Correct interpretation of Great Carpenter Wall stronghold

So, I am playing the Stronghold from W&D "Great Carpenter Wall"

I am attacking an opponent with 8 province strength.

Which of these personalities, if they are defending, may I send home with the Stronghold's ability?

Hida Daizu (basic) 4F/4C Hida Daizu (experienced) 5F/4C Kakita Noritoshi (experienced) 3F/7C Moto Chagatai (experienced 5) 9F/5C Sentei no Oni (experienced) 16F/5C

I know I can send at least Hida Daizu (basic) home, and I can't send Sentei no Oni (experienced) home. What about the rest?

[Mod edit: Thread title typo. -ZF]

The unit's Force plus Chi must not exceed Province strength.

We're aware of the reading that both stats are assessed separately; i.e., the Force alone must be less and the Chi alone must be less. If that were the case, the word "total" would be largely redundant. Also, "and" is synonymous with "plus" in ordinary English.

Casual reading beats magnifying glass reading here.

In regards to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=68308 :

I can't see how this ruling agrees with the rule on conjunctions in the Special Wording Rules. Specifically:

"Modifiers attached to a phrase in the form of "a [modifier] X or Y" or "a [modifier] X and Y" modify both things in that phrase."

Using that rule, the phrase on the card means the same thing as "a total Force and a total Chi". Does this rule not apply in this case?

I suppose I am asking for a better understanding on why the aforementioned 'alternate' reading was discarded. Thank you.

I'm not sure I can explain more clearly than I did. "Total" would be redundant under the alternate reading. If you're not adding the force and chi together, what are you totaling?

The Rules Junta had complete consensus that the alternate "legalistic" reading was just a headache waiting to happen.

Regarding this topic: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=68308

So basically what you are telling us is this is the worst Strong Hold in the game thus far. Can you please ask for the intended use of this Strong Hold? I want to know intent on the part of the design team, as thus far this ruling makes this Strong Hold pointless, I think there may be a grand total of 5 percent of personalities in the game it would even run the chance of affecting.

I have seen rules calls made before based on intent, I would like to you to ask how it was play tested and was it used in this manner, or was th point all along to release the most useless Strong Hold?

Thanks.

I am sorry if I come across abrupt, but being a Crab player I cannot fathom this ruling and the fact that there is a point in the accumulated rules, as was pointed out by Cerathi, that seems in counterpoint argument. Total force could be in reference to the personalities force plus items or current force bonuses and penalties? Just my thought. If not I waould as for an erratta, cause as it stands currently, there is no point in having printed this card.

The Rules Junta's mandate does not include evaluating, changing, altering, or affecting a card utility or power. It is -- quite literally -- not our department. That is the design team's thing.

As previously noted, this was discussed by the Rules Junta way before now. I did not mention previously that we did get input from Design on this, so I'm mentioning it now. Design agreed with the ruling. It's up to them to decide if they want to comment further.

Total force could be in reference to the personalities force plus items or current force bonuses and penalties?

No.

"The Personality's Force" is a defined term, meaning "the Personality's base Force plus all current modifiers" - modifiers from traits, Items and actions, and occasionally from Spells or Followers. It is a total, but the summation implied by the term "the Personality's Force," so the "total" in "the Personality's total Force" is redundant, and no card uses that phrase*.

So, "total Force and Chi" means you must add the personality's Force to his Chi.

Alex

(*) According to Natsune: 08:26 <AkodoGilador> What cards have text like "%personality's total force%" 08:26 <Natsune> I don't see any card or cards like that.