Constable and negative points

[MasterOfWar]

Perhaps there is an official ruling on this somewhere on the internet. If so, thank you in advance for pointing it out to me. If not, here goes: The text on the revised edition constable adds the phrase "in any scoring line" to the bit about negative points. This suggests to me that there is an intentional change from the original in which any negative points at all disqualified one from the bonus. So, what is a "scoring line?" The physical version of the game comes with score pads, each of which has several lines - pastures, field tiles, etc. down to "bonus points." I would think that each of these categories is what is referred to on constable as a "scoring line." I have had a couple recent games in which I did not get the constable bonus - one due to a -1 from lantern house and the other due to a begging card from collector - despite no negative "scoring line" as defined above. As the game is now being scored on BGA, I would assume that playing cards like mantelpiece or cesspit would also automatically disqualify one from the bonus. This does not seem to be in keeping with what I see to be the spirit of constable - to reward players for "complete" farms. Personally, I feel differently about the beggars than the other negatives, perhaps because I got more used to this in the original, but I can't make a logical argument to treat them any differently.

[Lumin_S]

"Negative points" refers to all sources: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/232778 ... ive-points

BGA's version says "scoring line" which references the BGA score pad, where each category and card with positive/negative points or bonuses gets its own line on the scorepad.

[George Smiley]

Thank you for this. I had the exact same question. It still seems to me that the "scoring line" for Mantlepiece/Cesspit should be based on cumulative points on cards versus each card being scored separately, thus killing Constable bonus points whenever a single negative point card is played. There is a scoring line total for points on cards in the BGA scorepad after all. Also, for me, begging points is a separate scoring line and not analogous.

But I'm happy either way and am glad that Lumin is around with solid analysis, as always.

[MasterOfWar]

Thank you for the clarification, Lumin. I have now found an image of the actual revised edition constable and, indeed, the phrase "in any scoring line" does not appear. I'm perplexed as to why BGA chose to add this as the original text seems quite clear to me, whereas the added phrase suggests some change in how constable works compared to the card in the original edition - like the subtle change with some of the plows.

[Tisaac]

Thank you for the clarification, Lumin. I have now found an image of the actual revised edition constable and, indeed, the phrase "in any scoring line" does not appear. I'm perplexed as to why BGA chose to add this as the original text seems quite clear to me, whereas the added phrase suggests some change in how constable works compared to the card in the original edition - like the subtle change with some of the plows.

Precisely because that card text is not clear. "Having" negative point is not precise enough IMO because it could refer to score categories and not indivual sub-entries that compose score category. That's actually how we implemented first : compute the scores, then for each category of the score pad, if the score is negative, give bonus point.
Then Lumin corrected us and we added this extra line because in the BGA version, the sub-entries are displayed so it's easy enough to keep track of.

[BeXXs]

I still think the wording on the BGA Constable card is misleading, because the term "scoring line" is not defined anywhere. I intuitively viewed it as having no negatives in each of the 15 "scoring categories"*, and I didn't even thought about it meaning anything else until I had a game where a player missed out on the Constable points due to Mantlepiece (although their points for cards in total were non-negative). Imo the text on BGA should include a phrase that sub-entries are counted separately towards Constable.


*i.e. Fields, Pastures, Grain, Vegetables, Sheep, Wild Boar, Cattle, Unused spaces, Fenced stables, Clay Hut rooms, Stone house rooms, Family members, Beggar cards, Points for cards, Bonus points