A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
A player, 25 March 2013
Hello, I read the previous Opportunistic Advance (OA) column and I couldn't figure out if this was legal or not (my opponent couldn't figure it out after looking at it either) so apologize if it seems like a repeat.
Scenario: My opponent has 4 provinces and I declare an attack. I assign no infantry and he assigns no infantry, then I assign no cavalry and he assigns no cavalry. I have an unbowed commander and one other unit at home. I select one of his provinces to begin the battle. He passes on his first action and then I play OA to have my unbowed commander "command" move my other unit to the battlefield.
I figured this was legal because the text of OA quotes "In his Army" which would mean that my commander and other unit have to be at the same location (which in this case is home). I declared an attack which would mean there are 4 potential battlefields and therefore I can successfully use OA. Since it was the attack phase and I would be moving a unit to the current battlefield, I figured the "Battle" requirement was met via the "Rule of Location".
His argument was OA can only be used as a "Battle" ability and therefore must be done at the battlefield. Since my units were at home, OA couldn't be used.
If he is correct, I'm a bit confused to the actual utility of OA? It seems like it takes up many actions and you lose a decent amount of space in the fate deck when you could just play cavalry units to get a better effect?
Opportunistic Advance- Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Commander and target another Personality in his army: Move the target to a battlefield.
Alex Jones (rules official), 26 March 2013
Hello, I read the previous Opportunistic Advance (OA) column and I couldn't figure out if this was legal or not (my opponent couldn't figure it out after looking at it either) so apologize if it seems like a repeat.
Scenario: My opponent has 4 provinces and I declare an attack. I assign no infantry and he assigns no infantry, then I assign no cavalry and he assigns no cavalry. I have an unbowed commander and one other unit at home. I select one of his provinces to begin the battle. He passes on his first action and then I play OA to have my unbowed commander "command" move my other unit to the battlefield.
I figured this was legal because the text of OA quotes "In his Army" which would mean that my commander and other unit have to be at the same location (which in this case is home). I declared an attack which would mean there are 4 potential battlefields and therefore I can successfully use OA. Since it was the attack phase and I would be moving a unit to the current battlefield, I figured the "Battle" requirement was met via the "Rule of Location".
His argument was OA can only be used as a "Battle" ability and therefore must be done at the battlefield. Since my units were at home, OA couldn't be used.
If he is correct, I'm a bit confused to the actual utility of OA? It seems like it takes up many actions and you lose a decent amount of space in the fate deck when you could just play cavalry units to get a better effect?
Opportunistic Advance- Battle: Choose your performing unbowed Commander and target another Personality in his army: Move the target to a battlefield.
If you're refering to this thread, you'll see that I quoted the definition of Army: One or more units in a given side at a battlefield.
Both the Commander and the target Personality must be at the current battlefield.