Fire Arms, two handed sword and the sledgehammer of smackdown

[Martym]

SO player A has the sledgehammer of smackdown (big, 2 hands) equipped then plays the two handed sword (which I cried foul on first) and fire arms. Player A then claims this works cause the sword has two hands for a total of four and they should also get a bonus for the fire arms.

I counter that no, you cannot wield the sword AND the hammer without a cheat card and even then you would not have a hand that gave you the fire arms bonus.

So, if both items were wielded how many hands total would the player have and does the fire arms card come in to play at all here?

[DoomedDuck]

The Two-handed swords gives you a spare hand (-1 hands). He can play both and would have one free hand, therefore getting +3 from fire arms.

[Martym]

Yes but would you not need a free hand to hold the two-handed sword in the first place? I mean we already have a two handed weapon wielded How does one hold the sword in order to get the extra hand? You would need a hand to hold the thing before you get the bonus.



Scratch all that I guess it comes down to the order things are done. If you held the sword first, then the hammer it would work. That is not what happened in our game so I did not consider this possibility...

[Blazinjsin]

Seeing as he could simply unequip the hammer, equip the sword, then re-equip the hammer, it still works.

[Clipper]

Martym, you seem to be unaware that you are allowed to still carry (i.e., have on the table) Items that you aren't using. In order to indicate the Items you aren't using, you turn them sideways. You can even play them to the table sideways if you need to. Big Items are a little different as you are limited to carrying one Big Item, so turning one sideways does not allow you to play another (Items in use are also considered carried). The other restrictions of using two Hands and one piece each of Armor, Headgear and Footgear do allow you to stop using whichever Items you don't want to use to create your most favourable setup.

So here is a valid order of plays of the cards mentioned that gets him to his best possible bonus.

1. Start with Sledgehammer of Smackdown. Free Hands = 0, Bonus = 5.
2. Stop using Sledgehammer of Smackdown by turning it sideways. Free Hands = 2, Bonus = 0.
3. Play Fire Arms. Free Hands = 2, Bonus = 2*3 = 6.
4. Play Two-Handed Sword. Free Hands = 3, Bonus = 3*3 + 2 = 11
5. Start using Sledgehammer of Smackdown again by turning it back upright. Free Hands = 1, Bonus = 3*1 + 5 + 2 = 10.

Of course, you would not bother with that final point of equipping the Sledgehammer again, as you get a better bonus from having those Hands free, but this lists all the potential bonuses the player could have and the order of the actions is legal in each case.

[DoomedDuck]

The order of the items played makes no difference at all as the Two-handed Sword is legal to play at all times. It gives you a hand rather than taking one (the flavor text is just that, flavor). So even if your hands are full, you could still play it.

[MunchkinMan]

Originally Posted by Martym

Scratch all that I guess it comes down to the order things are done. If you held the sword first, then the hammer it would work. That is not what happened in our game so I did not consider this possibility...

The order doesn't matter, and you can assume all those steps that Clipper wrote out don't have to be followed to the letter, one can assume they happened in whatever order is necessary in this case, and in almost any other case where what a player is using or not when a new Item is played to be used might matter. What the player did in the game you were playing was perfectly legal and legitimate.

[Clipper]

Originally Posted by MunchkinMan

What the player did in the game you were playing was perfectly legal and legitimate.

Assuming he calculated he only had one free Hand for the Fire Arms bonus. On first reading, I thought he may have been trying to claim bonuses for multiple free Hands, but perhaps not.