Convention #0:
In the case of dispute, GMs are going to be likely to give the benefit of the doubt to whoever has been most explicit about the board state and maintained a fast pace, even if that is not necessarily the point at issue.
Drop Outs:
If a player drops out during a preliminary round the following protocol will be used:
If in the coalition, the other half of the coalition will take over. This will remain a 3 player game for the purpose of scoring. Only the best result from this game counts for the coalition player, hence their worst possible result is 2nd, it will still be possible for France to finish 3rd.
If the French player drops out a substitute will be sought, as this player may well ending up playing 4 games only their best result as France will count.
If one of the top 6 is unavailable or drops out of the knock out stage their place will be taken by the next person down he League standings.
Tournament will take place via ACTS using 2E cards and the most modern current version of the rules
While we will try to accommodate all tastes, the default position will be cyberboard with move files and this will be adopted in the case of dispute.
Cyberboard is the preferred method of tracking board position, but neither it nor Vassal are strictly necessary if all parties are in agreement.
Move files are a matter for agreement amongst players, though we will try to pair those who have strong feeling either way with each other. If move files are not used, a full OOB should be declared and agreed at the end of each interphase, and all moves should contain full information:
What is being moved
What is being left behind (if anything)
What the new total in the destination space is if it was occupied before
In the case of too many dice being rolled the last ones will be dropped first.
If too few are rolled, roll the extra if the mistake is noticed in time. Once the next player’s impulse has begun the result may not be amended.
Prior to the Peace Die Roll procedure (rule 5.8) at the end of each turn, the players must clearly calculate how many VPs each player has and how many cards each player would be drawing in the following turn. Only then do the players decide whether or not to burn a card to modify the Peace
Evasion and Interception (naval and land): When ever there is an opportunity for an inactive Player to Evade or Intercept the Active Player must inform that Player of said opportunity by a Journal entry. The Inactive Player then has 24 hours to make his decision and roll any necessary dice (unless e.g. he has properly notified the other Players that he is on vacation) – failure to resolve within that timeframe is equivalent with not wishing to Evade or Intercept.
· Combat Resolution (includes sieges, land battles, and naval combat): Players are encouraged to announce their intention to play or not play Response or Battle cards in any order, rather than always waiting for the Attacker to declare first – and this should be considered the norm for any battle in which neither Player will be rolling more than 10 battle dice. Failure to play any Response or Battle cards within 24 hours (unless e.g. he has properly notified the other Players that he is on vacation) will be regarded as the equivalent of passing. Combat rolls should be made by the attacker. Note that passing either voluntarily or due to “timing out” means that you will not be able to influence that battle at all unless a Response Event such as To the Death! (#30) effectively “restarts” the battle. If combat is resolved before all Players have had the chance to play a Response or Battle card (or been timed out), such rolls are discarded. You may however ask when declaring Battle or Response cards to see the result of the first day before deciding to play cards for the 2nd day.
If no other Player can have a Battle or Response card (or as said that they do not) then the battle may be resolved without waiting for them
· If more than one Player wishes to play a Response card and the order in which they are played makes a difference, follow the current Movement Track Order (starting with the Active Player) to resolve timing issues. This may make subsequent Responses moot – such cards are retuned to their owner(s).
· Preemption: Play should pause to allow a Player with Preempt ability the chance to declare his intention to use it; however, the Player with Preempt should specify his intentions in advance where feasible. For example, if France has the Preempt ability, he may take his normal impulse and announce, “I will not Preempt Britain, Austria or Russia unless something extraordinary happens.” Again, common sense should apply.
· Retroactive card play: Within reason, Response and Battle cards can be played on a retroactive basis – the GMs can sort out any disagreements or questions you may have in this regard. (If you draw a card which you think you might want to use on a retroactive basis later in a turn, and you would like some advice on the practicalities of how this card might be used within the ACTS format, please feel free to ask first!) Examples of how cards might be played retroactively include, but are not limited to, the following examples:
Steal a March (#8) could be played after one or more Impulses have passed by to retroactively Preempt someone – all cards played after the Preemption point would be returned to the respective Players’ hands, and all CPs expended would be ignored.
Continental System Fails (#18) could be played as a Response to effectively nullify a Preemption impulse – play would be rewound to the point at which the Preemptive impulse was conducted.
Rally (#20), Massed Grenadiers (#48) or other similar cards could be played to modify the results of a first battle round even after the dice have already been rolled for the second round (on the assumption of a tie in the first round) or if play has continued.
Stragglers (#39) can be played after a multi-space move and implemented at any point during the move – all CPs expended after the point at which the moving army takes Attrition would be ignored.
Nelson (#80) could be played after battle resolution is complete even after the resumption of an Imperial Player’s turn.
Foreign Aid (#84) could be used to void a die roll which ends a Foreign War, in which case all CPs expended after the successful die roll (as well as any unnecessary die rolls after the successful one in a given roll request) would be ignored.
Note that the key phrase regarding retroactive card plays is “within reason” – common sense and courtesy should prevail. If you haven’t been online for two days and the game has moved on significantly in your absence, do not expect to play e.g. Steal a March and expect to rewind the game back to cancel out unfavorable developments which may have happened in the interim. All disputes should be immediately brought to the attention of the GM.
Taking back a move or card play: Once a Player has played a card from his hand or declared an expenditure of CPs (or Maneuvers), those actions may only be taken back by that Player if both of the following conditions are met:
The Player still has CPs remaining to use, or has specified that another action will be forthcoming (i.e. an Event, Plus card, Resource usage), and therefore it is still his “turn”;
and
The Player has not asked any of his opponents for a decision (regarding e.g. evasions, interceptions, Combat/Response card declaration, etc.), or made a move which would automatically require such a decision.
Gentlemen's Agreements:
Players may, indeed should, offer more information than required to speed things along. This is at the discretion of the Player in question. For example: If Moore and 4 Units are to invade Lisbon Britain may simply make a Journal entry as such: "Moore +4u to Lisbon, no cards, please resolve." Another example: Britain is taking her first impulse in the game. France, as he finishes his impulse, makes a Journal entry: "If Britain tries to find the French Fleet in SOA, I will evade until found and won’t play any cards".
These announcements are not binding, and may be revised at any time before dice are rolled. Once dice are rolled, it is too late.
ACTS CONVENTIONS:
The ACTS module does not support separate Reserves in the 2E model, therefore a hybrid 1.5E will be adopted:
Reserves do count towards handsize for pre-empt purposes , but you may also pass while holding them and in all other regards they are the same as 2nd Edition including turn end. This makes tracking of pre-empt capability a simple matter of looking at hand size rather than "look at hand size and then work out who has played reserves or not"
When a power has only it's Reserve(s) left this should be announced when their last card is played
England and France should also announce when both reserves have been played
The 2E module does not automatically shuffle the deck after House of Rothschild.
A Player must choose whether or not to Mulligan for his Power and any Proxies he may control in the order in which his cards are dealt in ACTS, even if this contradicts point 2 of rule 14.31 (regarding the Order of Movement). Note also, that in order to speed play, players may draw their cards in any order, but not until their own interphase moves have been completed.
Selecting a card from your hand and selecting the "Discard" button will hide the identity of the card being discarded – when the identity of a Discard should be revealed, you should hit "Play as CP" or "Play as Event" instead. (For example, when playing the Council of War card (#62) as the Event, the identity of one of the cards being discarded must be revealed.)
When you create or break a Minor Pact, do not assume or relinquish control of the Minor until all other Players have been given the chance to play the Age of Metternich card (#88) or otherwise cancel the action used to create or break the Pact. When a Pact is broken, ACTS will automatically discard any cards remaining in the Minor’s hand and replace them with new ones, so do not attempt to do this manually.
Several Events require a Neutral to draw an extra card
Should this happen, make a note that this will be resolved in that Neutral’s next Impulse – when that Impulse arrives, follow this procedure:
If any Player Controlled l hand is either empty or has only Home Cards remaining
, a Player should 1) draw an extra card from the deck and 2) immediately play it as the neutral Proxy card from the previous Event.
If the above does not apply: if any other Proxy hand is either empty or has only Home Cards remaining, the Player with Preempt (or, if no Player controlled-nation has Preempt, whoever just finished the previous impulse) should 1) temporarily take control of the Proxy in question, 2) draw an extra card from the deck, 3) immediately play it as the neutral Proxy card from the previous Event, and then 4) restore control of the Proxy to Neutral status.
If neither of the above applies
Draw a card for the affected Proxy as normal and wait until the Proxy’s next Impulse to apply a) or b), above.
Should all of the Players forget to follow the above procedure but remember at a subsequent point during the turn, the procedure can be implemented when the Proxy takes its next Impulse. If the turn concludes without anyone having remembered to draw the extra card, the extra card due to the Proxy is ignored.
Disputes:
For any disputes consult the GM. This includes, but is not limited to, differing interpretations of rulebook passages, irregularities on ACTS, and timing issues. The GM’s decisions are final in all aspects. Please be advised that if your group is playing something incorrectly, but all agree to it or miss it, that the GM will not go back in time to remedy the situation. The games will not be monitored in any way other than for completion on schedule. A dispute can be brought by any player in any game for any reason. Please remember to inform the other Players in your game as asking the GM to intervene effectively stops the game for all purposes until the dispute is resolved. Do not hesitate to contact the GM but ONLY after you have read and understood the rest of this page below. Also remember that the GM’s rulings are final. Finally, the GM may decide that a given irregularity is irrelevant to the outcome of the game. All Players in the relevant game will be notified of the GM’s decision by e-mail. The GM will try to have the dispute clarified within 24 hr after receiving the initial e-mail detailing the problem.
Gareth Williams can be found here: Wilphe@gmail.com
Assistant GMs can be found here:
Gordon Clay wgclay@gmail.com
Donald Everret dgeverett@yahoo.com
Concessions:
Concessions are to be avoided where possible. The two losing players must agree to a concession, and neither will score for the game. Their VP count will be -5 or their current VP count, whichever is lower. If the two players cannot agree a concession then the game will continue, as a two player if necessary, if necessary a substitute will be sought.
Referee adjudication will be a last resort
Tournament Venue:
General Notes: