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, 24 April 2014
When my friends and I first got into L5R with Ivory Edition, we thought calvary didn't have the once per turn rule and when someone pointed out that it does, we couldn't find out why. One reason was made that the Cavalry action is not repeatable, so you can only use it once per turn. The thing that still confuses us is why this effects different cards. Sure each card with cavalry can only move once, but why can't every card with cavalry move once? Why doesn't this effect every card with like abilities? For example, if I have a Coastal Pearl Bed and a Yukihime's Hot Springs, can I use each one's open ability even though they are the same and not repeatable? Or how about if I have two Kabuki Theater Troupes, can I use each ones Limited action even though they aren't repeatable? Can I not use two Allied Efforts in the same turn since they are the same abilities and don't have repeatable?
I'm in no way saying Cavalry needs to be changed or isn't strong, I think it is fine the way it is, I am just trying to clarify the ruling that makes it only once per turn.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 24 April 2014
When my friends and I first got into L5R with Ivory Edition, we thought calvary didn't have the once per turn rule and when someone pointed out that it does, we couldn't find out why. One reason was made that the Cavalry action is not repeatable, so you can only use it once per turn. The thing that still confuses us is why this effects different cards. Sure each card with cavalry can only move once, but why can't every card with cavalry move once? Why doesn't this effect every card with like abilities? For example, if I have a Coastal Pearl Bed and a Yukihime's Hot Springs, can I use each one's open ability even though they are the same and not repeatable? Or how about if I have two Kabuki Theater Troupes, can I use each ones Limited action even though they aren't repeatable? Can I not use two Allied Efforts in the same turn since they are the same abilities and don't have repeatable?
I'm in no way saying Cavalry needs to be changed or isn't strong, I think it is fine the way it is, I am just trying to clarify the ruling that makes it only once per turn.
Well, unlike the "Tactician" keyword, which gives a separate copy of the Force-boosting ability to each Personality with "Tactician", Cavalry doesn't do that.
As a player, you only have a single copy of the Cavalry-movement ability, located in the Rulebook, not one copy per Personality. The same goes for the Naval Invasion ability, the Equip ability (but Equip is Repeatable, so you can do it as many times as you want in your turn), and so on.
I hope that explains things.