post for 11 June 2002

Faith in my Clan continued

Following on the idea that all allies who join one side comprise an army....

If I am playing Faction A, and another player in my army happens to have a Faction A Champion in play at the current battle or another battle, may I play Faith in My Clan even though I do not control that Champion? Even if that Champion is at a separate battle?

Let's read the card:

"You may play this card only if a Clan Champion from your Faction is in your army. Reaction: Cancel an action."

Does the Clan Champion have to belong to you? No. It doesn't say it has to.

Does the Clan Champion need to be in the current battle? No, just in one of your armies somewhere. An ARMY is yours if A) it's the attacking army and you're the Attacker, B) it's the defending army and you're the Defender, or C) you have one or more units in it.

Koku redemption?

This is a little off topic for this particular message thread but the subject reminded me of a question i was meaning to ask

Is Koku from older sets still redeemible?

All koku ever printed by either AEG or Wizards is redeemable. Koku from Forbidden Knowledge is not worth double any more, and Retailer Points from display boxes is NOT redeemable.

More weird targetting questions

Hmmmm... then what happens when oyour wind is wiped out? No IF??

If you lose your Wind, you can no longer use any of the actions that used to be on it.

Broken Blades

Since GenCon 2002 is August 8, and there are 2 months between the start of the 30 day countdown and the day the set becomes legal (30 days after it's released), shouldn't we start seeing the beginning of the previews for Broken Blades sometime soon? Or are they going to cut the previews short?

Yes, you will start seeing the previews soon. No, we're not going to cut them short. We've already said the official release date might not be a full 30 days before GenCon, and that it would still be legal for use there regardless.

Tournament spoiler for SotM

I have one complaint... it's not a major complaint, but it's a complaint nonetheless. Lately I've seen a few cards that allow you to take ranged attacks at anybody anywhere at any time. The original one (that I remember) was Concealed Archers. It targeted people that were already in a battle and it cost you 2 honor. Arrows from the Ranks was a reaction to a duel, and it cost you 5 honor and the dishonoring of the person that got challenged. I thought these were reasonable cards. My complaint is about the new cards.

First, there's No Hiding Place. It just lets you target somebody that's not even in a battle with a Ranged attack. Pretty cowardly, if you ask me. But wait, it only costs you 1 strength of ranged attack? No honor loss? No dishonoring of the personality who made the attack? Whatever happened to honor? Now we have this new "Not Another Step" card which lets you snipe folks at a battle that hasn't even started yet. Again, no honor loss! Now this seems a little less dishonorable than shooting a guy who's at home eating dinner, but it's still got to be dishonorable, I'd think. Of course, Slaughter of the Land allowed folks sitting at home eating dinner to shoot you up good too, but you were attacking their province after all. Of course, there's no way to change these cards now, but it would have been nice to give them a spin of dishonor.

Ranged attacks are already less honorable than duels or straight-up winning the battle. Not only is there no gain built into using them, they actively work to diminish the amount you gain should you use them to help win a battle. There shouldn't necessarily always be an additional loss on top of that, especially not for cards like Not Another Step, where the attacks are resolved entirely in the tableau of military operations (i.e., from a card in a battle to a card in a battle).

There's also the play balance issue. Quite simply, there is no mechanical need to add honor losses or other costs or conditions to these cards to keep them from being too powerful. For all the support we've given them, ranged attacks are still a non-universal, easily- stymied strategy.

Perhaps a card could be printed that causes somebody dishonor if they shoot you with a ranged attack and they're not in the same battle as you?

Name two people who would play it.

No Hiding Place (Was: Re SotM)

BTW, is it legal? can you ikiryo/no hiding place a parsonality with followers?

Yes.

Question: Tsuno Scouts[Jeff]

There is nothing in the archive on this, probably because it's a clarification, not a ruling.

If Tsuno Scouts cancel a use of Tactician, though any cards used or discarded for that use would be gone, Tactician would still be reusable by the Personality as it counts as having not been used. Is is correct?

"If an action is CANCELED, it does not count as having been taken (or even attempted)." [GE/APC/AOF/DA rulebook, p. 45 That Personality's one use of the Tactician trait for this battle is not considered used if it's canceled.

post for 10 June 2002

Playing the retrieved card is not a new and separate action, so it doesn't pick up the extra cost.

If it is all one action why can't I use it to get a supperior tactics and destroy deadly ground?

Because the only direct effect of Superior Strategist is "get an Open or Battle Action card from your Fate deck and play the card", and that doesn't meet Deadly Ground's restrictions on what's legal. The Smart Cards ruling does not apply because it is not public, guaranteed knowledge that a card like Superior Tactics is going to be retrieved.

Rulz Question: Matsu Hataki

I heard a very disturbing rumor.

Matsu Hataki (Exp.) can "Straighten if necessary and move into the battle being resolved if you are the Defender."

My interpretation is that he can straighten if he's bowed, then move into the battle. Once he's there, he's nothing special beyond being a 4/4 personality.

I've heard a rumor that after he has already moved into the battle, he can use his ability to straighten again if he gets bowed by another effect (Yogo Towers, Test of Might, bowing to perform a ranged attack with a Jade Bow, etc.).

It's not a rumor. It's a natural result of the way the rules of the game work. Knowing that some or all of an action's parts will fail does not make using that action illegal. Hataki has two parts: move into the current battle, and straighten. If he uses it when he isn't bowed, he simply doesn't straighten. If he uses it when he's already in the current battle, he simply doesn't move.

post for 10 June 2002

Regarding Superior Strategist...

Playing the retrieved card is not a new and separate action, so it doesn't pick up the extra cost.

If it's not a new and separate action then:

a) Suppose I Superior Strategist (SupS) for a Test of Might and use it. My opponent cancels the Test of Might. As the Test is not a new and separate action (and I'd assume part of the SupS) is the SupS cancelled too? (Meaning my personality can use the Tactician again)

b) Do Reactions that allow you to play a Battle/Open action not trigger Hunting Tiger by the same logic? (ie Honor's Lesson Dojo, Samurai's Fury)

Honor's Lesson Dojo, A Samurai's Fury, Mushin, Blackened Sky, Sneak Attack -- all of these give a player additional actions. Each of these actions would be impacted by cards like Hunting Tiger, where applicable.

My initial reading of Superior Strategist -- "get an Action card and play it" -- is that its effect is subtly different. I will ask the Rules Team what they wish to do. Your question about what happens if the retrieved card is canceled brings up a large shortcoming of this ruling. Clearly, things would be simpler if Superior Strategist were interpreted more like other, similar cards and less according to its own grammaer, but I don't want to make that call single-handedly this time around.

c) If I play Mushin and then play two battle actions, do I only have to discard one card to the Hunting Tiger (for all three actions, as the last two are part of Mushin)?

You would need to discard for all three.

d) Does this ruling also apply to Storms of War?

Storms of War will work much the same way as Hunting Tiger: only one bowing is required per action.

post for 10 June 2002

You are reaching. Traits are active even when cards aren't in play. Domotai can't move into a defending army that way.

Traits are active even when cards aren't in place... That opens a whole insteresting can of worms.

It's been a ruling for years.

Applying that to say Fortress of the Dragon Fly will net me +1 chi while the card sits in my province? What about when it is sitting in my discard pile.

If you look at a Gold Edition Fortress, you'll notice that it only provides a bonus while it's in play. That extra text was added precisely because we knew about this rule and wanted as few cards as possible to rely on gamers unconsciously playing them according to intent instead of exact, pedantic wording. Mind you, there is still about a dumptruck worth of old cards that WEREN'T worded with this level of care, and yes, if you enforce the "traits are always active, even out of play" rule across all of them at all times, you'll find many that break the game. Needless to say, I ask you to resist the temptation to do so.

post for 10 June 2002

What about way of deception? can you swap one of your defenders with a domotai in your fief?

Way of Deception is not movement. [card text] It can be used to get Domotai ito a defending army.

Oh, and can you ambush a domotai?

Yes, because of the ruling that Ambush ignores any kind of assignment restrictions the targeted defender may have.