Rules Questions thread

To be fair, a lot of rulings are not very possible to derive from the rulebook.

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Thanks for this. This has been my exact feeling and frustration. It’s good to know that I’m not crazy and also that some clarification is in the works. While it certainly works to have individual clarifications and examples for each card, it would make playing the game a lot easier if it were possible to derive these explanations directly from the rulebook.

There’s two different purposes for a rulebook. One is to be something that a new player can read and understand how the game works so that they can quickly get to actually playing it. The other is to be a reference to give precise definitions, clarify interactions, etc.

There’s some tension between those two purposes. Often there is a simple, easy-to-understand explanation that covers 95% of cases and a more convoluted and difficult to parse explanation that covers all 100%. Sirlin has said that where there is that tension, he philosophically prefers to optimize for the first purpose over the second.

The result is card text and rulebooks that optimize for the first purpose, and the gaps for the second purpose are filled in by things like the rulings document. In an ideal world the second purpose would be fulfilled by a Technically Precise Rulebook, which was substantially longer than the regular one but gave exact definitions for things like “sacrifice” vs. “destroy”. That sounds like a pain to write, but my hope is that resources like the FAQs at the top of this thread can provide a reasonable approximation.

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Yup, I completely understand. If you’re interested, pull up a pdf of FFG’s Game of Thrones 2.0 or Warhammer Conquest “Learn to Play” and “Rules Reference Guide”. These are my gold standard for how to separate out ease of learning to play vs a rigorous framework for the game.

I have a question about bloom. If I use the +1/+1 to cancel a -1/-1 token, can I still keep using bloom on a unit?

“Dies: Do X
When this is put into your discard pile from play, do X.”

That really is correct. Dies is a shorthand that means went to discard from in play.

Things that are in play and then destroyed or sacrificed normally go to the discard pile, so that is the reason that “dies” applies. A hero that tries to go to discard goes to the command zone instead, and it still did trigger “dies”. A token that would leave in-play to go to any zone goes away. “Destroyed” seems an ok word to me. But no matter what word you want to use it’s gone (not “gone” as in going to the discard pile, but rather as in gone from all zones). A token that tried to go from in-play to discard “dies” (and also it’s gone from all zones after that). A token, or anything else, that tries to go from in-play directly to a zone other than discard did not “die”. For example, retuning a unit to your hand; that’s not dying because it’s not in-play -> discard.


If you would put a +1/+1 on a thing with a -1/-1 then those two runes cancel each other out. The card would then have neither of those runes on it. Can you cast Bloom on a card with no runes on it? Yes.

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The “rules reference guide” exists, it just wasn’t printed for what I assume are cost, time or space concerns. Specifically, the google sheet “official rulings document” referenced at the top of the thread.

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An RRG is not that sort of thing imo

If you manufacture Truth, Reputable Newsman to something else, does his ability return at the end of the turn? Can you pick the number again?

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Yes the ability keeps working, no you can’t pick a new number.

I believe the specific reason is that the ability triggers when newsman “arrives”, which basically means “coming into play from another zone”. Manufactured Truth doesn’t make newsman go away and come back. He’s still there the whole time, he’s just not himself for a bit.

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From the manual

All card types have arrival fatigue, which means the turn they come under your control, they can’t use abilities that require
exhausting as part of the cost. If they are units or heroes, it means they also can’t attack the turn they come under your
control. If a card has haste though, it CAN attack and use exhaust abilities the turn it comes under you control.

I think I understand the arrival fatigue, but I would like this spelled out explicitly. All card types (units, heroes, spells, buildings, upgrades) have arrival fatigue, right? Of course, the exception is if there is some specific effect that cancels/prevents the arrival fatigue, such as Haste, but otherwise, all cards suffer arrival fatigue. For units and heroes, this means that they can’t attack this turn. For all kinds of cards, if you would have to :arrow_heading_down: Exhaust to do some ability, then you can’t do that ability this turn.

Okay so I got that. However, am I right in assuming that effects/abilities of spells, buildings, and upgrades can be used immediately the turn the card comes into play (assuming there’s no :arrow_heading_down: cost)?

As a concrete example: It’s the start of my turn. I already had my hero Troq in play. I have The Boot in my hand. I play the card by paying 3 gold and laying The Boot face up in my play area. I use this spell to immediately destroy my opponent’s Nimble Fencer from the Squad Leader slot in her patrol zone. Nimble Fencer dies and goes to her discard pile. Since The Boot spell is a one shot deal, it now goes to my discard pile.

Is all of that correct?

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Yeah, spells generally go straight to the discard pile as soon as you resolve their effects.

Arrival fatigue basically means, in practice, you can’t perform any action that involves ta^H^H exhausting a card (i.e. turning it sideways) on the same turn it arrives. Passive effects, to my understanding, come into effect immediately, but effects that require exhausting the card can’t be used until the next turn.

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Separate question. Does the taunt effect of the squad leader (and also the “taunt” effect of the patrol zone as a whole) only affect units and heroes when they are attacking?

In other words suppose it’s my turn and suppose my opponent has four units in her patrol zone (including one at Squad Leader) and four units behind her patrol zone and two buildings. Suppose it’s my turn and I have in hand a spell which is able to damage a single one of any of these eight units or two buildings. As my first action, can I freely choose among these ten targets to damage with my spell? Or do I have to hit the Squad Leader?

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Taunt only affects attacking. You don’t have to target the Squad Leader (or any other patroller) first when using spells or abilities.

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Spells don’t interact with Taunt. Flagbearers interact with spells per the text on flagbearer cards.

Further clarification of exhausting cards. A card such as Voidblocker causes cards to become exhausted when it is attacked. Arrival fatigue does not prevent this, a newly played unit can be exhausted as part of the attack on a voidlbocker. Another example is Skeletal Lord, who can use skeletons that have arrival fatigue because it does not use the exhaust symbol in the card action text. The word exhaust on cards like these indicates that you do not have to worry about arrival fatigue. You do have to worry when the exhaust symbol is used.

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Sorry if this question seems a bit obvious but I just wanted absolute clarity :smiley: Spark says “deal 1 damage to a patroller”. Does that mean direct damage ignoring armor, or do the basic combat rules come into play and the damage goes into removing one armor?

Armor isn’t about combat, it is about damage. Armor blocks chits of damage, 1 armor blocks one chit, regardless of source.

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Sorry for the bump, but I’m still wondering how Indestructible units interact with Obliterate, Death Rites, and further something like Doom Grasp. Is Indestructible taken literally, i.e. “not able to be destroyed”, and the only way to bring it down for a moment is to reduce it to 0hp?

Hmm, we appear to have lost sharpo’s reply on the matter due to the old forums demise, but the gist was that abilities that don’t target and try to destroy things based on criteria such as weakest unit, will skip things that can’t be destroyed. Doom Grasp can hit an Immortal because it is a targeted spell, and the only limitations on Doom Grasp targeting are stateed by the spell, specifically it can’t target Tech 3 Units, Upgrades, or Building cards.

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