Rulings for 22 January 2001

Rules Questions

Ok guys, these came up at the TotEC and I had some bad mouthing about this one.

First Situation:

A TA player had his personality bowed against a Unicorn player. The TA player wants to use Imperial Legion to bow the Unicorn players unit. The Unicorn player states that the TA UNIT is bowed and no card within the UNIT can take an action. I was called on to settle the dispute.

My ruling: If the card or effect that bowed the TA personality said 'BOW THE UNIT' then the TA player cannot take any action because his entire unit is bowed. If the card said 'BOW THE PERSONALITY', then the TA player can still use the ability of the Imperial Honor guard because it is still unbowed.

You were correct. This is right from the rulebook, in a paragraph in the "Bowing" section.

The other situation was this:

TA player has his Spearman bowed after using its ranged 2 attack. His YA opponent uses a Swamp Spirits (which was attached to a basic Tsuruchi) for a range 1 attack targeting the bowed Spearman and the YA player says that the Spearman die. Why? The YA player states that a bowed follower has 0 force.

My ruling: The Spearman have 2 Force whether bowed or unbowed during battle action segment so the Range 1 attack does not destroy the bowed Spearman.

Right answer, wrong reason. From the archive:

] Bowed Personalities and Followers do not contributing to the ] total unit/army Force *any* time that particular total is ] needed, not just during battle resolution. ] ] The Force of a card is not affected by bowing; only the Forces ] of units and armies are. Even if a unit is just a Personality ] with no other cards attached, an effect that refers to his ] Force must be double-checked to determine whether it refers to ] a "card's" or "Personality's" Force or whether it refers to a ] "unit's" Force. Only in the last case will the value always be ] zero.

The bowed Spearman's Force was still 2. What being bowed did was stop that 2 from adding to its unit's total Force. It still takes at least a strength 2 ranged attack to kill the Spearmen.

Qns to ponder on

Hi everyone,

I have a few questions in mind. The wordings on Hantei the 16th said that no player can achieve an honor victory while Hantei 16 is in play unless the player controls Hantei the 16th. Any player as an open action lower his or her honor by 20 to permanenly take control of Hantei the 16th . This is not considered an Honor loss. And my friend suggested using Egg of Pan Ku to clone Hantei the 16th. If he does that, then the opposing player has to lower his or her honor by 40 in order to take control of them. Is that correct?

Yes. Each would require a separate reduction of 20. (Something to note: if your opponent only took one, neither of you would be able to win by honor.)

Oh, by the way, I was following the Daidoji Rekai experienced 2 where she can go into a battle to make a ranged attack. That one, i followed half way and after that i do not know what is the answer. So can she really move into a battle with no ranged attack made by her?

Not in general, no, because her action needs a target. (However, with the help of a card that allows her to make her ranged attack without a normal target, such as Burn It Down, she can sometimes move in against nobody.)

Rulings for 18 January 2001

Nightmare at first glance seems to make a card that is immune to fear now vunerable to fear. At second glance it appears to say that fear action now does affect the cards immune to fear. Thus a fear 4 with nightmare targeting a unit contianing naga warlord and naga token would bow both of them. However a unit contianing elite light infantry (which is immune), spearman (which is not immune) and Matsu Gohei (who is not immune) targeted by fear 4 with nightmare would bow the spearman and the elite light infantry but not Matsu Gohei. Am I reading this right?

Nightmare's effects are in addition to the normal effects of Fear.

I'm sorry I poorly phrased that question. Nightmare says that the Fear it reacts to now affects personalities and followers immune to fear. Fear affects things by bowing them. Does this override the fact that personalities can't be bowed by fear?

No. That's not immunity. Immunity is something explicitly granted, beyond the normal state of affairs. Small Farms are not "immune" to duels, for example, and in that exact same way, Personalities are not naturally immune to Fear. You have to find some other way to make Fear affect Personalities -- then and only then, if that Personality is "immune" to Fear (say, due to being Undead, or being controlled by a Sepulcher of Bone player), will Nightmare matter.

EUREKA!

Greetings.

I am finally getting the whole concept!I finally got all the basic rules and conventions of L5R CCG gameplay!!! And I have only all of you esteemed denizens of this most honorable mailing list to thank.

I do have this question though:

1)what does Agasha Gennai do?

It states:" when gennai is unbowed, you may discard one fate card from your hand during your end phase in order to draw an additional fate card."

Does this mean as long as Gennai IS NOT BOWED I can discard one fate card from your hand during your end phase in order to draw an additional fate card?

Not from MY hand. From your own. Other than that, you've got it right. Note that it's not a Reaction (so it won't count towards the Ring of Air), and you can do it once for each Gennai you have, and you can wait until after you've taken your one normal draw before you decide whether you want to discard for another.

2)It is also said that during your events phase an event must be resolved at once, Am I right?

Right.

If so, when I play "architects of the wall" (and no one else had played it yet and this province still has no fortifications) I Do exactly what it says, right?

Sure thing. (The Province can have Fortifications on it already. It just can't have another copy of the one you want to put on it.)

If so, does this mean that I pay the gold cost IMMEDIATELY?

Yes.

But what If I can't afford it, what do I do?

You shouldn't pick one that you know you can't afford.

3)Then there's this guy Heichi Chokei, it says he is "Unaligned monk*Shugenja". Is this correct?

Yes. He's both.

If so, can he use monk specific cards like "one with the elements"?

No. He can use cards that say "Bow a monk to...", and he can use cards that say "Bow a shugenja to...", but he can't use cards like One With the Elements that say "Bow a monk to .... Shugenja may not use this kiho."

can he also use any Shugenja specific cards (if there exists any)?

None exist, but if they did, he couldn't use them either.

Sensei Questions

Ok I am confused...

The accumulated rulings contains the following ruling on sensei: "Once the game begins, a player with -19 honor may freely play Sensei that changes starting family honor, as this does not affect current Honor. [FAQ 3.10]"

OK, a scenario.

I am playing Kosaten Shiro Crane, Kage Sensei.

The game begins, I play Kage Sensei...and my starting honor drops to 4. What is my 'current' honor when I begin my first turn?

If you're talking about your initial, free, start-of-the- game Sensei, then you play Kage Sensei first, and THEN the game begins, with you at a starting AND a current Family Honor of 4.

I had always seen it ruled I would begin the game with 4 honor...but the ruling above tends to suggest otherwise... that my starting honor would drop to 4, but my current honor would remain 6.

The ruling above only applies to playing new Sensei after the start of the game, somehow.

And if I *do* begin the game with 4 honor, how is the Horde protected by the above ruling?

It's not. It's protected by a separate ruling that says Starting Honor has a minimum of -19 (like most everything else has a minimum of 0).

And lastly, do I have 4 or 6 honor for the purposes of determining who goes first, as at that point the game has not yet begun?

4.

Sensei Questions

And if I *do* begin the game with 4 honor, how is the Horde protected by the above ruling?

Since playing a sensei from your fate hand does not affect current honor, the Horde can safely do so. The Horde can't START with a sensei that causes an honor-loss, though, since that would modify their STARTING family honor to -20 and they'd lose before the game even starts.

This is incorrect. They can. See above.

Why does Yogo Ichiba cost 10G ?!?

In a message dated 1/23/01 3:06:26 PM Pacific Standard Time, writes:

<< Combined with the little remembered rule that if a player begins to purchase a card, then cannot meet the gold cost or honor requirement, they have to discard it.

Wait, you mean if I Kolat Bookkeeping someone, they have to discard the Personality, rather than leave it in the province? Please tell me that's true!

That's not true. A card whose payment is interfered with and ultimately cannot be made goes back where it game from.