texts: Attacking with Dimir Spybug and Nightveil Sprite

texts: Dimir Spybug gets a +1/+1 counter every time I surveil. Nightveil Sprite lets me surveil 1 when it attacks. If I swing with both, when do I surveil and when does Dimir Spybug get pumped, during or after combat? Thanks in advance for any clarification you may provide.


texts: What's this board game with an old radio and some country flags on it?

texts:
This is the boardgame in question. What is it?

The capital cities listed are Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, and Vienna. There's a number of spaces that say "Tune" and it appears to have an old AM radio in the center.


texts:
I'm not a Bridge player, but I have been reading about the game. This part of the rule surprises me. After the contract is closed, Dummy lays down his/her hand and thereafter doesn't take part in the game anymore.

From a game design perspective this looks silly. It excludes one of the players from the game. Dummy essentially becomes a spectator, which is certainly less fun. If it can't be avoided (e.g. making an incorrect accusation in Cluedo) then yeah, but Bridge offers an obvious way to keep Dummy in the game - just don't have Dummy drop their hand after bidding finishes and play normally.

What is the advantage of having Dummy?


texts:
Yesterday when I organized a part of my collection I noticed something odd. I especially looked at Flying Crane Technique and Ruhan of the Fomori.
Note how Flying Crane Technique's mana cost are {3}{U}{R}{W} and Ruhan of the Fomori has {1}{R}{W}{U}. In the oracle box of Ruhan the mana costs are already different to what the card shows and thus match the pattern of Flying Crane Technique.
Are colored mana costs of cards in any specific order? Was this not the case but they changed it after a specific set?


texts: What does an enemy do when the target of its movement is on a space with 3 models?

texts:
If the enemy wants to move toward a hero that is already on a node with 2 others, does it stop movement as if it has hit a wall / obstacle or as if there is no node to travel to?

Update:

Page 10 of the rules state

  Only three models can share a node at the same time, regardless of how many are friendly or enemy models. If there are already three models on a node and another model moves onto that node, the players must push one of the three models already on the node

So I suppose the enemy does move and then the players select which model gets pushed, however this doesn't answer the question of whether the players can elect to have an enemy be pushed.  Strictly speaking it must be an option but isn't stated that if possible a character should be pushed.  Enemies don't typically push each other but if there is a situation with 4 enemies all wanting to inhabit the same space, it breaks the 3 model rule.  A reasonable reading is probably that the enemy pushes the character if possible and otherwise an enemy, but I haven't found any ruling yet.


texts: Can you sell a house to cover cost of "street repairs"?

texts:
Last night, someone got the Community Chest "You are assessed for street repairs - $40 per house $115 per hotel"
He didn't have the money to pay. This led to a long argument.
Can he sell some of the houses to cover the cost of the repair?
And if he does, do the sold houses count in the calculation of $40 per house?


texts: How to bid and make a grand slam with 28 HCP between the partnership?

texts: The Common Game recently had this board in which the East-West pair usually ended up bidding and making a game contract of 3NT or 4 spades. Only 3 pairs of almost 1,000 bid and made grand slams; 42 pairs bid and made small slams. The question is, "How would you bid a slam with this hand?"


texts: Any ideas on how to get a 'sudden attack effect' in a board game?

texts:
Imagine a table top like game, where you have a map/battlefield you play on with your units moving turn based. Can you think about a way to make an illusion of a sudden attack? Sure, you could do something like your opponent has to leave the room while your turn or close his eyes but this is not a good solution.

For further explanation an example: player one is setting up an ambush. Player two would never walk into it with his units because he knows the players position.

The only way i see is moving your opponents attention to another point but easier said than done.


texts: MTG Trapjaw Tyrant vs Butcher of Malakir and tokens

texts:
I have a question about interaction between Trapjaw Tyrant's enrage ability and Butcher of Malakir's sacrifice ability. I was playing a multiplayer EDH game with friends and one of them had the Butcher of Malakir out and the other had the Trapjaw Tyrant. A spell was cast that dealt 3 damage to all creatures. Damage is dealt to the Trapjaw activating enrage, and tokens die triggering butcher's ability.
My thoughts were this:

The active player is the owner of the Trapjaw. On the stack, he chooses to exile the Butcher of Malakir. My thought was that he chooses the Butcher, then priority is passed to the owner of the Butcher of Malakir, his ability triggers and is put on the stack. As things resolve, everyone has to sacrifice due to the Butcher of Malakir, then the butcher is exiled under Trapjaw's enrage.

The active player thought that he can exile the Butcher prevent his ability to go on the stack so that he would not have to sacrifice from killing the tokens. We got into a debate and I became unsure about how everything resolved after that and wanted to clarify who was correct?


texts:
Yahtzee (aka "Nokia Dice") has the following rules:

The aim of the game is to score a maximum number of points. There are 13 hands on which you can get points, as well as a bonus. 5 dice are used in this game. Order of play for each hand is as follows.

Roll 1

Roll all 5 dice. You can keep any number of dice (0 to 5) and discard the rest. If you keep all the dice, omit roll 2 and 3.

Roll 2

Roll all the discarded dice. You can keep all 5 dice with you or discard any of them (just rolled, or pre-kept). If you keep all the dice, omit roll 3.

Roll 3

Roll all the remaining dice. You must take all the final 5 dice. You may not need all of them for scoring.

Scoring

There are 13 combinations for scoring. You must select a single combination for each hand. If you select a combination that you do not have, you get zero points for that hand. Once a combination is selected, it may not be selected again. A hand has no order, it does not matter which dice was acquired on which roll.

Combinations

a) 1s - Take the sum of all the 1s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
b) 2s - Take the sum of all the 2s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
c) 3s - Take the sum of all the 3s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
d) 4s - Take the sum of all the 4s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
e) 5s - Take the sum of all the 5s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
f) 6s - Take the sum of all the 6s in your final hand (other dice are ignored)
g) 3x - If you have a same dice thrice (or more), take the sum of all 5 dice
h) 4x - If you have a same dice four times (or more), take the sum of all 5 dice
i) 2+3 - If you have a full house - 3 of one number and 2 of the other, take a fixed score of 25, irrespective of the numbers used
j) Mini straight - If you have 1234 or 2345 or 3456, as 4 of the 5 dice, take a fixed score of 30
k) Full straight - If you have 12345 or 23456, take a fixed score of 40
l) Jackpot - If all your 5 dice are the same, take a fixed score of 50
m) Chance - Take the sum of all the dice, irrespective of what they are

Bonus

If the sum of points obtained from options a) to f) (over 6 different hands) exceeds 64, collect a bonus of 35 points

Question

I know how to calculate the probability of a combination occurring at any scenario. What confuses me is which combinations to take early in the game, and which ones later. Should I take big ones right at the beginning, or save them for the end. To what extent should 3x and 4x be preferred over the a) to f), due to the bonus, as well as possibility of greater 3x and 4x sums in the future. Any tips or algorithms would be helpful.


texts:
In a game of Xcom: The Board Game, a crisis card came up that said we needed to destroy two interceptors.

Can I destroy the interceptors from the reserves or do they need to be destroyed from the board?

Please note that I am not referring to the recruitment pool of units


texts: Thunderstone game taking too long (2 players)

texts:
On boardgamesgeek.com there is written that an average length of Thunderstone game (no expansions) is 60 minutes. But when I play it with my girlfriend we regularly play for more than 2 hours. I don't remember actually playing it for less than an hour. It is really too long and although we enjoy the game so much, we often prefer other games to Thunderstone because of the length. We also tend not to fight monsters we aren't sure we can beat. We do it only with the strongest ones so the other player don't receive so many points. So...

1) How long does it take you to play one game on average?

2) Is game shorter when played with more players than 2?

3) Do you have any recommendations on speeding the game up a little?

4) Do you fight monsters even if you can't win the battle? How often do you go to dungeon on average?


texts: In this Go game why does the territory appear as being completely captured

texts: I've been learning to play Go for the past few days, and in this game I'm playing I don't understand exactly how I captured the whole board in one move. These images show what happened.


texts: Can I cast an instant or activate an ability between "whenever a creature dies" triggers, if the creatures die at the same time?

texts:
Let's say I'm playing Dark Prophecy, which has an ability which states

  Whenever a creature you control dies, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.

and I have a Naturalize in my hand.

Suppose I'm attacked, and lose 2 creatures in combat. Because of the combat damage I'll be taking, I can't afford to lose 2 extra life, but I can lose 1, and want the card draw. Can I cast Naturalize after letting it trigger just once, and destroy my own Dark Prophecy before it kills me?


texts: How do I score this field in Carcassonne?

texts: Me and a friend were playing Carcassonne earlier and weren't quite sure how to score this field. Does it have 3 or 4 cities in it? Not sure if all 3 meet at the same point and therefore all 3 are in the field or not.


texts:
Consider the following combination of cards in the Standard Format of Magic the Gathering, encompassing Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, and Oath of the Gatewatch.

In Play: Zada, Hedron Grinder and Seeker of the Way

Player casts: Arcbond and Valorous Stance, each targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. Order is irrelevant.

Player Casts: Wild Slash targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder.

Result: Zada creates a copy of Arbond, Valorous Stance, and Wild Slash for each creature the Player Controls. Since Prowess has been triggered for Seeker of the Way thrice, Ferocious is satisfied for Wild Slash: Damage can't be prevented this turn. Each Creatures is Indestructible.

A cascading, near uninterruptable chain of Arcbond reflected creature damage will deal infinite damage to each player and creature on the battlefield. Seeker of the Way's lifelink will keep the Player alive until everything else is dead.

What can stop this combination from ending the game in a draw?


texts: In Monopoly, what happens if we run out of houses and/or hotels?

texts: How the game proceeds after all the properties, houses and hotels already bought?


texts: Backgammon best strategy for clearing my home

texts:
All my checkers are in my home, all my oponent's checkers are not in my home.

I roll the dice.

Assuming I can't take out checkers, what's my best strategy of advancing them? e.g. when this is my home and I roll a 2, should I move the 6 or the 3?

#| | | | | | |#
#|X| | |X| | |#

Since I'm not dependent on my opponent, I assume there's an optimal strategy I can use here. Is it "always move the highest numbers"?, "always move the lowest"?, something more complicated?

example

In the simple case I described above I know it's best to move the 6, since my chances of clearing out in the next round are higher:

option 1: move the 3

result:

#|X| | | | |X|#

chance of winning:

I have to get a 6 at least in one dice, so it's

# get a 6 in the first dice
1/6 +
# get 2-5 in the first dice, 6 in the second or double
4/6 * (1/6 + 1/6) +
# get 1 in the first dice, 6 in the second
1/6 * 1/6 =
# result:
0.416

option 2: move the 6

result:

#| | |X|X| | |#

chance of winning:

I have to get at least a 3,4:

# both dice get 3-6:
4/6 * 4/6 +
# double 2:
1/6 * 1/6
# result:
0.472

So close call, but it's better to move the 6.

But this is a simplified case, assuming I will either finish in the next round or the one after. What about when I have more than 2 checkers?


texts: How to measure the difficulty of a deal in Klondike-Solitaire?

texts:
I want to measure the difficulty of different layouts in Klondike-Solitaire.  My question is, what are the parameters that determine the difficulty of a layout?

By layout I mean the permutation of the cards.  The difficulty is also a matter of the rules (deal-1 or deal-3 cards from the stock to waste (talon), assume the rules are fixed on one of the options)
At Microsoft Solitaire Collection, there are 6 difficulty levels.  From my personal experience, the differences between the first 5 are minor compare to the huge difficulty difference between the second hardest (Master) and the hardest level (Grandmaster).
I thought about the following parameters:

Solvable?
number of moves till solution
number of undo's
time taken (for a given user/solver)


texts: Discarding a card in Phase 10 that allows the next player to go out

texts:
We are enjoying the game Phase 10 but are unsure about one rule. According to the rules, is it ok to discard a playable card allowing the next player to go out? This ends the hand and causes each other player to have remaining cards in hand scored against them.

Is this considered fair play, to lose a particular hand on purpose?


texts: At Triominos, when you decide to take from the well; but you have a tile that fits on your board, can you decide to use the tile that you already had and therefore skip the second (-5) and third (-5) time to pick from the well including the extra minus points (-10)  as punishment if you cannot place your third pick from the well?


texts: Why doesn't Rishkar, Peema Renegade have Support 2?

texts:
This bugs me.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade's Enter the Battlefield ability:

  When Rishkar, Peema Renegade enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.

Lead by Example spell text:

  Support 2. (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.)

Another creature with support: Saddleback Lagac

  When Saddleback Lagac enters the battlefield, support 2. (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two other target creatures.)

So, why isn't the text for Rishkar, Peema Renegade:

  When Rishkar, Peema Renegade enters the battlefield, support 2. (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two other target creatures.)

Huh?


texts: If a monster beats a hero in a battle with more than 2 physical damage, can they steal some of their items/omens? And what will the monster do with them, if they can do that, can they use them normally?


texts: Why is Pandemic's Bio-terrorist Challenge not recommended with five players?

texts:
The rules say the bio-terrorist challenge is for three and four player games and is explicitly not recommended for five players. Why is that? If it's a difficulty issue, couldn't the number of Epidemic cards be adjusted to compensate? As easy as it is to tweak the difficulty of Pandemic, it's hard to imagine there isn't some way to get it to work.

Am I missing something? Is there some reason it just can't work?


texts: How do I know what cards or sets are legal to play with?

texts: Can I mix older Magic the Gathering cards with cards from Magic 2015? If I have mainly Magic 2015 cards can I play my friends who mainly have older decks?


texts:
Wakanda, from the Marvel Munchkin DC expansion pack Mystic Mayhem, states that no monster can enter combat (via wandering monster, ect.). What exactly does this mean?

Can you use a replicate card, which states another monster appears, to add another monster to combat? Does it just mean you cannot play an actual monster card?


texts: How to speed up a game of Empire Builder?

texts: Are there any rules variants that I can use to speed up a game of Empire Builder?  I love playing Empire Builder, but the fact that it takes so long tends to put off some of my friends.


texts: In the Star Wars VCR board game, which die face has the Stormtrooper symbol?

texts:
In Star Wars: The Interactive Video Board Game (a.k.a. the VCR board game), the instructions say that the die has a Stormtrooper symbol on it:

  If you roll the Stormtrooper symbol, move the Stormtrooper forward three spaces.

Unfortunately, my used copy doesn't come with a die, so I'm not sure what the die looks like or which side has a Stormtrooper symbol. Can I use a regular d6? If so, which number should I use to indicate the Stormtrooper symbol.

And yes, I am playing this in 2017. The video is online, so I don't have to plug in a VCR player.


texts:
The trader card says:

  Village: In addition to your by, you may destroy 1 card to take any non-Hero card worth up to 2 cost more from the village.

Disease doesn't have a cost listed, so even if it can be destroyed it is somewhat ambiguous as to what you could acquire afterwards.  Does anyone know how this should be played?


texts: How can we interrupt the Witherbloom Apprentice and Chain of Smog combo? (STX spoilers)

texts:
A friend of mine was discussing the Witherbloom Apprentice and Chain of Smog combo (pictured below).
I was wondering if it would be easy to interrupt the combo easily, since Chain of Smog is a sorcery.
For example, if my opponent had Witherbloom Apprentice on the battlefield, and then cast Chain of Smog... me casting an instant spell like Pongify on Witherbloom Apprentice should negate the combo, correct?  Because Chain of Smog is a sorcery, my opponent wouldn't be able to put a copy of it on the stack while my removal spell was also on the stack.  Is that correct?
Also let's say I played a card with Split Second such as Krosan Grip, targeting a random artifact on the board that has nothing to do with the combo.  Since Split Second prevents any spells from being put on the stack, would this prevent my opponent's Chain of Smog from going on the stack?  Or would this not work, since the spell is being copied, and not being cast?


texts:
When is Ferocious checked?

  A. When casting begins
  B. When the spell resolves
  C. Both of the above
  D. It depends

I think the answer is D. If I understand correctly, Ferocious is a meaningless mechanic with zero rules baggage. I'm tempted to say that the word "Ferocious" could be removed from every card it is printed on, and the card would still function exactly the same. Mechanics like Scry, for example, do have an actual rules meaning.

Here are two example cards, and my guess on when the condition is checked:

I think Crater's Claw would check on resolution, because damage is dealt on resolution.
I think Dragon Grip would check on cast, because it can only be cast as though it had Flash if a certain restriction is met.


texts: Killing Avacyn Before She Transforms During Upkeep?

texts:
Long question short: Can I kill an un-transformed Archangel Avacyn during the upkeep she's due to flip, before she flips?

From how I understand it (copied by from a comment from murgatroid99):

A non-Angel creature dies. Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability goes on the stack.
Archangel Avacyn's triggered ability resolves, and creates a delayed      triggered ability.
At the beginning of the next upkeep, the delayed triggered ability goes on the stack.

Could I, for example, cast an instant like Lightning Axe at this point, and deal 5 damage to the currently 4/4 Avacyn? Thus preventing the transformation and the damage that is dealt on the flip?

Thanks for any help in advanced!


texts: As Italy, when is it profitable to attack France?

texts:
Some experience playing Italy has shown me that attacking France can be quite difficult. If France has a unit in Marseilles, the only way to break through is to bring a fleet to the Gulf of Lyon, which usually takes over a year (it takes a similar length of time to even get a shot at Spain). Since a unit in Piedmont can do little more than bounce in Marseilles, I generally forgo moving there at all, preferring to focus on my Eastern front as long as I'm not worried about a French Invasion.

Is this usually the best choice? As Italy, when should I attack France?


texts: Is Klak's Infernal Artifact affected by powers that move monsters?

texts:
Adventure 3 in the Castle Ravenloft Adventure book has this special rule for dealing with Klak's Artifact:

  Attacking Klak's Artifact will destroy it.  When attacking the artifact, treat the artifact as a Monster.

How does this work with powers that move monsters?  For example, Tide of Iron?

The artifact is represented by a 2x2 marker.  Markers don't typically move, but I didn't see any rule explicitly stating this.


texts: Which bidding system is assumed by default at BBO?

texts:
Which bidding system is assumed by default at Bridge Base Online (for humans)?

I asked in chat several times in different games (ten times I think) and nobody answered.

Is it Bridge base basic? Or maybe YACL?


texts: How long are trading cards expected to last?

texts:
I am trying to make my Pokémon cards last for as long as possible, so I am storing them in soft sleeves and then again in hard sleeves. These hard sleeves are kept in a shoebox.
I know that old paper always decays with time no matter what we do (just look at the original US Constitution even after spending a fortune trying to preserve it).
Does anyone know how long these cards are expected to last?
Edit: For clarity, the cards will not be played with, just stored.


texts: Does it have to be exactly five quarks to win?

texts:
I have sets in the detector like this:

Green Up / Red Up / Blue Charm
Anti-Green Anti-Up / Green Down
Anti-Red Anti-Charm / Red Strange

The rules say the player needs to "assemble a set of 5 quarks at the detector," but this set of 7 contains a winning set. Is this game considered a win, or did I need to contain the quarks more concisely?


texts: Ticket to ride, 1910: What are the big cities

texts: Earlier today I bought the 1910 expansion in the mobile version of Ticket to Ride. In the big cities variant, there's an achievement called "Urban Traveller", described by "Win while connecting all 7 Big Cities", but I haven't found an easily accessible list of what those are, so that's my question.


texts: Can you be sent to Reading Railroad without passing Go?

texts:
In Monopoly, there is a Chance card that reads :

Take a ride on the Reading. Advance token and if you pass Go, collect
$200

Given that there is no legal way that you could reach Reading Railroad from a Chance square without passing Go, why is it specified on the card?
Is there a historic rule that may have changed ?


texts: Do horcrux effects come into play before or after abilities?

texts:
After resolving the dark arts cards and villain effects, my character has 1hp. That same character has the "potions" proficiency, so if he plays a spell, ally, and item, any hero gains a hp and a zap.

My character does indeed have all three types of cards in his hand and will be playing all of them. However, the "diary" horcrux is still in play, which says "Each time a Hero plays an Ally, that Hero loses 1hp."

Does the horcrux effect come into play before my character's special ability? In other words, is my character stunned or do I survive this with 1hp? We are thinking that I am stunned.


texts: Why can't I win due to "missing multiplier"?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Why couldn't this hand win with ron?

Occasionally, I try to Ron, but get prompted that I cannot due to a "missing multiplier". What does this mean, and how can I avoid it?

Example: The marked tile was just discarded, but I can't Ron.

Edit: A quick explanation why this question is on-topic on this site instead of at gaming.stackexchange.com.

The exact term "no multiplier" is certainly specific to this implementation, but I believe the question applies to the game in general. This message does not appear to be a "bug" or "error message" but a valid notification that my hand is missing something. Maybe (I'm guessing here) it should just read "Your hand does not have enough yaku yet!" instead.


texts: Bridge guide for experienced Spades player?

texts:
I'm a long-time online Spades player who's never played a single hand of Bridge, but I'd love to give it a try sometimes. I've always felt that the games seem rather similar, so I was looking for something like a quick guide to Bridge for Spades players. There's a rather nasty lack of unique search words for this, so I figured I'd ask the community.

So basically, two questions:

Are Bridge and Spades similar enough that you can learn one from knowing the other?
Is there a guide that you can use to learn Bridge, speaking from someone with experience in Spades?


texts: What's a good strategy for Shadows over Camelot?

texts: What are viable strategies for trying to win Shadows over Camelot? Our group always seems to lose when we play. :(


texts: If I and another faction player have an alliance, how can we share our labs? Can we share not only labs but the chemists also? And what other advantages of making an alliance?


texts: When a general goes to the graveyard in EDH, does his casting counter reset in the command zone?

texts:
11) While a Commander is in the command zone, it may be cast. As an additional cost to cast a Commander from the command zone, its owner must pay {2} for each time it was previously cast from the command zone. (ie: it costs 6WW to cast for the third time.)

In a game last night someone tried to allow their commander to go to the graveyard as a method of resetting the casting penalty from the command zone.  While I agreed that the general could be brought back from the graveyard through normal means and cast without the penalty, I disagreed that allowing the general to go to the graveyard reset the counter in the command zone.

His argument was that it's in the graveyard, counters on a creature go away.  I argued the counter is not on the general at all, but rather is part of the state of the game/command zone.

Who was correct?


texts: Name of empire building game with negotiated alliances?

texts:
Over the summer I played a board game in which players took on the role of 19th(?) century European powers, and accumulated score by owning 'control points' in various geographic regions around the world. It was an extremely fun game mechanically, though the primary scoring mechanic of oppressing/eradicating indigenous populations was questionable.

Here are the salient features I remember from my one day of playing:

Game is divided into three 'wars', each of which has 5-6 rounds of player turns
At the start of each war, players bid to decide which 'alliance' each player is part of
Players send their armies or population abroad to colonize such areas North America, India, The German Confederation, etc. Also to seize (partial) control of these areas from players in the opposing alliance.
Combat is resolved by rolling two dice and subtracting the high number from the low, plus some modifiers for army size/navy/technology

I can remember all sorts of details, but the name escapes me. I think 'empire' was in there somewhere, and possibly 'war', but these are probably the least helpful terms when looking for obscure board games. Could anyone help me figure out the name of this game?

EDIT:

Additional info about the board and game pieces.

The board itself contained a map and several spaces for book-keeping. The map was dominated by Europe in the upper-right-hand corner, with the Americas to the left (divided into North America in brown, the Caribbean in purple, and South America in green). Africa, India, and the East-indies in boxes along the bottom.

Player pieces were tiles color coded by empire, but otherwise mostly the same. Infantry armies were represented by two crossed rifles superimposed on an early 1800s infantry hat (tall with a brim and a feather), Forts by a start fort, and navies by tallships; all were square any ~2 cm on a side. There were also  circular tokens for the control points, which showed the heraldic device of the empire in question and were maybe 1 cm in diameter.

There were also a large number of tiles players could buy, such as Ally Tiles ('Gauchos', 'Saxony', 'Cossacks'), Technology Tiles ('Logistics', 'Press-ganging', 'War office' ), and Company Tiles ('East-India Company', 'Baltic Company', 'Sugar Company'), which conferred various benefits. These were larger and bore pictures representing the tile's benefit.


texts:
In Day and Night when you are playing Day mystify rarely seems to be useful. Towards the start of the game time spent attempting to mystify squares will either be wasted when night swiftly reverses them, or gain you a square which doesn't end up being important.

Towards the end of the game, time spent trying to mystify a couple of key locations to force a win often results in night overwhelming you with quick tile turn-overs to gain their second temple, when it would have been better for you to simply concentrate on turning over night's tiles to prevent this directly.


texts:
While using Lindon Navigator to quest, does the forced effects trigger if and only if the quest card is discarded, or after every quest phase?
Lindon Navigator (Ally)

Lindon Navigator does not exhaust to commit to a quest, and can commit to quests while exhausted.
Forced: After resolving a quest to which Lindon Navigator was committed, either discard it from play or discard 1 card from your hand.

The key word being "resolving", I'm not sure which interpretation is the right one.


texts: Can You Directly Purchase A Hotel If All Houses Are Gone?

texts: Assuming all houses are already claimed, can a player purchase a hotel directly by paying the value of 5 houses in order to directly purchase a hotel?


texts: Which cards should I sleeve for The 7th Continent?

texts: I backed The 7th Continent on Kickstarter and received 200 card sleeves with my order. There are far more than 200 cards in the game. Which cards are worth sleeving?


texts: How do you calculate the likelihood of drawing certain cards in your opening hand?

texts:
In Magic, at the start of the game, you draw 7 cards. How would you calculate the likelihood of drawing a specific card in your opening hand?

For example, let's say I have a 60 card deck, and I'm running 4 Birds of Paradise. What is the percent chance that I will have at least one Bird in my opening hand?


texts: What are the drawbacks of an automatic card shuffler?

texts:
I've seen people specifically mention they use automatic shufflers with easily replaceable cards, but what about if it matters if the cards get damaged?

What are the drawbacks to using automatic shufflers? Does machine shuffling cause any more damage than would occur through a normal riffle shuffle? I've also seen some mention that automatic shufflers don't truly randomize the deck. Is this true?


texts: Are heavy bolters and storm bolters a viable anti-Imperial Guard option?

texts:
I am playing against an Imperial Guard player at 1500 pts. He has ~ 7 lascannon squads + an assault cannon squad. He just sits there and shoots at me while I try to advance.

I have since switched away from anything coming from reserve since my army would be eaten piece by piece. Instead I am going for a lot of troops:

3x Rhino (with Storm bolter) + 10-man Tactical squad (heavy bolter, flamer), sergeant has storm bolter
5-man Scout squad (all with combat blades)
10-man Assault squad
5-man Devastator Squad (3 lascannon, 1 heavy bolter)
Librarian in Terminator Armour (Avenger, Force Dome) + 5 Shooting Terminators
Dreadnought with Multi-melta
Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

Since most Imperial Guard troops have 5+ armour, any hit I make with the storm bolter or heavy bolter means death. Since each Rhino has a sergeant and a flamer guy, I can move 6" and still fire 4 shots (+template if I survive long enough). Is this a viable tactic to help my main force get into close combat action?


texts: What's the AP of Eldrad's Staff and Yreil's spear?

texts:
The 6th edition of 40K introduces AP for melee weapons.  Previously many melee weapons where listed as "Ignores Armor Saves".  Now they have an supposed to have Armor Penetration value just like ranged weapons.

Eldrad's weapon's rules are listed as:

  ...a melee weapon that wounds on a 2+ regardless of toughness and ignores armor saves

Yreil's weapon's rules are listed as:

  ...as a Witchblade that ignores armor saves

Nowhere in the rules are they called out as being power weapons, which according to the new edition would cause them to be classified as Unusual Power Weapons and get AP3.  They are also neither listed in the Master Rule Book appendix which is supposed to update all existing weapons for the new edition,

My inclination is to interpret them as written and say that no one can take armor saves against wounds caused by these weapons.

Is that the correct interpretation, or am I missing something in core rule book that would clarify the issue?


texts: Would Restore the Peace affect a hexproof creature?

texts:
Would restore the peace affect creatures with hexproof?

I have Archetype of Endurance (all creatures you control have hexproof, your opponent cannot have hexproof). I attack and then my opponent plays Restore the Peace, would this affect my creatures since they have hexproof?


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


texts: Can I spend Stimhack credits after accessing cards?

texts:
Stimhack gives me 9 credits that I have to spend during a run.

Cards like Clone Chip allow me to install programs during a run. I can obviously use my Stimhack credits to pay for these programs.

My question is, let's say I'd like to save my money for trashing cards in a server: Once I've accessed and trashed cards, is it too late to then spend what I have left using Clone Chip or similar?

My understanding is that Clone Chip (etc.) requires a paid ability window to install a program. There doesn't appear to be such a window between accessing cards and ending the run.

Am I forced to spend "spare" credits prior to accessing and guess how much I need to keep to pay for trashing, losing any that still remains?

An example to explain:

I Stimhack into a remote server. I break the only piece of ICE, leaving me with 6 Stimhack credits left. I suspect the only card in the server is a SanSan City Grid which I'd like to trash (and which would cost 5 to do so). I access the card and see that it's actually a Red Herrings and I trash it for one credit.

Option A: I still have 5 credits left so I spend them to install Crypsis from my heap using Clone Chip (rather than lose the 5 credits). Then the run ends.
Option B: My 5 credits are lost.


texts: In Broadside, what is your strategy for placing the shore guns and mines during setup?

texts:
I was recently reminded of the childhood naval game Broadside. As the defender, you get to place four shore guns and six mines during the setup phase, one on either side of two channels.

The channels are choke points that the attackers ships have to pass through to be able to win the game; one is close to the attacking fleet starting location and represents a direct path to the merchant ships they need to sink to win the game, while the other channel is out of their way.

The trick is that two of the guns are useless decoys, while the other two get a free shot on any ships that passes within range, and three of the mines can destroy an entire ship, while the other three are duds.

Does anyone who remembers this game ever develop a strategy for how to place these static defensive units, and if so, how did that change how you deployed your blue fleet once the game started?


texts: Does "[card name] or another [type]" require [card name] to be in the proper category?

texts:
Inspired by this other question, what happens if a card such as Ivy Lane Denizen has Nim Deathmantle equipped; so that it is not green?

When you play a green creature such as a Grizzly Bears, will Denizen's ability trigger? In other words, does "another green creature" stop working when Denizen is not itself a "green creature"?

Similarly, if you control a Conspiracy, with "Bear" named as the type, will Lantern Scout's ability trigger when it enters the battlefield? It says "Whenever Lantern Scout or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control..." Does this imply that Lantern Scout must be an Ally in order to trigger?

One more example, perhaps more simple than the others. You control Anafenza, the Foremost, and it has vigilance due to whatever. When you attack with it, are you still able to put a counter on "another target tapped creature you control"? Or does "another target tapped creature" imply that Anafenza must be tapped in order for there to be "another tapped" creature?

The only rule I can find dealing with this isn't helpful:

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

It doesn't define anything about the word "another"; or how to handle triggering events with an "or" in them.


texts: Dungeon petz 2 or 3 player game: how many cages should be replenished?

texts:
The rules has a separate passage for replenishing cages:

  If one of the two cage-buying action spaces is
  blocked by a neutral imp, you deal only 1 new cage, leaving one pit empty. Apparently, the neutral imp took one cage before you could get there.

This rule seems to assume that the board starts with one cage and 2 open slots every round: replenish one, leave one open.
What if the board starts with any other number of cages? We had rounds starting with both 3 and 2 cages. In these cages we would possibly not replenish? Or even remove a cage?


texts: How many steals runner do when accessing multiple agendas in the archives?

texts: The runner accesses cards in archives and there are 3 agendas in it. The corp's identity is the "Argus Security" (whenever the runner steals an agenda, he or she must either take 1 tag or suffer 2 meat damage). How many times the id's ability triggered? One or three?


texts: Can I ask for Wastes like basic lands in Limited?

texts: My question is about limited tournaments like draft or sealed. Can I ask for Wastes for my decks like basic lands?


texts: What are some examples of non-creature permanents?

texts: We are new to the game, I have been skipping over tokens for a few weeks here trying to get to know the game a little at a time. But I have finally starting diving in to the token aspect. I understand the creature tokens and how they work. But I found a card that say something about destroy non-creature permanent. What is a non-creature permanent? I am assuming it is like a non-creature token. What would be some examples of that?


texts: A trail card says I pass if I roll an even number and die if I roll a 1. What happens if I roll a 3 or 5?

texts:
In The Oregon Trail Card Game, there is a trail card that says the following:

  Roll an even number and ford the river. Roll a one and die by drowning.

What happens if I roll a 3 or a 5? Other cards have you lose a supply card on a failed roll, so I'm not sure if that happens here. But since it doesn't say, I'm wondering if there is any consequence.

This question was raised in a review of the game at Ars Technica.


texts:
I know the regular rules for UNO, but over the years, playing with different people, I hear all kinds of different rules. I've hear different rules when a specific card is played, you and/or everybody does something.

For example:

When someone plays any '5' card, everyone must slap the discard pile.
The last people to slap must draw 2 cards from the pile.

I've also heard different rules over the years but I can't seem to remember them. I don't think they were House Rules, more like "underground" rules that people over time have added and eventually were passed on through different people. I've heard different rules like switching cards in your hand with someone else, and etc. But I don't really know the specifics.

So I guess my real question is, what are some unique rules that are apart the standard UNO Rules? Maybe even rules that "you" personally have made up that have made your time playing UNO enjoyable?

Any information and/or help will be appreciated. Thanks!


texts: If I turn an artifact into any creature for that turn that has an enter the battlefield effect, such as Vizier of the Scorpion, do I amass one? what if the artifact entered the battlefield that turn?


texts: Can you take a mortgage on a property if the other properties of the same color have a house?

texts:
In Monopoly, suppose you own the brown color group ("Old Kent Road" and "Whitechapel Road"). Now further suppose you have built a single house on either one of these two properties (eg Old Kent Road).

Can you now take out a mortgage on the other (Whitechapel Road) one or do you have to sell the house (on Old Kent Road) first?


texts: How can I used double-faced cards in casual play without checklist cards?

texts:
I recently bought a "deck builders" kit that included, among other things, a Dark Ascension booster with Scorned Villager (a double-sided card) in it. It did not include a checklist card for me to use.

If I wanted to use this in tournament play, I realize I'd have to buy sleeves or acquire more checklists, but for now I'm mostly playing casual games. Are there any alternatives that would be "generally accepted" among M:TG players for using these cards? e.g. marking up the face of some land card to indicate that it's really my Scorned Villager?

Alternatively, is there a good place to get checklist cards that won't also result in getting more double-sided cards to go along with them?


texts: I lost my boomdagger enhanced by "…of doom". If I get it back, is it still enhanced?

texts:
I had to discard for 100g due to income tax being played. I discarded/sold my boomdagger which was enhanced by "…of doom".

Now would I get the dagger back with or without "…of doom"?


texts: When is three of a kind a valid set in Indian Rummy?

texts:
Is the following a valid set in Indian-Rummy when we're using three decks of cards? What about when we use two decks?
6♠ - 6♠ - joker


texts: In Small World, with berserk, do you roll reinforcement die before you nominate how many troops you're attacking with?

texts:
I.e., Do you:

Roll reinforcement die, and add troops to make the short fall?
Declare the number of troops you're using, and use the reinforcement die in an attempt to bolster your numbers?


texts: Can split second be used to block damage prevention effects?

texts: My friend plays a stupid amount of prevent all damage instants. If I attack, and use something with split second, can he still use his prevent all damage? Or with split second ending the stack, is he unable to do anything except block?


texts: If I pocket the queen and one opponent's C/m in the same shot, what happens?

texts: If I'm playing black and I pocket the queen and a white C/m in a single shot, do I get a chance to cover the queen? Or does the queen come back on the board? Or does the queen go to the opponent?


texts: In Euchre, can you call a misdeal with "No ace, no face, no trump"?

texts: In the game of Euchre I have been dealt a hand of nines and tens, none of which are trump.  May I declare a misdeal?  I have seen some groups play that the hand is redealt by the same dealer while other groups pass the dealer.  Is this an official rule or just a "house" rule?


texts: What does BREAD stand for while drafting?

texts:
I was just reading What are good strategies for booster drafts?, but as a new player I'm not familiar with a lot of jargon. The accepted answer mentions that BREAD is important when drafting:

  "BREAD" is key, but there is another technique that helps a lot in most Limited formats:

Could someone explain what is meant by BREAD in this context?


texts: If I cast a spell with X in its mana cost "without paying its mana cost" what is the value of X?

texts:
I want to use Omnispell Adept's ability

  2U, Tap: You may cast an instant or sorcery card from your hand without paying its mana cost.

to cast Entrancing Melody. Its effect reads

  Gain control of target creature with converted mana cost X.

What is X for the effect on that card?


texts: Checkers (Draughts) Capture all pieces in 1 move

texts: What moves would have to be played leading up to this, obviously both players would have to chip in, but how would this work? Is it even possible to get this board playing with actual rules?


texts: Does "Ingenious Jury-Rig" block cards from returning to their owners pile

texts:
When Ingenious Jury-Rig is revealed from the Dilemma Stack and placed into my core, does it then stop the effect of returning dilemmas (example Authenticate Artifacts )?

Or does it only prevent actions like The Manheim Effect?


texts: Are Kaladesh cards still Standard legal?

texts: I am still seeing deck recipes with cards from Kaladesh block like Botanical Sanctum and Metallic Mimic. I thought that Kaladesh block was rotating, are the cards still legal?


texts: Does the Well Stocked improvement apply to epidemic infections?

texts:
The Well Stocked infection card improvement says

  If there are 2 or more supply cubes on this city when this card is drawn, do not remove any supply cubes.

Does the card drawn from the bottom of the infection deck during the Infect step of an epidemic trigger this ability? Or is it only cards drawn from the top of the deck during the normal Infect phase at the end of a turn?


texts: What effect do Strionic Resonator and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger have together?

texts: If I have a Strionic Resonator and a Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger in play under my control, what will happen when I tap a land for mana, or when my opponent taps a land for mana?


texts: In Robinson Crusoe, what happens when you lose an item that acts as an invention prerequisite?

texts:
During the game Robinson Crusoe, you can "invent" items around camp, and some items act as prerequisites for others.  E.g. You cannot build a furnace without brick, and you cannot build a fireplace without fire.

Various events can destroy those items.  On page 16, of the Portal Edition rulebook it states that when flipping a item card over, that "If the Item had an additional effect, you should cancel it if possible.

Assuming that a player has already built the "furnace" invention, after building the necessary invention "brick", and that an event forces the player to destroy the invented brick invention (as a choice among those available), then does that mean the invented furnace is destroyed as well?  Or does the furnace remain available, even after the brick is removed, because it was already invented?


texts: How do you tell the rarity level (common, uncommon, rare) of old magic cards? (Alpha, beta, unlimited, revised)


texts: Does a card like Languish count as a damage-dealing sorcery?

texts: I was thinking of using Mark of Asylum to protect my creatures from cards like Languish, but does giving all creatures -4/-4 count as damage dealt in the same way, for instance, Swirling Sandstorm does?


texts: Can Strionic Resonator target Ink-Treader Nephilim's ability?

texts: What is the ruling on Strionic Resonator targeting Ink-Treader Nephilim's ability? It would copy all of the spells again, correct?


texts: Can damage be dealt to permanents that are not creatures or planeswalkers?

texts:
Cards like Lightning Bolt now say:

  Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.

Can Lightning Bolt target something that is not currently a creature or planeswalker?  For example, can I deal damage to an unanimated Mutavault so that it will die if it is animated later this turn?


texts: What happens when you can't move a piece on your turn

texts:
Most of the times, I can't leave a terrirtory because it's being defended. Therefor I'm not able to move.

So, what happens when you can't move an army on your turn? Do you allow your opponent the next move?


texts: Does changing control of an object update that object's timestamp?

texts:
This is a follow-up question to does gaining control of an aura gaining control of a permanent give me the permanent?

Player A has a creature.
Player B casts Control Magic on it. B controls the creature.
Player C also casts Control Magic on it. C controls the creature due to the enchantments' timestamps.
Player D casts Steal Enchantment on player B's Control Magic.

Does player D or C now control the creature now? Player C's Control Magic is more recent, but does B's Control Magic timestamp get updated because of Steal Enchantment?


texts: Can you sacrifice Corpse Hauler to its own ability and return it to the battlefield?

texts: The cost for Corpse Hauler's ability is to sacrifice it and pay 3 mana and then you can return target creature card from graveyard. Does that mean you can sacrifice the Corpse Hauler and then return it?


texts: What are the differences between the Battletech Master Rules and their Revised Edition?

texts:
What are the specific differences between the Battletech Master Rules and their Revised Edition?

I've just had a look at sarna.net, but couldn't find any answer (except for the differences in the contents section).


texts: Can you use a planeswalker ability even if the planeswaker doesn't have enough loyalty?

texts: For example Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Can I use the -8 ability even though she only has 4 loyalty? I understand it would kill her. Or would I have to get 8 loyalty first with the +1 ability?


texts: How to determine points costs of Tau unit enhancements?

texts:
I have been trying to figure out which are the points costs for the several enhancements to tau units, but there is not a single comprehensive list for that. Sometimes model stats sheets have 'may take a markerlight and target lock (15pts),' while some other sheets just say 'may take two items from the support systems list' without specifying any cost. Does it means that I get those items for free (included in the unit price)? Another confusing case is that of Crisis Battle Suits: they 'may take take up to three items from the ranged weapons and/or support systems lists.' For some units different ranged weapons cost different amounts of points, so it sounds strange that crisis suits have access to all of them at the same (zero) cost.

Apparently the older codex had a table on page 95 with all the costs, but I only have access to the 2015 edition and such table is gone.

Am I correct in assuming that such enhancements cost points when a cost is mentioned but are otherwise free?


texts: Is the Commander strictly fixed during deck construction?

texts:
I expect that the answer to the question in the title is "yes", but I'm not sure where the official rules for Commander deck construction are.

Is a chosen Commander a property of the deck, or is it possible for a single Commander deck to contain multiple possible Commanders and to choose before each game (as long as each meets the general requirements such as colour identity)?


texts: What happens if the target of equipping dies?

texts:
My opponent plays the living weapon Lashwrithe. Afterwards he spends 4 life to equip it to his Vault Skirge. While doing this, I kill his Vault Skirge with a Galvanic Blast.

What I think will happen:

He loses 4 life
His Germ token under the living weapon dies
His Vault Skirge dies
His Lashwrithe lies around as equipment ready for the next try
I smile

Is this correct? Does equipping use the stack to enable such a maneuver? And does the Germ token really die if equipping goes ill, or does the equipping never take place because it has no valid target and the Germ lives happily ever after?

Edit: Changed the damage spell to Galvanic Blast, because I obviously require an instant and not a sorcery. Thx for pointing that one out.


texts: I can't catch how DJ Fenris should be played in terms of the game rules? I just bring all 13 g-mod ids, put them somewhere on the table and choose one of them when the Fenris is installed? Or this ids should be part of the deck?


texts: Counter heavy proactive control with a distruption-based aggro deck in the Legacy format

texts:
[Feel free to edit my question, English is not my primary language]

Legacy is a format with a pretty high number of cards available. It is arguably the format with the most possible different strategies possible. Being an eternal format with very low card renewing, I think it is fair to say that decks with names like Canadian Treshold, Reanimator, Jund, StoneBlade(any) or Burn are not subject to drastic, heavy changes or stop being played anymore in the next years. That is why I feel secure posting a question which will contain specific deck names, assuming their strategies will never change. A discard will always be a discard, land destruction won't radically change from what it is now and so on.

What brings me here is this: How to handle massive proactive control (discard, land-destruction and creature killing (mostly by eddict effect)). Yes, I'm talking about Pox (or SmallPox, if you prefer).

As a distruption-based aggro deck, if I don't run counter-Magic at all because I'm purely creature based, how should I handle the adventure of the game? Somewhat playing as Maverick would be relevant.

I know the importance of a sideboard. I know cards like Loxodon smiter and Sigarda, Host of Herons exists. I know the mechanics my decks can use to disrupt my opponent (activating knight Knight of the reliquary in response to a Wasteland targeting my Savannah and so on).

I want to know how to counter the goal of proactive control deck, which is to get me out of fuel and making me unable to come back from it. Should I keep my cards in my hand, creating a card advantage, should I try to go "all-in" and play as much creature as possible, trying to race his life points before he's able to completely shutdown my battlefield with his many warth effects and eddict effects. Maybe it would be preferable to do the smart plays, playing just the cards that respond to his moves, hoping each turns he will not rip my hand, leaving me unable to keep advantage on the game.

Mostly by my own, little experience, I tend to rush him, overwhelm his board, making him unable to deal with the number of creatures I'm able to put into play. Sometimes it works, sometimes he warth and I have no other choices than wait for my slow and painfull death, unable to comeback. That is not a strategy, it is trying to overrun the problem.

I want to know how to deal with the problem.
Thanks in advance.


texts: How do we use Maginos's staff if it's a blunt melee weapon?

texts:
If Mice and Mystic's Maginos is equipped with Maginos' Staff, it is normally a ranged weapon with +1 to ranged attacks.  Paired with Maginos's battle value of 1, it seems for normal ranged attacks we should roll 2 dice.

However, Maginos' Staff states:

  When attacking a figure that is on the same space as this mouse, this staff is considered a blunt melee weapon.

What does that mean for attacks made by Maginos against enemies in the same space?  Does he roll 2 dice?  Or does he only roll 1 die, because the staff only grants +1 ranged but not +1 melee?


texts: What is the Purpose of a "Ducking" Play In Bridge?

texts:
Sometimes I will have Axx in a key suit, opposite dummy's holdings of Kxxxx. In such situations, I was taught to make a "ducking" play by playing a low card from both sides, instead of playing an A or K, and letting the opponents win with a Q or J or some other card.

One advantage of this is that I save my A and K for later rounds. So is the ducking play like a "hold up?" Or is it used for a "throw in" situation where I want to put an opponent on lead?

What are the benefits of ducking? Are there times when this would be a bad play?


texts: Responding to a dynamic value trigger which could change the same value

texts:
If I attack with a Thundering Djinn, and in response to its trigger with something that would draw me additional cards (let’s say +2 cards and have only drawn your Draw step prior.).

Will the damage of the Djinn’s ability increase by the new drawn amount? Or will it only use the value of card prior to the trigger going on the stack?


texts: Where can I find raw data for DCI sanctioned Constructed tournaments?

texts:
It is often easier to answer questions about Magic experimentally instead of mathematically. Anyone can see the final standing of a deck in a tournament and find out who piloted it. Here is an example. However, there is some data I cannot find:

Mulligans taken
Games played
Games on the play
Final life totals per game

Does this data exist for DCI sanctioned Constructed tournaments? If so, where can I find it?

MTGGoldfish has information, but they only appear to cover Limited formats. Here is their page covering Khans of Tarkir.


texts: How many jokers can you use in a run or set in Rummikub?

texts: Can I use two jokers in the same run or set or are you only allowed to use one joker per set or run?


texts: Monopoly strategy if every unowned property goes to auction immediately?

texts:
My friends and I have tried playing with a house rule where every property, no matter who lands on it, immediately goes to auction for all players.

We have been using a Vickrey auction so that the turns don't take forever (we all just write down a number, and the highest bid pays the second highest bid's price for the property).

Obviously, without this rule in place, it is advantageous to simply buy every property you land on. But, with the auctions, each property is going for more than listed value and we quickly run out of cash. What sort of strategies should I employ with this house rule?


texts: My god, they've taken the ... that I've got to get to!

texts:
There's a card "I've got to get to the...", which requires a player get to a building before searching again. There's another card "My god, they've taken the..." which takes over a building.

When a building is taken over, a player can't enter it.

What happens if a player needs to get to a building, but that building has been taken over? Can the player never search again, or does one of the effects go away?


texts: Does Athreos with Deathrender let me keep the same creature?

texts:
I control Athreos, God of Passage, and Deathrender equipped to a nontoken creature.

I sacrifice the creature equipped with Deathrender to Victimize, and the opponent does not pay 3 life for Athreos's effect, so the creature will go back to my hand.

Can I choose that same creature card to return to the battlefield with Deathrender's ability?


texts: Is "meaningful decisions per hour" a good measure for how fun a game might be?

texts:
People quickly grow out of games like Candy Land and Tic-Tac-Toe. They don't have any meaningful decisions to make. Then there are games like Monopoly, that have a few meaningful decisions to make, but those decisions are spread out over a game that will take a long time to end. Even popular gateway games like Settlers of Catan can have very long game lengths (2-3 hours), with most of the important decisions made at the start of the game, and only a few later (who to steal from, or what/who to trade with). On the other hand, Dominion has very short game times, with very compact meaningful decisions.

If you examine the top ranked games, would you find that the majority of them have a high meaningful decisions per hour density?

Does too great a density decrease the fun of a game because of analysis paralysis?


texts:
The Pathmaker Initiate ability can target creatures with power 2 or less. Can this creature then have its power grow beyond 2 through other means, while still keeping the benefits from the Pathmaker Initiate?

For instance can I target the Graceful Cat and then turn it into an unblockable 3/3 this turn?


texts: Stateful equipment use for Red Sign of Shudde M'ell in Arkham Horror

texts:
In Arkham Horror, players may use the spell Red Sign of Shudde M'ell to lower a monster's toughness by 1 (to a minimum of 1) until the end of this combat.  In the event that an investigator has multiple copies of that spell (let's say 5) against a monster with a high enough toughness (almost like the Dunwich Horror), can that investigator cast all those spells over multiple combat rounds to effectively reduce that monster's toughness to the minimum of 1?  Or reduce all of its abilities to absolutely nothing?

I believe that both effects of that spell are stateful and affects the monster's traits waaaay after the spells are cast and subsequently released, but I just want to make sure.

The Arkham Horror rules state that:

  A spell or weapon that gives you a bonus (even one that says it lasts until the end of combat) only continues to give you the bonus while you devote the required number of hands to it.

Normally, for spells like Withering, which gives a combat bonus of three (3), that means the bonus goes away the next combat round when you've released the spell.  However, the Red Sign of Shudde M'ell does not provide any combat bonus whatsoever.  Just like the item "Shotgun", which confers a raw 6 ability distinct from its combat bonus, the spell has an effect outside of its normal combat bonus of zero (0).

So after successfully casting and exhausting two of those spell cards, the player can release both hands and then successfully cast another two copies of that particular spell to both reduce the toughness of a monster by four blood drops and remove four of either "Overwhelming X", "Endless", "Physical Immunity", "Physical Resistance", "Magical Resistance", and "Ambush" at the end of two combat rounds.

To recap: Can you release the hands used for a successfully cast Red Sign of Shudde M'ell after a combat round without forfeiting the spell's benefits in later combat rounds?

OT: Terse recapitulation is hard.


texts: Can you play 99 relentless rats in commander?

texts: Just a silly question, can you run 99 Relentless Rats in commander? Maybe that and Sphinx of the Chimes and some juicy commander that plays off creature types.


texts: Can the same ability be triggered multiple times?

texts:
Can abilities be triggered multiple times as long as the cost is paid?  The Physical Training asset card has a free triggered ability that says

  Spend 1 resource: You get +1 Willpower for this skill test

Does this mean I can spend 3 resource to get +3 willpower?

Can I assume that as long as abilities don't say "once per ___" that I can figure they can be used as long as the cost can be paid right then and there?


texts: Confused by Magic the Gathering Arena trigger damage order (Revenge of Ravens)

texts:
I was playing MTG Arena and I had a funny situation where my opponent had Revenge of Ravens (ROR). I attacked with a bunch of monsters and soon after died.
Something similar happens in this video at 0:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdqIZbeDss
and I was puzzled at the order in which damage was assigned. Here's what the text says:

Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, that creature's controller loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

So I would have thought that the damage due to the attacks would be assigned before the effects of ROR.
But instead the opposite happened and as a result I died before my opponent like in the video. It felt very counter-intuitive to me given the text... because I died before any of my attacks ever even "happened".
My question is are all enchantments related to combat triggered like this (ie the effects of the trigger are assigned before the combat damage is assigned). Or are there some enchantments whose effects are assigned after combat damage? Thanks.


texts: How can I hold pieces in place between turns?

texts:
Let's say you want to play a longish board game over the course of several days. For many games this is a fairly unwise idea that entails a bunch of problems. Among them: People are going to bump into the table. Cats are going to sit on the board. The pieces are going to get shifted around. How can you prevent this? How can you make those pieces stay put?

The issue arose for me because I'm designing a game intended to be played in this long-term fashion. But I think the issue has applications for lots of gamers, especially those who play with their families, partners, or housemates. So I'd like to explore options that can be applied to existing games, either by modifying the original game elements or by building a custom set with readily available materials.

This question is concerned with fixing pieces or tokens in place on a single flat board, to the exclusion of the many other complications that this style of play will create depending on the game. However, most any game played in this manner is going to involve some recordkeeping between sessions, so when you get back to the game you'll know whose turn it is or what phase you're in the middle of. You could preserve a board's state by folding it into this recordkeeping task, either by writing down all the necessary information or by taking a picture of the board so you can reconstruct it later. Besides being no fun at all, this method could be prohibitively complex for games with enough objects on the board. So this is a last resort (or, not really a solution).

There are travel editions of many games that fix pieces in place either with magnets or with friction (popping little plastic pieces into a plastic frame). I don't know how I'd create or modify a game board to use either of these methods, short of painting a Pandemic map onto a baking sheet. There might be a more practical method I haven't thought of.

The other idea that occurred to me was adhesive. For certain types of game piece, an attractive option is replacing them with tabbie-sized Post-it notes. For certain other types of game piece (like player tokens that have to be visibly unique and moved around often) sticky tabs don't work as well.

What's the best method for preserving the physical state of pieces on a game board?


texts: What is the difference between the AU and UK editions of Cards Against Humanity

texts:
I just got the UK set and need to know which cards to add.  Would it be easier to tell me what cards are new/different to add?  Or what cards are identical to remove.
I want to know the difference between UK and AU editions.   Not the difference between UK and US editions


texts: Where do Delayed Triggered Abilities live?

texts:
From the rules I gather that Delayed Triggered Abilities are objects on the stack,

112.1b. An ability can be an activated or triggered ability on the stack. This kind of ability is an object. (See section 6, “Spells, Abilities, and Effects.”)

but because these delayed triggered abilities need not trigger until their trigger condition is met, it stands to reason that they remain on the stack until they can resolve. However, this seems to be in conflict with the continuation of the game after a player receives priority, which happens as soon as all players pass on priority and the stack is empty:

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

So then, my question is: where do Delayed Triggered Abilities live, and if the answer is indeed 'on the stack', what is the resolution to the apparent conflict with continuing the game?


texts: Examples of Magic Cards that use rule 115.2c

texts:
What are some examples of cards in Magic the Gather that use the rule 115.2c?

  115.2c Some effects allow a player to take an action at a later time, usually to end a continuous effect or to stop a delayed triggered
  ability from triggering. Doing so is a special action. A player can
  take such an action any time they have priority, unless that effect
  specifies another timing restriction, for as long as the effect allows
  it.


texts: Is the cast keyword triggered from the graveyard?

texts: If Conduit of Ruin or any other card states that when it is cast, does this mean that it can trigger when it returns from the battlefield? Such as Conduit of ruin is in the graveyard, I return it to the battlefield from the graveyard. Does the first ability trigger and allow me to search my library for an eldrazi card 7 or more to place on top of my library?


texts: Can Uncommon Magic cards be sold individually for a profit?

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

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


texts: Does "next" in line-of-succession mean "first remaining" in line-of-succession?

texts:
The rules for BSG state that "Should the President or Admiral be revealed as a Cylon, the next player in the line of succession for that title claims it".

However, because of the Administration ability, it's possible someone could be president who already isn't first in line of sucession.  If that person turns out to be a Cylon, do you really look at the "next" person on the line of succession list, or do you go back to the top and look for the "first" available person?


texts: Can I play Ticket to Ride on my iPad against people using Ticket to Ride pocket?

texts: I want to play against my friends on Ticket to Ride but I wondering if I can if they are on their iPhones and I am on my iPad?


texts:
I've introduced bridge to a small group of coworkers at a few jobs now, and I still don't really know the right way to do it. I'm hoping to get some feedback/suggestions on my approach, so I'll just describe it here; feel free to suggest improvements in whatever part(s) you like.

I usually just do minibridge for at least the first lesson, because the initial investment to figure out bidding is too high and un-fun, and I'm pretty set on that plan. But what hands do we play, what do I try to teach? In the past I've used shuffled hands, and that seems to go okay, but it's easy to get bogged down in higher-level stuff they're not really ready to get yet.

I'm considering pre-making a couple hands from the Bridge Master level 1 series, like "You're in 6NT, and you need to knock out an ace before you cash your other eleven tricks" or "In 3NT, you need to overtake KQ with AJT9 to untangle your nine winners" to introduce some basic concepts, and then random hands after that. But that makes things pretty boring for the defenders, and I don't know if those deals are too high-level or too low-level anyway: maybe I just start with "Cash your nine tricks in a 4333 mirror". I'm also considering a defense-oriented hand, where it's like "Remember how we talked about knocking out aces? Declarer is trying to do that, and you can see from dummy that he will succeed unless your partner has HA, so try leading a heart."

Another thing I'm not sure of: if I do go with prepared lesson deals, do I explain the key point before the deal, or do I just let them play the hand, and then do a post-mortem where we talk about what happened, what could have happened instead, etc?

After the first lesson, I usually describe the skills relevant to bidding/defending/declaring, and ask the students which branch they're interested in investigating more deeply for the next lesson. I'm fairly happy with that approach, but if you dislike it feel free to pipe up.

My goal is to give a feel within the first couple hours for vaguely what playing bridge is about, so that interested folks can come back and others can get on with their lives; I definitely don't plan for students to survive at a duplicate club anytime soon, so I don't mind glossing over things like bidding, leads, or basic carding until students show interest in something related.


texts: What is the best lead when calling next on a declined bower?

texts:
Let's say that we have a scenario where the dealer has declined a ♠J.

You are sitting to the dealer's left, with ♥A, ♣K, ♣9, ♢Q, ♢10.

The advice I read at this site says that calling clubs is a reasonable call as it is likely the dealer was strong in red.  My own experience and skill level agrees with this.

The article also notes that a poor lead would be ♥A, as any spare club could pick up the trick (again agreed).

What seems to be the best lead from this position?

My thought would be to lead ♢10 and give my partner a chance to jump, but is there a better general strategy?  Leading ♢Q improves the odds of picking up the first trick myself, but to my mind, only marginally.

My general line of thought is that since I am void in spades, I'm best to become void in diamonds to increase my chances of using my trump on off suit leads by my opponents.


texts: Do you lose the counters on Azor's Elocutors if it's returned to your hand?

texts: If Azor's Elocutors is returned to your hand do you lose your filibuster counters you had on it? I have tried to get this question answered before but no one is sure.


texts: Can cards that say "deal damage to any target" deal damage to a planeswalker?

texts:
I have a card that says "whenever Karplusan Hound attacks, attacks, if you control a Chandra planeswalker, this creature deals 2 damage to any target."

Does this mean I can target a planeswalker?


texts:
Many games, especially ancient ones, have their own set of manners. For instance, Go players bow before the game and greet each other ("onegaishimasu") and play the first stone in the upper right corner [etc].

Is there something similar in mahjong, too?


texts: Checkers: Is there a strategy to win with 2 pieces (one king) vs 3 pieces (one or two kings)?

texts:
Red ended up in this situation (see picture), and ended up losing. Is there a way for Red to win?

Mandatory jump is in effect.


texts:
In Apotheca tiles are placed facedown with an arrow indicating which player placed them.

While the rules say you can peek at cards, it doesn't say when it is valid for you to do so, only that you seemingly can't peek at cards while laying down new ones.

When can a player peek at times they have placed? Only during their turn? Before/after any action, but not during?


texts: How is a positive horror rating handled?

texts: What does a positive horror rating mean? For example, when a monster has -1 horror rating and my character's willpower is 7, it is reduced to 6. In the positive rating, when the monster has 1 for horror rating, should I add 1 to my willpower?


texts: How does Fae of Wishes / Granted work in a THG limited event?

texts:
Fae of Wishes can be cast as the adventure Granted, which has the text:

  You may choose a noncreature card you own from outside the game,
  reveal it, and put it into your hand.

How does this work in a Two-Headed Giant sealed event? Usually cards that do this allow you to search your sideboard, and usually for limited events that would be anything in your card pool that isn't already in your deck. For Two-Headed Giant, though, teams of players share a card pool. So how does this work? I can see several possibilities:

I can only search for a card from the packs I opened
I can search for any card from our combined card pool
Cards in the card pool are divided up between team members before the game starts and each team member can only search for cards in their half.


texts: How do you fulfill Steven Seer's upperclassman goal?

texts: Steven Seer's upperclassman goal reads "You are affected by 'double symbols' 3 times on your turn."  It is not clear to me what 'double symbols' are thus not clear how to fulfill this goal.  Any insights?


texts: Command cards (Star Trek Catan) for vanilla Catan?

texts:
I played Star Trek Catan for the first time last night and really enjoyed what the command cards (Sulu, Kirk, Spock) added to the game.

I would like to purchase a deck of command cards themed to match regular Settlers of Catan. Does this exist in one of the expansions, or as a standalone?

Edit: Sorry, this is a duplicate of Has anyone made regular-themed version of the Star Trek Catan role cards?


texts: Munchkins Ruling of destroy item with highest bonus

texts:
On the table there are 2 items giving bonus of 4 and 5,  the one with 4 is used and the one with 5 is carried and not used.

The card "Lose the card that gives you the biggest bonus", does it destroy the 5 or 4 bonus card?


texts: Can a creature with megamorph block then morph?

texts: Imagine I have a 2/2 creature that can be megamorphed, can I block with it and pay its megamorph cost before damages are done?


texts: Monopoly: Do I Collect Rent If I Am In Jail?

texts:
I am playing Monopoly and I land on the 'Go to jail' space.
The player next in line rolls, and lands on Park Place, which I own. He challenges me, and says that he doesn't have to pay rent, because I am in jail.
Is this true?


texts: Is Jenga a cooperative or competitive game?

texts:
Jenga, in my impression, is most commonly interpreted as a competitive game, where the person who topples the tower is the loser.

However, one can make the argument that it can be seen as a cooperative game, and the common goal is to make the highest tower possible.

The distinction has a radical impact on the way the game is played.

If the game is cooperative, players are incentivised to take and place bricks in a manner that makes it as easy as possible for the other players.

On the other hand, if the game is competitive, players are incentivised to make the tower as gnarly and difficult for the other players (eg by twisting the top half of the tower when removing the a brick).

Are there any Jenga competitions that shed light on how the game is played in this respect?


texts: House rules to reduce the game play time of Power Grid

texts:
Are there any fair rules for shortening the playing time of Power Grid?

It seems obvious to end the game on less powered cities (rather than the 17 default), but this often skews the phase 2 for the non-leading players. I've considered also moving phase 2 sooner as well. Does anyone have any good ways to shorten the game?


texts: Locking Assigned Dice During Resolution Phase in Elder Sign

texts:
I came across a situation when attempting a mystery that had a terror effect that spawned a monster.

The player had completed one of the tasks using the yellow die. On the next roll, the terror effect triggered, spawning a monster that was supposed to lock the yellow die.

We ruled that the since the yellow die was already used to complete a task, it didn't make sense to remove it to put it on the monster and cause the task to become incomplete again.
Once the resolution phase was over, we then locked the die on to the monster card.

Was that the correct ruling?


texts: I've exiled my commander using Mimic Vat. Do the tokens it creates from it deal commander damage?


texts: Forced Response to a Convenient Minor Opening?

texts:
My bridge club plays by a rule that an opening of a convenient minor requires a demand response by the partner unless intervening opponent does an overcall.

Situation:

My partner opened with 1-Diamond; opponent passed.
As Responder I had no 4-card major, 3-cards each in the minor suit, and less than 6 points.  We play that a minor response to a minor opening implies that the responder has a 5-card minor suit, such as the bidding:  1H; pass; 2D (5-card diamond suit)
But in my case I did not have 5 diamonds or anything, really.  After fretting whether to pass (against our rules) or bid "something" (leading to a disaster), I bid 1-NT expecting/hoping partner to put contract in her best suit.
My partner (the opener) responded 2-NT and the bidding: 1D; pass; 1NT; pass/
                                                       2NT; pass; pass; pass
And we went down big time.

To me - and hoping partner would realize it, my 1NT implied a bust hand and she was to then pick her best suit.  But didn't work that way

Any advice how we can properly handle this situation the next time?  What is the ACL rule for responding to a "convenient minor opening"?  Is a demand response the rule?


texts: Do commanders "die" if they go to the command zone instead?

texts:
If my commander would die and I opt to move it to the command zone instead of the graveyard, does it cause a "when a creature dies" ability trigger?

An example would be Fool's Demise. If my opponent puts that on my commander, and then does lethal damage to it, would they get my commander or could I put it in my command zone?

I'd love any answer, but my playgroup needs an actual rule. So I would love a supporting rule citation.


texts: What happens if you manifest a creature card with morph?

texts:
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?


texts: Canasta. Can you play a wild card on an existing Canasta to go out?


texts: Games with features like Battlestar Galactica's "Traitor" Mechanic?

texts: My local gaming group has been playing the heck out of Battlestar Galactica for some time now.  Are there any other board games that can be recommended that have a similar theme, or similar mechanics?  Obviously, we're not talking about clones or rip-offs here, but games that embody the "Everyone's in it together except for 1 or 2 who are out to get you.  You better find out who they are!" theme.


texts:
I came across this Chinese board game. It has a cloth board and 25 black pieces and 25 red pieces with Chinese characters on them.
Can anyone identify it and link to its rules?
Thanks.


texts: Cards entering the battlefield simultaneously and "Enter the Battlefield" effects

texts:
I was playing modern with the owner of a shop.  He played a Scapeshift which he used to bring in 7 lands: 5 basic mountains and 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle cards.

He then claimed that each Valakut triggered 5 times (killing me).  I am doubting this now.

Here is my reason: The two Valakut cards entered at the same time as the other 5 basic lands.  That means when they were on the battlefield and their ability was in effect, the other 5 basic lands were already there too.  That seems too late to trigger a "Enters the Battlefield" effect.

So here is my question.  Am I right or wrong?  If I am wrong, please show me how the enter the battlefield effect can trigger for something that enters the battlefield at the same time as itself.

If I am right, please show me the rules that prove it.  I now have two shop owners that are convinced that this is a legal play.  If it is not legal, I am going to need clear rules citations to convince them.

Side note:  If I am wrong and it is a legal play, then I have a follow up scenario.  Say I have 2 Champion of the Parish cards and 5 other human cards in my graveyard.  If I play a spell that lets me return all of them to the battlefield at the same time (say Angel of Glory's Rise), would the Champion cards get 6 +1/+1 counters on them?

To me, if the trick that was played on me with Valakut is legal then my Champion cards should also get the +1/+1 counters.


texts: What are the results of combining Minion Reflector, Doubling Season, and Kalonian Hydra?

texts:
Minion Reflector and Doubling Season are out, and then you play Kalonian Hydra.

What happens when the token hydra(s) with haste attack? How many counters do the Hydras wind up with?

If you would be so kind as to walk me through it step by step, I'd appreciate it. There's a few guys in the office and they want to prove their rightness by talking loudly and faster, so I can't quite follow what they're trying to say.

I'm thinking that there will be 2x token hydras created, and the final total will be ?? (56? 40?) +1/+1 counters on each of the 3 Hydras. They think there will be 72 +1/+1 counters.  Am I right? Are they right? Is there a different number?

Here's how I think it plays out:

Kalonian Hydra hits the battlefield with 8x counters because of Doubling Season (see the page, it's a ruling).
Minion Reflector kicks in and creates the token copy.
Doubling Season kicks in, replacing the 1 token copy with 2 token copies.
Doubling Season plays out the same for the token as the original because the hydra is a 0/0 coming into play with 4 counters because it says so on the card, so now there are 2x tokens with 8 counters.

So far me and the guys in the office are all in agreement here, but then it starts to change.

The 2x Hydras with haste attack another player.
Their doubling abilities trigger (keyword trigger, right?) to double the counters on all of the other hydras.  Each Hydra has 8 counters at this point of time, so would get 8 more if this is where it stopped, and would wind up at 16 counters.

I think the important difference in calculations is if the doubling abilities all trigger at the exact same time, or if they somehow go on the stack.

The Doubling Season replacement effect doubles the number of counters placed on the hydras.  They all have 8, and would get 8 more.  Doubling Season says they have 8 and will get 16 more, for a total of 24.
Step 7 happens for each hydra, in this case 2, because only 2 hydras are attacking.  Each Hydra gets 16 counters from each other hydra, for a total of 8 + 16 + 16 = 40

I'm not clear on their math, otherwise I'd explain it.  The guys at the office say that the Hydras wind up with 72 counters.  I think the biggest crux is 6.5 and when the triggers occur and what values they operate on.

I'm new to Magic, been playing less than a year, and I mostly play casual play, so break it down Barney-style if you could :D


texts: Power Tile Effect: Initiative and Movement/Victory

texts:
When using the 'Initiative' power tile (which destroys two units pre-battle)  against a [foolish or unfortunate] opponent who has only two units:

Is a victory point scored?
Is movement interrupted?


texts: Munchkin: Charity: Giving cards to someone who has 5 already

texts:
In the charity phase of munchkin when you have to reduce your hand to 5 cards.

A rule states:

  Charity: If you have more than five cards in your hand, you must play
  enough cards to get you to five or below. If you cannot, or do not
  want to, you must give the excess cards to the player with the lowest
  Level.

Q: what if the player with the lowest level already has 5 cards?

Do you?

Still give them to the player
Discard them


texts: How to handle dummy's revoke due to a hidden card?

texts: A final bid of 3 spades is made. The opponent leads a club and dummy lays down a hand showing no diamonds. Declarer wins the lead trick in hand and leads a diamond  trumping it in dummy. Declarer then returns to hand and leads a second diamond trumping again. He then plays a club from dummy and in moving it reveals a hidden diamond. Since there is no penalty if declarer revokes, how is this managed?


texts: What happens if The Grand Calcutron leaves the battlefield after players hand cards have already become programs?

texts:
When The Grand Calcutron enters the battlefield, each player's hand becomes a program (an ordered row of revealed cards).
Players can only play the first card of their program.
If a card would be put into a player's hand from anywhere, that player reveals it and places it anywhere within his or her program instead.
At the beginning of each player's end step, if that player's program has fewer then five cards, he or she draws cards equal to the difference.

Assuming The Grand Calcutron enters the battlefield, it's first ability triggers and eventually resolves, and later in the game, it leaves the battlefield again - what happens to the cards in a player's program? Where will cards be put from this moment forward that would be put in a player's hand? Are there any other special interactions?


texts: Can I cast other spells before a miracle?

texts: I'm playing a red storm deck and I topdeck a Reforge the Soul. I only have 2 lands in play but have several rituals (Pyretic Ritual, etc.) in my hand that I might want to cast to increase my storm count, since they will just be discarded anyway. Can I cast the rituals before I cast Reforge the Soul if I were to miracle it or must I pay the miracle cost and thus not be able to pay for the rituals?


texts: Can joker be played with no other tiles?

texts: When playing Rummikub, if you have joker tile, no other tiles to play with it and nobody has gone out can you use it any where on the board?


texts: Can items and Tokens still be claimed from the Mansion even if the character is defeated?

texts:
If a player explores the Mansion with more than one Explore (ie: +1 Explore from a Shotgun), they normally have the option to draw more than one card and resolve them both at the same time.  While this is fairly straightforward when both cards drawn are Infected, the situation when one of the cards is an Item or a Token is not quite as clear.

At what point would the Item/Token be resolved?  Is it immediately after the card is revealed, as would be the case if it was a single draw?  Or maybe it would be after the Infected itself is defeated.  Or maybe it's just after the Infected is battled, win or lose, so long as the player doesn't die.

I'm leaning towards the "just don't die" interpretation myself, but the rulebook is not particularly clear (I only have the base set to refer to, not sure if it's been clarified in the expansions).


texts: In bridge, what are some exceptions to "second hand low?"

texts:
Most beginners are taught to play "second hand low." That is, play a low card if one is led to them, to give the partner a chance to take the trick. This is particularly to avoid situations where second hand plays, say, a king, and it is taken by partner's singleton ace.

Like all rules, it has some exceptions.  One is, play second hand high and grab the trick if you see a way to defeat the contract; e.g. running a suit in no trump. Another might be, if you let the opponents take a trick, it will be their game-winning trick (based on what you see on the board and infer from the bidding and play).

Are these valid exceptions to "second hand low?" What are other exceptions to the rule?"


texts: What is this "dice, cubes, hexes and ships" game?

texts: I've seen it in a "Game mechanics" presentation. What is the name of this game showcased in the photo below?


texts:
We have just started playing and have the river expansion game.

I had hoped to try to take control over a city by placing a last wall piece and placing a meeple.  This was a U shaped piece and no tiles where in the interior city....just walls.  I was told I could not because it joined other walls of the city and was an end piece.  I'm confused as to how one would take over a city and gain all the points.

Thanks in advance,


texts: What house rules/modifications have you adopted to make a board game work well over webcam?

texts:
During enforced isolation we're seeking social activities: what board games work well with others over webcam (ie in video chat; Skype, Jitsi, Zoom, etc.)?

If you've played over webcam, was it better with one board, or multiple? Did everyone need to own the game in order for it to work?

Feel free to precis house rules that make any game work well this way. Thanks.


texts: Submarines and "Defenseless" Transports in Axis and Allies

texts:
So I've got a question about Axis and Allies Spring 1942 edition.

I had a German fleet off the coast of England (cruiser, battleship, two subs, and two loaded transports), and the US attacked with two fighters and a bomber.

The subs can't defend against aircraft, but I believe are not considered "submerged".  The cruiser and battleship were destroyed after two rounds of combat, leaving a bomber on the american side and two subs and transports on the German side.

In this case, are the transports "defenseless" and automatically destroyed? by the aircraft?  They are "defended" by submarines, but those subs can't "do" anything in this instance.  If it were ships attacking, presumably conflict would continue until it was resolved, but with air units I'm not sure.  We played that the transports were destroyed (to my irritation).  What's the technical ruling here?

Thanks,
Nate


texts: in Tic-tac-toe on an NxN board, what is the minimum goal (number in a row) that guarantees a tie?

texts:
I've been working on a Tic-Tac-Toe AI (Minimax with AB pruning).

As far as I can tell, for an NxN board, player 1 can always win if the goal is to get less than N-1 in a row (for N > 4). Is there a known bound for the number in a row or the size of the board?


texts: Kruphix and Omnath, what color is the mana

texts:
Both Kruphix, God of Horizons and Omnath, Locus of Mana stop unused mana from emptying from your mana pool at the end fo each step. Omnath only works for green and keeps it green, while Kruphix works for all, but makes it colorless. If I have both on the field at the same time, which one takes priority? Do I get to pick?

If I have 2 blue mana, 1 white mana and 2 green mana at the end of a step, do I get to keep 5 colorless or 2 green and 3 colorless?


texts: Can a single Myr Servitor save itself when sacrificed to Eldrazi Monument?

texts:
I have Eldrazi Monument and Myr Servitor on the board. Is the following play legal?

My upkeep begins.
Eldrazi Monument and Myr Servitor trigger at the same time, so I put the Servitor's ability on the stack first.
I resolve the Monument's effect by sacrificing the Servitor.
I resolve the Servitor's effect by returning it to play.


texts: Chess has a rule that forbids castling when in check. What is the practical value of this rule? How would chess without this rule compare to chess with this rule?


texts: Why are Elo ratings for go higher than for chess?

texts:
If we compare Elo(-like) ratings in chess and in go, we see that the highest ratings published for go (3621 for Ke Jie as of 2016-03-13 at goratings.org) are higher than those in chess (2851 for Magnus Carlsen as of 2016-03-01 at FIDE.com).

Is the best explanation one of the following suggestions, or something else?

Go is in some sense better played than chess. While many in the West think of chess as the premier intellectual game, go has, I believe, been studied more intensively, had more support in Eastern culture than chess has where it is played and is financially more rewarding.
Go is better at distinguishing slight differences in strength, e.g. because games are longer or because draws are rare (about 1 game in 50, I believe).
There is some arbitrary difference in the way the Elo approach is applied to go and chess, e.g. an arbitrary baseline or scaling factor.

In any case, an explanation of how the rating system work and, if appropriate, interact with the nature of the games is needed to make an answer complete. If it is illuminating, a comparison with other games would also be welcome — for example, what would happen with ratings for a trivial game like noughts and crosses?

I realise that the systems are not intended for direct comparison, but I hope that they still allow some sort of conclusion to drawn. They are, after all, based on the same principles, though various parameters may be differently set.


texts: When can you take commodities out of the warehouse?

texts:
In Mundus Novus, the rulebook says the warehouse allows you to store products in it at the end of the progress phase. The problem is it is not clear when you can take products out of it.

Can you take a commodity out of it in the trade step, or only in the progress step?
Can you swap the commodity found in a warehouse, replacing it with somewhing else in your hand? On what step?


texts: In Euchre, Can a person of the opposing team go alone if trump was ordered up by the other team?

texts: I ordered up trump from the dealer of the opposing team and the same person said they were going alone and asked for their partners best card. Is that legal in the euchre rules?


texts: If a commander becomes a colorless forest, is it still a commander?

texts: In Magic the Gathering, I cast Song of the Dryads on an opponent's commander. It is now a colorless forest land. My opponent has an Angelic Field Marshal on the field which gains power if you control your commander. Is the colorless forest land still my opponent's commander? Does my opponent get the Lieutenant bonus?


texts: How does Nature Shields Its Own work with "unblockable" and "can't be blocked"

texts:
Nature Shields Its Own is an archenemy card that allows you to place creature tokens on the battlefield blocking attacking creatures.  The rulings on its Gatherer page call out flying as an ability that this card bypasses, so does it also bypass "unblockable" and "can't be blocked"?

Are there any other cards that do that?


texts: betrayal at house on the hill crystal ball and used items

texts:
Is a used item (lucky stone, angel feather, etc) returned to the deck after use or is it completely out of the game.  The rules say "discard this item after you use it".

I ask because with the crystal ball it can make a difference.  Can I use the crystal ball to retrieve a "discarded item" to put it on top again?

Our thought was that its possible to go through all the items so we should put discarded (used items) on the bottom of the deck...especially if you got the crystal ball early and use it many times during a game?  maybe its not possible to go through all the items, but it seems like it would have to be possible.  Or maybe discarded items are only returned to the game after all items are used?


texts: Is it possible to position all chess pieces on the board such that all pieces defend at least one piece and attack at least one piece?