You are mixing two different things up quite a bit.

What is a quality?

You will only see "quality" get used in the Comprehensive Rules, and it gets used in context under its normal English meaning: it is some kind of attribute, characteristic, or property of a thing. Don't try to find a specific set of things about cards that is a "quality", because there isn't one; the word has no special meaning in the game and the rules are just using it in the normal English sense. For example, when the rules talk about Hexproof, they also talk about "Hexproof from white/black" as seen on the Knights of Grace and Malice:

  702.11d “Hexproof from [quality]” is a variant of the hexproof ability. “Hexproof from [quality]” on a permanent means “This permanent can’t be the target of [quality] spells your opponents control or abilities your opponents control from [quality] sources.” A “hexproof from [quality]” ability is a hexproof ability.

Here they could equally write "Hexproof from _____". However they are instead using "quality" as a placeholder word that lets them easily and clearly reference whatever goes in the blank. That doesn't make "quality" be a special limited set of things in the rules though, they are just using an English word for its English meaning.

This is unlike words like "ability" and "characteristic". Those do have a specific definition in the rules (rules 112 and 109.3, respectively). There are limited sets of things that are "abilities" and "characteristics" and we can point to them and say "that is an ability according to this part of the rules" and "that is not an ability", etc.

"Quality" is not defined like these words, it is just an English term.

Muraganda Petroglyphs has nothing to do with qualities as such

  In the example, I'm not sure why "can't be blocked" is a quality and "flying" is not. So what is the definition of a quality?

Flying is an ability. That ability is granted to the creature by the aura. The creature now has an ability. Therefore, Muraganda Petroglyphs will not give it +2/+2, because it is not a creature with no abilities.

"Enchanted creature can't be blocked" is not granting an ability, it is just a rules modification of how things can interact with that card. "Enchanted creature is red" is likewise granting it an ability, it is setting its color.

If you're trying to understand what is/isn't a quality in hopes of understanding Muraganda Petroglyphs, you're on a wild goose chase: instead you need to understand abilities. An ability is rules text on a card, including static keyword abilities such as flying, and things may grant creatures those abilities temporarily or permanently.


Why is being in the dummy in bridge called "on the board"?

The dummy's hand is typically arranged flat on the table (a flat surface, or "board"), and it appears the terminology comes from this

For example, from the ACBL's glossary:

  BOARD. (1) A duplicate board. (2) The table on which the cards are played. (3) The dummy’s hand, so called because it lies on the table.


The influence roll on the Detained card is a Local Action, meaning any investigator on the space, yourself included, can roll to perform the action.  Normally, you would be able to roll on it to try to remove the Restriction.  However, being Delayed adds an additional restriction indicating that you cannot perform any actions.

I believe the question is based around if the act of standing up from being Delayed is an Action.  As the rule book states:

  A Delayed investigator cannot perform actions.

The only logical way for an investigator to cease detainment is for the act of standing up to not count as an action.

The net result for your round would be:

Any investigators before you, who are also on your space, can roll as a local action to try to discard your Detained card
On your turn, regardless of Detained status, you stand up and perform no other actions due to being Delayed
Any investigators after you, who are also on your space, can roll as a local action to try to discard your Detained card
During your encounter phase, if the Detained was not removed, flip the card and encounter the back


Replenishing the deck after both draw and discard piles have been exhausted

Yes, that is what would happen but that is supposed to be a rare situation as it is not intended for the players to hold all the cards in their hands. The rules cover the situation for when there are no cards at all for players to draw and by extension it also covers the situation when a route is claimed and there are now cards to draw
https://ncdn0.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/img/tt_rules_2015_en.pdf

When the deck is exhausted, the discards are reshuffled into a new draw pile deck. The
cards should be shuffled thoroughly, since all the cards have been discarded in sets.

In the unlikely event that there are no cards left in the deck and there are no discards
(because players are hoarding many cards in their hands), a player cannot draw Train
Car cards. Instead he may only claim a route or draw Destination Ticket cards.


How are numerical chess rankings calculated for different ranking systems?

In general, the idea is to give an approximation of relative strength among players, based on their history in rated competition in that type of chess (normal, blitz, correspondence). The greater the difference, the higher the probability that the higher-rated player will win.
Ratings are modified based on the difference in rating between the players and the expected result. Ratings generally go up for a win and down for a loss; the rating change is bigger if the difference in ratings as bigger. There is typically a damping factor that reduces or removes the penalty for losing to a much higher-rated player.
There are typically different rules for players with established ratings and players who haven't yet played enough games to establish a rating. Provisional ratings fluctuate more and have less predictive value for future results.
In general, yes, once you have established a rating, it is harder to increase your rating by 100 points from 2000 than it is to increase it by 100 points from 100. That does depend on your skill level: if you have a knack for chess, you may never have a rating in the low 1000s.
Below are summaries for most of the major ratings I have been able to identify; apologies to those who use a different rating system.
Elo system
The formula for calculating your Elo rating is this:

new rating = old rating + K×(W-We), where K=10, W=actual score, and We=expected score

In tournament play, the difference in ratings between you and each of your opponents is calculated first. From this, an expected score against each opponent is derived from a table. The sum of those expected scores is compared to your actual score, and thus your new score is calculated.
ECF system

As of 2009, a player's grade is calculated by taking the opponent's grade and adding 50 points for a win, subtracting 50 points for a loss, and taking the opponent's grade as it stands for a draw. For grading purposes it is assumed that the opponent's grade is never more than 40 points above or below one's own. An ECF grade can be approximated to an Elo rating by multiplying by 8 and adding 600*.

For a further explanation, per the ECF website:

In the interval between the end of a grading period and publication of the new grades, the "current" grade for calculation purposes is the new, as yet unpublished, grade.
The Grade is calculated by dividing the total number of points scored by the number of games played. If there are at least 30 games in the current period, then the Grade is based on these games alone. If there are not, results are brought forward from the previous periods as required (see 'Category' above). In no case does calculation go back more than 36 months.
Results are brought forward in two different ways, depending whether the Grade is Rapid or Standard. With Rapidplay, any games brought forward from a previous period will be the most recent games in that period. This is possible because the dates of Rapid games are (almost) always known. With Standardplay, unfortunately, this is not the case. So, instead, the required number of (notional) games is brought forward at the average score for the period.

For ungraded players, a grade is estimated this way:

A Rapid Grade, where available, will be used in default of a Standard Grade; and vice versa. If the player has no Grade at all, a starting grade is calculated as follows.
Stage 1 is to calculate a 'grade' for each ungraded player on his games against graded opponents. The 40-point rule is not used. If all his opponents are graded, it stops there and the result will be used as his starting grade.
Stage 2 brings in games between the ungraded players. Once again the 40-point rule is not used. The players are 'graded' on all their games, using as starting grades the figures obtained from Stage 1.
The resulting 'grades' will not be very accurate. So they are fed in again as new starting grades, and Stage 2 is repeated. This continues, with increasing accuracy each time, until the figures (more or less) stop changing. The starting grades can then be considered accurate.
These starting grades are then used in the grading proper.

Glicko system
The Glicko system is an improvement on the Elo system, introducing a concept called Ratings Deviation.
The rating system itself is beyond the ability of this site to display; without the add-in that Math.SE has, the formulas would be nearly impossible to follow.

The RD measures the accuracy of a player's rating. For example, a player with a rating of 1500 and an RD of 50 has a real strength between 1400 and 1600 with 95% confidence. Twice the RD is added and subtracted from their rating to calculate this range. After a game, the amount the rating changes depends on the RD: the change is smaller when the player's RD is low (since their rating is already considered accurate), and also when their opponent's RD is high (since the opponent's true rating is not well known, so little information is being gained). The RD itself decreases after playing a game, but it will increase slowly over time of inactivity.

USCF Correspondence
The USCF used a linear approximation of the Elo method for calculating correspondence chess methods ... this is how it works now.
Established players
To calculate a new rating after a game, use the following formula:

Rn = Ro + .04(ED) +/- 16
This means that a new rating (Rn) is determined by taking the old rating (Ro), adding or subtracting 4 percent of the difference in ratings between opponents (.04(ED)), and adding or subtracting 16 points.
Rating differences that exceed 350 points are figured as 350 points.
For players rated 2100-2399, the formula Rn = Ro + .03(ED) +/- 12 is used.
For players rated 2400 and above, the formula Rn = Ro + .02(ED) +/- 8 is used.

Provisional players
During your first 25 games as a correspondence chess player, your rating is calculated as the average of your game results.
Each game result is as follows:

400 points plus the opponent's rating for a win, unless the opponent's rating is more than 400 points less than yours.
The opponent's rating minus 400 points for a loss, unless the opponent's rating is more than 400 points greater than yours.
The opponent's rating for a draw, regardless of the difference in rating.
Your current rating in all other cases.

For your first result, because you do not yet have a rating, the 400-point differences do not apply: you get the opponent's rating for a draw, +400 for a win, -400 for a loss. If your opponent also doesn't have a rating, then it's 1700 for the winner and 1300 for the loser, or 1500 for both if you draw.
There is also a provision for forfeits under certain circumstances, like the death of an opponent. (Yes, this is a drawback to correspondence chess ... sometimes you suddenly don't have an opponent any more.)
EDIT : The ELO system is not that simple : here is the FIDE handbook that regulates the rating system : http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=172&view=article.
For those who don't want to read it, here goes (for already rated players) :

For each game played against a rated player, calculate the rating difference D
A difference in rating of more than 400 points shall be counted for rating purposes as though it were a difference of 400 points.

Use a table to find the player's score probability PD
dR = score - PD (score is 0, 0.5, 1 for each game)
The rating change is : the sum of each dR multiplied by K

K is the development coefficient, defined as follows :

K = 40 for a player new to the rating list until he has completed events with at least 30 games
K = 20 as long as a player's rating remains under 2400.
K = 10 once a player's published rating has reached 2400 and remains at that level subsequently, even if the rating drops below 2400.
K = 40 for all players until their 18th birthday, as long as their rating remains under 2300.
The Rating Change is rounded to the nearest whole number. 0.5 is rounded up ( whether the change is positive or negative).

Hope it is useful for everyone that wondered.


What are the rules differences in Empires in Arms?

I don't own the Australian Design Group version of the game, and I have yet to find a copy of the rules online in any form.
The Avalon Hill version of the rules can be found in several locations. BGG, eia.xnetz (or with Errata integrated)
This person claims that the following were changed.

Inf went from $2 to $3, ships from $7 to $10, guard and artillary from $6 to $7...
In the ADG version, all corps were uniform, ie, all French corps were 20i3c: In the AH version The french 1st corps is 25i3c, 2-6 are 20i3c, 7-9 are 15i2c and 10-12 are 12i1c. The 4 cav corps in ADG were 7cav each, in AH they are 7 cav for 2, 5 cav for the other 2. Similar corps composition changes were made to most of the countries.
Guard was added to Spain and GB, though not guard commitment.
New political combinations was greatly expanded.

Without access to the ADG rules, I cannot confirm or deny these changes exist though.


Where can I find Duel Monster tournaments in the U.S.?

Your Local Gaming/Comic Book Shop likely hosts Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, along with similar games such as Magic the Gathering, Force of Will, Pokemon, etc.

Without knowing your location, I cannot point you to a specific shop, but there is a store locator available Here


Is putting a Draw 4 card on top of a Draw 2 card legal?

A common Uno variant allows the recipient of a draw 2 to avoid drawing (and being skipped) by playing their own draw 2.  The next player either needs to skip their turn and draw 4 cards, or play their own draw 2.  If they play their own, the next player must either draw 6 cards or continue the sequence.  Some variants allow similar behavior with draw 4 cards.

Assuming you're talking about this "stacking" draw cards, you aren't going to be able to get an official answer, because it isn't an official rule.  This would explain why you and your friend are both adamant about it working in different ways.  You're just going to have to come to an agreement on how you will play.

For what its worth, every place that I've seen this rule described you have to play the exact same card, so you cannot "stack" a draw 4 when receiving a draw 2 in order to make the next player draw 6.  So I expect that is the more common way of playing the variant.


In Pandemic, when does the discard-over-7-cards rule take effect?

First, note that the hand limit is 7 cards, NOT 8 cards!

You cannot hold more than 7 cards in your hand for any length of time. This means that while you are holding 7 cards, the researcher cannot give you 2 cards. Actions are one at a time, so first the researcher would give you a card, at which point you would be over the limit. Before any other action is taken, you must discard down to the hand limit. Once you are at 7 again, the researcher can give you another card now, at which point you will need to discard again.

You can play special event cards instead of discarding, however. So the answer to your question is that you need to play/discard your excess cards immediately, before any other action is taken.

From the rules:

  If you ever have more than 7 cards in hand (after first resolving any
  Epidemic cards you may have drawn), discard cards or play Event cards
  until you have 7 cards in hand (see Event Cards on page 7).

and under the Share Knowledge action details:

  If the player who gets the card now has more than 7 cards, that player must
  immediately discard a card or play an Event card (see Event Cards on page 7).


Sort of, I certainly think people do something like this when they first look at their hands (even if they don't call it SWOT). Also analyzing play for a squeeze covers many of the SWOT areas if you squint hard enough (though interestingly threat cards aren't a threat)

strength = your squeeze card
weakness = your threat cards (possibly also communication cards)
opportunities = the squeeze itself/opponents discard under your squeeze card
threat = the opponents busy cards

And I'm sure many other areas of play will also be mappable to SWOT. I suspect that this isn't covered more as we generally have much mores specific methods to analyze a hand for different situations


Is there a viable "Japan First" strategy for the Allies in Axis and Allies?

This response for Japan First is based on the 1986 Second Edition version and assumes No Russia Attack first round house rule.

The allies should under no circumstance look to divert SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES (i.e. more than U.K.'s dollars to an India IC/tanks thereafter).
If you send more dollars (U.S. IC, Russia support, etc), you are weakening the Shuck-Shuck which ultimately means a delay to round 4 assuming a smart Axis German player will suicide his fighters on a weakened initial shuck-shuck attempt. ORRR you are needlessly increasing Germany's short initial window to attack Russia by not placing all Russia defense troops possible of reaching Karelia as defense.
Allies should concentrate their initial 90 IPCs as much as possible towards Germany's 32 IPC's, this tilts the ground war in their favor the quickest as Germany starts out with an IPC advantage day 1 which must be overcome via Infantry-push tactics.


Can you play a reaction to an event, if that event is the thing that let you draw the reaction?

Would she be allowed to play the card in response to losing this conflict?

According to my analysis, yes.

Seems that The Art of War has an interrupt effect, which basically means that it resolves before the other effect or condition that triggered. From the rulings on interrupts (p.10):

  An interrupt is a triggered ability whose text is prefaced by a boldface “Interrupt:” precursor. An interrupt ability interrupts the resolution of its triggering condition, sometimes canceling or changing the resolution of that condition. Always resolve interrupts to a triggering condition before resolving the consequences of the triggering condition itself.

Therefore, your opponent drew those cards before the Military Conflict came to a resolution. This enabled her to be able to use the reaction from her card, as "it was there" before she "lost the military conflict".

This last sentence is important, as Reaction effects require that it "may be initiated only if its specified triggering condition occurs." (also from the rulings, p.13). If The Art of War were not an Interrupt, it will require for the Conflict to end in order to take effect, situation that will result in the card being pulled out to lose timing and not be able to activate (as the last thing that happened was the resolution of the last effect, and not the end of the Conflict).


Three person Euchre is definitely a real thing and there are ten different ways to play it, according to Wikipedia. They pretty much all rely on:

Setting extra cards aside as a dummy hand (more rarely, removing cards from the deck or adding cards to the kitty)
Having players keep track of points individually, since they don't have a consistent partner (if they have a partner at all)

The one you described, Canadian Euchre, is indeed one of those ways, (it is also called Buck Euchre, especially in the Midwest of the United States, where I have indeed seen it played).

Four hands are dealt out, one to each player and one face down on the table. The dealer turns up the top kitty card, as usual, and this card is automatically trump; there is no bidding for trump. Instead, each player has the option, in clockwise order starting at the dealer's left, of playing the dealt hand or the blind hand on the table. If the player picks up the blind hand, he places his hand face down on the table and that becomes the new blind hand. Interesting play results if two (or more) players pick up the blind hand because the original owner of the hand knows what they have.
When bidding gets to the dealer, the dealer picks up the trump card and play begins. Normal Euchre play now applies, with each player on their own. At the end of the hand, each player gets one point for each trick taken. If a player takes no tricks, he loses five points.

Another one that I find is pretty common (at least in my region) is "Three Hand Dummy" Euchre, in which you set aside cards as if you had a fourth player, but just ignore them:

Another common three-player variation is played by dealing out four hands, but with the fourth hand acting as a dummy hand, known in different places as "the dummy," "the dead hand," "the imaginary friend," or "Johann." The player who calls trump on the current hand picks up the dummy hand and makes the best five-card hand for themselves out of his or her hand and the dummy hand. The player will now play alone against the other two players, who will play as partners for this hand. The two non-calling players will always play as partners which means that partners will switch from hand to hand depending on who calls trump.
The calling player will score one point for winning the hand and 2 points for taking all five tricks. The calling player can still elect to "go alone" by choosing not to pick up the dummy hand. Taking all five tricks here results in four points. Each player keeps their own score.


This is covered on page 4 of the rules.

  If you need to draw or reveal a card and your
  deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile. Put it on
  the table face down—that’s your new deck. Start
  drawing from there.

If you have no discard pile as well, that would be a very odd game!  I've never seen a game go anywhere near that situation though.


Are there any board or card games known to have been designed to feature OODA loops?

The phase layout for Munchkin practically is the OODA loop:

Observe:
Phase 0 - Check and adjust your possessions
Orient:
Phase 1 - Draw a card face-up from the Door Deck

If it's a Monster: fight it and go to Phase 3;
It it's a Curse: apply it;
It if's any other card: put it in your hand or play it;

Decide:
Phase 2 - Choose either "Look for Trouble" or "Loot the Room"
Act:
A. Phase 2

If you choose "Look for Trouble" then play a monster from your hand and fight it.
If you choose "Loot the Room" then draw a second card face-down from the Door Deck and place in your hand.

B. Phase 3

Charity: Reduce hand to at most five cards

One could probably make a similar case for all D&D-type games, but Munchkin is always the most fun. Part of the satire that makes Munchkin work is that everything is explicit in the rules.


Can you take an Immortal Phoenix out of the game?

'Dies' means 'is put into the graveyard from the battlefield', so any effect that destroys it will end up causing this trigger to happen. The four main ways this card could move from the battlefield to the graveyard is:

Being dealt lethal damage
Having toughness reduced to zero
Effects that say destroy
Sacrificing the creature.

A creature going to the graveyard and removing a creature from the game* are very different things, but there are ways of putting Immortal Phoenix into the graveyard (and keeping it there) and exiling it.

A card like Oblivion Ring can exile it, and some cards like Annihilating Fire can change where it goes. (If it goes into exile instead of the graveyard, it never actually 'died')

If Immortal Phoenix is put into the graveyard from anywhere that's not the battlefield (perhaps by being discarded from Mind Rot), that's also not dying, so it does not return to your hand.

One more complicated way of stopping Immortal Phoenix from going back to a hand is by preventing the creature's ability from happening. You could either counter the ability (such as with Disallow) or by causing the ability to not trigger, such as with Hushbringer

*This is called 'exiling', although there are technically ways to get it back from exile


As a creature with tribute enters the battlefield, an opponent of your choice "may" place +1/+1 counters on the creature. The "may" means that he has 2 choices: do it, or don't do it. There is no "overpay", and no health or mana costs associated with this. Just read the reminder text literally.

Also note that it is not a "target" opponent. Tribute doesn't target, meaning you could choose an opponent with hexproof.

Here's an excerpt from the Born of the Gods new mechanics notes:

  As Pharagax Giant enters the battlefield, you choose an opponent. That opponent then decides whether to "pay tribute" by having Pharagax Giant enter the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. If he or she does, then that's it—you've got a bigger Giant. If he or she decides not to pay tribute, then Pharagax Giant's enters-the-battlefield ability will trigger instead. Either way, it's good for you—and in the meantime, you get to watch your opponent sweat.

And here's the comprehensive rules on it:

  702.103. Tribute

    702.103a Tribute is a static ability that functions as the creature with tribute is entering the battlefield. "Tribute N" means "As this creature enters the battlefield, choose an opponent. That player may have this creature enter the battlefield with an additional N +1/+1 counters on it."

    702.103b Objects with tribute have triggered abilities that check "if tribute wasn’t paid." This condition is true if the opponent chosen as a result of the tribute ability didn’t have the creature enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters as specified by the creature’s tribute ability.


Marrying Mr. Darcy - Can Kitty Bennet play one more turn after the last turn?

No, she can't take one more turn by re-drawing that last event card. The game enters the Proposal Stage as soon as that last card was played.
From the rules:

When all Event Cards have been played, the Proposal Stage
begins immediately


How long do I have to collect rent in Monopoly?

Suppose the players are Anne, Bill, Charlize, David, Elizabeth, and Fred.

Anne rolls the dice, moves her counter and lands on Fred's property. Fred fails to notice.

The players following Anne are Bill, Charlize, David, etc. Bill is the first player following Anne, and Charlize is the second. So Fred must notice and request rent before Charlize rolls.

A specific scenario:

The first following player, Bill, now rolls the dice and moves his counter. Any transactions are processed as necessary.

The second following player, Charlize, now reaches for the dice as Fred notices Anne's counter and request payment. As the second following player, Charlize, has not yet thrown the dice, the request by Fred is in order and must be honoured.

The question is now asked: "why the second following instead of first following player?"

Simply, to prevent a pair of players from sitting down and guaranteeing that the one in elder position wins. Under a "first following" rule, if Alfred and Betty sit down beside each other, with Alfred rolling first, then Betty simply must be very fast at rolling the dice to ensure that Alfred never pay rent.

Next game, Alfred and Betty switch places and  Betty is guaranteed to never pay rent.

And so on. This is called "The Bum's Rush".

There are also more subtle ways to play it, where the younger hand rolls very quickly only at strategic moments in the game. Same effect, with only a very slight reduction in effectiveness.


Can you heal at the moment you get KO'd?

For reference: the rulebook.

There are 2 key phrases:

  May pay 2 Glory at any time to Heal a Wound (except during a Fight Round).

So lets assess 2 possibilities - Fighting and Everything Else.

Fighting:

If you are KO'd in a fight then it is clearly a no as this ability doesn't work during a fight round.

NOTE:

  Sometimes a card will say that it
  cannot be used ‘during a Fight Round’. Cards like this may
  however, still be used between Fight Rounds.

If you survive with at least one wound you can use this in between Fight Rounds as the round ends before another begins.

Everything Else:

Since the ability may be used at any time then you can use it while taking damage to prevent KO*. In your example an event occurred, not a fight so this ability can be used.

*Nothing it the rulebook explicitly says a KO prevents this ability so I would interpret it this way.


Does a shadow effect that doesn't do anything return Mountain Warg to staging area?

The rules refer to a "Shadow Effect Icon", the thing that separates the shadow effect text from the rest of the card's text:

  Shadow Effect Icon: If a card has a shadow  effect, that effect is denoted by this icon,
  which also serves to separate the shadow effect from the card’s in
  play effect.

As such, I take the presence of such an icon on a card to be the key factor in determining whether or not the card "has a shadow effect" in rules terms, even if the effect does not actually do anything when it resolves.


Talking about Go: Using "he" and "she" for Black and White

Employing some search engine tesujis, I found the page Player Gender on senseis.xmp.net. It clearly states my anecdotal finding, that Sensei's Library uses White=she and Black=he as a convention.

The same convention is used in several influential books, e.g.,   Whole Board Thinking In Joseki by Yi-Lun Yang, Essential Joseki by Rui Naiwei and in the works of Janice Kim (co-author of the Essential Go series).

Note that traditional Yin/Yang symbolism would support the other assignment that is also used by Berlekamp and Wolfe in their book Mathematical Go. From all what I can see, this is the minority position.

My conclusion is that—if one want to use gendered abstract players at all—the White=she and Black=he convention is used in the majority of influential sources and therefore preferable over the opposite convention.


Can I imprint my commander and move it to the command zone?

No.

Soul Foundry refers attempts to copy the exiled card. However, if you used the Commander replacement effect to put your Commander in the Command Zone instead of exile, that card doesn't exist in exile. Thus Soul Foundry doesn't see the commander card and can't copy it.

As an extra note, even if you did this, the copies don't count as your commander (e.g. to deal commander damage or count for Bastion Protector, etc.); only the physical card has the property of being your commander, and this isn't copied.

  Commander rule 10: Being a Commander is not a characteristic [MTG CR109.3], it is a property of the card and tied directly to the physical card. As such, "Commander-ness" cannot be copied or overwritten by continuous effects. The card retains it's commanderness through any status changes, and is still a commander even when controlled by another player.


The earliest chance you would have to activate Shapesharer's ability is in the Upkeep step[1]. Since the beginning of your upkeep step has already gone by, the ability gained from Verdant Force will never get a chance to trigger on your turn[2].

The Untap step comes first, but you do not gain priority during the Uptap step, so you do not get to activate abilities in the Untap step.
If you have more than one Upkeep steps for some reason (e.g. Paradox Haze), and if you activated Shapesharer's ability in the first Upkeep step, the ability it gained from Verdant Force would trigger in the second and subsequent Upkeep steps.


Yes, you can attack with both your sword and cestus.

The wording in the rule book (pg. 22) is as follows:

  During an activation, a character can make up to one attack
  with each weapon they are holding in their hand slots.

The special ability of the cestus explicitly states you can use it to attack even when it is in your 'backup slot'. There is no qualifier regarding how many weapons are equipped in your hands. This special ability on the card overrides the general rule on attacks (hence the reason it's a special ability)

This means you could have a 'two-handed' weapon equipped and your cestus in your backup slot, or two single handed items and your cestus in your backup slot.


That is for the Game Peg (also known as a spilikin). At the bottom of the board, you see the three straight stripes - those are for keeping track of the number of games you have won. Until you have actually won a game, your spilikin for tracking wins is stored in that third hole.

Consider the following picture: it appears blue has just won the game, and is awarded two game wins for skunking the red player. The red player has yet to win a game, so his spilikin is still in the starting position.


Do you find that with the Dragon Expansion characters more powerful?

I found the expansion as a whole to be amazingly out-of-balance with the rest of the game. The characters and events seemed only balanced with respect to themselves.

My suggestion is to remove all the characters and event cards. One possible compromise that might be reasonable is to shuffle the events into the deck only once a player has passed into the middle region. Likewise you could allow a player who has died to choose their second character from the Dragon Expansion characters.

This is all presuming you are talking about Talisman 2nd Edition and Talisman Dragons.


What general approach should be taken opening hands with 3=1=4=5 and 1=3=4=5 shape?

If the diamond quality is vastly better than the clubs, then open 1D planning on rebidding clubs; otherwise open 1C.

If the club quality is vastly better than the diamonds, then open 1C and plan on rebidding 1NT if partner responds 1H; the club suit can be expected to run in such a situation, and so how much trouble can you get into in 1NT.

Remember that if partner passes a 1NT rebid by you this shows 6-9 points to go with your minimum opener. If you can't make 1NT on power and the club suit, the opponents can probably make at least 2S (or 2H!); going down 1 or 2 undoubled is a win.

The big misconception newer and intermediate players make is thinking that 5-card suits, by either responder or opener, are a preferable rebid; this is untrue; rebidding a 5-card suit is a desperation rebid to be done only in dire circumstances, or to reveal a 5-5. Both opener and responder should try keenly to avoid rebidding 5-card suits, and save such rebids for 6-card suits. Partner will preference back with 3-card support unless her hand is strongly no-trumpish, at which point the 8-card fit can be revealed.

In regards to Rud's statement about opener's raise of 1M with 3 card support; I have always felt comfortable raising partner's suit with 3 and a side singleton. If partner cannot handle the occasional Moysian fit, I find another partner. (And I never have difficulty finding partners.)


Which battleforce should I buy as a newbie player?

A lot of this comes down to how you build the armies. Many armies can do "long ranged hard hitting units with little focus on melee", but not all armies are good at it.

Most Space Marines (Space Wolves and Dark Angels) and Necron armies will be doing a lot at 24", since most of their army has that range. They can both be quite potent at this range. They are both not bad at melee, and can still get stuck in if need be (with Space Wolves being pretty good at melee).

I'm not totally up on the new Grey Knights codex, but I presume they will still be about the same as marines, and be more mid-range.

The Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) are probably the longest range option, at least if you go mechanised. Between Leman Russ, Chimeras and Heavy Weapon teams (all three of which are in the Catachan battleforce I believe) you will be able to just sit back and fire away, with the footsloggers there to engage at mid range as the enemy close. Guard really do not want to get into melee unless you are designing the unit for it.

Of course, as mentioned, Tau and Eldar are better at long range then any of your options, so you may be in for some pain against that Tau player.


Which circumstances make one favour track better than another in Caylus?

The real (and boring) answer is: it's going to vary, depending on the specific circumstances of the game you're playing.

My answer: the victory point track is very strong, and a good default option.  The build track is also extremely strong, as can be guessed from the fact that you don't even get a bonus the first time you move on it!  The money track is not so great, but sometimes it's exactly what you need if you're finding it hard to get funds any other way.  In my personal experience, the goods track is the weakest.  It's usually possible to get goods through normal actions, and the gold at the top end of the track is less good than just getting 5 victory points... unless you've set up a bunch of exciting things to spend your gold on.  But that seems like a lot of extra hoops to jump through.

Other people's mileage may vary, naturally!


Fury of Dracula 3rd Ed. Stake vs Seduction

4th Edition clarifies this, as determined by the game rules editor on BGG
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/30655996#30655996

SEDUCTION (new):
Play when a hunter performs a search action and before any hunter cards are resolved.
If there is a vampire encounter in this hideout or lair, instead of resolving the encounter, that hunter is bitten. Then, return that encounter card to your hand.


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

You roll 2 dice and must use a melee attack to attack a minion in the same space with the staff.

The section you quoted is the cards Ability. (page 4 pdf, page 2 rule book)

  4) Ability: any special rules that apply to the card are described here.

That special rule requires that you may only use it to perform melee attacks on minions in your same space, but normally the rules do not prevent this.

Item bonuses add to the number of dice you roll when performing a specific type of attack. Ranged attacks count bow symbols as hits, melee attacks count sword symbols as hits. Nothing in the rules prevents you from using a ranged attack on a minion in the same space as your mouse.

  Melee Attack - [...] Then roll a number of action dice equal to that mouse’s battle value. Remember to add any bonuses that the mouse’s items or equipped weapons might give it.

  Ranged attack - If a mouse is armed with a ranged weapon or spell, it can perform a ranged attack. Ranged attacks are performed in the same way as melee attacks, except each bow symbol counts as a hit instead of the sword or sword/
  shield symbol. Also, when selecting a target for the attack, a player can select any minion on the same room tile as the attacking mouse as long as that mouse can ‘see’ the target. However, if there are minions in the same or adjacent space as the mouse, one of those nearby minions must be selected as the target of the attack. (page 13 pdf, page 11 rule book)

The FAQ and the designer further clarified that Maginos gets the +1 from the staff regardless of whether he is performing a melee or ranged attack.

  1.1.5: When attacking a minion in the same space using Maginos' staff, do you still get the bonus listed on the card for a ranged attack?

  A: Yes, just imagine that the bow changes into a sword any time Maginos shares a space with minions.

  Q: about maginos' staff. It has a +1 on top of a range symbol in the top corner. Does the staff still give a bonus to melee combat, or only to ranged because that's what the +1 is over?

  A: It adds to his battle any time he uses it to do a battle action. The +1 just signifies that it is a bonus to his battle, the bow shows that it hits on bows and can be used at a distance. The weapon special ability breaks this rule a bit and allows him to hit on swords/sword shields when attacking an enemy in the same space. Usually, when you use a ranged weapon, it only hits on bows even if you use it on an enemy in the same or adjacent space.


This sounds like the game Banqi (also called Half Chess or Dark Chess) but where you replaced the playing tokens with playing cards, the board size is increased, and the number of each available "piece" is always four.  This game is instead played on half of a Xianqi board with the pieces used for the Xianqi game (In order of strength: 5 pawns, 2 cannons, 2 knights, 2 rooks, 2 guards, 2 elephants, and a king for each player)

There are examples of it on the google play store under the name "Chinese Dark Chess" such as this one by Xidea.

The brief overview of the rules are that on your turn you may either move a revealed piece of your color, or flip over an unrevealed piece.  The first piece that is flipped by the first player determines the players' colors.

When moving a piece it may only move to an orthogonally adjacent square that is unoccupied, or it may move into an orthogonally adjacent square occupied by an opponent's piece that is of the same "strength" or lower, thereby removing the opponent's piece in the process.  In the case of ties the attacker wins and is not destroyed in the process.

Depending on which regional variant you are playing, cannons may have an alternate attack style, instead attacking as they do in a normal game of Xianqi by jumping over another piece to attack the second piece in its path, regardless of strength.  Further, a pawn may be able to capture a king (similar to how spies can capture field marshals in stratego).

The winner of the game is determined when the opponent has no legal moves available remaining.


Why would you not move pawn two spaces during first move in chess?

Sometimes, center board control is not immediately the goal of a particular openings's strategy.  I'm referring specifically to two types, Larsen's Opening and regular Fianchetto openings.

Here, white is advancing each pawn only one square, 1.b3 or 1.g3.

As wikipedia states:

  The fianchetto is a staple of many "hypermodern" openings, whose
  philosophy is to delay direct occupation of the center with the plan
  of undermining and destroying the opponent's central outpost.

And regarding tactics:

  One of the major benefits of the fianchetto is that it often allows
  the fianchettoed bishop to become more active. Because the bishop is
  placed on a long diagonal (either h1-a8 or a1-h8), it controls a lot
  of squares and can become a powerful offensive weapon.

Regarding "regular" Fianchetto(vs long Fianchetto): Advancing the pawn two squares would deny it the protection from the rook's pawn and bishop's pawn.  Fianchetto would be a great  search term for finding openings making use of single-square pawn advancement.


Just googled the description and this came up (Age of Gods)
https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13636.phtml
Is this the one?


What is the status of Fruitcake elemental?

In typing up the question, I found the answer.   This was a special promotional card given to finishers of the great design search and some of WotC business partners.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/1240

There are a number of such cards that exist:
http://magiccards.info/hho/en.html

They appear to be quite expensive, even if they are not playable.


Can I play blessed alliance after damage resolves to make him sac a creature I didn't kill?

Yes this works how you want it to. Note however that the creature will die after it has already dealt its combat damage, so if you are trying to stop it from hitting you this would not work.

The combat phase has 5 steps:

Beginning of Combat
Declare Attackers
Declare Blockers
Combat Damage
End of Combat

A creature becomes an 'attacking creature' during the Declare Attackers step and remains an 'attacking creature' until the Combat phase is over (or it gets removed from combat some other way). Thus you are able to use Blessed Alliance during either the Combat Damage or End of Combat steps to have your opponent sacrifice a creature that survived the damage dealing part of the Combat Damage step.

  508.1k Each chosen creature still controlled by the active player becomes an attacking creature. It remains an attacking creature until it’s removed from combat or the combat phase ends, whichever comes first. See rule 506.4.


The MTG Wiki page about Gaea summarizes what is known about her. In part, it says this:

Gaea is a goddess worshiped on Dominaria.
Gaea is believed to be the plane's protector and its creator, and many elves and druids worship her. While never physically appearing, her existence seems to be confirmed by many individuals, and it looks like she assisted directly in protecting Dominaria during the Phyrexian Invasion.


Do face-down creatures with death trigger activate normally?

Short answer: Yes, if it had one, but the creature lost that ability when it was turned face-down.

"When this dies" is a leaves-the-battlefield ability [603.6c], and leaves-the-battlefield abilities trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward [603.3d].

So it doesn't matter what abilities the creature would have if it was face-up or will have in the graveyard; all that matters is what ability it actually does have. Only leaves-the-battlefield abilities the face-down creature has just prior to dying will trigger when it dies. Normally, that wouldn't be any, but some cards (such as  Cauldron Haze) could grant them some.


Can troops and equipment abilities be used on another player's lane?

I found the answer in the official FAQ (not included in the box published by EDGE) published on CMON website (game creator) : https://cmon.com/product/xenoshyft/xenoshyft-onslaught

  Q: Can I use effects on other player’s lanes (such as the Storm
  Trooper)?
  A: Unless a card specifies “this lane” or “your lane” it can be
  used on any player’s lane

Since the Stormtrooper ability is "Once per round, this troop may deal 2 damage to 1 revealed enemy", it can indeed be used on another player lane.


From the rules reference (page 12):

  Q. Can I use multiple weapons during combat?

  A. Yes, but you can only apply the highest bonus to a test. However,
  you may use any other effects, from your other weapons. For example,
  if you have a Bull Whip Asset and a .45 Automatic Asset, you may
  apply the +3 bonus from the .45 to your {combat check} instead of the +1 bonus from the whip, and you may still reroll one die by using the whip’s
  other effect.


Can the Collapsed Room land you in the Mystic Elevator?

From my copy of the rulebook:

  If an effect of another tile or card leads to the Mystic Elevator (such as the Collapsed Room or Secret Passage), the token placed by that effect stays on the Mystic Elevator tile even if it moves.

Emphasis mine.

It doesn't explicitly say that the token remains functional, but that clearly seems to be the intent.

I've also been able to find a reference to an FAQ clarification that says much the same thing, although I have been unable to find the FAQ itself.

  Mystic Elevator -- If the Collapsed Room, Secret Passage, Secret Stairs, or Revolving Wall lead to the Mystic Elevator, does the counter stay there even when the elevator moves?
  Yes. It's Mystic, after all.


Let's start with the basics. Beginners start out as "30 kyu". As they get stronger, the number decreases to 29 kyu, 28 kyu ... down to 1 kyu. Kyu means "student" and is commonly abbreviated 'k'. The range from 10k to 30k is called DDK (double digit kyu) while 1k - 9k are SDK (single digit kyu).

The difference between each rank is supposed to be 1 stone of handicap. That is, an 8k should give 3 handicap stones to an 11k. All handicap games are played with komi of half a point. So an 4k playing a 3k plays black, not placing any additional handicap stones, and white receiving 0.5 komi.

Once a player surpasses 1k he becomes 1 dan, "master", abbreviated 'd'. Dan ranks go from 1 dan ('shodan') to 7 dan for amateurs (occasionally to 8 dan).

Professional players are obviously stronger than amateurs, since they studied the game very intensely for years and received training by pros. Only top amateurs have a chance of winning. Pro ranks go from 1 dan pro to 9 dan pro (abbreviated 'p' instead of 'd') with "10 dan" being a title that can be won in a tournament.

Nowadays, the difference in strength between pros is not related to their rank, because new 1 dan pros received the most up-to-date training and already possess vast knowledge (just like someone coming fresh from university is very up to date on the current research). Formerly, it was said the difference between 3 or 4 pro ranks is about 1 stone.

That being said, there are different ranking systems in different parts of the world that are not completely equal for various reasons. Online go serves got their own ranks as well. On Go servers, it is usually possible for amateurs to get assigned a rank of 9 dan.


Why does BSG's "Assign Vice President" card not affect succession?

The only mechanical effect I can see to this tweak is that a Cylon president could control who gets the presidency after they reveal, say if they know who the other unrevealed Cylon is.

If you need thematic justification for the original rule, I seem to remember an episode of the show where Zarek (when he was VP) told Roslin that he didn't want to be president.


You can't count it as 4 double runs, as that double counts a number of elements.  It is 4 runs of 3

8H, 9H, 10C

8H, 9D, 10C

8D, 9H, 10C

8D, 9D, 10C

and 2 pairs (the 8s and 9s) for a total of 16.


What tools are being used by companies producing connectable floor tiles?

Graphics on printed tiles (like Settlers of Catan) are done with the same technology as static game boards -- printed on thin paper, which is applied to the backing board with adhesive.  For tiles that have no border (like those for Settlers), or need to interlock, after printing, the tiles, and interlocks if present, are cut with dies -- the same kind of dies used to cut counters for traditional war games, parts for balsa model airplanes, and the pieces of jigsaw puzzles.

Of course, the image printed on the tiles is, as noted in comments, produced with common graphic editing software, either aimed at the graphic arts industry, or at the printing sector.  There are specific methods of ensuring that (for instance) ground texture matches up from one tile to the next, if that matters -- it can be done "manually" with nothing more than copy/paste operations (S. John Ross has a good tutorial on his Risus web site on making maps with very basic graphic software; the same techniques apply to tiles), or there are semi-automated tools for the job.


Where can I find statistics on good/evil wins for the Resistance:Avalon for different role setups?

I would suggest checking out the Board Game Geek Avalon community. People regularly record their play sessions and the users on the forums are usually willing to go into in-depth analysis and discussion on game setup and configuration. For instance, even one of the most recent forum discussions is about statistical anomalies in Avalon games.


How to remove Broken Fall Enchantment from play

You have two separate goals here:  Removing the enchantment, and removing the creature.

Removing the creature is the easier of the two problems

Regeneration only protects against lethal damage and 'destroy' effects.  That means that a creature with a regeneration shield can be removed by -X/-X effects, exile effects, forced sacrifice effects, Pacifism effects, and many, many more.

Furthermore, there are some older spells, such as Terror and Wrath of God, which ignore regeneration entirely.

Finally, regeneration only works once, so a second kill effect will work if you can play it before Broken Fall is played again.

Removing Broken Fall permanently is harder

When an activated ability is activated, all costs are paid and then the ability is placed on the stack.  This gives opponents a chance to respond to the ability - but the cost cannot be responded to.  This makes permanents that bounce themselves as part of a cost very difficult to deal with, as you can't target them in reaction to their activation.  (Even if you could, they could just activate it a second time, and still escape)

The only way to target Broken Fall without it escaping back into their hand is to do so when they can't activate its ability, which is a very narrow set of circumstances:
1) There are no legal targets on the battlefield - that is there are no creatures at all, or all the creatures present have hexproof (and are controlled by opponents) or shroud.
2) The activated ability has been blocked (for example by Pithing Needle)
3) Split Second is in effect and nothing can be placed on the stack.  Of course, Split Second also keeps you from playing anything, so unless the split second card you played was Krosan Grip, its not going to be very helpful.

However, once Broken Fall has returned to the player's hand, it is a lot more vulnerable.  There it can be discarded, or countered when they try and play it again.

There is at least one more way to deal with Broken Fall on the battlefield - create a board state where your opponent would rather let it die than save it.  This is of course very situational and tricky to do (especially as it depends on your opponent), but can be accomplished by cards such as Doom Foretold.  If your opponent has to chose between sacrificing their 10/10 or sacrificing Broken Fall, then they might decide that it is better to lose Broken Fall than to lose their creature.  Of course, the downside of this strategy is it only works if Broken Fall is the least valuable part of their board!

And there is, of course, the ultimate work around: Mindslaver them, and then do whatever you want while they are enslaved!


Are Magic: the Gathering Conspiracy cards colorless?

Conspiracy cards (cards with the Conspiracy type) are colorless. They are not permanents, they cannot be played in decks, they only exist in the command zone*, and they never interact with cards, abilities, or effects that care about color.

Rule 105.2 says

  An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame. An object's color or colors may also be defined by a color indicator or a characteristic-defining ability.

and rule 202.2b says

  Objects with no colored mana symbols in their mana costs are colorless.

Conspiracy cards do not have mana costs (in particular, no colored mana symbols), color indicators, or characteristic-defining abilities, so they do not have any color; they are colorless.

* This was clarified in the Magic 2015 update:

  313.3. Conspiracy cards remain in the command zone throughout the game. They’re not permanents.
  They can’t be cast or included in a deck. If a conspiracy card would leave the command zone, it
  remains in the command zone.


Do crew receiving a better offer bring their gear with them?

There really isn't a definitive ruling on this anywhere within the rules or the FAQ.

However the FAQ does state

  The only time you may not switch Gear is during a Work Action. Other than that, you may change who is carrying what Gear freely.

Based on this I would rule that you are absolutely entitled to strip any Gear off a character before they are taken from your ship.


What are the odds for a “19” (zero pt) hand in Cribbage?

I wrote a software simulation (20 million deals) to work this out, because the maths is far too complicated. The chances of getting a zero-point hand of five cards (assuming the starter card is chosen randomly among those five) is roughly 7.4%.
However, this assumes that your five cards are chosen at random. In reality a player chooses four cards from the six they are dealt, so you would actually need to calculate the odds of getting a six-card hand of zero points (about 1.36%), then getting a starter card that means you still end up on zero points. This comes out at approximately 0.43%, assuming the four cards you keep from the initial six are chosen randomly.


Warhammer Fantasy Tournaments Statistics

Rankings HQ is probably the closest you can get to what you are looking for.  There are a couple of disclaimers to add though.

The pool of ranked games is going to be pretty small.
The ranking is elective, so there's going to be lots of missing data.
It won't track information about particular tournament formats, just the results.

Torrent of Fire is a paid service that comes closer to what you want, but it's only for 40K.  I think they where planning on branching out to Fantasy. With Fantasy's declining popularity and GW's current financial implosions, I don't know if we'll see that happen any time soon.


In Mahjong , what is the chance to get a hand that allows a player to finish on their first turn?

I wrote a program to simulate mahjong hand dealings.

It's not verified yet, but so far, the ratio appears to be around 1 in 100,000 games. (The output was the chance that the case happened to at least 1 out of 4 players)

I had the fixed program run for a bit (1.7 billion draws):

3004 mahjong in 1057000000 random draws: 0.00028%, 1 in 351864
4392 mahjong in 1526000000 random draws: 0.00029%, 1 in 347449
4930 mahjong in 1695000000 random draws: 0.00029%, 1 in 343813

At this point, the state space of the random number generator is likely rather close to exhausted, so further research requires a different implementation (this is easy, I just did not bother yet).

If the math of @Jan is correct, it would be pretty easy to replace the RNG with a permutator and just perform a whole-space search to calculate a precise result. The above program calculates around 2m hands per second on my box, so it would take 40-ish hours.

Update: I implemented a proper RNG, optimized the program slightly and let it search through 25 billion random draws:

 737s: 15433 mahjong in  5000m random draws: 0.00031  %, 1 in 323981. 6.78m checks/s
1557s: 31080 mahjong in 10140m random draws: 0.00031  %, 1 in 326254. 6.51m checks/s
2281s: 46008 mahjong in 15000m random draws: 0.0003067%, 1 in 326030. 6.58m checks/s
3116s: 60971 mahjong in 20000m random draws: 0.0003049%, 1 in 328024. 6.42m checks/s
4020s: 75921 mahjong in 25000m random draws: 0.0003037%, 1 in 329289. 6.22m checks/s

The last line is the current state (previous lines for picturing variance).


In Axis and Allies, Does It Make Sense For Japan to Attack Sinkiang on the First Turn?

No! Japan should do no such thing. Here's my opinion of the right Japanese first moves (assuming no 1st rd. attack by Russia):

1) Assuming UK has built an IC on India:

Japan Build: 2 Transports, 3 Infantry

Japan Attack: Pearl Harbor 2 Battleships, 1 Sub, 1 Aircraft Carrier, 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber

The battleships can't free-shot since Manchuria hasn't been taken, thus send them both to Pearl Harbor.  You should win this battle round 1 and be left with the Battleships, Aircraft Carrier and Fighter.  This ensures America uses its Battleship/Transport/1 Bomber and 1-2 Fighters on its turn to wipe you out (a great trade to keep US fighters out of the Atlantic where they are better used to protect Karelia).

Japan uses its 2 transports to land 4 infantry on Manchuria/French Indo-China.  Japan uses its 3 fighters (the fighter on Philipines can't attack rd. 1 as it's too far) to support troops from Kwangtung/Manchuria to press into Eastern China. This way you kill U.S.'s fighter and troops remaining can either attack India or Manchuria depending on Russia/UK moves going forward.

Conclusion: Don't strike Sikang - it immediately places a weak surviving army at the mercy of UK troops. Instead leave a stronger surviving army drawing from Manchuria/Kwangtung troops into China as this consolidates a more core position (if any of your border countries are attacked you can more easily draw from more countries in subsequent counters).  The biggest key to Japan is to methodically grow by winning battles using big forces to take on smaller allied forces caught off-side with the aide of the maneuverability Japan's 4 fighters and 1 bomber offer.


Battlestar Galactica: why Pegasus sympathiser is better

For context: In basic BSG, as you know, in 5-player, the ratio between humans to Cylons is 3-2. This usually results in interesting, difficult-but-not-impossible skill challenges and a tense game.

By contrast, in 4- or 6-player, the sympathizer can be on either the human or Cylon team, depending on whether or not the humans have any resource in the "red zone." during the Sleeper phase. While being low on a resource might seem bad, it's not as bad for the humans as being in a 2-2 or 3-3 situation. After the Sleeper phase, the game tends to be a blowout--especially if the Cylons get the sympathizer, where the humans will have enormous difficulty making enough skill challenges. The faction of the sympathizer becomes so important that savvy players will engage in a weird metagame where Galactica's resources must deliberately be sabotaged for the good of the humans!

Some people also feel that having a known player whose loyalty is unquestioned takes away from the drama of the game.

By contrast, the Pegasus rules: The sympathizer is definitely a Cylon, but receives a card from the Sympathetic Agenda deck. This card determines which side the sympathizer is actually on, and furthermore gives the sympathizer a secret agenda that must be achieved for the sympathizer to win. These agendas are (mostly) tuned to create a close game where both the humans and Cylons will distrust the Sympathizer. For instance, the Grant Mercy agenda requires the Humans to win, but requires Food, Population, or Morale to be at 2 or lower--if the "friendly" Cylon tries to advance this agenda, the humans may treat him as an enemy!

Not only does this create closer games, but instead of the sympathizer's loyalty being unquestioned, it is instead a complete mystery up until the very end (or unless a set of very experienced players who are familiar with all the agendas suss which one the sympathizer has, I suppose.)

If you're not familiar with Pegasus, it's important to mention that the expansion also contains rules for a Cylon character infiltrating Galactica and playing more as a normal human character than a base-game Cylon just wandering around the Cylon fleet, so the question of the characters' trust or mistrust towards the Cylon becomes important. If you are interested in the details, the rulebook is here. (Sympathetic Cylon rules on p. 18, rules for infiltrating on p. 11)


Can the robot play duplicate developments in solo-play?

Yes it can.

1) The robot treats the tableau as an abstracted stack, and ignores the abilities of cards it places. From the rules (PDF here):

  The robot's tableau is a stack of cards, without any goods, where only the number of cards and their VPs matter.

What matters is the robot's economic development, which is independent of what the cards do. There are therefore no in-game consequences to placing a card twice.

2) The description of how the robot searches for developments provides no specific way to handle duplicates.

  Develop action: draw 1 card and then flip to find a development.

  ...

  Flip to find: means to flip over cards one at a time from the robot's draw stack, discarding all non-matching cards, until either the desired type of card is found or the robot's draw stack is exhausted.

Note that "non-matching" here refers to the card type (e.g. discard non-development cards), not duplicates. Race for the Galaxy's rules are famous for both their terseness, and their exhaustive completeness. If it's not defined, it doesn't happen.

3) Although not definitive, the question has also been asked several times at BoardGameGeek, with the same consensus (e.g. 1, 2).


In Bridge what happens if a player has more points than their bidding suggests

No you won't have a recourse, at least in ACBL. (for eg see here: http://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/play/Convention-Chart.pdf). I expect Forget I was ever here to come up with a better answer with better references to you might want to wait for it :)

E/W are allowed to deviate from their agreement as long as there is no hidden understanding and such deviations are not too frequent (not sure how that is enforced).


How can I learn about and keep track of major Magic tournaments in my local area?

The official M:tG site offers a store and tournament locator. Just enter the name of the town you want to look up, and it will show you upcoming, official tournaments in that town and in an area around it.

Of course, this can only cover sanctioned tournaments that WotC knows about - for unofficial tournaments, your best bet is probably to get in touch with the local player base and store owners.


Yes, it ended up being from "Magic Rocks." Not sure if that's exactly a game, but that's what it was!!


Can I move to mortgaged property when rolling 'Mr Monopoly' on Speed Die

From the rules here

From mortgaged properties rules.

  If the property is mortgaged, no rent can be collected.

From the speed dice rules -

  If you roll a Mr. Monopoly after all of the properties are owned, make
  a normal move according to the white dice, then move ahead to the
  first property on which you need to pay rent. If all other players
  properties are mortgaged, stay where you are.

Together, these rules mean that the first property on which you need to pay rent cannot be a mortgaged property.  You must therefore move to the next non-mortgaged property owned by another player, in order to pay rent.  The rules also clarify that you don't move if all other players' owned properties are mortgaged, which is further evidence that you cannot move to a mortgaged property when you roll Mr. Monopoly.


In Settlers of Catan, what seat position is the best for odds of recieving any resource?

Key assumption: Every player places both of their initial settlements according to what will get them the most resources (so we don't have people going for port combos, weird 12/2 superstitions, etc.)

I just downloaded the rules and have the Beginner's Setup in front of me. If you don't, then this won't make any sense!

We all agree that it suffices to add the number of dots and use this to determine if one spot is better than another.

First takes 10/5/8 (Brick/Ore/Sheep) = 12 dots
Second takes 6/9/3 (Wood/Sheep/Ore) = 11 dots. This can be interchanged with P3's move
Third takes 8/10/4 (Wheat/Sheep/Wood) = 11 dots. Again, P2 could have done this.
Fourth takes 9/5/10 = 11 dots
Fourth takes 6/5/11 = 11 dots
Third takes 6/4/3 or 6/4/11 = 10 dots.
Second takes...

Here I will stop, since I have to go to class. But one thing is clear: Player one has a one dot advantage after the first placement, and Player 4 has twenty-two dots after his second placement. And it looks like The second player, on his second placement, will have AT MOST an eight-dot location. Since the first player would then have an eight-dot location (at best), his total is maximum 20 dots, where third has 21 and fourth has 22.

In conclusion, player 4 emerges with most resources

(edited, as I was having trouble keeping track of which spaces were available)


What is the duration of copyright on a board game map?

If the "board game map" is subject to copyright restrictions, then it is protected for 70 years in the USA.

As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years. For an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first.

IANAL, this does not constitute legal advice. Puzzles cannot be protected by copyright, and neither can map layouts. A computer could probably create trillions of puzzles, many of them might be duplicates of those created by others. These puzzles follow algorithms for legal box pushing rules, so it is quite possible that these puzzles fall under mathematics which isn't subject to copyright protection. If you copy a complete collection of puzzles though, you might be in trouble. Copying individual puzzles from many different sources might constitute research. The Trivial Pursuit lawsuit might be of interest to you.

When you copy from one source, it’s called plagiarism; when you copy from many sources, it’s called research.
Worth's case was thrown out of court by Judge Wm Matthew Byrne, Jr. It never even came to trial. In 1987, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, declaring that Trivial Pursuit was “substantially different” from “Super Trivia”. The courts decided that the presentation of facts in an encyclopedia, where entries are listed alphabetically, was very different from the rewriting of those same facts as questions, and their division into categories randomly picked on a Trivial Pursuit card


You will get back all non-token creatures killed by having 0 (or less) toughness after the Blasphemous Act thanks to the Necroskitter (unless something else prevents them from hitting the graveyard or moves them from the graveyard before your triggers resolve).

What happens is :

Someone casts Blasphemous Act.
In response you bring back your Necroskitter with Horde of Notions
Blasphemous Act resolves, all creatures get 13 -1/-1 counters.
State based effects are checked, all creatures with 0 toughness or less die.
Necroskitter triggers for each dying creature your opponents control.
Profit!

Note: while they trigger Necroskitter like any creature, you won't return token creatures because they cease to exist as soon as they enter the graveyard.

Note 2: You also won't get the creatures if they get moved from the graveyard before your triggers resolve (it can happen depending on which player is the active player if something like a Mortus Strider dies) or if they don't get into the graveyard in the first place (for example with a Rest in Peace on the battlefield, in which case Necroskitter doesn't trigger at all).

This doesn't work with Anger of the Gods, because it says "If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.". It works even if the damage was done in the form of -1/-1 counters. And it is a replacement effect, preventing the act of dying altogether so you don't get Necroskitter triggers at all, just like with Rest in Peace.


Descent (Nerekhall expansion) bleeding mechanics

A bit of rephrasing may help clarify the intent of this condition:

  (One Action):  Discard this card or token.  For any action, other than discarding this condition, you resolve, suffer 1 fatigue.


What are the rules for Dragonflights in the WoW TCG?

Both of the sets that you listed follow the same standard rules as the rest of the sets, however, seeing as UDE no longer supports the game, it makes it difficult to ask them questions. The most up-to-date rule set that I could find can be found here: http://www.cryptozoic.com/sites/default/files/uploads/files/wow_cr_v601_120409.pdf


What Dominion kingdom-card setups tend to lead to the longest games?

Basically, any card that denies opponents their resources (i.e. cards in hand) or pollutes their decks (e.g. curses) makes for a longer game because it is more difficult to buy victory point cards for lack of money or just forces an interaction that requires a decision in your opponent (i.e. this increases the time, not necessarily number of hands).

Examples:

Militia - reduces all opponents to three cards, also increases time by a bit.

Bureaucrat - forces all opponents to put one of their victory point cards on top of their deck.

Spy - cycles through good cards in opponent decks, leaving until only a victory point cards or useless card is left on top, also just increases time.

Thief - trash or steal opponent treasure cards, also just increased time.

Witch - adds useless cards to opponent decks.


Examples of Magic Cards that use rule 115.2c

An example of this (very rare) special action would be paying {U} to prevent the delayed trigger from Quenchable Fire.

Quenchable Fire {3}{R}
Sorcery
Quenchable Fire deals 3 damage to target player or planeswalker. It deals an additional 3 damage to that player or planeswalker at the beginning of your next upkeep step unless that player or that planeswalker’s controller pays {U} before that step.

There are three other cards with a similar template that also use 115.2c: Glass Asp, Nafs Asp, and Sabertooth Cobra.
The Licids from Tempest block also use 115.2c to enable you to end a continuous effect:

Calming Licid {2}{W}
Creature — Licid
{W}, {T}: Calming Licid loses this ability and becomes an Aura enchantment with enchant creature. Attach it to target creature. You may pay {W} to end this effect.
Enchanted creature can’t attack.


Sinister Shadow Games and Dimensional Fissure

Sinister Shadow Games can be activated even if the effect of Dimensional Fissure is active.  When Sinister Shadow Games resolves, the "Shaddoll" card will be banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard.

Because a "Shaddoll" card was not sent to the Graveyard, the second effect that flips a "Shaddoll" monster face-up will not resolve.

Problem-Solving Card Text can be applied to reach this conclusion. Effects which take the form "Do A, then do B" are such that A and B are sequential components. A resolves, then B resolves. For effects worded this way, if A does not resolve properly for any reason, B should not be resolved either. So if Sinister Shadow Games does not send a "Shaddoll" card from your Main Deck to the Graveyard (even if it banishes one instead), no "Shaddoll" monsters will be flipped face-up.


You can not use Supernatural Stamina to return your Commander to the battlefield multiple times.

Whenever a creature leaves the battlefield and returns it is treated as different object. This is covered in the gatherer rulings for Supernatural Stamina:

  Supernatural Stamina’s effect works only once. If the targeted creature dies and is then returned to the battlefield, it’s considered to be a new creature. If that new creature dies, it won’t come back a second time.

Additionally, while your Commander is still considered your Commander while changing zones it is still treated as a new object every time it changes zones as covered in the comprehensive rules:

  903.3.: Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the object represented by the card; rather, it is an attribute of the card itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.

and:

  400.7.: An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence. There are nine exceptions to this rule:*

*(None of the exceptions apply)


What are the basic tactics for the heros in Last Night on Earth? (Zombies dominating)

Our first couple games went very similar to that. Virtually every time we play now though, the humans have dominated. Which is the opposite problem I guess.

A large mistake we made in our first game was that we had zombies moving double speed. Don't know how we looked over that in the rules, but make sure you only have zombies moving one space. Ignoring the use of special cards of course. Note that the human players ran roll a die to see how far they would be able to move before choosing to search or run. There's been many a time a player has chosen to stay and search rather than run a futile single space. Make sure that the Zombie Player is evenly distributing zombies within a single spawn among their spawning pits. Don't forget that the Manor House is only in play during the 'Protect the Manor' Scenario. Otherwise it's the big open field. I've found the Manor scenario to a harder, if not the hardest, scenario to win as the Humans by the way. The Zombie player is limited to a hand of four cards, a good number of which involve combat. The less you are in combat, the fewer chances the Zombie player has to use the cards. So if they want new cards, they'll have to discard those combat events (good for the humans) or hold onto the cards and not draw new ones (also good for you, reduces the changes of getting a 'Play Immediately' event)

An important thing to consider is that if the scenario you're playing doesn't directly involve killing zombies, it may be better to leave zombies alone if you have the option. Especially since actually killing zombies with a melee weapon doesn't have very good odds. Left to their own devices, the humans will find what they need to get out easily, so the Zombie Player isn't going to be holing up somewhere protecting an area; he just doesn't have the resources to both guard an important area while also putting pressure on the humans. So you're going to be pursued most of the time already, why make it easier to be caught? If you're running from one side of the map to the other and pick off a zombie with a ranged weapon just because you can, this gives the Zombie Player a new figure to work with and they can just spawn them closer to where you were going anyway. Unnecessarily fighting/shooting zombies also gives you a chance to get hurt through combat or lose your weapon (either by running out of bullets or through a Zombie Player card). A human would need four dice to a Zombie's one to have better odds of killing it then getting hurt from the attempt. Plus the zombie player has cards to force rerolls and add additional dice to the zombies. Unless you have found an Instant Kill weapon like the butcher knife (which auto-kills if any of your dice show a 6, regardless of what the Zombie player rolls), survivability-wise, it's always better to run.

If the scenario you're playing involves finding specific items, searching buildings is the top priority. You can spend all day killing Zombies, but unless you find the keys and gas, you can't escape in the car, so get to searching! Having the Survivors stick in pairs (while this does make them potential targets for cards like 'This Could Be Our Last Night on Earth') allows you to split up groups of attacking zombies and allows for other strategies, like healing each other, trying to lure zombies away, etc. Make sure you remember though that each Survivor has to fight all the Zombies in their space when they end their turn, even if they're in the same space as someone else. You can only divide the Zombies between Survivors during the Zombie Player turn. Zombie Hunger can be a useful trait to use against to Zombie Player. If a human is within one space of a zombie, the zombie has to move to a human (Zombie Player choice if there are multiple spaces). If a zombie shares a space with a human, it cannot leave. There has also been many human sacrifices to allow another player with a scenario item to escape a building. Remember though, even superior strategy is subject to the whims of the dice gods. Zombies winning ties


How much land does a land card represent?

Thematically a land card (or permanent) doesn't represent any physical land, but rather represents the planeswalker's bond with the lands that they visit as they move across the multiverse, they then draw mana through that bond in order to cast spells (although most of the modern Magic stories ignore this).

Every type of land in the multiverse has a specific kind of mana tied to it, and as such forming a bond with that land will yield that specific type of mana when you tap into it (hence the term tapping a land).

Source: the Learn to Play Magic videos.


From my interpretation, it should work.

  601 Casting Spells

  601.2e The player determines the total cost of the spell. Usually this is just the mana cost. Some spells have additional or alternative costs. Some effects may increase or reduce the cost to pay, or may provide other alternative costs. Costs may include paying mana, tapping permanents, sacrificing permanents, discarding cards, and so on. The total cost is the mana cost or alternative cost (as determined in rule 601.2b), plus all additional costs and cost increases, and minus all cost reductions. If the mana component of the total cost is reduced to nothing by cost reduction effects, it is considered to be {0}. It can't be reduced to less than {0}. Once the total cost is determined, any effects that directly affect the total cost are applied. Then the resulting total cost becomes "locked in." If effects would change the total cost after this time, they have no effect.

  601.2f If the total cost includes a mana payment, the player then has a chance to activate mana abilities (see rule 605, "Mana Abilities"). Mana abilities must be activated before costs are paid.

  Example: You cast Altar's Reap, which costs {1}{B} and has an additional cost of sacrificing a creature. You sacrifice Thunderscape Familiar, whose effect makes your black spells cost {1} less to cast. Because a spell's total cost is "locked in" before payments are actually made, you pay {B}, not {1}{B}, even though you're sacrificing the Familiar.

So first you determine and lock the mana cost, then you can activate mana abilities, then you have to pay the mana cost.

As for the definition of a Mana Ability:

  Mana Abilities

  605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets three criteria: it doesn't have a target, it could put mana into a player's mana pool when it resolves, and it's not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, "Loyalty Abilities.")

The cantor meets all 3 criteria, so its ability is a mana ability. Therefore, you should gain both the cost reduction and the mana through saccing.

As for why a cantor should not play nicely with Convoke, I don't know - do you have an authoritative source that it really doesn't work? "Tapping a creature" is an optional, additional cost by Convoke, and after tapping for convoke you should still be able to sac the Cantor with its mana ability.

Here is an explanation why the cantor can only reduce convoke spells by 1. However, that does not affect my answer to your actual question. The subtle difference between the two is that Blasphemous Act has a cost reduction, which is locked after you determined it. Convoke, OTOH, offers an alternative way of paying the mana costs and requires you to tap creatures to pay for its cost. You can announce to tap the cantor, but once you sacced it for mana, you can of course no longer do so, and the game rewinds to before you announced Blasphemous Act.


What is the power of 'Mimic' while it is in the deck?

Ongoing abilities are active only when the minion is in play.

When it is in the deck, the Mimic uses it's listed power of 0.  Any ability that can affect a minion of power 0 in the deck can affect the Mimic


Does Quicken allow me to cast a sorcery during my opponent's turn?

Yes, that's what it means.

In addition to the quoted rules text, Quicken has useful reminder text:

  It can be cast any time you could cast an instant.

This is a shorthand that really means you need only priority to cast it.

  304.5. If text states that a player may do something “any time he or she could cast an instant,” it means only that the player must have priority. The player doesn’t need to have an instant he or she could actually cast. Effects that would prevent that player from casting a spell or casting an instant don’t affect the player’s capability to perform that action (unless the action is actually casting a spell or casting an instant).

Now, what Quicken actually does is letting you ignore the normal timing rules for casting a Sorcery, and instead allow you to cast it any time you have priority, as long as it's within the same turn.

Whether you use it to cast a Sorcery in your own turn when you normally couldn't cast a Sorcery (for example in your Upkeep or End Step), or during an opponents turn is completely up to you!


Are "Gods" indestructible even when they are not yet creatures?

Yes, the Enchantment Gods are always indestructible, whether or not they are creatures.
When the Gods stop being a creature due to insufficient Devotion, the only things they lose are the creature type, the creature-related subtype (God), and their power and toughness. Abilities of that object are not affected, even if they are abilities that wouldn't make sense on a non-creature, such as Trample. However, Indestructible isn't even a creature-only ability, as there are non-creatures with that ability, such as Darksteel Relic.

208.3. A noncreature permanent has no power or toughness, even if it’s a card with a power and toughness printed on it (such as a Vehicle). [..]
205.1a [..] If an object’s card type is removed, the subtypes correlated with that card type will remain if they are also the subtypes of a card type the object currently has; otherwise, they are also removed for the entire time the object’s card type is removed. [..]


Can I cast a spell while another spell or ability is resolving?

No. Except for effects that specifically instruct a player to cast a spell, spells/abilities may not normally be played during the resolution of a spell or ability. Since Sorin's ability is both destroying, and returning Gideon, there is no point at which you would have priority to activate the Nihilism Spellbomb to remove the Planeswalker.

You may want to read up on how priority works.

  608.2f If an effect gives a player the option to pay mana, he or she may activate mana abilities before taking that action. If an effect specifically instructs or allows a player to cast a spell during resolution, he or she does so by putting that spell on top of the stack, then continuing to cast it by following the steps in rules 601.2a–h, except no player receives priority after it's cast. The currently resolving spell or ability then continues to resolve, which may include casting other spells this way. No other spells can normally be cast and no other abilities can normally be activated during resolution.


How can I make a fast, MTG Modern Glimpse-based mill deck?

If you want a fast glimpse the unthinkable deck, then the best you are going to do is definitely going to be cutting those wall of frost, and some of the mill enchantments. play 4 ghost quarter (think of it as a 0 mana spell that mills them for 1 card, you can also kill your own land for more hedron crab triggers), and 4 Archive Trap, a spell that does a lot to win you the game when your opponent isn't expecting it after ghost quarter, or turns your ghost quarter into the extremely powerful and mostly banned Strip Mine when your opponent is familiar with your deck.

You would probably be looking to extend your longevity with spells like damnation or black sun's zenith to keep the opponent's side of the board under control. Snapcaster mage will let you reuse your glimpses for additional mill, and provide a defense to slow your opponent down, but remember it cant cast your Archive Traps for their trap cost.

you will want 4 Dimir Signet, because a turn 3 play of Signet into glimpse the unthinkable is a very efficient ramp turn. Mind Funeral and Mind Grind are also both very good cards.

Additionally, you will make better use of those hedron crabs by using fetchlands such as scalding tarn and Marsh Flats, allowing you to get 2 activations per turn, cheaper alternatives include Terramorphic expanse and evolving wilds

I would suggest the following changes:

-4 Jace's Erasure
-4 Wall of Frost
-4 Memory Erosion
-4 Keening Stone
-4 Grasp of Darkness
-2 Visions of Beyond
-9 Island
-7 Swamps
-1 Drowned Catacombs

and bring in:

+1 Hallowed Fountain
+1 Plains
+2 Watery Grave
+4 Scalding Tarn
+4 Marsh Flats
+4 Ghost Quarter
+4 Dimir Signet
+1 Mind Funeral
+2 Mind Grind
+4 Snacpcaster mage
+4 Damnation
+4 Archive Trap
+4 Path To Exile

I cut a land as the dimir signets help fix your mana, it might be worth cutting another, it depends on how it plays.

Visions of beyond is a bit overkill, as long as you can average about 7 cards milled per card you play, you can win within 4-6 turns, and visions can slow that down, as winning revolves around spending your mana effectively in the early turns. I kept 2 in though as sometimes you just draw all removal and no mill

Damnation might seem counter productive if you have hedron crabs on the field, but with fetchlands, you can hit 6 cards milled per crab with just one land drop, meaning they will usually provide enough mill to be worth playing out even if you then kill them.

Mind Grind is there to mitigate when you get mana flooded, so that you can get a higher return per card due to having so much excess mana, it's not something you would want to cast for anything less than x = 4.

Splashing white might be beneficial also, path to exile gives you another route to activate archive trap, and does what grasp of darkness did cheaper. it can also turn a snapcaster mage who gave you a flashback mill last turn, into another land to activate hedron crabs for further mill.

these changes should help speed the deck up, and increase your survivability in a more synergistic way than previously. feel free to tinker with numbers based on your own knowledge as i haven't played the deck, but i advise against tinkering the cards that were totally removed back into the deck.

A faster mill deck

Having said all of the above, if you want a fast mill deck, there are definitely better choices than Glimpse the unthinkable.

abandoning the idea of glimpse the unthinkable, a mill deck that will usually run much faster than glimpse the unthinkable can would be the protean hulk combo deck. If you were to play acceleration such as ramp spells ( rampant growth,  harrow etc) and Heartless Summoning to accelerate casting your Protean Hulk you will be able to get it onto the battlefield around turn 4 or 5, any of a number of spells would allow you to sacrifice it (fling, viscera seer, birthing pod, and many others, just search gatherer for rules text "Sacrifice a creature").

once you have managed to summon and sacrifice your hulk, your milling combo comes to fruition. It's ability to search for a cumulative 6 converted mana cost worth of creatures allows you to search for the 4 hedron crabs in your library, and the 4 dryad arbor, all of which translate to only 4 converted mana cost of creatures. They all enter the battlefield, each dryad arbor triggers all 4 hedron crabs, which is 16 hedron crab triggers which is 48 milled cards. the final 2 CMC can be used to find a viridian emissary, which would either die instantly to the Heartless Summoning, or be sacrificed to the  viscera seer or another sacrifice outlet, and give you a basic land and another 12 milled cards.

i will leave the building of an actual 60 card deck of this combo to you, if you wish to pursue it, since it is not strictly an answer to your question. above should give you an idea for the options, and key cards of the deck.


Can I block with my Llanowar elves and then tap it for mana immediately afterward?

Yes, this works just fine. Once a creature is declared as a blocker, it remains a blocker until it is specifically removed from combat (e.g.  Regeneration) or the battlefield (e.g.  Cloudshift).

One thing to note: once a creature is blocked, it remains blocked even if the blocker is removed before damage is dealt. This works great against lifelinkers, since they deal no damage to a creature that is no longer there. It works less well on tramplers, since they just deal all their damage to the player instead.


It’s the French and Swedish version of (Peg) Solitaire.

https://www.mastersofgames.com/rules/solitaire-rules.htm

  The Rules of Solitaire

  Equipment

  The game of Solitaire is most commonly played on a 33 point board (as pictured above left) in a cross shape with 32 pegs, marbles or pieces. In France and Sweden a 37 point board is more common with 36 pegs, marbles or pieces.

  Solitaire can also be played on other shapes of board - two of the most interesting are a 41 point board (take the 33 point board and add 3 extra points at the 4 ends of the cross) and the 45 point board (take the 37 point board and add a single point in the middle of each of the 4 square ends - to makes a square).

  Preparation and Objective

  The game is set up so that pieces fill every hole except the middle hole.

  The objective is to remove every piece except one, with the final piece ending up in the centre hole. Solitaire is played by one person and is therefore technically not a game at all, but a puzzle.

  Basic Play

  The player makes successive capturing moves, removing a single piece each turn until is it impossible to make any more capturing moves.

  Each turn, the player captures a piece by jumping over that piece orthogonally (not diagonally) from one adjacent point to the vacant adjacent point on the other side.

  Therefore, the first turn can be made only by jumping a piece into the middle hole from one of 4 possible points.

  Advanced Play

  Once you have mastered the basic game, target a different hole as the hole that the final piece should finish in. You can also aim to get certain patterns of pieces left over.

  Interestingly, it has been deduced that the 37 point board is less complex than the 33 point board.


I have found that the more upgrades on assault marines makes people want to kill them quickly, but the beauty of assault marines is when they are vanilla with meltas (bolt pistol, chainsword) with more bodies, people ignore them because of bigger more terrifying units on the board, like terminators or HQ squads. But they make enemies fold really quickly with weight of dice regardless of the unit (i.e. terminator 2+ save is nice but try making it against 31 times at once).
GW sells a sternguard weapons upgrade kit that comes with combi weapons, powerclaws, flamers etc. that way you get a few spare weapons as well for upgrades on other units if you want.


Pacific Dominance
For each turn that Japan controls all of the Pacific islands at the end of a full turn they are rewarded with a free transport or submarine to be placed at a factory of their choice at the start of their turn. (This would require Japanese control of Hawaii, Midway, Australia, and New Zealand.)
Germans in the Atlantic
Similar to the Sink the Convoys variant proposed by GWLlosa, if Germany has one or more non-transport naval vessels in the Atlantic Ocean at the end of a full turn, the UK must roll the die and surrender that many IPCs.


Assuming that it is the second last round, you can expect about 1 point more by going with 6s.

In case you go for yahtzee you get 50 points now and expect about 16.3 points including a bonus for 4 sixes or more in the last round for a total of 66.3 points.
In case you go for 6s you get 65 points now and expect about 2.4 points for yahtzee in the last round.

If 3 sixes were enough to get the bonus you should go for yahtzee instead.


When playing Remodel in Dominion, must you gain a new card?

As a general rule that applies to all of Dominion, you always must follow every instruction on the card you play as long as it is possible to do so. Whenever there is the option to not do something, the card will use the word "may". This means that if you play Moneylender, you are forced to trash a Copper (if you have one), and if you play Smithy, you are forced to draw 3 cards (as long as there are still 3 cards between your deck and discard piles).

So the same goes for Remodel; as long as there is a card costing up to $2 more than the trashed card available, you must gain one (which will always be true unless all Coppers, and Curses, and Estates have already run out).


Can I play countered sorcery speed spells with Guile?

There actually is a Gatherer ruling related to the timing. I bolded the relevant sentences.

  Guile's second ability replaces "counter [a certain spell]" with "exile [a certain spell] and you may cast it without paying its mana cost." You have the option to cast it immediately upon its exile. If you choose not to, it remains exiled and you don't get another chance to cast it. If the spell or ability that tried to counter the spell has additional effects, it then continues to resolve.

This means you cast the spell during the resolution of whatever counter spell you cast. Since normally you can't cast spells during the resolution of a spell this means you have to ignore normal timing restrictions (like only being able to cast it during your main phase when the stack is empty), it how ever doesn't ignore restrictions like Savage Beating's

  Cast Savage Beating only during your turn and only during combat.

In order to cast it at some other time the ability would need to explicitly give you that ability, like Outpost Siege which gives you the ability to play it until the end of turn, or Kheru Spellsnatcher which gives you the ability to play the card as long as it is exiled (and the Spellsnatcher is on the battlefield)


What are similar black and/or white permanents to Divine Visitation?

The Advanced Search on Gatherer may help a little.

For buffs that work when a creature enters the battlefield, search for "creature enters the battlefield under your control".

E.g. Cathars' Crusade:

  Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

For permanent buffs, search for "creatures you control get" or "creatures you control gain":

E.g. Benalish Marshal:

  Other creatures you control get +1/+1.