rules for 12 March 2004

Diplomatic Apprentice

Can I use a Diplomatic Apprentice to Rhetoric an honor loss/gain if it's attached to a Courtier who has chi equal or greater than the honor loss/gain?

Yes.

I'm kinda confused on what the Apprentice can or can't do.

The Apprentice bows to pay a cost that his Personality would normally bow to pay for. He doesn't replace the Personality or any of his stats or traits. Basically, he just changes one element of the cost.

Underhand and Confusion at Court

A rule question:

My opponent use the ability of the Underhand of the Emperor to search for a Storm Heart.

I react to the discarding of the Imperial Favor with Confusion at Court. The card is not searched.

after, my opponent lobbies for the Favor, and he wants to use the Underhand.

Q: Can my opponent name Storm Heart again?

Currently (apparently), naming the card is part of the cost, so the answer is "no".

Upcoming errata for the Underhand of the Emperor is that it read, "Discard the Imperial Favor TO name a Political Action card". Once Hidden City releases, the answer will be "yes".

Ruby of Iuchiban

If I attach the Ruby to a personality, then bow him to bow one of my opponent's personalities, and then (during the subsequent Attack Phase) I "Tireless Assault" that personality (with the Ruby) into a battle, take the province, and go home bowed, what happens during the subsequent Straighten Phase to the original target of the Ruby?

A) Since the Ruby is bowed, it's still active, and the original target cannot straighten.

B) As soon as the personality (with the Ruby) straightened due to "Tireless Assault", its effect ended. Regardless of what happened to the Ruby later in the turn, the original target was free of all restrictions at that point, and he can now straighten.

B.

If the answer is B, I assume that means the Discard-to-destroy-the-Ruby effect ended as soon as the bowing restriction ended. Is that right?

Correct. Both effects have identical duration.

Ruby, Part 2

One more Ruby of Iuchiban question...

Let's say I attach the Ruby, bow my guy, and bow an opponent's personality, and somehow, later in the turn, my opponent's bowed personality gets killed.

During his Action Phase (assuming the Ruby personality is still bowed) can he discard a card to destroy the Ruby? If so, would he still use the Personal Honor of the personality (now in the discard pile) to calculate the necessary Focus Value?

Yes and yes.

Underhand and Confusion at Court

You know, the way the underhand is worded, the whole ability (searching for a political action card) is an effect of the ability and has no cost.

That's why it needed errata.

kuon and hishonnor

being a crab clan guy, i wondered how our champion's honnor cost works. I fi bow my sameri to reduce his cost, will i still gain his honnor?

If you pay the entire amount it ends up being, yes.

The same exact thing is true if you reduce a Samurai's cost by 4 with The Hiruma Dojo.

Or if i have enough sameris, can i make him cost free without buying his honnor two( the purchas for 2 less thing.)

If he is aligned with your faction, you have the option of reducing his cost by 2 as a rulebook effect, even if it is already 0. If you do NOT do this, you gain his Personal Honor. Since you can always reduce his cost by 2, you are never forced to gain his honor if you don't want to.

If you don't drop his cost by 2 with the rulebook effect, you gain his honor just before he enters play even if his cost has been reduced to 0 by other effects.

Rules Question: Yu, Pick your Battles, Timing [long]

Hi, I have some questions regarding the timing and use of both Yu and Pick your battles. This is a rather long post, as I have chosen to quote all text I am referring to, for clarity and to reduce the confusion that normally results from complex rule questions. (And yes, these questions are loaded, I have been following discussions on the Crab board and getting very confused).

Note: If you want to share your reply, please be sure to read everything very carefully, as some of it is a little more ocmplicated than it looks on the surface.

OK, so, let's start with some questions.

Yu: "This occurs immediately before the losing army is destroyed."

- If the entire losing army is not destroyed (EG: You play "Surrender"(text in addenda), your opponent choses to "spare" your army), may your use Yu?

Yes.

- If some cards in the losing army would not be destroyed due to a trait on those cards, EG "Hantei the 39th" or "Hida Sozen", may your use Yu?

Yes.

Pick your battles: "Play before your army is destroyed for losing or tying in a battle."

- If the entire losing army is not destroyed (EG: You play "Surrender", your opponent choses to "spare" your army), may your use Pick your Battles? (Aside: I realise this would be ineffective, but there are times you just want to play a card to get it out of your hand.)

No.

- If some cards in the losing army would not be destroyed due to a trait on those cards, EG "Hantei the 39th" or "Hida Sozen", may you play Pick your Battles?

No.

(Note that the timing for using Yu is the same as the trigger for Pick your Battles. One would assume these answers will be the same.)

Yes, it's written the same. No, it shouldn't be. One refers to a stage of battle resolution. The other refers to a game event. A simple "if any" added to the rulebook on Yu would fix things nicely, similar to the way some cards refer to the period of time in a battle "after all players pass but before Delayed Terrains resolve (if any)".

Alternately, Pick Your Battles could also be interpreted as meaning "the point in the game when the losing army would normally be destroyed" instead of "an instance of the entire army actually being destroyed". I'll see what the Rules Team wants to do about it.

Timing: If your personality with Yu is in an army that loses a battle and you wish to play Pick your Battles from hand, do you:

- Use Yu first, then play Pick your Battles, as Traits beat Reactions (I suspect this is the correct answer); - Play Pick your Battles first, then use Yu; - You chose which order to resolve them; - The active player choses which order to resolve them.

Use Yu first.

Yu: If one or more cards with the Yu trait are in an army losing to another army during the resolution of a battle [...]

- Does this mean you may not use Yu when you lose a battle?

I don't understand the question. The rulebook says the Yu trait gets used when the cards with it lose to another army. Isn't that the answer right there?

Doji Kurohito (exp2) in Open

Suppose that I'm playing a Crane deck in an Open tournament with the Classic Imperial Favor rules in effect. I currently have no Wind. What happens when I bring Doji Kurohito exp2 into play?

The official answer is that there is no official answer. When using optional rules, questions like this can only be answered by the person who implemented them. Choice F) it is.

For what it's worth, previous versions of the rulebook that mentioned the use of the old Favor abilities prohibited Winds. Also, the answer cannot be

c) I bring only the four Winds from Diamond into play, and gain access to their abilities as well as those of the Classic Favor.

because only the Black Heart of the Empire is an MRP.

Voice of the Emperor question

Voice Political Limited: Once per turn, bow your stronghold or a courtier to put an elemental ring into play from your hand. While in in play, that ring does not count towards an Elightenment Victory, and at the beginning of each of your turns, discard a card from your hand or shuffle the Ring back into your fate deck.

Is the discarding of a card to keep the Ring in play political?

It is an effect of a Political action. It is not an action by itself.

Shogun's Barracks Implications.

The ruling on Shogun's Barracks and Events/Regions made me wonder... if a province is only checked once for events, what about Plains of Otosan Uchi? Does this mean that only one event can resolve in that province even though it holds two cards?

The Plains of Otosan Uchi allows both cards to be revealed as well as letting you choose the order.

Strategic Crossroad et. al.

"Quick snap" (hopefully) questions:

1 - does Strategic Crossroad work with Ring of Water or not? Intuitively it should but...

I do not know exactly what you mean by "work with", so I'm guessing here...

Using the Battle action on Strategic Crossroad counts towards the four Battle actions needed to play the Ring of Water.

2 - when you reveal a region can you choose NOT to put it into play?

You must play a Region if it is legal and has no costs. [DE p. 76] If it has a cost, you may or may not pay it as you wish. If you don't, it is discarded as usual when illegal to play.

3 - I have an under-4-Chi-and-not-double-chi personality which has a Clan Sword on for a total Chi of $TOO_MUCH. Can I play Kenshinzen on it?

Yes. His current Chi is all that matters.

Rules Question - No Hiding Place

If my opponent attacks, and we are resolving one of the battles, can I play flee the darkness to stop a ranged attack targeting my guy at home from a no hiding place.

If the ranged attack is a Battle or an Open action, yes.