David White
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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We had a couple of questions related to the use of shovels/researchers, and the use of rumors during the final tally.
1. The rules state that a single researcher card is good for one extra knowledge point during a dig, but the card must then be discarded. If you have two researchers, you still get only a single additional knowledge point, but you can reuse the cards during any future dig.
Is it possible for a player who has two researchers to "de-couple" them - that is, treat both of them as a single-use extra knowledge point? Or once you have two of them, do you have to use them as a two-card combo which cannot be broken apart?
And if it is possible, then is it possible to de-couple them on the same dig (i.e. announce "I'm going to use each of these researcher cards to give me an extra knowledge point (for 2 points total) on this dig, after which I will discard both cards."
(same question applies to shovels)
2. At the end of the game, victory points are awarded to the player who has the most specialized knowledge in each dig area. Do rumor cards in the players' hands count towards that tally, or only book cards/tokens?
Thanks!
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B L
United States
Apple Valley
Minnesota
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dswhite42 wrote:
1. The rules state that a single researcher card is good for one extra knowledge point during a dig, but the card must then be discarded. If you have two researchers, you still get only a single additional knowledge point, but you can reuse the cards during any future dig.
Yes you can.
dswhite42 wrote:
Is it possible for a player who has two researchers to "de-couple" them - that is, treat both of them as a single-use extra knowledge point? Or once you have two of them, do you have to use them as a two-card combo which cannot be broken apart?
Yes you can.
dswhite42 wrote:
And if it is possible, then is it possible to de-couple them on the same dig (i.e. announce "I'm going to use each of these researcher cards to give me an extra knowledge point (for 2 points total) on this dig, after which I will discard both cards."
Yes you can.
dswhite42 wrote:
(same question applies to shovels)
2. At the end of the game, victory points are awarded to the player who has the most specialized knowledge in each dig area. Do rumor cards in the players' hands count towards that tally, or only book cards/tokens?
Thanks!
No they don't count.
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David White
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Thank you - that helped clarify our actions for tonight's gaming session!
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David White
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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Oops - and now I'm no longer sure that we're right about that de-coupling thing. The rules say that you can use and burn a single assistant or shovel card "if a player has only one (assistant/shovel)". So it seems like once you have 2 or 3 of them, you can no longer decouple them for one-shot use.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/199458/burning-additional-sh...
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B L
United States
Apple Valley
Minnesota
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dswhite42 wrote: ... The rules say that you can use and burn a single assistant or shovel card "if a player has only one (assistant/shovel)". ...
The rules do say that on page 5. My take on this is that the rules don't specifically state you can't de-pair or de-triple assistants (or shovels) which to me means it is allowed. My feeling are the fact that "if a player has only one" is stressed is to emphasize that you can still use them even though you don't get to keep them. If the intention was that you couldn't de-pair or de-triple them why not write: "If a player has one and only one assistant..." after all they could have written it that way and not added any addition lines to the paragraph. To further my point, why would Peter write the rule to be ambiguous if he didn't want players to not be able to de-pair or de-triple. If he really didn't want players to be able to do that, there would be not doubt about it in the rules.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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The rules say "if you have only one" you can use it and discard it. You don't have only one, you have two. So the rules expressly say you can't do that.
There's no need for "one and only one", because "only one" says the exact same thing.
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Andrew MacLeod
Canada
London
Ontario
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Ah, how I do love the clarity and conciseness of the English translation of the Thebes rules!
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B L
United States
Apple Valley
Minnesota
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UnknownParkerBrother wrote: The rules say "if you have only one" you can use it and discard it. You don't have only one, you have two. So the rules expressly say you can't do that.
There's no need for "one and only one", because "only one" says the exact same thing.
Not when you look at it in context. The context of the rule is: if you have 2 assistants you receive 1 more point of knowledge, if you have 3 assistants you receive 2 more points of knowledge. The rules for 1 assistant are in the next paragraph. Why aren't the rules in the format of if you have 1 assistant this is what you can do, 2 assistants this is what you can do, 3 assistants this is what you can do.
I'm guessing that the rules don't factor in that someone would want to use 2 or 3 as individuals and discard them.
Just to note, the rules quote you have doesn't match what is in my rulebook so there may have been a change.
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Grape Ape wrote: Not when you look at it in context. The context of the rule is: if you have 2 assistants you receive 1 more point of knowledge, if you have 3 assistants you receive 2 more points of knowledge. The rules for 1 assistant are in the next paragraph. Why aren't the rules in the format of if you have 1 assistant this is what you can do, 2 assistants this is what you can do, 3 assistants this is what you can do.
The context is determining knowledge points.
It seems explicit to me, in the English version of the rules, that discarding an assistant for one point is permissible only if a player has a single assistant.
The English rules state (emphasis not mine):
Quote: "If a player has only one assistant, he may use this single card for 1 point of special knowledge for an excavation."
If a player has two assistants, then they specifically do not have "only one" assistant, so the effect doesn't apply based on this wording.
While the info on the card reference for assistants is ambiguous on the issue,
Quote: "When used alone, 1 assistant gives the player 1 point of special knowledge in any region, but is discarded after use."
I believe the section in the rulebook should be treated as the definitive rule, because the card reference is just that, a reference.
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