Ah, but it is not a question of intent. You CANNOT heal an opponent's figure... it isn't allowed. So you wouldn't be able to target an opponent's figure using healing. If someone wants to be totally anal about it, there's not a lot I can do as a Warlord except cut them out of the running for a fellowship prize.

Never mind, just color me glad I won't be dealing with MW... :)

I've always done it as a standard of play.

In public games, it rapidly becomes obvious that not everybody knows the rules. ;) This forum is a prime example of just such a fact.

Having a consistant pattern helps new people learn the game. Announcing that I'm not using Magic Healing shows a couple of things.

1) That I don't have to use it. That the healer is capable of ranged offensive action. Which is often overlooked by beginners. This applies to other ablities as well, such as Weapon Mastery.

2) That such things should be specified, rather than relying on your opponent to know what you're doing. It also enables you to spot errors right away. Flame/Lightning with formations springs to mind.

Given the number of gray areas (figure positioning, assumed base to base contact, etc, etc) it seems only fair to extend this into the actual execution of actions and the use of abilities.

Do I require an opponent to spell things out? Only if they wish to be certain to avoid misunderstandings.

Right, you can't do it, therefore the action is illegal... just because the action is illegal with the special ability on, and legal with it off, isn't sufficient as far as the rules go for you to just say "OK, I'm going to attack X with my Emerald Warder." You still need to say you're turning off Magic Healing, otherwise the action is still illegal.

And don't write off MW: DA yet. I was never really into Battletech, and this looks like a great game. The strategic options I was seeing with just the nine figures we got to handle were pretty amazing... it's just that you have to be a lot more careful about some things.

....where before a tournament event of this level is run, all participants are handed a single sheet of "Rule notices" to get everyone on the same page.

Then everyone is prompted to remember some of these "basic" rulings. I too tend to play with SA's being off till I declare otherwise (for the 'obvious' SA's)...but after this, I'll certainly TRY to remember to act differently in a major tournament.

for the thoughtful responses. Ku, I agree this seems pretty anal. My concern is that in taking a "laid-back" attitude we might be encouraging bad habits that will burn the player later. Shadowsbane, good thought: at least a reminder mention when covering the set-up? On a similar note, Command is NOT an optioal ability, and as worded neither is the Command roll: if my opponent fails to do this isn't everything afterwards "illegal"? For that reason, if I know he has the SA am I not compelled to remind him to roll? And again, thanks to all for the inputs.

at my venue we say to turn on the ability

You know this was never realy an issue until nationals. Now here is a case which happen to me first game of play ins. The guy had Scarabet and I was playing a Striker. Now he had forgotten to put Scarabet on full health and he asked me if it was ok to put him to his starting click. Now the game had started but I knew nothing had been pushed or hit. I say yeah no problem because I had done it before. Well I take a shot at his Scarabet and I say take 4 and he says no I take 1 because you did not turn off F/L. Now Scarabet was not in B2B with anything when I took the shot. I typically ask my opponent if he is using F/L or normal damage and after awhile you get in the habit. We had people ruling differents ways about it even with the "all SAs are on" that is stated. One of the guys from WKs even told me that some SAs ( MB, F/L, WM) are considered off and must be stated to use. I think we might get a new SA card with the new base set that has the wording changed to prevent things like this.

Now the MH thing is not just anal but depending on the warlord the Techun player might get a warning. You are not allowed to let some one take an illegal action. IF you know that it is an illegal action and you just let the opponent take the action anyways so you can call them on it well it could get ugly. Illegal actions have come up before and it has been stated that the player that allows the illegal action can be ruled as unsportsman.

If one needs to pull things like this to win games then I hope they tell me before I waste my time playing them. THis is a rules question but it is also a question of sportmanship. I think WK wants to encourage good sportmanship and this type of stuff does not do that. calling someone on rolling command or using quickness as their last action is just going a bit far.

Make sure when your players go to other venues they know that this stuff may happen. I think since this has come up since nationals you will see alot of other people doing it. This is a game. If someone wants to agrue over F/L and MH then there is something missing. Its nationals you should expect it, some might say. Well when I went to nationals I expected to have fun, play against good players and players with some class. I think calling someone out on this type of stuff is showing a lack of class. In the rules or not it says something about the person calling it.

MW:DA if you take an illegal action you lose that action.

The real key here is what Necrodog was saying earlier - Be careful about complacency in venues. It's a simple matter of mentioning it a few times to your players so they're aware that, even though intent will win in friendly games at home, when you go to another venue or con, some anal b***head will call you on these situations.

Ku, you're right - it is anal and destructive to the camraderie that is a founding principle of MK. However, the power gamers and competitive types will use these situations to their advantage. Can't be helped. I saw it several times running Pirates! at Origins.

I don't believe this. Are these situations really popping up? And again: decisions are strictly by the book, intention and common sense are not needed.
Would it not be easier to rule something like: passive SA's are on, active SA's are off? All problems solved... Oh no, then we have a discussion on what SA's are passive & active.

Really amazing. Anal, that's a very correct phrase if I ever read 1.

This is why the power gamers and competitive types need to be culled from the herd. Of course they're much easier to deal with once you realize the game is their whole life, and that they don't have anything else. ;)

This is why I don't plan on running anything but Centaur Ranching at GenCon, if I run anything official at all. Anyone who attempts powergaming in my scenario will walk away disappointed.

I will be the first to say that I am a competitive player. I enjoy it but I draw the line some where. There is a certain level of class that I believe one should conduct themselves with and even more so on a level like nationals. I forgot to warn a guy from my venue that came to Origins about people getting called on the F/L thing and he got the same "education" as me. I know the rules and I know it is legit but come on. Notice that MB and WM ar not coming up as much as F/L in this case. I think F/L might end up being reworded like shockwave. Where if no other fig is in B2B contact with the target it takes full damage but if it is in B2b with other figs then all take a 1 damage. I do not have a problem with competitive people but I do have aproblem with people not having class. I think in my case I would not have been as anger about it if it had not been for me telling him it was ok to click Scarabet. A Scarabet not on its first click with no healer is not as much to worry about.

Well, it wasn't Mage Knight, but I'm sure there is an appropriate comparison. I was in a game where I did an explosion on the Hulk because I could handle him with one click & not with whatever my damage was at the time. I didn't want to knock him into his good slots.

David A. Blizzard