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, 29 July 2007
It got pretty far down with no answer and since we are playing again today, Ill ask once more.
Player A attacks player B, but assigns no units and asks for allies from player C. Player C assigns all to attack Player B defends with all. Player A plays a Sneak Attack, Then plays Blunting the Charge Against one of the defenders Infantry units. Is this legal since he has no units in the battle? I know he doesnt have to be there against Calvary, but I thought he has to have a unit there to target Infantry. Is opposing and opposed the same?
Martin Lund (rules official), 30 July 2007
It got pretty far down with no answer and since we are playing again today, Ill ask once more.
Player A attacks player B, but assigns no units and asks for allies from player C. Player C assigns all to attack Player B defends with all. Player A plays a Sneak Attack, Then plays Blunting the Charge Against one of the defenders Infantry units. Is this legal since he has no units in the battle? I know he doesnt have to be there against Calvary, but I thought he has to have a unit there to target Infantry. Is opposing and opposed the same?
Let's read Blunting the Charge:
"Battle: Even if you have no units at the current battlefield: Target a Cavalry Personality with 5 or more Force, or an opposed Infantry Personality with 5 or more Force. Move him home."
Well, we've got the clause "Even if you have no units at the current battlefield," so that'll take care of the Rule of Presence.
The target is an opposed Infantry Personality with 5 or more Force, so the Targeting is legal.
The target is at the Current Battlefield, so the Rule of Location is satisfied.
The play is completely legal.
"Even if you have no units at the current battlefield," is all it says in the restrictions box. It is not contingent upon whether you target a Cavalry or Infantry Personality.
"Opposed" just means that there are 1 or more units on the opposite Side of the Battle from a given card, as per the glossary entry.
I think you have been tripping over now defunct Diamond Edition or Lotus Edition rules. Those things were unnecessarily complicated so we tried to sack them wherever possible and make the cards much more clear about what they are trying to say. Things like the old, "Cards are 'opposing' players when they oppose one or more of that player's cards at any battlefield," rules were really weighing things down, so we try not to make cards with crazy wordings that require creating extra rules like that any more.