Could B-17 bombers identify individual ships in Midway?

Attacking B-17s would have a better view than reconnaissance planes and would be able to id a carrier by class...
Dedicated reconnaissance aircraft (as opposed to fighter patrols) would fly at very high altitudes and typically would avoid overflying large formations of enemy ships. First it was dangerous and second, they did not want the enemy ships to know they had been spotted. At high altitude and at oblique angles, identifying a carrier by its class while maintaining a specified distance might well have been impossible in some circumstances, even with binoculars.
B-17 bombers also flew and attacked at high altitudes, but by necessity they would have to directly overfly any ships they wanted to bomb, and the bombardier would be looking at the vessels through a bombsight providing some magnification. It is likely that the B-17s crew, especially the bombardier, would be able to identify a Japanese carrier by class.
That being said, other factors such as ship positioning, ship maneuvering, and defensive fire could make it difficult for the planes to launch an attack against the carrier of choice. The one B-17 attack that I know occurred against a carrier at Midway was against the Hiryu (you can see a photo of the bomb pattern on the Battle of Midway Wikipedia page. It shows you the resolution the bombardier would have had, which was easily enough to id the carrier by class). Whether that B-17 was after the Hiryu or would have preferred one of the larger carriers, I do not know.
In short, the game's mechanic for B-17 and reconnaissance plane identification and B-17 choice of attack isn't that unrealistic.
...but B-17s were poor in the naval attack role in 1942
The problem that the Army and Navy encountered was that although B-17s could bomb from altitudes at which many Japanese fighters could not even reach them, they were woefully inaccurate from the high altitudes that doctrine dictated they fly at high altitudes (c. 25,000 feet) while bombing and without the Norden bombsights they would have later in the war. The early estimates for the B-17 in a naval attack role was that about 1% of their bombs hit. This is due in large part to the difficulty of dropping bombs from 25,000 feet at a target that is both moving and maneuvering. The B-17s at Midway were completely ineffective. You'll note that the previously mentioned photo on Wikipedia shows a miss by more than the length of the ship.
Later in the war, with better bombsights and a change in doctrine to allow lower altitude bombing runs, B-17s were more effective in the Pacific, though they were never deployed to that theater in very large numbers.
So as far as B-17 attack rules go (which I realize is getting beyond the scope of the question), any game mechanic that assigns them a decent chance of hitting a ship in 1942 is not realistic, and if the mechanics give the B-17 an equal or close-to equal chance to hit as a dive bomber or torpedo bomber, then the rules are wildly unrealistic.


Which is faster: Enter the Battlefield Effects or Activated Abilities?

Your opponent can destroy your creature first; but his creatures will still be destroyed as well.

There is no notion of "faster" in MTG. Some people might say an instant is "faster" than a sorcery, but that is only because you have more opportunities to cast instants than you do sorceries. All abilities and spells have pretty much the same rules regarding how "fast" they are. (Mana abilities and certain game actions like playing a land are an exception).

When your creature enters the battlefield, its ability is triggered. The trigger goes on the stack the next time a player would get priority, which makes the stack look like this:

Destroy all other creatures

Then each player gets priority, and your opponent has a chance to activate his ability. If he does so, the stack now looks like this:

Destroy target creature
Destroy all other creatures

If no one does anything else, the top item on the stack resolves. Your creature is destroyed. Then if no one does anything else, the next item on the stack resolves. All other creatures are destroyed.

It doesn't matter that your creature dies first; its enter the battlefield ability still happens:

  112.7a Once activated or triggered, an ability exists on the stack independently of its source. Destruction or removal of the source after that time won’t affect the ability.

Recommend reading through this question and this question if you want more details.


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

There are some subtle benefits of owning Finland:

To Russia, it represents another 2 IPCs a turn, which it can turn directly into infantry on the front: a valuable ability. The US and UK can obviously also use the money, but it takes longer for the units to reach the front (first built, then moved to Finland, then to Karelia). Also, both the US and UK have to move units via transports, which means that sometimes even if they have the 3 IPCs for an extra infantry they don't actually have the transport bandwidth to move it the following turn.
The US can build a factory in Finland, thus enabling it to pump 2 units a turn directly into Europe. I typically don't do this if the shuck-shuck is going well because the opportunity cost of a factory is too high. Although I've done it in a long game where I have too much money and the Axis isn't ready to concede--just to speed up the tanks I can put on the continent.
I don't perceive any real advantage of UK ownership--other than the money.

That said, I usually try to have the first country able take Finland and don't worry too much about who it is.

In general, this seems to be Russia. Assuming no ally can take it on turn 1 (by rule for Russia, for want of sufficient transports for UK and US), then turn 2 is the earliest. If Germany was clever, they rescued the tank and 2 inf with a feint on Karelia, making capture easy; if not, it's a prime target for the Russian tanks and the necessary infantry (no dead zone concerns assuming the German North Sea transport is gone). This attack doesn't leave Karelia too weakened because of their turn 2 infantry placement and UK and US fighters that can be moved over in turn 1.


By how many points did alphago win against Lee Se-dol?

The DeepMind channel on Youtube has a short review of each game by Michael Redmond 9P.

At the end of the summary for game 1, Michael estimates that black is slightly ahead on the board. When you factor in the 7.5 point komi, it means that the final score would have been around 5.5 in favor of AlphaGo.

Note that

  AlphaGo does not attempt to maximize its points or its margin of victory. It tries to maximize its probability of winning.

[Source: wired]


Can you play any amount of lands with future sight?

No you can not

This is covered in the Rulings on the Gatherer Page for Future Sight.

  If the top card of your library is a land, you may play that land only if you have any available land plays.


Pocketing the last coin and the striker at the same time

Nobody wins yet. You return 2 C/m to the board and continue your turn. According to the ICF rules:

  If a player pockets the Striker with his own C/m by a proper stroke, the number of C/m so pocketed, with a Due C/m, shall be taken out for placing and the player shall continue his turn.


Question regarding the new custom chapter rules

You have three options for a battle-forged army.
Firstly, you can have a Space Wolves successor chapter that is painted green and fiery. You can take datasheets that have the SPACE WOLVES keyword (such as thunderwolf cavalry and fenrisian wolves), and pick two successor chapter tactics (or Inheritors of the Primarch for Hunters Unleashed). You could use Space Wolves stratagems, your Warlord could take a Space Wolves warlord trait, and/or take Relics of the Fang. Your "super doctrine" would be Savage Fury.
Secondly, you can have a Salamanders successor. You can't take thunderwolf cavalry and fenrisian wolves, but you can take a pair of successor chapter tactics (or Forged in Battle). Then you can use Salamanders stratagems, warlord trait and relics. Your "super doctrine" would be Promethean Cult.
Thirdly, you take the SPACE WOLVES (successor) units that you want in one detachment, and SALAMANDERS (successor) units in another detachment. Each detachment gets it's own chapter tactic. You don't get either Savage Fury nor Promethean Cult, as those require your whole army be SPACE WOLVES or SALAMANDERS respectively.


Was I unlucky or outplayed in Afrika Korps?

Both actually.

You were unlucky to not roll for a supply in time to avoid supply death;
but the first supply to arrive was only keeping you alive, not allowing you to  use the greater mobility of AK to effect.
I have never seen, and have difficulty imagining, a situation where a "token force" in Tobruk would have prevented you from using one or two 2-2-4's to restrict the Brit from bottling you up.
Even if you rolled supply at better than the expected rate, I suspect the loss of time you suffered from this escapade was sufficient for the Brits to land their November '41 reinforcements and wall up Alexandria.

Great game - I played it extensively in High school, and occasionally in the many years since. Have you checked the archive of The General for the many fine articles on this game and its strategy and tactics? The General Archive

Update:

The key advantage that the Axis have early in the game is speed. A successful Axis player must use this to compress the British maneuverability early on to ensure a win. Allowing yourself to be bottled up in Tobruk is an anti- pattern for the Axis player, regardless of the importance of Tobruk.


What is the meaning of dots in some of the Apex's cards?

It's a flavour text written in ITA2

  Harbinger: I AM BECOME DEATH

  Apocalypse: THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS

It's a reference to famous J. Robert Oppenheimer quote


Can routed ships retreat to port in the same sea area?

The port is never considered "part" of the sea area; control of a port depends on whoever controls the land area, and the sea area is merely adjacent.  The ability to use a port despite the adjacent sea area being occupied is probably the most important aspect of ports.

From the FAQ:

  Q: Can a fleet that is defeated in a sea area retreat to a friendly Port touching that sea area?

  A: Yes.


Which computer board game designer works best for card games?

Battlegrounds Gaming Engine is one that you don't seem to have considered, but perhaps you should. It sounds like it fits all your criteria except for #6 - you need to supply images of each card; however, I believe there are free card-creation apps that can create such graphics for you, pulling the info for each card from a database or Excel spreadsheet.

One nice thing about BGE is that you won't have to do any programming, scripting, or XML-editing.


In 7 Wonders Duel what happens if I don't have enough coins to discard?

For the Military Tokens, the description says:

Looting 2 or 5 coins
Your opponent loses 2 or 5 coins depending on the token.
They are returned to the bank. Then the token is returned
to the box. If your opponent doesn’t have enough coins, they
lose all of their coins.

That means they can't lose more coins than they have; there is no additional penalty.
While it's not explicitly stated this way for other cards that lose coins, they use the same symbol, so it can be assumed they work the same way. There is nothing in the rules anywhere suggesting there is an additional penalty for not having enough coins.
(Note that this is a difference between the Duel version and the original version, as in the original version there is an extra penalty, but Duel does not mention extra penalties anywhere, and also doesn't have tokens to represent them.)


Atemsis, All-Seeing and Mask of Immolation interaction

No, it doesn't. While it's certainly Atemsis, All-Seeing who does the damage (so a Circle of Protection: Blue would work to prevent it), the damage is done at a moment when Atemsis, All-Seeing is in the graveyard (it has been sacrificed as part of activating the ability). It has the reveal-your-hand ability only when it's on the battlefield, so it won't trigger.

  113.6. Abilities of an instant or sorcery spell usually function only while that object is on the stack. Abilities of all other objects usually function only while that object is on the battlefield.

A list of exceptions follows but this ability is not one of them.


How to add of story-telling elements to increase player satisfaction?

I think that's what the board game has been lacking for me and several other dedicated players; a cohesive story of what we are up against and what we are trying to accomplish.

This surprises me, since Eldritch Horror is usually praised for creating a cohesive story through the three Mysteries that you have to solve to defeat the Ancient One, creating a sense of progression and a beginning, middle, and end to the story.

I think all the players of the board game would get inspiration and a moral boost if they knew in detail what they are up against, and what it would mean for the hamlet of Dunwich should we fail. I think this holds true for other aspects of the game (i.e. the destinations, the ancient ones, other monsters, and certain items).

I think this is your real problem: a lack of knowledge, or immersion, in relation to what is going on in the board. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help that (but keep your expectations in check; Eldritch Horror will never have as strong or cohesive a narrative as something like Time Stories).
For what it's worth, I think that Arkham Horror is better at solving this problem, but we're talking about Eldritch Horror now.
Read the cards aloud
This may seem like a no-brainer to some players, but I have played with people who draw a location card, read it silently, roll some dice, then say that they need a Common Item. That is beyond boring and disconnects everyone from what is going on. Reading the cards aloud adds to the atmosphere and increases enjoyment for everybody.
Also, there are ways to increase the drama as you read. I don't recall if this is an official rule or not, but when I played in a game with one of the designers, he said that every time it says "Make a  roll" or similar, he intentionally made it so that they always ended a sentence. While reading, he said you should stop as soon as you read that sentence, make your roll, and then continue reading. This helps immersion by leading to anticipation as to what will happen. Some players even prefer to have other players read the card to prevent players from silently reading ahead.
Start your game with one of the descriptions in the rule book
The rule book for the base game and each of the expansions has a brief paragraph from someone in-universe describing the the general atmosphere of the threat, and this can be helpful for setting the tone for players. If you see other things like this, read those too.
Read descriptions from Lovecraft's works
Say that your Ancient One is Azathoth. You might choose to at some point read a quote from The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath:

[O]utside the ordered universe [is] that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

Lovecraft had a gift for describing things in a way that evokes a specific emotion. Reading these quotes helps convey that to the players, and also educates them if they are unfamiliar with that being.
Do this with whatever you feel is appropriate. I don't know that there are any evocative passages on shotguns, but you might read one when the Necronomicon is revealed.
Read descriptions you write yourself
I once played a game of Eldritch Horror's sister game, Arkham Horror, where the first time a player entered a location, the game owner read descriptions of the places, which he wrote. For instance, when I went to the Graveyard, I was told that I saw graves of veterans from the Great War (i.e. World War I), but one of the graves I passed was old, yet recently dug up. I then read the encounter as normal. This could be done with Eldritch Horror too.
Invent your own rationalization and connections
Why did I get a book from a random dude on the street in Cairo? Maybe I saved their life from the zombie I just killed and they gave it to me in thanks. Just let your players run with it.


There are booster packs for Cranium that add more cards for each category. For example, this set and this set.

You could also check out the Cranium WOW edition. It has a whole new set of cards. I've played this version and a lot of the red cards seemed easier than the original version of the game.


How can I make a game of Memoir '44 last longer?

Do you play each scenario twice (switching side each time)?

This has a double advantage:
First, you set the scenario up once every other game instead of once each game.
Second, as the scenarios are based on true events, they are not always 50/50 balanced. The idea by playing on both sides is to get a global score (sum the medals up to get an overall winner).

If you feel it's still too short you might want to investigate the Breakthrough mode which can be enhanced by the Winter Wars Expansion


When using Alvin & Dexter with TtR:Europe what are the rules about cities with existing train stations?

These questions, along with a few others have been officially clarified by Alan R. Moon on BGG. His rulings regarding your specific questions are bolded below:

  Here is a list of the official clarifications I'm keeping for Alvin & Dexter:

  A Station cannot be built in a city with a Monster.
  A Depot cannot be built in a city with a Monster.
  A Passenger cannot be moved out of, into, or through a city with a Monster.
  A Monster can be moved into a city with a Station, Depot, or Passenger.
  If a Monster is in a Country location, the whole Country, not just the specific space, is in Chaos.
  Cards cannot be added to or taken from a Depot in a city in Chaos.
  At the end of the game, a Station in a city in Chaos can still be used normally.
  If both Monsters are in the same city at the end of the game, Tickets that include this city are only halved (not halved twice).
  If the two Monsters are in the two cities named on a Ticket, this Ticket is only halved (not halved twice).
  When you move a Monster, you must move him at least one space, you cannot retrace steps (as in moving one city forward and then one city back), and you may not end the Monster's movement in the same city where it started the move (by moving in a loop).


Are there any Magic cards capable of generating loops alone?

Basalt Monolith can tap and untap itself infinitely without any other cards. You do need another card to get any payoff from doing that.

A number of cards have abilities that cost {0} and without specifically prohibiting you from activating them repeatedly. Like with Basalt Monolith, they generally don't have any inherent benefit from activating them repeatedly. The main payoff for that is Crackdown Construct.

Skyshroud Elf can tap for mana, and has an ability to pay {1} to get {R} or {W}. This can be activated indefinitely, but it's even harder to find a payoff for a loop like that.

Lich's Mirror can do this, sort of. You need other cards to set up the game state necessary, but once you have it Lich's Mirror starts and sustains the loop by itself. Specifically, if a player controls but does not own Lich's Mirror, and then gets 10 poison counters somehow, Lich's Mirror will replace the state-based action with its own effect but it will not go anywhere because it is not a permanent that the ability's controller owns. Then the player still has 10 poison counters so the same state-based action will apply again, and Lich's Mirror's effect will replace it again, forever. This is a mandatory infinite loop and results in a draw.


Yes, she can.

The game's creator weighs in a few posts down at this BGG thread

  Secret Warehouse & Black Market depend of your resource icons present
  on your "board"

  So if you have a STONE or CLAY brown card (and nothing else) :

  SW can produce either a STONE or a CLAY
  BM can't produce neither a Stone or a CLAY (none of them)

  SW & BM don't depend on the use you make of the resources on turn T,
  it depend on what resource are present on your brown cards.


What is needed to play X-wing with 4 players?

The game is structured such that there are shared turn phases.  Everyone's moves happen in a single phase and the order is determined by model statistics.  Then everyone's shooting happens in a single phase and the order is determined by model statistics.  You can basically add as many people to that system as you like and they just take their actions in order based on their model's stats.

To play in two teams of two all you need is to own enough models so that each team member has enough to control that the game is interesting.

To play in a free-for-all with more than two players the only house rule required would be determining the tie-breaker for who goes first when two models have tied statistics.  (In the two player game it is always Imperials have the initiative if all other checks are tied, so if there are "imperial" players who are enemies you need a system to break the tie.)


When I search for a card, do I have to reveal it to my opponent?

This makes me wonder: do I have to reveal the card I have searched for?

Yes you do

A card that one searches from deck has to be shown to your opponent. In the case of Sangan, you have to show it so it is known that it was a 1500 or less monster.

The case for Shallow Grave is different, as cards in the graveyard are public knowledge always.

At any time you may ask your Opponent to look at his GY, thus in this case both players see the cards picked from the GY and set.

Here we have a more official statement from the Wikia (quite recommended reading BTW), emphasis mine:

  When an effect causes a player to search for a card of a specific type in their Deck, that player must reveal the card to their opponent before adding it to their hand, Setting it on the field or placing it on the top of the Deck with that effect. For example, when a player adds a Monster Card to their hand using the effect of "Sangan", their opponent may read all of the information on the Monster Card added.

They even give the example with Sangan :o)

On that link they also explain some other funny rulings, like revealing all your deck if there is no valid target for Sangan, or not revealing your hand if all the copies of the card being questioned are public knowledge, but that escapes the scope of this post.


On further consideration, while E might hold the H Q, East cannot hold the H Qxx or better, because then East would have responded to 1S, probably with 1NT. Therefore the finesse is either hopeless or pointless, because if East has the QH singleton or doubleton it will drop. Playing for the drop is still the better play, although it will fail if west has the QH in a 3 or 4 card suit. So the author was right, although the reasoning was incomplete.


What happens when a commander is exiled?

The rule is

  If a commander would be put into a library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the command zone instead.

(See mtgcommander.net)

So, in this case, you get to choose whether it goes into exile or the command zone. If you put it in the command zone, then your opponent can't use the Sisters' other ability to bring it back, of course.

Several important nuances:

You don't have to put your commander back in the command zone. This is handy if, for instance, you can't afford to hardcast your commander, but you've got a reanimation spell in your hand.
Going to the command zone is a replacement effect, so your commander will never actually hit the graveyard or the exile zone, and won't trigger "on exile" or "on graveyard" triggers. E.g. if you are playing Keiga as your commander, you don't actually get to steal a creature if you put Keiga in the command zone when it dies.
Owner, not controller. Even if someone else Mind-Controls your commander, you still get to pick whether it goes back into your command zone.
You only get a choice when the commander is about to go to the new zone. So, if you put it into the graveyard, it'll stay there. If someone exiles it from your graveyard, then "would be put into ... exile from anywhere" applies again, so you can scoop your commander back into the command zone. Mimeoplasm, for example, can copy a dead commander like any other creature card in your graveyard, but at least you can put that commander back in your command zone since it gets exiled (Mimeoplasm still comes into play as the copy).
Recasting your commander from your hand doesn't cost extra like bringing it back from the command zone does; nor does it count for figuring out how many times you've cast it from the command zone already.
Rare card interactions can cause a card to move from one zone to the same zone. If that happens to your commander, fear not: you do still get the option to put it in the command zone. See this answer for a detailed explanation.


Use Mana twice for the same spell by untapping?

Yes, you can tap a land for mana again in the same turn if it becomes untapped.
When you can tap a land for mana, it always has some variation of "{T}: Add ..." as its ability, where {T} is the tap symbol. That is an activated ability. Activated abilities always follow the "cost: effect" pattern. Generally, you can activate an activated ability as often as you want, as long as you can pay its cost every time.
When you tap a land for mana, the mana it produces goes into the "mana pool", a temporary storage for your mana. Then, when you untap that land, you can pay the cost of its mana-generating ability again (i.e. tapping the land), and you will get another mana.
That means, if you have 5 lands, tap them for mana, and untap one of the lands, you can tap that land again to get 6 mana total.

602.1. Activated abilities have a cost and an effect. They are written as “[Cost]: [Effect.] [Activation instructions (if any).]”
602.1a The activation cost is everything before the colon (:). An ability’s activation cost must be paid by the player who is activating it.
106.4. When an effect instructs a player to add mana, that mana goes into a player’s mana pool. From there, it can be used to pay costs immediately, or it can stay in the player’s mana pool as unspent mana. Each player’s mana pool empties at the end of each step and phase, and the player is said to lose this mana. [..]


In Magic: The Gathering, how does Ugin, the Ineffable's static ability interact with colorless spells that have X in their cost?

Yes, you can choose 5 for X then only pay 3 mana with Ugin, the Ineffable out.

This is because the process of casting a spell works like this:

Make choices your spell offers you, including choosing modes and the value you'll pay for X in the casting cost where applicable.
Choose targets.
Determine the total cost of the spell, which is its cost plus any cost increases and minus any cost reductions.
Pay that cost.

(There's some other details I've glossed over, but those are the most commonly encountered parts.)

This means in step 1, you're choosing 5 as the value for {X}. Then in step 3, you determine the cost: that's {5} reduced by {2} to get a total cost of {3}.

This also means if you chose 2 as the value for X, you may cast Ugin's Conjurant for {0}.


In 8th Edition, do you always make a to-hit roll?

TLDR

Everything regarding rolls to hit from my first comment still applies.
The Hellblaster weapon rules harm the user of the weapon, not the target.
There are weapons that always hit currently in the rules; they follow as described in my first comment.
The Deathwatch Frag Cannon is an example of a weapon that changes from one attack to the next.
If a psyker power is created that will always hit it will operate similarly.

This is too long for a comment and if I am still misunderstanding your question let me know and I will edit the answer until we figure it out!

First let me say that if you do not have your head wrapped around my first comment that is important; if you do forgive me and skip this section

  So from my first comment, during play you always roll to hit your target unless the weapon or attack specifically says otherwise. So once you have chosen your target you roll to see if you hit that target. If your roll is equal or greater than your model's ballistic skill then you have successfully hit your target. If not, then you miss. If you roll a one you always miss, regardless of any modifiers that may apply during that attack. i.e. Let's say you are attacking a target with a leader character nearby that has some ability that grants minus one to any model's ballistic skill that is within 6". Your skill is 2 normally and that took your skill from 2 down to 1. You roll to hit your target and get a one. While the modifier would grant you a successful strike, the fact that you rolled a 1, means that you have missed your target.

Second, I think you may be misreading the rules. Regarding the Hellblaster weapon the ability states as follows:

  Each time a model fires a plasma incinerator, it can supercharge the weapon before firing. If it does so, increase the strength and damage of the weapon by one (1) for this turn. If you roll any hit rolls of one (1) when firing a supercharged plasma incinerator, the firing model is slain as the weapon explodes.

This states that you can choose to overcharge your weapon making it more damaging to the targets for the duration of one turn. If you choose to do so you put yourself at risk of the weapon exploding in your hands and killing yourself. On a roll of one (where you always miss regardless of modifiers) you have not only missed your target, but the model that fired the weapon has blown themselves up as well. That model is dead.

Towards what I believe your real question is, there are weapons/ attacks that DO always hit and you do not need to roll for hits because of the special ability. One example of this is the Rubric Marine's Warpflamer and Warpflame Pistol. These weapons have the same ability:

  This weapon automatically hits its target

In this case despite the ballistic skill of 3+ you do not even have to roll to hit, because the weapon always hits its intended target. Theoretically, in this case, if you did roll you would roll a 3 every time. In keeping with my first comment, in this case you do not roll to hit when using one of those weapons, you have already hit your target choosing that attack profile and now need to roll to wound. In this case as well a target's ability to force you to re-roll to hit does no good, because you always hit. The only thing that can save them now is the wound roll or their save roll.

Similar to my comment the Deathwatch Frag Cannon is a weapon that has the ability to activate its always hit ability when attacking. If you use the 'Shell' profile and your target is within half its maximum range you get added benefits. If however you use the 'Frag Round' profile the weapon has the ability that it always hits. In this case you can choose which profile to use and its ability to always hit could change from one attack to the next.

If a Psyker ability (or any other weapon/ ability) is created that always hits its target it will operate similarly to these.

I do not know of any Psyker abilities of the top of my head that always hit, but it does not seem to be a likely circumstance. If anyone had the ability to always hit I would have assumed either the Magnus or maybe the Grey Knights to have such an ability. All of their available psychic attacks and special abilities say "If manifested" so even a Daemon Primarch and Grey Knights miss with their Psyker abilities.

This does seem interesting to me however, because it would mean that even Magnus the Red is subject to the Perils of the Warp rule; where if you roll snake eyes (double one) or midnight (double six) then you are attacked by warp manifestations... I would think Magnus would be exempt from that at least, but nope... sucks to be a Psyker!

If I have not gotten your question, please let me know and I will adjust my answer.


Barbu - should the declarer pass after every hand?

In France, it's not considered a house-rule, but a variant. It's usually played that way with newcomers because it makes the game more active and seems more "fair" since people don't have to do their contracts in a row.

This way, this make it less of a challenge for the last player who, in the normal game, might be frightened and decide he can't do better than one of the previous score.

This variant is quite efficient to avoid this, that's mainly why we play this way since it also mitigates successive "bad" draws.

The "bad" thing with this is that it's quite hard to read what will come next, I usually don't raise a fuss about it but one of my mates prefer the original way of playingbecause it's more ordered.


Looks like a bad translation from German to English.

Here's the corresponding paragraph from the german rulebook (no prototype!), page 5:

  Nachdem alle Kurse angepasst wurden, kommen die gezogenen Aktenkoffer in den Markt. Die Leiste, die die Preisänderung ausgelöst hat, wird komplett (ggf. inklusive schwarzer Koffer) in den Beutel
  geworfen. Hat eine Verkaufsleiste die Preisänderung ausgelöst, wird ab sofort die nächste Verkaufsleiste darunter genutzt. Erst wenn die dritte Verkaufsleiste abgeräumt wurde, wird wieder eine Verkaufsleiste aus dem Markt bestückt. Hierbei wird die zweite Verkaufsleiste genutzt.

Let me translate the last two sentences:
"Only after the third sales table has been cleared, a sales table is filled again from the market. This is done using the second sales table."

The german rulebook is the original because the game designer (Friedemann Friese) is german.


I have not crunched any numbers for "proof" but experience and a quick sort through the monster deck would tend to support your supposition.

Rogue hit numbers are notably lower than the Cleric's and their secret doors special power is not good enough to compensate, especially given that it's not reliable and can be replicated with certain treasure cards.

Fighter hit numbers are only notably higher than the Cleric on low-level monsters. So it's more a case of being more reliable than really adventuring at higher levels. That doesn't seem a good enough trade off for the extra 10k gold.

Wizards can do much better than Clerics, but it's a crapshoot: draw monsters that happen to be vulnerable to your spell selection and you'll win easily. Don't, and you're monster bait.

But to be honest, you don't play Dungeon for the sort of strategic gameplay where balance is important. You play it for laughs, for stories and for being about the only family-friendly boardgame with an unashamedly geeky theme.


Is BGA-Studio friendly to new programmers?

The site seems pretty clear that it is not for new programmers. The description on the front page of who Studio is for says

"You are a web developer fluent in server side (PHP, SQL) and client side (HTML, Javascript) languages"


Can you use a clue that contains a word on the board within it in an unrelated way in Codenames?

Yes, you can.

While certain questions like this will be up to each play group to decide; this one is actually directly addressed in the rules.

At the bottom of page 6:

  England and island were originally compound words, but in this century, island is a valid clue for
  ENGLAND. Even land is a valid clue for ENGLAND. And anybody who says you can't say sparrow when
  ROW is on the table is just trying to cause trouble.


Can I get an enters-the-battlefield effect out of a second legendary before I must sacrifice it?

Yes.

As discussed in an article discussing the recent Legendary rules change:

  This will allow you to somewhat mitigate the downside of drawing a second copy of a Planeswalker by playing that copy to, in effect, refresh the loyalty of a Planeswalker or to get a second enters-the-battlefield trigger on a legendary permanent.

Here's the rule covering Legendary permanents:

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

Note that in order for the Legendary state-based action to be triggered, the Legendary permanents are both already on the battlefield and therefore any triggered enters the battlefield abilities (ETB) are also triggered. As the Legend rule is a state-based action, the choice of which Legendary permanent will be kept will be made before the ETB triggered abilities are put on the stack and resolve.


Can the Corporation know which HQ cards were accessed?

According to the Netrunner FAQ:

Does the Corp know which cards the Runner accesses from HQ?
Yes. The Corp should know what cards are accessed and in what order.


Drawn through gate during an Arkham encounter

Delayed has no bearing on whether an investigator has an Other World encounter or not.
However the gate takes precedence.  Both investigators should have been drawn through the gate first, then the monster appears.
From the Dunwich Horror FAQ:

Q: When a location card says a gate and a monster appear, which appearance is resolved first?
A: The gate appears first, and any investigators at the location are drawn through the gate. Then the monster appears. Monsters that appear as a result of these encounters stay on the board, count against the monster limit, can go to the Outskirts, etc., as normal.

And from the errata section of the same document:

Arkham Encounters
(pages 8-9 in the first printing of the Arkham Horror rules)
If an investigator is drawn through a gate that appears as
a result of an encounter (such as “A gate appears!” or “A
gate and a monster appear!”), then he is delayed, just as if
he had been drawn through a gate in the Mythos Phase.


Can my opponent tap lands for mana when I have Sen Triplets on the battlefield?

Yes, activated mana abilities are regular activated abilities as far as Sen Triplets are concerned, and the chosen opponent(s) can't activate them. You can copy Sen Triplets' ability with Strionic Resonator, and you can choose another opponent with the copy, allowing you to tap lands from all chosen opponents with Piracy.

605.1. Some activated abilities and some triggered abilities are mana abilities, which are subject to special rules.

605.3. Activating an activated mana ability follows the rules for activating any other activated ability (see rule 602.2) [..]

As soon as Sen Triplets' ability has resolved, your opponent can't tap lands or activate any other mana ability, and if you cast Piracy later that turn, you can be sure that the opponent can't tap their lands in response. They could, of course, tap their lands and other mana-producing permanents in response to the Sen Triplets ability on the stack, especially if they know you are running Piracy.
Sen Triplets' ability is a triggered ability, so it can be copied by Strionic Resonator, and you can choose another opponent for the copy.

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as “[When/Whenever/At] [trigger condition or event], [effect]. [Instructions (if any).]”


What can I do to avoid being stuck being able to do nothing in Settlers of Catan?

There are many ways to win at Settlers. The only type of starting position which limits your options is the one you described - good access to wood and brick but not much else, and then getting hemmed in. This situation doesn't happen too often in our group because the more experienced players usually dissuade newer or poorer players from placing an initial settlement that has a strong likelihood of leading to a disastrous outcome - which reduces the chance of a tedious game for all.

However, I've seen many poor starts in Settlers that ended in victory. I have two sections worth of thoughts for you describing the advantages of starting out behind, and the various ways I've seen players come back after a poor start.

The advantages of starting from behind:

other players more willing to trade with you
you can drive a harder bargain in trades (i.e. you must give me 2 cards to get the 1 you need, or you must give me 3 cards to get the 2 you need)
the robber gets put on you less often
when the robber does get put on you, the card is drawn from a different player's hand if hex is shared
people don't pay as much attention to what you're doing, so you can be secretly planning for your dramatic surge to victory without everyone pointing out what you're planning (good players tend to carefully monitor and point out who is close to winning and why but often neglect this analysis for those who trail by a lot)

Various ways to win with seemingly poor initial starting positions

monopolize a scarce resource and obtain advantaged trades (something the player going first is sometimes best positioned to do)
go for a 2:1 port strategy if circumstances allow
if placing first, consider carefully where the good settlement sites are for initial placement. You might purposely shift to a slightly worse settlement site because it is obvious nobody else will place near it (or maybe one side will obviously be open for expansion). You will often need to very carefully place the second settlement to preserve a swath of territory for yourself to pull off this strategy. I have often started slow because I purposely chose slightly worse resources for this reason, but had far more expansion territory than the other players who end up crowding each other while I slowly catch up and eventually surpass them.
Ultra-cooperate your way to a chance at victory. I had a game recently where I got off to an extremely unlucky start getting cut off from my two best expansion possibilities (which literally had only a 1/6 chance of happening). Another player also started poorly and we both still had 2 settlements while the other two players already each had 4-5 VPs worth of cities and settlements each. So we started doing hugely helpful trades to each other - so he would give me an ore for my whole hand on one turn so he could build his first settlement. Then I gave him a brick for his entire hand to build my first city . . . and so forth. We broke off cooperation when we were both in the lead and he won but you get the idea.
Get other players fighting against each other. Point out who is winning and why, and convince everyone to gang up on that person until someone else gets the lead then do the same thing to that person. That can give you a lot of time to catch up.
Most important: Make sure you have some way to access wheat and ore, even if it's just a way you can expand to get them or someone who you're pretty sure will be willing to trade with you (See Which of the 5 resources in Settlers of Catan (base version) is most important? Why?). You have many more options with these resources, whereas brick/wood strategies require either a port (preferably 2:1) or lots of expansion territory to work. I literally once won a game without any brick or wood, and without building a single road, when I was cut off early (see picture below: white, with 15 development cards)


Can a Palace Guard block for both a player and a planeswalker?

When a player declares blockers, they declare which attacking creatures they will block, not which planeswalker or player they will defend. From the official rules:

  509.1a The defending player chooses which creatures they control, if any, will block. The chosen creatures must be untapped. For each of the chosen creatures, the defending player chooses one creature for it to block that’s attacking that player or a planeswalker they control.

Palace Guard has an exception written on its card that it may block any number of creatures instead of just one, but there are no rules that forbid a card from blocking for multiple attacking 'targets' simultaneously.


Tabletop game similar to Civilization, set in Antiquity


Should you ever deploy your blank at a position other than an edge in Epigo?

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Unless I was playing a variant, I would never consider placing my blank epigon anywhere other than on a board edge.  Having 2 sides that can be attacked at the start of the game seems like a bad way to start things off to me.  I am sure there are some variants where it would be acceptable to have your blank somewhere in the middle, but not for the base game.


Damage rarely matters in two-player RoboRally. How can I houserule it to be more interesting?

Use a smaller board.

One tile and 6 flags create an interesting game for two players.

And place the flags so that you pass a few bottlenecks on the way.

The idea is to create as much interaction between the two robots as possible.


How many cards do I need to make a collected set "draftable?"

It depends on how you want to build your packs. If you plan to build proper packs then the choices are different then if you just want to grab random cards. The best experience would be from the former so I will go off it.

The double faced cards were seeded from a sheet with a single mythic, two of each rare, six of each uncommon and eleven and each common. Although you could reduce the card count by half if you wanted without killing the chances too much (more Garruk and higher or lower common chance to taste). Pretty straight forward to reproduce for either 60 or 121 cards (mostly common).

Your normal rare and mythic slot would be best served by one of each mythic and two of each rare, but you can design a system to reproduce the 1/8 ratio (remember there are 4 rares per mythic) such as using half the mythic cards you have before shuffling the rares.

Going to common and uncommon you probably want to drastically cut the number of copies. I would think two of each uncommon would be enough, although you could do three if you wanted that possibility. Similarly with commons four to six would work depending on how many dupes you want to see.

For simplicity I would either pick 1:1:2:4 or 1:1:3:5 for each card type and handle the various slots separately. Although once you have built this out (or have a tool to test) you could try just building normal packs from either ratio and see what rarity density you see.

Finally if you wanted really good packs it may make sense to pre-seed each pack with a common of each color (or two cards of each color if not segregating by rarity). While that doesn't eliminate packs that suck for some people it does stop the "nothing in my color first pick" annoyance in cubes.


What can I do to ensure that my friends' first game of Arkham Horror with me is as awesome as possible?

I've done something similar for some of the games of AH that I've been in. Not to the extent of adding theme/flavor into the cards and allowing playing input during encounters though; I only read encounters and mythos cards for them.

To start off, I'd be wary about pulling out all the stops to create an involved role-playing AH experience for a group's first game. Even if there is someone present that knows all the rules, there will still be rule misunderstandings, one-off nuances that need consideration, and re-explanations requested, which will break the thematic stride that you're striving to establish. But more importantly, (and this partially depends on how large the group is) games can take a long time. My group has played Arkham at least a hundred times (sounds a bit ridiculous to me, but we've been playing over 4 years), and we still have games that run into the 4+ hour mark. This can be a bit long for new players that don't know what they're getting into, and inundating the game with extra theme (along with this being people's first game) will only make the play time longer. My advice would be to get your friends to enjoy the game and understand gameplay better before going for a fully immersive experience.

That all said, here's what I did when I ran as the 'Keeper'. The first thing that ruins Arkham for new players (besides game length) is how vicious the game has the potential to become. I've found that a nice way to control the difficulty of the game is by drawing two or three mythos cards rather than one every turn, and the pick the one you'll put into play. This helps prevent the same gate from monster surging 4 times in a row and flooding the streets with things the players can't handle, as well as allowing you to give the game a quick boost by throwing the players a curveball if they're doing too well (drawing someone through a gate, destroying some clues on the board, moving some monsters directly in the path someone was planning on taking, etc.) In the future, it could also allow you a little leeway in picking headlines to enact if you're looking for a thematic progression. You can do the same for Arkham or OW encounters as well. For the encounters, one way of working towards the RP experience with going to the full extent that you described (allowing the players to invent their own responses) is to not tell the players what happens should they pass/fail until after they've rolled/spent clue tokens. In my group however, I've noticed that this can irritate some players. After they've played a number of games where they know the entirety of the encounter before making the check, they aren't keen to give up that slight advantage for some extra perceived theme. Anyways...
You could even do the same with monsters; pick specific monsters that you want to throw at people. McGlen have a particularly close match against a Shuggoth earlier? Now there's one back for round 2! It's also a good way to make sure the board isn't flooded with particularly weak/strong things and ensure that the Dhole gets his requisite board time.

The scenarios that were released for the Arkham League are good for a continuous campaign of sorts; the 'stories' from one game to the next are loosely tied together, but that's about it for theme. There are some extra gameplay conditions that the scenarios will throw in there, but that may just confuse new players if they expect those rules to be in subsequent games.

In short, make sure your friends enjoy the game for what it is before adding things to it (helping them to realize this if necessary of course...). All of the flavor and theme in the world won't make someone enjoy this game if they just don't like the mechanics in the first place.

Good luck!


Tournament and League Rules For Dominion

There are intentionally no official tournament rules for Dominion.

There is a long, meandering discussion of tournament rules for Dominion on BGG.

I was pretty happy with the tournament rules used for Dominion at the 2010 World Boardgaming Championship.  Two things that it got right were

An emphasis on game placement rather than points per game to determine advancers
Playing two games per round and reversing seating order between games

But don't expect anything near consensus on the best tournament rules for Dominion.


Dance with Dragons: Margaery Tyrell vs. Mance Rayder

Baratheon strength 2 is Final if the Throne ranking so determines :
which house executes first and next house executes after. So slightly counter-intuitively the lower Throne ranking would receive the benefit in this case.

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/73198-house-card-questions/
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/867434/final-combat-strength


ipad implementation of board games with strong AI

Agricola from Playdek offer a good challenge. And you can play single or the serie mode against yourself.

Elder Sign , Summon War and Yggdrasil are also good choice.

More depend of the game theme that you like ?


15 years old card game with ancient battles theme and complex mechanics

Ok, after the comment about "Battle Line" (Thanks to @user30903) I started to view the game description and suddenly I saw a war unit called hoplite... and then I recalled.

The PC game is called "Hoplites". It is completely free and its manual is available here. It is based on a board game called SPQR. The game "Battle Line" is from the same company.


What are the probabilities of getting any or all five cards of Exodia using a specified monster card effect

This questions is substantially different from the first version. Given the mechanics of Exodia, each of the five parts must be collected in hand. To support that, 0 Exodia cards can be drawn prior to the use of Morphing Jar. In this, the situation is similar to the linked question with the emphasized difference.

Variables

N = number of items in the population = number of cards in the deck = 40
k: The number of items in the population that are classified as successes. = number of Exodia Cards in the deck = 5
n: The number of items in the sample = Variable through experimentation
x: The number of items in the sample that are classified as successes. = Number of Exodia Cards that must be drawn = 0

Narrative

There are 5 Exodia cards (k) in a deck of 40 cards (N). If the player draws all 5 Cards (x), the player wins the game. The interest of the Question is the probability of drawing all 5 cards After using Morphing Jar and with subsequent draw Phases. The player will see five cards in the initial hand, and an additional card per turn from the draw phase, negating any external effects. From that, over the course of the game, the player will see 5 + number of turns cards in the game (x). 0 Exodia cards can be present in those x cards, because Morphing Jar forces the hand to be discarded.

Per the image, the chances of drawing zero Exodia cards decays the longer the games go on. When the player uses Morphing Jar, assuming he or she has drawn zero Exodia cards, he or she has a chance to draw zero to five Exodia cards with the effect. While the math is similar to the linked question, each is a distinct case.

Equation and Additional Variables

d = the number of cards drawn so far = range (6, 35)
x = the number of Exodia cards drawn with Morphing Jar = range (0, 5)
n = the number of cards drawn by Morphing Jar = 5

h(x; N, n, k) = [ kCx ] [ (N-d)-kCn-x ] / [ (N-d)Cn ]
where [aCb] = a(a - 1)(a - 2) ... (a - b + 1)/b! = a! / b!(a - b)!

Again, these individual cases can be evaluated with Excel, to minimize the tedious nature of each combinatoric equation.

These images portray the probability the player will draw, zero through five, Exodia cards upon playing Morphing Jar, dependent on how many cards he or she has seen previously. The first graphs the data, the second is the raw data. The sum of the probabilities for each case, for any number of cards previously seen, is 100%.

The Rest of the Set

After playing Morphing Jar, the process for determining the probability for drawing the Exodia cards not seen is the same as described in the linked question.

d = number of cards drawn so far = range (6, 40)
e = number of Exodia cards in hand = range (0, 5)
N = number of items in the population = number of  cards remaining in the deck = 40  - d
k: The number of items in the population that are classified as successes. = number of Exodia Cards in the deck = 5  - e
n: The number of items in the sample = Variable through experimentation = range (1, N)
x: The number of items in the sample that are classified as successes. = Number of Exodia Cards that must be drawn = 5 - e

h(x; N, n, k) = [ kCx ] [ (N-d)-kCn-x ] / [ (N-d)Cn ]
where [aCb] = a(a - 1)(a - 2) ... (a - b + 1)/b! = a! / b!(a - b)!


In Warhammer 40K does taking a Chaos Icon replace other weapons?

Does taking a Chaos Icon replace the model's boltgun?

No.

  Can the model with the Chaos Icon replace his boltgun with a chainsword and still have that with an Icon of Chaos?

Yes. If a piece of wargear has to be swapped it will specifically say as much in the war gear entry. If it just says X models can take Y then you simply pay the points and they have the additional equipment.


In Omaha Poker, can we use 0,1,3 or 4 hole cards when selecting the best 5 cards?

To answer you title question: No. You are obliged to use 2 and only 2 of your hole cards.

There are main 2 differences between Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hold'em.

The number of hole cards you have.
The number of hold cards you must use to create your final hand.

In Texas Hold'em you get 2 hole cards dealt to you, but are not required to use any of them to form your final 5 card hand.

In Omaha Hold'em you get 4 hole cards dealt to you, but are required to use 2 (and only 2) of them when forming your final 5 card hand.


Does a builder count as a follower when scoring?

Builders (and Pigs) are not followers and are not counted when calculating a majority.

In your case, the city would be scored for the owner of the big follower.

Originally, builders and pigs were followers but this was changed a while back.  Rio Grande Games adopted this rule upon the release of the Big Box Edition.


Does a permanent with multiple types count in all cases as all types

A permanent counts as each of the types it is. So an Artifact Creature (like Darksteel Colossus would be both an artifact and a creature.

For a spell like Cataclysm, you could choose an artifact creature as the choice for the artifact, or for the creature, or choose it for both if you want (which would cause you to sacrifice more permanents than you have to). If you had 2 artifact creatures, you could choose one of them as your artifact to keep, and one as your creature to keep; thus keeping them both.

See the Gatherer Rulings on Cataclysm

  If you control a permanent with more than one type, you can choose that same permanent for more than one of the choices if you want to. This makes it possible to select an artifact creature as both your artifact and creature, and then select a land and thereby keep only two cards.

and

  If you control a permanent with more than one type, you can choose that permanent to be the representative of either type. This makes it possible to have more than one creature (or other permanent type) on the battlefield. For example, if you select a creature for your creature and an artifact creature for your artifact, you get to keep both of these creatures.

From the comprehensive rules:

  205.2b Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any effect that applies to any of their card types.


When using prestige bonus during two player, can I choose Consume VPx2 as my second action?

The prestige bonus card applies only to one phase card:

  In the 2-player advanced game, place the prestige/search action card and the action card for the other phase you selected, naming the phase receiving the prestige bonus as you flip your action cards over.

So... you get exactly the appropriate bonus for the phase you choose to apply it to. It's easier to look at the nice pictures in the rules, but there are text descriptions as well:

  Consume: Trade

  Sell a good, drawing 3 additional cards; then consume any remaining
  goods doubling the number of VP chips received (as the Consume +x1 bonus
  applies) and, optionally, discard up to two cards from your hand for 1 VP
  apiece.

  Consume: 2x

  Triple (not double) the number of VP chips (only) that you receive.

So the most VP you can possibly get is 3x (by applying it to the consume 2x), and if you want to get fancy trade bonuses (by applying it to the consume trade) you'll get 2x VP.

(Note that in both cases, the prestige card adds 1x VP. It doesn't actually say 2x or 3x on the card.)


Is an environment card a villain target?

No.
I found the clarifications document here: http://www.spiffworld.com/sotm/files/sotm_rules_and_clarifications.pdf
It reads, in part:

What constitutes a Hero or Villain or Environment Target?
Any card with hp on it is a target, and the type of deck it came from determines
what kind of a target it is. for example, the “Enraged T-Rex” is an Environment
card since it comes from the Environment deck, and because it has hp, it is a
target. Therefore, it is an Environment Target. Same with a Villain card like
“Blade Battalion”; it is a villain card because it comes from the Villain deck, and
because it has hp, it is a target, so it’s a Villain Target. likewise, “Decoy
Projection” is a Hero card from a Hero deck which has hp, and so is a Hero
Target.

So Villainous Weaponry is an environment target, not a villain target.


Does passing a horror or strength test mean 1 success or enough to avoid losing sanity or health?

You only need one success to pass a skill test. There can still be consequences (Sanity or Health loss for instance).

If the text says that if you fail the horror check you will suffer blablabla, then you only need your test result to be 1 or higher to avoid the blablabla consequence.

Here are extracts from the Reference Guide to cover those answers (emphasis mine):

On page 11 (Tests):

The third step says:

  Determine Result: Each “5” or “6” rolled is one success. The total number of successes rolled is the test result. If he rolls at least one success, he passes the test. If he does not roll any successes, he fails the test

The fourth step says:

  Resolve Pass or Fail Effect: The consequence of passing or failing the test is determined by the effect that triggered the test.

  Some effects specify only a pass effect or a fail effect. If an  investigator passes a test that does not have a pass effect, there is no effect. Likewise, if an investigator fails a test that does not have a fail effect, he suffers no ill effects.
  On encounter cards, tests are declared using their skill icon    embedded in the text in parentheses. The test declaration may also indicate a test modifier.
  Effects that are dependent on a test are always preceded by “if you pass,” or “if you fail.” Any effect in that sentence occurs only if you pass the test or fail the test, respectively. Any effect after the period or part of a new paragraph, is independent from previous effects


How do players remember all the various effects?

As a general rule, the answer is token cards and dice.

Objects that don't physically exist in Magic tend to be token permanents, copies of spells on the stack, and abilities on the stack.

Tokens are often easy. Wizards produce token cards for non-copy token permanents within a set, so you can use these. If you don't have the appropriate token, you can use reminder tokens (e.g. I have 6/6 "Wurm" tokens for a deck that needs 1/1 "Worm" tokens), other objects, or relevant reminder cards from outside of the game. If your deck is sleeved, you can use unsleeved cards face-down. Dice are helpful as well - I can put a d6 on my face-down card to represent the power/toughness of the construct it represents.

Occasionally effects need to be remembered that aren't stored by the game on its own. Some examples of this are renowned/monstrous, "gain control" effects, or storm counts. Again, dice are helpful. At this point I have dice in a variety of colours. Simple +1/+1 counters will always be on white dice, but a renowned or monstrous creature will have its +1/+1 counters on a translucent coloured die.

If I've created tons of tokens for which I don't have the card, things can get more complicated. I might need dice to indicate the P/T of a group of creatures, the number of them, and additional counters on them. Again, different shapes/colours of dice can help you develop a consistent standard. I use d10s/d% to track numbers of objects, d6s for counters on an object, and d20s for life.

Copies on the stack tend to be of other things on the stack or of something held in exile, so you can refer to it. The stack doesn't usually get too deep, so it's not difficult to resolve it without forgetting what things are there. If it gets complicated you can put the exiled cards as reminders in a physical stack.

The reason it doesn't usually get too complicated is because you'll usually be able to refer to the effects that created stuff, and that there won't usually be too many different kinds of things at once. If I can't remember what your token creatures are, I can look at your "Raise the Alarm" in your graveyard.

Lasting effects can be tougher to remember as the board doesn't indicate the state for you. For example, if I play an instant or sorcery to gain permanent control of your creature, it's easy to remember because your card is on my side of the board. If you then gain control of it temporarily, we have to remember to give it back to me afterwards. I'll put reminder objects (rubber bands, bottle caps, etc) on relevant cards (e.g. exile at end of turn, or don't untap). I know people who have other objects (e.g. coins) that they put on their library to remind them to do something during upkeep, before drawing.

As you notice, Magic does have these moments where the board state can be complicated and not self-preserving. In general, players don't worry too much about it. As long as you've got techniques (as I mentioned, tokens and dice) to remember the more common details, you can improvise ways to deal with other situations. Most of the time you'll remember what's going on, and sometimes you'll forget but it won't matter too much. As you become more experienced with the game, you'll tend to remember details better and you'll know what you can infer from the board state. If you're playing in a deck or format where certain details matter, you'll choose ways to keep track of them.

If you come to a situation where these techniques are overcomplicated, insufficient or just don't work for you, you can write down notes as needed.


Can multiple activated abilities be resolved after each other while something is on the stack

Yes, you can do this.

After Ghave has been targeted with a damage spell, the damage spell goes on the stack.  You then respond to that spell by using Ghave's first activated ability, which also goes on the stack.

At this point (as long as nobody else plays in response), each player has passed priority, triggering rule 608:

  608.1. Each time all players pass in succession, the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves.

Ghave's activated ability resolves, and a Saproling enters the battlefied.  Rule 116 then comes into play:

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

Priority returns to the active player (which could be you or your opponent) before going around to each of the players again.  No other spells or abilities on the stack will resolve until each player has passed priority.

When you get priority again, you can use Ghave's second ability to sacrifice the Saproling and place a counter on Ghave to save him.


In Smallworld, do Fortresses pay the +1 VC only on the turn they are placed, or do they each pay for every turn that the race is active?

They work at the end of each your turn (not only when they are placed).
Even if it might by ambiguous in the Smallworld rules,

Fortified
Once per turn, as long as your Fortified Race
is active, you may place 1 Fortress in a
Region you occupy. The Fortress is worth 1
bonus Victory coin at turn's end, unless you
are In Decline. The Fortress also augments your Region's
defense by 1 (just as if you had an additional Race token
stationed there), even if you are In Decline.
Remove the Fortress if you abandon the Region
or when an enemy conquers it. There can only
ever be a maximum of 1 Fortress per Region,
and a maximum of 6 Fortresses on the map.

Everywhere else, symbol +1 VC on a land or token (such as Fortress) says that it works each turn.
If it were only about the end of the current turn, then the sentence at turn's end, unless you are In Decline wouldn't make sense (as you cannot place anything when you are in decline, unless you are Stout, but you cannot be Stout and Fortified at the same time).


Is it okay / does it make sense for another player to join a running game of Munchkin?

I've played plenty of games where someone has joined mid-game, and it has worked very well them just starting as if from scratch (i.e. at level 1 and drawing the starting hand of 4 treasure, 4 doors).

In my experience, what tends to happen is the established players have no problem with helping them to fight monsters they can't beat, meaning they'll level up and get loot just fine without needing a level boost.

In terms of changing the play order, I have a feeling there's a card which influences turn order in one of the early expansion sets, something along the lines of "Player is now fighting this monster, and play continues as though this were the player's turn", effectively skipping everyone in between - although I can't find the card name or text with a cursory search. Also, I wouldn't have said Munchkin is a game which particularly relied on the turn order, so I don't really see how this could be a problem.

In my opinion, if someone gets upset over a new player joining mid-campaign in casual play, they're probably taking Munchkin too seriously.


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

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

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

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

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


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

Yes, any target includes planewalkers

The wording was a relatively recent change. Previously, very few damage-dealing spells and abilities could target planeswalkers directly. Instead, you redirected damage from targeted players to one of their planeswalkers at resolution.

  114.4. Some spells and abilities that refer to damage require “any target,” “another target,” “two targets,” or similar rather than “target [something].” These targets may be creatures, players, or planeswalkers. Other game objects, such as noncreature artifacts or spells, can’t be chosen.


When units are destroyed by sword icons on house cards - how are the units chosen?

The loser choses. From the rules, page 21:

When a player suffers casualties, he decides which of his units are removed (unless stated otherwise by the text ability of a played House card). Remember that supporting units can never be taken as casualties in combat.
Note: Each casualty suffered destroys a single unit, regardless of Combat Strength. In other words, removing a Knight unit as a casualty still counts as only one casualty even though its Combat Strength is 2. For this reason, it is generally best to remove Footmen units as casualties, if able.


What happens if both players misunderstand the game state until it's too late?

First, players should never rewind game actions on their own; they should always call a judge to resolve problems like this.

In the particular situation you describe, it is ambiguous whether any rule was actually broken. In this scenario, Tarmogoyf's power and toughness are derived information (see section 4.1 of the Magic Tournament Rules), and both players calculated it incorrectly based on all relevant information. The communication rules do prohibit misrepresenting free or derived information, but it is not really clear if that rule is broken here.

At any level, a judge could reasonably determine that a game rule was violated, or that it was a simple game play mistake that the players have to live with. The Judging at Regular REL document provides for remedies for "player errors", so it would be reasonable for a judge to choose to rewind the game to the point where the error in calculation was made.

Higher REL levels are governed by the Infraction Procedure Guide; at that level if the judge thinks a rule was broken, it would be handled based on section 3.7: Tournament Error — Communication Policy Violation. That would result in a warning for whichever player(s) are found to be in violation of that rule, and a possible recommended remedy is to rewind actions taken based on the erroneous information. How far they rewind would probably depend on who is found to have violated the rule.


Can you sacrifice Animate Dead AND the creature it enchants?

Yes, if someone's asked to sacrifice multiple permanents, they can sacrifice Animate Dead and its enchanted creature.

As part of enacting Emrakul's Annihilator ability, your opponent has to to make six choices. These six choices are made all at once during resolution, and at that point they're all valid choices, and then after those choices are made, the ability dumps all six choices into the graveyard simultaneously.

Just about no triggered abilities can actually activate during effect resolution, so Animate Dead can't do its thing until that ability's fully resolved. Once it is, Animate Dead has left the battlefield and its triggered ability goes onto the stack:

  When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.

That creature's no longer around, and nothing happens.


"Dual-Color OW Battle" refers to three other world encounter cards from the Curse of the Dark Pharoah expansion (both the original and revised versions) that are actually two colors - they'll match either color. The "Battle" part, and the reason they're worth keeping statistics on, is that if you're in a certain location and draw the card, you'll have to fight an Ancient One. (If you're somewhere else, you get something much less scary.)

If you don't care about spoilers, here they are: one two three. They're linked from the Curse of the Dark Pharoah section here.


How many adjacent intersections per harbor are available for trading in Catan?

Each harbor provides exactly 2 spaces where a settlement can be built to gain access to the harbor. Because they are adjacent, only 1 of the 2 spaces in each harbor can ever be used in the same game.

The image provided by Acccumulation is very helpful, and gives the correct answer. However, I would like to provide an image and rules quote from the third edition of the game, because I believe this clears up any possible ambiguity. To know that the image in the other answer is correct, you have to know that a "harbor" is actually one of the stone jetties drawn on the border; not one of the ships drawn on the border.

In this edition (which uses the same rules for harbors as the newest editions), it is clearer that each harbor has 2 spaces; because of the 2 dotted lines connecting the resource icon to the building intersections.

Also, in the setup rules for placing the harbors, it says:

  Then, place harbor hexes in the open coastal spaces between the sea hexes. Each harbor hex should face the island, so that the 2 harbor corners (denoted by doted half-circles), align with the longest row of adjoining terrain hexes.

This rule clarifies that the rotation of the harbor tiles is important, because only 2 of the corners of the hex actually count as harbor spaces.

The newer editions replaced these water and harbor hexes with a border, but the rules for harbors stayed the same.


What is a good strategy for engaging children in playing go?

It's usually a good idea to have an "outsider" teach, going by personal observations and hearsays.

My guess on why parents usually make for poor (beginning) teachers is that the children unconsciously think of it as the parent making them play a game that they will always lose to the parent at, and therefore tend to be less than enthusiastic. This may be why the children of pros so rarely play Go.


Whats a good house rule to give the Rogue a chance at winning Dungeon?

I would agree that the Rogue is the weakest class, although I don't have hard data to back that up. The reasoning is simple: she needs the same treasure count as the cleric, but is weaker in combat. Their special power to pass secret doors is a very poor compensation, not least because it's unreliable, and is easily copied with a secret door card.

The easiest adjustment is to change the amount of treasure required to win, but I have little idea what an appropriate target would be. Instead, you might consider adjusting the Rogue's special power:

Have Rogues find secret doors all the time, without a dice roll.
If they pick up a secret door card, treat it as a +1 magic sword (which compensates for their combat weakness).

Personally, I find it more fun just not to use the Rogue. Four is a sensible number for a good game of Dungeon, and two clerics and two warriors offers good balance, simple rules (no special powers) and plenty of competition without too many players hunting in the same levels.


Name of this interesting variant of Tic-tac-toe?

BGG doesn't have any game with "Spillage" in the title. Looking at the Tic-Tac-Toe entry there is also no game that reimplements Tic-Tac-Toe which is the same as Spillage. There are a number of games which play some sort of meta-game of Tic-Tac-Toe in which there are nine 3x3 games being played and the object is to get 3 in a row on the meta-board. So all in all "Spillage" would seem to be as good a name as any.

I'd guess that the game is a first player win like the game Hex since having an extra position can't hurt.

Since it is a "new" game it won't have been solved. But writing a program to play would need a dept first approach with symmetry. The look ahead would seem to be fairly uncomplicated so I'd guess that a computer could either win or tie with a decent program.

Given that the human moves first I'm not sure that a human could out-play a computer on this. If such a winning strategy could be found for the first player then the game would just be a gigantic meta-Tic-Tac-Toe game of course.


Is there any way to stop someone from sacrificing a Golden Urn?

Golden Urn's ability is an Activated Ability. You would need an effect that counters activated abilities in order to prevent it. Stifle and Trickbind are the most common choices (In my own experience), though other similar cards do exist.

You could also cast a spell to prevent players from Gaining life (False Cure, SkullCrack, etc), or End the Turn before the effect resolves (Time Stop)

Golden Urn's ability cost includes sacrificing itself. Therefore, it is no longer on the field by the time you would have an opportunity to respond.


It is pretty common in other CCGs to play proxy cards. This is typically made up of a common card from the game being played, in a sleeve with a printed copy of the desired card, cut from plain paper and the same size as the other cards, placed in front of the proxy card.

You are correct to point out that the sleeves do make the cards, and subsequently the deck, thicker. I wouldn't bother with liner sleeves (the really thin ones). These are intended to protect cards placed into hard shells. I'd try to make it work with deck protector sleeves.


Monopoly Stock Exchange add-on: How does the add-on change the probability of landing on the properties?

Linked in Probabilities in the Game of Monopoly® by Truman Collins, are C source code files written to calculate the probabilities of normal Monopoly. We can just roll up our sleeves and tweak the program ourselves to see what kind of changes we get.

Choices

There are two separate programs linked: one that calculates the probabilities based on simulated die rolls, and one that uses a Markov matrix to calculate the exact probabilities. Collins says the data on the webpage were generated using a "extended" version of the Markov code, and then goes on to describe how even that process may be improved. However, to start off I decided to use the simpler (but less accurate) roll-up-the-probabilities code to see how far it gets us. I told it to simulate 10 million rolls. The code also outputs probabilities for two strategies: paying $50 to get out of jail immediately, and staying in jail until you get doubles or escape naturally. Below are only the probabilities for the "short jail" strategy.

Changes

I decided to split the difference between the two versions listed in the question, and add three Community Chest and three Chance cards that go to the Stock Exchange square, and also add the one Chance card the can send the player to jail. I chose for that card to always send the player to jail, rather than try and add in the complexity of simulating if the player had stocks.

Results

                            W/SE  Rank Normal Rank Difference RankChange
Go                          2.919 7    3.105  3    94.01%     -4
Mediterranean Avenue        2.13  34   2.137  36   99.67%      2
Community Chest             1.577 37   1.888  37   83.53%      0
Baltic Avenue               2.143 33   2.16   35   99.21%      2
Income Tax                  2.273 26   2.322  28   97.89%      2
Reading Railroad            2.781 12   2.958  6    94.02%     -6
Oriental Avenue             2.205 30   2.267  32   97.27%      2
Chance                      0.668 40   0.857  40   77.95%      0
Vermont Avenue              2.233 29   2.322  28   96.17%     -1
Connecticut Avenue          2.188 31   2.302  30   95.05%     -1
Visiting Jail               2.159 32   2.272  31   95.03%     -1
St. Charles Place           2.5   22   2.71   14   92.25%     -8
Electric Company            2.442 23   2.596  20   94.07%     -3
States Avenue               2.274 25   2.372  26   95.87%      1
Virginia Avenue             2.373 24   2.462  24   96.39%      0
Pennsylvania Railroad       2.77  13   2.92   8    94.86%     -5
St. James Place             2.711 15   2.799  12   96.86%     -3
Community Chest             2.129 35   2.596  20   82.01%     -15
Tennessee Avenue            2.842 10   2.935  7    96.83%     -3
New York Avenue             2.947 6    3.088  4    95.43%     -2
Free Parking/Stock Exchange 5.1   1    2.875  9    177.39%     8
Kentucky Avenue             2.704 17   2.83   10   95.55%     -7
Chance                      0.815 38   1.048  38   77.77%      0
Indiana Avenue              2.702 18   2.745  13   98.43%     -5
Illinois Avenue             3.109 3    3.176  2    97.89%     -1
B & O Railroad              3.08  4    3.073  5    100.23%     1
Atlantic Avenue             2.877 9    2.702  15   106.48%     6
Ventnor Avenue              2.916 8    2.683  16   108.68%     8
Water Works                 2.955 5    2.816  11   104.94%     6
Marvin Gardens              2.746 14   2.581  22   106.39%     8
Go To Jail                  0     41   0      41   0           0
Pacific Avenue              2.8   11   2.679  17   104.52%     6
North Carolina Avenue       2.711 15   2.624  18   103.32%     3
Community Chest             2.024 36   2.366  27   85.55%     -9
Pennsylvania Avenue         2.6   19   2.5    23   104%        4
Short Line                  2.535 21   2.438  25   103.98%     4
Chance                      0.721 39   0.861  39   83.74%      0
Park Place                  2.264 27   2.182  34   103.76%     7
Luxury Tax                  2.236 28   2.189  33   102.15%     5
Boardwalk                   2.556 20   2.617  19   97.67%     -1
In Jail                     4.284 2    3.948  1    108.51%    -1

The addition of six cards that take you to the Stock Exchange square almost double the odds of landing on it. Due to the effect of it warping you across the board, in general the properties before the SE square have a slight reduction in probability, and the squares after it experience a slight increase. The Chance and Community Chest squares have the most dramatically lowered chance due to the increased chance of drawing a card that moves you away (from about 81% to 85%).

For rankings, the Stock Exchange square becomes the first or second most landed on square, depending on if you decide to stay in jail or leave right away. Illinois Avenue and the B & O Railroad continue to stay around the top, and the squares following them (Atlantic, Ventnor, and the Water Works) have some of the most notable increases in rank. New York drops down to sixth, after the Water Works. Go drops down to seventh, since the cards that warp you to the Stock Exchange put you the furthest away from GO possible.

If playing with this Monopoly Add-on, I'd probably invest in the Yellow.


Are there any reputable chess openings which begin a4, b4, g4, or h4?

These would be classified as A00: Irregular Openings.

Starting with 1. a4 is Ware's Opening; 1. b4 is Sokolsky's Opening; 1. g4 is Grob's Attack; 1. h4 is the Desprez Opening.

As you've noted, these are not played often. The database at chessgames.com shows only 548 games starting with 1. b4, 260 with 1. g4, and just 10 each for 1. a4 and 1. h4. White has only a small advantage within all A00 openings, 38.5% to 35.1%.


What is the M-symbol?

It is most likely just an imaginary symbol for Monopoly money.

For "everyday use", the closest symbol might be "₩" or "￦", just turned upside down. This is a symbol for Won, currency used in South and North Korea.

How to use it?: LaTeX

Since the Monopoly M is not a real symbol, it does not have an alt-code. It can be still used via LaTex. Dont worry, it's not very hard. Here's an little example.

For those who know Latex already:
Use this in your preamble

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

And this to make an alias

\newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}}

You may now use \M to insert the Monopoly M.

For those who are not used to Latex:

Copy-paste this into blank document in Overleaf.com, and edit it for your needs (You will need to sign up, but it is free). Then download your pdf or just use Print Screen, depending on your needs.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{textcomp} % for the Won symbol
\usepackage{graphicx} % Needed for the rotation

\begin{document}
  \newcommand{\M}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\textwon}} % make an alias '\M' for the upside-down Won.
  \Large
  \underline{\M { }stands for \M onopoly \M oney} \\[20px]

\large
\begin{tabular}{ll}
  Fish & \M 100 \\
  Chips &\M 50 \\
  Fish \& Chips \qquad \qquad & \M 120\\
\end{tabular}\\[20px]

\Large
 Normal: \M \qquad Bold: \textbf{\M}

\end{document}

Additional info: Unicode & HTML (Won sign)

As Wikipedia states, the first symbol (₩, WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point U+20A9, and has HTML code &#8361;. The second symbol  (￦, FULLWIDTH WON SIGN) is at Unicode code point  U+FFE6 and has HTML code &#65510;.


Ultimate Werewolf Good 10-12 Player setups

The question is not completely clear. But I give it a try.

The balance between werewolves and good villagers is important. A rule of thumb is 1/3 werewolves. But it is not that critical. A single smart werewolf can win versus 12 villagers and 5 werewolves can be beaten by 12. Note that on a typical night the wolves eat a villager and during the day there is a chance the villagers kill a wolf.
So if the balance (wolves, villagers) = (a, 2a). Then the balance on the next day is either (a-1, 2a-1) or (a, 2a-2).

The normal 12 player setup would be:

1 Seer
1 Witch
1 Hunter
1 Cupid
4 Villagers
4 wolves

Idea's to expand the game:

You can experiment with additional roles to spice up the game.
You can even try a game without wolves (the moderator selects the victim each night).
Try adding a theme to the setting. For example Call the village Waterloo, the villagers are the french, the wolves are enemy spies and the Mayor is called Napoleon.
Try adding extra elements.  For example, in the morning, there is a mysterious bottle in the village. The first player that drinks it, has the effects (this can be good (protected vs the wolves for the next night) or bad (you are dead)).

In order to enjoy the game it is important to see it as a team effort. Even if a single villager survives, the villagers have won as a team. (Same for wolves).

In a face to face game, I rarely let the players know in advance what the roles are. In a forum game, more information is needed so I often include the roles.


Yes.

From the rules,

  When two or more words are formed in the same play, each is scored. The common letter is counted (with full premium value, if any) for each word.

(Emphasis mine.)


How can I elegantly increase the difficulty of Elder Sign?

One that is simple to implement, doesn't add any time, and seems to up the difficulty without making it overpowering is to ignore the word "unless" and everything after it on mythos cards.

So, for example, "Add a Doom token to the Doom track unless at least 1 investigator has a Spell." would become "Add a Doom token to the Doom track."

Particularly if you're playing with 4 players, these cards never seem to add doom tokens by the base rules. Another alternative would be to change "unless at least 1 investigator" to "unless ALL investigators".

That same thread has some simple rules for making the final battle harder, but I haven't tried that one. Definitely seems in line with your goal of being simple and not adding time to the game, though.


Where are official changes announced by Wizard?

The list of sets legal in any format can be found in The MTG Tournament Rules, Section 6. The sets legal for Standard, in particular, can be found at this rules page. Historically, a block rotates out when the block after the following one is introduced, and a core set rotates out when the block after the following core set is introduced. However, Wizards is changing this, and in the future, core sets will be removed, blocks will be two sets each, and the most recent three blocks will be legal.


Does the Medic need to wait until their next turn to remove cubes when another player researches a cure?

The blue cubes in Paris are removed immediately:

From the Rules (Classic Pandemic p.5), emphasis mine:

  The Medic removes all cubes, not 1, of the same color when doing the Treat Disease action. If a disease has been cured, he automatically removes all cubes of that color from a city, simply by entering it or being there. This does not take an action.
  The Medic also prevents placing disease cubes (and outbreaks) of cured
  diseases in his location. The Medic's automatic removal of cubes also
  happens during other players' turns.


Does Sproutback Trudge's cost reduction get applied when we cast it from the graveyard?

Yes, you can get both benefits in the same turn and from whatever zone you cast it.
Sproutback Trudge's first ability applies the mana cost reduction whenever you cast it. Since it makes no limitation otherwise, it does not matter when or from which zone you cast the creature.


How can I effectively use the Coppersmith?

Coppersmith is a terminal action, therefore you have to design your deck to accomodate it.  (By terminal action, I mean it is an action that does not give +Actions).  As others have noted, Coppersmith is a card used to give you an early start.  By managing your deck, you can extend that advantage well into the mid game.

Here is a chart showing how 1 coppersmith can accelerate your early game.  I've compared it to Smithy, and "Big Money"  (A base strategy of buying only silver/gold/provinces which is actually fairly strong)

                    Chance of Having (once during the two turns)
Turn 1-2 purchases   $6      $7     $8       Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coppersmith+Treasure 50.91%   0.00%  21.21% # 1 in 792 that 2 golds can be bought
Smithy+Silver        42.60%  19.39%   2.12% #Not possible with a 5/2 copper split
2 Silver             33.59%   8.84%   0.00% #Not possible with a 5/2 copper split

This shows a few things

you have a vastly higher chance of affording a province.
The coppersmith gives you a 70% higher chance of being able to afford a gold than "Big Money"
The coppersmith works with a 5/2 copper split on the first 2 turns, while the other two do not.
Coppersmith will not give you possibly annoying $5 and $7 hands.

Is buying a province on turn 3 a good move?  Maybe not, but it could be.  My point is that if you buy coppersmith, you stand a higher chance of getting an early gold.  This advantage will carry over to future turns.  Coppersmith will help you hit the financial high points of $6 and $8 more often, while avoiding $5 and especially $7.

Every set of 10 cards in Dominion is different.  Coppersmith won't always be a great card, but it can be used to great effect.  Try playing it with wishing well!


Frigga's Protection and Odin's Chosen in game of Blood Rage

If the other player spends 1 Rage to keep his figure in place, the active player is unable to perform his invasion and basically loses his turn.

From Thiago Arnha, Producer, rules writer, and play tester of Blod rage. He designed Arcada Quest with Eric Lang.


Why doesn't WotC use established keywords on all new cards?

Landfall isn't an established keyword since it's not a keyword; it doesn't have its own article in the Comprehensive Rules, rule 702. Rather, it is an ability word which does nothing more than link a group of cards with a common theme/mechanic together.

  207.2c An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that they tie together cards that have similar functionality, but they have no special rules meaning and no individual entries in the Comprehensive Rules. The ability words are addendum, battalion, bloodrush, channel, chroma, cohort, constellation, converge, council's dilemma, delirium, domain, eminence, enrage, fateful hour, ferocious, formidable, grandeur, hellbent, heroic, imprint, inspired, join forces, kinship, landfall, lieutenant, metalcraft, morbid, parley, radiance, raid, rally, revolt, spell mastery, strive, sweep, tempting offer, threshold, undergrowth, and will of the council.

(the list might be updated when a new set comes out)

Having said that, it looks like Evolution Sage is the only card in that set with  landfall a landfall-like ability. Having only one card with that mechanic is (apparently) not enough to return a key- or ability word from a previous block; they generally only do so for evergreen keywords like lifelink, vigilance or shroud.


Do Evolutions combine, for example Breath of Doom, Mecha Blast, and Claws of Steel?

If not specifically stated as with Breath of Doom, the term deal X damage always translates to

  Deal X damage to all target monsters and each monster that has taken damage from you this turn.

If you're in Tokyo, this means your target is all monsters outside of it. If you are attacking Tokyo, your target is all monster inside of Tokyo (Bay included). In case you have dealt damage to monsters that are not your target, they will also take extra damage from these modifiers.

And vice versa, the translation of "you dealt X or more damage" is

  All of the monsters that you targeted have taken X or more damage originating from your number of rolled claws, damage from cards and damage from power-ups.

So, if you're in Tokyo, you need to have at least dealt X damage to all monsters outside of Tokyo. This can be important because there are cards that affect only your neighbours.

This is how the total damage is counted after each effect in your example:

You roll a single claw.

  Total DMG: 1: Only the monsters in Tokyo are affected

Use Breath of Doom.

  Total DMG: 1: because the only monsters affected by Breath of Doom are the ones outside of Tokyo, hence not your target

Use Mecha Blast.

  Total DMG: 3: At this point you've already attacked all other monsters, so all other monsters take extra damage. In case you wouldn't have played Breath of Doom, only the monster(s) in Tokyo would have taken 2 damage!

Play Claws of Steel.

  Total DMG: 4: The same reasoning as in the previous step.


This question is kind of the mirror image of this one: "Why would you want to play with a deck that had 3 or more colors in it in Magic?"

Playing multi-color decks is desirable because it lets you make a powerful and versatile deck by cherrypicking the best cards (for your strategy) from multiple colors.

So, why are 4- and 5- color decks so comparatively rare?

A lot of the strongest spells of a color have deeper mana requirements.

Make a list of your favorite powerful cards. A lot of them probably have costs like 2WW rather than 3W, huh? This drastically alters the math of consistent color access. If you look at this number-crunching article by Frank Karsten, you'll see he figures 12 sources are enough to consistently cast a 2C-cost spell on turn 3, but you need 19 sources to get the same quality of access to a 1CC-cost spell on turn 3. 19!

This is an active, purposeful design decision to make these cards easier to cast on-curve and on-time in a deck that's dedicated to those colors, and harder to include in a deck that only splashes a color.
Cards are strongest when you play them on time. A mana base that's heavy on comes-into-play-tapped lands or requires casting land-selection spells like Borderland Ranger to set up your mana introduces notable lag before you can start playing spells that will really interact with your opponent.
Opponents can disrupt your mana base. Consider how much tighter mana requirements become when you're playing against a deck with 2x Rishadan Port and 4x Wasteland.

All these serve as a damper on the greediest multi-color decks. On top of that, because:

The color's "pie slices" overlap (e.g. green or white can both play effective enchantment removal, so you only need one of those colors to get that ability in your deck).
Not every color in a format will meaningfully support the specific synergies / strategies you're trying to exploit. (Maybe there just are no red cards worth playing in your midrange deck, even with perfect mana.)
A stable 5-color manabase can lock you out of playing amazing utility lands like Academy Ruins.

— there's often very little to gain from building a full four- or five- color deck instead of one that's "just" three colors.

Exceptions, such as Chapin's Cloudthresher + Cruel Ultimatum Lorwyn control deck (example decklist), are typically the result of slower formats with multi-lands that support greater color depth than simple dual lands.