RAH Rules: The Rules Keep Rolling On.

[ColdWizard]

Obedient as always to my elders' wishes, here is yet another new thread. New readers that missed the first three threads may want to read them, as they help illustrate how these rules have evolved, though the last two have been somewhat spam infested (links are in part 6. of this post). Settings are listed first, followed by what's not allowed and allowed, some quotes from rah on how the rules got started, a brief glossary, and some reference threads for additional reading.


1. Settings
Level: Deity
Barbarians: Raging Hordes
Production: 2x
Movement: 1x
Map size: 39x49 for 4 player, 37x47 or smaller for 3 player (map size varies, the only consistent factor is TINY ROCK)
Landmass: Large
Landform: Continents
Climate: Wet
Temp: Cool
Age: 3 Billion
# of Civs: 4 (ideal, 3 if necessary), no AI
Time limit: None
Huts
Turn-based

2. Special stipulations
2a. Not Allowed: Taking too long on your turn without good reason, Stealing Shields (see section 5.), unsinkable boats and non-crashing aircraft, contact with ai (see below), city bribes (see below), alliances, wonder trading, unit teleporting (includes caravans), tech trading, blatant cheats (map peeking, non-unit creation, sabotage proofing, cheat-o-matic, lag-related cheats, etc.), caravan re-homing, selling improvements/disbanding units after losing the city/unit, building the Great Wall in games of 3 players or less, hard feelings.

Contact with AI - One more addition when someone drops and the AI takes over. You many not initiate contact and you must refuse all contact with the AI.

NO city bribe - If the barbs take a city, you OR anyone else may bribe it. BUT, If someone drops out of the game and the AI takes over, and bribes one of your cities. Only the person that owned the city may bribe it back, since it normally shouldn't have been bribed in the first place. AND others should refrain from conquering the city until the original players has taken back control.

2b. Allowed: Incessant whining (see below), automated settlers, incremental buying, black clicking, tech stealing agreements, trade agreements (to allow caravans to be delivered), all other player arrangements (any agreements can broken when advantageous), all wonders (Great Wall is only allowed in games with 4 or more players, other wonders may be banned in duels on player agreement), pre-worked settlers, selling improvements/disbanding units before losing the city/unit, diploguiding, Scouse Gits' Magic Hut Finder Program (see below).

Incessant whining - mandatory while enjoying superior starting position with multiple trade specials, especially to annoy those less skillful.

The Hut/Special Finder - don't use it during your turn!

2c. Other: Restart on Artic Start (see section 5.), restart when host gets techs, try not to penalize player drops (reloading if necessary). Airbases, allowed only as real airbases, not allowed in
city radius nor allowed to build a line of them to block air lanes.

3. rules.txt Modifications: Oracle expires with Industrialization.

4. Origination of (as posted by rah)
They are not called RAH rules because I made them up. They have just evolved over time with the group that we play with. The only reason they are called that is because in the early day's i had the fastest machine and a cable modem, therefore, I usually hosted. And they know the name annoys me
[and more from another thread]
Sounds like our early games with XIN, right after MP came out. We all cheated, trying to figure out what we could do. Every 30 minutes or so, XIN would say, found another one. It was always hilarious. After a couple of months we started to discuss which ones we would allow and which ones were banned. That was the beginning of "RAH" rules.

5. Glossary - definitions provided by: Ming, Scouse Git[1], rah, smash, Xin Yu.
Artic Start - defined by starting on the artic with no accessibility to the main continent within 3 squares of your opening position.
caravan re-homing - unlike normal units you cannot hit the 'h' key to change the home of a caravan - however the 'support from this city' option is available from within the city screen - this has led people to believe that rehoming is not an intended feature and hence is a cheat -- the advantage -- imagine all your caravans - even those produced by a poxy 2-city - being rehomed to your size 24 SSC and sent - well anywhere you like!!!
the cheat-o-matic - is a tsr that allows the game parameters to be changed on the fly while the game is running.
diplo-guiding - using a diplomat or spy (or other unit that ignores ZOC) to lead other units through an enemy's zones of control.
disbanding units - disbanding units in anticipation of losing the unit to bribery is allowed so long as it's done before the bribery occurs.
non unit creation - Move a unit from the city that it is homed to, to another city. Now this requires good timing. Open the screen to home it to the new city. Now wait till the machine is switching over to your turn, quickly press the homing selection. If you catch it right, the unit will not home to the new city but become a non-unit.
pre-worked settlers - You start a settler working on something, (like transforming grassland to forest, anything that takes longer than a turn)
Now before he finishes, clear the command. THe turns that he spent working are "saved up" the next command you give him, (if you planned it right) will allow it to be completed in one turn. Hence the term, "pre-worked". This was more useful in 1x1x games for fortress building. In 2x1x games a fortress can be built in one turn, so it's not as critical. BUT it still has many uses. Let's suppose you're sending a settler out to convert some terrain. But barbs pop up so you hold him
near a city for a turn to clear out the barbs. He can start his task and move out later without wasting any time overall.
Sabotage proofing - is similar [to non-unit creation]. when a diplo approaches your city, open the build queue and make ready to buy the item. When the diplo sabotages production, The shields that you had will still be in the box. Buy it up. No lose of shields.
Selling improvements - Selling an improvement in anticipation of losing a city to enemy attack is allowed as long as the sale is conducted prior to the loss of the city.
Stealing Shields - Suppose you have several cities close to one another. If you have all units stationed in these cities hosted by the first of which (in establishing sequence), maybe you can save the maintainance shields for them by re-host units while processing cities. Here's a demonstration. You have 3 cities A B C, in which A is your first city. All of your units in cities B and C are hosted by A. You rush build non-military units or buildings in B and C so that at the beginning of the next turn you'll be sent to city screens of B and C. While in city screens, you re-host units inside cities to B and C, respectively. Since B and C are processed before A, you save the maintainance shields for those units. You then move units in B and C back to A and re-host them before moving back, so that you can save again the next turn. Use of this trick to produce wonders in the same turn as discovering the requisite tech is also disallowed.
Unit teleporting - During your turn, you can move a unit... then gift it to your partner. He then gives it back to you and you can move it again in the same turn. Repeat... You can have unlimited movement. Really nice when you want to move a diplo in on some city.
Unsinkable boats - its done by just moving 2 spaces [or 1 less than its available movement], press W(wait) and using the end turn keyboard shortcut. Same techinque that is used to keep missiles and planes aloft forever if you want.

6. Reference threads
Xin Yu's FoA Thread - Xin's role in the development of disallowed exploits.
A couple of thoughts - More Xin
Settings Preferences thread - rah posts up rah rules, and the origination of such rules.
RAH rules: Description and Origination of - the first thread.
RAH rules: The Continuing Evolution - the second thread
RAH rules: The Neverending Saga - the third thread
CHEATS (ver 3.0) Hosted by Ming - Ming's great big list of cheats.
Scouse Gits' Hut and Special Finder 1.4 - It's all SG(2)'s fault .
The current setting up IP games thread - where most of the proponents of RAH rules find games, including the infamous rah himself!

[Ming]

As always, your response to requests is quick.

I've closed the other thread. I wonder if we can keep this thread to actual rules discussions for a change...

[ColdWizard]

Hopefully. i nearly named it "the spam rolls on" but that would have been inappropriate and might have lead to an inauspicious start

[Ming]

Scouse Gits' Hut and Special Finder 1.3 - It's all SG(2)'s fault

Isn't there a new version

[rah]

I don't see anywhere that AUTO settlers are allowed. Or am I just old and senile? Not that it makes a difference.

[ColdWizard]

auto-settlers is in there

is there a new version of the hut finder? i don't spend as much time in the strat forum as i should

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Yes, 1.4.2.

The thread should still be among the most recent - it's only a couple of days old.

[ColdWizard]

ok, both autosettlers and hutfinder are updated, did i miss anything else?

[Ming]

Good job...

[War4ever]

A coles notes version of the rules would be nice....its a bloddy novel reading all that stuff....

but as per usual CW, well done :b

[Ming]

Oh come on... it's not that long. Considering how the rules have evolved over time, it's actually not all that bad.

[DrSpike]

It seems a perfect length for the amount of material it covers. To War the TV guide is about as long as it gets I suppose.

[War4ever]

your dreamin Doctor, i don't read the TV guide, i use the one on my satelite dish

I was just teasing Ming, this IS the coles notes version.....

[rah]

The 10 day shameless bump.

And it is nice to see that the spam has been kept to a minimum this time. My thanks to all that cooperated.

RAH

[rah]

Time for the 10 day shameless bump.

[War4ever]

more like 8 days...geeze, you must be desperate for posts

[rah]

It was the last one on the opening page, so I figured it was time. I guess Ming's warning to keep it on topic was too effective.

[DrSpike]

If you want to keep the thread on the front page surely you can top it, rather than bumping it every few days.

Not much point being mods if you can't shove your rules on the front page.

[Ming]

Why top it?... And deprive rah (and others) the pleasure of bumping it for a free post

[Hydey]

If they top it then Rah will miss out on his +1 and war4 will miss his +1 responce and then you will miss your +1 comment and then I will miss my +1 and so on.

best leave it as it is.

[DrSpike]

Who could argue with logic like that?

[rah]

I love this place.

[War4ever]

after that cycle goes at least twice thru, the good doctor and the troll are likely to show up, along with other peeps whom can't figure out why a thread like this exists (+1)

[Graag]

some random bum may appear and sieze the opportunity to get that little bit closer to emperor and generally add to the degeneration of the thread.

[ColdWizard]

[Hydey]

Originally posted by War4ever
after that cycle goes at least twice thru, the good doctor and the troll are likely to show up,

Horse will be here shortly

[Ming]

And after the cycle repeats itself over and over again, I tell CW to start a new thread

And yeah... where is horsey

[DrSpike]

It seems once one foot is placed on the slippery slope of spam that the rest of the body soon follows.

This one did last a while though.

[War4ever]

yes, we did well for almost two weeks, but its comepletely gone to rot now

[Hydey]

You guys should be ashamed of yourselves