Having played the game several times now I have some suggestions regarding how certain rules may be interpreted. Note that these are only suggestions. If you have interpreted them differently that's all well and good too. - EW A definition to start with: Towns are either free, that is, unoccupied by any type of garrison; friendly, occupied by one of your own garrisons; factionalized, occupied by an opposing player's garrison; or foreign, occupied by a garrison resulting from Foreign Intervention (Phase 6 in the sequence of play). Expansion (Phase 7, subphase A): A player may expand into any free town linked by road to an adjacent friendly town. Expanding By Sea: A player may expand by sea only when all paths available to him by land are blocked by foreign or factionalized towns. Combat (Phase 7, subphase B): During War a player may make unlimited attacks, however, he may only do this if he can play two yellow battle cards in the attack, and subsequently does so. If he no longer has two yellow battle cards to play in his attack hand, attacking further that turn is no longer an option available to him. Defending: A player that can no longer defend a friendly town with a yellow card (he no longer has any yellow cards in either his attack or defense hands) may no longer be attacked that turn. Influence Points and Combat: A player may only add up to three influence points to a particular attack or defense he is part of, however, other players not involved in the combat may express their interest in the outcome of the attack by adding up to three influence points of their own to either the attack or defense piles. This may also occur during Big Battles and Naval Engagements. Procedure: Once the attacking cards and influence points, and the defending cards and influence points have been set face down on the playing surface, the opposing players may make an appeal for allies. At this time, and only then, may a player not involved in the combat add his influence points to either the attacking or defending piles. Playing the Engineer Card: This card should be played face up by the attacker, allowing the defender to add an engineer card to his pile before resolution of the combat, and before the opposing sides may make their appeal for allies. Sign of God and Retreat Cards: These cards should be played after their has been a combat result. The Sign of God card is used to possibly change this result, while the Retreat card is used to retrieve a yellow card from the loser's pile (rather than it being discarded). The Retreat card is discarded in the yellow card's stead, the yellow card returning to the players hand, thereafter available for attack or defense. For games with less than 6 players: The 5 Player Game: Remove Navarre. The 4 Player Game: Remove Brittany and Navarre from the game. In addition to this place garrison pieces belonging to Brittany in Brest, Rennes and Nantes, and garrison pieces belonging to Navarre in Pampelune, Pau and Caen. These places are considered out of the game and are off limits to other factions. The 3 Player Game: This is the same as the 4 player game except that Flanders is removed in addition to Navarre and Brittany. Place garrisons belonging to Flanders in Bruges, Gand and Brussels. These places are out of the game thereafter while maintaining the same restrictions as in the 4 player game. Note: That while players may conquer Cherbourg and Foix, no player may gain Prestige Points for Basse Normandie, Beam, Navarre, Bretagne or Flanders. Random Event Tiles: Once these have been played they are discarded from the game. Thus, that particular tile will not occur again (some events will occur more than once since some of the events are on more than one tile). If Random Event Tiles are not available late in the game, skip that part of Phase 6. Note: That "Insurrection" on the tile is "Uprising" in the rules. Back to Art of War Issue #30 Table of Contents Back to Art of War List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Clash of Arms Games. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com