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Apparently they don't use fortresses in CA.

Apparently they don't use fortresses in CA.

Thats actually because that was made before forts :p

I play cali style except I put forts, setaside stuff, arts and rescued souls on the far right. I find doing it that way makes things less jumbled.

At nationals this year, I didn't see a single person playing their cards in the exact style listed in the rulebook.  Everyone has their own unique style.  There were PILES of heroes here and spread out fortresses there, and forts and sites and artifacts vertical, and decks horizonatal, and discard piles far from decks, and redeemed souls on opposide side of decks (or even on top of deck boxes) rather than above the deck, etc.

On multiple occasions, I saw ECs that were half in the hero row and half in the EC row, and it was impossible for me to tell if they had been converted or not.  I also saw a couple battles going on where it was impossible to determine which heroes were actually in battle, since the hero row was sloppily arranged and was scattered so far forward on the table.  There were heroes in battle that were no closer to the field of battle than the ones in territory.

In 2-player games, it makes much more sense to me to play CA style.  There is a CLEAR distinction when an EC gets converted.  There is a clearer distinction between territory and field of battle.  There is more room in the field of battle.

In multi-player, I still prefer CA style, though its benefits are not as obvious.

It is disorienting to not know whether a character is converted or not, and to not know if a character is in battle or not, and to not know whether a lost soul is rescued or not.  All of those are clarified with CA style.  The "standard" style (which is a misnomer if ever there was one) requires deep tables and careful neatness on the part of all players to avoid confusion.

I'v been saying this for years.  I think it saves space 2 lines instead of 3.

My layout for the last 13 or so years has been the following (adding sites, artifacts and fortresses as they started existing):



I always keep my territory as gridlike as possible, because that's how I roll. There isn't any confusion when your territory is neat; the ones next to the artifacts are Heroes, the ones next to the Fortresses are ECs (and those converted characters often have some bead or token on them anyways).

Can we all atleast agree that my style is the best and the only reason not to use it is due to the fact you're a bad player that doesn't want to wreck my style's awesomesaucenessitude.

My final opinion on the matter is this: We shouldn't man date anyone. Except Morgan Freeman. <3.

Absolutely nothing should go behind the deck, ever. End of story. I don't have anything behind my deck in my image. That is actually my biggest problem with California style. I've never played someone that used California style, but I have played people who had their LOB behind their deck. On small tables it isn't a big deal, but on normal sized tables their deck will obstruct my view until they deck out beings I'm 3 feet tall.

And I play Ring Wraith irl at almost every tournament. My style is different than his I'm pretty sure.

And I play Ring Wraith irl at almost every tournament. My style is different than his I'm pretty sure.

we have the same style. I like it a lot.

I still think that man dating is wrong considering 90% of the board members are male. Why is everyone avoiding that point?

Quote from: Bryon on August 18, 2010, 04:04:29 AM

and to not know whether a lost soul is rescued or not.  

I will argue this point until the cows come home, And honestly it is one of the biggest problems that I have with CA style -
Both lost and redeemed souls are on the same level - Almost every other style of play that I have seen has these two on different levels, even if you do something different with your other cards I feel redeemed souls should always be forward of lost souls.

Redeemed souls are with the heroes, on the right side of the deck, and turned sideways (to show they are no longer lost, but are redeemed, and thus hangin' out with the heroes).

Lost souls are with the evil characters, on the left side of your deck, and vertical.

There has never been an issue at our tournaments about knowing whether a lost soul was redeemed or not for someone who was using CA style.

How would we decide which format to use?  vote on it?

There is no standard way, and there doesn't need to be one.  What one person likes does not match what another prefers, etc.  Just pay attention to the cards on the table.  If you have a preference as a judge, you can teach new players to place things in a certain way, and you will have near uniformity at your little gatherings.

What is going to be great is that, when Redemption online happens, you can choose to see your opponent's cards in whichever arrangement you like.

I think people should keep their stuff organized and easier to look at and find everything and attack.  To purposely mess up your cards to try to confuse your opponent is just lame.  If you gotta do that to win, that's just sad.

Daniel