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, 5 April 2014
I have the current situation.
I attack with 2 different Unit into 2 different province. My opponent defends with 2 different units in 2 different provinces, but only one of them opposing one of my unit.
I start the battle unopposed and play Sudden Movement to switch my opponent units in the other 2 battles.
Sudden Movement Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations. Switch their locations. Straighten both their units as they move.
Basic rulebook Battle Actions Battle actions follow these two rules, in addition to the usual rules about taking actions: You have to have at least one Personality at the battle eld to take actions in that battle. You cannot take actions from a Personality or attachment not at the current battle eld (Holdings or Strongholds outside the Battle eld are OK), and you cannot target Personalities or attachments with your actions if they are not at the current battle eld.
A player, 29 April 2014
I am still waiting for an answer on my question.
viewtopic.php?t=107600
Thanks
A player, 29 April 2014
We're discussing it, please be patient
A player, 21 May 2014
Is there a final decision on this question yet? It was highly relevant during a play-in game at the Malmo kotei this weekend and it's been a month or so since the last request for clarification.
Alex Jones (rules official), 21 May 2014
I have the current situation.
I attack with 2 different Unit into 2 different province. My opponent defends with 2 different units in 2 different provinces, but only one of them opposing one of my unit.
I start the battle unopposed and play Sudden Movement to switch my opponent units in the other 2 battles.
Sudden Movement Battle: Target two Personalities controlled by the same player at different locations. Switch their locations. Straighten both their units as they move.
Basic rulebook Battle Actions Battle actions follow these two rules, in addition to the usual rules about taking actions: You have to have at least one Personality at the battle eld to take actions in that battle. You cannot take actions from a Personality or attachment not at the current battle eld (Holdings or Strongholds outside the Battle eld are OK), and you cannot target Personalities or attachments with your actions if they are not at the current battle eld.
With the removal in Ivory of the old Exception to the Rule of Location, that allowed a card not at the current battlefield to be targeted by a Battle action if the action would move it there, Sudden Movement - and Shinjo Kinto exp2 - rely on Cardinal Rule #1 to allow you to target a Personality not at the current battlefield. However, while symmetry can be used to argue that, since targets are chosen simultaneously, neither Personality needs to be at the current battlefield, we have decided that this uses Cardinal Rule #1 more than is necessary for the cards to work.
Thus, one of the targets of Sudden Movement must be at the current battlefield.