GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

Player A is level 6 with a combat strength of 19 and knocks down the door to find level 6 monster. Player B Wanders in Squidzilla (gain 2 levels on defeat) so now player A is losing combat 24 to 19.

He asks player C to help, saying that player C will take ALL the treasure from the fight if he helps and IF they end up winning the fight.

Player C agrees and immedately after his agreement, player A plays a GUAL card bringing his level to 7.

After a little addition (with player C's combat strength) and waiting to see if anyone will contribute anything else to the fight, Player A declares the fight won and suddenly declares himself the game winner with the 1 level from the level 6 monster and 2 levels from Squidzilla.

I understand that you can play GUAL cards at any time except for the win, but even if he played this card before combat was officially done nothing was added or subtracted from the fight from the time he played his GUAL to the time he was declared the fight winner.

Its like he knew he was going to win the fight (since player C had a high combat strength) and no one could stop him so the GUAL was tacked on at the last second of the fight so, while it technically wasnt the winning level, it was added on at the very backend of the fight once he knew the fight was more or less wrapped up.

I guess the question would be is this play legal and stemming from it, when is the fight officially "over"...is it over for the winner as soon as he is leading in combat strength since he needs to do no more to manipulate the battle as he is winning?

Thank you for any help/answers to this question.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

A GUAL can be played any time, even during combat. So your example is perfectly legal. The fight is over when everyone has had opportunity to interfere, so your player wins as long as everyone had opportunity to stop it at the end.
In your case, did the winner give the other players time to interfere at the end?

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

I think it's clear from the description of events that everyone had a chance to figure it out as they were adding up both sides. This play was perfectly legal, since the GUAL result was instantaneous to make the player Level 7.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

Yes. That is the way I read it too.
Personally, in my own home games, we make sure and announce we will be winning the game, and allow the other players another few seconds.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

Total munchkin play, I like it.

Just to add something regarding:

".is it over for the winner as soon as he is leading in combat strength since he needs to do no more to manipulate the battle as he is winning"

People are allowed to increase the difficulty of their own fights. You can enhance with the 5 or 10 cards to get more treasure for a fight that you're beating by a lot.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

Yes, but as soon as you change the conditions of your fight, the other players get a reasonable time to respond.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

I have a feeling in my group the "response" from Player C would be to try to back out of the agreement to help, claiming he would never have agreed if the GUAL card had been played before asking for help. And I would tend to agree, particularly if adding one more level would have allowed Player A to win the combat without help (which obviously is not the case in the original scenario, but I can imagine it happening).

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

Unfortunately for Player C, once you've agreed to join the fight, you're committed to do so. You are allowed to try to tank the combat you are in, but you can't just pull out.

Re: GUAL during final combat. Is this play legal?
 

If this scenario ever plays out in my group, I would predict a lot less help being offered after a player reaches Level 6 or so, resulting in longer games.