texts: In Axis and Allies, Which Ally Should "Take Out" Norway.

texts:
In most versions of the game it is essential for the Allies to capture Norway to allow the US and UK to properly reinforce Russia. A question them arises, which Ally should do the capturing (i.e. which mouse should "bell" the cat)?

Among many second edition players, Russia can't attack the first turn. Assuming that the German player moves out his fighter on his turn (as he should), the UK could launch an amphibious assault on Norway using the tank on the transport from Canada, supported by a bomber and two fighters (assuming that the ships in the UK sea zone were sunk by German air and sea attack).

But the odds aren't great. The attack succeeds 73% of the time (79% if you assume mutually assured destruction that allows Russia to occupy Norway on its turn). http://www.dskelly.com/misc/aa/aasim.html. The average UK IPC loss is 21 (the tank, one fighter, and a second fighter half the time) versus much less for the Germans. In conjunction with the naval losses, might that leave Britain too weak to defend itself properly?

Let's try Russia. If it doesn't get to attack the first turn, it might take out Norway the second turn. But that might weaken Karelia too much?

I can't imagine America doing this job. On turn two with two fighters (based in the UK) and two infantry in an amphibious assault?

Maybe a clue comes from another example (using a Russian first turn attack). Russia "strafes" Norway without taking it. In Axis and Allies, Should An Attacker Be Allowed to Relinquish Certain "Prerogatives?" UK (or US) makes an amphibious attack against a WEAKENED German force. Could a "cooperative" venture be the best solution of all?


texts: Can I trade a resource for a development card?

texts: Is it legal to trade resources for development cards another player is holding in hand?


texts: How can I keep track of my sideboarded cards in a physical Magic deck?

texts:
In Magic, if you swap in cards from your sideboard during a match, you need to reset to your original deck for the beginning of the next match. I find I have trouble remembering what I sideboarded and reseting it correctly, especially in limited, where I've just built the deck and don't know my decklist by heart.

Are there common strategies to keep track of which cards you've sideboarded and to make it easy to reset?


texts:
I just bought the new Agricola "Gamer's Deck" from my local store - hooray!  119 sweet new Occupation / Minor Improvement cards that will keep me happy while I wrestle inwardly with the question of whether I can justify buying the silly-looking "Goodies" expansion for $60, just to scratch my completist's itch.

Looking through the new cards though I found two which seemed to contradict each other.  Can anyone tell me what happens if you get both of these in play?

Pilgrim (Occupation)

You receive 2 Food before you pay the costs of playing this Occupation.  At the start of a round, if you have no building resources, you may take 1 building resource from the supply; if you have no Food, you may take 1 Food from the supply.  (At any time, you many move resources from your personal supply to the general supply.)

Pine Forest (Minor Improvement)

At the start of each round, you may place 1 Wood on this card if you have zero Wood in your supply.  When this card has 5 Wood, move the Wood from this card to your supply.  (You may not give Wood to the general supply for nothing.)

If you have both the Pilgrim and the Pine Forest in play, can you "throw away" your spare Wood to keep the Pine Forest growing... or not?  I am particularly confused on this point because both of the relevant lines on the cards are italicized, which gives them the air of being clarifications of the basic rules, rather than special abilities bestowed by the cards.

Does the Pilgrim ruling override the Pine Forest's, or vice versa?  Are you allowed to throw away resources at will in the ordinary course of the rules?  (Not that a sane person would want to, but still...) You can sort of throw away animals you don't have room for... why not resources you don't want?  Anyone think they know the definitive answer?


texts:
When I was a kid, I played these games with cards that came in a set, for example:

Sports cars
Luxury cars
Jets
Trains

and so forth.

Each set had some properties, for example, the cars had properties like:

Torque
Max speed
0-60
Weight
Length
...

We then held these cards in our grubby little paws, and took the top one. We chose a property that was considered good for our chosen card, and asked others to compare their top card's property by the same name. The winner then took all the cards, and started the next round, until someone won the game, landing up with all the cards.

I have two questions:

What were these games called? I do not know what to Google for.
Are these games still found on the market?


texts: Do the draw abilities of Kor Spiritdancer and Mesa Enchantress stack?

texts:
Suppose I have both Kor Spiritdancer and Mesa Enchantress under my control. They have two similar abilities:

  Kor Spiritdancer: Whenever you cast an Aura spell, you may draw a card.

  Mesa Enchantress: Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.

If I now cast an Enchantment — Aura card, do I draw two cards or one?


texts: What are the differences within/between Pokemon series?

texts:
My kids are getting interested in Pokemon TCG, so I'm trying to figure out the different series and sets. I played Magic the Gathering for a little while, which has helped me understand some of the terminology (e.g., starter sets, theme decks, booster packs), but some things seem to be different. Specifically: what are the differences within/between Pokemon series?

For example, what are the differences between the Black & White Dragons Exalted set and the Black & White Emerging Powers set? And what are the differences between the Black & White series and the Heartgold & Soulsilver series?

I understand that the different sets/series have different cards in them, but is there anything else? In Magic the Gathering, the different expansion sets had extra mechanics not seen in the core set. Note that I'm more interested in the differences pertaining to gameplay than to collecting.


texts: Using a card from the discard pile instead of picking up from the face down pile

texts: So, we are in Phase 2. I have already opened. It is my turn again. On the end of the run is a 10-card. I am about to play an 11-card but realize I haven’t picked a card yet. On the top of the discard pile is a 12. I picked that card up and played that with my 11. (I thought picking up the 12 would be safer than getting some random card I might not be able to play).  One of our players flipped out saying that was an illegal move I did and carried on for a few minutes until he ruined the game and ended the game by throwing the cards across the room. So, I ask, was it a legal move or not?


texts: Can I spend all my life points to draw cards?

texts:
The rules of Friday state

  If at any point you must discard a life point but do not have any
  remaining, you lose the game.

What if I have 1 life point left, and voluntarily discard it to draw a card?

Can I do that?

The game hasn't required me to discard a non-existent life point yet (and I may gain more life before it does).

As I read this, I could go several turns at 0 life, without losing, as long as the game does not require me to spend a life point that I don't have.


texts: Does Humility stop all creatures from being able to morph?

texts: This question is related to this one. Does Humility stop all face-down creatures from being able to morph?


texts:
My wife and I enjoy playing board games (having gotten hooked on Settlers of Catan and expanded from there) but we don't often have the opportunity to play with other people. The question What cooperative board games are there that I could safely play with my wife? is similar but we're less concerned about avoiding conflict and more interested in gameplay. (The question Good board games for single player is also similar.) What board games are good for two players?

Edit: Having done a poor job in limiting the scope of my question, since there are clearly too many board games to list them all, let me try to clarify. I'm looking for games with similar scope, time requirements, cost, and complexity to Settlers of Catan that play well with two adult players. I'm not especially concerned by the level of cooperation or competition required, but I'd like to avoid anything especially blood-thirsty.


texts: Can I activate Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar on the battlefield?

texts: Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar's activated ability doesn't require having to declare any targets, and it only cost {1}{G} and returning two lands to hand. The ability doesn't say Multani has to be in the yard. Is there any rule or thing I'm missing that prevents me from activating the ability, returning the lands, and then the ability doing nothing?


texts: What is this game featuring plastic squares with numbers in each corner?

texts:
What is the name of the game where there are 120 cream-colored plastic squares about an inch and a half on each side with a single number in each corner?  The numbers range from 0 to 5. I do know that Toys R Us doesn't recognize it, so it must be an older game.

If I knew what this game is called, I'd also like to find the instructions for how to play it.


texts: "Taking the rest" in the card game Hearts

texts:
So I understand most of Hearts and love to play it on my phone. That's where I learned it. There is one thing that I don't get, though.

It seems like when a player takes the trick 3 times or so in a row he/she will "take the rest".

I was trying to shoot the moon earlier and gave away all my low number cards. After a few rounds (the queen of spades was not even played at that point) the app said that I will take the rest and the others all got 26 points because I took all the tricks.

Can anyone explain this situation? When does someone take the rest? I couldn't find anything.


texts: Can Accelerated Rot deal 9 damage if you meet elemental requirements?

texts:
The major power, Accelerated Rot, shown below:

Has "+5 Damage. Remove 1 blight" if you meet the elements. Does this total to 9 damage or just 5, 2 fear and remove a blight? It seems to very clearly indicate it deals 9 total damage, but that seems very powerful.

The only relevant section in the manual, on page 17 says:

  Elemental Thresholds: Optional effects which may only be used if the Spirit has gained certain Elements this turn. The requirement Elements are not "used up"; the threshold is simply a check to see if they are in play. [...] You may always resolve a Power as if you had fewer elements than you actually do. If you meet more than one threshold under a Power, do each of them in order, from top to bottom.
  Exception: If a threshold says "Instead", it replaces the effects of previous levels.

Since this doesn't say instead, it does seem to support it deals 9 damage - so we went with that. Can someone confirm for sure that's the right interpretation?


texts: In Magic: The Gathering, can I include a card in my deck that I can't play based on my land setup?

texts:
I have a plan to build a deck that can get Progenitus on to the battlefield on turn 3 (it's an ongoing joke between my friends and I on who could get Progenitus out quickest with the cards we currently have), but I'm unsure about whether or not I would be allowed Progenitus in my deck at all.

My plan is based on a red/green deck, but obviously Progenitus needs all 5 colours to cast. Within the rules, can I include him anyway? I assume I can, as there are ways of getting him out without casting him, and including cards you don't have the colours for seems more like a stupid move rather than a rule breaking one, but I'm unable to find anything specific about whether or not you have the right colours to include a card in your deck or not.


texts: Does the Event Card have to be drawn first when encountering a Town space in A Touch of Evil?

texts: Last night we had one player move to the Doctor's Office Town space with one wound left. He wanted to use the special ability of the Doctor's Office prior to drawing an event card so that he could heal himself before encountering something from the event deck that could potentially cause damage to his character and possibly kill him off. At the time, we ruled that he would have to take the event card first since it is the first thing listed on the text for the space. As it turns out, he ended up drawing a "Duel of Honor" card. While he did survive the encounter (barely), he very well could have been killed. Should we have allowed him to heal his character first instead?


texts: Cost for the CAFS Firefighter to extinguish fires

texts: The CAFS Firefighter has 3 AP plus 3 free extinguish AP per turn. Do these extra AP allow him to extinguish a fire for 1 AP, or does it still cost 2 AP to extinguish a fire?


texts: What happens when a double-sided card is returned to the battlefield or a copy of it appears?

texts:
Say I cast Oblivion Ring on Garruk, the Veil-Cursed (i.e. a transformed Garruk Relentless). What happens when my Oblivion Ring gets destroyed?

My interpretation was that Garruk returns in his Veil-Cursed form, but dies with zero loyalty counters, since there is no reference to how many counters he has upon return.

Also, am I correct assuming that Clever Impersonator is everything but clever when trying to impersonate Garruk, the Veil-Cursed (i.e. he dies due to zero loyalty counters)?


texts:
This deals with Unhinged cards,  so competitive REL is useless here.  Imagine that I have a Gleemax on the field. It says:

  You choose all targets for all spells and abilities.

1) Somebody sitting next to me plays an Ass Whuppin' and tries to target my Gleemax. Can I choose the target for the Whuppin'?

  Destroy target silver-bordered permanent in any game you can see from your seat.

2) What if we both have a Gleemax? Then what?


texts: Royal Supplier in Puerto Rico Expansion II -- is it all or nothing?

texts:
The rules for the Royal Supplier state:

  The owner of an occupied Royal Supplier can supply the Royal Warehouse (the supply) with a number of goods from his windrose equal to the number of nobles on his island and take 1 VP for each.
  NOTE:  Such supplied goods must all be of different kinds (no duplicates).  Regardless of other buildings or abilities, the player may gain no additional bonuses from supplying these goods to the royal warehouse.

Now, we've got two things going on here - "goods equal to the number of nobles on his island" and "must all be of different kinds".  Assuming that "island" means game board (as answered here), how do you resolve this if you have more nobles than distinct goods?  And do you have to send all or nothing?

For example:

Scenario 1: I have 6 nobles on my island.  There are 2 corn, 1 indigo, 2 sugar, 3 tobacco and 1 coffee on my windrose.  I clearly can't supply 6 barrels of goods, because there are only 5 distinct types in the game.  Do I send 5 distinct barrels to the royal supply in this case?

Scenario 2: I have 2 nobles on my island,  There are 2 corn, 1 indigo and 1 sugar on my windrose.  If I choose to use the Royal Supplier, can I only ship 1 good to the royal supply, or do I have to supply 2 distinct barrels, since I have 2 nobles?


texts:
So, I am designing a board game. In it, players will recreate various tank battles (essentially a tabletop version of War Thunder.) The tanks will be represented by 3d printed models, so its a little like a cross between Armada and Axis and Allies Miniatures.

Design is going good, but I have run up against a problem: I cannot figure out how to simulate elevation. What are some techniques I could use to do so?


texts: Can I pay to return my opponent's Shackles to their hand?

texts: If my opponent plays Shackles enchanting one of my creatures, can I pay the {W} cost to return it to their hand?


texts: Does Misthollow Griffin's from-exile ability work if it's exiled face down?

texts:
Player A exiles their Misthollow Griffin face down with their Bane Alley Broker.

Can player A cast that Misthollow Griffin from exile?

If no, then:

There are only 2 players, and player B subsequently takes control of player A.

Can player B have player A cast the Misthollow Griffin that

was exiled face down, since all (2) players can see it?


texts: I'm the dealer.  The person to the left tells me to pick it up.  He plays before I discard.  As a result of the fast play, I forget to discard, and in the end of the play, I'm obviously holding onto one extra card.  Does the official play begin at the discard?  Or am I penalized for not discarding?


texts: Do you acquire Evolution cards simultaneously when Attacking, and when can you use them?

texts:
The King of Tokyo rules state:

If you are attacked while in Tokyo and you don’t want to be there anymore (and who can blame you – it can be rough!) you can yield to the Monster that attacked (he has to take your place). You still take the damage, however.

The King of Tokyo: Power-Up expansion rules state:

If a Monster ends his roll with at least 3{Heart}, he draws the top Evolution of his deck, keeping it secret. [...]
Evolution - Monsters keep their evolutions secret until they want to play them - which can be at any time.

The fact that you can use Evolutions at any time brings up some interesting rules interactions, and some difficult to answer questions:

Do you acquire an Evolution card simultaneously when attacking?

How does this affect when Evolution cards can be played? (provide answers and reasoning for The King's Evolution cards below)

To give some concrete examples, can you play the The King's evolution cards if you roll at least 1 {Claw}, and at least 3 {Heart} immediately during the same turn you acquired one of them?

King of Tokyo: "Gain 1 extra {Star} when you take control of Tokyo or start your turn there." (Can you play this if the opponent yields, or does dealing damage & yielding occur before acquiring the Evolution card?)
Alpha Male: "Gain 1 {Star} when you attack." (Can you play this immediately and gain a star, or have you already attacked? Is this answer different than the above, why?)
Chest Thumping: "When you attack Tokyo, you can force the occupant to retreat." (Do you make this decision to reveal the Evolution card during your attack, or during the opponent's yield? Does that timing difference make it match the first/second rule above?)
Jungle Tokyo: "Discard this Evolution to take an extra turn. Only do this when you have attacked Tokyo and have failed to enter Tokyo."


texts: First steps in go.. where to go? and some score counting questions

texts:
I just started to be interested by Go a week ago.
I have read and (I think I) understood the base rules.

I went through a few web sites that explain how the game is played and overall, after a reading a few times the same things in different formats, I think I get it.

My next step was to download an app to start playing against the computer, starting with a 9x9 grid.

But there are a few things I do not get.

in a situation like the following:

how does the app evaluate black vs. white territory? I understand that the points come from the number of liberties around your stones, but what open the open space?

and if you have a scenario like this:

XXX
...
OOO

where X/O are the black and whites and the . is an empty space. When it comes to counting points, who owns the empty space?

but my main question is the following:

When I play chess, I know a few openings, I know some patterns that I can recognize and I can formulate a plan. Starting with go, I have a vastly empty board and no idea what to do, what kind of pattern I should be aiming at doing, what I should be building, etc.

What would be good resources to learn strategies? I found sites with rules, libraries of games but I didn't find anything that tells me what I should be trying to achieve.


texts: Where is the Queen placed when a C/M is already at center?

texts: If a player pockets the Queen, but doesn't cover it, while there is a C/M in the center of the board, should the C/M be moved from the center to place the Queen or should the Queen be placed next to the C/M on the opposite side to the player?


texts: Does something which affects "defending player" target that player?

texts:
If I have shroud or hexproof, because I control Ivory Mask or Witchbane Orb, am I immune to something which affects "defending player," such as a creature with Annihilator, or will I still have to sac, since it doesn't say "target opponent"?

Ulamog's Crusher

  Annihilator 2 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices two permanents.)
  Ulamog's Crusher attacks each turn if able.


texts:
Brink of Disaster says:

  Enchant creature or land.
  When enchanted permanent becomes tapped, destroy it.

If you enchant something like Shrine of Burning Rage, and it's owner goes to tap and sacrifice it, would Brink of Disaster trigger before the sacrifice, or is the cost for the Shrine paid all at once?


texts: Kate Winthrop's Immunity to All Terror effects in Elder Sign - how does it work?

texts: The ability reads SHE is immune, however, what about Terror affects that'd add another doom token, for example? In that case, the Terror effect wouldn't directly target her, would her immunity still cancel the effect. Or if an effect states All investigators lose 1 sanity/stamina/trophy/etc. Would the other investigators still be affected.


texts: Can Dark Magician the Dragon Knight stop Trap Eater?

texts:
My friend's favorite deck is his Dark Magician. His Eternal Soul trap is the biggest thorn in my side (besides Dark Magical Circle and Navigation). So I bought a monster known as Trap Eater, which says:

  Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be special summoned by sending one face up trap card your opponent controls to the Graveyard.

Now one of his best monsters is Dark Magician the Dragon Knight. It prevents me from targeting or destroying his spell or trap cards. But with Trap Eater, it may not be a target effect or destroy to special summon it, but would Dark Magician the Dragon Knight's special ability still prevent me from summoning Trap Eater?


texts: Can I use the Angel's Feather to roll higher than the dice would allow?

texts: For haunt 41 (Invisible Traitor) they are allowed 3 dice for their sneak attack, which is a max roll of 6. Can he use the Angel's Feather and choose 8 like the card says, even if the max roll he could have gotten using the dice would be 6?


texts: If you're too Tough to die, do you still burn?

texts:
In Warmachine/Hordes, there are many models which have the 'Tough' rule:

  TOUGH:
  When this model is disabled, roll a d6.  On a 5 or 6, this model heals
  1 damage point, is no longer disabled, and is knocked down.

There are also attacks which deal the 'Fire' continuous effect:

  FIRE:
  A model hit by this attack suffers the Fire continuous effect, which sets it on fire.  A
  model on fire suffers a POW 12 damage roll each turn during its controller's Maintenance
  Phase until the continuous effect expires.

There are other effects, all subject to the following:

  CONTINUOUS EFFECTS:
  Continuous effects remain on a model and have the potential to damage or affect it in some other way on subsequent turns.  [...] Continuous effects do not require fury points for upkeep and cannot be removed voluntarily.  Remove a continuous effect only when it expires, a special situation causes it to end, or the affected model is removed from the table.

If a model is hit with an attack that would cause it to gain the Fire continuous effect, and that attack kills it, that model is entitled to a 'tough' roll.  If it makes the roll, is it still susceptible to the Fire effect?  Being disabled means it is about to be removed from the table which would cause the effect to expire, but then it survives.  Does the fire go out before the tough roll or does the tough roll prevent the fire from going out?


texts: Pathfinder ACG: When do I use the Character Add-On cards?

texts:
I recently bought the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and liked it so much that I then also got all the Add-Ons in quick succession. But I am a bit unsure when to add the cards from the Character Add-On to the Base Set.

Do I

only include them when playing with more than 4 characters
only include them when playing one of the additional characters from the set
or can I just leave them in the box, shuffled in among the Base Set?


texts: What rules explain Xantcha's behavior when its controller leaves the game?

texts:
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent has the ability:

  As Xantcha, Sleeper Agent enters the battlefield, an opponent of your
  choice gains control of it.

The release notes for Commander 2018 describe what happens when a player who controls a permanent owned by another player leaves the game as:

  If that player controlled any permanents owned by another player, the
  effects that gave control of them to the player who left end. If this
  doesn't give control of them to a different player (perhaps because
  they entered the battlefield under the control of the player who
  left), they're exiled.

In the same document, the release notes for Xantcha state:

  If the player under whose control Xantcha entered the battlefield
  leaves the game, the effect changing control of Xantcha ends.

Answers to a previous question lead me to believe that Xantcha's replacement effect causes it to enter the battlefield under an opponent's control and not under my control at all.

Because Xantcha appears to be entering the battlefield under an opponent's control, I thought Xantcha would be exiled when its controller leaves the game.

However, I know this is not what happens because the official Magic: The Gathering Rules Manager has answered a question about it:

  What happens to Xantcha when the opponent controlling her dies? Does
  she get exiled? Returned to my battlefield? Do I get to give her to
  another opponent? Is all of this in the release notes?

  It's all in the release notes, but I'll tell you! You end up with
  Xantcha. Will you keep her as your poisonous friend, or kill her so
  you can pop a new Xantcha out of the vat? #WotCStaff

So I know what is supposed to happen - Xantcha's owner is supposed to gain control of it when its current controller leaves the game. What I want to know is the full explanation within the rules of what causes this result to happen.


texts: When Data mine is triggered, if the runner survives this ice, can (s)he/other still continue?

texts:
Let's say we have the following setup in this order:
1) ICE: Data mine.
2) Asset: Melange Mining Corp.

That is I have a remote server, which consists of 1 ice and 1 asset.

The Runner encounters the ICE. The runner loses 1 card, and survives the encounter.

Since there is no 'End the run' subroutine, can the runner continue to access the asset once I trash the ice? ( according to the rule of this ICE, I have to trash the ice once the subroutine fires )

Thanks,
Suman


texts: Can I activate and resolve Hand Destruction with less than 2 cards in one's hand?

texts:
Hand Destruction's effect reads:

  (Spell/Quick Play) Each player sends 2 cards from their hand to the graveyard, then each player discards 2 cards.

My question is simple: If I, or my opponent, have less than 2 cards in the hand, can I activate it? And also, will it resolve successfully if there's less than 2 cards on one's hand on its resolution time? (say, for example, if someone chains a trap which discards one card as a cost)

P.S.: There are old rulings from Upper Deck Entertainment that say it can't be activated, but they're not official anymore.


texts: Is there another good 3 player variant of Canasta?

texts: The only 3 player variant of Canasta that I know is Cutthroat Canasta.  Are there any other good 3 player variations?


texts: Is a spell with split mana in its cost a multicolored spell?

texts: Say I play a Noggle Bandit (or any card with split mana in its cost). Does its color depend on what mana I use to play it, or is it always both red and blue? It seems a little weird that this card would return Aurora Eidolon from my graveyard to my hand AND be able to block red creatures with intimidate if I only paid blue mana for it, but I highly doubt that it would 'remember' the mana-color used to play it. Likewise, Reaper King would always be 5 colors no matter how I pay its cost, right?


texts:
There's a source that heals you for each creature in play. Obviously creatures already kept (both yours and your opponents) count.

However, do unresolved creatures in your own spell count?


texts: How is Hnefatafl related to Chess and Go?

texts: What is the history of Hnefatafl in relation to Chess and/or Go? Which was developed first and what if anything influenced the development of Hnefatafl?


texts: Is a cultural win viable in Civilization?

texts:
Played Sid Mayer's civilization board game a couple of times now. In the beginning we all had tech wins due to passivity of players. Then I started experimenting with cultural and military victory. Doing so with 2 players game.

Even when I try cultural win, I need to increase military to defend from the other player. Then at the point I can focus on culture, I am at tech level 4, can discover Flight, use two turns to buy some fighters. Then I can quickly reach other player capital. With grouping limit of 4 I can have 9 units which is well enough to defeat a capital. Given a capital can be defended by at most 6 units as far as I understand the rules.

Even with Rome I couldn't reach 3rd culture level before I could achieve the military victory.

Or probably the other player not good enough to defend?

In any case, I think at tech level 4, one can easily make a surprising move to military track and other players could easily be too slow to react if pursuing another victory type.

I'm reading some forum threads where I read stuff about culture victories and it sounds like only possible with 4 players and it's about being in the right place on the map and depending on the tracks taken by the other players.

To sum up:

is culture victory viable in a 2 player game?
is culture victory achievable regardless of other players strategies?
is there any situation where cultural track has advantages over military track? Or is cultural track only for the adventurous seeking for a challenge?


texts: If I have called the suit, and I have the lead and the highest trump card, but not much else, isn’t it the best strategy to lead that card, flushing out my opponents trump?  Then lead my next best card hoping for help from my partner.   My friend contends that I would be robbing my partner a chance to trump because I would have taken his chance by forcing him to follow suit.  Thank you.


texts: Live statistics chess960 from chess.com?

texts:
Both lichess and chess.com have the feature to play the variant chess960 live. However, only lichess has a graph showing how your live chess960 rating has changed over time. Lichess also shows other statistics like highest, lowest, best wins, worst losses, average opponent rating, etc. (chess.com does have this for correspondence chess960 though.)
I could create my own graph and statistics in Excel/Google Sheets by manually recording each game's date and my rating afterwards indicated beside my username, but...
Question: Is there a way to obtain, or what in general is the way to go about obtaining, ratings after each chess960 game using some kind of script that sees a player's public profile and then extracts the data?
I have a feeling this kind of script has been done before even if this was not specifically done for chess.com's live chess960. The script doesn't have to graph (pretty easy to do once you have to the data: just use excel/google sheets). I just need the script to collect all the dates and rating numbers for each line of the user's games.

Update 2: Fixed now. see the 'json' vs the 'preformed'. WOW.
Update 1: It appears Mike Steelson has an answer here, where the code is given as
=arrayformula( regexextract(split( substitute(substitute(substitute(getDataJSON(A1;"/games";"/pgn");"[";"");"]";"");"""";"") ;char(10));"\s.*") )

with an example given here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MX1o5qdy0K3gTMzbimUV3SmFf-0XPCSJ8Vz4IjI-8Ak/copy
It appears there's a problem when it gets to the case of chess960 only. Consider for example this player: Replacing 'gmwso' with the player's username will yield a weird output. i imagine the output will be messier for mixed chess960 and chess.


texts:
My partner and I recently played in a Two-Headed Giant Sealed. As is the case with most multiplayer tournaments, the event was run at Regular REL. My partner has an upkeep trigger (Thopter Spy Network). The following events occur sequentially:

Our opponent's pass the turn.
I untap, draw a card, and mix it into my hand.
My partner says, "Wait! I have an upkeep trigger."

Has the trigger been missed?

  805.2. Within each team, the player seated in the rightmost seat from that team’s perspective is the primary player. If the players on a team can’t agree on a choice, such as which creatures attack or what order triggered abilities are put on the stack, the primary player makes that choice.

Comprehensive rule 805.2 states that if players on a team can't agree on a choice, the primary player decides. However, we didn't really disagree on anything, so I don't think 805.2 applies. I reference this rule because I have moved to the draw step, while my partner wants to remain in the upkeep step. I guess one could argue that I silently disagreed with him by drawing a card.


texts: Magic: The Gathering Sorcery vs Activated Abilities

texts:
The question I have is for a hypothetical situation where even though rules state(if I read correctly) that activated abilities are in their own unique stack to their owner. Player A plays a field wipe card like say Whelming Wave or Evacuation—can player B tap their creatures in response to the target player to deal damage and kill them before either card resolves? Or, is it simultaneous or does the wipe go off?

I'm relatively new, so I'm curious. The opposing player can really go "In response to that" and make it meaningless? It's fine if it's a rule, but it defeats the purpose of strategic play, of disabling such things because they didn't do it first. If it's considered on top like a counter to my card, it makes sense, but if the stack is supposed to be unique, outside, not on top of an already resolving card, then I'm not sure what to think by the way it reads.


texts: Can I sacrifice the same creature twice?

texts:
If I Use Plaguemaw Beast's Activated ability of "{t}, sacrifice a creature: Proliferate" and then target Vampire Hexmage with the activated ability of "Sacrifice Vampire Hexmage: remove all counters from target permanent", what happens?

Will Plaguemaw Beast force Hexmage to be sacrificed without being able to activate the ablity?

Will Plaguemaw Beast lose a valid target if Vampire Hexmage's ability is activated in response to sacrificed, so now Plaguemaw cannot Proliferate?

Will the Plaguemaw Beast's ability activate along with Vampire Hexmage's Activated ablity with Hexmage as a target?


texts: In Canasta, if the pile is frozen, must you take the whole pile or can you take just the top one?

texts: If the discard pile is frozen and you have two natural cards in your hand matching the top card of the frozen pile, can you take just the top card or must you take the entire pile?


texts: Can the Herald put itself on top of your draw deck?

texts:
Herald from Dominion Guilds says that you can over pay for it and if you do, you may put X Action cards from your discard on top of your deck, where X is the amount you overpaid.

Can you place Herald on top of your deck if you overpay?

(Note: This question comes down to a matter of timing. Does the "when you buy this" clause occur before or after you place Hearld in the discard pile)


texts: How can we determine the winner in Love Letter if the last two players tie and have the same value of cards discarded?

texts:
At the end of the game, both remaining players have a Baron.

The sum of all cards discarded by both players is equal.

Who wins?


texts: If the longest road is interrupted and therefore reduced, does the player have to surrender the longest road card?

texts:
I am going to split this into players A and B to simplify my question;(placement rules applied)

Player A has a road which is 7 in length and has the Longest Road tile,

Player B has a road which is 5 in length (second longest road),

Player B builds a settlement mid-way along Player A's road resulting in Player A now having two roads - a length of 4 and a length of 3.

Does Player A surrender the Longest Road card as his previous longest road no longer exists? (and as a result Player B obtains this honour)

Also, if (in the above example) Players B and C had a road less than 5, would the Longest Road card return to the bank?


texts: Replacement coins for At The Gates of Loyang

texts:
I have the game, and one of the first things I noticed was the cardboard money. Not a fan, even though in this game it's really just another resource, and doesn't change hands often.

Anyone have a source for good replacements? I'm looking for metal Cash-style coins in two sizes, and preferably different colors. A quick search for "Chinese Luck Coins" brings up good results for one size, but I can't find a good second size (larger or smaller, or in a significantly different metal color) to replicate the "1" and "5" coins.


texts: Phase 10 Going Out - Do you keep picking up?

texts:
I've just picked up a copy of Phase 10 to play with my kids. I'm a little confused about the 'Going Out' part. Once you get a phase and place it on the table, you can place any appropriate cards on your own and your opponents' phases, or the discard pile. The object is to get rid of your hand. Do you still just carry on picking cards up and discarding them until you happen to be able to get rid of them all (or your opponent does)? Or do you just discard one at a time?

EDIT: I think I've just realised that you can 'Hit' a phase at any point, so you could pick up a card, Hit it on to a phase, and discard a card into the discard pile. Is that right?


texts:
One of the mythos cards in the game says that the investigator is out of ammo and that she needs to discard her weapon. Would you interpret this as the card should be removed from the game as oppossed to the cards that says the investigator needs to drop the item, ie. in the current room.

I would have said remove the card if it wasn't for that the investigators have an action called "discard" where they actually drop the items in the current room.


texts: Can I play Yu-Gi-Oh! with only level 5 or higher cards?

texts: I only have level 5 or higher cards. I am not sure if I can build a deck and play with only such cards. Is it possible or recommended thing to do?


texts: Say my opponent plays Dryad Arbor. Can I counter it with a Cancel from my hand? I know that lands can't be countered because they don't go on the stack, but what about land-creatures?


texts: How to play teaching game and give a useful review

texts:
I've reached a rank where I'd like to start and help weaker players improve their games.

How can I make a review useful for the opponent?

Should I go deep into variations
Talk about theory?
Should I comment every move until the very last one?

Are there guidelines or best practice to give a good review?


texts:
Is there a good book about the history of board games?

Preferably the book would cover all the way from the ancient games to the newest fads in the market.


texts: Can a 4-length road ever be Longest Road in Settlers of Catan?

texts:
Suppose I have an 8-length road and Longest Road, but later someone splits my road in half with a settlement, leaving me two 4-length roads.

Assuming no one else has a longer road than me, do I lose Longest Road, given that my road no longer has a length of at least 5?


texts: Should supports be used as the primary weight of your attack?

texts:
It seems that support orders confer several benefits over march orders.

The support troops won't be destroyed if the fight goes badly.
The support troops won't be routed if the fight goes badly.
The support troops can be used in multiple fights in the round.

It seems that a good strategy might be initiate combat with a single infantry, and use the support troops on an adjacent territory to the one you're attacking.

The sole reason I can think that you might not do this, is if on the following turn you want to march your entire army again to a territory that is only accessible from the newly conquered territory.

Is my understanding of these rules correct? - What are the downsides of using support over march orders?


texts:
I play Insult, then attack with my 4/4 and my opponent blocks with their 4/4.
Do both creatures die?  Damage cannot be prevented, does that work both ways?


texts:
The English Bridge Union (EBU) Recommends using a modified IMP scale for scoring teams of 8 matches. It is obtained by multiplying the standard IMP scale by √2.

I'm looking for an explanation for why multiplaying by  the square root of 2 is the correct thing to do.

The EBU also specifically recommends against simply adding up the IMP scores from both tables. Why is this a bad scoring method?

The scoring scale can be found here


texts: Does a player have to say uno twice on the same last card?

texts: When playing with 4 or more players, if one player says "uno" when the second-to-last card is placed on the pile and now holds only one card, must they say "Uno" again at the start of their next turn, or can they say "out", or do they simply place the last card down as long as the card is playable?


texts:
I played a multiplayer game of magic today that had a very interesting turn. The game was a five player game with your allies being the player to your left and right and your opponents were the people across from you. On of my allies ended up getting a Wall of Resistance and would gain +1 toughness at the end of a turn after damage was dealt to it. I decided to attack my ally with this ability with a 1/1 creature to strengthen it, but the other ally said I couldn't due to it being an ally. Right after that, the same ally used Rootwater Hunter's tap ability to damage that same 1/1 creature and kill it.

To me, these two action seem equal and if one action can't be allowed then the other shouldn't. Since this was the pivoting point of the game I would like to the actual rules and how they apply to each situation. So can you attack an ally and can you target an ally with an effect that deals damage?


texts: Apparent contradiction in official rules for Kamisado?

texts:
I have in front of me the official Rules of the Game for Kamisado. They make me wonder which player takes the opening move in a new round after filling from the left or the right.

The section "Filling from the Left or Rights" explains that the towers "can be set up in one of two ways, determined by the player who won the previous round. This player will be the Defender in the new round". So this would suggest that the player who lost the previous round takes the first turn in the next round. That's also what seems to be implemented e.g. in the online version at Yucata.
However the description of Figure 7(h) states that the "diagram shows the possible moves open to Alain with his purple Sumo dragon tower, should he decide to make his opening move with this tower". Alain has just gained a Sumo tower by winning a round, so this would suggest that the player who won the previous round takes the first turn in the next round. Only if Alain were to begin could he chose which tower to make his opening move with.

I suspect that 1. is the right answer but am not yet sure. Who knows better and can explain the apparently odd description for Figure 7(h)?


texts: Mechanics for interactivity in card games

texts:
I am creating a fantasy collectible card game and one if its aspects is mage battles. I have been a bit stumped on how to make it highly interactive.
I am familiar with Magic: The Gathering and I enjoy the increased depth due to the stack and the ability to act during your opponent's turn.
I have also played several online card games. Maybe I had simply missed those, but reactions to spells and effects do not seem to used.

I would like to, in some ways, replicate the interactivity that can happen on the stack. I am reluctant to simply copy it. I feel like I need a new perspective for inspiration.

Are there any other ways to evoke back-and-forth mage battles?


texts: Is it better to close gates or save up clue tokens to seal them?

texts: Imagine that we've got a couple of gates open and every investigator has 3 clue tokens. All other things being equal, is it better to try to immediately attempt to close those gates or would it be better to save up to 5 clue tokens in order to seal them? By better, I mean more likely to result in the investigators winning the game.


texts: Creating Scenarios for Mansions of Madness

texts:
OK. So Mansions of Madness is practically here. I know I can't be the only one who's hotly anticipating this game.

The only question I have about it is this: The game comes 5 scenarios included, each with 3 variations, for a total of 15 unique games.

Can the included scenarios be hacked, modified, customized or remixed? Can entirely new scenarios be created from the existing components?

I know that there are people out there who have had their hands on this for some time already, and I want to know what they think.

Sure, 15 scenarios is a lot - especially since players won't know exactly what path they're on until they uncover late-game clues. But I'm interested in the answer to this question from a re-playability standpoint, especially with regard to community-created scenarios vs. officially released expansions. I don't have anything against official expansions - I just imagine that if the game is as good as I expect, my group will be ready for something new well before FFG is ready to release one.

EDIT: Now that the game has been out for a while, the community really seems to be supporting it. BGG has a number of scenarios and tools for crafting your own.


texts: Could you use Twincast to counter Cryptic Command?

texts: If your opponent casts Cryptic Command to tap all your creatures and draw a card, can you use Twincast to counter it and draw a card?


texts: How to open with Baratheon at Game of Thrones Board Game?

texts:
I've played a couple of games as Baratheon or closely observing the Baratheon player, and in my experience, there are two initial strategies that people choose. I'm undecided which one is better.

The problem is centered around Storm's End - is it better to take it, or leave it to Martells, who will in 90% of cases take it right in the 1st turn. You have the advantage of moving first though, so you can do it before them.

In the games where I chose to take it, the Martells usually didn't engage me and attack it right away, so I managed to basically confine them to Dorne throughout most of the game. On the other hand, I always ended up stretching my forces thin, and ultimately I had a hard time defending it from Martells/Tyrells, also leaving King's Landing exposed, and weakening my northern defences against the Starks.

If I decided to leave it to Martells however, I gave them more space to breathe and grow, and they ended up constantly harrassing my lands, and the support orders they gave from Storm's End's port helped them a lot in war against me. This option has the benefit of not antagonizing the Martells so early on, but I'm not sure about the gain of it, since from what I have seen, Martells usually ally with the Tyrells, not Baratheons, who stand in their way to go north, so they mostly end up attacking Baratheons anyway.

Which strategy is better?


texts: Can one hero use multiple Toryn Gauntlets?

texts: Toryn Gauntlet allows a hero to wield an additional weapon.  Can another gauntlet be wielded?  How about a third?


texts: What to do after flipping the discard pile in Uno Flip?

texts:
Uno Flip, I'm wondering what to do in this scenario:

Gameplay starts, eventually someone plays a Flip Card.
We flip the discard pile, and the card now facing up is an action card, what happens?

Example 1: The card facing up is a Draw Five Card. Does the next person pick up 5 cards?

Example 2: The card facing up is a Wild Card. Who chooses the color?

Example 3: The card facing up is a Wild Draw Color Card. Who chooses the color and draw the cards?


texts: If your opponent uses the ability where you can't untap until next turn can he use another card like that and have it stack for multiple turns?


texts: Should the core Battlestar Galactica game adopt the revised Cylon Resurrection Ship?

texts:
In Battlestar Galactica, revealed Cylon players can use the Resurrection Ship location to pass their unrevealed loyalty cards to another player at the table.  This can be necessary when one player has drawn multiple "You Are A Cylon" cards or can be used to sow confusion by giving "You Are Not A Cylon" cards away.

In the Pegasus expansion, the Resurrection Ship location no longer passes loyalty cards.  Instead, when a Cylon player reveals himself, he always passes his unrevealed cards to another player as part of the reveal process.

It's not clear which situation happened during Pegasus development:

The passing was made part of the reveal process in order to address an imbalance, and the Resurrection Ship location was changed in response to this
The Resurrection Ship location was changed for other reasons, and the passing was moved to the reveal process in response to this.

Having just played a game where I happened to be dealt both "You Are A Cylon" cards, I'm starting to think that the base game should use the Pegasus card-passing rules.

The process of revealing is purposely built so that the Cylon player doesn't get to do any "Cylon actions" until the round after he reveals - for one thing, this prevents a player from revealing and immediately playing his Super Crisis card.

A Cylon dealt both Cylon cards, however, ends up having to wait 2 full rounds to get all the stuff he needs to do done:

He needs to pass the other Cylon card
He needs to play his Super Crisis

Now, he won't always NEED to play the Super Crisis, but in most cases that will probably be true, particularly since there has been only one Cylon player sabotaging things to this point.  Whichever order the Cylon chooses, it's not great for him.  If he passes loyalty cards first, it probably looks pretty suspicious that he didn't play the Super Crisis, but prioritized card-passing more.  The humans are likely to assume the card recipient is now also a Cylon.  On the other hand, if he plays the Super Crisis first, there is one more human available to help against it for a round until the card is finally passed.

This two-turn latency to get all his ducks in a row seems like a harsh penalty, especially on top of the minor penalty that he's been the sole Cylon to this point.  Automatically passing as part of the reveal gets things back to the more "normal" setup - 2 Cylons, and a 1 turn delay before Super Crisis can be played.  It also makes the passing of the loyalty cards something that is not inherently suspicious, since it always happens.

If this had come about in Pegasus through just a rule change listed in the instructions, it would be a no-brainer to apply it to the core game.  But since it involves changes to the board that are affected by other Pegasus-specific stuff, it's not clear how applicable this should be.

Since I haven't played Pegasus, it made me wonder: is there a reason why it would be bad to apply this rule change to the core game?


texts:
This week I was playing bridge, specifically as dummy in a no-trump contract. With two tricks to go, the lead was in dummy, and my partner said "Play either, they're both losers." Actually she had miscounted, so that one lead would win a trick, and the other would lose both.  Law 43 says 'Dummy may not participate in the play, nor may he communicate anything about the play to declarer', so the obvious course of saying "actually, it makes a difference; which do you want?" is specifically forbidden. The same Law says 'dummy should not initiate a call for the Director', but I might have stretched a point and asked the director to choose one of the two at random, had I not been acting as director myself that afternoon.

Does anyone know which card I should have played? Laws or EBU rulings preferred: rulings by other bodies such as ACBL useful as supporting evidence.


texts: How long do I have to collect rent in Monopoly?

texts:
I'm playing Monopoly with Alice, Bob, and Carol (in order of turns; my turn is after Carol's).

Alice lands on my property, and I'm not paying attention.  The rule book states:

  The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before
  the second player following throws the dice

I always interpreted that to mean once Bob rolled the dice I was out of luck (i.e., Alice —who owes me money— was the first player and Bob was the second).  But I can definitely see that being interpreted as giving me until Carol rolls the dice, being the second player to play after Alice.


texts: Which books to buy to start playing Warhammer 40K 8th edition?

texts:
My sons (12 & 13) are new to Warhammer and want to start playing 40K with Chaos Space Marines and Blood Angels.

We already have the free 'Warhammer 40,000 Battle Primer' but need to know what else we need.

I thought that we'd just need the new 8th edition Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines codexes, but I understand that Blood Angels need their own codex which isn't out yet. (BAs are apparently 'non-codex', which I don't understand as we are not very knowledgeable of 40K lore and history).

Q. **What rules/books do we need to play from the following list?:

280-page hardback rulebook
Index: Imperium 1
Codex: Chaos Space Marines
Codex: Space Marines

or would we be better of getting either of the 'Know No Fear' or 'Dark Imperium' sets (we already have lots of miniatures, as well as older mini-rulebooks and both Chaos and Space Marine codexes)


texts: What are some common tactics to make runs against servers with unrezzed ICE in Netrunner?

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

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

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


texts: How does Infinite Reflection work with Commander and commander damage?

texts:
Does a Commander which has been turned into a copy of another card still do commander damage (i.e. will 21 damage dealt to a single player from the copy lose the game for that player)?

Alternately, does a card which has been turned into a copy of a commander do commander damage?

Examples of both cases:

Our antagonist has 50 life and no commander damage dealt.

Our protagonist has a (any) commander and Malignus on the battlefield.

Protagonist enchants Malignus with Infinite Reflection and then attacks with his/her commander (which is a copy of Malignus). Antagonist does not block. 25 damage is dealt. Does our protagonist win the game due to commander damage?

Alternately:

Our antagonist has 50 life and no commander damage dealt.

Our protagonist has a 6/6 commander and 3 other non token creatures on the battlefield.

Protagonist enchants his/her commander with Infinite Reflection and then attacks with all 4 creatures. Antagonist does not block. 24 damage is dealt (6 per creature). Does our protagonist win the game due to commander damage?

It seems like the answer to one of these questions should be yes. I feel like it's probably the first one (a commander turned into a copy of another card doesn't lose its commander-ness), but I'm not familiar enough with the rules to say for sure.


texts: The "Big Five" Bidding Convention in Spades

texts:
In the game of Spade, the Big 5 conventions (invent by Herm Carney and Roger Denino, as stated in a video by Joe Andrews)  means that if the first partner bids 5 it signals to the second partner that she can cover a Nil bid.  That is to say, if partners play by this convention, the first bidder only bids 5 when she have certain hand that can cover a partner Nil.
I found the exact rules of when to bid 5 are vague.  Of course every couple can decide upon a slightly different convention, however I am interested in the original\popular convention.
I play that the first bidder only bids 5 if have:

Ace or King of spade

4 to 6 takes

in each of the side-suits, has one of the following options:
a. Void
b. Singelton higher than {5}
c. Doubleton higher than {5,8}
d. A honor card

My question is, what exactly a 5 bid by the first partner represent in the big 5 convention?
The vagueness is mostly in section 3 (cover in side suits).
Another issue I suspect needs to be defined better: if you only have a single spade (Ace or king) is it still acceptable for a bid of 5?


texts: BANG! Where do cards played in phase 2 go when "Abandoned Mine" is in effect

texts:
In the Fistful of Cards expansion pack for the card game BANG!, the Abandoned Mine card states in both languages used on the card:

  Nella propria fase 1, il giocatore pesca dagli scarti (se finiscono, pesca dal mazzo). Nella propria fase 3, scarta a faccia in giù sul mazzo.

  During his phase 1, each player draws from the discards (if they run out, from the deck). In his phase 3, he discards face down on the deck.

Unfortunately, it never says what to do with the cards played in phase 2.

Argument 1

Some would argue that for the whole round, the discard pile becomes the draw pile and the original draw pile becomes the discard pile. So for example, during your phase 2, when you play a Bang! card, it would go face down on the original draw pile.

Argument 2

However, this card is very specific about stating which "phase" things happen in. Therefore, the other argument (and the one that it sounds like the card seems to say) is that: ONLY during phase 1, and ONLY during phase 3 the draw pile and discard pile are swapped. For example: when playing a Bang! card in phase 2, it would go to the original discard pile (face-up stack). This can get weird at times, because when playing Indians, the card says that all other players need to discard a Bang! card in order to avoid being hit. Since they are "discarding", would those cards go to the face-down pile?

References

Phases are talked about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!#Gameplay

And the Fistful of cards expansion is talked about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!#A_Fistful_Of_Cards
(When speaking about the Abandoned Mine, it's language does not use what is stated on the card.)

So, where are cards played in phase 2 actually placed?


texts:
We have been playing the game, The Duke, and confusion came up regarding the movement for the Assassin tile.

Based on the slide rules, a tile can move as many spaces as they want in the shown direction until they would hit another tile, friendly or enemy.

The jump rules state that a tile can jump over an adjacent tile to the space beyond it.

So the question is, for this tile with a jump slide, can the slide begin in the adjacent tile or must the assassin move at least two spaces away?


texts:
This end-game puzzle is for Shithead. I am beginner, and was quite surprised this end-game seems lost to me. Is it a mathematical loss? You can treat this as a "perfect knowledge" and "perfect play" puzzle. That is, both players know what cards remain and will play optimally.

The hidden cards (2 and 5) are unknown to the players, but it would clearly be a loss if my opponent had the hidden 2, but the puzzle is if he has the hidden 5, as he did.

Player 1: One hidden card: 2. Cards in hand: 2, 44, 9999, JJJ, QQQQ, AAAA.

Player 2: One hidden card: 5. No cards in hand.

Board: J.

It is player 1s turn to act.

It seems to me that the fact that there are only sets (4 of a kind) left, reset cards plus 44 and 5, means I will always have to hand my opponent either 44 into his 5, or give him a reset card for the sets.


texts: In Bridge, Does It Make Sense to Pre-empt in Fourth Seat?

texts:
In one of my games, there were three passes. Fourth seat elected to "pre-empt," three hearts with something like the following:

♠xx ♥KQJxxxx ♦Jxx ♣x

One of the opponents doubled (for penalties), after having passed, with something like:

♠Axx ♥ATxx ♦Kxx ♣xxx

The result was down two (doubled, not vulnerable). The three non pre-empters had about 11 points each, hence no bids.

I asked, "Why did you do that? You could have broken even by passing out the hand."

Bidder responded, "I bid my cards, that's what you're supposed to do with seven of a suit."

Did he overlook the issue of "position"? That is, if the bidder had been THIRD seat. after two passes, would pre-empting have made much more sense, to presume that (barring a freak distribution) that fourth seat might have had all the cards and that the pre-empt might then have saved a game?

Did it make sense to pre-empt in fourth seat with the cards that the bidder held? If his hand had been somewhat stronger (say a king of diamonds in place of the jack), could he have had a positive "expectation" with a different bid, such as a "weak" two hearts, or even one heart?


texts: For Flashpoint... can you "share" the victim POI marker?

texts:
Like, lets say for example,
Orange firefighter had to end their turn with a victim POI marker right in front of the door leading to the outside. The player going next has their yellow firefighter right outside that door.
O | y  <- makeshift diagram where 0 is orange and y is the yellow one that is outside the building.

Can the yellow firefighter move into the building on the square with the orange firefighter, take the victim POI marker and move back outside with the POI marker?


texts: What happens when two players both play Control Magic on the same creature?

texts: For example, I control a Pathraizer of Ulamog. One of my opponents cast Control Magic on it to take control of it. Then my other opponent casts the same spell. How can they both control it?


texts: Can someone please provide some info on the game? And possibly whay it may be worth? I have searched high and low and found nothing. All I really know is that the game is from the year 1939 and that all the pieces are here. Will provide more pictures. Thank you.


texts: Using Huatli, Radiant Champion ability on another Huatli, Radiant Champion

texts:
Say I already have a Huatli, Radiant Champion out. If I cast a second Huatli, Radiant Champion can I use the original Huatli's plus 1 ability to target the new Huatli?
Or does the original, or whichever one I choose, die immediately?


texts: 3 Parcheesi Use Cases Not Covered in the Rules - Help!

texts:
I have 3 use cases that I need help on to solve a family debate since none of these are covered in Parcheesi rules.  I would love it if someone can give a definitive answer:

If another player has one of their pawns on your entry (safe) space, and you roll a 5 to get one of your pawns out while they are there, does the other player get bumped, or do you both sit on that space together?

Same situation as above, but when you have one of your pawns on your entry (safe) space and another player has one of their pawns and you roll a 5 to get another one of your pawns out, does the other player get bumped?

If you have 2 of your pawns (a blockade) on your entry space and you roll a 5 on one die and another number on the other die (let's say a 3 for this case), can you move one of the existing pawns on your entry space 3 spaces FIRST to "make room" to use the 5 to get another pawn out?  Or do you have to use the 5 for something else?   We have a "house rule" that if you have a blockade of 2 of your pawns on the entry space and then you roll any 5's, you can't use them because we say that 5's for entering a pawn always have to be the first thing you do on a turn if you get them.

Since there are no specific rules in the Parcheesi game to cover the above, how can we substantiate your answers?  Thank you all so much.  Looking forward to your responses!


texts: Are there times to pre-empt with a "strong" six trumps in bridge?

texts:
Suppose you have something like AQJxxx of clubs (and no other values). If it were any other suit than clubs, I'd open with a with a "weak two" bid.

But two clubs is the STRONG two bid. Meaning that if I wanted a "weak" two bid, I'd have to go to THREE clubs. With such a strong honor holding, is it ok to do so with only six clubs, on the theory that your suit is actually stronger than a seven card suit such as QTxxxxx? (If your partner has nothing, you figure to win five tricks, going down four, but your opponents can make a small slam.)

Would you do this with another suit besides clubs, where you could bid a weak two? And how would vulnerability affect your answer.


texts: Can Strionic Resonator re-direct Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger's exile ability?

texts: Let's say I have 15 copies of Strionic Resonator for a total of 16 triggers and I attack with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and copy its triggered ability to exile 20 cards from the top of defending players deck. Can I choose a different player or players to exile from or does it have to be defending player's deck?


texts: Are there other legal/recognized Roulette variations than just the standard European and American?

texts:
Currently, I know there are two main variations of the Casino Roulette layouts, the European (with a Single Zero "0") and the American (with Zero "0" and Double Zero "00"). Roulettes each with their characteristic sequence of numbers, and with their boards with numbers arranged in reading order:

I am not at all sure, but in the past I remember to have played in a Casino, with the double zero layout memorized, just to realize they had a different double zero layout.

Question is: Is there any other "legal" or recognized layout around there? Or the strongest possibility is I was a bit too drunk that night?


texts:
I have as South

AJ10x
AQJxxx
xx
x

p(N) has:

xxxx
Kxx
xx
Jxxx

all vulnerable

SOUTH    WEST     NORTH     EAST
1H       3C       Pass      Pass
?

What is South's best call and why?


texts: Does Ajani's Chosen allow adding creatures from Enchantments played before this card?

texts: I believe that Ajani's Chosen cannot use it's ability from Enchantments played before this card, but since I was asked about this and I'm not 100% sure myself either, I thought of making sure about it.


texts: 1953 version of Scrabble includes 4 wooden dice - why?

texts: I have acquired a 1953 version of Scrabble.  Included with the usual 100 wooden tiles are 4 wooden dice.  Each face of the dice  has the dots imprinted using one of these 3 colors; red, green or black.  I am not familiar with Scrabble using dice.  How do the dice get incorporated into the game both in use & scoring?


texts: What are the standards for algorithmically forecasting metagame evolution under certain conditions of TCG design?

texts:
Company X operates a trading card game, periodically designing and releasing new card sets, which seed evolutionary shifts in its competitive metagame.  For the purpose of achieving balanced card design, it would be ideal if X could forecast in advance what shifts a candidate new card set would induce, and what new equilibrium metagame state would result.  Computer simulations surely play a role here, but I'm not sure how close to solvable this problem is, even under ideal conditions.

Assuming their game's mechanics roughly reflect that of an actual trading card game (30 - 60 card deck size, normal gameplay actions such as playing creatures and spells attacking and so forth, modest design power creep over time, etc.), to what extent can X attempt to accurately forecast the impact of a new set as they design it, given...

1)  Set rotation (like Hearthstone's standard format; the number of total cards in the card pool remains relatively constant over time)

2)  No set rotation (like the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG; the number of total cards in the card pool grows large over time)?


texts: Does Small World's Dragon Master allow conquering non-adjacent regions?

texts:
Dragon Master:

  Once per turn, you may conquer a Region
  using a single Race token, regardless of the
  number of enemy tokens defending it. Once
  conquered, place your Dragon there...

Does this allow you to conquer any region on the map, even if it's not adjacent to a region you already control? In a game I played last night, it was ruled that it could do this. However I don't agree with that ruling since it doesn't explicitly grant that exception.


texts: What's The Strongest Base Strategy in Thurn & Taxis?

texts:
It seems like you can take any number of different paths leading in the general direction of victory.  Build short routes and grab points for being the first to complete a region.  Build long routes and grab points for being the first to build long routes.  Concentrate on finishing one big region for a hefty points boost.  Spread your houses all over the board to be the first to have a presence in every region.  Play out as many houses as possible to be in the best position when the game ends early.  Play conservatively to maximise the value of the houses you do play.

It just feels like any of these opposing and contradictory strategies could win the game, depending on the right cards being available on your turn, of course!  But I can't believe that T&T is that random - I must just not have "gotten" it yet.  Therefore, what are the best ways to sit down at a table with other relative newbies and do well at Thurn & Taxis? Mega bonus points for describing how/if this changes if you're playing with the quite different rules in the sequel ("The Power and the Glory" I believe?)


texts: Game of Thrones 2nd Ed vs 1st + Expansions

texts: I've got the GoT 1st Ed, and was wondering: is it better to get the 2nd Edition straight, or is it somehow worthwhile to get the two expansions (Clash of Kings + Storm of Swords), on which I understand the 2nd Ed is based on?


texts: How will Gadwick remember the actual amount of X mana spent?

texts:
The text for Gadwick the Wizened (from Throne of Eldraine) says:

Gadwick, the Wizened XUUU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
When Gadwick, the Wizened enters the battlefield, draw X cards.
Whenever you cast a blue spell, tap target nonland permanent an opponent controls.

My understanding (largely based on others comments) was that the card won't remember the cost of X when it enters the battlefield?
So how will Gadwick know what the X was, when it was cast?


texts: How to Maintain the Balance of Power on Risk?

texts: How can I stay strong enough to avoid being eliminated while at the same time avoid being too strong and making myself a target?


texts: What are the differences between the four editions of The Settlers of Catan base game?

texts:
I haven't played Settlers of Catan yet, but I've been considering asking my gaming group if they want to try it.

As I understand it, Settlers of Catan is now in its fourth major version.  If I do get a Catan box, should I just get the current (fourth) edition, or is there some reason to look for used copies of earlier editions?

Edit: I forgot to mention, we will also be getting the 5-6 player extension.


texts: Definitions of verbalisations in card games, specifically UNO and DOS

texts:
In the card game DOS, the sequel to UNO, there is a rule stating:

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

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


texts: Playing a draw 4 after another player has played a draw 4

texts:
The first player lays down a draw 4 card.
The second player draws 4 cards.
The third player lays down a draw 4 card as well.

Does that mean the second player puts back their 4 cards. While the fourth player has to draw 8 cards?


texts: What happens when I gain control of a creature that's a different color from my deck?

texts: If I take control of a black creature using a white deck, how do I pay the mana cost to attack if I don't have swamps in my deck? Please help, I'm new to the game.


texts:
In game theory, a zero-sum or constant-sum game is a game in which there is a single constant payoff that will be divided equally between the players; in order for one player to get a better result, one or more other players have to get worse results. For instance, in many games, there can be one winner and everyone else loses; there is a single "win" available. In others, you might have draws, but a draw could be considered as all of the given players splitting the win equally; for instance, in chess, a win is 1 point, a loss 0, and a draw 0.5 for each player. In some games, like poker, that constant payoff to split is 0; in order for one player to make money, another has to lose money.

A cooperative game is not be zero-sum. There are two possible outcomes; either everyone wins, or everyone loses. Thus, from the perspective of game theory, there is one outcome in which the total payoff for the players is greater than in another outcome. However, this is somewhat trivially non-zero sum; there aren't any interesting decisions that affect how much the total payoff is. Poker played at a casino, likewise, is non-zero sum as you are always losing the rake to the casino; but again, it's not in an interesting way as you don't make any interesting decisions that affect the total value of the game.

Note that all of these non-zero sum games could be made zero-sum if you consider the game itself or the house as a player; then there is one "win" split between the players and the game, or one pool of money split between the players and the casino. This is true of any non-zero-sum game; you can always posit an extra hypothetical player, or consider the interests of the house, whose gain or loss is the negative of the gain or loss of the players of the game. But it's still interesting to consider games as non-zero sum from the perspective of the players themselves.

So, are there any games which are non-zero sum in an interesting way? That is, in which players have to make interesting decisions during the game, that affect the total payoff of the game. For instance, a game in which, depending on the action of the players, the outcome could be that one player gets 10 points, or two players each get 8, or three players all get 7 points would be non-zero sum game; the total value of the game depends on decisions that the players make within the game. A game like Shadows over Camelot, which will randomly be zero-sum or non-zero sum depending on whether there's a traitor, isn't really interesting as the actions of the players don't affect what the possible payoffs are, only a random card chosen at the beginning affects this.

I am only interested in actual fun playable games, not hypothetical mathematical examples, and only interested in how games are actually played in practice, not hypothetical tournament setups that you could play; in almost any game with a variable score, you could institute a system in which your absolute score in the game was used in the tournament results, but that's not the way that most tournaments I've seen are played. I want to know about games or tournament structures that people actually play.

Note that in order for this question to even make sense, there may need to be some kind of external value associated with the game; some metagame that the game is played within, such as a tournament or ranking system, or a gambling game in which the players in an individual game may wind up with more or less money than they started with. If so, please describe how this metagame works, and interacts with the outcome of individual games.


texts: Can a Suppression Bonds cancel out another Suppression Bonds?

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


texts: Sequence of fast and triggered effects - Enchantment Alteration, Abduction

texts:
This is a multi-part question because I have no idea how to predict the interplay of effects of two cards:

Abduction
Enchantment Alteration

Probably I'm missing some basic timing rules information.
(Also, if the answer would be different prior to 9th Edition or so, I'd like to know both answers as pretty much all of my cards are that old so I tend to prefer the older rules for casual games.)
Several situations I'm wondering about:
Let's say I've played Abduction on one of my opponent's creatures (doesn't matter what for this question, call it creature A).  Then, when the creature is about to be destroyed in combat with creature B (either as an attacker or a blocker, if it makes a difference I'd like to know both), I play Enchantment Alteration and move my Abduction to creature C.
What happens to creature A?  Since it's no longer enchanted, I think it wouldn't be put back into play under owner's control, right?  But would it be taken out of combat since I don't control it?  Would creature B be saved from being killed?  (Let's say creatures A and B are both 2/2s.)
Also, would creature C be untapped by moving Abduction onto it?
What if I moved Adbuction onto creature B instead?  (From one creature in the combat to the other?)  Or from a noncombatant to an enemy combatant?
Overall I just need to understand how transition of control affects combat, and also in particular whether moving Adbuction off a creature right before it dies prevents the "put into play under owner's control" effect of Adbuction.


texts: What happens if a double-faced card that is copying a different double-faced card transforms?

texts:
We are getting Metamorphic Alteration in M19. What if I enchant my Delver of Secrets, copying my opponents Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. Then I pay the cost on my Bolas (previously a Delver) to activate his transform ability.

What will happen? I can think of 3 possibilities:

My Delver is exiled and the aura goes to the graveyard.
My Delver is transformed, aura goes to the graveyard, but the Delver transforms into Insectile Aberration
My Delver is transformed, aura goes to the graveyard, and the Delver transforms into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen


texts: God-Pharaoh's Statue and Finale Of Promise

texts:
I am bringing forward a case to the judges of Magic. Was I screwed by Magic Arena, or do I not know how to play?

Opponent has a God-Pharaoh's Statue.
I play a Finale of Promise with X = 2. I pick a Shock and a Chart a Course.

Now as the jury can clearly see, both of my picked spells are below the converted mana cost of 2. Also as the Finale of Promise states "You may cast up to one target instant card and or up to one target sorcery card from your graveyard each with converted mana cost X or less without paying their mana costs.

So the spells trigger, I play my shock. I then go to play my chart a course and the game asks me to pay mana to play it. Of which I have none. Shouldn't this spell be free as stated by Finale of Promise?


texts: Does Essence Scatter affect Artifact Creatures?

texts: Does the Instant Essence Scatter affect Artifact Creature spells such as Stuffy Doll?


texts: Catan: Can I move my boat in the first round of the game?

texts: If I build two boats during the setup, can I move one of them during the first round of the game? Or does the setup count as the first round which would mean that I can't move the boat?


texts: planeswalker- Kiora on the battlefield and played Hydra and creature gained 7, does the counters fall away when planeswalker die

texts: I have a planeswalker- Kiora on the battlefield and I played Bioessence Hydra and that creature gained 7 counters , does the counters fall away when the planeswalker die or not


texts: Trying to remember card game I played a few years back

texts:
I still remember the rules pretty well, the name escapes me though. The cards look a lot like Phase 10, so I'm hoping my grandma didn't just make it up.

Each player is dealt a hand of 6(?) cards
Each player is also dealt a stack of 30 cards that is face down except for the top card which can be flipped
And the remaining cards become the draw pile.
The goal is to get rid of your whole stack of 30, by placing your cards on one of 4 spots around the draw pile.
Each spot around the pile your trying to place cards in order of 1-12, once it reaches 12 the spot is restarted.
You are forced to always place a card, and if no spot on either of the 4 piles is available, you have 4 rows by you that you can stack. You can take cards from it on your turn, but only in the order they're placed so you had to be careful.
There were a couple of Free cards that you could place anywhere.

Even though it sounds complicated written out it was played pretty simply, and was a lot of fun. Hoping to find it again through some help on here, thank you!


texts: Ferries and Tunnels in Ticket to Ride Expansions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


texts: Where to buy bicycle quality custom playing cards

texts:
I have the ideas (and graphics) for two decks of cards. Googling I only found two options for creating custom playing cards in the bicycle quality/style that seemed legit.

One: custom decks from the official bicycle website. Looks good to begin with, but I called the number for more info, and discovered that bicycle can not make only 1 or 2 decks.

Two: Zazzle makes playing cards! Again looks good to begin with, but after starting the process it quickly became apparent that zazzle only allows customization of the back. I need more than that.

The first deck will need custom backs, jokers, royals, and tuck case. The second will need custom backs, all faces, and tuck case.

So, anyone know of another legit company?

Note: I am a amateur magician, and for the cards to be of use they must have the feel of bicycle cards.


texts: Monster attacking directly considered as "battled"?

texts:
So if monster attacked directly, is it considered "battle"? So if Michion, the Timelord attacked LP directly, his effect of halving LP activates?

I'm asking this because of Michion, the Timelord's effect:

  Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. If you control no monsters,
  you can Normal Summon this card without Tributing. Cannot be destroyed
  by battle or card effects. You take no battle damage from attacks
  involving this card. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card
  battled: Halve your opponent’s LP. Once per turn, during your Standby
  Phase: Shuffle this card into the Deck.


texts: If Realmwright is removed from the battlefield, do the changed lands remain dual colored?

texts:
I just came by Realmwright and it didn't give any discussion on whether the changed lands are permanently changed or not if the creature leaves the battlefield.

Does anyone have any info on this?


texts: Can the Wonder that pulls from the discard pile be used multiple times?

texts: One of the Wonders earns the player, in its second stage, the right to go through the discard pile of previously played ages, choose one card and build it for free.  Is this a one time deal, to be done at the conclusion of the age during which the player completes the stage, or can the player now "dumpster dive" in the discard pile at the end of every subsequent age as well?


texts: Do creatures with Defender have summoning sickness?

texts: Say I put down 2 Fog Banks during my turn, and once my turn ends would I be able to block creatures with trample, and cancel the effects of trample? Meaning that Fog Bank doesn't get destroyed, and no trample damage gets dealt to me?


texts: How do two Notion Thieves interact with each other?

texts:
Notion Thief's text reads:

  If an opponent would draw a card except the first one he or she draws
  in each of his or her draw steps, instead that player skips that draw
  and you draw a card.

When both players have a Notion Thief in play and one casts a Think Twice, What happens?


texts: What is the actual world ranking of Fan Hui

texts:
I've read somewhere that Fan Hui was ranked between 600th and 700th world Baduk player. Knowing he's 2P whereas some players are up to 9P, it seems reasonable to me.

Is there any official and accessible world ranking ? What is the exact rank of Fan Hui ?


texts: Do I tap a creature when it fights? Can a creature with summoning sickness fight?

texts:
If a card has text: target creature fights (another creature), do I have to tap the target creature?
Can I target a creature, that has summoning sickness this way?


texts:
In playing a round of Betrayal at Baldur's Gate we ran into an interesting situation. We got haunt 44, and in the first round before the traitor is revealed one of the players killed another. Three of us were gathered on the Gladiator's Pit, wanting to pick up a point of Might before the traitor was found. The Wizard had found the fake amulet and the Cleric had failed to pick up his. So the Warlock looked at the Cleric and the Wizard and decided to attack the Cleric. The Warlock's intention was to edge the odds of one of us becoming the traitor. And since we didn't know at the time that the traitor would become a monster, he also wanted to weaken the traitor. However, he rolled 12 on his attack and the Cleric rolled 2. The 10 mental damage killed the Cleric.

When the Wizard turned traitor, we had to think for a moment how many cultists he should get. Either he gets 4 (there was a Fighter as well, 4 players total) or 3. We quickly picked 4 and moved on but wanted to see if we choose correctly. Our logic was that the Wizard was also dead, yet he should still count for the Adventurer total, so the dead Cleric should as well. Did we make the right call or should the traitor have only gotten 3 cultists?


texts:
If I tap a creature to use its activated ability before combat, can I use the same creature to block or attack on the same turn?

My guess: you cannot block and/or attack with a tapped creature on the same turn.


texts: Does the Thorncaster Sliver's ability damage have to be assigned before or after blockers are declared?

texts:
If I have 5 slivers and one of them is a Thorncaster, will I need to assign the "1 damage to target creature or player" before or after my opponent declares blockers?

My guess is that it is as I attack, but I would like it to be after blockers are assigned.


texts: Do you have to sacrifice a transformed creature put into play via Through the Breach?

texts: If I put Thing in the Ice into play via Through the Breach, and it transforms during my turn, do I have to sacrifice Awoken Horror at the beginning of the next end step?


texts: What is 5/5/2 variant of the Machi Koro?

texts:
Can someone explain this variant in details?

Do we need the expansions for this variant to work? Or is it also applicable to the base game?


texts: Does my creature still get a +1/+1 counter?

texts: My creature gets a +1/+1 counter whenever another creature I control dies. I block a 3/3 with a 2/2 that I can regenerate. It takes the damage and I regenerate it. Does the other creature still get a +1/+1 counter?


texts: A player lands into someone´s property and they are supposed to pay $1000, they don't have enough cash (only have $600) but have property and houses they can mortgage. Can the two players agree to say I owe you $400, will pay later when I get the money?


texts: Should a temple always be built on turn 2 in Antike?

texts:
I played my first game of Antike with 5 other people.  Everyone but me started at Marble, then paid one resource on the next turn to jump to Temple.  Having never played before, I went another way, just to be different.

Getting a temple built on turn 2 obviously kick-starts your economy, but is it really the best way to start?  Did everyone know something I didn't or were they all just mirroring each other?

FWIW, I went Gold-Arming-Know How and claimed the first VP on turn 3.


texts: Why does a run of 4 in Cribbage score only 4?

texts:
Cribbage scoring is fairly logical.  There are card combinations worth a given number of points and you can score every unique subset of cards independently and total up the score.  Except for runs of 4 or 5.

For example, a pair is worth 2.  Three of a kind is three different pairs (3 choose 2 is 3) and scores 6 (called a "pair royal").  A run is 3 or more cards in a row (e.g. 4, 5, 6) and scores one point per card.  It seems to me that in keeping with the other scoring rules, a 4-card run should score 6 (2 3-card runs each made by dropping the end cards) and a 5-card run should score 9.  Instead, a run scores one point per card.

Is there a logical reason I'm missing or is this just an inconsistency in Cribbage?

(afterthought:  a 5-card flush would score 20, which is a little too much)


texts: Can a character without a skill use a card that adds to that skill?

texts: I'm playing Seoni who has a d4 for Strength and no Melee skill. If I want to resolve a combat check with my strength can I play a Soldier card which adds 1d4 to a Melee combat check if I don't have the Melee skill? Are my normal attacks, by default, Melee?


texts: How do I chose invasion or reduction points?

texts:
I have the following board:

$$cm1
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . O O . X . . O . . a . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . X . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . O O O . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . X X O O . O . . b . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . X X . O . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . c . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . O O . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X X X . . |

Now, white territory is rather large. So I like to decrease it!

However, I have the following problems/questions/considerations:

I will lose every KO battles elsewhere on the board (I have around 70 points hanging that I will win, but my opponent can play 5-10 stones that I must react at.)
I can invade both a, b and c. Does invading at a make b impossible? Is b even possible? Is c even possible?
How many points should I estimate for a invasion at a, b and/or c?
Should I start this invasion as soon as possible or delay it?


texts: Would an enchantment placed on an opponent still take effect if they played Aegis of the Gods afterwards?

texts:
So, as I was rebuilding a vampire deck, I came across some curses and remembered a friend got Aegis of the Gods.

I understand Aegis of the Gods would stop me from playing the curse on them, but if I played the curse first would Aegis stop my curse effect from taking place, if it was played on a different turn after I played the curse?


texts: Games with flipping tokens for action selection?

texts:
We are creating a game with what we think is a new action selection mechanic. The mechanic is based on poker chip like tokens that you flip to take the action the top side, then there is a different action on the bottom side. Have you encountered a similar mechanic in any other game?

Thanks in advance!


texts:
The situation is as follows:

Aiden has a Battlegate Mimic on the battlefield.
I control two Wilderness Hypnotists.
Aiden casts a Scourge of the Nobilis, targeting the Mimic; after that resolves I activate one of his Hypnotist's abilities, targeting the Mimic.
Aiden attacks with the Mimic, and casts Inside Out before the damage step.
Once Inside Out resolves, I activate the ability of his other Hypnotist.

The mimic will be a 4/2 due to layering, but what if I wanted to have the hypnotists to trigger after Inside Out so it deals no damage to me instead?


texts: What do you do when you run out of Zombies?

texts: When playing with the base game Zombies, is there an official rule for what to do when you run out of Zombies? I checked BGG and the official rulebook and found nothing.


texts: In Arkham Horror, if a monster surge exceeds the max allowable monsters, does the monster that caused the max to be exceeded get discarded?

texts: If I the outskirts is already at maximum capacity, and I have to add 5 more monsters because of a monster surge, do I empty the Outskirts and then add 4 monsters? More specifically, does the monster that put the outskirts "over the edge" get discarded (the alternative being he gets carried over to the next group of outskirts monsters)?


texts: If I play Demonic Pact and then before my fourth upkeep, then just before I pass the turn I use Harmless Offering to give it to an opponent, what would happen?


texts: Are there 3 or 12 MTG FNM cards for 2018?

texts: Usually FNM issues 12 cards per year. For 2018 we see only 3 cards in that year. Is Scryfall not up to date or has WotC stopped the FNM series?


texts: Cities and Knights: Played to virtual deadlock

texts:
Recently I have been playing cities and knights with fish and harbor master.  Victory points needed to win is 15.

The last two times we have played we have basically played to a deadlock.  No one with enough points to win, and no real way to get more victory points.  The only way to get additional points would be through the defender of catan, but by the time the pirate ship comes around the players in the running to win can match knight strength.

It has kind of ruined the game for me.  Any ideas or suggestions?


texts: Why does the Happy Anniversary box come with two evil counters for every player?

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


texts: In Catan, when a settlement breaks a road. Do the other existing roads sit there? or are they removed?

texts:
Recently, I came upon an odd rule that states that a town/city placed in between two enemy roads "displaces" the enemy roads, now let's say there is a large stretch of road with only one town connected. And my opponent places a town in between my roads to "displace" it. Does the side not connected to my town get removed, or does it sit there?

In case you don't understand what I'm trying to say here. I'll provide a simple diagram and I'll restate the problem.

*---B-----#-------A-----

Ok, let's say the asterisk is my town and the hash key is the enemy town. And obviously the dashs are my roads.

Since the enemy town displaces the main road into two different sections(section B and section A). Does section A sit there? or is it removed from the game?


texts: If I cast a sorcery spell to force the opponent to discard two cards, and he/she then casts one of those cards as an instant, would the instant apply first or would the sorcery take precedence?


texts: Shogun: Which player resolves winter revolts first?

texts:
Given that several players are going to get revolts due to rice shortage in the winter round, which one goes first?

It might matter e.g. when you know that the tower is packed with green cubes and no one wants to go first.


texts: Does Skids O'Toole and the Composed talent provide for unlimited rerolls?

texts: Since Skids rerolls all 1s, and Composed lets you rerolls all dice if you don't roll any 1s, can he reroll endlessly until he succeeds as he needs?