post for 8 March 2002

New Mantis stronghold...

Okay, then in Gold, do the Wasp and Centipede personalities count as in-clan for this stronghold?

There is no text on it or in the rulebook to that effect.

I don't recall seeing any Wasp clan personalities with the Mantis trait on them. I'm wondering exactly how expansive the stronghold goes as far as in-clan personalities.

Except for the rulebook rule about "Mantis Clan" and "Yoritomo's Alliance" meaning the same thing, it's no more expansive than any other.

post for 6 March 2002

Doom of a Dark Lord destroys Provinces for each card that you are unable to draw, right? So what do the Prophecies protect you from when this Doom has resolved?

Hmm. Good point. Your Provinces aren't cards, and they're certainly not you. The Prophecies won't save them.

Alternate Rings; Olympics

Please refrain from posting further USOC flames on this mailing list. It's off-topic and ineffective.

Soul of Question

You are absolutely wrong regarding my comments. My complaint is about proxies, not the soul of rules. I do not believe the Soul of trait is a problem, I never said that it was. I was commenting on how people don't understand the use of original versions as proxies, which IS NOT explained in the rules, because it IS NOT a rule of the game. It was a concession made by AEG to appease people that didn't want to buy more cards.

You are absolutely right. If we do not reverse this decision at once, we run the very real risk of causing irreparable damage to our reputation for doing whatever the heck we want regardless of customer preference!

My complaint is that the concession is causing more problems than it is worth regarding rules and especially newer players.

Your local Tournament Organizer has the authority to overturn that rule (and many others) in tournaments he or she runs. In all seriousness, if it's causing so many problems, suggest that it be lifted for a tournament or two.

post for 7 March 2002

A player that renounces to win an honor victory or loses this ability is affected by Death of the Ki-rin?

He is no longer affected if he loses that path to victory.

I was under the impression that the condition "normally able to win an honor victory" prevented an SH that had lost it's ability to win by honor (by using Kaede Sensei for example) from escaping DotK-R. Strongholds that explicitly prevented winning by Honor (Ruined Fortress, Iron Citadel, any Shadowlands, etc.) were the only ones not bound by DotK-R.

Note carefully, boys and girls. This is why you shouldn't trust spoiler lists. All too often they're missing that one crucial word that's on the real-life card. (Sadly, it's not really an option for me, given how much reference is involved in answering these questions and how much other work I need to get done in a day.)

Death of the Ki-Rin cares about whether you, with your Stronghold, are normally able to win by Honor, not whether you currently are.

I'm going to make an intent-based ruling that the caster of the Iron Citadel is considered "normally unable to win an honor victory" and unaffected by the event, despite the fact that the inability to win through honor is actually an effect of the spell and not a trait of your new Stronghold.

Scholarmage is enlightened on Naval trait and Army Term

Friends, The thing I wrote on the Naval trait originaly was in trying to get an official response for information concerning the new Mantis stronghold.I never got an official response.

This is due in part to the email problems this list has been experiencing, and in part to the fact that I tend not to respond to an issue when I see it's already been addressed with multiple identical quotes from the rulebook.

Naval Invasion legality

Can we use the naval invasion rules now already or do we have to wait until the release of Dark Allies?

You need to wait until it's in a released rulebook.

post for 7 March 2002

"Mantis Clan" and "Yoritomo's Alliance" were and still are completely equivalent terms, in all game formats. "Yoritomo's Alliance" Personalities are in-clan for the City of Lightning.

I'm probably completely wrong on this, but wouldn't that mean that all Fox Clan personalites (except the ones from GE onwards) won't be able to be used with Kyuden Kitsune? Since you can't use Mantis personalities, and all pre GE Fox Clan personalities have the YA trait, with is interchangable with the Mantis trait.

Cards and Strongholds can override rules. Kyuden Kitsune works because it specifically treats "Mantis" and "Yoritomo's Alliance" differently, not because the "Mantis Clan = YA" rule was not yet in place back then. It still works just like it always did.

Shiryo no Taisa Q.

What does Shiryo no Taisa Cancel? Anything after a battle is called, but before the first action?

That's the issue. Until now, phrases like "before the first action", "before the Defender's first action", and "when" or "immediately after the start of a battle" have been treated as equivalent, and now it's not so clear that they can be.

Can you cancel only battle actions? like using a Scout?

Any action. [card text]

or can you cancel Sneak attack itself (or just the action afterwards).

Either can be canceled.

What about if they Fall on Your Knees your Sneak Attack, can you cancel that?

Yes.

The reason I am befuddled is that in the Accumulated Rulings it says you cannot cancel Shiryo no Shoju which is clearly an action before the defenders first action.

Shiryo no Shoju is one of a select number of Reactions that happens before the entire battle. It is a special case. It is not considered to have the same timing as results from all those other phrases I mentioned earlier.

And in any case, NO Reaction that says it's played "before a battle" can be canceled by a card that says "cancel an action taken during a battle".

Once you call a battle you are considered to be at that battle right?

No. There is more than one card that, by its own text, gets played before a battle starts, but that nonetheless affects just one battle. That means there has to be a gap between picking a battle to start and actually starting it.

Question on the Naval trait

With the new naval trait, how about the traits captain, kobune and sailors? Will they be interchangeable or equivalent?

"Naval" and "sailor" will be interchangable. Nothing else.

Force of will

Hi

When the dishonored personality is killed with force of will does the controler loose the amount of honor equal to its chi or ph?

Printed Personal Honor. [AOF rulebook p. 61]

Think about it: if you lost honor equal to the Personality's CURRENT Personal Honor, you would always lose 0!

Sup. Strat.- Lion Scout - Luring Tacs. question

Sorry to repost this question. I might have missed it but I didn't see a ruling on this......could have been lost with all the list duplications.

In my eternal quest to get the most out of my favourite card, I have a question. This doesn't crop up very often but it does every now and again, especially when I'm defending with a lone Tactician and there's a tempting Sorrow's Path nearby.

Can I use Lion Scout's Reaction to react to the playing of SS before fetching Luring Tacs. so that the LT can target the same Tactician?

Yes.

I ask this because it has been ruled before that the playing of the fetched card is part of SS's effect (following a previous question about Toturi's Tactics)......I'm not sure if there's a window of opportunity here to react with the Lion Scout to give the double use of Tactician.

The Tactician trait is considered "used" as soon as the action begins resolving without being canceled. (Just as important is the fact that the Lion Scout's Reaction happens "when" Tactician is used, not "after". If it said "after", the answer would be different, because then you would need to wait for the entire thing to resolve before reacting with the Scout.)

Questions

Since Hatamoto is a Gold producing card,

No, it is not. [Glossary, p. 72]

Are Farmland Tokens considered cards for attaching purposes?

Follower tokens, and ONLY Follower tokens, are automatically considered both tokens and cards for all purposes. [AOF rulebook p. 44]

Remember, folks: March is National Rulebook Appreciation Month!