FAQ

Put your question here. Moderators and more experienced players will answer.

- How do I know if a nation was eliminated?

Usually, there are two ways: In the Nations tab in the Counselor. It should be a flag for Active or Not. 

Also, in the body of the email with the results if the player's list is known.

- What if I can't send my orders before the deadline?

Keep in mind that the Judge is now fully automated for on going games. It follows a couple of simple rules:

-If all orders are in, the game runs at the deadline. 

-If some orders are pending, then the Judge waits 4 hours to check if they all arrive. If they don't, then the Judges will run the game at deadline +4 hours.

Mind that the times are not precise to the second due load balancing features. A 15 minutes tolerance delay in all tasks can be expected.

When the Judge starts, any changes or new orders will be ignored.

Running the results is pretty fast, updating the website will occur up to 15 minutes after the results are saved.

But then creating maps, images, PDFs takes some time, and then sending turns takes even more time. It heavily depends on the scenario and how many games in parallel there are, but you can expect the turns in 1-3 hours after the process started.

Also, keep in mind that sending last minute orders via email or asking us to hold a game will do you no good. By the time someone reads the e-mail, the odds are the Judge is already halfway through with the results.

- How to donate?

Once you login on the website to sign up for games, the donate button is on the bottom of the main page. We only have the PayPal method. 

- It would be great to find some way in order to know the sequence in which the tasks are going to be executed.

There are a few options:

-Go to the Actions tab in the Counselor. All the orders are listed in the sequence (check the first column) that they will be executed.

-Pick "Copy Actions" from the top menu in the Counselor. It will list all saved actions and display them in the sequence they will be executed.

-Check your receipt. It will show the same info as above.

- My navy's movement in the Counselor shows the cost of 1 point to move on open seas, but the Judge says it costs two points. I have the ALL checked.

It does cost 2 for most regular ships to move in open seas. Smugglers cannot move on open seas at all and krakens pay 1 point.

The sail order, when ALL is checked, enables the player to choose the type of units the Counselor will use to calculate costs. 

If Krakens are the default, then it could explain why your movement showed 1 point in the Counselor and the Judge spend 2 points when it was executed with cargo ships.

- A nation just disappeared from the nation's list and one of its PCs, that was my double agent, flipped to my nation. What just happened?

The nation was eliminated from the game.

- I named new PCs and their skills are lower than my nation ability says, what's wrong?

For most orders, PCs cannot have skills higher than the ones from the naming PC. IE. If you use a rogue 20 to name a new rogue in a nation with the ability to name rogue 40, the new rogue will have a skill of 20, not 40. Same example now with a rogue 60, then the new rogue would have skill 40 (nation max).

- I ordered the creation of a PC with skills at 1/27/1/1 or a 5/25 but the named PC came with a 30/0 skill. What's wrong?

Nothing wrong, this is the expected behavior. The minimum skill for a single class is 10. 

The expected behavior is to ignore all skills smaller than 10. Then max out the existing skill in priority order. The priority is Commander, Rogue, Diplomat, and Wizard. I.e. An attempt to name a 3/27 will turn out to be a 0/30. An attempt to name a 10/15 will turn out to be a 15/15. (Someone feel free to write this on our site)

- Where do I edit in the config to change the folder where I load my games from?

Open the properties.config file in the same folder as the Counselor.

In the first block, all he lines starts with "#" which are ignored, they are just comments and instructions.

In the second block are the real config lines.

Edit the line where there's the "loadDir" property.

Add the FULL path from root using / not \

Example in the file...

- My enemies had two armies (466 and 990 troops) but they stopped my army of 5000+ troops. Why they were not overrun?

The overrun considers that a much bigger combined army (that has more than 1000 troops) can destroy a much smaller army (that has less than 1000 troops). But the overrun algorithm considers all allied troops on each side. i.e. 3 armies of 500 troops each would be safe from being overrun by 5000+ army as long as all 3 are in the hex BEFORE the bigger army enters. If the big army is in the hex first, then it's possible that the smaller armies will be overrun individually as they enter one by one in the hex. 

To get an overrun the larger army must move into the same hex as the smaller army and then try to move out of that hex. This means that the larger army must have the movement points and orders to do so, but it's ok if the army's movement is blocked by another army coming into the hex after the overrun.

A 4:1 or bigger ratio is also required for the overrun to happen.

If an army was not overran, ask yourself: did the interception happened on the step of the bigger army? Did they kept moving?

Also, note that overrun only happens on land. There is no overrun between navies at this time, only between land armies.

- Is it possible for two armies of 700 soldiers each to be overrun by the same enemy army if both enter at same movement in a hex?

Yes it's possible.

The mechanics define that the overrun check is done every time an army enters a hex or uses halt.

The army's movements are still processed one army at a time.

So what could happen is that the big army is in the hex waiting. Then one 700 army enters the hex and it's overrun. Then the second army enters the hex and it's also overrun.

-Can you potentially overrun more than one army ?

Yes, it's based on total of troops regardless of armies.

-Can you overrun a garrison in a fortified enemy pop center?

No, because the fortification in an enemy city would stop all army movement before the overrun check. Mind that ruins have no nation and are not considered a city.

- My orders are not working as I expected. Why?

Did you check if all mandatory parameters where informed correctly in the Counselor? Check the "Sent orders" section...

- A garrison initiated combat against an enemy nation's garrison in a DM game Is it a bug?

No, garrisons are expected to initiate combat in DM games. Which is the opposed behavior of all other game variants.

- What happens to the land troops if there is a naval battle before?

-When there is a navy battle on rivers, the land troops on navies that lost the naval battle still make to shore, with casualties, and the combat goes on to land troops. This happen even when the ships cannot anchor (no docks or plains/shore).

-When the navy loses at sea, then all land troops drown.

- My character did a counterespionage order, which is supposed to trigger a for skill increase but, he didn't increase. Why?

the skill increase is tied to each double agent found.

- I lost the navy combat on a dock, but the follow up land combat that I would win never happened. Why?

Most likely, you issued the attack command to attack and your enemy did not. Then the navy combat was initiated and you lost, thus converting your navy into a land army.

When the land combat was to be resolved, your land army cannot initiate the attack against the enemy navy (unless they initiate the combat and cast anchor).

- An enemy navy was not blocked by my own navy when sailing thru an hex, why?

Only a navy that can sail (i.e. has enough ships to carry all the land troops) can block an enemy navy

- I had archers and ships defending my city, but when the enemy attacked, they did not defend the city. Shouldn't they fight?

No, they wouldn't fight. Let's clarify some points first. The combat has two stages, naval and land. Land is further divided into armies combat then city combat. Also, from a combat perspective, there are two types of navy: embarked navy and non-embarked navy. The key difference is if the navy has enough ships to fit all land troops. Finally, an army cannot initiate attack against a navy.

A non-embarked navy would fight in both stages, first ships then land troops. But an embarked navy would not automatically engage even to defend a city. Exception on DM games, where combat is always automatic. 

For the embarked navy to defend their city, the commander must give the order to attack thus initiating combat. A garrison would not defend the city and the embarked archers would passively watch as their city is being attacked by land troops via land.

- Can you give me some idea what would be likely to happen if a sole army commander died from a duel?

We know that his troops go to garrison (depending on scenario), but I just don't know, for example, if there might be widespread troop desertions in the process if the army morale were already lowish?

No immediate side effects other than losing the commander and, potentially, magical items. But garrisons, in general, have a higher attrition rate than armies and lose morale faster.

- I did not receive the images of the characters in the PDF?

As Hotmail has a limit of 5mb per message and often the PDF turn exceeds this limit, the images are disabled for all hotmail users.

Not adding the images helps to stay within this limit ad to receive the turns when their are sent.

- Why my locate item action is telling that the general area of the item is up to 3 hexes away from the actual place?

Locate Magic Items action can result in the exact location or, when a partial success, a random hex between 1 and 3 hexes of distance.

- Is it possible for a character without stealth to not be seen  in a city?

yes, it is possible. All PCs have a chance to be noticed. The change is higher with wizards and lower with rogues. Stealth decreases the odds of being seen.

- I prefer the old sorting of the combo boxes, not the alphabetical one. How I change it?

Edit your properties.config file and change this line to be SortAllCombos=0. Save the file, open the Counselor.

- Two of my armies are facing an enemy army in his enemy town. If one of my armies issues a capture city command will the other army of mine automatically join the fight? Or must its commander also attack?

Yes, unless the enemy attacks you

 

- "archers will have double strength defending their nations city" that means a city which belongs to that nation irrespective of the city "culture" yes?

Correct

 

- When an army in a port tries to Sail as a navy it automatically picks up any ships garrisoned at the same hex... But what if I want to leave some of those ships behind?  Can someone take command of the garrison then split the ships off as desired？i.e. can picked up naval ships exist independently as a navy while at shore and while having no army troops?

A commander can select the quantity of  ships by using the order to pick up troops. The split is possible as above in the scenarios where taking over happens before the split troops and split troops happens before sailing.

 

- The muster armies order says "that a following recruitment could fail due to lack of troops". Please explain ? I thought recruitment is order 37 and therefore always precedes #38 muster..  How could recruiting fail in this situation?

The sequence of actions change between scenarios, even variants. In some cases, muster can happen before recruiting. Or powers.

 

- I captured Fork Top from the barbarian Giants this turn and Mountain Giants are now on the recruitment menu there... is that right?  Can 1501 recruit Giants for a player owner too?

Try it and let me know what happens...

- In a death match, an army of mine attacked an enemy city without explicit order, in an automatic way. Why?

Yes! In death match games,  every time enemy armies are in the same hex during the combat milestone, the armies will engage in combat. The surviving armies will attack a city when they can capture it. The only situation an army will nto attack a city is if the city defense is higher than the armies' attack values. Armies will attack even if it's garrison or the players don't want to. Even if the commander is issuing an Ultimatum order. They are sworn enemies in a death match after all.

- What the difference between variants?

There are a few types, each one with different focus, constraints or limitations.

- I don't know how to activate dormant powers from magic items. How do they work?

Dormant powers can't be activated by issuing orders. Most of them will have a certain set of conditions to be met and a % chance of being activates if all conditions are met. Some items will have as low as 10% while some others may have as high as 100% with most of them trending towards the middle. The conditions vary wildly. They can be as simple as being in a city, owned city, enemy city, near an army, being assassinated, casting a spell, begin a target, selling, buying, sailing and many others... So go ahead and try.... power will trigger when they have to.

- Aren't sub-commanders in armies supposed to get rank from being a part of a battle?  I had a plethora of mixed C/W in a battle, and while my straight commander sub commander got a command skill up, none of the C/W got any command skill up from the battle.  It almost looks like by casting a spell, the program locked them out of the command skill up?

That's exactly it. A PC can only get a rank raise in one skill per combat. If a spell was cast, then the Wizard skill takes precedence and the commander skill will not be improved.

- My nation failed to name new characters on the same turn I had a couple of my PCs killed. Why?

The slots will only be available in the next turn...

- The order Bestow good/bad omens comes after the order Guard character in GoT, but it comes before all the assassin/steal orders. So, I wonder if bad/good omens affects the check of guard character against the enemy actions because the check is made when the enemy actions are performed or instead the guard check is  determined somehow before the effects of bad/good omens.

Short answer: no.

Luck only affects dice rolls. Guard (PC/city) is a passive order with no dice associated to it.  All the rolls are associated with the aggressive actions that the guard is trying to prevent.

- I did not receive my results, what should I do?

First you should check if the game is in trouble (bug!) or if it run as scheduled. check My Games on the site.

From there a player can request the results to be re-sent. Remember to check your spam folders.

If the game is in trouble, notify the GM, but the odds are that they already know and are working to fix the issue.

- What to do when I'm on vacation?  How can I transfer control of a turn submission to another player?

Orders can be sent by anyone with the egf results file. You can either forward the email to a surrogate or ask the Judge to do it for you under the My Games section, using the send "CC To" feature.

- My nation has the power of "receive 3 magic items" but I don't have them in my initial turn results. Why?

Most powers are only activated on turn 1. This way the information of your new items, or other effects, are not shared as part of turn 0 full disclosure opening.

- I want a nation package that adds 1500 MK to the capital's army before Upkeep Phase. Will my capital's army be fed, or not?

All troops granted from packages will come with food for a few turns. Likely they will be fed. As armies consume food during the Upkeep milestone, it is possible that these troops join a bigger army that has no food (i.e. capital army with 20k troops and no food) to the point that the food the new troops bring in will not be enough to fed the entire army a single turn. Also, consider that the troops usually join the army before the food consumption, but in some specific powers they may join later. Is the second case, they will carry the same status (fed or unfed) as the army they join in regardless of bringing extra food.

- I have a high resolution monitor, what can I do?

Try these steps:

- Clash website is not loading or showing me a "home of something cool message". IS it down?

No, it is not. In the days that browsers increase security and we try to keep the game free, not having SSL or HTTPS is a conflict and a limitation.

Easy work around. For Chrome and most browsers.

Send an email to the GM if you are still having problems.


- Next question?