post for 27 March 2002

Blocked Supply Lines Question

I have one unit in the current battle, who is bowed. I am the defeneder. Can I play blocked supply lines to send home an attacking unit in this battle?

Yes.

"Variable" Effect cards

Greetings, I was just in the archive and was wondering about the rulebook definition of "variable" for variable cost, variable bonus, variable honor loss, etc. My question is, is an effect that has a strength (such as Fear, Ranged attack, honor loss, etc.) considered variable if it is based on a quantity which is known to *all* players (extension of ruling about cards taking game-state into account for legality etc, the so-called "smart cards" ruling).

Generally, no. Something is variable if you don't know how large it's going to be until the moment it happens.

For example, hypothetical situation:

Ambush Strategist, according to the rules archive: *Does not give a Force bonus to cards with a variable strength ranged attack. [VRD, 21 October 2000] *Gives a Force bonus to cards with a ranged attack for which the strength is described in the card text. [VRD, 16 November 2000]

Now, is a card such as Ikiryo considered a "ranged attack for which the strength is described in the card text"? If not, what is?

It is.

For an example of a card that isn't, look at Yotsu Seou. "Battle: Give Seou one or more shuriken tokens as long as the total number of shuriken tokens on Seou is less than four. Produce a Ranged Attack with a strength equal to the number of tokens just given to Seou. This does not bow Seou."

Questions

a) When the Mujina Gang attaches, is its trait (discard a card in the unit) a cost or an effect? It does not _appear_ to be a cost;

It is an effect. It will, however, cause you to discard the Gang itself should you attach it to a Personality who has no other cards.

b) KK's Journal is on an opposing Personality. Pearl Magic is used by you. Pearl Magic will not target bookboy, but can it be played in the first place, given that it cannot target him and there are other (non-cheese-shielded) Personalities?

It can't be played in the first place.

The Jaws of Defeat question.

the text of the card reads:

LIMITED: end the action phase.

looking through the rule book I found that there are 2 action phases (the battle action phase before resolution, and the phase between event resolution and attacking). Also digging a little further I found that a player can only preform limited actions on his/her own turn.

Does this mean that you would use Jaws of Victory to end your own action phase (when you are brinign out followers, attaching items, etc), or could it be used in battle (on your own turn) to skip forward to resolution?

No, there is only one Action Phase in a turn.

The Battle Action Segment is not the same as the Action Phase.

Further, by definition, a Limited Action can not normally be played during a battle.

Just putting my official stamp of approval on this. (Why redo all that typing?)

Where is Design going with the Scorpion?

But not to be totally b***chy and whiney I would like to ask, where is design going with the Scorpion? Maybe getting an answer to this question will provide the missing piece of the puzzle for me. If I knew why the junshin minority is taking over the ranks, maybe I wouldn't gripe. But right now all I see is a mish mash of ideas and honor requirements that are making it tough for the Scorpion to put together a good deck other than corrupt blitz.

The Scorpion are one of the better-faring factions, overall, in the Gold environment right now. When that happens, it's our job to try to keep things from getting out of hand. Part of that job is making sure we don't accentuate the areas the clan is already strong in, and one area Scorpion is really strong in is corrupt military. You've seen the same thing happening with the Shadowlands. How many cards have we made recently that fit mindlessly into a speed gobbo attack deck? Very, very few. We've been trying to give them good mid- to late-game Personalities instead. That way they still get good cards, but those cards benefit their less-popular deck styles.

So it is with Scorpion. Since we can't print Scorpions with "-" honor requirements without them immediately benefitting the corrupt decks more than yours (it doesn't matter if YOU aren't going to play corrupt; there are hundreds of others who will), you're seeing a deliberate shift in emphasis to people who won't work in corrupt decks and to Courtiers and related Political actions -- something the Scorpion have also, traditionally, been quite proficient at in the storyline but which as NEVER been adequately represented in the CCG. (I don't consider Secrets/Shame as representative of Scorpion's mastery of skills.)