I've been reading the comprehensive rules and haven't been able to find a definitive answer to this.
Imperial Outpost Imperial • Temple • Unique Your non-Holding Imperial cards enter play paying 1 less Gold. Reaction: After engaging in a battle at this province's battlefield: The Defender, then Attacker, each choose and bow one unit in their own army.
Can the reaction be used even if the defender has no units at the battlefield?
I know a reaction does not require presence, so that part of it is legal. Where I'm confused is that there aren't any "targets", just "choices". So I looked up the choice rules in the rulebook and came across this: A choice may be made even if its consequences would be negated, prevented, or otherwise fail due to lack of suitable things to affect. Example: If a Personality is already bowed, or will not bow due to an effect, you may still make a choice to bow him. If you do not control any unbowed Personalities, you may also make a choice to “bow an unbowed Personality,” which just fails.
But the ruling implies that a choice was made as in "bow this guy OR lose 3 honor" or "if you don't pay 2 gold, bow a personality" etc. With the timing, it says the defender, then attacker, just choose one person. Well, if the defender never "chooses" anyone, then the card can never move forward to the attacker choosing someone, right?
Hahahaha, am I overthinking this? I just want to make sure before I bust this card out against big oni and make them bow someone when attacking me.