post for 14 March 2003

Latest Heaven & Earth Preview!

I'm just curious... does Unspoken Threats alone make a Personality a viable target for Soshi Eiji?

Only in the insanely specialized situation where the Personality has an action that is 100% guaranteed, if used, to move him into an attacking army against a player who has played Unspoken Threats on that Personality. If there is any legal way for the Personality to move against someone who hasn't hit him with Unspoken Threats, or into any DEFENDING army at all, then you cannot say for sure that the action will cause a loss when used and Eiji cannot target that Personality.

(Note that the Personality has to have an action that causes movement or special assignments, since normal assignment is not an action.)

In other words, never in any real game.

lobbyist question.

for the follower lobbyist.

can I use it's ability to take the favor if I have less family honor than my opponent?

Yes.

Can I use it's ability to take the favor if my wind is daigotsu?

You're talking about their Limited action, right? Your Wind has no impact at all on whether the Lobbyists' Political action can be used. If your Stronghold prohibits you from taking Political actions, it's unusable.

Tireless Assault (Jeff)

Couple of questions here for this sucker :)

1. I can declare an attack and assign no units. I can then use this battle action to move someone in from home correct?

Correct.

2. I have 2 units and its my opponents turn. Both of my units are bowed. My opponent plays ambush on one of my units. Can I play tireless assault to straighten my bowed unit, but not have it join the ambush? ( as thats not allowed per ambush text)

Yes.

new preview : Cove

Let me guess, this card also affects all the units assigned or moved in, who were sent home during the battle.

Correct. As soon as a unit assigns or moves into the attacking army at this Province, the Cove's effects will happen to it when the battle ends. Moving out of the battle before then will not help.

Revealing the Ancient Wisdom[Jeff]

Revealing the Ancient Wisdom

Unique Limited: One of your Personalities with Double Chi issues an unrefusable challenge to another Personality. Your Personality does not gain the benefit for Double Chi during the duel.

If I start a duel using this and switch it to another Double Chi peep using Kyuden Doji, would that new peep get the use of double chi if they had it?

Yes.

Question (wish/faith)

Here is a question I am sure that was already asked.

How does Isawa's last wish interact with faith in my clan and how is that different from Asako towers?

Faith In My Clan "cancels an action". That means as soon as all its costs are paid and it begins to happen. It must be played at that time, and it will stop all the effects of the Wish.

The Towers of the Asako does its canceling "when an action targets one of your Shugenja Personalities / Samurai". It cannot be used until that targeting occurs -- which, in the unusual case of the Wish, is not until after the first card has been destroyed. Canceling an action that has already begun resolving does not undo effects retroactively, so that first card stays dead.

rule question

If I cancel an ambush with asako towers, does my opponent lose 5 honor still?

Canceling an action stops it completely. It prevents all effects from happening except those that have already transpired. There would be no honor loss.

Rules Question (Jeff) Armour of the Mountain

The archive tells me that Armour of the Mountain trumps Encircled Terrain. I don't read it as such, however.

The Armour states that "YOU may not move this Personality into or out of battles with actions," (emphasis mine) while Encircled has a seperate sentance which reads, "Send all other units in this battle home without bowing." The Terrain makes it explicit that each player is targetting his own units with the choosing-who-stays part, sure.

But the send-everyone-else-home seems clearly an effect caused solely by the Terrain itself (as opposed to, "Each player then sends ..."), which would NOT prohibit Personalities with the Armour from going home, since it's NOT the player trying to move his own unit.

Who played Encircled Terrain? You, or someone else? If it was you, then your units with Armor of the Mountain will not move out.

There is no difference between playing a Battle action on Unit X that says "Go home!" and playing a Battle action on Unit Y in the same army that says "You stay, everyone else go home!" In both cases, your action is sending Unit X home. The delayed nature of Encircled Terrain does not change anything.

Spell Action/Effect

Can I have a clear defenition of what is a _Spell Action_ and what is a _Spell Effect_?

Spell Action is a new term to me and I would like to know if things like attaching spells and casting Kihos count.

A "Spell action" is an action on a Spell card. It's analogous to the Keyword Rule for action types, although "Spell" is technically not a keyword.

A "Spell effect" is an effect created by a Spell card or, by explicit definition, by an Action card with the Kiho trait. [GE p. 30] This applies only to effects; Kiho actions are not Spell actions.

Attaching a Spell from your hand is neither a Spell action nor a Spell effect.