Rules for December 18th

If your opponent uses the iron mountain, there is no cav assign phase at his provinces, can I use the DOoW?

Yes. The Iron Mountain doesn't say that there's no Cavalry assignment phase, it just says that Cavalry cannot be assigned then. That sorta implies the existence of such a phase, so DOoW is legal.

Ok, along those same lines. I have a 6 province strength. I am attacked by a personality with Moto Chargers attached, he's a total of 5 force. For whatever reason, he resolves the other 3 battles and then the one we are both in. I use luring tactics to move in to a resolved battle. He's now 7 force. Since he's 7 force against a 6 province strength in a battle and the province isn't destroyed, upon resolution of the last battle, can I play Ring of the Earth?

No. Although Ring of Earth says 'play immediately after an attack against one of your provinces', no one ever attacks provinces, they attack players. The word attack has been ruled to mean 'battle', so in this example, you've already passed by the opportunity to play the Ring of Earth. You would have had to have played it when you resolved the original battle where the Moto Chargers end up. There is a sitaution where something like this could work, but it's more like this:

Moto Chargers assign to province 2. Resolving p3, Chargers move in. Defender moves Chargers back into p2 with Luring Tactics. Attacker SupTacs the Chargers back into p3.

When p2 is chosen to resolve, at the end of that battle, you can play the Ring of Earth, even though the Chargers were only briefly there.

When using vigilant keep of the monkey and I oath of fealty a personality does he gain the Toturi's Army trat or rather the monkey clan trait?

Toturi's Army.

Does the same apply to traits granted by events or sensei? (Creating the monkey, Kage, Sherasu etc)

Yes.

Can the ronin dojo be used to create a monkey clan trait or is it restricted to Toturi's Army since that is the *actual* faction?

Just TA.

also....if kitsu osen is egged, can you use his reaction to kill another personality?

No. The Egg doesn't trigger entering play effects.

Uh... why wouldn't it? It sure seems to count for your one person entering play on Yodin and if you Kuni Yori Osen he gets to do it again since he is entering play. That seems to indicate rather strongly that you should be able to use the Egg to get a second use of Osen's assassination ability.

For one, it doesn't trigger entering play effects because the Archive says it doesn't. ;)

For the explanation behind that ruling, you'd probably want to ask Zen. He's the recognized authority on all things Egg-like, and I could only give you my best guess.

My best guess, though, is that the action card enters play, and *then* becomes a copy of the target personality. It's never a personality entering play, but by the end of the actions resolution, you have brought a personality into play, counting for Yodin Sensei's clause.

Hmm. Vaughn, does not the active controller get to decide which order to apply his card effects in?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Traits always apply before actions, so you cannot do this:

Vaughn (anyone) were does it say this in the rules?

It's in the Archive. Looking up the original ruling, the justification is essentialy that traits are faster than actions, even Reactions. Traits are always on, and Reactions have to be triggered, so traits always win out.

<snip> The counterargument to that is that, once Stars Scatter has been played, the new RA's are not the same RA as the original one. They are all completely new Ranged Attacks, and should get all existing bonuses again. For balance's sake, though, I think that the whole thing, Stars Scatter and all, should just be counted once when assessing bonuses.

And the counter argument to that is the text of Stars Scatter.(which I should have looked at before entering into this discussion :>)

Kiho Reaction: Bow one of your Monks or Shugenja __as__ you make a ranged attack.

The range attack is not complete at the time Stars Scatter looks at it :> To me as a TO the rulling would have been you can split the original RA into as many 1F RAs as you like and then the Barbicans will apply.

But Barbican, essentialy, applies itself at the same time as Stars Scatter triggers. When the RA is made. Given that one is a trait, and one is a Reaction, the Reaction always goes last.

One of my questions is "If you bow Mizuochi and target one of your own unbowed personalities, giving them a wanted token, then Sympathetic Energies the token to someone else, does the original unbowed personality (Mirumoto Foo) have the ability to remove the token?"

I couldn't find any applicable rulings for Shosuro Hametsu, and both of his versions have abilities that are tied to the tokens, not to the people who have them. Maybe an LBS version of Hametsu?

Anyways, the personality with the Wanted token is the personality who can bow to remove it. The guy who used to have it doesn't have it now, so can't bow to remove something he doesn't have.

I'm sure I saw a ruling on this before but I can't find it anywyhere. How many times can Seppun Toshiken Exp use his send home ability?

As many times as he wants.

Way of Deception would still work [under Winter Warfare] since it is 'not considered moving', yes?

Yes.

For the sake of duels, if a follower has a chi does that add to a personalities chi?

Only if it has a Chi value expressed as +X. In certain situations, it is possible for a follower to have X Chi, but that wouldn't add to the personalities Chi.

I play Wide Terrain, after a few actions Wide Terrain is destroyed. Do the personalities go back to the battle they were at before or does the player get to choose?

Once Wide Terrain has been played, destroying it has no effect. It's already resolved, and it now just a Terrain placeholder preventing you from playing any further Terrains.

Let's say I am playing Dragon- Iron Mountain (go figure) and I play wide terrain, making my PS 12. The original amount of the force attacking at each province was 5. The new attacking force is 10 and for arguments sake, let's say he had no force pumpers and goes home. Can I play the Ring of Earth?

No. He never had an amount of force greater than your province strength. If, for whatever reason, he had 7 at one province and 3 at the other, then it would be legal to play RoE after Wide Terrain.

What about if the battle that I moved in to the current one, the opposing force was 7, could I play it even through that battle doesn't resolve, because there was 7 force assigned to a 6PS province?

Yes. Curiously enough, it looks like there is still a Battle Action Segment at the other province, where all the armies were moved in from. There's no resolution segment, but there's still a BAS, and you could even move units in and do stuff there. So, after the BAS at the other province, you could play RoE.

Speaking of Pekkle...

I'm wondering about cards that affect the player. Do cards that say "if X, lose Y honor", "If X you may do Y", "if X, your personalities get +Y bonus" always refer to the cards current controller?

As far as I know, yes. It'd be interesting to see if there were any cards worded this way that were meant to apply to a different player than their controller, but I don't know of any.

For instance, if I give Pekkle to my opponent with Gift of Fealty and kill her, will my opponent get the honor hit?

Yup.

If I give Tsuo to my opponent and dishonor him, will my opponent lose the honor?

Sure.

Are there any times when "you", "your", or generic "if X do Y" statements do NOT refer to the personality's current controller (referring, instead, to the player who brought it into play)?

Not that I know of. May I point you to an excellent search engine with which to dig for such cards?

http://toysmakeuspowerful.com/search?dbase=l5r

There's also the Legendary Search Engine, which I don't know the URL for, but many people prefer.

Miya Yemi's gain honor action is political right? So Doji Yosai exp can copy it?

Yes, and yes.

Also, Toturi nonexp is considered dishonored while he is the dynasty phase (which is why TA does not gain honor for bringing him out full) right? So he has a personal honor of 0 and Otomo Hoketuhime can reduce his honor requirement to - right?

Absolutely.

Can Ide Gokun destroy shadowlands items (cards which have no printed stat, in this case force, have a 0 in that stat)?

No.

I know ranged attacks can target more than personalities and followers: Crystal Arrow and Jade Arrow can be used to destroy tainted items for instance.

As I learned a few weeks ago, it's a really bad idea to try and base Ranged Attack precedents off of Crystal/Jade Arrow. Without explicit wording (and following errata of clear intent) such as the Jade/Crystal Arrows have, assume that all Ranged Attacks follow normal targeting rules.

Does Gokun have to be in the same battle as the Shadowlands card to target it? Can he be used to destroy corrupt holdings and regions as well?

Umm...no. Gokun's Ranged Attack vs. Shadowlands works just like other Ranged Attacks, except it can only target a specific subset of already legal Ranged Attacks. If a card doesn't explicitly say that it breaks the rules, it doesn't.

This may be a dumb question, and I think I know the answer, but I looked both on Jeff's page and Zen's page and didn't see the answer.

Look in the Archive, under Bowing.

I am playing Otaku Palaces.

I use Forced March on my Kamoko.

My opponent attacks me on his turn.

Can I straighten my Kamoko?

Yes.

The entry in the FAQ on bowing does not address the term "in" as used on Forced March, and the entry on Forced March doesn't either.

During=in, for this purpose.

Assuming I have multiple Forced Marches in my hand, and the gold to pay for them, may I target the same unit twice on the same turn with Forced March.

Sure.

So the question is: If I have Akuai out and I flip an event (say Troll Raiders or Kachiko's Kiss), can I then bow Akuai during my limited phase to discard the event? Or do I need to wait until it gets shuffled back into the deck on my next turn.

Technicality: Akuai doesn't bow to use his ability.

Ruling: Events that specifically list something that happens to them other than the normal 'discard after resolution' override Yokuni Sensei's clause on staying in the province. Events like Kachiko's Kiss, which shuffle themselves back in, and Events like Duty to the Empire, which say they enter play, trump Yokuni Sensei.

I suppoe it boils down to... are the cards in your provinces still considered to be in your Dynasty Deck?

No. But, as it turned out, that wasn't what it really boiled down to.

;)

Hi...real quick rules question, does this [Imperial Census] check printed cost or does it check cost - things like Palaces of Otosan Uchi/Kyuden Kitsune? Thanks..

It checks cost. However, be aware of the specific card you're looking at. Things like Palaces of Otosan-Uchi (though it doesn't apply to personalities) and Hiruma Dojo only act as cost reductions until the end of the turn they're applied in. Things like Kyuden Kitsune and Festival of the River of Stars affect costs for as long as they're in effect, though, so make sure that the effect you're looking at affects the cost of personalities even after they've come into play.

Scenario 1: Player A has two provinces, and one tactician.

Player B has two really big units.

During B's turn, he declares an attack on A, and assigns a unit to each province (called 1 and 2). Player A defends with his one tactician at province 1.

Player B choses to resolve the battle at 2 first. Player A plays Luring Tactics and brings the unit from the battle at 1 into 2. (remember that "This battle" and "the current battle" are not synonymous; see http://www.planet.net.au/~zfaulkes/rulings.html#Battle; I mentioned this because of the wording of the card.) Player B passes. Player A then plays Superior Tactics and goes back to the battle at province 1 (thereby delaying his doom for another turn.)

You can't use Luring Tactics targeting a Tactician who isn't in the battle currently being resolved. Any action that targets something in 'this battle' has to target something in the battle currently being resolved. However, the reason that the above ruling exists is so that actions which are only usable during 'this battle' are not usable during the battle currently being resolved if the card isn't actually at the battle.

For example, Daikua. Daikua's ability is only usable if Daikua is actually at the battle in question. If his ability affected the battle currently being resolved, then he could use it no matter where he was.

Scenario 2:

In this scenario, it's the same as the above, except player 2 resolves the battle at 1 first. B does Luring Tactics again, moving both of the units to the battle at 2 as before. The battle at 1 resolves and nothing happens. Then, at the battle at 2, B again Superior Tactics back into the battle at 1 (since, as per the rulings, a resolved battle is still a battle until the Attack Phase ends). B has again bought a turn to live.

This situation is perfectly legit, and a good use of Luring Tactics. Rock on.

Oh yyeah, and I have another Yemi question. Do you have to have the favor to be able to discard it and gain 2 honor?

Umm...yeah. I have to ask, what brought this question on? Is there another card to this combo that I'm missing?