text:
Stateful equipment use for Red Sign of Shudde M'ell in Arkham Horror
In Arkham Horror, players may use the spell Red Sign of Shudde M'ell to lower a monster's toughness by 1 (to a minimum of 1) until the end of this combat.  In the event that an investigator has multiple copies of that spell (let's say 5) against a monster with a high enough toughness (almost like the Dunwich Horror), can that investigator cast all those spells over multiple combat rounds to effectively reduce that monster's toughness to the minimum of 1?  Or reduce all of its abilities to absolutely nothing?
I believe that both effects of that spell are stateful and affects the monster's traits waaaay after the spells are cast and subsequently released, but I just want to make sure.
The Arkham Horror rules state that:

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

Normally, for spells like Withering, which gives a combat bonus of three (3), that means the bonus goes away the next combat round when you've released the spell.  However, the Red Sign of Shudde M'ell does not provide any combat bonus whatsoever.  Just like the item "Shotgun", which confers a raw 6 ability distinct from its combat bonus, the spell has an effect outside of its normal combat bonus of zero (0).
So after successfully casting and exhausting two of those spell cards, the player can release both hands and then successfully cast another two copies of that particular spell to both reduce the toughness of a monster by four blood drops and remove four of either "Overwhelming X", "Endless", "Physical Immunity", "Physical Resistance", "Magical Resistance", and "Ambush" at the end of two combat rounds.
To recap: Can you release the hands used for a successfully cast Red Sign of Shudde M'ell after a combat round without forfeiting the spell's benefits in later combat rounds?
OT: Terse recapitulation is hard.

My understanding is that the term bonus in:

A spell or weapon that gives you a bonus...

is that it refers to any advantages that you may have using the specific card.
Also taken in mind that this card has a hand on it, then it is sure for me that whenever you stop casting it by releasing your hand, then its effect is being cancelled.
I hope my thoughts make sense :)

In other words, you can't use four hands worth of spells any more than you can shoot a monster with four guns.


text:
Red Sign of Shudde M'ell hands use and timing against Nightmarish X in Arkham Horror
In Arkham Horror, players may use the spell Red Sign of Shudde M'ell to lower a monster's toughness by 1 (to a minimum of 1) and ignore a monster's special ability until the end of this combat.  Can it be used to cancel the monster ability Nightmarish X?  If yes, can the investigator reclaim the hand used for it at the start of the combat round?
There is a problem with the Arkham Horror rules about the specific timing of when an investigator can switch equipment at the cost of his/her hands.  The rules state:

You can choose to switch weapons/spells in later combat rounds, but as soon as you “release” a spell or weapon, it stops working for you.

Emphasis on "later combat rounds" is mine.
It appears that the assumption is that spells are only cast during the combat rounds, which comprise the combat check and all optional spell checks.  However, there is no rule that says Red Sign cannot be cast during the preceding horror check, which takes place before the combat round.  Successfully casting this spell against a monster with the ability Nightmarish N, where N is greater than 1, can prevent the reduction of N - 1 sanity after a successful horror check.
The only other cost to the Red Sign is its use of one hand.  However, that resource is immediately gained back, since the combat round that follows is, in fact, one of the "later" combat rounds mentioned.  At the start of the subsequent combat round, all devoted hands can be now be switched, and whatever hand that was used for the spell can now be switched for the use of combat items, such as guns or even another copy of the Red Sign.
I tried searching everywhere but the FFG forums and I haven't encountered any other people who are interested in deciphering this metagame puzzle.
To recap:

Can Red Sign be used to cancel Nightmarish X before the horror check?
If yes, will the investigator be able to use two hands worth of equipment for the following combat check(s)?

Red Sign can be cast during any phase (so combat during any phase isn't an issue).
'Combat' begins as soon as you stop at/leave an location/street with a monster or during the encounter phase when 'A monster appears!', etc. This is to say that you're already in combat when you're figuring out how many dice to roll for your horror check. As Red Sign makes no specific mention of casting while making a combat check, rather it only refers to 'combat' in the general sense, Red Sign can be cast before making a horror check to remove Nightmarish from a monster.
You pose an interesting situation with your second question, but this has nothing to do with your primary question and is covered by the other question you posed here:
Stateful equipment use for Red Sign of Shudde M'ell in Arkham Horror
Additionally, from the Kevin Wilson thread of the FFG forums:

Can Enchant Weapon, Shrivelling, Wither, Dread Curse of Azathoth, and Red Sign of Shudde M'ell be cast at any time after an investigator engages a monster, so as to, for example, use the Red Sign to cancel Nightmarish before the Horror Check, or allow one to see if a "weapon" type spell succeeds before making the decision to fight or flee?
Yes. Yes you can.

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text:
Arkham Horror: Enchant Weapon, Intervene (et al) use for other investigators
In the Arkham Horror base game, the spell Enchant Weapon has the ability to make a Physical Weapon into a Magical Weapon until the end of this combat (assuming that one such combat exists).  Similarly, in the Arkham Horror expansion Lurker in the Threshold, the spell Intervene has the ability to +3 to a combat check when cast before that investigator makes the check (again, assuming that one such combat check exists).  Can these two spells be used for helping other investigators?
In the card game Magic:The Gathering, targets are defined in a way to promote ingenious play, such that creative uses for spells exist (e.g. Denial Bazaar of Baghdad + Balance).  Assuming that the targets in Arkham Horror are defined in the same way (so as to promote emergent gameplay), the target for Enchant Weapon can be any weapon, regardless of who owns it.  That means the spell can be used to target the weapon of another investigator, regardless of the distance between the spellcaster and the other investigator, so long as that investigator is in combat.
For example, if Joe Diamond was facing a Physically Immune ghost monster with only his trusty peashooter in combat somewhere in Kingsport, Jenny Barnes in Innsmouth can cast the spell Enchant Weapon so that Joe's gun will actually damage that ghost until then end of his combat, even though neither the weapon nor the combat is hers.
For the spell Intervene, let's say that Joe Diamond decided to investigate the Graveyard and got this encounter:

Descending into a dark mausoleum, you discover a vampire rising to feed. You quickly find yourself fighting for your life. Make a Combat (-2) check. If you pass, you defeat the vampire, gaining 1 Clue token and drawing 1 Unique Item. If you fail, roll a die and lose that much Stamina.

If Jenny Barnes in Innsmouth had the spell Intervene, then she can THEORETICALLY use the spell to give Joe Diamond a +3 Combat check modifier to help him out, even though she is on another board.  Since the set of valid targets for Intervene is any investigator, and Joe is an investigator (and therefore an element of that set), then Joe should be able to reap the benefits of a successfully cast Intervene even though he isn't the one casting it.
The fact that Jenny Barnes uses up two hands to cast Intervene is irrelevant, since she can simply release the spell after Joe's check.  The spell only lasts for ONE combat check, and she can immediately free up her hand resources as soon as the spell's duration is done, with no lasting effects.
Same thing with the spell Mists of Releh and Bind Monster.  Mists of Releh's target is an Evade Check, which means ANY Evade Check, not necessarily the caster's.  Bind Monster's target is a Combat Check, which means ANY Combat Check, not necessarily the caster's.
Since the Mists of Releh and Bind Monster's targets are skill checks, and the set of targets have no restrictions on who is actually performing those checks according to the game's rules, then the Mists of Releh and Bind Monster can be cast for checks made by other investigators, since checks made by other investigators are also elements in the set of targets.
The fact that Bind Monster uses up two hands for casting is irrelevant when it is used for another investigator's combat check, since the caster isn't actually participating in the combat check and wouldn't need the hands for anything else.  The only relevant factors would then be spell check success and sanity cost for the spellcaster.
I may be mistaken in case there has been an official ruling that I don't know about as to the timing of these effects.  I would have to assume that these spells can be cast at any time, for any valid target, much like Fast Effects in the game Magic:The Gathering, since I haven't come across any restrictions regarding targeting and timing.
Such card play can be used for greater cooperation between investigators, and I would like to know whether these applications are valid for when I need to unleash a killer card combo against awful monsters, such as Dholes.
To recap: Can an investigator benefit from the spells Enchant Weapon, Intervene, Mists of Releh, Bind Monster, et al, cast by another investigator given that the targets and timing are valid?

Hello Floyd. It seems you've been creating lots of unregistered duplicate accounts. I've merged these together so that all your questions and reputation are associated in one place. You should really register yourself using an email login to avoid this problem in the future. Otherwise whenever your browser stops caching, you'll create a new account. Thanks!

The text on Intervene states:

Cast and exhaust before an investigator makes a Combat check to give that investigator +3 to the check.

This is clearly intended to be used on other investigators. Additionally, as there is no stipulation on distance defined, the spell can be used between any two investigators regardless of distance. The hand requirement is in place to allow an investigator to use the spell for themselves, but it prevents them from using additional spells & weapons to aid in the check. Really, it's meant to help other people. With a Sanity cost of 2 and a casting modifier of -1, it's clearly inferior to Wither for purposes of aiding one's own combat but can be rather helpful aiding teammates.
As for any other spells, they cannot be used on other investigators. Unless explicitly stated, investigator cards (items, spells, skills, allies, etc.) are designed to operate on actions the investigator using the card in question is involved in, such as making a check of type. While I couldn't find anywhere in the rules that explicitly stated that items only affected the investigator carrying the items, it isn't the case. Just because the lantern says

+1 to Luck checks

doesn't mean it gives a +1 to all Luck checks for all investigators, even though it doesn't explicity state that only the carrier of the item gains this benefit. Similarly, the benefits of a spell can only be utilized by the spellcaster unless tated otherwise.
People have played with the idea of allowing investigators in the same area to cooperate directly to varying degrees, but there's nothing built into the game that supports this.

The Rulebook heading on page 16 says:

Using Weapons and Spells in Combat

Only the investigator engaged in combat can cast spells and use weapons against the monster that it is engaged with.
also

An investigator must successfully cast a spell in order to gain its benefit.

The only excepion to this, would be cards that are specifically worded to affect other players, as EvilAmarant7x points out with Intervene.

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text:
In Arkham Horror, can you pay sanity costs to go insane on purpose?
In Arkham Horror, an investigator must pay the sanity cost of a spell before making a spell check to see whether it would succeed.  If the spell's sanity cost is X, and the investigator has only X sanity, can that investigator willfully attempt to cast the spell in order to go insane?
For example, Gloria has only 1 sanity, and she needs to reach the other side of Arkham all the way from St. Mary's Hospital, but moving there on foot will take her 5 turns due to some ongoing Mythos environment.  She has the spell Withering, which has a sanity cost of 1.  Even though she does not have the lore to cast it successfully, can she use that spell to go insane and teleport herself all the way to Arkham Asylum?
To recap: Spells cannot be used unless they can be paid, but can you game the system when the situation demands it such that you obtain the benefits of paying everything you have?

Yes. Just as there's nothing stopping you from not using your weapons to purposefully fail a combat check against a Nightgaunt to go through a gate, or purposefully failing a sneak check to take combat damage and get sent to the hospital, there's nothing stopping you from casting a spell when there's no chance of you succeeding. The closest thing I can come up with for a reference to your suggested scenario is a question from the Kevin Wilson Answers thread on the Fantasy Flight Games forum:

If one goes insane or unconscious or is devoured as a result of casting a spell or using an item, is it generally the case that the
effect of the spell or item still occurs (in the same way an Elder
Sign's effect takes place even if one of the above happens as a result
of using it)?
Yes. It will often not matter, however, as in the case where you're
getting a combat bonus or something.

So it's definitely allowed that you could cast a spell that drives you insane in the process. So a useful last-sanity draining spell use could be Healing another investigator, or casting Bind Monster, or Greater Banishment, etc. Anything with an immediate effect after making the Casting Check. The only limitation on the spell casting I'd say is that you can't try to cast a spell outside of a situation it would be useful in. i.e. I wouldn't allow casting Shriveling outside of combat just so the Investigator could go insane.

Yes you can. Look at the Official FAQ:

Q: When an investigator casts a spell, can he spend all of his Sanity
  to pay the spell’s Sanity cost?
A: Yes. If he does so, once the Sanity
  cost has been paid the investigator makes his Spell check and, if he
  passes, the spell takes effect. Whether the check is passed or not,
  the investigator then goes insane. Note that if an investigator were
  to cast a spell to gain combat bonuses, he would go insane before
  having a chance to get into combat


text:
Meaning of: Play at any time
In the Monopoly Empire game, some of the Empire cards say

Play at any time.

I'd like to understand the exact meaning of this rule.

Does it mean at any time during my turn and/or I am involved in someone else's turn?
Or does it mean at any time even during other player's turn who does nothing involving me?

Other Empire cards specify they are to be played during one's turn:

Play at any time on your turn.

"Play at any time" means exactly that. Whenever the player wants to do it, they can.
"Play at any time during your turn" restricts the prior freedom in one way - it must be the turn of the person playing the card.
No other conditions are relevant.


text:
Wort, Boggart Auntie and Goblins with Echo
So, I've got an EDH deck featuring Wort, Boggart Auntie as my General. I really want to exploit her ability for all it's worth, so I've been looking for different goblins that have "Enters the Battlefield" effects and/or sacrifice effects. I can across two with Echo that seem like they'd work really well: Mogg War Marshal and Stingscourger.
Let's say that I cast Mogg War Marshal last turn and that I have Wort in play. During my upkeep, can I decline Mogg War Marshal's Echo cost, sending it to the graveyard and then retrieve it with Wort?

If a triggered ability has a target, you have to choose the target when it goes on the stack.  The target has to be valid both when the ability triggers, and when it resolves.  From the rulebook:

114.1d A triggered ability is targeted if it identifies something it will affect by using the phrase “target [something],” where the
  “something” is a phrase that describes an object, player, or zone. The
  target(s) are chosen as the ability is put on the stack; see rule
  603.3d.

You get to choose the order in which the triggers go on the stack.  But in this case, that won't help you.  Wort's trigger always happens before Marshall's trigger resolves.  So when Wort's trigger goes on the stack, the Marshall is not yet in the graveyard.  So it is not a valid target for Wort's ability.


text:
Can the power of an attack be reduced below two?
When you are attacking in Illuminati and you're in the phase where players are spending Megabucks to aid or hinder the attack, is there a limit to how money can be spent to reduce the power of the attack?
Let's say that, after all the modifiers for alignment, the power of my attack is 8. Can another player reduce the power to -2 by spending 10 Megabucks? If so, do I actually get to roll the dice, or does the attack not take place at all? Or are they limited to spending 6, which gives me at least a miniscule chance to succeed on the attack?

There are no limits.
To succeed you need to roll the target number or less on two dice.  If the target number has been reduced to 1 (or less) then the roll is moot.
This isn't stated explicitly in the rules, but more importantly there are no limits placed on spending.  It is alluded to though, on page 5 in the "Spending money to Attack " section:

For instance, if an attacker uses enough money
  and power to exceed the target’s resistance by 20, the
  defender would have to spend 20 MB to get the attacking
  roll back down to zero again!

Thanks. We had an issue come up in a game where somebody still tried to roll when it was -13 and then played the Assassination plot card, thinking that 2 was an automatic success.


text:
Income boosting Special cards in Illuminati: Y2K
I recently picked up the Illuminati: Y2K expansion for Illuminati. I'm a little confused about the "double Income" Special cards. These cards say: "Play this card at any time to give all your FOO groups extra income equal to TWICE their normal income", where FOO is an Alignment.(Shown here is a sample image of Flower Power, the double Income card for Peaceful groups.)
1) Do you place the extra MegaBucks(MBs) on your Peaceful groups right away or do you have to wait until they would normally get their Income again, on your next turn? Other Special cards that add MBs state they're added right away, and don't reference Income at all.
2) Do these cards permanently change the Income of those groups, or is this just a one-time deal? Again, because changing Income is different than just adding MB, I'm not sure what the correct way to use them is.

The cards are a one-time effect.  Whenever you play it, collect income twice for each aligned group.
From the rules:

Collect Income. For each Group that has an
  Income, draw that income from the bank. Put the
  money directly on that card

Thanks Pat. Do you have a link to those rules? I couldn't find them.

@Discord - added link to rules.


text:
How do Heartless Hidetsugu and Gisela interact?
Let's say that I have Gisela, Blade of Goldnight in play and my opponent controls Heartless Hidetsugu. We both have 20 life.
When Heartless Hidetsugu is tapped, each player takes 10 damage, which is half of their life. Gisela doubles the damage my opponent takes, so that 10 becomes 20. Gisela also halves the damage that I take, so I take 5 instead of 10.
Is this correct, or am I missing something? If this works, the Heartless Hidetsugu will always kill opponents with even life totals while Gisela is in play. If they have an odd life total, then they will be reduced to one life instead.

That is correct.

You didn't miss anything. Wizards preempted this with their ruling on Gisela

Gisela doubles damage dealt to opponents and permanents your opponents control from any source, including sources controlled by those opponents.

So it's pretty straightforward: double of a half is a whole. As you noted, the rounding could put it at 1 instead of 0, but you're playing red: surely you have 1 point of burn somewhere in your deck, right? :-)
There's no rules that say "Super-powerful combos aren't permitted".
So yes, your opponent would be incredibly unwise to tap it, although you could always Act of Treason it and tap it yourself!


text:
Attacking with Zero Creatures
Two questions about attacking:
1) If I have creatures in play, can I declare an attack and then declare zero of the creatures as attackers?
2) If I have no creatures in play, can I declare an attack?
I'm not sure why you would want to, in either case, but it seems like a weird rules case.

It can make sense, as there are a handful of spells and abilities that can be played only during combat: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?text=+[%22only%20during%20combat%22]

Yeah, I was just going to say - you might very well want to play Aleatory, Chaotic Strike or a similar combat-phase-only cantrip in order to cycle it for a card... even though you don't want to attack.

Every turn has a combat phase (unless some card like Fatespinner tells you to skip it). The game proceeds to the combat phase after you're done with the first main phase.
The combat phase consists of five steps:

Beginning of combat — this phase is mostly for abilities that trigger at the beginning of combat; in multiplayer, you also choose which players will be "defending," though you don't have to assign any attackers at this point (then priority passes between players)
Declare attackers — you choose attackers at the beginning of this phase (then priority passes between players)
Declare blockers — you choose blockers at the beginning of this phase (then priority passes between players)
Combat damage — damage is dealt at the beginning of this phase (then priority passes between players)
End of combat — this phase is for resolving "at end of combat" triggers (then priority passes between players, and we move on to the next phase)

You choose your attackers during the "declare attackers" step. If you select zero attackers, the game skips the "declare blockers" and "combat damage" steps.
So, you will always get a combat phase, even if you have creatures but choose not to attack, or have no creatures. Any combat in which you don't attack won't include the "declare blockers" or "combat damage" steps, though.

A note about your Desecration Demon question: his trigger occurs during the "beginning of combat" step. So you don't have to choose attackers yet. Your opponent must guess whether you plan to attack or not. Attackers must be untapped when you select them in the "declare attackers" step, and become tapped when you declare attackers. Tapping them subsequently (e.g. with Blustersquall) will not take them out of combat.

Yes, there is always normally a Combat Phase, regardless of whether you have creatures or not.
You don't really "declare an attack." What you are doing is proposing to your opponent that you proceed to the next phase "combat" and leave the current phase by both of you taking no actions while the stack is empty. During the Beginning of Combat step, you can either cast spells (instants usually) that may create new attackers or do nothing, your opponent may cast their own spells possibly to tap your creatures so that they cannot be declared as attackers. After that is the Declare Attackers step. Then and only then is when you actually declare which if any of your creatures (if you have any) are attacking.

506.1. The combat phase has five steps, which proceed in order: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, and end of combat. The declare blockers and combat damage steps are skipped if no creatures are declared as attackers or put on to the battlefield attacking (see rule 508.4). There are two combat damage steps if any attacking or blocking creature has first strike (see rule 702.7) or double strike (see rule 702.4).

Yes to both questions
Indeed, if played correctly, you have an attack phase every turn, and if you cannot or do not want to declare any attackers, the attack phase would still happen. In practice and in the vast majority of cases, players instead implicitly agree on a shortcut to proceed to the next main phase or to the end of turn.
Note however that if you declare an attack with zero attacking creatures, that attack will not trigger any abilities like "whenever a creature attacks you", or "whenever you attack/are attacked" or anything of the sorts. The phase still happens, but no attack happens, even if you explicitly attack with zero creatures.


text:
Can I activate the tap ability of a creature summoned last turn before I have to remove it to my hand?
We had this situation come in a game last night, and I wanted to make sure that we played it correctly and that I understood the rules.
Player A had an Eiganjo Free-Riders in play. During this turn, he cast an Icatian Javelineers. He then ended his turn. During the upkeep of his next turn, he targeted the Javelineers with the Free-Riders' ability and then responded by tapping the Javelineers to use their ability.
By my understanding, the Javelineers ability would resolve first and he'd get to do a point of damage. Then the Free-Riders' ability would resolve, returning the Javelineers to his hand, and allowing him to cast them again. That seemed to be within the rules.
However, I wasn't sure when the Javelineers' summoning sickness wore off. Does it wear off in time for him to use this ability before they get returned to his hand by the Free-Riders?

Sounds like he's using a combo to get a Javelin every turn, and it's perfectly reasonable and legal.

The Free-Riders' ability doesn't target, by the way.

Yes, he can do this. The rule for summoning sickness is as follows:

302.6  A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since his or her most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the "summoning sickness" rule.

Emphasis mine. In this case, the creature was under his control continuously since his most recent turn (which is the current turn) began.


text:
When can I cast Glyph of Destruction?
Glyph of Destruction was originally worded: "Target wall you control gains +10/+0 when blocking." To me, that indicates that you could cast it any time, i.e. outside of combat.
However, the Gather wording is:

Target blocking Wall you control gets +10/+0 until end of combat. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to it this turn. Destroy it at the beginning of the next end step.

Since Gatherer now says "Target blocking Wall", does that mean I have to declare the Wall as a blocker before I cast the Glyph? I'm trying to come up with some Glyph/Fling shenanigans for a deck and I need to know if I have to block before I use this trick.

The fact that the original fuzzy wording misled you is exactly why so many old cards have updated oracle text, with newer templating.

It's actually quite a large power difference between the two 'versions' of the cards. I know that Gatherer is supposed to clear up what the cards say, but it's quite a drop in power level.

You might have been able to cast it sooner before, but even then, the bonus only applied when blocking. I don't see this "drop in power level" you mention.

@Discord I'm not sure you actually could cast it outside of combat - that's what I was trying to say about original wording. It was really fuzzy. Things like this may well have been supposed to imply that you could only cast it while the Wall is blocking - look, it says "when blocking" on the card. If you try to read old cards as if they were written with the rules and templating clarity of more recent cards, you will be misled.

You guys are correct. They didn't nerf the power level at all, just clarified it. Now to select some ways to force my opponents to attack, so I can Glyph of Destruction to destroy their creature and then Fling my wall.

Yes, your wall has to be declared a blocker before you can target it with that glyph. Your wall remains a blocker (and thus a legal target) until the end of that combat phase, though you'll have to target it before the Combat Damage step if you want it to actually deal that +10 damage in combat.
A creature is only considered blocking or attacking once it is declared as such, and ceases to be those things once combat is over. There is no such thing as a blocking or attacking creature outside of combat.

"before the combat damage step" -- No, the Glyph can be cast all the way up to the end of the End of Combat step (which comes after combat damage). Creatures continue to be attacking or blocking creatures until the start of the postcombat Main phase (or the start of the next Begin Combat  step, if you've achieved multiple Combat phases).

@BrianS That's true. I was only thinking about when you'd be able to target it to get it to deal damage, but it's certainly legal after combat damage, and there are probably times when you'd want to target it afterwards.


text:
When your active race has no tokens on the board, do they still have to go into decline before you choose a new race?
This is a pretty simple question, but I can't find a definitive answer for it.
Let's say that my active race has only a single race token on the board. During another players turn, that last token is removed. When my turn comes around am I allowed to choose a new active race (as my current race was completely wiped out) or do I have to put that race into decline and wait until my next turn to choose a new active race?
My gut feeling is that you need to send your active race into decline, basically skipping your turn and not scoring any points. However, some of the other players are saying that sounds too "unfair." I'd prefer an answer to include an official Days of Wonder ruling, if one is out there.

I was about to ask this exact same question, after this happened to me in the iPad version last night (I still had to decline).

You still have to go into decline. This is clarified in the FAQ, where every answer has been made by a Days of Wonder spokesperson:

All active units destroyed
If all your active units are destroyed in
  one turn you may:
1) Score points only with the in-decline race. or
2)
  Go into decline and score 0 for that turn. You may not take a new
  combo this turn

This makes sense to me. If it were otherwise, you would be effectively penalised if you had just one unit left in play. Although having no units is unfortunate, it shouldn't be a strategy to prefer being wiped out in order to skip a decline.
With regard to the "fairness" objection, if you've waited until such a late moment that you could be wiped out, then you've already accrued the benefit of keeping the race active up to now, and this is the price. Small World is all about the trade-off in choosing when to decline. In this situation you've got what was coming to you!


text:
What happens to a Curse when the Enchanted Player dies?
This question is regarding the 'Curse' Auras from Innistrad block, such as Curse of Exhaustion. When the player enchanted by the Curse dies, what happens to the Curse. Does it remain in play with no actual target or effect?

http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/4749/3128

The Aura is put into your graveyard due to 303.4b.

303.4b If an Aura is enchanting an illegal object or player, the object it was attached to no longer exists, or the player it was
attached to has left the game, the Aura is put into its owner’s
graveyard.

Also, if you had two Curse of Exhaustion in play enchanting two players that somehow died simultaneously, both Auras would be put into the graveyard simultaneously, due to this rule:

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority [...], the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. [...]


text:
How do multiple copies of Merrow Commerce interact?
If I have more than one copy of Merrow Commerce in play, they both trigger during my end step. Can I take actions after the first one resolves, but before the second one does? I'm thinking of something like tapping my Silvergill Douser and Merfolk Thaumaturgist to pick off an opponent's creatures, then having them untap again.

Well yes you can. These are triggered abilities

603.1. Triggered abilities have a trigger condition and an effect. They are written as "[Trigger condition], [effect]," and begin with the word "when," "whenever," or "at." They can also be expressed as "[When/Whenever/At] [trigger event], [effect].

Multiple triggers are put on the stack, and after one resolves, you get priority as the active player.

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

Keep in mind Merrow Commerce is different then cards like Seedborn Muse or Prophet of Kruphix, because Merrow Commerce is a triggered ability, and as noted by Ivo, any time a triggered ability goes on the stack, players have a chance to respond before the ability resolves. Seedborn Muse and Prophet of Kruphix on the other hand are static abilities, and thus do not stack, unlike Merrow Commerce which is a triggered ability and thus will stack.


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Does a countered spell still target?
I have a Phantasmal Dragon in play. My opponent casts Unsummon on it. In response, I cast Cancel on the Unsummon. Do I sacrifice my Phantasmal Dragon because it was the target of the Unsummon, or does countering the Unsummon make it's targeting invalid?

It was still targeted.
You choose targets as part of the process of casting a spell, which has to happen before a spell can be countered. And the moment you have chosen something as a target, it has been targeted.


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Is Go played for money?
Playing for money in this meaning would be single games played for some stake, not tournaments with a prize money.
Backgammon has a large tradition to be played like, chess a smaller one (I think). I havn't heard of Go in such a context. Is this (widely) done?

In the West, Go is almost exclusively played for fun. The exception here would top players who strive for tournament price money. This is actually a pretty important, there have been intense discussions between the organizers of the major Go tournaments/congresses and top players about the sum and distribution of money.
In Asia, Go is more often than not played without money on stake, however, betting on your own games is well known, too, especially for older folks. In Japan, there is a basic differentiation how money is distributed according to the result:

In ban-go the winner simply takes it all.
In me-go money is exchanged according to the territory at the end, so winning with a large difference is advantageous.

In Korea, betting games are called Bang Neki, typically with a fixed sum for winning and extra money for each bang (score difference of 10 points).

Well considering everything I know about Go in Asia comes from a cartoon, and in it there is gambling (Mitani), +1 to you

The online go server http://www.tygemgo.com/ supports betting on games as part of its service.

There is no particular tradition of players gambling over a game of Go. Go is generally a teaching game, where a higher-skilled player will grant an opponent a number of handicap stones in order to even the playing field. This is not really compatible with the cutthroat atmosphere that wagers bring to the table.

This is very true, I never understood how handicap and betting can be used together in the same game.

@mafutrct Handicaps with betting make perfect sense, if you are offering 1:1 odds on the outcome of the game there is no incentive for the weaker player to take the bet. With handicap you can try to get a 50:50 win ratio and so make the bet "fair". - Not that this has anything in particular to do with go, but with all betting games in general.

@Nick Yes, but wouldn't you always try 'sandbag' the other player (claiming you're weaker than you really are)?

If you go to Chinatowns, particularly in New York or San Francisco, you can find games played for money.
Some of them are run honestly, in other places, you might get robbed.

Korean baduk servers (baduk = Go) have a bet system.


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Where can I find a spanish language copy of the rules of Settlers of Catan.
I have found a link from a 2008 blog, but this fails now

Would this would be of any use to you?
http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/siedler/siedler_espanol.pdf
Failing that, this looks pretty thorough:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/30216/catan-todo-en-uno-reglas-y-mapas-para-todas-las-ve

On this link you can find the manual provided by Devir, the Spanish publisher.


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Does Wizards of the Coast still package World Championship Decks?
The most recent decks that I can find are from 2005. Are the top 4 championship decks from each year still being packaged for retail? If so, where's a good place to buy them?

Unfortunately they were discontinued (at around the time you state) for not being widely popular.  The cards could obviously not be played in tournaments and weren't even very good for casual play because of the nonstandard card backs.
A shame because I quite liked the feeling of playing a finely-tuned Pro deck too... but Wizards are just too cagey about printing anything resembling proxies of top-tier tournament cards.

They were not that popular then, but now they are at least somewhat sought after by cube enthusiasts that appreciate official proxies.


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Does Eclipse under-estimate the game length, or are we playing it incredibly slowly?
On the box, Eclipse says a game takes 30 minutes per player. We've only played it three times - two-player each time - and our games have taken between two and three hours, rather than the one hour predicted.
I don't think we're particularly slow players (we both get frustrated by slow players in other games), so I was wondering how long other people found the game takes. Does it take proportionally less time with more players? Does it get quicker with practice? (If anything it's getting slower for us as we understand the game better and realise more the consequences of our choices!)

Have you made sure to restrict the number of tiles available for the number of players you have? In one game we played, we forgot to do this and it dragged. Afterwards, when we remembered, it seemed more righties.

At a minimum with two players you have less time to think about your options between turns...!

Yep, definitely using only five region-3 hexes.

You also need to reduce the initial techs and the refresh techs per turn.  That said, Eclipse is really better with 4-5 players.

I think games companies often estimate the time based on players who know the game. My first few plays of a game will often run long compared to the estimated time on the box, but my tenth, fiftieth or hundredth play will often come in around the box estimate (or less).
Eclipse is a big game with lots of things to take account of (various technologies, balancing your empires, etc.). I'd expect your first five or ten plays to require extra thinking time while you get to grips with it.

At least one game company (the one I work for) does exactly this, estimating the time based on players who know the game.  In my experience, new players' playing time is so variable that it isn't helpful to put it on the box.

@Joe, I used to run my own games company and I did the same.

Once you know the rules and what the tiles do it speeds up considerably.  With 3+ players every person should easily have an idea of what they plan on doing for their move before their turn comes up. As soon as it is their turn they should have their shit on the table.  It only takes longer because the group is playing casually and not paying much attention.  Which is not a bad thing, mind you-- it's why we get together to play games with friends in the first place.
Our first few games drug on for hours because of constant rule-checking and needing to read over each and every tile to know what each upgrade actually did.  Once you know things by heart and by name it cuts the time down by half at least.


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Whisper tie phantom example
For the "whisper" pilot of the tie phantom in x-wing, can someone please give an example of how the pilot ability works?

Whisper's pilot ability is

After you perform an attack that hits, you may assign 1 focus token to
your ship.

As per usual combat follows the following ten steps from the FAQ (as of Dec 2016):

Declare target.
Roll your attack dice. (First using any abilities that modify the number of dice)
Modify the attack dice. (Defender always modifies the attack dice first)
Roll the Defence dice.
Modify the Defence dice. (Attacker always modifies the defence dice first)
Compare results.

The rules for step 6 include the following text

During this step, players compare their dice results
to determine whether the defender was hit.
To determine whether the defender was hit, compare
the number of hits and critical hits and evades in the common
area. For each evade result, cancel (remove) one hit or critical hit
result from the attack roll. All hit results must be
canceled before any critical hit results may be canceled.
If there is at least one uncanceled hit or critical hit result
remaining, the defender is considered hit (see page
13). If all hit and critical hit result are canceled, the attack
misses and the defender does not suffer any damage.

At this point, if there are uncanceled hits or critical hits, then Whisper gains a focus token.
If the attack is a miss, and is also the first attack from a secondary weapon with the ability "Perform this attack twice", then the second attack would occur now.

Deal damage.

If the attack isn't a miss and is also the first attack from a secondary weapon with the ability "Perform this attack twice", then the second attack would occur now.

Use any abilities that occur "after attacking", or "after defending". The player with initiative uses theirs first.
Use any abilities that occur "after attacking", or "after defending" that trigger an extra attack. The player with initiative uses theirs first.
Remove any destroyed ships, accounting for the simultaneous attack rule (ships destroyed by another ship with the same pilot skill, still get their turn to attack).

After all ships have had an opportunity to attack, you move on to the end phase, when all focus and evade tokens are removed.
Example:
Whisper with Veteran Instincts, Gunner and Advanced Cloak attacks at PS 9, before Tycho Celchu at PS 8.
Whisper has an evade token, from having taken evade as it's action during the activation phase. Tycho Celchu also took the evade action.

Whisper declares it's target as Tycho Celchu; Tycho is within Whisper's arc and at range 2.

Whisper rolls 4 dice, and gets Miss, Eye, Hit & Critical Hit.

No modifications to the attack dice are taken.

Tycho rolls 3 Defence dice, and gets Blank, Eye & Evade.

Tycho uses his evade token to add one evade to his defence dice.

We compare the total of two evades from the on the defence dice and evade token with the hit and critical hit symbols on the attack dice. Regular hits must be canceled before critical hits, but as all hits are canceled this doesn't matter.
All of Whisper's attack dice are canceled. The attack was a miss.

All dice were canceled and no damage is dealt.

Advanced Cloaking device triggers, giving Whisper the option to take a free cloak action, which Whisper doesn't take as it would prevent the second attack.
Whisper's pilot ability doesn't trigger, as the criteria wasn't met (this attack was a miss).

Gunner triggers, giving Whisper a second attack. That attack occurs now.

Whisper's second attack

We declare Tycho as the target again - still at Range 2.

Whisper rolls 4 attack dice and gets Miss, Hit, Hit & Critical Hit.

No modifications to the attack dice are taken.

Tycho rolls 3 defence dice and gets Blank, Evade & Evade.

No modifications to the defence dice are taken (Tycho no longer has his evade token).

Comparing the evades with the hits, we cancel the two regular hits on Whisper's dice, resulting in one Critical Hit symbol remaining.
The attack was a hit as there is at least one uncanceled hit or critical hit.

Tycho takes one critical hit, which either removes one shield or if he has no remaining shield tokens deals him a face up damage card.

Advanced Cloaking device triggers again, giving Whisper the option to take a free cloak action; the option is taken this time.
Similarly Whisper's Pilot ability triggers as this is a hit, and Whisper gains a focus token.

Gunner cannot trigger, both because this is a hit, and because it has already triggered.

We now check to see if any ships have been destroyed and remove them (unless they also had the same pilot skill and lower initiative than Whisper).

Whisper's turn to attack is now over, leaving Whisper with an evade token, a focus token and it's cloak active.
We proceed to any other ship's turn to attack in order of descending PS, with ties partially broken by Initiative as per usual.
If it had been Jake with Veteran Instincts instead of Tycho in the example (who would then have had the same PS as Whisper) but Whisper had initiative then even if Whisper had killed Jake, Jake would still get an attack, but Whisper would have his focus token and Cloaking device up. If Jake had initiative, then Jake would have attacked first before Whisper could activate his focus token and cloaking device, though Whisper would still have it's evade token.
N.B. This exact set up with Whisper is partly chosen here to highlight some interactions with the rules (such as 'hit' interacting with gunner), and also because this particular set up on Whisper has been a popular and successful set up in tournaments - at least prior to the nerf to cloaking - and could thus be considered a fairly likely situation (although I have no idea as to the presence or absence of Tycho or Jake in tournament lists).

The FAQ now has a very detailed chart laying out the steps of an attack. I don't think it changes how Whisper works here, but it may be helpful to modify your answer to account for the changes to the rules for attacking.

Thank you. I hadn't seen that change — I've updated it now. It didn't change anything functionally with this example, but it did change the order of a couple of things and separate out some of the checks into three extra steps.


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Assault carrier benefits?
What are the benefits of having docked ships on the assault carrier? Why would I want them docked? Why not just deploy them at the start of the game?
Basically, what benefit or advantage does the assault carrier provide?

Interestingly enough they had an article on this just a short while ago: Begin Your Pursuit.
To summarize to just your question, I think there's three major benefits:

Ships that are docked are not "on the table" and can't be targeted in any way, making sure your more fragile ships make it into the heart of the battle without taking damage.
Ships that are 'undocking' move from the front (or rear) of the Assault Carrier itself, so your ship can deploy further into the battle or into a better position.
Ships 'undock' as part of the Huge Ship resolution, which is always after all smaller ships, so your lower Pilot Skill fighters can deploy and maneuver into place after the opponent's higher Pilot Skill ships have already moved and boosted/rolled.

The article provides a great example of these three in combination by using Captain Jonus and 3 other TIE Bombers, moving the Vector-titled Assault Carrier a full 4-straight forward and then deploying the bombers another 4-straight forward, putting them in range to Target Lock and volley Ion Torpedoes or Assault Missiles directly into the heart of your enemy's formation before they have a chance to spread out.


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Drug Dealer trigger priority
When exactly does Drug Dealer trigger?
It says "When the corp's turn begins, draw 1 card."
When does that trigger on the corp's turn?
Does it trigger before the corp gets priority on turn 1.2?

Example:
The runner has 0 cards in hand at the end of the runners turn. The runner has Drug Dealer out. The corp has Bio Ethics Association rezzed. Does the Bio Ethics Association fire first and kill the runner or does the runner get to draw a card before taking net damage with Drug Dealer?

Both trigger at 1.2. Because it’s the corp’s turn, their card will activate first (see page 22, Simultaneous Effects), so the runner gets flatlined.

But the drug dealer says "when the corp's turn begins". Which does not fit the definition of what triggers during the 1.2 phase. 1.2 phase says "when your turn begins" conditionals trigger. Which would mean that is not part of those triggers.

You’re right, the wording is unfortunate. Still, that’s what is meant.

Bio Ethics Association is a corp card. "Your turn" on a corp card means corp's turn. It's as simple as that.

The actual definition of 1.2 (1.3 for runner) is 'turn begins' so all turn begins effects that trigger in this window trigger at the same time, starting with who's turn it is, be they each turn like Corporate Sales Team your turn, like Bio Ethics Association, or opponents turn (referenced as corp for runner or runner for corp) like Drug Dealer.


text:
Must take net damage vs prevent net damage
If a runner hits a shi.kyu can the runner use guru davinder to prevent the damage and both effects?

Can the runner decide to take the net damage and then prevent the net damage with guru davinder?

or

If the runner does number 1, does that satisfy the "OR" condition and the effect is finished? Or does the runner have to add the asset to their score area now, since they did not take the net damage?

The confusion is that shi.kyu says "MUST take". Which implies, unless they take the netdamage one of the conditions has to be met. So the runner would be forced to do the second condition.

it's better to think of the must as making the choice, which is how it's intended, you must either chose to take damage or chose to lose an agenda point, what happens after the choice to resolve it doesn't impact the must choose. The same thing works with avoiding the tag from Data Raven.

Firstly, any damage that doesn't have "cannot be prevented" can be prevented.
Secondly, if you choose to take damage instead of adding Shi.Kyu to your score area, it doesn't go to your score area, even if you prevented some/all of that damage.
So yes, it's a valid play to choose taking damage, have it prevented with guru davinder (or any other damage preventer, this is not relevant part), and don't take Shi.Kyu.
There already is similar ruling regarding Wotan's last two subroutines and Data Raven's encounter ability Wotan and Raven ruling.
A curious person can find different ruling on seemingly similar case Snatch and Grab ruling. The difference is that S&G is worded "do X to Y". "To" implies [cost:effect] relations, and as such preventing the cost from being paid prevents the effect from happening. Discussion on this case is here: BGG forum
To sum it up, here is a great excerpt from BGG post by CommissarFeesh:

In short though; Data Raven gives you the choice of x (take a tag) or y (end the run). You must choose one of these effects to resolve. By choosing to resolve x, you completely negate y, even if you prevent x.
  Snatch and Grab though is do x to do y - if you never actually do x, then you haven't paid the cost for y.

The official ruling from FFG is that must take (damage) is unpreventable.  The damage has to happen.  Prevented damage isn't taken damage.  So they must suffer the damage to satisfy that constraint on the card.  This is one situation where the card text supercedes the rulebook text.  So for the questions.

No because the runner did not 'take' the damage.
No because the damage did not happen so the runner must then take the agenda as a -1 agenda point in their score area.

I hope this clears things up.
#Notrunner

Any chance you can provide source for your claims? So, i can use as a reference. Thanks. Like page number, link to rule or something.


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Charging a unit with no space?
If my unit is in the frontal charging cone of an enemy unit and I already have a friendly unit in front of that unit and taking up all the front base space, can I charge the enemy unit?
What if I was 75% in frontal cone and 25% in flanking cone? Could I charge the flank instead?
What are my options?

If the two units are charging at the same time, then the two units must attempt to charge in such a way that an equal number (or as close as possible) of models from each unit engage the enemy unit (8th Ed Rulebook, pg 23).
If the first unit is already engaged (an ongoing combat from a pervious turn) to the front and completely blocks it, and your charging unit is in the front arc, then the rules are not 100% clear.
The rules for Flank and Rear Charges (8th ED Rulebook pg 21) state that "a charging units position when the charge is declared determines whether it charges into the front, flank, or rear of an enemy unit". Based on this, you must charge the side you are on, not the side you can reach.
The rule for Multiple Charges On A Unit say that if "more units can complete the charge than can fit in base contact with the target" then the charging player choosing which units get moved first, and any "units that cannot complete the charge against the target are counted as having made a failed charge". (8th ED Rulebook pg 23).
Since they must charge the front, which they cannot reach due to other units, I would say they will fail the charge.


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Invocation of nehek and swarms?
How does invocation of nehek affect swarms?
For example the bat swarm.
If I cast nehek on a bat swarm that has 4 bases/models with full wounds and nehek replenishes 3 wounds, what happens? Does it create a new base/model with 3 wounds?
If the unit was not a swarm but had multiple wounds for each base, how would that work?

Invocation of Nehek (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 60) says that "Wounds gained are distributed as described in Ressurecting Fallen Warriors".
The rules for Ressurecting Fallen Warriors (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 26) state that "A unit cannot be taken beyond it's starting size, though certain powers, spells and special rules may provide exceptions".
So the unit will not go above it's starting size unless the unit or the caster has a special rule saying they may do so (Swarms do not).
The rules for Ressurecting Fallen Warriors go on to say:
"In the case of multiple Wound models, all models in the unit must be fully healed before another can be resurrected."
However, Invocation of Nehek does add that "models with the Vampiric, Ethereal or Large Target special rules can never regain more than 1 Wound per successful casting."

Ok, but what if all my models are at full wounds and i heal 3 wounds on a 5 wounds model? Does that new model come into play with 3 wounds or do i have to heal 5 wounds for a new model to show up?

Assuming that the unit is below it's starting size (or the Vampire has Summon Creatures of the Night etc.)? Yes, a new model will be created with 3 wounds.


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Can invocation of nehek heal a lone character?
Can the invocation of nehek spell, vampire counts, heal a lone character?
The spell says unit.

Yes.
According to Forming Units (8th Edition Rulebook, pg 5), "A unit usually consists of several models that have banded together, but a single, powerful model such as a lone character, a chariot or a Dragon, a war machine and its crew, and so on, are also considered to be a unit."
Everything is a unit, even a lone character.
Though bear in mind the rules for Invocation of Nehek. "Models with the Vampiric, Ethereal or Large Target special rules can never regain more than 1 Wound per successful casting." (Vampire Counts 8th Ed, pg 60). So a lone Vampire for example will only gain a single wound.


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Dwarf giant slayers and runic weapons
The giant slayers in the dwarf says they can bring runic weapon worth up to 25 points.
The rule of pride for the dwarfs says each rune item must be unique.
So does each giant slayer in my unit have to carry a unique runic weapon? That seems very annoying.

Yes.
Due to the Rule of Pride no two weapons may have the same combination of runes.
However, you do not need to give every Giant Slayer a rune weapon. You are not forced to equip them all with an assortment of rune weapons.
Aside from the fact that spending up to 25 points on top of the 24 point Giant Slayers is a lot of points to sink into 1 Wound models. Also, any Slayer who takes a Rune weapon loses his Slayer Axes ability, which is quite handy to have.

I don't have the Dwarf rule-book, but I thought that Giant Slayers(and Demon Slayers) were champions who could be attached to a unit of Troll Slayers. This means that as champions, they will have to follow the Rule of Pride and all have unique runic weapons.
I think the idea is you have a unit of troll slayers to soak arrows/give rank bonus and then add in 2-3 Giant slayers as champions to add more damage to the front rank.

Can you still have more than one giant slayer in the new book?  I thought they killed the GS bus for some reason.

You can still upgrade any number of Slayers to Giant Slayers in the unit.


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What scale are Warhammer Fantasy models?
What scale are the models in Warhammer Fantasy?
I have searched for the answer to this and found many different values. Can someone please provide me with the correct scale in the "xmm" and "x/xx" format.
Where it would be something like "28mm" and "1/35" scale. These are just examples and some of the numbers i have seen.

Gaming miniatures are usually described as Xmm rather than 'X/Y(th)' as is used in scale modelling.  The distance is from the base to the eyes on a normal human.
Current new models coming out for Wahammer Fantasy are 32mm Heroic scale.  GW has been pushing up the scale of the game in recent years, ostensibly so that more detail can be fit onto plastic models.  Older models, many of which are still the current sculpt that's for sale, are 28mm heroic.
'Heroic' just means that certain features, like heads and weapons, are not to scale with the body.  This makes them look better and easier to recognize when viewed from comparatively far away on a gaming table.  It does however make it hard to use parts from true-scale models, since a model that is the same height will look like it has a tiny head and twig for a weapon next to gaming models.  If you do a straight conversion based on the model's height you will come out with approx. 1/56th for a comparable true scale model, but in reality that will look very silly and most people use more like 1/35th when incorporating true scale parts into a gaming army.

28mm heroic overall while certain races and characters are taller.
Stormcast Eternals are purposely larger than human, because they're not truly human.
That being said it seems many characters such as Arkanaut Admiral (kharadron overlords) or the Moon Clan mushroom headed goblin are rather taller than their subordinates.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Model positioning during multiple close combats after removing models
Here is the scenario.
A multiple close combat scenario. 3 units are attacking one of my units. One is attacking the front. 1 on my left flank. 1 on my right flank. I have 15 models in the unit.
3 models are killed from the frontal attack. I remove 3 units from the rear of my unit. Now 2 models are in the rear of my unit. Who can those 2 models attack? Do they slide over to the right flank or the left? Or does the controller of the unit get to decide where they slide to? I read a rule that said they are assumed to slide over to engage in combat, but which side? Do they slide from side to side during one phase of combat?
If they are on the right flank, can the enemy at the left flank claim an extra model is in base contact with the last row even though they are not touching the actual model that is there?
Thanks

This exact situation is covered under Incomplete Ranks in the Close Combat section of the rules (pg 49.)

If the unit is fighting to its rear (or fighting to both flanks) some
  enemy models might not end up in base contact because of the models in
  the incomplete rear rank. In this specific situation, the models can
  fight across the gap, even if not physically in base-to-base contact.
  In reality, the chargers would not have stopped one step away from the
  enemy and would have moved in to continue the fight — treat these
  models as being in base contact with the enemy.

They count as being in base contact even though there is a gap.

I read that rule. I did not read it correctly. I thought it was only referring to 1 flank being fought, not two. Thanks


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Is the extra attack from frenzy on the profile of the Vargheist?
Vargheist have frenzy. Frenzy gives an extra attack. The profile for vargheist says it has 3 attacks. Does the profile include the extra attack from frenzy or are they supposed to have 4 attacks with frenzy?

The Vargheist is supposed to have 4 attacks. Its profile states it has 3 attacks naturally, and then you add 1 for the frenzy special rule.
This is due to the unit being able to lose Frenzy, and as such losing the extra attack, without changing the unit's baseline.
This is the same for other units such as Witch Elves, and dual wielding units, with the extra attack being added to the unit without changing the unit base stats.

Also don't forget it also gets a stomp... I love Vargheists!


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Rune of spellbreaking on multiple runelords
If I have rune of spellbreaking on multiple rune smiths can I use it once on each of them? It says one use only, does that mean one use only on that character or for the entire army?

I believe this is intended to mean "one use only" per rune item which has the rune.
I cannot find anywhere this is stated outright in the 8th ed rules, but this is how such items have always been played, at least in my personal and tournament experience.
It would be odd for them to let you take more than one  and then limit you to only using one of the Runes you paid for.
The term has been used in numerous previous editions, and in those cases you could buy multiple "one use only" Dispel Scrolls etc in your army and each scroll could be used "once", not one scroll despite how many you had.

You're not allowed to have more than one dispell scroll anymore in 8th edition btw :)  (Unless maybe there's still a book or two with the old rules in the army book.  Brets?)

@Affe Good point, all Magic Items are unique now. So technically you only get to use the scroll once per army, but that is because it is unqiue, not because "one use only" means the army may only use the ability once.


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Reforming to gain extra rank in close combat
If I have a unit that is 10 models wide. And an enemy unit is attacking me in the front with only one monster size model on the very far left side of my unit, can I reform my unit to gain an extra rank?
Or do I still have to reform around the center?
My unit only had one rank at the start of close combat.

Yes you can.
You can reform if:

You win the round of combat
Or if you lose combat, hold and pass an unmodified leadership test.

I believe there is a limit to how many columns you can adjust per turn (from memory I think it's 5) however there should be no problem going from 10 columns to 5.
Assuming your models are on 20mm bases this will give you 4 models from each rank in each rank attacking and a +1 rank bonus (until the monster kills another model at least!).
Where the rules begin to get a little vague is when you're "moving" your unit in the combat to get more attacks. It's best to agree with your opponent before you start moving models.
The rules are clear that can't reform out of combat - they're a little vague on reforming to get more attacks in (although bear in mind that this is what you're effectively doing when you add more ranks). In my opinion the simplest solution is to treat the centre of combat as the centre of the unit and reform around that.

The enemy unit is attacking my unit in the front. Not the flank.

Ah ok, sorry when you said the left I assumed you meant the left flank. Edited.

No problem. You still know the rulling?

@prolink007 Basically the same but you don't need to rotate too - edited

Even though reforming says to do it around the middle of the unit? Because it would not be the middle for me.

@prolink007 this is where the prescribed rules break down a little and you'll need to agree with your opponent. The rules are clear that can't reform out of combat - they're a little vague on reforming to get more attacks in. Bear in mind that this is what you're effectively doing when you add more ranks though. IMHO the simplest solution is to treat the centre of combat as the centre of the unit and reform around that.

@prolink007 questions like this are the bane of my game... they're all about "I'd like to do this... do you think it's legal?" if in doubt ask next time you're in store and post your own GW approved answer!

I have no gw stores close enough. Sadly.


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Can a unit join another unit if they are the same type of unit?
Can a unit join another unit if they are the same type of unit? If so, what are the conditions for which they can join?
For example, can they join the other unit while the other unit is in close combat?
For example, a unit of spirit hosts that were summoned trying to join another unit of summoned spirit hosts.

No, units can never join together.
Forming Units, pg 5

Once formed into a unit, the models move and fight as a single entity
  for the rest of the battle.

Moving your units, pg 13

Individual models are not permitted to leave their units and so a unit effectively remains a single entity.

1" Apart, pg 13

Whilst moving a unit is not allowed to appraoch closer than 1" to another unit, friend or foe

The only exception to this are Characters, who may join and leave units (pg 96-101). The rules for characters joining and leaving units are detailed and explicit, there are no such rules for normal units.


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If a chariot dies, does the character die also?
In warhammer fantasy. If I put a character into a chariot and the chariot dies in combat, does the character die with the chariot?
For example, putting a necromancer into a corpse cart and the cart dies in close combat.

In the character mounts section, the rules say:

A chariot mount follows all the rules for ridden monsters, save for the fact that a chariot does not need to take a monster Reaction test if the character is slain. (pg 105)

As such, if the Corpse Cart were to die, the Necromancer in question would proceed on foot, as he would have if he were on a Ridden Monster which died.


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Can units join a character in combat?
I know a character can join a unit.
Can a unit join a character?
Can a unit join a character that is in close combat?

From BRB p97.
A character must move into a unit to join it.  There is no rule that allows the unit to move to the character.
A character cannot join a unit in close combat.
You can however, simply charge into combat alongside the character.  This is often to your advantage for that particular combat, other than not being able to use the character's leadership.  (Two chances to catch the enemy if they flee, if one or the other of yours flees, the other may hold and prevent them form being run down, etc.)

A word of warning (as a lot of your other questions are undead related) if you charge a weak skeleton unit in to support a big vampire and it suffers a lot of casualties the damage it can do to your combat res can often be enough to kill your character with the unstable rule!


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Do summoned units count towards victory points?
In the rules for counting victory points it says every defeated or unit that fled off the board counts as points equal to the amount it costs to include in the army.
This leads me to believe that summoned units do not count toward victory points because they were not included in the cost of the army.
So do summoned units count for victory points?

No, they do not.
As you said, they did not cost anything to inlude in the army so are worth zero (unless the unit has a rule that states otherwise).
In addition to which, many summoning spells explicitly state this.
For example, Raise Dead:

Units summoned by this spell cannot be dispelled, and do not award
  victory points under any circumstances. (Vampire Counts 8th Edition, pg 60.)


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Necromancer mounting corpse cart pricing?
If a necromancer mounts a corpse cart do you have to pay the 90 points to mount the cart and pay the price of the corpse cart? Equaling 180 points to mount a corpse cart.

No. The points listed in the Necromancer entry shows how much buying him a Corpse Cart mount costs (which is why it is 90 points, the cost of a Corpse Cart). If you pay for a character to have a mount the character gets the mount, there is no additional mounting fee.


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Benefits of not equipping skeletons with spears?
The vampire counts skeletons can carry spears for free.
What would be the benefit for not carrying spears?
Just seems weird to me. I don't see any reason to not carry them.

By default the skeletons come armed with light armour, a hand weapon, and a shield.
The combination of hand weapon and shield gives you an additional 6+ Parry Save (8th Ed rulebook, pg 88), which you may make against close combat attacks. They have a 5+ Armour Save and 6+ Ward save.
If you give them spears they lose this extra Parry Save, instead gaining Fight in Extra Rank. They have just the 5+ Armour Save.
So a unit with hand weapons and shields will live longer in close combat, which is useful if they are only expected to tie up enemies or as a bodyguard unit for a necromancer. While a unit with spears and sheilds will have up to twice as many attacks but weaker saves, so they will die faster but might do more damage.

So i can't equip them with shields and spears? I thought you could equip them with both and it is assumed they fight with the spear in combat and if you are getting shot at while out of combat you can use the shield to save. It does not say spears are two hand weapons.

They do not lose the shield. Spears are one handed, so the shield is still there both at range and melee.

A model with Hand Weapon and Shield can use the 'Parry' special rule to get a ward save.  A model with a spear cannot.  Since skeletons are weak and have poor weapon skill anyway, it may be beneficial to have better survivability rather than a few more attacks that are unlikely to hurt anything, depending on what role you see the unit filling in your army.


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Does x-wing support more than 2 players
Can you play x-wing with more than 2 people?
If so, what all do I need to achieve more than 2 players?
Free for all? Teams?

On page 20 of the core rules there are rules to play as two teams of arbitrary size - basically, each team has a squad of ships which are assigned to players however you like, then teams may discuss strategy as much as they like but each player makes the decisions for their particular ships.
Or you could play that each team strategises, plans and makes their moves together, such as was done when Seth Green, Clare Grant and Mike Lamond joined Wil Wheaton on the X-Wing episode of TableTop.
A google search suggests that some people have tried playing 3-player free-for-alls, but unless you score by damage dealt then you often have a scenario where one player avoids the other two until one is eliminated, then swoops in to deal with the remains of the other.

Mission 12: Bounty Hunt, which can be found in the IG-2000 Expansion Pack, is a scenario for 3 players. I've tried it both as Han Solo vs. Boba Fett vs. IG-88B and as three 100-point squads with a designated wing leader. Either way, it's always gone smoothly as a way for 3 people to play a single game of X-Wing.


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Priorities for Memory in Dominion
Considering we all have limited memories (and scratch paper is frowned upon in over-the-board play), what sorts of things are highest priority for keeping track of and committing to memory over the course of a typical game?
Considering we all have differing memory capacities, list the 'memorable items' in order of priority, with an explanation of each.

Excellent question. I was going to ask this before, but I forgot.

Victory Point differential - This should be your highest priority, and is quite easy to remember if only playing two player. If playing 4-player, it is still only 3 numbers to memorize. It is important to know, because it allows you to know if you will win when ending the game.
Everything below is probably more important in some kingdom distributions, and less important in others.
Gold/Silver distribution - What you would really like to know here, is your average treasure value per hand, but that number gets exceedingly difficult to calculate as you consider card draw, victory cards, action cards with variable cash values, etc. It would also be good to know what your opponents AVG hand value is too, but I have a difficult enough time keeping track of my own.
Terminal Actions/2+ Action cards - The number of terminal action cards needs to stay below a certain threshold to prevent you from getting multiple terminal actions in a hand, and being unable to use them both. This threshold is dependant on the number of +2 Action cards and deck size.
Buys/Gains per turn - Important to know if you are losing (or winning), if you can out buy your opponents.
Defensive/Reaction cards - This is of course highly dependant upon the number of attack cards your opponents have, and how disruptive those attack cards are to your deck.
Individual Combo odds - Highly dependant upon the kingdom cards, but many times you want to be able to estimate the number of Barons/Estates, Treasure Maps, Scout/Great Halls, etc.
Not necessary to count

Deck size
Kingdom card piles
Trash contents

Just played a game and, for the first time, memorized the VPs (two-player). Made for a HUGE influence in my strategy. I think it'll be awhile before I can keep track of that and the other things here, but I'll work up to it. Thanks!

You may be interested in this thread on the dominionstrategy.com forums, but here's my ranking:

Composition of your own deck, particularly the number of terminal Actions. This is usually pretty easy to remember, but important so you can assemble a cohesive deck rather than a poorly-fitting set of shiny cards.
Number of Provinces (and/or Colonies) in each player's deck. This lets you know where you stand and if you need to need to try to end the game quickly or shift into an alternate strategy.
Number of other VPs in each player's deck. If you can count Duchies and Estates, this helps time the end of the game. It is critical when, say, Duke is on the board. It helps more, and is easier, in 2-player. If you are considering ending the game when the score is close, this helps a lot. Counting alt-VP cards like Gardens and Silk Road can be useful, but it's more difficult to judge their exact value.
Location of the important cards in your own deck. For instance, if the only three cards left in your deck are two Actions and an Estate, you probably don't want to play a Moat with your last action. Later in the game, knowing how strong your next hand is likely to be can suggest how aggressively you should buy green cards.
Number of key cards in each player's deck. Depending on the board, this includes powerful cards that might pile out (Caravan, Fool's Gold, Minion), cards that might give a player big turns (Goons, Highway, Madman, Platinum), and attacks you want to defend against.
Number of buys an opponent with a powerful engine can generate. This is difficult to memorize (I don't) but can help you avoid letting your opponent drain 3 piles for a quick victory.


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Am I missing a limitation on double strike (for star wars lcg)?
Example scenario (which I'm going to call "The Sam" since my 7 year son just beat me using a large subset of this):
Dark side has no defenders available, 3 undamaged 5 point objectives.  Light side's turn, light side of force is winning.
Light side objectives: Hit and Run, One of the 2 resource objectives, and the objective that gives you a -1 for first enhancement played.
Light side hand has yoda, light sabre, r2d2, binds all things, double strike, and target of opportunity as their 6 cards in their hand.
Light side does one point of damage during force struggle.
Deployment:
   Light side plays R2D2 (increases resources available to 6)
   Light side plays yoda (resource left: 3)
   Light side plays light sabre enhancment (rez left: 3)
Attack:
   Yoda attacks undamaged objective, plays TOO during unopposed edge battle, thereby doing 5 damage (TOO + light sabre + enhancement bonus + own strike + unopposed bonus)
   When focused to strike, light side plays double strike (rez left: 2)
   Light side then plays it binds all things (rez left: 1), picking up TOO + double strike
  Yoda repeats attack on 2nd undamaged objective and again uses double strike (rez left: 0), playing TOO again
  Yoda attacks 3rd objective, doing only 4 points of damage (no TOO), and actually could do an extra point of damage from hit and run.
Light side has just defeated 3 objectives and therefore wins.
Sub-questions:
  Is there a rule limiting a single unit to only being able to attack 1 objective per turn that I'm not seeing?
  Is there some other limitation/rule exception that would prevent this?  (Beyond the whole dark side really should have at least one defender and this does require a non-trivial amount of luck to get this exact combination of cards)

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsLCG/comments/5cqh5a/am_i_missing_a_limitation_on_double_strike/

The engagement isn't over until all ready units have been focused to strike.  Double Strike must be played "after a Character unit is focused to strike," which means it can only be played, and therefore can only remove a focus token, DURING the engagement, allowing multiple strikes at the same objective. If you can destroy an undefended objective in one strike, playing Double Strike does nothing for you- your second strike has nothing to hit.
See "Resolving a strike" on p 20 of the rules, and "Engagment resolution" (p 31).   CArdgamedb.com is the best place for Star Wars rules and discussion. Some real experts post over there.  Check it out!

There is no rule preventing a single unit from attacking multiple objectives, so long as they are able to attack in the first place. Keep your defenses up as dark side (or any side, really). :)


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What are the rules for "Level Up" cards?
There are 5 cards that require you to spend some number of "Level Up" cards in order to play them. (DarkCannon, All About Endurance, Double Power, Infamous Dr. Wily, and Pink Pixel Brat)
The "Level Up" cards themselves come in 3 types - MegaMan, GutsMan, and Roll.
All of these cards were only distributed through tournament participation rather than through the regular card sets. Perhaps for this reason, I did not see any mention of these "Level Up" cards in the rulebooks, so I do not know how they are meant to be played. The Level Up cards have no text on them to explain how to get them into play.
I am looking for a complete explanation of the rules for these cards. This would include any deck building restrictions, when and how the Level Up card comes into play, and what happens when it is spent for another card's effect.

The "Level Up!" cards themselves do not go in your deck and do not count toward the 60-card size of your deck. You begin the game with your "Level Up!" cards in a pile to the side of your play area.
The three "Level Up!" cards (MegaMan, GutsMan, and Roll) are functionally identical. They are not restricted to use only by decks of the pictured character.
To spend a "Level Up!" card, you move it to a separate pile. The spent "Level Up!" card cannot be used again for the rest of the game.
You can start the game with as many "Level Up!" cards as you want.
In tournament play, the number of "Level Up!" cards you could use was restricted by "the level indicated on your tournament ticket". As the "Level Up!" cards were given out based on "experience points" gained by tournament participation, I believe the restriction based on "your tournament ticket" meant you were only allowed to use as many "Level Up!" cards as you had personally received as prizes through the Level Up tournament program.
The information contained in this answer comes from the article Level Up Your Game and Earn Exclusive Cards! by Dan Bojanowski, Manager of Organized Play.

Beginning July 2nd, gamers everywhere will get the chance to play Decipher's newest trading card game – MegaMan TCG. The gameplay and fast-paced action will be enough to draw players in, but we're taking it one step further with the organized play program.
Similar to Decipher's .hack//ENEMY TCG, MegaMan TCG tournament players will be able to 'Level Up.' Every time a player participates in a sanctioned MegaMan TCG tournament, they will earn Experience Points. These Experience Points will reflect both a players' skill and participation in tournaments. When your ranking reaches 1,000 points, you will receive an email with a special code from Decipher. When this code is entered on the Decipher website, you will receive a special Level Up! package. Each package includes a foil Level Up! card and a special foil promo card. Each time your ranking increases by another 1,000 points, you will receive a code for a new prize package.
The Level Up! card you receive is randomly selected from a pool of three different versions, each featuring a different character: MegaMan, Gutsman, or Roll. The only difference between versions is the character featured; there is no difference in gameplay.
The Level Up! card is a special card that doesn't count toward your 60-card deck. You can bring as many Level Up! cards to the game as you want, up to the level indicated on your tournament ticket. Before the game begins, place your Level Up! cards to one side of your play area. Level Up! cards are used to play the special promo cards.
The special promo card you receive is randomly selected from a pool of five different cards. The promo plays like a regular event or BattleChip card and follows regular deck construction rules (no more than four of any one promo card in your deck). These cards are exclusive to the organized play system. Click on the thumbnail to see Double Power, one of the tournament promo cards you can earn every time you Level Up! (The other tournament promos can be seen on the Tournament Card List.)
To play a promo card, you'll have to "spend" (remove from play) one or more of your Level Up! cards. Place cards you have removed from play off to the side in a separate pile. You can't use those cards in that game again, but they'll be available again when you start your next game.


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Choosing new targets for a spell with a variable number of targets
Rolling Thunder can have any number of targets. I play the Rolling Thunder choosing three target creatures. I copy the Rolling Thunder with Reverberate and can choose new targets for the copy.
Can I choose a different number of targets, or am I only changing the choice of target for each of the three already chosen targets?

You cannot choose a different number of targets. The rules make it clear that when you copy a spell, you copy the targets of the spell. Reverberate allows you to change the targets, because it specifically says so, but the normal rules for copying a spell just copy the targets as they were. Any unchanged targets remain targeting their original objects.

706.10. To copy a spell or activated ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn’t cast and a copy of an activated ability isn’t activated. A copy of a spell or ability copies both the characteristics of the spell or ability and all decisions made for it, including modes, targets, the value of X, and additional or alternative costs. ...

706.10c Some effects copy a spell or ability and state that its controller may choose new targets for the copy. The player may leave any number of the targets unchanged, even if those targets would be illegal. If the player chooses to change some or all of the targets, the new targets must be legal. Once the player has decided what the copy’s targets will be, the copy is put onto the stack with those targets.

Reverberate errata:

8/15/2010 The copy will have the same targets as the spell it's copying unless you choose new ones. You may change any number of the targets, including all of them or none of them. If, for one of the targets, you can't choose a new legal target, then it remains unchanged (even if the current target is illegal).

I don't see any reason you couldn't just change all three targets to the same creature. Technically, you would end up with one target targeted three times as opposed to three targets targeted once, but that would only matter if something triggers when the creature is targeted.

@DCShannon 114.3. The same target can’t be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word “target” on a spell or ability. If the spell or ability uses the word “target” in multiple places, the same object, player, or zone can be chosen once for each instance of the word “target” (as long as it fits the targeting criteria). This rule applies both when choosing targets for a spell or ability and when changing targets or choosing new targets for a spell or ability (see rule 114.6).

@TimB Ah, that's the reason. Looking this over again two years later after forgetting completely about it, my new question is why you couldn't pick a different number of targets than the original had. I read all this here, and it sounds like you can pick new targets because the spell says you can change the targets.

See the question I posted about that recently:)

Here's Tim's question about changing targets:
https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/32769/changing-targets-for-a-spell-with-a-variable-number-of-targets


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Are Item Finder and Dowsing Machine the same card?
Item Finder is a card from the original Pokemon TCG Base Set. Dowsing Machine is a card that has the same effect, but was printed as an Ace Spec in the much more recent Plasma Storm set.
I would like to a build a deck for the Unlimited format that includes 4 Item Finder and also includes 1 Dowsing Machine as my Ace Spec card.
I have read that the original Japanese names for the cards Item Finder and Dowsing Machine are the same. Does this mean that they are supposed to be treated as the same card for deck building purposes?
I have found some discussions online that assumed one way or the other, but I haven't found any source that seemed authoritative. I know that in the Pokemon TCG a card is supposed to be played using the text of its most recent printing, but I don't know if these two cards count as the same to apply that ruling.

Since there is no official source saying they are the same card, even though they have the same effect, you should be fine playing with 4 and 1 in Unlimited. There's no reason to assume the rules are different than any other two cards, if this were a special case it would be outlined somewhere.


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Shadow Hunters: Holy Robe versus black card weapon
The text of a black card weapon is like that:

If your attack is successful, you give 1 extra point of damage.

And the Holy Robe is:

Your attacks do 1 less damage and the amount of damage you receive from attacks is reduced by 1 point.

So if someone attacks with a black card weapon a played protected by the Holy Robe and rolls a 1, what happens?
Does the player take 1 or 0 damage?

I think the best way of considering this is to imagine that Holy Robe reads "the amount of damage to receive from successful attacks is reduced by 1 point".  If so, it's clear that an attack with a black card weapon would deal 1 + 1 - 1 = 1 point of damage.
Otherwise you have to ponder the question of whether a Holy Robe could make an attack "unsuccessful" after damage is dealt.  I think it's easier just to go with the implication of the rulebook, which states in the Attack section "If both dice rolled have the same number, your attack fails and no damage is inflicted"; I take this to mean that an attack fails if it would do less than 1 damage based solely on the die roll, and succeeds otherwise.
Once we have determined that the attack is successful and would all else being equal deal damage, we apply all modifiers, which in the case of your question above cancel each other out.