Rules

With respect to the original EB Online rules, the new community decided to divide the list in two parts. The first one is related to "casual" battles, in which the most part of the rules is related to fairplay. In the second set of rules, which are for tournaments only, there are restrictions on army composition while maintaining variety in armies deployed.

Non-tournament gameplay is therefore regulated by the first set of rules, while official tournament battles must be regulated by both rules. However, if players agree, tournament rules can be enforced in casual battles too, for example to train for a tournament.

However, I want to specify the enormous debt that the EB Online community has to the previous creators of the basis of this ruleset. In fact, most of the rules that are presented here were already formulated on the "Rules" page in the old EB Online website. If a logical and coherent block of rules is still used in its essence, the merit goes to Vartan and the old EB community.

Casual gameplay rules

Accepted budgets: 36000 - 38000 mnai. Exceptions can be done to recreate historical scenarios.

• Mercenary limit of 6.
• Exceptions
• Marian and Imperial Rome: 8
• Karthadastim: 14
• Sauromatae: 10 (max 4 Greek and 4 Germanic, excluding Bastarnae Falx Infantry)
• The Romani (SPQR) must pick one era from which to choose its factional units.
• The only upgrade allowed is one bronze experience chevron.

1. No running or charging through units with either infantry or cavalry.
• You may charge the enemy through your own units only if the charging unit is infantry.
• Only if your cavalry unit is completely surrounded, it may retreat through the enemy.
• Units may run through loose-form infantry.
• No moving elephants or chariots through your own men (minor contact is expected as elephants and chariots have a wide front).
• No moving cavalry through units with phalanx mode enabled.
2. No flaming arrows.
3. No engaged pike-turning.
• If your pike unit is engaged with an enemy unit, you may not turn it to face an enemy unit that is approaching your pike unit from its rear or sides. Similarly, if an enemy infantry or cavalry unit is charging at your phalanx’s rear while your phalanx is unengaged, you cannot turn the pike unit to face the enemy. You may only turn to meet an oncoming enemy at your rear if the enemy has not entered into charging status. You can turn phalanx off and fight with the secondary weapon if you decide to do so.
• When your phalanx is engaging only one single enemy unit, be it from the front, flank or rear, it can disengage and form the phalanx again. To do so, it must turn off phalanx formation, move out of the way of the attacking unit and form a coherent line. Only at this point you can turn phalanx on again.
• If a phalanx is engaged by more than one enemy unit, it cannot pull back to reform as explained above, but has to stay in that position to fight. However even in this situation the phalanx is still allowed to switch off phalanx mode and fight with secondary weapons.
4. No picking up pikes while engaged.
• If your phalanx is fighting with its secondary weapon (e.g., axe, sword), you may not re-enable phalanx mode while in the melee. Only when your unit is once again removed from the melee fight may it re-enable phalanx mode.
5. No firing missiles in melee.
• This rule is violated when any of your missile units (arrow, javelin, etc.) fire their missiles point-blank when engaging an enemy unit. If you order your missile unit to attack an enemy unit that is in melee range, you must use melee weapons. You may not use the ranged attack.

When battles are clearly unwinnable, players are expected to admit defeat. Failing to do so is generally considered bad sport. If the battle is still close, it's fine to continue playing: if all what you are left with is an archer unit with no ammunitions, and your opponent has several units of heavy infantry still on the field, there is no reason to waste both your and your opponent's time.

Tournament rules

Unit duplication limits exist to both prevent the spamming of units as well as to encourage and enforce a minimum level of diversity in armies. For any given unit, you may bring a maximum number of that unit depending on its cost.

Unit cost	Duplication limit
<1000	none
1000-1850	8
1850-2500	4
>2500	2

This rule DOES NOT SAY you can pick only two units in the whole army that cost more than 2500 mnai. What this rule is meant for is allowing to take only 2 of each single unit that costs more than 2500 mnai. For example, you can take in the same army 2 Hetairoi, 2 Hellenikoi Kataphraktoi, 2 Lonchophoroi Hippeis and so on: this is allowed. On the other hand, you cannot buy 3 or more of each of these units, since they cost more than 2500 mnai.

When verifying duplication limits, only consider each unit’s original, pre-upgrade price: if a unit without the chevron is in a certain class and after the upgrade jumps to the higher class, the duplication limit is valid for the lower class.

Some units may, for various reasons, be excepted from the limit applied to them by their cost. Instead they will be allotted another limit.

• Reidonez (Germanic Light Cavalry): 4
• Rauxsa-alanna Baexdzhyntae (Roxolani Riders): 4

Victory conditions

Last man standing.
Exception: your opponent is left with only cavalry, you outnumber him by more than 2:1, and you are chasing him around the map. If your opponent does not attack within 3 minutes, you win.

Special cases

Maps that are mountainous or contain a bridge or closely spaced buildings will not be accepted in the tournaments.
If one player crashes during the game and it has not yet been decisive, then there is no penalty.
If your opponent allows you to, you may restart the game without penalty.