Gatherer rulings on Show and Tell:

  The current player chooses first, then each other player chooses in turn order. A player does not have to reveal the chosen card, so long as it is clear which card was chosen. After all choices are made, the cards are put onto the battlefield simultaneously.


Are the A-sides and B-sides of the wonder boards really balanced? I know the rules claim the sides are balanced and can be mixed in the same game, but I have my doubts. In general, the B-sides feel a little stronger to me, but it's sometimes hard to compare because they are so different. In most cases, it probably comes down to style of play and strategy to be used in a particular game. However at least in the case of Rhodes, the B-side seems to have an advantage. Here's a comparison:

Completing all wonders of A-side yields:

10 Victory points
2 Shields

Completing all wonders of B-side yields:

7 Victory points
2 Shields
7 Coins

Just looking at this alone, there is little difference between the benefits of the two sides. Since the 7 coins can be converted to 2.33 victory points, the A-side has only a very slight edge. However, there are some other things to consider which tip the scales in favor of the B-side:

3 coins are worth more than a victory point. At a minimum 3 coins equal a victory point, but coins are the tie-breaker, so 3 coins is greater than one victory point. Also, coins have more utility as they can be used to purchase other things, if desired.
The B-side gets a Shield bonus and 3 coins after building the first wonder, making it much easier to get a military victory at the end of the first Age, and the coins are very helpful early on. The A-side doesn't give any benefit for the first wonder (aside from the victory points, which don't help until the end of the game).
The A-side requires 2 Wood, 3 Clay and 4 Ore to build its three wonders, respectively. The B-side only requires 3 Stone and 4 Ore. The 3 Clay and 3 Stone are basically equivalent, so the B-side avoids needing two of a third resource (Wood).
The B-side only requires two turns to build all wonders, while the A-side requires three. With the extra action a B-side player could simply discard a card for three coins, giving it a total of 10 coins, which then puts its rewards ahead of the A-side as the 10 coins would give 3.33 victory points. But the B-side player also has the option to put an additional card into play, which could be worth much more than 3 coins.

All of this makes a strong case that the B-side of Rhodes is not balanced with the A-side. About the only advantage I can think of that the A-side has is for cards that count number of wonders built: Arena and Builder's Guild. Depending on the setup, Builder's Guild may not even be in the game. And, the B-side has the advantage of weakening that card for your neighbors. Arena is a nice card, but it's not a big loss, IMO. Does the A-side have some other advantage I'm missing?

I'm not sure if the A-side of Rhodes is underpowered or the B-side is overpowered, compared to other boards. When using the wonder cards to randomly determine which wonder board each player will play, we've taken to letting players choose the side they want to play because the consensus is some sides are just weaker than others.

Do any of the other boards exhibit similar imbalance? I haven't examined the others that closely.

From what my friends and I can ascertain, the board sides are not designed to be strictly balanced per se, but are instead designed to work best with different play strategies, or at least different skill levels.

In my experience, the "A" sides provide fewer opportunities for specialization than their "B" side couterparts. For example, if a player is playing with Rhodes, but fails to take advantage of the early military points and never plays a military card, that player would have probably been better off with side "A", which provides a few extra victory points and more closely matches the costs and benefits of the other wonders.

That said, it doesn't take much more than a basic working knowledge of the game to make the "B" sides more than pay for themselves, especially with a wonder as unbalanced as Rhodes (other wonders' "B" sides aren't quite as obviously better). In our games, even novice gamers rarely select side "A" after their first couple run-throughs, and when they do, it is rarely a winning strategy.


Looking for games with drop-in drop-out mechanic When playing video games, I often prefer games that are easy to drop in and drop out of.  Games like Team Fortress 2 where players are always respawning so the new player isn't set back, especially if most people are ignoring the goal.

With board games I sometimes see two problems:  Sometimes the game stretches on longer than one player can afford or care for (I usually have a 1 hour rule for myself).  Sometimes the game has already been started and another prospective player shows up.

In these circumstances it would be nice if a game carried on even though players might start or stop playing at any time.  Are there any board games out there with good drop-in drop-out mechanics?

Fluxx and a few other social card games allow players to join or leave at any time.


When can I cast Eternal Scourge from exile? Eternal Scourge is exiled. Can I cast Eternal Scourge from exile anytime I wish, or is the only opportunity to cast Eternal Scourge from exile during my main phase/s?

You can only cast Eternal Scourge from exile during your pre-combat or post-combat main phases if the stack is empty. (eg. with the same timing restrictions as casting it normally)

This is addressed specifically in Eternal Scourge's rulings:

  7/13/2016: You must follow the normal timing permissions and restrictions and pay its cost to cast Eternal Scourge from exile.

As for what "normal timing permissions and restrictions" means, look to the comprehensive rules for casting a creature spell:

  302.1. A player who has priority may cast a creature card from his or her hand during a main phase of his or her turn when the stack is empty. Casting a creature as a spell uses the stack. (See rule 601, “Casting Spells.”)

The ability text on Eternal Scourge just lets you substitute "from his or her hand" with "from exile", but nothing else about casting creatures changes.

As a side note, if you have any spells that would modify when you are able to cast creature spells (for example, Aluren) unless they specify "cast from your hand" those modifications would apply to Eternal Scourge as well.