I have asked Randy Moorehead some questions regarding his game Rus'. Here are the answers in a compressed, slightly interpreted form (without historial explanations etc.). After that, a copy of Randy's original E-Mail, quoting my original questions, follows. - An elimination of a leader / city / fort counts as an "elimination of a unit" for VP purposes. - Invaders (as opposed to raiders) may _not_ stay at sea / off-board. - Only Finns may cross lakes (as per Rule 1.15), forget the statement on the Viking chart. - Non-raiders attacking across a sea area may retreat through the sea area to the area from where they entered the sea area. - Raiders may never gain the Step warrior bonus. - In principle, it is always determined in a battle which unit kills which. To score points as a raider, only the raider units that have killed an enemy unit need to retreat to score the points. - Units appearing in an enemy occupied area (see e.g. Bulgars) may leave this area in the movement phase without fighting the units in this area. This is, however, not possible for units placed according to 2nd paragraph of Rule 6.3. These have to fight. - Reinforcement appearing according to the "Order of Appearance Card" are placed together with and under the same rules as newly purchased units. (First everywhere one unit, then a second...) (I would assume that a leader may be placed freely in addition to a unit, i.e. a leader is not considered a "unit" at this moment.) - A submitted group may submit to another group. - Submission of Novgorod to Mongols may be demanded from the beginning of turn 12 on, even if no Mongol has entered the board so far. - Displacement from "minimum areas" of newly appearing groups must be done in any case, even if no unit of the new group appears there. - Group replacement is done strictly one by one, even if no unit will appear in the "minimum areas". Only after one-by-one replacement is completed, any remaining "minimum units" may be placed freely in "minimum areas" and controlled areas (really freely, so - if you wish - you may put all in one area) - The Union of Krewo lasts until the end of the game. - Special Mongol exit move: Card is correct, rules are wrong (exit at Galicia or Poland, enter at Wallachia or Hungary). - Expected course of scoring: RED scores more in the beginning. BLUE and PURPLE are steady. GREEN scores a lot in the end (Muscovy). ----- Forwarded message from Randy Moorehead ----- [...] > GENERAL: > > - Are leaders / cities / forts (respectively) considered as units for > victory points purposes? (E.g. if on your VP chart is written "1 VP > for each destroyed Novgorod unit", will you collect 1 VP for > destroying a Novgorod leader / fort?) Yes, leaders and forts count for VP's if eliminated. > INVADERS: > > - Is it allowed for invaders (from sea or from off-board, > respectively) to stay on sea / off board? May they retreat there? No, only Raiders may do this (not Invaders). Remember that there are historic pressures (population and/or the next wave of invaders) that are "pushing" the invaders onto the map. > BOATS: > > - Rules p.2 say that only Finns may move across lakes. But the Vikings > chart says explicitly that Vikings have boats in the Lakes. So what's > true? Boats in the lakes only for Finns or for everyone with Boats > everywhere? Finns and Vikings may cross the lakes. The Finns may cross as per Rule 1.15 (page 2). The Vikings are a bit different conceptually. For raiding, they are simply placed in the area they raid (like Torzhok, for example). The do not need "boats" - even though they used their longboats to get there. If they are conducting an Epic Journey, then follow Rule 12.12 as written - they simply move to an adjacent land area (so they would move from Novgorod to Torzhok to Tver, etc.). The intent is that they follow a semi-historical path for these journeys, and not just wander around, allowing a slight deviation to get around one or two potential enemies (but not avoiding them altogether). I hope that makes sense. > - May a non-raiding attacker attacking across a sea area retreat? Yes, since they must return to the area they came from, and the assumption here is that they have boats to be able to move and make the attack. > RAIDERS: > > - May raiders use the Step warrior bonus? (It is explicitly forbidden > for the Mongols special move, so I assume yes.) And is the newly > created Cavalry also a raider? (What happens with mixed forces?) No. Since the population points are added to the group total, and raiders do not count population ... The intent of Rule 6.5 is to allow the group to absorb conquered peoples. Raiders would be more interested in pillage. > - In principle, the battle system of Rus' completely determines which > unit kills which. So if two raiders fight together, and one of the > raiders kills the enemy, may this raider get the raiding VPs, if it > retreats while the other raider, who did not kill anyone, stays in the > province an settles? What is the mode with mixed forces? Yes, VP's for raiding/eliminating units are unit by unit. If forces are mixed, keep them seperate as per 7.1. You are right - individual units that stay (settle) are no longer raiders and therefore do not receive raider VP's, even for that turn. > PLACEMENT OF UNITS: > > - At several opportunities, units may be placed in provinces already > occupied by enemy units (appearance of Bulgars in turn 3, reinforcement > or reproduction with no units on the map...). In this case, must the > newly arrived units fight those enemy units (or outnumber them to > leave), or may they leave the province without fight? (Strictly > spoken, the rules force units to stop if they _enter_ an enemy > province, but not if they simply _appear_ there.) Correct - they may move out without having to fight IF they are a new group like the Bulgars or are reinforcements. However, read 6.3 carefully. New units that appear as a result of population growth while the rest of the group is eliminated do not have this option, and must fight without moving. The intent is to penalize the player if a group has been wiped out - so even a one-area enclave is important. > - If units are listed as reinforcement in the "Order of Appearance > Card" without any special province to appear, are these units places > together with newly purchased units using the same mode (first > everywhere one unit before you can place a second and so on), or are > they placed all in the same province, or may I place these units > anywhere in my provinces? Always one per area, then two, then three ... > SUBMISSION: > > - May a sumbmitted group submit to a third group? (E.g. Lithuanians > may submit to Teutonic Knights as well as Mongols.) Yes, as long as each group is listed as allowed on the group card. And a good idea for Lithuanian survival. > - May the Mongol player demand submission from Novgorod already at > beginning of turn 12? Or must he wait until the Mongol invasion has > begun? (The latter seems reasonable, but I cannot find any rule saying > so.) "at any time" meaning even at the beginning of the turn. This forces the Novgorod player to play his turn accordingly, if the Mongol player desires. > SUBSTITUTION: > > - Is displacement also necessary if nothing is placed in the > respective "minimum area"? Yes. It belongs to the new group, even if they do not immediately occupy it. > - Would it be allowed to place all my newly placed "minimum units" in > only one of the "minimum areas"? Yes, although this is fairly dangerous ... > - Given is the following situation: There are more units than minimum > left from my predecessor state, but these units are all outside my > "minimum areas". Am I allowed to abandon some of the old units to > make sure that units will be placed in my "minimum areas"? No. The units are replaced one-for-one if available, even in areas outside the minimum areas (as per 12.3). > (This is > especially important for Suzdal->Muscocy, since Suzdal does not earn > any points in its last turn: It may send all its units to somewhere on > the map, so that only the special fort in Muscovy will appear near to > the Muscovy core provinces.) Suzdal usually goes out in a blaze of glory; I'm surprised they ever have any left (maybe the other players aren't aggressive enough ;-) If it does send its units to an ahistorical area, they aren't doing what they should be (maximize points every turn possible, then go down fighting). > UNION OF KREWO: > > - How long does it last? Only turn 14, or until the end of the game? For the remainder fo the game (Turns 14-16). That's what intermarriage does for you ... > MONGOLS: > > - There is an inconsistency concerning the Mongol exit move. Rules > p.11: exit Galicia or Hungary, enter Galicia or Hungary. Mongols > chart: exit Poland or Galicia, enter Wallachia or Hungary. The latter > makes more sense, but it is the correct version? The Mongols card is correct. > STATISTICS: > > - Not exactly a rule question: It seems that as an invading horde, you > often have a great variety of choices which empire you will stomp into > the dust. To facilitate this decision, it would be good to know which > color is in the lead. So my question: Is there any game statistics > which color normally gets how many points at a certain game turn? (In > the rules it is only written that altogeter you should gain 125 to 145 > points.) Yes, but ... this leads to just that sort of game play. After 45+ games of Britannia over the last 14 years, our group had _really_ detailed stats of just that sort. Which lead to "hey, my Romans fell 3 point behind, let's start again ..." I wanted players to discover things for themselves (like how to maximize the Magyars, how long can Kiev last, etc.). Let's just say that Red starts stong and rarely has any points at the end, Blue and Purple are steady, and never cut Green any slack because they are behind - Green will score huge points with Muscovy the last few turns. Very good questions, by the way! Randy Moorehead randym@unm.edu ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Björn Rabenstein [PGP-ID] 0x3ADA0C25 [email] b.rabenstein@gmx.de [WWW] http://rabe.home.pages.de