Rules for January 10th

Hi guys! My email from L5RINFO has been kinda skippy lately, and I'm only getting the list on, like, alternating days or something. Anyone else having this problem? Anyways, I might have missed a question or two somewhere in the skips, and if I have, just be patient and I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later.

First, from private mail:

You ruled that any reactions played before the battle action segment are considered to be before the defenders first action. Simple enough. By that, Fall on Your Knees can cancel Siryo no Shoju. Is this the purpose of the ruling? The two cards seem quite easy to work out until this ruling comes into it.

There's an incorrect conclusion somewhere in there. The ruling is that actions played before the Defender's first action are part of the Battle Action Segment. However, Shiryo no Shoju doesn't trigger before the Defender's first action. It triggers before the Battle Action Segment. That means that it pretty much has to happen *before* the BAS starts, putting it outside the purview of Fall on Your Knees. FAYK cannot cancel Shiryo no Shoju.

If I use Entrench as an Open action to get a Poorly Placed Gardens (5 gold Honor producing holding and fortification), and I am playing with Kosaten Shiro, I have to pay 4 gold to bring the PPG into play, correct?

Yup.

It's not 5 or 7 or 8, is it? Thanks.

Nope.

Just checking. I couldn't find a ruling for it.

Here ya go!

1) There was some discussion once which implied that a dishonour victory was a form of military victory. Does this event [Right to Rule] hose dishonour or not?

Not. Dishonor is a military victory due to being the only player left in the game with provinces. You do not win when your opponent hits -20, they just lose, leaving you as the sole occupant of a two player game. Dishonor is a military victory.

2) I play dishonour and renounce. I plan to keep my opponent under 0 honour so that he cannot bring out his personalities, and crush his provinces with my little weenies around turn 15. I, of course, still intend to redirect my honour losses, so as not to eliminate myself. In the course of doing so, he accidentally reaches -21 honour. What happens?

He explodes in a ball of green-blue flame. Or dies due to dishonor, whichever comes first.

Seppun Murayasu defends against an army of Lion tacticians. The lion player play Tactical Maneuvers can Seppun Murayasu cancel it?

Yup.

Seppun Murayasu defends against someone, they do a different battle first and then superior tactics in, can he cancel it?

Yup.

1) If one of your personality gets refugeed, is it possible to play test of courage and still pay the 1G to get the follower?

Nope. Test of Courage cancels the entire action, including the part about attaching a follower.

2) Is it possible for a player using Seppun Sensei to play Defend your Honor against any honor loss?

Well...kinda. They can play the card, and even issue the challenge, but the honor loss will not be canceled. You cannot voluntarily change any of your honor losses when you are playing Seppun Sensei.

Just so I have this straight...

O-Ushi Sensei works against Scaring the Masses and Return for Training, correct?

Absolutely.

First thing first, can somebody give me a link to the accumulated rulings site?? as I could probably get answers to these qn's there but I wouldn't have a clue where to look.

http://www.planet.net.au/~zfaulkes/rulings.html

Onto the questions -

1. This came up in a game recently. Apparently some in our gaming group believe that a battle does NOT occur at an attack on a province without defenders (question arose regarding the Province gaining ability of Yoritomo ex2 (...When Yoritomo's army destroys a Province in battle...) and for a certain Ratling Follower (...Ratling Conscripts, Reaction: If Conscripts are on the winning side of a battle...). I would have thought that a battle has occured at any time that you go through a battle action segment, which still happens if there are no defenders, could I get a final answer on this one?

The answer is yes, there is a battle at every province, regardless of whether or not there are defenders there. Heck, there's a battle at every province even when there's no one there.

2. Fall On Your Knee's - Will it stop reactions played during a duel within the battle?

Sure.

3. Be Prepared to Dig two Graves - is it playable if the personality of your clan is destroyed during a duel within the battle?

Sure. Two Graves doesn't specify any special way that the personality has to be killed, just that it has to happen in battle. If it said 'during resolution' or 'by a Ranged Attack', then the answer would be different. But as is, a duel will work just fine.

4. Tattoo Qn - A friend is working on a tattoo deck and thinks he has a good combo. I just want to check if it is legit. First Arrowroot tattoo then Crane Tattoo on any pleb. Then can he effectively 'destroy' this personality repeatedly (well once a turn) to save another personality in a battle or duel?

Sure, but only during battle or when the Tattooed personality is in a duel. It's not enough for someone else to be duelling, the Tattooed guy has to be the one in the duel, so it's a little harder to pull that combo off, but that's a fairly well known battle combo.

5. It is optional to take reactions on regions like Palaces of the Emerald Champion, isn't it?? Just in case you need to salt it or let the province fall to get your honor victory.

It's optional. Reactions are never mandatory.

6. The recent thread on 'going first' interested me, especially the possibility of letting the opponent go first for an honor and using take the initiave to again go first. I apologise if this has already been answered but is that a legal play?

No. The 'let your opponent go first' rule is something that I remember seeing, but the last time I looked in a rulebook it was nowhere to be found. I think that it was an archaic rule that just sorta got shuffled off somewhere, and it's no longer possible now. So, you cannot give up the first turn, then take it back.

7. Prob in the rulings, Yasuki Kaneko, her ability cannot be copied...can egging her legally copy the ability?

Egging her is not copying the ability, it's copying the whole darn personality. She doesn't care about the Egg.

8. Is otomo sensei really as good as it seems for screwing Kaede Sensei?

Eh. It's okay. I was much more impressed with its ability to stop Taeruko/Crevasse tricks than I was with its uses against Kaede decks. Slowing down their gold seems to work even better than messing with their Rings does, anyways.

This brings up the question of whether Musubi is legal as well? Are there any other cards that give force bonuses to tacticians without being the standard tactician bonus?

I'm going to say that Musubi is legal, because they don't get the force bonus right when they use their Tactician trait. It does use the trait, and it does (usually) give a force bonus, but those two things happpen far enough away from each other that I think Musubi should be okay.

Do "entering play" effects only activate when a personality is played from a province? For instance, suppose I have Bayushi Bob with the traits "Gain 2 honor when Bob enters play. If Bob is destroyed, he returns to play bowed in your fief." He's not going to generate 2 honor every time he recycles himself, right?

Sure he would. He'd be a really infinite combo with Evil Portents, too. Chi penalties and other until-end-of-turn modifications last even through the discard pile.

In other words, returning to play is not the same thing as entering play. Correct?

Not correct. When you return to play, you also enter play.

Now a question for Vaughn -- can an Arrowroot/Crane person in a battle at Province 1 survive "saving" a person who dies in a Province 2? The Rulings say '"In a battle or duel" means "during a battle or duel". May be used against deaths from ranged attacks, etc." -- does this mean the tattooed person doesn't need to be *in* the battle in order for the Crane tattoo to take effect?

Right. It's the converse of a situation where you have an Open action that cannot be taken during a battle. Whether the person is at a province or not, he still can't take the action. With Arrow/Crane Tattoos on, it looks like you can use the action regardless of where you are.

Is the battle action on Radakast Exp. played as written? I couldn't find any rulings saying otherwise.

Yup, it's played as written. Nasty against Ratlings, but less than phenomenal otherwise.

In a game I was involved in the other day, I had the Sliver attacted to Moto Soro. Since he doesn't die when he hits 0 (not right away, that is) am I able to use it all 3 times? My opponent stated that since a personality's chi cannot be in the negative, I can only pump him once, since he's a 4F/3C and to give him the force bonus, he has to lose 3C each time. Is this correct?

You can always use the ability of the Sliver on Soro three times, even if one of the uses drops him below or to 0 Chi. The Chi loss is not a cost of the action, so the penalty can be assessed even when he's already at 0.