WAR - RULES 
ART BY: akizhao (http://akizhao.deviantart.com/)
1. BUILDING AN ARMYThis first phase consists of Generals building their armies using player auction.
1.1. GENERALSWar will have 12 Generals, one for each element. Masters are the Generals of their element by default. If a Master is unable to join War, he or she will appoint a replacement General (Sr. Member or above). If one or more elements don't have a Master, a General will be picked by Warmasters and Forum Administrator.
Generals are given 400 blank cards. These cards will be used as currency when recruiting players during the next step. Later they will be used to build the starting Vault for the team.
1.2. PLAYER AUCTIONPlayers who want to join War will then each start their own "job application" topic where they include important information about themselves like their score and the number of rare cards they have.
There will be three different areas where players may post their application topics. A player can choose only one area at a time. Area where the player posts his or her application determines his or her role in the auction.
I. PalaceLoyalists pick 3 elements they are loyal to. Generals from these 3 elements can make bids on the Loyalist, Generals from other 9 elements cannot. Bids for Loyalists start at
6 cards. If you become a Loyalist you have more control over which team to join, but you also have a higher starting price. This area is most suitable for seasoned veteran players who know they will be bid on.
II. Mercenary's GuildMercenaries pick 3 elements they refuse to work with. Generals from these 3 elements cannot make bids on the Mercenary, other 9 elements can. Bids for Mercenaries start at
3 cards. Mercenaries have some control over which team to join to, and their starting price is not too high, making Mercenary a great balanced choice for both newbies and veterans.
III. Slave MarketSlaves can be bought by all Generals. Bids for Slaves start at
1 card. This area is best for newbies and less known players, or cool players who don't really care which element they are fighting for.
Note: Player auction is a big part of War event, so unfortunately there are no guarantees that you will get to join the team you want. Players who later refuse to fight for the element that bought them, or who become inactive and fight with zero motivation, will be removed from the event and banned from the next War. Only way to get to fight for a specific element is to convince the Master of that element to bid high on you.After the players have posted their application topics, Generals will start bidding on them. Bidding lasts 7 days. Generals will bid using the following template:
[color=yellow][size=72pt]6 cards[/size][/color]Generals replace the number 6 with the number they are bidding on. Once you have posted a bid, it is final. Editing or removing a bid is strictly prohibited and will lead to a penalty.
Minimum raise is 1 card. If the previous bid is 4 cards, you have to bid 5 cards to win. Generals can bid on as many players as they want but only 5 players can join the team.
Bids of 24 cards or more are special. If a person gets bid on 24 or more cards, he or she has two options:
1. Instantly join the team that made the 24+ bid
2. Wait for someone else to make a bigger bid
Bill is a Slave. General of
really wants Bill on his team so he bids 24 cards. Bill now has the option to instantly join team
, or to wait for some other team to bid more than 24 cards. Bill is hoping some other team might bid more, so he decides to wait.
Next day General of
bids 25 cards. Bill likes
so he decides to join team
. Bill is added to team
roster and General pays 25 cards. Bill's application topic is locked.
Players who get the biggest bids will most likely get some kind of bonus or reward. More about that later.
Players are allowed to change areas
once during the bidding if they currently have zero bids on them. For example if you chose to be a Loyalist, and have zero bids after 6 days, you can change areas and become a Slave instead, increasing the chances that someone will bid for you. Once you get a single bid, changing areas is no longer an option.
We will have one universal auction clock. When the clock is running, Generals can bid on anyone. When the clock stops and there were no new bids made during the last 24 hours, the auction is over. If there
were new bids made during the last 24 hours, we go to overtime, the clock gets reset back to 24 hours, and the minimum raise increases by one card.
Generals win 5 players that they bid the most, AND they were the highest bidder.
For example lets say I had made the following bids:
Player A - 9 cards
(highest bidder)Player B - 8 cards
(3rd highest bidder)Player C - 8 cards
(highest bidder)Player D - 7 cards
(highest bidder)Player E - 5 cards
(highest bidder)Player F - 4 cards
(2nd highest bidder)Player G - 3 cards
(highest bidder)Player H - 2 cards
(highest bidder)Player I - 2 cards
(highest bidder)I would win players A, C, D, E, and G. I wouldn't win players B or F because I wasn't the highest bidder, and I wouldn't win players H or I because they were the lowest of my bids.
My team would cost me 9 + 8 + 7 + 5 + 3 = 32 cards. This means that the starting Vault of my team would be 400 - 32 =
368 cards.
Bidding is basically a choice between buying experienced players with a big pile of cards and starting with a card disadvantage, or buying newbies for cheap but having a card advantage, or anything in between.
If a General fails to win the required 5 players, he/she has to buy one or more remaining players with a price of 18 cards. This is why it's very important to bid on multiple different people to ensure that you will be the highest bidder in at least 5 occasions.
2. GETTING READY FOR WARNext teams get ready for War by coming up with a strategy, delegating tasks, and building their starting Vault.
2.1. SECRET FORUM SECTIONEach team has their secret forum section only visible to team members, Warmasters and forum Administrator. All discussions held in this secret section are to be kept a secret. A player who gets caught telling team secrets to anyone outside his or her own team will be permanently banned from all Elements community PvP events. Just to be safe, don't publicly talk about
anything that goes on in that section.
There are specific topics that all teams are required to start. On top of that, any team member can start any topic when needed, but needless spam should be avoided.
2.2. MEMBER ROLESEach team has 6 members (1+5). Each team member has a specific role. Member roles are assigned by the General.
1. GeneralGeneral is the leader of the team who makes sure that other team members are doing their jobs and fighting their battles. General also communicates with Warmasters.
2. LieutenantLieutenant is second in command. He/she can temporarily replace any team member, including the General.
3. Vault OrganizerVault Organizer makes sure that the team Vault is up-to-date at all times by adding and removing cards when needed.
4. DeckbuilderDeckbuilder starts a deck topic for each round. Everyone on the team joins deckbuilding discussion, but it's Deckbuilders job to make sure that all the decks are ready on time and that none of the decks are illegal.
5. Duel OrganizerDuel Organizer is in charge of all team duels happening during a round. If one or more team members are unable to fight their duels, Duel Organizer must inform the General as soon as possible and try to find a replacement.
6. SalvagerSalvager starts the "Salvaging/Discarding" topic. Everyone on the team joins the discussion, but it's Salvagers job to make sure that all discarding and salvaging are done on time.
2.3. THE VAULTThe Vault is very important because cards in the Vault are not only used to build decks, but they also act as "hit points" for the whole team. If a Vault is less than 30 cards at the start of a round, that team gets eliminated from the event. Vault is built by the whole team, led by the General.
Cards that were not used during player auction, will form the team starting Vault. Up to this point, cards have just been a number. Now it is time to fill the Vault with specific cards.
Vault building rules:- at least 50% of cards have to be from your element
- maximum of 18 per card from your element (restriction doesn't apply to Pillars or Pendulums)
- maximum of 6 per card from other elements (restriction doesn't apply to Pillars or Pendulums)
- no Shards
Cards in the Vault are always unupgraded. If you move an upgraded card back to the Vault, it becomes unupgraded.
Important! Vault doesn't really exist. Players are not given cards they take from the Vault, nor are any cards removed from their account if they lose. Players must own the cards on their Elements game account in order to use them. If a player doesn't have a specific card in his/her account, He/she cannot use it even if that card is listed in the Vault. So try to pick cards that your team members actually have or can buy if needed.
3. STARTING A ROUNDWar consists of multiple
rounds. Each round consists of three phases:
- Determining Opponents
- Deckbuilding
- Duels
3.1. DETERMINING OPPONENTSAmount of cards in the Vault determine how many players from each team participates on a round:
| 0-29 cards | = | team is eliminated |
| 30-59 cards | = | 1 player fights |
| 60-89 cards | = | 2 players fight |
| 90-119 cards | = | 3 players fight |
| 120-149 cards | = | 4 players fight |
| 150-179 cards | = | 5 players fight |
| 180+ cards | = | 6 players fight |
All teams must maintain a sticky topic on their secret forum section that lists players in numerical order from 1 to 6. This list tells the Warmasters the preferred order in which the players will join a round in case the team has less than 180 cards. Teams are allowed to change the order at any time depending on their player availability.
A team has 130 cards in the Vault at the start of a round. This means that only 4 players will fight during that round. Bill and Jack are both unavailable for this round, so the team has edited their player list so that Bill and Jack are at spots 5 and 6. This shows the Warmasters who fights during this round and who does not.
If the team doesn't change their player list, and Bill and Jack are at spots 1 and 2, both of them will be added to the player pool of that round, forcing the team to use substitutes. This is why it's important to keep the player list updated.
Opponents will be determined randomly by Warmasters using a randomizer. If there are uneven number of players fighting during a round, the team in last place (least amount of cards in the Vault) gets a bye, meaning that one player in that team will skip the round. If that team already had a bye during the previous round, the 2nd to last team gets a bye instead. No team may have a 2nd bye unless all other active teams have had at least 1 bye.
Duel pairings will be made public by the Warmasters. The same topic will have one
Event Card that is active for the duration of that particular round. Event Cards have a global effect, positive or negative, and they affect all the players.
3.2. DECKBUILDINGTeams will build one deck for each player who is joining the round. Team Deckbuilder is in charge of starting the topic that has all the deck discussion for each round, and ultimately the decks that the team will use. Note: decks have to be edited in the
first post of that topic to help the work of Warmasters. If the decks are in any other post than the first one, they are redeemed invalid and penalties will be issued.
Deckbuilding rules:- Any mark
- At least 50% of your cards have to be from your element
- Regular players can use unupgraded cards only
- Generals can use up to 6 upgraded cards (unupgraded cards taken from the Vault are transformed into upgraded ones)
- You cannot change your deck until the round is over
As a new rule in War #2, teams now have the option to
convert some of their cards. This means that they can replace any card in their Vault with a Pillar or a Pendulum of their element. Converting helps teams to avoid a situation where they would be otherwise forced to build "suicide" decks. Converting will be done by the team Vault Organizer by posting on the Vault topic what cards are converted, and then editing the Vault.
3.3. DUELSPlayers will contact their opponent and try to find a time that suits both. Players have 4 days to make the fight happen. If the fight doesn't happen, both players lose by default, unless one player is clearly more active in trying to find a suitable time. Warmasters will determine who the most active player is, and their word is final.
We are using a "best-of-three" method, which means that each battle consists of up to 3 matches with the winner being the first player to get 2 wins. Remember, you have to play all duels with the same deck and the same mark.
3.4. INACTIVE PLAYERSIf it looks like a team member won't be able to fight during a round, the team has 3 options:
1. Temporarily replace that team member with any other team member, including the General. Temporary replacement player will use the same deck and mark and the original player would have used. Regular member replacing a General has to use unupped versions of the cards in Generals deck. Penalty for using a replacement is that you cannot salvage any cards if you win!
2. Permanently replace the inactive member by buying any of the players that weren't bought during the auction phase. Price of the player is 6 cards. This new player joins the team as a full member, and stays with the team until the end of the event. A team can do this action only
once during the whole War.
3. Forfeit and take a loss.
4. AFTER A BATTLEWinners
salvage cards, losers
discard them.
4.1. WINNING A BATTLEAfter each win, the team can
salvage cards from the opponent. Winning team picks
6 cards from the deck posted by the losing player, which will be added to their Vault. These cards become part of the Vault and can be later used by anyone on that team. Salvaged cards are always unupped even if the original card is upped. Maximum card amount of 18 doesn't apply to salvaged cards.
When you salvage cards, you are not really taking cards from the opponent, you are merely taking a
copy of that card and putting it into your Vault. In Elements terms, you are using Parallel Universe on those cards.
4.2. LOSING A BATTLEWhen a team loses a battle, they have to
discard cards. The numbers of cards discarded is determined by the round number. The further the event goes, the more cards are discarded.
ROUND 1: discard 6
ROUND 2: discard 12
ROUND 3: discard 18
ROUND 4: discard 24
ROUND 5: discard 30
ROUND 6: discard 30
ROUND 7: discard 30
etc.
Cards that are left in the deck after discarding, are returned back to Vault.
5. ENDING A ROUNDAfter all the battles have been fought, round ends and a new one begins. We continue until there is only one team left.
6. WINNING THE WARWinning team of War gets:
- cool forum award icons
- forum background image will be changed to show which element won (this was unfortunately skipped in War #1)
- If the winning team General is also a Master of that element, he or she will either be crowned a
Grand Master, or if there already is one, will have a chance to fight the current Grand Master for the title.
7. OTHER RULES
7.1. PENALTIESPenalties are issued when a team somehow breaks the rules or disrupts the event, either knowingly or by mistake. When a team gets a penalty, they have to, at the end of the round, remove a number of cards from their Vault. They can remove any cards they have in the Vault at that time, including the once they salvaged during that round.
| Minor penalty | 6 cards | Small and harmless things like posting an illegal deck by mistake. |
| Medium penalty | 12 cards | For bigger infractions like not doing what they are supposed to do because of inactivity. |
| Major penalty | 24 cards | For major infractions like seriosuly disrupting the whole event. |
Penalties are easy to avoid by paying attention to details and double-checking everything before posting. Hopefully there won't be any need to issue penalties.
See you on the battlefield./size]
