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The "Callous Guards" card states:

Put this card in front of you. Action cards that alter the line may not be played. (This includes adding or discarding nobles.) You may discard this card at any time.

If a player has the "Callous Guards" card in front of him/her, can another player play the "After You..." card which states:

Put the noble at the front of the line into another player's score pile.

A couple of us could not agree whether the play was allowed or not. I'm on the "it's legal" side because putting the noble at the front of the line into another player's score pile is not "discarding" the noble. I understand "discarding" as removing the noble into the discard pile (i.e. no one gets points for a "discarded" noble).

Others argued that putting the noble into another player's score pile was "altering" the line.

Thoughts?

StartPlayer
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3 Answers3

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The consensus on this "Official Guillotine FAQ" thread is that yes, you can play After You... with Callous Guards in play.

After you does not change the order of the line, nor does it "add" or "discard". Ergo, you're fine to play it.

It's a consensus that no one has stepped forward to challenge for a couple of years, at the very least!

thesunneversets
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    +1 For a good source. I am surprised that the consensus is that "putting" is different from "moving" in terms of whether or not an alteration is made. Especially since Callous Guards does not specify the order of the line. Might have to create a BGG account... – Gregor Thomas Jan 17 '12 at 18:13
  • Nice find. I recently registered at that site at hadn't considered checking their forums. @shujaa made some good arguments in his response but since I agree that "Double Feature" and the Fast Noble are fair game when "Callous Guards" is played, I have to side with playing "After You..." being legal. Best to be consistent! –  Jan 17 '12 at 18:33
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If you read the thread referred to (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/217462/offical-guillotine-faq) you’ll find out that the answer really is NO; you can’t play After You in that case.

See answer from Robert Eng.

We did check with Wizards on this. After You...: "Put the noble at the front of the line into another player's score pile" "Putting" a noble anywhere is moving it explicitly moving it, which is prohibited by the Callous Guards card. The fact that the noble goes into another player's score pile is incidental. It is technically not "Collecting" a noble, which is why Double Feature works. The effects are similar but different.

Robert Eng

VP of GameTable Online

antonjn
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I believe you are in the wrong. The "adding or discarding nobles" is included in the definition of altering the line, but this is not presented as a definition. "After you..." is an action card, and it has an effect on the line, changing it. Thus it qualifies as an "action card that alters the line," and cannot be played due to "Callous Guards".

"Callous Guards" allows cards that change a player's actions, for example "Collect an additional noble from the front of the line" is fine as the effect is on your turn (and the number of collections), not the line. But "put the noble at the front of the line" sounds just like moving a noble, i.e. altering the line.

My last argument is: if you were to re-write "After you..." so it would be clearly allowed by "Callous Guards", it would be very easy: "Choose another player. That player immediately collects the first noble in line. Then continue with your turn." However, to rewrite it to clearly be disallowed you might end up with something like "Move the noble at the front of the line to another player's score pile." (If you think "move" more clearly "alters the line" than "put" does.) But this is basically how it's written, just more awkward sounding.

Gregor Thomas
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