Can someone win with <40 if they got 40?

[Cos-]

Apologies if this has already been asked and answered on this forum, this is really hard to search for since all the words in my search match many other threads.

I played a game in which I had one of the cards that has "spend one die to make all other players lose 3 rockets, and buy one card". Another player got to 41 rockets, and the game said the would win once it got to the first player's turn again - but I still had one more chance to play. I used the die on that card, which dropped the winning player from 41 to 38 rockets. But before their next turn, and before they gained any more rockets, the game ended and they won with 38 rockets.

This surprised me! I expected that by taking them below 40 I was extending the game for another round.

How are the rules supposed to work in this situation?

[Jellby]

"When any player reaches 40 victory points, you will finish the current round so all players have the same number of turns, at which point the player with the most victory points wins." It doesn't say that the winner must have 40 points or more, or that the end of game can be "untriggered". But if you had managed to get 39 against their 38, you'd have won

[pjt33]

There is a subtlety, which is that the VP decrease from Gordon is timed to happen before other people gain VP for their red triggers in this implementation. The rulebook says:

Also note, almost always players can simply allocate dice, gain rewards, and execute abilities simultaneously in order to minimize downtime. If it becomes important to resolve things in order, the active player should allocate dice and resolve all rewards and activations first, followed by the next player(s) in clockwise order.

And I've just realised that that technically means that the implementation of "You win" is buggy.

[Phoxtrot]

Ah yeah. "You win" will always win but the timing might be important as for who is second.
I think that the current round should still be completed though, I don't think that "I win" prohibits that.

[Ehrine]

The game ends immediately when that is triggered you don't play out the round.
"When you use this ability, points are irrelevant; the game ends immediately and you win! Do not finish the round. If another player has more than 40 you win anyway."

[pjt33]

I think that the current round should still be completed though, I don't think that "I win" prohibits that.

As a matter of personal policy, I always wait until the last turn of the round and until everyone else has finished their choices before activating the ability. The rules were designed for informal play, not for scenarios where everyone is ordered and Elo adjusted, so they don't take into account fairness in the assignment of second, third, etc. place.