 | WAR - RULES
War is a massive forum PvP event. Players are divided into 12 teams, led by a General. Teams will fight each other until there is only one team left.
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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 the Council.
Generals are given
300 blank cards. These cards will be used as currency when recruiting players during the next phase. Later they will be used to build the starting Vault for the team.
1.2. PLAYER AUCTIONPlayers who want to join War will each start their own War application topic where they include important information about themselves like their score and the number of rare cards they have.
Players pick up to 10 elements they refuse to work with (feel free to choose 0-9). Generals from these elements cannot make bids on the player, other elements can. Bids for players start at
1 card plus two cards for each element that player has banned (i.e. no bans = 1 card, 1 ban = 3 cards… 10 bans = 21 cards).
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 join a specific team is to convince the General of that element to bid high on you. Bidding lasts 7 days. Generals will bid using the following template:
[color=yellow][size=72pt]6 cards[/size][/color]Once a bid has been posted, it is final. Editing or removing a bid is strictly prohibited and will lead to a penalty.
Each General recruits 5 players from the auction.
Minimum raise is 2 cards. If the previous bid is 4 cards, you have to bid 6 cards to win. Generals can only bid on a maximum of 15 different players. Generals can bid on these 15 players as many times as they like, but cannot bid on a 16th player. Getting outbid doesn't make a difference: the limit is 15 whether or not you are winning or losing (or lost) the auction.
Maximum bid is 24 cards. If a player gets bid on 24 cards, he or she has two options:
1. Instantly join the team that made the 24 card bid.
2. Wait for someone else to make the same 24 card bid (24 cards is maximum so you don't need to bid any higher), and join that team instead. You can wait as long as you want (waiting other 24 card bids), even make the decision after the auction has closed.
Spoiler for Example:
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 the same 24 cards. Bill is hoping some other team might do the maximum bid as well, so he decides to wait.
Next day General of
bids 24 cards. Bill likes
so he decides to join team
. Bill is added to team
roster and General pays 24 cards. Bill's application topic is locked.
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. When minimum raise increases, starting bid also increases. This means that during the the 1st overtime, starting bids are 1 higher (0 bans = 2 cards, 1 ban = 4 cards… 10 bans = 22 cards).
Generals win 5 players that they bid the most, AND they were the highest bidder.
Bidding is basically a choice between buying expensive veteran players and starting with a card disadvantage, or buying cheap newbies but having a card advantage, or anything in between.
If a General fails to win the required 5 players, he/she is forced to buy one or more remaining players with a price of 24 cards each. It is very important to bid on multiple different people to ensure that you will be the highest bidder in at least 5 occasions.
1.3. SECONDARY AUCTIONFollowing the auction the five players selected by each team are removed from the player pool. Generals will have three days to PM Warmasters a ranking of all remaining players. Using these lists each remaining player will be assigned a Support Team. The secondary auction will be linear (non-snaking) and order will be determined by team placement in the previous War (last place gets first pick). Each Support Team begins with the same number of members so up to 11 players in the auction will not be assigned.
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. Support Team members do not have access to the team’s secret section. 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 a total of 6 members (1+5) which have specific roles 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. Generals should be aware of team absences, and if a team member is unable to fight a duel the General should coordinate a replacement. General also communicates with Warmasters.
2. LieutenantLieutenant is second in command. The General may not assign this role to himself. Lieutenants act as liaison for the Support Team, submitting actions to the Warmasters.
3. StrategistStrategist makes sure that the team Vault is up-to-date at all times by building the initial vault, noting which decks the team uses each round, and listing cards salvaged and discarded,
all at the team’s direction. Because decks used, salvaged cards, and discards are all submitted using Google Docs, a War-experienced strategist proficient in Google Docs may be valuable to a team’s success.
4. AssassinIf the Assassin wins the battle the opposing team loses three random cards from their vault.
5. SalvagerFor every two rounds won by the Salvager position, the team earns one Relic.
6. ScoutA Scout may post the name of two cards before the deckbuilding deadline each round. If the Scout wins the battle, s/he learns the number of said cards that were in his/her opponent’s vault at the beginning of the round. The posts may should state the round number and cards being scouted only. Only the Scout may make this post.
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.
Notes:- Marks: For the War event, "Mark of ..." cards are considered in the element of the element they feature. This is different to how they appear in the normal game as they are an ‘other’ card there. They are not considered equivalent to a Pillar or Pendulum.
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
| Number of Duels | Deckbuilding | Duels | | TOTAL |
27+ | 4 days | 3 days | | 7 days |
14-26 | 3 days | 3 days | | 6 days |
7-13 | 3 days | 2 days | | 5 days |
1-6 | 2 days | 2 days | | 4 days |
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 |
| 30-65 cards | = | 1 player fights |
| 66-98 cards | = | 2 players fight |
| 99-131 cards | = | 3 players fight |
| 132-164 cards | = | 4 players fight |
| 165-197 cards | = | 5 players fight |
| 198+ cards | = | 6 players fight |
All teams must maintain a Team Rosters and Member Roles sticky topic in their secret forum section. This list says three things: 1) which players will join a round if the team has less than 198 cards, 2) the member role of each player, and 3) which player is playing which team in the coming round. Teams are allowed to change the roles and member order at any time until the end of deckbuilding each round.
Opponents will be determined randomly by Warmasters using an online randomizer, with the constraint that no team will play another team more than once within a given round if possible. If there are uneven number of players fighting during a round, the team with the most cards gets the bye, meaning that one player in that team will skip the round.
At the start of the round duel pairings will be made public by the Warmasters and will show team names only (rather than player names) with the exception of Generals (i.e. Aether General versus Air Player #2). At the end of the deckbuilding phase each round, Warmasters will copy the Team Rosters and Member Roles sticky topic from each secret forum section and paste it in one thread in the public War forum. This will allow everyone to see specific player matchups and their respective roles rather than team matchups.
The round topic will also have one or more
Event Cards. Event Cards have a positive or negative global effect that will affect all the players during that round. Event Cards are designed by Warmasters.
3.2. DECKBUILDINGTeams will build one deck for each player who is fighting during the round.
Deckbuilding rules:- Any mark
- At least 50% of your cards have to be from your element
- Generals can use up to 6 upgraded cards plus one per Relic the team possesses (unupgraded cards taken from the Vault are transformed into upgraded ones)
- Lieutenants can use up to 3 upgraded cards plus one per Relic the team possesses (unupgraded cards taken from the Vault are transformed into upgraded ones)
- Other players can use up to one upgraded cards per Relic the team possesses (unupgraded cards taken from the Vault are transformed into upgraded ones)
- You cannot change your deck until the round is over
Conversion Rule Teams 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 Strategist using the Google doc. Teams can convert a maximum of 24 cards per round.
Illegal Deck RuleIf teams write "Y" in the “Planned Suicide” row for their illegal deck they will automatically forfeit the match, BUT don't take the 3 card penalty for building an illegal deck. By adding "illegal", teams show that they
knowingly built an illegal deck, and can prevent a situation where they would be forced to take a double penalty (both discarding because of a loss and a card penalty) for not being able to build enough legal decks.
3.3. DUELSPlayers will contact their opponent and try to find a time that suits both. 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-five" method, which means that each battle consists of up to 5 matches with the winner being the first player to get 3 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 various options:
1. Temporarily replace a Main Team member with any other Main Team member. Temporary replacements use the same exact deck, number of upgrades, and mark as recorded for that player. Penalty for using a replacement is that you cannot claim normal salvage if you win!
2. Temporarily replace an attacking Support Team member with any other Support Team member or the Lieutenant with no penalty.
3. Temporarily replace a defending Support Team member with any Support Team or Main Team member with no penalty.
4. Permanently replace an inactive Main Team member with a current Support Team member at no cost.
5. Permanently replace a (Main Team
OR Support Team) member with a player who submitted an application but didn't end on a Main Team or Support Team (6 cards).
6. Permanently replace a (Main Team
OR Support Team) member with a Support Team member from another team (12 cards
AND the proposed player in transition must agree).
7. To permanently replace a General, every other team member must agree that the General needs replacing as well as agree upon replacement roles for every team member (i.e. the Lieutenant becomes the General, the Assassin becomes the Lieutenant, etc). Warmasters will remove the General from the team at no cost. If a new player needs to be added, see the above bullets.
4. AFTER A BATTLEWinners
salvage cards, losers
discard them.
4.1. WINNING A BATTLEWinner of the duel starts a new topic in the "Battle Results" section, indicating the teams, the member roles, and the score. Member roles are abbreviated (G, L, A, St, Sa, or Sc). For example if "KingKiller" from
fights "LordOwner" from
and wins 3-1, he will start a topic that could be title in one of the following ways:
(Air G) KingKiller 3 - (Water L) LordOwner 1(Air A) KingKiller 3 - (Water St) LordOwner 1(Air Sa) KingKiller 3 - (Water Sc) (Sub) LordOwner 1 (use SUB to indicate that someone else played instead of LordOwner) In that topic KingKiller will post his deck, and give a short explanation on how the battle went. LordOwner will then reply to that
same topic posting his deck. He can also talk about the battle if he so chooses but that's optional. Everyone can join the discussion in any of these results topics.
After 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 per team 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 from the deck used. Cards that are left in the deck after discarding are returned back to Vault.
| Loss in | Discard |
| Round #1 | 12 cards |
| Round #2 | 18 cards |
| Round #3 | 24 cards |
| Round #4+ | 30 cards |
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
- 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. SUPPORT TEAMSWar is not only about crushing one's enemy on the field of battle, it's a complex logistical event that requires resources to be successful. In this War supply lines are under constant surveillance for two reasons: they support your team by providing an invaluable resource, and they are frequently under attack by opponents who seek to gain an edge.
Each team begins the War with two relics. For each relic in a team's possession, all players on the team may use one additional upgrade.
7.1. SUPPORT TEAM MEMBERSEach Support Team begins with the same number of members. Later in War if a team is unable to field six decks, one or more players are moved from the Team to the Support Team. In this way Support Teams will not always be equal sized.
7.2. SUPPORT TEAM ACTIONSBefore the end of each round (during Team battles) the Lieutenant will submit one action (either Defend or Attack Team X) for each Support Team member during the next round.
If you attack a Team that has at least one person defending their supply lines, you do battle. If you win you take a relic from that team. If you lose nothing happens.
If you attack a Team that has no defenders your attack is successful and you take a Relic.
If Lieutenant doesn't submit actions by the deadline the default action for each player is to Defend.
If the number of players attacking a team is greater than the number of relics, the attacking teams with the most relics instead become defenders of their own supply lines.
If there is a tie among teams with the greatest number of relics, that tie is broken by the number of cards in their respective vaults.
Spoiler for Example:
,
, and
are all attacking
who has two relics.
and
each have three relics, and
has two.
has 258 cards in their vault,
has 240 in theirs, and
has 270 in theirs. The two attackers in this case would be
and
, with
's attacker set to defend (
has the lowest number of relics so they get to attack, and
has fewer cards in their vault than
does, so
also gets to stay on the attack).
7.3. SUPPORT TEAM DECKBUILDING- Support Team decks
may use cards that are in the vault, not in the vault, or any combination.
- At least 50% in-element cards
- No upgrades
- No rares
- If you are attacking you may not use any cards the Team used during the previous round in battle (plus all pillars/pendulums are usable).
- If you are defending you may use a number of cards that the Team used during the previous round of battle equal to the number of players defending the lines (plus all pillars/pendulums are usable).
- Deck creation can be a collaboration between Support teammates, Main Team members, or a solo act. There's no need to submit decks prior to using them.
7.4. SUPPORT TEAM BATTLES- When the round begins Warmasters will take the Lieutenant submissions and create matchups using specific player names. Teams are heavily encouraged to use these, though there is no penalty for substitutions.
- Note that if a team's actions are "Defend: 1, Attack Air: 1" and the team's three Relics are attacked by three players, the two team members will have a total of four battles during the round.
- A player may not change decks or marks between battles.
- Battles are "best-of-three" which means that each battle consists of up to 3 matches with the winner being the first player to get 2 wins.
- Battle winner (followed by loser) posts his deck and a short match description in the Battle Results forum. Example title:
Support - (Air) KingKiller 2 - (Water) LordOwner 1
7.5. ELIMINATIONWhen a Team is eliminated, so is the Support Team and their associated Relics.
8. OTHER RULES
8.1. 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 ones they salvaged during that round.
| Minor penalty | 3 cards | Small and harmless things like posting an illegal deck by mistake. |
| Medium penalty | 6 cards | For bigger infractions like not doing what they are supposed to do because of inactivity. |
| Major penalty | 12 cards | For major infractions like seriously 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.
8.2. BACKROOM DEALS AND SHARING OF INFORMATIONConspiring with another team in any way is forbidden (unless it’s explicitly stated on an Event Card). Even discussing information that is already public ruins the spirit of the event and makes everything less fun for everybody.
To see how War happens in reality, please visit
the War Archive forum section. Some things were done differently during previous Wars but the basic principle is the same.
