First I want to thank you for your comprehensive answers on my last batch of questions (here)
I have another regarding negation of battle actions and gold cost. I take that generally speaking you have to pay costs for an action that will fail, as i have been told so multiple times (but have only found this which indicate the cost of deliberations is announced before interrupt may occur). But I have also seen that it is *legal* to voluntarily fail a cavalry escort to trigger the shadowed estate's negation without spending gold
what about interrupt the void's flow (or sun returns, for that matter) negating cavalry escort or one of the reserve rulebook actions : should gold be spent?
Precisely : A) (1) Can my opponent use cavalry escort, pay zero, and see it fail, without anything else taken into account (One might simply want to ditch a card from one's hand to cycle more cards with a glimpse of fate)? (2) or does he have to be *helped* (shadow estate, sun return, or interrupt the void flow...) to be able to botch his battle? If the former (1) is right, then when does he decide and announce he won't pay a dime and see the action fail? before, or after i could interrupt the action?
B) Do reserve recruit and reserve equip work the same way (as cavalry escort)? Are gold costs announced before interrupts are? Are they paid if the action is negated? I checked the wordings of these, they seem to be different from cavalry escort's, but in either case, (*) is mentionned as a gold cost.
C) the sun returns and interrupt the void flow's wordings differ. 'Flow mentions battle action, when Sun return's only mentions effects of the action. Do these actually mean 2 different things, one also negating other parts of an action (like paying costs, discarding the card form your hand, or such...)
Scenario D : My opponent uses cavalry escort's battle action, and he intends to recruit a 10g personality and has 15 gold available. I interrupt with ITVF or The sun returns. Does he spend 15 gold? Are there different cases i should consider, with different outcomes (like with gold being in the pool or coming from not yet bowed holdings, or one negation being used instead of the other) ? If he has multiple personalities in his provinces, he doesn't have to announce which one he will target with cavalry escort before i can interrupt it (right?), but does he have to announce the amount of gold, hence hinting at who he will buy (like with deliberation) ?
Scenario E : My opponent uses one of the rulebook reserve battle actions, and i interrupt with ITVF or the sun returns. Does he spend gold? If he has multiple targets (reserve personalities in province, or reserve attachement in his hand) again does he have to announce the amount of gold, declare and/or show which reserve card the reserve rulebook action should bring into play before i interrupt?
interrupt the void flow : Void Interrupt : Negate a Battle action. blablabla ...
the sun returns : Bow your target unbowed Tactician. Negate the effects of a Battle or Engage action.
Cavalry escort : Battle, (X) : If this Follower is in your hand, Recruit your target Personality (paying all costs) for 5 more gold and attach this Follower (ignoring all costs) to him.
Thank you for your insight.