WAR
Thirty Two Players, Eight Elements. One victorious team.
Who will rise to the top?
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, 8 Generals, one for each element besides
, choose a team of three soldiers in an exciting auction. Then these teams of four 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 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 #14, 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 will be open for posting applications. Generals are not against bidding on new players, but they really appreciate players with enthusiasm to perform well in war.
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 ARMY1.1. GENERALSWar will have 8 Generals, one for each Element besides
. 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
300 cards, 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 AUCTIONPlayers wanting to join War must start their own War application topic in the
War Auction board.
Players may ban up to 2 elements from bidding on them. However, each ban increases the minimum bid for that player by
5 cards. Players must include their in-game name. All war matches must be played by them through that same in-game name.
Applications cannot change once bidding starts.
There are no guarantees you will be drafted by who you want. Drafted players who refuse to participate will be removed from the event & banned from next War.- players may have up to 2 bans and up to 2 favourites
- min bid is 5 + 5*number_of_bans
- max bid is 40 cards
- minimum raise is 5, although generals may always bid 40
- generals may not have more than 2 winning bids at any given time. Tied max bids count as winning bids
- if a player did not receive a bid in the last 24 hours, the player is locked on the current winning general. If a player has multiple max bids at that deadline, the favourite will win by default. If multiple favourites or no favourites, the player gets to choose. If the player does not make a choice in 24 hours, the choice will be randomized by WMs. No additional bids can be made while the player is making their decision
2. PREPARATION2.1. SECRET FORUM SECTIONEach team has a hidden subboard visible only to its members, Warmasters, and non-participating Administrators. All discussions held here MUST be kept secret.
Your secret forum section will contain a "Round Boosts and Rosters" thread. Each round, post the boosts assigned to each soldier in this thread.
2.2. MEMBER ROLES1. General: Responsible for coordinating the team.
2. Soldiers: The rest of your team. The soldiers will be able to consume certain boosts (described later in this post.)
2.3. THE VAULTThe 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 80 cards, they will be eliminated. These cards do not include pillars/pendulums/mark cards.
The leftover cards after subtracting Auction costs from the initial amount of
300 will be used to buy cards to form the team starting Vault. You have an infinite supply of pillars/pendulums/mark cards, which do not need to be purchased from the market.
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.
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 ROUNDWar 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 OPPONENTSOpponents 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.
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.
3.2. DECKBUILDINGTeams 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. Spoiler for Boosts:
Lieutenant Upgrades (+3)
Extra Salvage (+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.
Mercenary - Deck only has to be 40% in-Element.
Gambler - Salvages 3 Upgrade Tokens for winning their match.
Alchemist - Can transmute cards with a 1:1 ratio. (see
Transmutations for more information)
- 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. Non-elemental cards besides Quantum Pillar are considered in-element.
- each card has an unupgraded & upgraded 'upgrade modifier'. The sum of a deck's upgrade modifiers must not be below zero. A reference of the upgrade modifier tables can be found here.
- Generals and Soldiers are given 12 and 6 upgrade points respectively.
- teams may spend a Upgrade Token to grant 1 extra upgrade point to a deck. There is no limit to how many Upgrade Tokens may be spent per round, however, Event Cards may change the ability of Upgrade Tokens each round, so pay close attention.
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. DUELSPlayers 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 PLAYERSIf 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. For Player 4 matches, at least 2 of the team members must be able to field the deck.
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 RULES3.6.1. MINOR ERRORS Minor mistakes will not result in automatically losing a match. 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 CARDSIf 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. HYDRASIn 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.
4. POSTBATTLE4.1. WINNING A BATTLEThe
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 "LordOwner" from
fights "KingKiller" from
& wins 3-1, he will start a topic titled like so:
(Water Lt) LordOwner 3 - 1 (Air Gen) KingKiller, or if they were subbed,
(Water Sld) (Sub) LordOwner 3 - 1 (Air Lt) KingKiller (use SUB to indicate that someone else played instead of LordOwner)
In that topic, LordOwner will post his deck, and should summarize the match. KingKiller 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 KingKiller replies.
If the player who played the match is not available to post their deck immediately afterwards, one of their teammates must do it.
The winning team salvages cards from the opponent's deck. The winning team picks
6 cards to copy from the deck of the losing player into their vault unupgraded. These cards become part of the Vault. If the reesult was a 3-0 win,
7 cards are salvaged instead.
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 an upgrade token.When salvaging cards into your Vault, you may choose to transmute them instead. The rules for this are detailed below:
4.2. TRANSMUTATIONSFor a specific deck, instead of salvaging the full 6 cards you may choose to transmute some instead. Two cards from salvage can be transmuted into any card. You may transmute as many pairs as were salvaged.
4.3. LOSING A BATTLEWhen 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).
- "Discards" 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 are taken from vault.
4.4. WINNING WARA 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:
- 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 80 cards in their Vault, the next round begins.
5. PENALTIESPenalties 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 DEALSConspiring 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!
