text:
Royal favours in Caylus

When building a prestige building by using the 4th row of the royal favours table (e.g. after winning a royal favour as the player who built the most houses on the castle) that gives you more favours, is it permitted to use these very favours to construct another buidling? In other words, is it considered "building" the blue building, part of the same phase? I know that in general, during the same phase you're not allowed to use the same row.
Let's say I've already placed my marker at the first column of the 4th row at the royal favours table. After I win another favour, am I allowed to advance my pawn to the 2nd column, even if I don't have the materials to build a wooden building?

You appear to be asking multiple questions which would be easier to answer in separate questions.

I was not sure whether I should do it separetely, since they are kind of related. Will keep it in mind though, thank you.

Rules reference here
1)  No, you may not build another building.  As you are aware the rules say: -

If a player gains several favors during the same phase (for
  instance, during a count or when the monument is built), the
  favors must be used on different lines. So, it is impossible
  to gain more than 4 favors in a phase.

You gained the favour allowing you to build in phase 6, building the castle.  If you build a building that give you more favours the phase has not changed.
2) Yes,  You advance your marker unless prevented by the stage of the game (ie building the keep, walls etc).

Whenever a player earns a favor, they must choose a line at
  once, and, if it is possible, advance their marker to the right.
  Then, the player can use one of the effects provided on the
  chosen line, between level 1 and the level currently indicated
  by the marker.

The restriction on moving the marker is the stage of the game, not if you are able to carry out the action.  Don't forget when moving on the favour track you don't have to carry out the action you move to, you can select any of the action you passed on that row.  Also if you are the end of the row you can still keep selected that row and carrying out any action.

Reagrding 2: So we can justify it by saying that I advance my marker and I "choose" to use the 1st column which is practically empty?

Yes thats absolutely fine.  or you could advance on the cube track up to the purple cube and choose to take the pink cube.   you can choose to do nothing.  You only don't advance if crossing the double lines is prohibited by what 3rd of game your in.

authors: Αντώνιος Κελεσίδης


text:
Trouble: can you move any peg on your second pop after landing on double trouble?
My kids are having a debate about how Trouble should work. If you land on a Double Trouble, you are granted a second turn. Do you have to move the peg that is on the Double Trouble spot, or can you move any peg?
The instructions don't say, but I could see it either way:

it's just another turn, so any peg could be moved
you got the turn by virtue of the peg that landed there, so it's another turn for that peg, specifically

Note: this game doesn't seem to be tagged here, and I can't find a generic "board game" or similar tag. Someone with more rep should feel free to better categorize this.

I've not found a rules source that references taking extra turns.  I've found rules at https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/Trouble,_Double.pdf but they don't refer to extra goes.  What I would suggest is checking your rules and seeing if 'turn' is defined anywhere and thats what an extra turn is.   Your second suggestion to me has a feel of someones house rule that they they were taught or a rule is being made up on the spot!   If an extra turn was for a specific peg then thats the sort of thing which should be explicitly stated in the rules. If its not then its probably not the rule

Interestingly, those instructions don't look like our board, and the regular Trouble one doesn't mention the double spot! I'll look at the rules more closely; good idea. We are talking a 9 and 7 year old, and the elder was making the calls, so it could very well be a "house rule." I just couldn't solve it for them and decided to bring it here :)

When I was that age who claimed in chess he could talk an 'extended move' which meant moving same piece twice.  When did the same I kept getting told it wasn't allowed!  I also sometimes find most rules issues with adults are caused by players being taught a game wrong and the error spreads.  Many a time I've found I've been playing a game wrong for years until someone points out the error or you notice it in the rules

According to a review of Trouble, not Double Trouble, which is a different game, on boardgamegeek.com, the player takes another turn. Which pegs, if any, a player can move on a turn is dependent on the die roll. Players have turns; pegs do not. The extra turn belongs to the player, not the peg.
https://boardgamegeek.com/video/120000/trouble/trouble-review-warp-and-double-trouble-additions

Would you be able to add a link to the review for reference?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Value of dragon ball Z card
I would like to sell my DBZ cards but I don't have any idea of the value of each one.
Could you please tell me a little bit more about the value of each card please?

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


text:
Mirage mirror what happens when copying a creature
If you use it to copy a creature and attack with it does it become tapped until next upkeep mirage mirror itself or revert back to to untapped artifact

related - https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/38597/mirage-mirror-does-copy-suffer-from-summoning-sickness/38598#38598

Mirage Mirror stays tapped until your next untap step.
Mirage Mirror's ability creates a copy effect that copies characteristics, and being tapped/untapped is part of a permanent's status, not characteristics. Copy effects do not include the status of a permanent, so when the copy effect ends, it also doesn't revert the status.

110.6. A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.
110.6a Status is not a characteristic, though it may affect a permanent’s characteristics.
706.2. When copying an object, the copy acquires the copiable values of the original object’s characteristics and, for an object on the stack, choices made when casting or activating it (mode, targets, the value of X, whether it was kicked, how it will affect multiple targets, and so on). The “copiable values” are the values derived from the text printed on the object (that text being name, mana cost, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, power, toughness, and/or loyalty), as modified by other copy effects, by its face-down status, and by “as . . . enters the battlefield” and “as . . . is turned face up” abilities that set power and toughness (and may also set additional characteristics). Other effects (including type-changing and text-changing effects), status, and counters are not copied.


text:
How do we determine which monster joins the game?
I just played my first game and I love it! I have one question though. How is the monster that joins determined? I tried to look in the pamphlets and online and couldn't find anything. We just had the traitor choose a monster he liked. I don't know how that part works.

You're going to have to say which haunt you triggered (at least the haunt number) - every haunt has different rules (some don't even have traitors) so we'd need to know the specifics.

You look up the omen and room that triggered the haunt on Haunt Chart. It indicates who becomes the traitor, and which scenario to play. Play continues with the player after the traitor.

The monster and everything that happens once the haunt happens is determined in the traitors and survivors handbooks. The traitors handbook instructs you on which haunt to use based on how it is triggered and there will be instructions for both sides based on each individual haunt.
Here are some simplified rules to help you get started better.

Thank you for you're help Joe but the link you sent be does not go into monster selection and that is the only part of that game that confuses me.

Again - you're going to have to tell us which haunt it is so we even know if there is a monster. The specific haunt should tell you whether there is a traitor, whether the traitor gets any special ability, whether any additional monsters spawn, and everything else.

@PrayingMantisLawyer There is no such thing as monster selection and everything that happens is spelled out in the rules.

I am not taling about any specific haunts... I want to know where it states in the handbooks or legit any where else online that states what certain monster is joining us that game.

@PrayingMantisLawyer The Haunt is what determines 'the monster' (it's not always an actual monster). The specific Haunt (and who the Traitor is) is determined by a combination of Room and Omen. It seems like you've missed important sections of the rules like the 'Haunt Roll'. Which version of the game do you have?

@PrayingMantisLawyer Monsters only ever join the game during the haunt. Haunts will tell you what monsters join and how many of them in the Traitor's Tome usually. There is no such thing as monster selection - if you mean what tokens to use to represent them, the small monster tokens are pretty much interchangeable, the large ones are labeled.

Monsters are never selected/chosen by a player.
It is unclear if you mean Haunt selection. When the haunt is triggered; as a result of failing a haunt roll after finding an omen; look at the first 2 pages of either the Secrets of Survival book Traitor's Tome book. A chart there will tell you which Haunt you have, based on the omen and the room. There is also another list there that tells you who is the traitor, based on which haunt you have.
One you have a specific haunt, the heros and traitor each have their own rules to follow. The traitor’s rules will generally go into which tokens are needed and how to set them up. No one is just selecting which monstors they want to use.

It is probably worth emphasising as well that the traitor is also specified here as well and isn't necessarily the player that failed the role (if memory serves). I figure if they have missed the rules for haunt selection they may well miss this too.

@Chris sometimes it will say "Haunt revealer" and that means the traitor is the one who failed the roll, other times it will be based on something on the character cards, like character age or a stat, and still other times there won't be a traitor at all.

For future players looking for the simple answer to the question:
If your end up with a HAUNT scenario that doesn’t mention monsters, you don’t need to use them this time. You haven’t done anything wrong or missed a page of instruction.
The scenario likely has some other way to torment heroes, or a different goal for the player(s).
The instruction book fails to mention this.


text:
What do I do if the draw pile is empty?
When you need to draw (more) cards, and the draw pile is empty, what do you do?

You reshuffle the discards to form a new draw pile.
This is specifically stated in the rules (page 2, at the end of the section GOING OUT):

If no one is out of cards by the time the DRAW pile is depleted, reshuffle the DISCARD pile and continue play.


text:
Is there a definitive list of Button Men rules?
There are many, many Button Men dice rules. I'm trying to find a list of them with easy to understand examples.
I'm not new to the game, but I keep coming across dice I've never heard of (like Rage and Mighty). I would like to find an easy way to look up dice.
I'm sure Buttonweavers has a list somewhere, but I can't find it. I've done some digging through the forums, but it's not as easy to navigate as most that I've used.

The verbiage at http://beatpeopleup.cheapass.com/game-rules/ seems to imply that the dice lists on that page are complete.

I found this yesterday. The rules have more than the Cheapass Game page but don't have all the skills that are available on Buttonweavers. Maybe they're unofficial skills?
Anyway, thank you for your answer. I appreciate you looking that up.

@SteveB: could you post your answer as an answer rather than as a comment? Thanks.

The verbiage at beatpeopleup.cheapass.com/game-rules seems to imply that the dice lists on that page are complete.

As a follow up, what I thought were official skills were, in fact, unofficial skills implemented on the Buttonweaver website. There are quite a few.

There's an extensive, though still incomplete, list at https://github.com/buttonmen-dev/buttonmen/wiki/Tester-guide:-supported-skills

https://buttonmen.fandom.com/wiki/Buttonmen_Wiki has about 90% of all die skills.


text:
Card game based on dropping 3 of a kind or minimum of a 3 card straight flush
I am looking for the name of this game with a regular 52 card deck.
Each player (minimum 2) is dealt 9 cards. Before the game starts each player selects one card to "discard" and the discards are traded between players (e.g. if there is two players, player A gets player B's discard and player B gets player A's discard ). The player doesn't know the identity of the other players discard until the trade is made.
The game then begins by the first player placing the top card of the remainder of the deck face up next to the face down deck. Players take turns doing so until either someone wins or there are no cards left.
The point of the game is to get rid of all 9 cards by dropping cards in groups of a minimum of 3 cards into a drop area (per player) and the drop area must have 10 cards to win.
A game can end with no winner.
The dropped groups can either be:

3 of a kind
straight flush of a minimum of 3 cards.

If either player can use the last face up card to complete a group they can pick it up, drop the group, and must then drop an additional card face up onto the face up pile. Players can continue to add to groups in their drop area (e.g. if a player had dropped an A3, A4, A5 and the last card drawn was an A2, they can add it to the group and drop a card from their hand).
Also, groups can be re-arranged to create/complete new groups (e.g. player had dropped A3, A4, A5, A6. Player has a Q6 in their hand and last face up card is a 6D, they can pick up the 6D, take the A6 (preserving the group of 3 minumum straight flush) and combine with the Q6 to drop a 3 of a kind).
Regarding the needing 10 cards in the drop group to win, once all 9 original cards have been dropped the player waits until they can pick up a face up card that completes any dropped group to win.
There may be some other special cases that I can't think of at the moment but this is the gist of the game.
Any idea what the name is?

Sounds like some variation of Rummy.

I used to play this game with my grandma, we called it "combinations", but I am not sure about the real name.
Rummy have tons of variations, maybe you can find it here:
https://www.rummypassion.com/rummy-wiki/rummy-game


text:
How to deal with Avenger and Overload Pulse
In my last game of Star Wars Armada, I flew an ISD II as Avenger and an Interdictor equipped with Overload Pulse and Disposable Capacitors.
My commander was Darth Vader, ensuring the OP trigger and an unfriendly result for the ISD attack.
The effects on the rebel ships were... exciting (took one attack from both ships to blast the MC80 out of space). After deciding to not use this combination again for a long time (my rebel player refused to fight this combination again) I was wondering what one might do against this commbination, as it appears to me to be overpowered.
So what would be a strategy to fight this combination.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Two players tied for second place in a timed tourney, who goes heads up?
I have a question...
We play in a regular Texas hold ‘em  tourney, each round is timed throughout the evening, after the last round the two chip leaders go heads up for the win..fairly standard stuff.
Last night however, the timer went , there was a clear chip leader but 2 players were tied with exactly the same amount of chips.
In this situation, how would should we have decided who went into the ‘final’?
Suggested solutions were..
Three way final.
2nd & 3rd play on for a set time to decide a winner but that person only takes the chips they had when tied into the final
2nd & 3rd play for a set period of time & go into the final with whatever chip stack they have at the end of that time period.
The final round is extended for a set amount of time with all contenders playing until there are two clear finalists.
Any other suggestions or actual rules would be appreciated.
Thanks

Not sure why this is closed.  Interesting question!  Seems like it has to have come up before.  Also, this question is on topic for this site, but you might get better answers at poker.stackexchange.com which deals only with poker.

Take the two top stacks to a final after a set period of time is a strange  tournament. Not standard stuff.  Let 2 & 3 play and take all chip to the final is not fair to 1.
A standard tournament you are out when you bust (no more chips).  If you want the tournament to end at a time range then raise the blinds every X minutes.
Say you are down to 3 and the big stack takes out 2 and 3 and they have exactly the same number of chip.  In that case in think it was be the last aggressor (open or raise).

Thanks for your reply. We need to be finished by a certain time so the blinds do go up half hourly throughout the night but if the game has not reached its natural conclusion I.e everyone bust by the time the last blind round ends leaving a winner then the top two play heads up for the pot & points.

Just take  top 2 if the blinds have not reduced the field is not going to make much difference.

There was no top two...there was a clear chip leader but 2 & 3 we’re tied.

I got that part.  Just take top 2 or 3 or 4 is not going to make much difference if the blinds have not cleared the field.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Can a player take a card from the researcher on their turn if they have the co-worker relationship but are not in the same city?
It is the generalist turn. Can she take a card from the researcher if they have the co worker relation?

Yes.
Co-worker allows players to Share Knowledge at a distance under specific conditions. When the researcher is the one passing the card, it overrides that condition, whether it's the researcher or another character initiating the action.


text:
Saboteur/survival game with dice mechanics
I'm trying to remember a game I played a year or so ago.
Traitor/Hidden Saboteur premises with dice based game play.
You are all on a ship or base with various bits that become damaged over time. The good guys are trying to survive to a set round limit (I think) and the Saboteur wants them to fail and the base to break or for characters to die/be eliminated.
Each round there is something to fix and its a skill test you beat with numbers on a dice. On your turn you roll the dice behind a little cardboard screen and you must then select one to put towards the skill check. However the dice have negative and positive numbers and you must play at least one.
This means that placing a negative dice doesn't reveal you as the traitor, you could just be someone who had a bad roll and is putting a -1 because that is the best you can do.
I think the dice colours were blue, black and red.

Hey Matt!  Welcome to B&CG!  I'm glad we could answer your question and I hope you stick around and become a frequent contributor here.  Unlike more traditional forums we have a different set of guidelines here, which you can check out in our [help].  In particular our model disallows greetings and signatures, so I'm rolling back your last edit.  Thanks for understanding!

Sounds like Dark Moon which started life as a fan supplement for Battlestar Galactica.

I was thinking that this sounded a lot like Battlestar.

@GendoIkari - Dark Moon is essentially a faster BSG without the theming.  It sounded like something we wanted, but we still have to pull out BSG a couple times a year while Dark Moon mostly just sits there.

It is a very enjoyable game


text:
How do you counter pillaging skeletons?
The Pillaging Skeletons could pick everything up, take over 4 territories, get 2 extra monsters, still get 8 gold because of pillaging, have 4 large stacks of monsters (large investment to only kill 1 skeleton), and the 8 gold/turn was still good because the player held EVERYONE else down to less than that by getting rid of 4 enemy tokens every turn.
Dragon Elves were the only combo we found to keep the Pillaging Skeletons from running away with the game, killing 2 skeletons a turn easy (sometimes 3 with a good roll), and never losing any. Are there any other counters?
Extra Kudos for staying away from "Everyone cooperatively attack the skeletons!", as my group doesn't like to just gang up on someone :)

Are you looking for a combination of ability and race that beats Pillaging Skeletons, or a play style to beat them? This would be two distinct answers, with the latter being a very large question.

I didn't make a distinction. I am interested in either. I almost put in my question that I tried sacrificing a couple turns only having a few territories so the skeletons didn't have enough combat to get more skeletons from.

Bunker up.  The scenario you describe relies on people leaving a path of territories with single defenders.  Barring the unlikely event where they are revealed and claimed in the same round, you likely know they're coming, so don't leave yourself that open.  Use mountains, leave extra defenders, etc.  Wall them in, so that they are surrounded by highly defended regions.  If they can only take 3 regions, they only get one extra guy and only 6 points, which is far more manageable.
Attack their declined race.  A solid score generally relies on both races, so if you take out their declined race, they will be forced to rely on just the skeletons or decline them.  If they are the player's first race, they can still fall behind someone with two solid races.
Attack them.  Yes it is a high cost to destroy one skeleton, but destroying one might be all it takes to slow down their growth pattern.

Highlighting specific race/power combos is kind of pointless, since the chance of them being available is exceedingly small.  There are plenty of defensive races that could withstand them or aggressive races that could knock them out early.  Pretty much the only thing you don't want to do is decide that it is too expensive to attack them and let them continue to grow turn after turn.


text:
Replacing ships after taking control of enemy ports
Page 25 of the rulebook states:

Taking Control of Enemy Ports - If the land area connected to a Port
  is successfully attacked and taken control of by another player, that
  player may immediately replace any enemy Ship units in the Port with
  an equal number of his own available Ship units (or as many Ship units
  as he has available, he desires, or is allowed by supply limits).
  Excess enemy ships are simply removed from the board.

What does available mean in this context? Available as in a player has ships left that (s)he has not yet mustered or available as in ships that have already been mustered?
Where do the own ships come from? Are they existing ships on the board that simply move into the port now or are new ships mustered instead?

Available here means ships that are still in your supply. Use only those ships, not ones from the board.
You may find this useful from Page 4:

Exceeding the Components Provided
  Each House is provided a limited number of units,
  tokens, and cards. If a player is using all his components of
  a particular type, he may not bring additional components
  of that type into play. Units that are destroyed in combat (or
  removed from the board for any other reason) are available to
  be mustered again.


text:
Do you have to give others a chance to say "Uno"?
I have a friend "J" who will say uno when you say uno to make you draw the the penalty. Does he have to give you a chance to say uno?

Aren't you just supposed to say UNO when you have two cards in hand, and one card is currently being moved from your had to the discard pile?

From the original Uno rules:

The game continues until a player has one card left. The moment a player has just one card they must yell “UNO!”. If they are caught not saying “Uno” by another player before any card has been played, the player must draw two new cards.

It doesn't explicitly specify that you must give someone a chance to say "Uno", though it does seem to advocate doing it as soon as you have one card left.
In my experience it has always fallen under the category of house rules as to how much time constitutes a "chance".  Agree on something.  If you can't, maybe ask "J" how much he likes playing Uno with you and if he would like to be invited back.

In a previous response someone cited a better portion of the rules

A player who forgets to say UNO before his card touches the discard pile, but "catches" himself before any other player catches him, is safe and is not subject to the penalty. You may not catch a player for failure to say UNO until his second to last card touches the DISCARD pile. Also, you may not catch a player for failure to say UNO after the next player begins his turn. "Beginning a turn is defines as either drawing a card from the DRAW pile or drawing a card from your hand to play.

In honor of that I'm deleting most of my post in agreement with this official decision.
--
This first to say Uno concept is part of what makes Uno to many people a broken game. You can't definitively end the game and you can theoretically keep it going forever. I'm surprised there wasn't a Key and Peele skit on it. The rules say you have to say Uno if you only have one card and that you can call Uno to call someone out on not having a card to force a draw penalty on them. What isn't explicit is timing hence your question.
If they are saying Uno at the same time

when you say uno

then I would say the tie goes to the active player. Because I believe the spirit of the rule is about getting someone so involved in the game they forget to say it.
You could also try a varient where only the next player (or maybe only previous... or maybe only neighbors) can say Uno. that could be an interesting twist as well and also limit loud uno yellers.


text:
I don't really understand how the expansions/data packs work in android netrunner
I bought the core set a while ago and now I'd like to get some more cards, afaik there are multiple ways to do that:

data packs
deluxe expansions
big box?

What's the difference between them? As I've read the data packs each belong to a cycle, what's that all about? What's the bigbox? I got that term from the wiki at reddit:

Unlike FFG's other Living Card Games, Netrunner doesn't require that you pick up the "big box" expansion before getting the data packs from that cycle.

I'd be really thankful for a quick summary of how all of this works.

Big Box expansions are deluxe expansions, those terms are synonymous. There are only 4 of these and they will always be tournament legal. Their structure focuses on specific factions (e.g., the first only pertained to HB and Shaper, with some neutral cards).
Data packs come in "cycles" of 6 packs, which cover all the factions and have an overarching theme (usually in terms of story or mechanics).  We are currently on cycle 5 (the Mumbad cycle).  At some point in the future, the first two cycles will rotate out of competitive play but that won't be for at least a year or two. If you are just playing casually, this won't affect you.
No matter what you buy, you can find information on which cards are available in each pack online.  All packs should be available at your FLGS.
Unlike with some of FFG's other LCGs (e.g., for Lord of the Rings each deluxe expansion is necessary to play with the following adventure packs, but this is rare for the LCG model), in Netrunner you can pull cards from any expansion you want for your deck - so there is no need to buy everything unless you are a completionist (like many of us). This is what FFG meant in the above quote - you can play a Criminal deck without purchasing Honor & Profit (the big box expansion that features Criminal cards) - however, in most cases, the big boxes yield some great cards and are worth the investment!
As a practical tip, you can browse netrunnerdb.com for decks, and when viewing one that strikes your fancy, click Sort above the decklist and choose "By Set".  That will tell you where all the cards for that particular list can be found.
Good luck and have fun!

By contrast, each set of 6 adventure packs in their LOTR card game needs the deluxe expansion that precedes it in order to be playable. You need Khazad-dûm in order to play The Redhorn Gate, and you need The Voice of Isengard in order to play The Dunland Trap.

Ahh, I don't play LOTR so didn't know this detail. That is very interesting!

Perhaps you can incorporate Andrew's comment to your answer?

Sure, no problem  - information about LOTR added.

Might be worth like "e.g. Lord of the Rings". I'm just not sure about FFG's other LCGs (aGoT, WH40k Conquest, Warhammer Invasion).

I'm pretty sure LOTR is alone in this regard, but clarified this in the answer.

I think this answer is worth updating now that rotation has occurred.

Just to augment the other answers, I find the left hand column of the card search on NetRunnerDB to be very helpful in explaining the Deluxe Expansions and Cycles, as it shows them in the order they were (or will be) released:

Here you can see the Core Set listed as #2 (ignore the Draft section for now), which was followed by the Genesis Cycle (#3) which contained 6 Data Packs (What Lies Ahead, Trace Amount, Cyber Exodus, etc.) and was followed by the first Deluxe ("Big Box") expansion: Creation and Control.
The pattern then repeats, which another Cycle (called Spin this time) of 6 Data Packs, followed by a Deluxe Expansion (Honor and Profit). As you can see, the last 2 Cycles (Mumbad and Flashpoint) have not been followed by a Deluxe Expansion, but the next Cycle (Red Sand) will be followed by Terminal Directive, which is a narrative expansion and will differ slightly from previous Deluxe Expansions and plays like a campaign/story, rather than like previous expansions.
The numbers in brackets after the Red Sand Data Packs and Terminal Directive indicate how many card designs are known so far. So we know what 7 of the 20 unique cards in the Station One Data Pack will be.
So to summarise, the various units of cards which you can buy are:

Core Set (~$30): You already know what this is as you have it!
Data Pack (~$15): Deck of 60 cards (generally 3 copies each of 20 new cards). These are grouped together in named sets of 6 Data Packs called Cycles.
Deluxe Expansion (~$25): Contains 165 cards (3 copies of 55 new cards), focusing on two specific factions (one Runner, one Corp) in each expansion (with the exception of Data and Destiny, which featured NBN and 3 new Runner mini-factions). Released between Cycles of Data Packs.
Narrative Expansion (~$30): Contains new Runner and Corp identities, sheets and stickers used to track progress and secret campaign cards. A core set is required to play a Narrative Expansion, it does not stand alone.

@Twitch_City's answer is good, I'm going to take a stab at a shorter alternative.
You only need to buy whatever Deluxe Expansions and Data Packs have the cards you want to play with. You can even play without the Core Set if you don't need any of the cards from it (which is unlikely - you probably want some of them), you can use pennies or pieces of colored paper or dice or whatever as tokens. Use NRDB to pick or build a deck you want to play, and buy the appropriate packs of cards.
From a long-term perspective if you care about Tournaments, Deluxe Expansions are never going out of rotation, so they'll always be in the potential pool of cards for deckbuilding. But that's not a very immediate concern.

Deluxe Expansions and Big Box mean the same thing.  They are a larger expansion with 60 different cards (3 copies each), usually focused on providing cards for certain factions.  They are ideal to purchase if you want to make a deck for those factions.
Data Packs are smaller expansions with 20 different cards (3 copies each), at a smaller price point, released more regularly.
The 'cycles' that the Data packs are released in include 6 packs based around a certain theme, often synergizing with each other or making use of a new mechanic.
You can check various online databases such as http://www.acoo.net/netrunner-cards-list/ to see what cards are in each pack.  You will always get 3 copies of all of the cards in the pack.


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Combining Ascension expansions: tokens and boards
The original Ascension (CoTG) includes 50 tokens/beads and is playable by 4 people. Expansions such as Immortal Heroes include 30 more tokens, allowing for up to 6 players. Storm of Souls is said to be a complete game for up to 4 players, including a new board and 50 more tokens.
My questions are:

is it possible to group two expansions and play with 8 people, or that's just too crazy / impossible?
buying two expansions, can I simply trash the additional tokens and keep a number around 80 for the 6 players? On average it seems 50 tokens/4 players would turn into 75/6 players, but I'm unsure if token rules change.
Do I need the new board from Storm of Souls or can I keep the original one? It seems it has a space for the new Event cards, but little besides that - unsure, though.

In my opinion:

I don't think there are any any interactions between sets to-date that would make this impermissible, but this might be inadvisable.  Consider that cards with set-specific interactions will become more ineffective as you combine sets with different mechanics (as the odds of useful interactions decreases, the value of those cards decrease).
Sure, but less tokens-per-player will presumably mean less cards and turns-per-player, so decks that excel in the short-term will win more often than decks that take a while to build out. I'm thinking "kill-the-monsters" type decks will be favored over "invest in the longer term"-type decks.
All of the Ascension games that I'm aware of can be played without boards altogether - they just suggest a physical layout for different types of cards.

I strongly agree with point 1 as with the ios app I will play with all expansions enabled and can get turns where I play my entire deck (plus all cards purchased that turn) and get 100+ purchase and fight on the turn so can quickly get a lot of power.

Combining two base sets is totally possible (I've done it multiple times), going up to 8 is a little odd but should be possible. The downtime will then significantly increase and can lead to boredom while waiting for your turn and I don't really see how the game benefits from such a large group.
The tokens have different value and this is very important. The game states in the small expansions that you should include 30 points worth of per player regardless of player size, so you are able to ditch everything but 5 white ones and 5 red ones per player and a couple of red ones for once the base pool runs out but play finishes the round. I've bought 3 base sets and 3 small expansions and have given most of the gems to my daughter to play with.
As said by others, the board is absolutely unnecessary. You can just put 6 open cards to buy/fight, the cultist, mystics and heavy infantry in a stack each, the current event card as the top of the event discard pile, the event draw deck and the draw and discard pile for the buy/fight cards anywhere on the table and are good to go. Dominion and Thunderstone do it that way and those work very well too.


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Are there any other card packs for Agricola other than the E, I, and K?
I know that the iOS version has the "G" pack, but I'm wondering if that G Pack exists for the actual board game or if there are any other expansion packs.  Has anyone used those other expansion packs?  Are they pretty fun to use?  What are some of the cards like?

Have a look here. http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Agricola_Expansions Can't answer about what they're like though, I've not played any.

Yes, the "G" pack exists, as well as the "WM" (World Championship Deck"), France deck, and a few others. The most solid, "balanced" decks IMO are the WM and G decks respectively. They can be purchased online from re-sellers like amazon and such.
They are, however, not in print anymore as far as I know as the Anniversary Collectors edition is due to come out late 2017 with 1000 or so cards that are a combination of all of the current decks in existence, as well as some that are being made to plug in the gaps. That version is going to be for the dedicated type of crowd. There is also a version that just came out with 96 cards that is more of a casual type of crowd.
More info can be found here

FYI: The ultimate edition has basically been said to be on indefinite hold, if it's even still coming. Maybe 2022 for the 15th anniversary?

Also, decks currently being released now all align with the revised system. There currently exist two expansion decks (A+B) with C & D expected in the next year.

Thanks for that @tdhsmith!  I think my answer is no longer valid as the Anniversary Collectors edition has been shelved due to a takeover.


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How much damage do I deal? (How is damage dealt if an attacker gains power as combat damage is being assigned?)
My board:

1 Vigor (If damage would be dealt to a creature you control other than Vigor, prevent that damage. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 1 damage prevented this way.)
1 7/7 creature with Trample (Attacking)

Opponent's board:

1 1/1 creature (Blocking)

I assign 1 damage to the blocker, and the rest of it (6) to my opponent. As our creatures take damage, Vigor's ability triggers and Garruk's Horde gets a +1/+1. How much damage does my opponent take: 6 or 7?
Now to further convolute the question: what happens if the blocker was replaced with an Abuna Acolyte? Knowing that it could tap to prevent the 1 damage that I assign it, must I assign it 2 damage? If I only assigned it 1 damage and it tapped to avoid that damage, would it successfully block me?

You will only deal 6 damage to your opponent.
This is because when determining how combat damage gets dealt the fist thing you do is assign damage based on the power of the creature (in this case 1 gets assigned to the blocking creature and 6 to your opponent), then after you decide how it is assigned it actually gets dealt. The fact that the creature gets bigger at the same time that it is dealing damage doesn't matter since it can only deal the damage it has assigned.

510.1. First, the active player announces how each attacking creature assigns its combat damage, then the defending player announces how each blocking creature assigns its combat damage. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. A player assigns a creature’s combat damage according to the following rules:
510.2. Second, all combat damage that’s been assigned is dealt simultaneously. This turn-based action doesn’t use the stack. No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt.

Can I assign more damage than power the creature has? For instance, if I know I'll cast Swell of Growth (instantly gives +2/+2) on my attacker

@Tony No, you have to cast the spell before the combat damage step, from 510.2 "No player has the chance to cast spells or activate abilities between the time combat damage is assigned and the time it’s dealt."

The actual rule stating that is 510.1a Each attacking creature and each blocking creature assigns combat damage equal to its power. Creatures that would assign 0 or less damage this way don’t assign combat damage at all.

While not explicitly mentioned, there is no 'time' between when damage is assigned to the creature and when the trample damage is assigned to the defending player.

To answer your follow-up question:
A creature with Trample must assign at least lethal damage to all blockers before carrying over remaining damage to the defending player. In this case, lethal damage is 1, the blocking creature's toughness. You don't look at damage prevention or replacement effects or anything to "look ahead" to see if that damage will actually kill the blocker. Even if the defending player taps his Abuna Acolyte to prevent 1 damage, you could still deal 1 damage to the creature (which is prevented) and 6 to the player.
Note the "at least" above. You could assign 2 damage to the creature (1 of which is prevented) and 5 to the player, killing the creature.


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When is it best to break Hearts?
I usually break them as soon as I can't follow suit but others have told me that's not "appropriate."
Also, when is it appropriate to play the Queen of Spades? I usually do the same, play it when I have my first opportunity to do so.

What the heck does "not appropriate" mean anyway? Not appropriate because it prevents them getting rid of cards that give them points? Isn't that the goal of the game? You should use your best strategy. If you have some nasty cards like K or A of spades, you probably want to get rid of those first before you break hearts.

On or after the second trick when it is legal to play a heart?

Thanks for your answers - I appreciate having knowledge so I can play well.

There's a couple of things that are important when deciding what to play when you can't follow a suit:

Is it at all likely you can take all the points with this hand? Then don't throw any points at your opponents.
Are there any cards you need to get rid of to avoid catching points yourself? Examples are the Ace or King of Spades, or a high Diamond. When you have a lot of Diamonds, chances are others can't follow Diamonds and throw in points themselves when you are forced to play the Ace. This can become very costly if all you have is more Diamonds to play. If you still had that little Heart that you threw out instead of Ace of Diamonds, you could have played that and forced another player to take it.
Is it possible that the opponent taking the first point, takes all the points? Sometimes you'll regret tossing away that one point when you get 26 added to your score at the end of the hand.
Does the ability to lead Hearts give an escape to a player? If a player is forced to lead Spades (and cut in on his own AK in Spades) because he isn't allowed to play Hearts yet, that might be an advantage also.

Conclusion: Don't automatically break Hearts when you can't follow suit. Think of the long-term game, there's plenty of tricks still coming.

Thanks so much for this information.  I'm not an experienced player but love the game and want to learn as much as possible.


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What can we do with a player who camps in a table top game?
We have a group of 8 people in our campaign and we usually do 2 table top battles at a time (not enough table space in our area). The game we are currently playing is Mordheim and for those who have not heard of it, just think of Warhammer but with 10-20 models in a crowded city and the goal of the game (mainly) is to get your opponent off the table by removing their models by range weapons or going in close and winning on the die roll. (very quick summary)
We have a player who just camps at his table edge and hides until your close enough where he charges you when he gets a chance (hides to a point where you cannot shoot any of his units via range).
Unfortunately, since the point of the game is to knock out the other opponent, the player who is going up against the camper has to take 7-10 turns to reach the opponent, not able to shoot at them and the opponent just simply skips his turn once hes behind other buildings until hes at charge range.
We have brought up a few points (ex: on turn 7 and the camper does absolutely nothing, the opponent gets free EXP and the game is ended as a draw) however this only agitates the camper stating that this is strategy, part of the game and comes up with excuses why you don't just go out in the middle of the battlefield.
What can we do with this? Should we let him continue to play his "strategy" or come up with concrete house rules that this is not how the game is intended to be played?
Thanks,

You could always get others to gang up against the person who is camping in order to encourage them to change their style.

The variation in scenarios is part of the game design.  If you only ever play once scenario and it's always known ahead of time, people will always find degenerate strategies.

There are already quite a few ways you could deal with this, some based in the rules, and some beyond the rules:
As long as one of your units can see the hidden unit, it stops being hidden
From the rulebook (page 11):

If an enemy moves so that he can see the hidden warrior, the model is no longer hidden and the counter is removed.

It may be worth sacrificing a fast-moving but weak unit to remove the hidden counters from the opponent's units, thus allowing the rest of your warband to use ranged weapons against them, or charge them first.
Units within a number of inches equal to your initiative are automatically spotted
From the rulebook (page 11):

Enemy warriors will always see, hear or otherwise detect hidden foes within their Initiative value in inches. So a warrior whose Initiative value is 3 will automatically spot all hidden enemies within 3"

So even if you can't get into direct line of sight, again sacrificing a unit may reveal some or all of the enemy warband.
If terrain permits, you may also be able to move one of your own units with a high initiative into a position where line of sight cannot be drawn to it, but its initiative reveals some or all of the enemy warband.
The All-Seeing Eye of Numas allows you to see hidden units
From the rulebook (page 100):

The bearer of the All-Seeing Eye can see all models on the table top, even if they are hidden or out of sight.

If you are lucky enough to have one of these, the enemy can never hide from you!
Arm your troops with spears
This will make his charge much less useful, since the Strike First ability means you will hit him before he can hit you.
Use terrain set up to destroy his chances at the edge of the board
If you are playing the standard rules for terrain placement for most scenarios, you are within your right to place terrain at the edge of the board that is horrible to defend. Then if you manage to win the roll for first set-up, choose the side he has designed with defence in mind and leave him with nothing worth hiding around.
Play a different scenario
If you play scenario 3 (wyrdstone hunt), scenario 4 (breakthrough), scenario 5 (street fight), scenario 7 (hidden treasure) or scenario 8 (occupy), there is a very high chance he will lose by using this tactic.
Meta-game things that may help you

Whenever he initiates this tactic declare a temporary alliance with someone (or everyone) else (if playing with more than two of you), and mob him in his nest. There may be some casualties to your alliance, but you should make quick work of this player's warband and teach him in the process that using this tactic is going to make the game less fun for him.
Teach yourself to measure distances by sight. Your opponent will end up out of cover and ready for shooting/charging if he declares a charge, but falls a half inch too short.
Talk to the player (as a group, and as nicely as possible) and just explain that while, yes, his preferred tactic is technically legal, it makes the game much less enjoyable to play for the rest of you.
Use his tactic right back against him. If you just hide at your starting location and keep passing exactly like him, he will quickly realise just how un-fun it is to be on the receiving end of it.
Create a list of your own scenarios, making sure that many of them either cannot be won by playing defensively (like scenarios 3, 7, & 8), or actively deter defensive or stationary play.
If none of these things work, then I would suggest trying to play some games when he isn't invited.

You could take some hints from FPS games, namely games with snipers.  Once a sniper gets into a strong nest, it can be hard to dislodge them since getting to them leaves you exposed and you can't shoot back at them until you're close.
Some games put objectives out into the open.  Since your objective is elimination, why not put some sort of buff/equipment/units in the open for your players to fight over (ala Hunger Games style?).  Or have stationary artillery that are hard to hold, but can punish players if they stay in a certain area.

Houserules are supreme. If a player keeps making the game un-enjoyable for most, and you can't counter-cheese him, create house-rules that counter his tactic specifically.
His strategy is indeed valid, although when everyone is playing for fun, a strategy that negates fun, destroys the whole point of the game. Try to make him see that people will either not want to play the game at all, or won't want to play the game with him with his attitude.


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Our copy of Mansion of Madness, second edition doesn't contain the original 8 investigators cards, is this correct?
we had Mansion of Madness, second edition (core game) for Christmas (don't have the original) but the game doesn't have the original 8 investigators. Is this correct? We have 16 other investigators cards. The box say it should come with 8 with matching 8 figures, we have 8 figures but 16 cards. (Not sure if they match) the game comes with a conversion pack which it says has the 16 extra cards. Are we missing the 8 investigator cards??
I'm so confused!
Thanks for any help.
(The box was all sealed, etc.)

It seems to be correct. From the second-edition rulebook, page 4, "First Game" sidebar:

Before choosing a scenario, if you own the first edition Mansions of Madness base game and/or any of its expansions, you can integrate the components of those products as described by the Conversion Kit rules insert.
Players can play any investigators from the integrated first edition products, and the app can use any of the monsters or map tiles from those products during the game.

I think it's reasonable to infer that the original investigators (and monsters and map tiles) are intentionally separate from the second edition.
I don't own the game, so I can't physically confirm this.

I own both editions of the game and you are not missing any cards. The core set comes with 16 cards but only 8 miniatures.
The additional 8 cards are part of the conversion kit that allows you to incorporate those investigators if you owned the first edition of the game. If you don't own it, you can acquire the miniatures and tiles from the Recurring Nightmares expansion which is is a reprint of the components that can be used in the second edition from the first edition of the game.
The Suppressed Memories expansion provides the components from the first edition expansions of Call of the Wild and Forbidden Alchemy.

I got it for Xmas too...the 16 investigator cards are from earlier editions and not for the new one. So not sure how to use the app with no investigator cards to give me their stats


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An Outlaw gets Married. Where should the Origin Token be placed now?
A player had the Outlaw status with the Origin token placed in a city and she also had the Married status.
What do we do with the Origin token in a case like that?

Your second question seems completely unrelated to the first - please remove it here and ask it as a separate question.

When that second question was removed already, adding it back seems an extremely poor decision, and wasn't justified in summary either. Please explain.

From this FAQ document provided by the game publishers,

If some other game effect forces you  to  move your Destination or Origin marker, you lose the effect (i.e. the status) associated with that marker!

When the player became Married, and moved the Origin Token, they lost their Outlaw status.
The Origin Token goes in the location which resulted in the Married status.


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In chess, what is the name for the tactics when a piece makes an attack by itself but also opens line(s) of attack for a friendly piece(s)?
For example, let us look at the following chess diagram. It is white's turn. Until now, black queen and rook were safe, but white plays d6! White pawn makes an active attack on the black rook but also opens a2–g8 diagonal, which allows white bishop to attack the black queen (and the bishop is protected by the knight).
So, is there a separate name for this maneuver? I don't think it is a fork.

A discovered attack?

@Null that's the term I've always heard. You should post that as an answer

The tactic in which one piece moves out of the way of a second so that the second can attack is called a discovered attack (and more specifically a discovered check if it results in check). The piece which moves may or may not move to a position to mount its own attack -- I'm not sure if there's a term for the specific case in which the piece that moves does mount an attack by itself.
You're correct that it's not a fork, which occurs when one piece simultaneously makes two or more attacks. Here you have two attacks but by two different pieces.