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, 15 August 2009
Enemy units are at the current battlefield. I have no units present. I have both Ikoma Tomoi and Tanaka at home.
Can Tomoi's ability be used to bring Tanaka into the fight?
Instead, could Tanaka's ability be used to bring Tomoi into the fight?
(an earlier ruling seemed to indicate that the phrase "at any location" trumped the Location requirement to the Cardinal Exception: "Battle actions that say they move a unit to the current battlefield are legal to take, regardless of Presence and Location, if the rules of Presence and Location would be satisfied with the unit there".) viewtopic.php?f=59&t=78071&p=1024372&hilit=tanaka#p1024372
If "at any location" allows Tanaka to ignore the Rule of Location, then please address this scenario:
I am attacking two provinces. I divide my forces equally between them, assigning my only naval personality to province one. My only Tanaka is at province two.
Can I initiate the fight at province one, and use Tanaka's ability to move my naval personality to province two, thereby giving me first action at province two, once I initiate the combat segment there?
Would it make a difference if Tanaka was at home?
Thanks in advance,
-OnE
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 15 August 2009
Enemy units are at the current battlefield. I have no units present. I have both Ikoma Tomoi and Tanaka at home. Can Tomoi's ability be used to bring Tanaka into the fight?
No. That would violate the second part of the Rule of Location.
http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Battles#Rule_of_Location: "If a Battle action is on a card in a unit (a Personality or attachment in play), the unit must be at the current battlefield in order to take that action."
The following exception -- "a Battle action can target or be taken by a card in a unit at another location if its costs or effects say they are able to move that unit to the current battlefield" -- do not apply because the effects do not move that unit (i.e., Tomoi).
Instead, could Tanaka's ability be used to bring Tomoi into the fight?
Not while Isawa Tanaka is at home, for the same reasons.
I am attacking two provinces. I divide my forces equally between them, assigning my only naval personality to province one. My only Tanaka is at province two. Can I initiate the fight at province one, and use Tanaka's ability to move my naval personality to province two, thereby giving me first action at province two, once I initiate the combat segment there?
No, for the reasons stated above.
Would it make a difference if Tanaka was at home?
No.
What you're looking for is not a Personality that says, "at any location," but a Personality that says, "even if not in the current battlefield" or some such.