post for 23 April 2003

A big round of applause for the inimitable Zen Faulkes, ladies and gentlemen. He rose to the task like a trooper while I cloistered myself away and worked on Diamond. I said it before, and I'll say it again: my job would be much more difficult without him. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

YU!

Hey, How does YU works?

From the latest rulesheet, which is also available online at http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/ccg/rules.html:

The most capable practitioners of bushido are able to defeat their opponents even if it means their own death. This is represented in L5R by the Yu trait on some cards, which is always followed by a number.

If one or more cards with the Yu trait are in an army losing to another army during the resolution of a battle, each may destroy a Follower or a Personality with no Followers in the winning army with a Force less than or equal to the card's Yu value. Multiple cards may also combine their Yu values to destroy one larger card, but one card may not split its Yu value to destroy multiple cards. Destroying cards in this way does not alter the outcome of the battle and does not earn the loser any Honor. Using the Yu trait is not an action and is not a card effect - it is a normal part of battle resolution. The Attacker or Defender makes all decisions for all cards with the Yu trait in his or her army, and can use the traits in any order. When giving a bonus to the Yu value of a card that does not have the trait, permanently give the card "Yu 0" first, then add the bonus.

Example: It's the end of a battle where Sarah is attacking Jim. Sarah has three units: a 5F ogre, a 3F samurai, and a 2F shugenja with a 1F Follower. Jim has two samurai with Yu values of 3 and 2. Jim's army is losing this battle, so during resolution, he can: 1) Use his Yu 3 samurai to destroy Sarah's samurai and his Yu 2 samurai to destroy her shugenja's Follower. 2) Have his samurai work together to destroy Sarah's ogre. Jim can also, of course, use his Yu values in less efficient ways, or only use some of them, or not use any at all. One thing Jim can't do is use just one samurai to destroy Sarah's shugenja directly. He must use one to destroy the shugenja's Follower first, then destroy the shugenja with the other.

Tireless Assault Analysis: New Staple card for military? question: If a Tsuno (+2 force while attacking)attacking

province A gets hit with ISOTF than SupTac's into province B, Does the Tsuno get the bonus back? I assume no.

It does not. It needs to stop attacking, then start again, to give itself the +2F all over again.

Request to the list. Need deck help

OK, I need help on a couple decks. It's for a noble cause (one of the noblest, in fact): teaching my wife the game ;)

I've been using the L5R Experience decks. IMHO, they're not too good. Too few peeps to teach the normal pitching strategy, and the gold flows are too different. In our experience, Crane usually kicks Scorp butt.

If you keep playing the decks as you learn more about the game, you will find there is a point where that trend reverses. The Scorpion deck is actually the stronger of the two. It was made that way on purpose because the honor victory is more attainable by beginning players, as it entails fewer risks.

Ironically enough, we did this because of trends we saw with Storms over Matsu Palace. The decks were close to even in the hands of skilled players, but beginners had a hard time winning with Unicorn because the gold flow was different. Unicorn needed to use "standard pitching strategy" to have a chance, and new players HATE discarding Dynasty cards.

NON-Foil Tsi Smith, Shinsei's Last Hope?

I have yet to see a non-foil Tsi Smith or Shinsei's Last Hope. Do they exist, and will we be able to get ahold of them if they do?

Only foil versions exist. I'll see about annotating the rest of your list.