Remember that the rules say what you are allowed/requested to do. What is not in the rules, is not permitted.
Don't be too quick there. The Minelayer rule doesn't provide that information. If it did, you'd have pointed that out to your friend. I apologize in advance as this turned out much longer than I anticipated. But I think there's an important point to be made here. He already said he agrees that the most probable interpretation is that the skill allows placement for only one mine. So it's not about what someone is clued into. It would be great if you could stop looking at this issue in terms of what you believe to be absurd, common sense, or basic communication. Not everyone shares your opinion. Some people need more help or clear instructions to come to the same conclusion you do. This isn't necessarily because people have no grasp of common sense or basic communication either. There are other perspectives here and I think they can be just as valid as yours. This is why rules need to clearly communicate important information. Because they need to convey their meaning to a wide variety of people, opinions, and interpretations. And in @Azuset's case, as well as mine, we help or teach others how to play this game correctly. I don't teach or explain things to people by telling them A is correct because B is absurd. I tell them why A is correct without ever mentioning B at all. In this case, we can't tell people why A is correct because such information doesn't exist. Before it's thought or said... the conclusions drawn about this rule based on what info is available to us, is not the same as the rule telling us. I can even understand veterans here thinking that way. Infinity kind of conditions us for that because these holes are everywhere so we must draw our own conclusions regularly. But again, newer players haven't experienced this and some brains aren't conditioned like that. For example, there was a time people thinking the world was round were considered absurd and lacking in common sense. Saying, 'The world is flat because round would be absurd' might have sounded fine back then, but now? A more relevant example for today might be one where the community played the game one way(flat) and then CB turned around and told us otherwise(round). Does that illustrate my point? What is not in the rules is not permitted. Isn't that kind of the point? The rule provides no instructions about how many can be placed with one activation of the skill. Or how many times this skill can be activated. It doesn't say once, and it doesn't say more than once. The default in these situations is not one. Drawing your own conclusions and your opinion of your own conclusion IS NOT A RULE. I know how many orders I can spend and I know how many burst a weapon has. We aren't provided that same info for Minelayer. I think the rules should flat out tell us for all the reasons I've mentioned above.
This is not a bad line to have in the basic rules; a small reminder in the basic rules that the rules tell you what's allowed in the game, not necessarily what's not allowed, because the latter would be near impossible.
First of all, you should remember to be polite with everybody. Always assaulting other user surely do not help discussion. Second point, you may be right (i repeat myself MAY) saying that the rule does not clearly state ONE mine, but it is useless. Because a full rule written referring to "singular" a depolyable, and never as plural is clearly enough for everybody as soon as it is noticed or made notice. Third, dismissing "my" opinion because is mine while i should adhere to yours because it is yours, is not (again) a good way to express yourself.
I'd say that illustrates my point better. In a world where the earth is widely defined as being flat, it is pointless and absurd to make rules where this is not assumed - especially since the gaming board will also be flat in nearly all games. This is still a game where we're given a set of rules to play by and it's up to the rules to be clear enough that we can use the product and determine how we should play with the product. Having two different interpretations where one is absurd and the other is reasonable in the context of what the audience the product can reasonably be assumed to know is not a problem. A significantly bigger problem is that the rules for whether AI Beacons are allowed to be deployed inside mission areas that are restricted to troops being buried in the traits list. A significantly bigger problem is that i-Kohl working against Berserk while Martial Arts maluses doesn't is explained in the examples. Those two are failures of communication whereas what we're arguing about here is fairly clearly communicated.
In this instance, I don't think it can be made clear without also specifying how much of procedural deployment the game should be played with (i.e. can I move the trooper after I put it on the table during the deployment phase? Do I have to make all decisions regarding it immediately clear? When do I declare the use of Deployment Skills such as Strategos?)
Well a "Sybilas advice" note before the skill saying something along the lines of "this skill allows the trooper to also deploy one of their deployable weapons or equipment when they deploy" or something similar along these lines could work, we try to look how we can make the rules more clear.
A simple "Reminder : You only place 1 mine, deployable weapons or piece of equipment no matter how many you have and how many different type you have." Is short and would work fine. CrazyKoalas are Deployable and Disposable (2). Some player though you had to deploy them one at a time during the game rather than starting with all of them deployed from the start. But if you explore CrazyKoala further and open up Perimeter rule the effect is "When deploying the bearer, the player also places all Perimeter weapons or pieces of Equipment, (...)". Why would it be too much to ask that Minelayer has an effect saying you deploy a single item from the possibly multiple different deployable you have ? Just adding the word single to the use of grammar could help some players realize the rule talk about deploying single items.
Old effect entry In the Deployment Phase, this Special Skill allows to its user to place the Deployable Weapon or piece of Equipment inside his Zone of Control. New Effect entry When deploying the unit during the deployment phase, this special skill allow it's user to place, either, up to 1 deployable weapon or up to 1 piece of equipment inside his Zone of Control. Problem solved imo. Most of these rules questions can be fixed with small adjustments from my perspective.
Another difference in this situation is that during the normal order phase the rules are written out to say you get to do these combination of skills. This is what limits people from taking extra actions. To my knowledge there is no such rule for the deployment phase. Again, we would have to come to that assumption.
That kind of a reminder doesn't help in the case of Minelayer. It would be an unnecessary addition to the rules as all rules should tell us how they are used in the first place. In cases where we're not told, being reminded that the rules only tell us what we can do, is extremely unhelpful. I assume this was directed to me. Why are you reminding me to be polite. Have I not been polite? Who have I assaulted? But it in fact isn't. There are examples in this thread. Haven't I done the opposite of this? I've made it very clear the rules should work for all opinions. Is this a bad thing?
I think we already had discussion of appropriate timing for placing mines. We do have to be careful as there are gameplay impact. For instance, if the rule was "when you deploy the bearer, you then may deploy up to 1 mine", if I observe you deploy camo 2, 3, 4 in that order, I can know that either 3 is a mine for 2; or 4 is a mine for 3 ;or nothing is a mine. If the game progress and 4 is the minelayer and 2 is the mine, i can call out for cheating the rules. If the rules forces you to place a minelayer then immediately afterward place its mine, before placing the next minelayer and its mine... it just give out info to players who observe you as you deploy. And slows the game as during your deployment, i'd rather get my token ready rather than intensely look at your deployment order. Maybe that is why timing is better left unchecked.
Considering the overall goal is to have as streamlined a rule set as possible, yes. And making reasonable inferences/assumptions/suppositions/what have you as to common knowledge among your audience as you prepare material is only natural.
We're going to have to just disagree here. I feel I've made it quite clear why this is most definitely a problem. But we don't remove important rules/information that is necessary to play the game because we'd prefer shorter rules. What is necessary is never unwise.
I think streamlining can achieve both goals of providing more information for less words, it is not impossible just difficult/ more involved.
