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6  ADJUDICATION


6.1  ORDER OF PLAY   The order in which each round of actions is processed is fixed for the turn (it's shown in the roundup section of the game report) but players may spend BPs to change the order for the following turn (see 6.2). The initial order of play (for the first turn) is random.
Note: The order of play is very important. The game reports show how things stand at the start of the turn, but as the turn goes along it becomes more and more out of date. For this reason you'll often want to make your most important actions as early as possible in the turn (before your opponents can reinforce the areas you want to attack, for example). It can be a big advantage to be the country making the first move.

6.2  ORDER ACTION   The ORDER action is used to alter the order of play. By spending BPs you may move your country to the front of the order for the following turn. You may spend any number of BPs on ORDER actions, and may make more than one such action in a turn.
If you have fewer BPs remaining than you attempt to spend, then the number spent is reduced to the number you have available (in particular, you may choose to dump any remaining BPs you have with the last action of the turn). If you don't indicate a number of BPs with an ORDER action then it is ignored UNLESS it is your sixteenth action of the turn (in which case ALL your remaining BPs are used).
The order of play for the next turn is the order of which countries spent the most BPs on ORDER actions, with countries spending the same amount remaining in the same order (i.e. you move up the order, ahead of anyone that spent less than you, but not going ahead of anyone that spent the same).
Format [ "ORDER" ] [ BLANK ] [ BLANKS ] [ BPS TO SPEND ]
Note: Because of leftover BPs being spent on order actions (see 3.7) there are usually lots of other players spending 1 or 2 BPs. So if you want to bounce to somewhere near the top of the order, spend at least 3 BPs. More than 3 is only worthwhile if you think you're bidding against someone else that's spending extra BPs as well.

6.3  NUMBERFORMATS   With some actions you can give either an actual value in the "number" box (e.g. MOVE ABC DEF 3) or you can order "all" (eg. MOVE ABC DEF ALL - this means move all the armies, however many there are) and you can even order "all but" a number (e.g. MOVE ABC DEF AB-2 means leave two armies behind and move the rest).
These options are important, since if there are fewer armies available than you ordered and you ordered an actual number, then the action fails (having ordered an attack with a specific number of armies, you probably don't want to go ahead if half you armies have failed to turn up, or have been lost in another battle).
Note: If you leave the "number" box blank or zero then this is treated as ALL, and a number less than zero is treated as an "ALL BUT".
Note: The "all" and "all but" order formats are not normally available for actions other than moves and attacks (if there are, then it'll say so in these rules).
6.4  UNOWNED AREAS   At the start of each turn, before any player actions are processed, one random action is processed for each unowned area. These actions aren't subject to the normal rules, and may add an army or a fortification or population level.
Note: If you're attacking an unowned area, you need to make sure you'll win the battle whatever it builds, or be prepared to live with the risk of getting a nasty surprise. Of course, even if you plan correctly, there's still the chance that one of the other players will barge in before you arrive (but in that case, you know who to blame...).

6.5  DISPERSALS   At the end of each turn if the number of armies in a land area is greater than the number of population and fortification levels then a number of armies are "dispersed" (they're returned to your reserve and may be called up again later). The number of armies dispersed is the number of armies divided by the number of population plus forts, rounding down (if there are less than two pop+forts then you disperse half).
At sea there are no dispersals provided your ships can trace a route to their naval base. If they can't (because the base has been captured or closed) then one ship and one army will be dispersed.
This happens before maintenance costs are calculated. Dispersals are highlighted in game reports.