Except for the 3 leaders, the Coalition is split into 7 Factions: Red, White, Blue, Green, Black, 5-Color and Colorless factions. Each faction has one Captain, and authority to run that faction is usually delegated to him by the General and Admirals. Each player (including the 3 leaders) may claim membership in up to 3 factions, although he will only hold a rank in one of them. He will be considered a Lt. in his other two factions.

The Coalition has 7 bases which are used for healing its armies and defending Dominaria. Each Base has a color corresponding to one of the 7 factions, and their use is connected to their color.

1.2 The Map
Most of the activity for the Coalition Wargame occurs on the Wizards of the Coast message boards, but the game map is kept on a separate site (currently www.oocities.org/thecoalition). Players should always refer to this map for the most up to date information on the status of the game world.

1.3 The Judges
The wargame is administered by two Judges--the Movement Judge and the Battle Judge. The Movement Judge helps keep track of game mechanics and turn updates, and can also be a player on either side. The Battle Judge operates the battle system and is also the head judge in case of any conflicts or questions, and therefore cannot be a player. Generally speaking, anything the battle judge says is law. The battle judge may make changes to these official rules whenever he/she feels they are called for. There can also be assisstant judges, which are treated exactly the same as the first judge holding that position by the rules, except that the head battle judge can overrule the assisstant battle judge.

1.4 Voting
At times it may be necessary to call for a vote on some topic. One of these voting systems will be used:

1.5 Time Units
A Round is the time it takes for one team to win the game. A turn is the time it takes for the movement judge to make one movement update to the map. A day is measured independantly for each army. Armies moving on the open map do not count days. Armies moving into or sitting still in bases or portals that are not attacked by enemy armies count one day each turn. Armies moving into or sitting still in bases that are attacked by enemy armies count one day if and when they defeat that enemy army.

1.6 Changing Screen Names
If you wish to change your screen name, and still have the same game powers you had with your old screen name, you must E-mail the battle judge telling him of the change. Posting under a different screen name temporarily is ok, but you cannot take any official game actions with that screen name (for example, you cannot move your armies using a friends screen name).

1.7 Destroying Bases and Winning the Game
Your primary objective is to destroy all bases on the opposing side. Destroying enemy armies is a secondary objective.

Chapter 2: Armies

2.1 Creature Numbers and Size
The rank of an army determines what creatures can be placed into it. These numbers are maximums...so for example you could place a 2/3 creature in a 3/3 slot, but not a 2/4 creature. Not all creatures in a slot must be the same, but an entire army may have a maximum of 6 different creatures in it, just for simplicity.

2.2.1.1 The colors allowed in each Coalition army are fixed by their creators colors at the beginning of each round, and will not change if their controller changes colors or if they get a new controller. Armies without a namesake creator (called Proxy armies) can have any 3 colors chosen for them, and again cannot change these colors during the round.

2.2.3.1 Certain abilities must be reduced in power for balance reasons. This includes, but is not limited to, the following list.

2.2.3.1.1 Protection from a color--Creatures with protection can still be damaged by creatures of that color, although you may say they are somewhat resistant to attack. This will be much more justifiable if you are facing elemental-style attacks (example: a creature with protection from red is attacked by a Shivan Dragon. You could justifiably say that the firebreathing does very little to you, but when the Dragon swipes his claws at you, it will do pretty much full damage.)

2.2.3.1.2 Indestructible–Indestructible creatures are considered to be unusually resistant to physical attacks, but gain no benefit against elemental or magical attacks.

2.2.3.1.3 Modular–Modular is limited by the capacity of a creature to carry the modular pieces of a fallen ally, and it must be within melee range to pick them up.

2.2.3.1.4 Imprint–Each imprint creature has an individual ruling:
DeathMask Duplicant may imprint up to 1 recently-killed creature per battle, and will lose all imprinted abilities at the end of battle.
Duplicant may imprint 1 other creature in your army, determined when the army is created.
Mirror Golem imprints all other creatures in your army.
Summoner’s Egg is banned.

2.2.3.2 Activated Abilities
If a creature pays an activation cost to gain a static ability, it is considered to have that static ability. It cannot use this activated ability to give other creatures static abilities, however. (example: Elvish Herder has "G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn". The Herder is considered to have trample itself, but cannot give trample to all of your other creatures.)
If a creature pays an activation cost to do something, you are able to use that ability in combat but the use will be limited. The greater the cost, the more limited the use. (example: Time Elemental can pay 2UU to affect time (well, to boomerang something). Because of this high cost, it is assumed the Elemental will tire quickly and be able to do this only a few times in a battle. Anaba Shaman can pay R and tap to ping something. With the lower cost, the Shamans can ping away for quite some time before tiring.)
Activated abilities cannot affect power and toughness (example: Frozen Shade will always be a 0/1, even in a swamp.). Exception: if an activated ability can give a creature a +1/+1 counter, that creature can be considered to have any number of +1/+1 counters on it when you make the army, but you still cannot add more during battle. (example: Flowstone Sculpture could be used as a 4/4 or a 6/6 creature in your army. If you use it as a 4/4, you cannot then say it increases size during battle.) (See also 2.2.6)

2.2.3.3 Kicker/Threshold
An army creator may decide whether to use the with kicker/threshold or without kicker/threshold size of his creatures when creating an army. He cannot change them later. (So Werebear could be used as a 4/4 creature, or a 1/1 creature.) Any abilities granted by kicker/threshold are active, as long as the chosen size is the size with kicker/threshold.

2.2.3.4 State Based Abilities
State based abilities are ignored. (example: Fledgling Osprey never has flying, and Tribal Golem has no abilities, even if you also have Goblins or Wizards in your army.)

2.3.1.1 Phyrexian armies that enter a friendly portal will begin counting days (see 1.5). A Phyrexian army that counts 2 days in any Phyrexian Portal will be healed of all troops except those lost during the last day. (example: an army with only 4000 of its 5000 smallest troops goes to a Portal to heal. While waiting, it fights a battle and loses another 500, but wins the battle. When it is healed, it will be raised from 3500 up to 4500 of its smallest troops) Troops lost on the second day can be replaced once the army counts 2 more days and heals again.

2.3.1.2 A Coalition army that enters a base it is a member of will begin counting days. A Coalition army will not count days in a base of a color it is not a member of. As in 2.2.1.1, the colors an army is a member of are fixed at the beginning of the round and do not change when the Controllers colors change. Once the army has counted one day, any lost troops of the color of that base will be healed. Once the army has counted two days, all lost troops will be healed. Again, troops lost during the count must wait until the correct number of days have been counted after their loss to be replaced. (example: an army with 3000 Kris Mages left of 5000 and 2000 Grizzly Bears left of 2500 counts one day in Red Base. The Kris Mages will be healed, because they are the same color as the base, but the Grizzly Bears must wait one more day.)

2.3.1.3 An army that enters a neutral town will begin counting days only if it is one of the lowest two ranks (Centurion/CPL for Phyrexians, Lt/Lt Cmdr for Coalition). If that army counts 2 days in the neutral town, it can be healed just as if it was at a friendly base/portal. Healing in a neutral town does not allow the army to change troops (2.3.2).

2.5.2.1 Number and Rank
Each side will start the round with the same number of armies of each rank. The maximum number of armies that can be created of each rank is the same as the maximum number of players that can hold that rank: 1 CP/General, 2 Praetor/Admiral, 7 Evincar/Captain, 7 Plaguelord/Commander, 14 CPL/Lt Cmdr. (there is no limit on Centurions/Lts). The minimum number of armies that can be created is the number of players currently holding that rank, so that each player will at least be able to create themself an army. The judge will determine the exact number of armies of each rank to be created, but the recommended number is 1/2/7/7/14/14, providing each side with 45 armies. Additional armies created not represented by players are referred to as Proxy Armies, although this term is also used to refer to any army not controlled by its original creator.

2.5.2.2 Composition
Most of the armies created represent a particular player in the game. That player will E-mail the judge with the troop list for that army, which must meet rules 2.1 and 2.2, and the army will be created with that trooplist and that players name. Proxy armies do not represent a player, so the leadership of each side will E-mail the judge with a requested troop list for its proxies, and they may also request army names if they want. If any information is missing (names and/or trooplists for some or all proxies), the judge is free to make up that information when he/she creates the proxies.
Coalition armies, in addition to mailing name and trooplist requests, must also mail a list of the colors that army is a member of. This goes for both proxy armies and player armies.

2.5.2.3 Placement
Once the bases locations have been made public, each side must E-mail to the judge requests for which armies will start by which bases (both player armies and proxy armies). Coalition armies must start by one of the three bases they are a member of. Players cannot request individual squares, and the judge will drop the armies on the map nearby the bases they start at.

2.6 New Players joining Mid-round
Since each round is very long, often lasting a year or more, most new players will join in the middle of a round. New players cannot create new armies mid-round, but they can be given control of existing armies by their team leaders. However, each new player will be allowed one free opportunity to customize an army on the field to make it his own. A new player must remain long enough to fight 2 battles to prove he intends to stay, and then his team leaders will select an army of rank no higher than Lt Cmdr / CPL for him to personalize. He may change the army name, the army Legend, and the army units. He may not change the army colors. If he does not take advantage of this opportunity within 2 turns, the opportunity is lost.
(Note that the army is not healed, so the total number of soldiers alive remains the same.)

3.2.2.1 Range
Each turn, each army may move up to 3 squares. This may be any combination of N/S and E/W moves, but diagonal moves are not allowed. (example: an army at 3D could move to 6D, or to 5E, or 4F, but could not move to 5F) You may move over top of other armies, whether friendly or enemy.

3.2.2.2 Destination Square
If the square you wish to go to is occupied by an enemy army, you must add "engage [armyname]" to the end of your movement. If the square you wish to go to is occupied by a friendly army that you expect to leave the square, you must add "replace [armyname]" to the end of the movement. Both of these are either necessary or not necessary based on the map when you post the move, not on how you expect the map to be by the time the move is actually done.

3.2.2.3 Long Distance Moves
If you wish, you may post several turns worth of movement at once, and they will all be carried out in order without you having to post again. Each step of a movement longer than 3 squares must be posted separately, and must be legal itself following 3.2.2.1 and 3.2.2.2. If you are engaged in battle at some point during your long move, the rest of the long move will be canceled and you will have to post again.

3.2.2.4 Routed Moves
It may occasionally matter what route you take when moving your 3 steps. To specify the route, add the exact steps in parenthesis after the move. If you do not, the movement judge will randomly determine what route you take.

3.2.2.5 Format
This is the format to post a movement:
[armyname1]: (current grid location) > (desired grid location); {engage/replace armyname2}
-Armyname1 is the name of the army you are moving. If you and the army have the same name, you may leave this off.
-Armyname2 is the name of the army (if any) currently at the square you are moving too. You will attempt to move to that square whether or not Armyname2 is still there when you make your move.
(example: You are named Gazetzot and you want to move the army Sai Rei from 3D to 5E, where the friendly army Darkhand5 is waiting. You post "Sai Rei: 3D > 5E; replace Darkhand5".)(example: You now want to move Sai Rei from 5E all the way to 14H. There are no other armies in between you and 14H. To save time posting every turn, you could post "Sai Rei: 5E > 8E > 11E > 14E > 14H")
(example: You want to move Sai Rei from 5E to 4G, but you do not want to cross the square 4F along the way. You post "Sai Rei: 5E > 4G (5E - 5F - 5G - 4G)").

4.1.2.1 Equipment
Armies are assumed to have a respectable array of medieval equipment such as swords and bows and arrows available to them. Equipment seen or implied on the cards you chose for creatures is usually good as well. More complex equipment such as catapults can be used but generally must be constructed during the battle, which takes time. Magical equipment is generally not accepted. An army fighting in a friendly base or portal has access to a much greater array of equipment than normal, as it is assumed they can get this from the base stores. More powerful and surrealistic equipment such as plague bombs is often allowed when defending a base, but the judge has final discretion to allow or disallow anything written in the strat.

4.1.2.2 Time
Most Battles begin at dawn, and can proceed for up to 24 hours. "No-attacker" battles begin part way into the day, but still must be finished by the following dawn. Any troop orders stated to occur after the next dawn are ignored. If you wish your troops to fight at night, you will have to give them something to do during the day first (such as hiding perhaps).

4.1.2.3 Spacing
Squares for battle are hundreds of miles across, so there is plenty of room for combat. If a battle is termed a "no-attacker" battle by the movement judge, meaning both armies moved into the square at the same time, then the two armies will start just within sight of each other in the square. The exact distance may vary depending on terrain, weather conditions, and whether the armies are on the ground or in the air. If the movement judge lists the battle as "(army1) attacks (army2)", then army2 starts roughly in the center of the square while army1 starts many miles away out of sight and must come find army2. Army2 is assumed to have a few hours to prepare while army1 arrives. Army2 may go seek out army1 if it wants to, but if neither army seeks out the other army2 gets a bonus as it is officially the defender.

4.1.2.4 Terrain
The battle will be affected by the terrain it is fought on, either ocean, islands, plains, mountain, forest, or swamp. As these are large squares, the entire square is not identical, and an army that goes searching for a particular terrain feature (such as a crevice in a mountain, or an island that happens to have a lot of trees on it) will probably find it before long assuming it is reasonable to occur in that terrain (so don't go searching for that mountain crevice in an ocean square). Battles fought on base squares will also use the special description written for that base.

4.1.2.5 Weather
There will be a complex system to determine the weather conditions for each battle. However, you don’t have to worry about how it is calculated–the weather conditions will be posted alongside the battle when it happens, and you just have to worry about how to work them into your strategy.

4.4 Multiple Army Combat
Occasionally, a battle may start with more than 1 army from each team. (See 3.2.5). This allows 2v1 and 2v2 battles. These are handled similarly to normal 1v1 battles, but with a few differences.
If one army on a 2-army side is stratless, but the other army does send in a strat, the stratless army will be assumed to not participate in the battle. The other army will have to fight the battle completely on its own, as if the joint engage had never happened. They also get an additional penalty to any retreat-themed strategies, since they must cover for the stratless army as it leaves the area.
Assuming all armies have strats, the size bonus will be based on the combined size of both armies from the same team. It may follow a slightly different formula then normal, though.
Total casualties in the battle will be higher than normal, and once they are determined, they will be distributed between the participating armies based on how involved in combat each army was.
If a team with 2 participating armies wins the battle, one of them must still leave the square. The army commanders may specify in their battle strategies which army will leave the square after battle, and which direction it will attempt to retreat in. If they do not, or if the chosen direction is not available, one will be randomly chosen to be bumped to a nearby square. The direction of retreat for the 2nd winner is determined before the retreat for the losing army(s), and a chosen retreat by a winning army will overwrite a random retreat by a losing army.

4.5 Capture
An army that does not wish to kill an enemy army, or lacks 500 top rank, may instead choose to capture it. Your chances to capture will always be slightly worse than your chances to kill, aside from not needing the 500 top rank requirement. To capture, you risk 2000 of your lowest rank troops. Captures can only be attempted on Lieutenant/Centurion and LtCmdr/CPL class armies.
If a capture is successful, the captured army becomes “partially converted” and is immediately controlled by the capturing side. It is teleported to the nearest unoccupied friendly base, or nearest unoccupied town if there is no open base, or stays put if there is no town. If it stays put, the winning army is then bumped out of the square.
A partially converted army must count 2 days in its current location without moving. During this time it can be attacked by its former teammates, and will be controlled by the capturing side. If it loses a battle, it is “liberated” and returns to the control of its original owners. If it wins or is not attacked, and counts 2 days, it is then “fully converted” and moves and fights like a normal army on its new team. If it was counting those 2 days in a base or town, it will also be healed.
A Phyrexian army captured by the Coalition is considered to be the color of the army that captured it. It will have no secondaries. A Coalition army that is captured by Phyrexia, and then recaptured by the Coalition, will regain its old colors.

Chapter 5: Control Rules

5.1 Definition of an Active Player
Active players recieve some protection from the authority of their leaders to make control changes, while inactive players do not. (this overrules the limitations in 5.3) A player who controls at least one army and has posted within the last week and who has not stated that they will be inactive is considered an active player. A teams leaders may declare a player inactive within a shorter period of time if there is good reason to believe he is inactive, but the battle judge may reject this declaration if he feels the leaders are simply trying to get around the active player protections.

5.2.2.1
Two players on each side have authority to request changes to the proxy control list. This will usually be the CP/General and one Praetor/Admiral, but it can be any two players. The CP/General and whoever has current army change power can E-mail or PM the judge to transfer the army change power to other players (meaning if the CP/General does not currently have army change power for whatever reason, he can E-mail the judge to get it back).

5.2.2.2
In unusual or emergency situations, the judge may authorize a different two people to make control changes, and/or he may accept a requested control change which does not comply with the restrictions in 5.3. If he/she does this, that team must return to a legal configuration within one turn. The judge is never required to accept an illegal configuration.

Chapter 6: Mercenaries

Mercenaries get their own chapter because they follow slightly different rules than everyone else. There are three mercenary “factions”, and each has a slightly different ruleset. They are not technically allied with each other, and show little teamwork, but will never attack each other. They are neutral armies controlled by the Mercenary Judge, who cannot be a player on either Player team.

6.1 Town Defender Faction
There are 3 Town Defenders. Each is a 2/2-5/5 rank army that starts in one of the neutral towns. Their primary goal is to keep control of that town while staying alive.

6.2 Theme Army Faction
There are 4 Theme armies. Each is a 3/3-6/6 rank army that starts in a random space on the map, not near a base or portal. Their primary goal is to defend their territory. 3 of them consider a single area as "their territory", while 1 will be an underwater army that considers the entire ocean "its territory".

6.3 Raider Faction
There can be up to 5 Raider armies. Raider armies can be either 1/1-4/4 rank, or 2/2-5/5 rank. 2 1/1 rank and 1 2/2 rank will begin on the map in random squares away from bases, but more may appear later. Their goals are to loot and plunder, by attacking and robbing weakened or low level armies.

-The new command must be an attempt to engage an army, not simply to avoid engagement.
-The new command must not take the army through the current position of any army on the map.