Your Chance to Request Rules Clarifications

[Ry Vor]

As we have discussed elsewhere, we are working on making about a dozen changes to Alamaze Classic (all existing formats), mainly on some specific spells and a few orders. So we will be revising Rules documents and spell lists.

I'm aware that some rules are not as clear as they could be - if you have found a couple that you think need revision, let us know here. I'm not asking for additional suggested changes to the game, I'm asking for what current Commands or General Rules need clarification, and please state specifically what needs to be clarified, put that in your post, please, and we'll try to clear up the few vague areas.

[unclemike]

As we have discussed elsewhere, we are working on making about a dozen changes to Alamaze Classic (all existing formats), mainly on some specific spells and a few orders. So we will be revising Rules documents and spell lists.

I'm aware that some rules are not as clear as they could be - if you have found a couple that you think need revision, let us know here. I'm not asking for additional suggested changes to the game, I'm asking for what current Commands or General Rules need clarification, and please state specifically what needs to be clarified, put that in your post, please, and we'll try to clear up the few vague areas.

Here's a few:

1) State in order 139 that order 140 still needs to be issued. Also, and more importantly, state in 139 that this order counts as a sole action for the wizard so no spells may be cast that turn. Note: I disagree that 139 should count as a sole action for the wizard since the situation is not much different than a wizard having group/pop center combat and still being allowed to cast something else that turn like sleep or such. The game is inconsistent in this matter.

2) Order 150 states that only 150 and 190 may capture a capital but what about 160?

3) Should 160 state the chance of capturing emissaries/agents are the same for order 150 or should it be higher since there are less ways for an emissary/agent to escape when the pop center is pillaged?

4) Rule of the "imaginary camp" when blocking all remaining pop centers of a kingdom when a capital falls (and it has no where to relocate). This is important for the players to understand since they may think that the other kingdom is eliminated and move on rather than knowing how to finish off an opponent.

5) Clarify the rules of when a position is actually eliminated and/or dropped.

6) Order 231/235 and how it affects group consumption. In particular, how the game has "two" consumption stages: the normal one that everyone knows about and an extra one that is executed earlier in the turn when order 231 is performed. I actually ran into this problem when I issued 231 on the turn that I also reorganized (order 235). I had 5 brigades at the start of the turn, subtracted 1 brig due to reorg, but order 231 required 10 brigs worth of good/food (for the 5 brigades x 2) rather than 8 brigs that I thought. The reason was that order 231 has its own group consumption event earlier in the turn in addition to the normal group consumption event which occurs after order 235. From the game design point of view, should the game have one or two group consumption events? If two (like how it works today) then the rules should clarify the situation.

7) Order 240 should state the emissary's relocation also acts as its sole action for the turn.

8) Orders 341-349 should state specifying an emissary's name is a disadvantage in the game and the player should utilize the order form's message fields instead.

9) Order 350 should state that 10 areas is the maximum range. Even though the separate rulebook states this, players only really reference the order book and stating the range in order 350 would be better. (same goes for the agent 900+ orders).

10) Order 385 should state that 0 gold is possible for the basic 15% chance. I've done this in a game and it works with 0 gold.

11) Orders 440/470...etc, remove all references to what is First or Second Cycle. It may confuse the players and is no longer relevant. You may want to go thru all orders in the book and clean this up.

12) Order 490 should state what the minimum influence level is (like how order 480 states what is the maximum).

13) Order 495 should state that the order is effective on subsequent turns (not the current one if an opposing group is at one's capital and it falls). Also the description is incorrect in referencing the standing order example since it implies that a player has to issue this order every turn for it to be effective and this isn't the case. Once the alternate locations are specified, they remain until the end of the game or changed again via this order. Players don't have to issue this as a standing order.

14) Order 500 should clarify if the previous turn's agent's activities carry over into the current turn (or when they expire). For example, if an agent performs a guard duty (order 925) which carries over into the following turn, at what point does the agent's guard duty is reset so that the agent may perform another action? If counter-espionage carries over into the following turn (to protect against emissaries escaping, or spoiling food supplies,...etc.), at what point does the agent's sole action clear so they may take another action in that turn. This is actually a serious inconsistency in the game in that it leads to confusion. So if an agent performs a guard/counter-espionage the previous turn (which carries over into the current turn), should the agent be allowed to train via order 500 (or another order) if the agent's carry over action is still active? Doesn't that count as two orders for the given agent? It actually would be better if all the defensive/counter-actions to all orders occur in the 0-49 number range so that guard/counter-espionage/dispel-magic occurs in the current turn and nothing carries over into the next turn but that's a design change (in renumbering orders/spells so that they make more sense and avoid the possibility of negative game mechanic collusion).

15) Order 510 should state that the player has to choose a unique name among all emissaries including those that may have been captured.

I'm outta time so I have to complete this later on

[Acererak]

Order 350 should clarify that it's used to relocate agents as well as emissaries. Including renaming the order to "Emissary or Agent relocate to a new population center" and Column A- "First two letters of the emissary or agent's name."

Also- at the intro to Orders for Agents and Fanatics there might should be an * that says "To relocate an agent or emissary's base of operations use order #350"

[Acererak]

Here's another one. Orders are very clear that you should use the first two letters of kingdom name but that is not consistent with the two word kingdoms. There is one outlier. Red Dragon.

Demon Princes = "DE"
Ancient Ones = "AN"
Black Dragon = "BL"
but Red Dragon = "RD".

Why isn't it "RE"? That should be clarified in the orders somewhere.

Thanks

[DuPont]

It's not "RE" because there are troop types called REcruits which preceded the Red Dragon kingdom being created.

[Acererak]

Great point DuPont! Never thought about that. Doesn't hurt to clarify in the rules though for the newbies.