What is War? (#post_whatwar) | How do I join War? (#post_join)
1. Building an Army (#post_on) | 2. Preparation (#post_two) | 3. Rounds (#post_three) | 4. Postbattle (#post_four) | 5. Penalties (#post_five)
If you have read this for previous wars and would like a quick list of what has changed, check out the Changelog (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=64795.msg1267401#msg1267401)
WAR
Sixty Players, Twelve Elements. One victorious team.
Who will rise to the top?
Prolly the WMs
What is War?
War is the largest event held on the forums, and the core of the Forum Major Event Cycle. At the start of War, 12 Generals, one for each element, choose a team of four soldiers in an exciting auction. Then these teams of five build a vault of cards - the lifeblood of the team for the rest of war. In this conflict of limited resources, teams will face off using decks built from whatever they have within their vaults. Victors will salvage scraps off their opponents, and the defeated will have to discard some of the cards they hold dear. Each round, Event Cards will appear to alter the usual flow and add new layers of strategy. Teams will recover relics from past wars, which provide useful upgrades and hint at awesome power. And as battles and attrition start demanding their toll, teams will run out of cards in vault and begin to fall. One by one, eleven teams will be defeated. The last one standing will be the victor of War #11, and their element's banner will reign supreme over the forums.
At least, until the next War begins...
How do I join War?
Applying for war is a very easy process. At the very start of any war, War Auctions (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/war-auction/) will be open for posting applications. Please read the Player Auction (http://nup) section for more details. An example application will be posted for your convenience. Make sure you honestly present yourself, your skills and your enthusiasm in your application. Generals are not against bidding on new players, but they really appreciate players with enthusiasm to perform well in war. Since you will be required to use some amount from 7 to 12 upgrades for your deck each round, it is recommended that you either have sufficiently many upgraded cards or a grinder capable of farming the electrum for you each week (and the motivation to grind). And above all, you must be willing to learn from the cool people on your team, and be ready to have fun!
If auction is over but you still would love to be a part of war, there's still a chance! PM the Warmasters your application in order to be considered when a substitute is required.
What follows are the rules describing every aspect of War. Both newer players and old veterans are advised to read it carefully, so that you are familiar with the workings of this intricate event:
1. BUILDING AN ARMY
1.1. GENERALS
War 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 as General, he or she will appoint a replacement General (Sr. Member or above). If a Master does not appoint a General, one will be picked by the Council. Generals start with 32,000 points, which will be used for building their team and their vault.
Masters may still participate as a soldier if they can't commit to generalship.
1.2. PLAYER AUCTION
Players wanting to join War must submit their own War application topic in the War Auction board (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/war-auction), where they should include relevant information. Players may ban up to 3 Elements from bidding on them, however, each ban increases the minimum bid for that player by 50 points. Players must include their in-game name. All War matches must be played by them through that same in-game name. The player/forum account must also mention if they are a 'Hydra' (a forum/game account accessed and controlled by two or more people). For more information, see Section 3.6.3 (#post_hydra)
Players may also select up to 3 favorite Elements. The Generals of these Elements receive small advantages when bidding on that player in the auction.
Banned and favorite Elements may not be changed once bidding starts.
Note: the player auction is a big part of the 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. The only way to get to join a specific team is to convince the General of that element to bid high on you.
Bidding starts with 1-day blind auction, followed by open auction for as long as needed. After the first 24 hours of open auction passes, a clock of ticking doom begins, increasing minimal raise by 5 points every 3 hours. Each General recruits 4 players from the auction. Depending on signups, this may increase to 5 players.
1.2.1. BLIND AUCTION
The blind auction will last 24 hours. During this time, Generals may resend their bids at any time. Only the last PM received from each General will be considered.
All Generals are to send a list of bids to the Warmasters. Generals may blind bid on up to 4 players, as long as they are not on the player's ban list.
All blind bids are limited to the lowest possible bid (e.g. No bans = 50 points, 1 ban = 100 points, 2 bans = 150 points, etc; note that favorite has no effect here). If there is a tie, the General higher on the player's favorite Elements list will be considered to have the higher bid. If none of the tied Generals are on the player's favorite Elements list, these generals have a minimum raise of 50 points on that player in the open auction.
1.2.2. OPEN AUCTION
At the beginning of the open auction, the Warmasters will reveal all bids from the blind auction, and the General who placed them. Generals will bid using the following template: [color=yellow][size=72pt]X points[/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.
After the first 24 hours of open auction passes, a Clock of Ticking Doom begins, increasing minimal raise by 5 points every 3 hours.
The minimum raise is 50 points, plus 20 points if the previous bid was from the blind auction, plus 5 points for each tick of Doom Clock, minus 20 points if the General is on that player's favorite Elements list, or the General currently holds the highest bid. If a player has zero bids at any point in the auction, the ticking doom clock increase will not apply for the first bid.
If the previous bid is 100 points from the open auction, you have to bid 150 points to win, or 130 for favorite Elements or the currently leading General.
If the previous bid is 50 points from the blind auction, you have to bid 120 points to win, or 100 for favorite Elements or the currently leading General.
If the player has zero bids after 4 ticks of Doom clock, you have to bid 50 points to win, or 30 for favorite Elements.
If the player has one bid of 50 points from open auction, after 8 ticks of doom Clock (48-51 hours since start of open auction), you have to bid 140 points to win, or 120 for favorite Elements or the currently leading General.
Generals can only bid on a maximum of 15 different players throughout the entire auction. Generals can bid on these players as many times as they like. They may bid on players even if they already have 4 or more winning bids in place. The maximum total bid is 6,000 points. This means that all winning bids that a general has at some point should not add up to more than 6,000 points. So if a general has 10 winning bids, then all 10 bids must add up to 6,000 points or less.
The universal Clock of Ticking Doom runs during the open auction starting from 24 hours its start (This is the 0th tick). Every 8th tick, if there were no new bids made during the last 24 hours or 8 ticks, the auction is over. If there were new bids made during the last 24 hours, the clock continues for another 24 hours or 8 ticks, with the minimum bid rising steadily. Players that currently have no bids on them will not have a minimum starting bid increase.
Generals win 4 players for whom they bid the most and they were the highest bidder. If there is a tie for highest bidder leftover from the blind auction, the general higher on that player's favorite elements list wins the player. If neither General is on that player's favorite Elements list, the player decides which team to join.
If a General had made the following bids:
Player A - 800 points (highest bidder)
Player B - 750 points (3rd highest bidder)
Player C - 600 points (highest bidder)
Player D - 500 points (highest bidder)
Player E - 500 points (2nd highest bidder)
Player F - 400 points (2nd highest bidder)
Player G - 300 points (highest equal bidder from blind auction, not a favorite Element)
Player H - 200 points (highest equal bidder from blind auction, favorite Element)
They would win players A, C and D because they have the highest bid for those players, and player H as they had the highest-equal bid and were highest in the player's favorite Elements list.
This team would cost 800 + 600 + 500 + 200 = 2,100 points. Generals start with 30,000 points, and the remaining points go towards building the Vault - thus, the team would have 30,000 - 2,100 = 27,900 points to spend on cards for the Vault.
Bidding is essentially a choice between buying expensive veterans and starting with a point disadvantage; buying cheaper, less experienced players but keeping a point advantage; or anything in between.
If a General fails to win the required 4 players, he or she is forced to buy one or more remaining players with a price of the minimum bid that can be made at that time.
2. PREPARATION
2.1. SECRET FORUM SECTION
Each team has a hidden subboard visible only to its members, Warmasters and non-participating Administrators. All discussions held here MUST be kept secret. A player caught telling team secrets to anyone outside their own team will face consequences decided on a case-by-case basis, possibly including being permanently banned from all Elements community PvP Events. Please don't publicly talk about anything that goes on in these boards.
Your secret forum section will contain a "Round Boosts and Rosters" thread. Each round, post the boosts assigned to each soldier in this thread. Also, when your team's matches per round falls below five, you may post the players who will be playing next round in advance in this thread (note that general must play every round).
2.2. MEMBER ROLES
1. General: Responsible for coordinating the team. If a team member is unable to duel, the General should arrange a substitute.
2. Lieutenant: Second in command. They should be the first to fill in for Generals when necessary.
3. Soldiers: The rest of your team. The soldiers will be able to consume certain boosts (described later in this post.)
Mechanically, only the General's role is fixed for a particular person. The lieutenant may be changed from round to round, but must be assigned to someone.
2.3. THE VAULT
The Vault is your heart in War. Not only does it supply cards for deckbuilding, but acts as "hit points" for the team. If a team falls below 50 cards, they will be eliminated. These cards do not include pillars/pendulums/mark cards.
The leftover points after subtracting Auction costs from the initial amount of 32,000 will be used to buy cards to form the team starting Vault. Market prices for cards can be found here. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=64673.msg1265771#msg1265771) You have an infinite supply of pillars/pendulums/mark cards, which do not need to be purchased from the market.
Vault building rules:
- at least 50% of cards in the Vault must be in your Element.
- maximum of 24 per card from your Element
- maximum of 9 per card from other Elements
- you may not have Relics, Pillars, Pendulums or Marks in your Vault.
Cards in the Vault are always unupgraded. During deckbuilding, unupgraded cards may be taken from the Vault, and transformed into upgraded cards for that deck, up to the limits mentioned below. If you move an upgraded card back to the Vault, it becomes unupgraded.
Vault does not need to stick to the first 3 vault-building rules from Round 1 onward.
Important! Vaults are virtual. Players are not given cards taken 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 their account, they cannot use it, even if that card is listed in the Vault. Try to pick cards that your teammates are able to access.
3. STARTING A ROUND
War consists of multiple rounds. Each round lasts one week, and will consist of two phases: Deckbuilding (4 days) and Dueling (3 days.)
3.1. DETERMINING OPPONENTS
The number of cards in the Vault determine how many players from each team participates in a round:
| 0-49 cards | = | team is eliminated |
| 50-74 cards | = | 2 players fight |
| 75-99 cards | = | 3 players fight |
| 100+ | = | 4 players fight |
Opponents will be determined randomly by Warmasters, with the constraints that, if possible, no team will play another team more than once within a given round and no team will face more than two generals in a given round. If there are an uneven number of players fighting during a round, the team which has to field the largest number of players will have a bye, meaning one player in that team will skip the round. If there is more than one team which must field that number of players, then the bye will go to the team which has had the fewest byes so far out of those teams. If there is a tie for the team which has had the fewest number of byes, it will go to the team with the most cards out of those teams.
Duel pairings will be made public by Warmasters. Event Cards designed by Warmasters will be included, which will have a global effect upon all teams during that round.
Every three rounds, Warmasters will include a Super Event Card which will have a effect across three rounds. This will open up mechanics which can encompass multiple rounds.
In rounds 2 and 5, teams are intentionally seeded against teams they did not play in the previous round. In round 3 and 6 teams will be intentionally seeded against the three teams they did not play in round 1 and 2.
3.2. DECKBUILDING
Teams must build a deck for each player fighting during the round. Each Soldier is able to use one boost per round. The boost used must be different than any boost used by another Soldier in the team. These boosts must be submitted in the private board in the "Round Boosts and Rosters" thread. You simply need to say the player name and the boost used.
Extra Upgrades (+2)
Extra Salvage (+2)
Reduced Discard (-2) - This applies to the "Discard from the Vault"("Discards from Deck" if no discards from vault) as per the table in section 4.2.
Tinkerer - Off-Element pendulums now count as your own Element for deckbuilding percentage and upgrade rules. You must use your own team's mark.
Sideboard of 3 cards - the first game must be played with the full deck. Before each match, you must import the deck from vault tool. After the first game, you may remove (up to) 3 cards after importing. If any of the three cards are upgraded, you may reallocate these upgrades elsewhere in the deck. The deck played should always be at least 50% in-Element, and should always contain at least 4 in-Element upgrades. Minimum deck size for the original deck (in vault tool) is 33 cards.
Mercenary - Can only use 4 or fewer Elements in the deck; deck only has to be 40% in-Element.
Gambler - Bet the scoreline (distinguishing between win or loss for your team) on this deck. If the scoreline is exactly right, you win 3 relics. If it's off by one game, you win 1 relic.
Alchemist - Can transmute cards with 2 less dust cost. (see Transmutations (#post_michealbay) for more information )
Deckbuilding rules:
- combining all decks may not use more than the Vault carries. Upgraded cards in decks are counted as unupgraded cards in the vault.
- at least 50% of the cards must be in your Element. "Mark of ..." cards are considered in the element they feature.
- Generals, Lieutenants, and Soldiers may use up to 11,8,4 upgraded cards respectively, with 4 extra in-Element upgraded cards. (So total upgrades are 15,12,8 respectively)
- teams may spend a Relic to grant 1 extra upgrade to a deck. There is no limit to how many Relics may be spent per round, however, Event Cards may change the ability of Relics each round, so pay close attention.
Explicitly Illegal Decks: Teams may title their illegal decks "Suicide". If so, they will not be penalized beyond a 0-3 result.
You must not edit your decks, salvage, discard, etc. after the deckbuilding period ends. Doing so will result in a penalty, regardless of what the change was.
3.3. DUELS
Players will contact their opponent to try find a time that suits both. If the fight does not 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. Please try to clearly contact your opponent by forum PMs and keep screenshots/chatlogs as proof of activity.
Matches are best-of-five, which means that each battle's winner is the first player to win 3 duels. Remember, you must play all duels with the same deck and mark.
3.4. INACTIVE PLAYERS
If it looks like a member won't be able to fight during a round, the team has various options:
1. Temporarily replace a member with any other member. Temporary replacements use the same exact deck, number of upgrades, and mark as recorded for that player. Note: Mark cards in the original deck may be freely changed into their corresponding pillars if the sub doesn't have them.
2. Permanently replace a member with a player who submitted an application, but didn't end up on a team.
3. To permanently replace a General (as leader of the team), every other member must agree that the General needs replacing, and a consensus must be reached on who the new General will be. Warmasters will remove the General from the team at no cost. If a new player needs to be added, see above.
Note that a substitute may not use ANY cards the player they are replacing does not have.
If a team is abusing temporary replacements or substitutions (e.g. not letting players play even when they are available), please inform the WMs immediately with information. Warmasters will consider this on a case-by-case basis.
3.5. DISCONNECTS & DESYNCS
- In the event of a disconnect (Opponent not responding, CPU takes over), the players should play it out vs the AI on both sides (unless both agree to restart the duel).
- If the same player wins in both "games", they are considered the winner of that game. A screenshot of the winning turn vs. the opponent's AI must be provided in order to claim a win or replay.
- In the event both players win or lose, and both present screenshots, a re-duel will be ordered.
- If it is obvious that a game will never end (e.g. if both players have zero net damage output -- where they can both heal off the damage done each turn easily -- and will never deck out, and both players have no means of breaking the stalemate), that game is voided, and players replay.
- If a desynchronization error is detected and leads to weird circumstances, take screenshots immediately. Then the players should replay the match, unless it was clear who was going to win.
- If you lose access to the Elements the Game during a game , the opponent should have the CPU take over, and they should play vs the CPU. If the opponent wins, the game is a loss for the person who lost connection. If the CPU wins, the game should be replayed with same deck and mark, unless the player who lost connection can prove that they'd win despite any series of draws from the opponent.
- All games can be appealed to WMs, but there must be indisputable evidence provided that one player would have clearly won. Whether one player would have clearly won is decided strictly, and providing more information makes it more likely that an accurate ruling will occur.
- Warmasters are the final arbitraters on all matters. If you have any issues, contact WMs IMMEDIATELY.
3.6. ADDITIONAL RULES
3.6.1. MINOR ERRORS
Minor mistakes will not result in automatically losing a match anymore. Instead, the player will be given the opportunity to fix their mistake and complete the match. A card penalty will be imposed due to the mistake, however. These errors include, but aren't limited to: copying the wrong deck from vault, having the wrong mark code in vault deck, assigning someone a deck with mark cards or nymphs they do not own (note that in this case any substitutes won't be able to use these cards either).
If the player detects the error before any cards are played in a duel, he can immediately stop the duel and fix his deck, without any loss in match record. But if any cards were played, that duel counts as a loss due to illegal deck. This is only one lost game though, not a lost match.
3.6.2. UPGRADES AND UNOWNED CARDS
If a player absolutely cannot build a deck with the upgrades required, he must provide proof. Then he may play the match out replacing the upgraded card with unupgraded version.
If a player does not own cards in a deck (either due to a minor error, or while subbing), he must replace mark cards with pillars of that element, and other cards with relic cards. If a mark card was upgraded, the replacement pillar may be upgraded as well. Arrangements will be made for players who do not have sufficient relics.
3.6.3. HYDRAS
In light of previous events, we will be allowing Hydras in this war. This refers to a group of more than one people using the same forum account. If a hydra registers, they must state how many people are part of the account and to what capacity clearly in the application. The hydra can use only one game account, as specified in the application, for all matches.
If anyone is found violating these rules, or if the nature of a hydra account creates disruption to the event, strict action will be taken, which might include major penalties, removal from event (and perhaps all etg forum PvP) and referral to admins for forum warnings/ban.
4. POSTBATTLE
4.1. WINNING A BATTLE
The winner of the duel starts a new topic in the "Battle Results" section, indicating the teams, the member roles, & the score. Member roles are abbreviated (Gen, Lt, Sld). For example if "KingKiller" from :air fights "LordOwner" from :water & wins 3-1, he will start a topic that could be titled in one of the following ways:
(Air Gen) KingKiller 3 - 1 (Water Lt) LordOwner
(Air Gen) KingKiller 3 - 1 LordOwner (Water Lt)
(Air Gen) KingKiller 3 - (Water Lt) LordOwner 1
(Air Sld) KingKiller 3 - 1 (Water Gen) LordOwner
(Air Lt) KingKiller 3 - (Water Sld) (Sub) LordOwner 1 (use SUB to indicate that someone else played instead of LordOwner)
In that topic, KingKiller will post his deck, and should summarize the match. LordOwner will then reply to that same topic with his deck. He may also talk about the battle if he so chooses. Everyone may post in the topics after LordOwner replies.
If the player who played the match is not available to post their deck immediately afterwards, one of their teammates must do it. If this happens, the player should post in the same topic as soon as they are available.
The winning team salvages cards from the opponent's deck. The winning team MUST pick 6 cards to copy from the deck of the losing player into their vault unupgraded. These cards become part of the Vault.
If a deck contains no cards from market, then no cards may be salvaged. Thus all of them must be transmuted.
If a team wins three of its primary matches in a round (not ones due to EC), they will be awarded a relic.
When salvaging cards into your Vault, you may choose to transmute them into cards of your own element instead. The rules for this are detailed below:
4.2. TRANSMUTATIONS
For a specific deck, instead of salvaging the full 6 cards you may choose to transmute some instead. Then these cards are ground down into Transmutation Dust. Transmutation Dust is then used to procure cards of your own element which you have less than 12 of. The rates for this depend on market prices:
| Market Price | 50- | 60-100 | 105-150 | 160+ | Pillars/Pendulums/Marks |
| Dust gained from grounding | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Dust cost to transmute | 5 | 7 | 10 | 13 | N/A |
Note: Transmute happen after Salvage (so no transmuting cards salvaged to an amount above 12 this round).
Also, all the steps in transmuting from a deck happen in the deckbuilding phase where you might salvage from that deck. There is no leftover dust.
By default, you will grind the cards from the deck (left after salvage) which yield the highest amount of dust.
Dust totals are separate for each deck i.e. dust from two separate decks may not be used together to transmute something.
If your dust total leftover for a deck is enough to transmute something, you must transmute it instead of keeping the dust leftover. All leftover dust for a deck is thrown into the void and lost forever.
If a deck contains no cards from market, then no cards may be salvaged. Thus all of them must be transmuted.
4.3. LOSING A BATTLE
When a team loses a battle, they have to discard cards from the deck used and/or the Vault according to the chart below. Cards that are left in the deck after discarding are returned back to Vault. The discards may not be pillars/pendulums/mark cards, as these do not exist in the Vault.
Note: Discards happen before Salvage (so no discarding cards salvaged/transmuted this round).
| Round | Discards from Deck | Discards from Vault | Total Discards |
| 1 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
| 3+ | 15 | 9 | 24 |
- "Discards from Vault" may be chosen from the vault and/or the losing deck.
- "Discards from Deck" may only be chosen from the losing deck. If there is less than the required non-pillar/pendulum/marks cards in the deck, the remaining cards will be taken from the vault.
4.4. WINNING WAR
A team wins War by being the last team standing, or by having the largest vault out of all participants in the last round if none of them remain standing. The winning team of War earns:
- a forum award icon: (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/awards/d5eb9767752e48c1598f1609ff9e0c3d_d5eb9767752e48c1598f1609ff9e0c3d_war8.png)
- the forum "Reigned by" image will be changed to show which Element won
- a Mark/Nymph reward code will be given to each worthy member (as decided by an administrator)
If two or more teams still have at least 50 cards in their Vault, the next round begins.
5. PENALTIES
Penalties are issued when a team somehow breaks the rules or disrupts War. A penalized team must discard from their Vault at the round's end. The following are guidelines, and Warmasters will determine penalties on a case-by-case basis.
Minor penalty: 5 cards. For small mistakes which do not disrupt the course of the event.
Medium penalty: 20 cards. For larger infractions which cause minor delays to the event.
Major penalty: 40 cards. For major infractions which seriously disrupt the event.
BACKROOM DEALS
Conspiring with other teams is forbidden. Even discussing already public information ruins the spirit of the event, making it less fun for everybody.
HAVE FUN!
War is a very exciting event and, despite being a lot to take in at first, is a fantastic opportunity for newer players to drastically improve their skills by working closely with experienced veterans. While the main appeal of War may be total Elemental domination, the primary goal for all players should be nice and simple - have fun!
To see how War is in reality, visit the War Archive subboard (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,175.0.html). Some things were done differently during previous Wars, but the same principles remain.
If the same player wins in both "games", they are considered the winner of that game. A screenshot of the winning turn vs. the opponent's AI must be provided in order to claim a win or replay.
What if on the winning turn the opponent had say a fog shield and the game was determined by that turn making the screenshot unable to prove that the player who took the "winning" screenshot won?