I think it's fine checking the map in the map editor while you play. It just let you see all the points of interest and let you plan out your stragey. If any map that needs to be play blind, then say so in the header. In that case, no one is allowed to see the map while playing. That's just my opinion.

The case is pretty clear. The rule against checking the map while playing is considered an optional house rule and should therefore not be assumed unless explicitly mentioned in the description of the game. Here is the link to the thread on house rules:

http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=4,629

I think the same than Zsaber81

I don't do it, but I see no cheating in it as well.

I remember that there was a discussion about this long time before and based on that I actually did assume same as Nosferon, even though the written house rules are very clear about it. Perhaps we could try to solve the confusion if the game master would write to the correspondent game description (the game thread post), whether the game is played blind or not?

And what happened with the attack and withdraw bug abuse rule with ballistae? Did we ever agree to ban that as a standard or is it still a optional gentleman/-woman rule?

Here is a suggestion for updated standard and optional house rules that in my opinion better reflects the practice and interests of the community. Please comment. In particularly I would like input on whether the rule on incarnates should remain a standard house rule since I believe it makes them almost useless.

STANDARD HOUSE RULES

The following etiquette and house rules are almost universally observed in both competitive and friendly games. They should be assumed during any PBEM game unless there has been an explicit statement before the game is started that they do not apply.

• Do not restart the same turn to gain an advantage. You may not overwrite and then reload a partially played turn in order to replay the turn, or any part of the turn.
  
• Explain restart messages. If you generate a restart message on your turn, especially during turns with key battles, then explain the circumstances regarding the restart message to your opponents.
  
• Do not look ahead to the next player's turn. You may not load games from your Emailout directory in order to look at the next player's turn regardless of whether your opponent uses a password or not.
  
• Do not attack on the same turn that you declare war. After declaring war against an opponent with whom you are at peace you must wait at least one turn before attacking them. This rule does not apply if there is no initial diplomatic status between the two opponents. This rule does not apply to diplomacy with AI controlled opponent.
  
• Do not declare war on the same turn that you break alliance. After breaking an alliance you must wait at least one turn before declaring war against your former ally. This rule does not apply to diplomacy with AI controlled opponent.
  
• Do not use the dominate/charm/seduce and disband cheat to gain extra experience. Experience points are awarded for dominating, charming and seducing units. If you control a unit with the one of these abilities, you may not use that unit to repeatedly gain control of and disband units for the purpose of gaining experience points. It is understood that some enemy units may be controlled during Fast Combat, or as part of tactical strategy during Tactical Combat. These units may be Disbanded and slain, but may not be controlled a second time. Use Tactical Combat when you are slaying them to ensure that they are not controlled unintentionally during Fast Combat.
  
• Do not use the Incarnate Possess/Disband cheat to gain extra movement points. You may not use the Incarnate Possess/Disband cheat which is commonly used with Archers in order to gain movement points from the possessed unit, and move your Incarnate an almost unlimited number of times per turn.
  
• The use of the free movement spell on ships (transport ships, dragon ships, galleys and galleons) is not allowed. The developers never anticipated the use of the Free Movement spell on ships. These free moving ships can unbalance the game, and are therefore not allowed.

OPTIONAL HOUSE RULES

The following etiquette and house rules are sometimes used, but should not be assumed.

• Do not look in the editor to locate points of interest on the map. You may not load the map you are playing in the editor, and then shift between the game and the editor in order to "explore" the map more efficiently.
  
• You may not retreat from a tactical combat in which you have attacked, shot at or used any spell or ability on enemy units unless at least one of your units have taken damage. This optional rule is sometimes used to prevent a skilled human player from destroying any number of enemy units in tactical combat with just two ranged units by repeatedly attacking, getting a shot in and retreating.

[This message has been edited by Kanibeos (edited 08-27-2014 @ 05:37 PM).]

Also, what's with the weird layout of the last standard and optional house rule? Can anyone help me correct this?

Many thanks to Laplace_demon for helping me fix the layout.

Good idea include those rules we always use in the standard rules. Also remember not to assume an optional rule if it is not listed in the game description.

I personally think the last optional house rule where you use tactical combat to take advantage of AI troops should be listed as standard house rule. The use of maybe just a couple long ranged units can take out unlimited amount of AI troops can most likely unbalance the game. It's time consuming and skillful to use two ballistas to kill stacks of level 4 units as long the ai troops don't have long ranged. But it's very much doable. This issue was brought up a couple years ago when I was playing a game. I just think we already abuse the ai quite a bit with tactical combat, we shouldn't overly abuse them. I'm willing to hear what everybody else think about this issue.

I agree completely with Zsaber here. The possession abuse is so much more unlikely to ever take place in a game, that I would almost recommend that we change that rule to optional one and take the "ballistae-rule" as standard house rule, because that if something really ruins the atmosphere and mood of the game.

What I have noticed aswell is that even though the first two house rules can't be highlighted enough, it seems that way too many people have way too often unexplainable restarts in their turns. Perhaps we could clarify the rules, indicating very clearly what sanctions does turn restarting for better advantage (or breaking any other house rules, for that matter) lead to? We are abit short on forum admins and moderators here in AoW1 section nowdays, so we may need to figure out some alternatives to account banning.

Thoughts?

The community is very divided on the attack-retreat rule. I personally don't use it for the games I start but would be willing to join games using the rule. I don't think it would make sense to have a standard house rule that is not used in more than half of the games in here. Rules that are only sometimes used are better listed as optional house rules.

About the unexplained restarts I have considered making lists of how often they occur for different players and banning those for whom they occur often from my games. I just never got around to it since it seemed like a lot of work.

Does anyone disagree with changing the possession rule to optional?

My point is that while you are playing the game it should be
expected that you use the resources that you have IN GAME.
Vision gives you information about locations and is a valuable
resource. Something you have to work for. Checking the map
OUTSIDE of game gives you maximum of this resource and
makes exploring unneccessary. This also makes Vision I and II
as well as the Eagle Eye spell absolutely worthless part of
the game.

I agree to have that rule mentioned by the game master, cause
it really looks weird when some "scout" crosses the map,
avoiding all the difficulties and goes streight to a town of his
own race and joins it to his kingdom...

I understand your point, Nosferon. But I don't think there's a clear answer to what you should be expected to use in a game of AoW. Or rather; we decide what we want to expect people to use. My main reason for preferring not to use the rule is that I believe it makes the game hinge a lot on how well the participants studied the map before playing and how good their memory is. I prefer those factors to be completely irrelevant. It also gives a great advantage to those who happen to be playing other games on the same map at the same time and those who are very familiar with the map from earlier games. I also prefer these factors to be irrelevant. If it were possible to start games in which none of the contestants had any previous knowledge of the map and no way of getting knowledge of it while playing then that would be great. But that's very rarely possible.

I agree that checking the map while playing makes the vision spell almost useless. But I don't consider this a great problem. Most of the spells in AoW are never used. Vision is certainly useful because of fog of war. Vision IV has often meant the difference between life and death for my heroes who through their vision avoided traps.

Do you really disagree that the standard rules should be those used in all or almost all games, not those which match the preferences of a part of the community?

Another reason that I prefer not using the rule is that I have very little confidence that the rule will be followed by those who disagree with it.

You made some good point about the more experienced players, who already
played the map more times. I don't vote on sticking to a rule. To me, using
all means possible to achieve better strategy sometimes kills the fun. But I
respect other people choices, so the only thing that I think could be changed
is adding some small message abou it when building a game.

STANDARD HOUSE RULES

The following etiquette and house rules are almost universally observed in both competitive and friendly games. They should be assumed during any PBEM game unless there has been an explicit statement before the game is started that they do not apply.

• Do not restart the same turn to gain an advantage. You may not overwrite and then reload a partially played turn in order to replay the turn, or any part of the turn.
  
• Explain restart messages. If you generate a restart message on your turn then explain the circumstances regarding the restart message to your opponents.
  
• Do not look ahead to the next player's turn. You may not load games from your Emailout directory in order to look at the next player's turn regardless of whether your opponent uses a password or not.
  
• Do not attack on the same turn that you declare war. After declaring war against an opponent with whom you are at peace you must wait at least one turn before attacking them. This rule does not apply if there is no initial diplomatic status between the two opponents. This rule does not apply to diplomacy with AI controlled opponent.
  
• Do not declare war on the same turn that you break alliance. After breaking an alliance you must wait at least one turn before declaring war against your former ally. This rule does not apply to diplomacy with AI controlled opponent.
  
• Do not use the dominate/charm/seduce and disband cheat to gain extra experience. Experience points are awarded for dominating, charming and seducing units. If you control a unit with the one of these abilities, you may not use that unit to repeatedly gain control of and disband the same units for the purpose of gaining experience points. It is understood that some enemy units may be controlled during Fast Combat, or as part of tactical strategy during Tactical Combat. These units may be Disbanded and slain, but may not be controlled a second time. Use Tactical Combat when you are slaying them to ensure that they are not controlled unintentionally during Fast Combat.
  
  
• The use of the free movement spell on ships (transport ships, dragon ships, galleys and galleons) is not allowed. The developers never anticipated the use of the Free Movement spell on ships. These free moving ships can unbalance the game, and are therefore not allowed. Use of the wind walking spell on ships is allowed.
  

OPTIONAL HOUSE RULES

The following etiquette and house rules are sometimes used, but should not be assumed.

• Do not look in the editor to locate points of interest on the map. You may not load the map you are playing in the editor, and then shift between the game and the editor in order to "explore" the map more efficiently.
  
• Do not attack and retreat repeatedly. You may not retreat from a tactical combat in which you have attacked, shot at or used any spell or ability on enemy units unless at least one of your units have been attacked, shot at or the subject of a spell or ability by an enemy unit. The exception to the above is if either you or your enemy is unable to deal further damage. It is also forbidden to draw the same enemy stack into a tactical combat more than twice each turn. This optional rule is sometimes used to prevent a skilled human player from destroying any number of enemy units in tactical combat with just two units by repeatedly attacking, getting a shot in and retreating.
  
• Do not use the Incarnate Possess/Disband cheat to gain extra movement points. You may not use the Incarnate Possess/Disband cheat which is commonly used with Archers in order to gain movement points from the possessed unit, and move your Incarnate an almost unlimited number of times per turn.
  

[This message has been edited by Kanibeos (edited 09-01-2014 @ 11:13 AM).]

I have clarified and added a few technicalities. Please comment.