Ambush and Surprise Attack

L5R CCG Rules board, 30 September 2007

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, 30 September 2007

Ambush: Target one of your unbowed Personalities: Create a battlefield (not at any province). Assign your Personality to attack there. Assign another player’s target Personality to defend there, even if bowed. No other units may move there. Fight a battle there. After it ends, lose 5 Honor.

Surprise Attack: Target one or more of your Nonhuman Personalities at the current battlefield: Target one of the enemy leader's Personalities at this battlefield or his home. Create a battlefield not associated with any province. Move all targets there. (The current battle continues normally.)

I Ambush one of my opponent's personalities with a non human and he runs away with Flash of Steel. My next action is to play Surprise Attack. Is the Surprise Attack still considered the Ambush attack phase for purposes of other units moving in? Also, if it is considered part of the Ambush and they send home my nonhuman can I move back in (ie. Ring of Water)? Ambush says no other units may move there so it implies that the units targeted by Ambush may be moved back in.

Zen Faulkes (rules official), 30 September 2007

I Ambush one of my opponent's personalities with a non human and he runs away with Flash of Steel. My next action is to play Surprise Attack. Is the Surprise Attack still considered the Ambush attack phase for purposes of other units moving in?

There is no "Ambush attack phase" (http://rules.l5r.com/Battles: Battles... sometimes happen as separate card effects"), so I'm unclear of what the question is.

Note, though, that Ambush says, "No other units may move there," meaning the specific battlefield it created.

On: Surprise Attack, Flash of Steel

(I)f it is considered part of the Ambush and they send home my nonhuman can I move back in(?)

Yes, the one unit originally there can return.

On: Surprise Attack