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, 20 February 2008
My friend and I where playing yesterday and a discussion came up around this card and Akodo Hachigoro. As most players probably know Swift Counterattack reads: "Before a player resolves a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Negate the action's effects"
This was the logic we where discussing. 1. There are many battle actions that allow you to take an addidional battle action and quite frankly that seemed to be the most logical way to understand the card. But that's not exactly what the cards says and if it was meant to do that why didn't it read something like: "After a player resolves an additional battle actions; negate the effects"? 2. Not beaing an expert in english, what does an additional action mean? Is it an action that follows another action or an action that follows an action that you otherwise would not be able to do, or to put it simply: one action allowing you to take another one? 3. Of course Akodo Hachigoro and Sneak Attack both are simply actions that allow you to take the first action in a battle but it is an additional action that you otherwise would not be able to take. Of couse it is the first battle action of the battle but there is nothing in the text on Swift Counterattack that say's that the battle action that you are negating must be a battle action taken in addition to another battle action, but rather that Akodo Hachigoro and Sneak Attack allow you to take an additional battle action that you might otherwise not take but only have this one window to take that action (it must be the first action in the battle). ??? 4.What about different circumstances like Honor's Lesson Dojo, A Samurai's Fury ...and there are probably a ton of other examples to be found.
What is the limit of what Swift Counterattack can negate?
Martin Lund (rules official), 20 February 2008
My friend and I where playing yesterday and a discussion came up around this card and Akodo Hachigoro. As most players probably know Swift Counterattack reads: "Before a player resolves a Battle action that was taken as an additional action: Negate the action's effects"
This was the logic we where discussing. 1. There are many battle actions that allow you to take an addidional battle action and quite frankly that seemed to be the most logical way to understand the card. But that's not exactly what the cards says and if it was meant to do that why didn't it read something like: "After a player resolves an additional battle actions; negate the effects"? 2. Not beaing an expert in english, what does an additional action mean? Is it an action that follows another action or an action that follows an action that you otherwise would not be able to do, or to put it simply: one action allowing you to take another one? 3. Of course Akodo Hachigoro and Sneak Attack both are simply actions that allow you to take the first action in a battle but it is an additional action that you otherwise would not be able to take. Of couse it is the first battle action of the battle but there is nothing in the text on Swift Counterattack that say's that the battle action that you are negating must be a battle action taken in addition to another battle action, but rather that Akodo Hachigoro and Sneak Attack allow you to take an additional battle action that you might otherwise not take but only have this one window to take that action (it must be the first action in the battle). ??? 4.What about different circumstances like Honor's Lesson Dojo, A Samurai's Fury ...and there are probably a ton of other examples to be found.
What is the limit of what Swift Counterattack can negate?
Additionally actions are granted explicitly by card text on cards like Eastern Hub Port, Doomed Intentions, or Resumed Hostilities.
Effects that change the order in which player's take Actions (like Sneak Attack or Akodo Hachigoro) do not grant any additional actions.
I believe that every card in the Samurai Edition format that grants an additional action says explicitly that the action is "additional."
For older cards (A Samurai's Fury), I think a good rule of thumb is that if the most recent printing of the card doesn't use the word "additional," then it doesn't count as "an additional action."