Rulings for 17 March 2001
A rules digest from the L5R CCG rules team, copied from the mailing list archive for Oracle of the Void. The askers' names are left out. Rulings are as they stood on this date; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
Matsu Turi (exp) and Hida Technique
Hida Technique: Battle: Target one of your units in this battle. Cards in this unit can be targeted and affected by cards as if they were defending even if they are in the attacking army. If you are a Crab player, this Personality gains +1F, permanently.
Matsu Turi (exp): 4F 4C 0H 9G 2PH Lion Clan Magistrate. Samurai. Experienced. Unique. Battle: Straighten (if necessary) and move Turi into the battle being resolved if you are the Defender.
Hida Technique doesn't give a time limit, so it presumably lasts until the end of the turn.
It does.
Can I assign Matsu Turi to attack a province, resolve his battle first, play Hida Technique on him (and probably Charge, unless he's got a suitable weapon), and in each other battle, when he's returned to my fief after the previous battle, use his ability to bow him and assign him to the current battle?
No. Hida Technique's effect only applies while the Personality is in an attacking army. Turi's not in one if he's in your fief.
The only problem I can see is that Hida Technique says "as if they were defending", whereas Matsu Turi says "if you are the Defender". Are these conditions equivalent?
They're not, which is another problem with the combo.
Rulings for 6 March 2001
Actually, you're exactly right. Check the definition of "immune" in the Glossary. A card immune to "X" cannot be targetted by X. Nor can a unit comprised entirely of "immune to X" cards.
Of course, I'd like this to go away, for a number of reasons.
Then why not make a rule for it?
Because it's been okay for so long that there's no reason to do so before Gold.
It doesn't match the way the rest of the game works. The word "immune" isn't used for anything besides Fear. The fact that targeting a unit and targeting a Personality are equivalent means that, technically, you can't use Fear on a unit whose Personality is immune even when the Followers aren't.
So from now on that applies? You can make a rule that makes it play how it was supposed to right? That is in your power?
See above. Anyone who actually does try to get that technical between then and now will get firmly slapped down with the Wanker Rule.