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, 1 July 2013
Here is the scenario that happened to me in a game with a player running Shadow Dragon against me. Said player attacked with Shadow Dragon and 2 other personalities. He then used Shadow Dragon's trait to straighten. I reacted with The perfect moment and he chose not to assign Shadow Dragon to defend. I took the province and then he reacted with Retribution with Shadow Dragon to essentially take 2 provinces. However, my question is can a personality with the Conqueror trait be involved in two different attack phases if the opponent rets or TPMS the original attack and said Conqueror was in the army that destroyed a province at resolution?
So basically to summarize: A) Player A attacks with a Conqueror Personality, takes province and uses his trait to straighten B) Player B reacts with Retribution or TPM and Player A decides to not assign Conqueror Personality to defend C) Player A then reacts to Player B's battle with Retribution and assigns the Conqueror Personality to attack
Is the scenario above considered a legal play? Also could Player B actually then use move-in cards like Sound of Thunder to send their troops in to defend the second attack if Part C is a legal play?
Jon Palmer (rules official), 2 July 2013
Here is the scenario that happened to me in a game with a player running Shadow Dragon against me. Said player attacked with Shadow Dragon and 2 other personalities. He then used Shadow Dragon's trait to straighten. I reacted with The perfect moment and he chose not to assign Shadow Dragon to defend. I took the province and then he reacted with Retribution with Shadow Dragon to essentially take 2 provinces. However, my question is can a personality with the Conqueror trait be involved in two different attack phases if the opponent rets or TPMS the original attack and said Conqueror was in the army that destroyed a province at resolution?
So basically to summarize: A) Player A attacks with a Conqueror Personality, takes province and uses his trait to straighten B) Player B reacts with Retribution or TPM and Player A decides to not assign Conqueror Personality to defend C) Player A then reacts to Player B's battle with Retribution and assigns the Conqueror Personality to attack
Is the scenario above considered a legal play? Also could Player B actually then use move-in cards like Sound of Thunder to send their troops in to defend the second attack if Part C is a legal play?
The Second Battle Rule only restricts Personalities from being in an attacking army if they've already been in one that Attack Phase. Both Retribution and The Perfect Moment create a new Attack Phase, and therefore Personalities are not restricted by prior Attack Phase resolutions. What you describe is legal (and since the Second Battle Rule only applies to attackers, it'd be legal for your defenders to move in regardless).