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, 5 October 2009
What happens in this case? Does an attack phase even happen? Could I then rely on movement effect to get around my opponent's defenders? Would they be able to respond with Retribution?
I must have missed something in the rulebook about this. I looked there and the faq. I know I'm missing something. I'm assuming I have to at least assign one unit to attack in order to allow me to play battle actions.
Thanks for the response. I'm just a little shocked that it still works that way after all these years.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 5 October 2009
What happens in this case? Does an attack phase even happen? Could I then rely on movement effect to get around my opponent's defenders? Would they be able to respond with Retribution?
Yes, yes, and yes, to all three above questions after "What happens...?"
I'm assuming I have to at least assign one unit to attack in order to allow me to play battle actions.
That assumption is incorrect, provided the action you wish to take involves some exception to the Rule of Presence (as, in your scenario, you do not have Presence) and possibly also the Rule of Location, depending on the action.