Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] Gnostica Questions

  • FromAaron Dalton <aaron@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateTue, 13 Oct 2009 11:29:10 -0600
Mike Sugarbaker wrote:
So royals are all considered to be "11" for GROWing purposes, and Arcanas
"12"?  And there is no hierarchy between royals or Arcana?  (Ie. I can't
replace one royal with another or an Arcana with another Arcana?)

We've actually always played such that any card from 1 to 10 can be
upgraded to a royal, and any royal to an arcana. Think of the
progression as going by victory point value, not card value. (If it
turns out I've had it wrong all this time that'll be really funny)

And no, you can't just swap one card for another at the same level.
Grow means "grow," not "warp." :-)


Aha! So I was misreading the rule that said, "worth exactly one more point than the original territory." It's referring to VP value, not spot count. That makes perfect sense.

So, this means that the spot counts on the spot cards are irrelevant. A small piece can destroy a 10-spot as easily as a 1-spot. OK, this is all making more sense to me now.

There are indeed no diagonal connections; that territory is only
connected to wasteland spaces.

By definition, does that not make that territory in the void?  My
understanding is that any piece or territory that finds itself in the void
is immediately removed.

If a territory is a card, it is by definition not two spaces away from
a card; it's zero spaces away. Having "islands" in the game, separated
from the rest of the board by wasteland spaces, is totally permissible
(and fun!).


So, is an empty space *diagonally* adjacent to an existing territory a wasteland or a void space? (As regards destroyed pieces. I recognize now that territories may not be pushed into the void, but may find themselves there due to attacks on surrounding territories.)

Thanks again for your help. I find the best chance I have of getting my wife to play a new game is to ensure that I understand the rules as completely as possible first.

Cheers!
Aaron



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