Thanks a lot for the answers, Andy. As far as the automatic draw rule goes: I wasn't aware of it, but it sounds interesting and I'll try it out (along with Jason's suggested use of jokers). I'm not sure whether I'll like the game better with or without that rule, but as far as the tournament goes, I'll run it however you want. I'm assuming there will be 'official' card decks for us to use, right? I was thinking it would be neat to have special deck for the finals (if we do have different heats), perhaps even using a Lost Cities deck. But then I figured it would be better for the finals to be played with the same sort of deck as the preliminaries. Bryan On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Andy Looney <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello Bryan > >> 1. Is the Hatch option *only* available if you have no pyramids on the >> board? The rules seem to imply this, but they could be interpreted >> otherwise. I could have had an easy win in my first game if I could >> have Hatched onto a 3rd card of Power Block, but I ruled that it >> couldn't be done. > > Yes, you can only Hatch when you have zero pieces on the board. > >> 2. What if 2 or more players fulfill the win conditions at the same >> time? For example, player A moves a pyramid onto a card that fills >> her Power Block, but it also vacates a card shared with player B, >> giving him uncontested occupancy of his own Power Block. Of the >> possible rulings -- A wins, B wins, they share a win, moves like that >> aren't allowed -- my guess is that the player making the winning move >> (in this case, A) wins alone. Yes? > > Yes, the active player wins if two players are both simultaneously > dominating Power Blocks. > >> 3. What if the deck has been gone through a couple of times, and >> almost all that's left are the face/Attack cards, and it looks like no >> one can win? My guess is that the answer would be something like >> this: "In the rare event that no one can bring about a win, then all >> players lose. This decision can be made by agreement of all players >> involved, or if at a tournament, the person in charge makes the >> decision." > > I've played a LOT of Zark City and I've never seen it fail to end. There's a > big difference between what seems like an un-ending situation and an actual > stalemate. If all that remains are attack cards, there's gonna be a lot of > attacking going on, and that'll bring the ending faster. > > BTW, will you be using the automatic draw rule I mentioned here? > > <http://www.wunderland.com/WhatsOld/2009/WN.08.06.09.html#ThoughtResidue> > > I recommend it. > > -- Andy >