Just wondering peoples interpretation of how the placement of Portcullises effect movement.

When I have played the game we have always played that a Portcullise is placed on the space and therefore block all movement through that space. We interpreted it this way because the thieves would not want to move in a space that was directly beside a 'police checkpoint' . That said, I have now read, on another games forum, that others are interpreting this rule as the Portcullise only block the leaving of the district from that space and that characters are free to move through the space.

What are others thoughts on this rule and does anyone know if there is an official clarification of this rule from the game's developer?

It just says you can't move through a portcullis: no mention of the space the portcullis occupies. When spacesitems on spaces are mentioned elsewhere, they are distinct.

Zozimus said:

....er, that's "spacesitems on spaces"

Zozimus said:

OK, that's just annoying. The forum is deleting words "spaces 0r items on spaces"

Tried using this interpretation of the rules and did not like it as much. It made it significantly easier to get characters off the board. I think I am going to stick with placing the portcullis tokens on a exit space and having them block the movement through that space entirely.

Shouldn't that have been obvious? Allowing movement on blocked exit spaces makes it easier to get around the board, thus less characters get stuck. I'm not seeing why that's a bad thing, though. I suppose being able to completely gimp another player has it's charm...

It was obvious that it was going to be easier to get around the board. What was not obvious was how this would effect the feel of the game.

Basically, we felt that without the restricted movement the first player had things quite easy. They enter the board first and select where they want to go, which puts them at an advantage. Increasing the difficulty of that player getting off the board because of the portcullis tokens and lots of miniatures on the board kind of negates this advantage. Not saying it is the way it should be played but we enjoyed it more this way.

First Player has it easy?! I don't see it that way. Sure his fist turn is straightforward, but his militia move is wasted and he becomes the prime target for everyone after him, Especially the player directly after him, who's only attack target is the first player. Also, when the alarm sounds the first player has the roughest time getting out since he can't wait for other players to clear the road. I would have to say the last player has the most advantage. On the first turn he can't be attacked and is given the most strategy options. On the Last turn he has the clearest paths to leave once the alarm sounds thanks to previous players already moving to leave.