Frank Otte
Germany
Münster
Nordrhein-Westfalen
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A strange timing issue arose in our recent session of Vasco da Gama: the rules say, that you can launch a ship (= paying the sailors and flipping the tile) at _any_ time. The paid sailors (as long as they are not missionaries) are put back into the bag. The question now is: can you manipulate the placement of new sailors at the end of a round by that rule? Example:
I have a not yet launched ship which needs three sailors in front of me, and I have also three different sailors: green, orange, purple. The two leftmost window sections at the end of a round have both one sailor left, the leftmost has a purple sailor, the second has a grey sailor. Furthermore I know, that exactly four orange sailors are left in the bag. That is easily recognized without looking into the bag, because all player sailors are open.
I want, that the second section window gets my three sailors (for example, because then are four different sailors there, which I need for another ship). So I do the following: I wait during the replenishment, until 3 of the 4 orange sailors are drawn. Then I say: "One moment, I launch my ship", to put my three sailors back into the bag (since I can do it ANY time). THEN, drawing sailors continues and since only my three sailors and one orange sailors is left in the bag, chances are high, that the right ones are drawn for the second section window. Allowed?
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Nate Simons
United States
Johnston
Iowa
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If I'm understanding this correctly, you are saying there are ONLY 4 orange sailors in the bag?
Taking the rules as they are, I would say this is legal for you to stop during the replenishment of sailors to launch one of your ships and then continue. However, I find it highly unlikely the scenario that you have just played out. For there to be 4 soldiers in the bag and ONLY 4 soldiers in the bag would mean that 28 soldiers would have to be taken and still sitting out in front of other players for lack of launched ships. Unless all opponents were in some sort of waiting game, I don't see how this is possible.
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Frank Otte
Germany
Münster
Nordrhein-Westfalen
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Although becoming low of sailors in the bag was not unusual in our recent plays and there is a rule for running out of sailors, my specific example stands for a slightly more general question, namely to manipulate the drawing chances and drawing positions of sailor colors by launching ships at very special times during the replenishment process.
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Brian Brokaw
United States
Hillsboro
Oregon
It's not a damn moped!
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I don't think the rules state that you can interrupt sailor replenishment do they? I would think this type of action (INTERRUPTING another game mechanic, MID-mechanic) would need to be explicitly allowed.
I know that designer's use terms like "at any time" a lot, but you need to use some common sense and don't try to "game" the system... IMHO
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Frank Otte
Germany
Münster
Nordrhein-Westfalen
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Well, what's an uninterruptable game mechanic transaction, which can only be performed complete or not at all in this game? The complete replenishment of the sailors (or until the bag is empty)? The replenishment of a single section window? Or even the draw of a single sailor?
Indeed many game designers make again and again the mistake to allow something "at any time in the game" which almost always leads to timing problems.
It would have been easy to say, "Launching a ship is allowed directly before or after an own action or, at the end of the game, but at no other time.", like other more consistently written rules do it.
But without such a sentence, it stays unclear, what is allowed at this point. Once the situation of a nearly empty bag in conjunction with an unlaunched project at the time of sailor replenishment arose, the idea of "controlling" the sailorplacement by launching projects step by step came to us immediately. It didn't seem to us like "hacking the game" and I wonder why the designers didn't foresee such an obvious idea.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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I wouldn't allow this.
Generally, my personal feelings are that player actions only take place during that player's turn. That's what "any time" means, it means any time during the time period where you are allowed to making decisions, as opposed to "only in phase 1", "after drawing cards", etc.
When it's my turn, it's not your turn. You have to wait. I sure as heck don't want to be playing my turn and having someone interrupt me "(Wait, after you play that card and move your 1st meeple, but before you move your second, I'm going to take an action"). I'm liable to forget where I was, what I wanted to do, etc.
Then you get into the whole "I was trying to do my action in between your two actions, but you went so quickly that you started your second action even though I had interrupted you, and now you've ruined the effect my action would had..." 
I find that games where you can interrupt other players on their turns always make it explicit in their rules or card text. With more than just "any time" wording.
I'm also always hesitant to interrupt "administration". The "end of round" stuff isn't really game time, it's preparation and busywork that takes place in between game actions. It's intermission time, the game clock isn't running at that point.
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Michael Caraway
United States
Kansas City
Missouri
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It is recommended that all of the above rule interpretations be applied and tried before throwing the game off of a building.
Missing components makes playing the game correctly exponentially more difficult. 
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