I just want to make sure I have this right since I played Mistfall recently and I may be thinking in the wrong frame of mind which is throwing me off.

I'm not sure how engaging works exactly. So if I'm the dwarf and the elf has a monster in front of her, if I attack it using a card does that pull it over to me? I'm not sure on if I can even do that as my attack isn't ranged. If the elf targets someone using her ranged attack does that pull it to her? If you aren't allowed to target monsters that aren't already engaged with you unless you are ranged and one character has a monster attacking him, does everyone else just have to sit and watch?

As you can tell I am really confused and want to make sure I have it all straight.

So just keep in mind that attacking and engaging are two different things.

Engaging:

Engaging an enemy just changes that enemies engagement zone. When you are engaging you can pull an enemy to your engagement zone from another hero's engagement zone or from the shadow zone. Engaging an enemy does not have anything to do with damage being dealt, just moving an enemy. Some abilities allow you to engage an enemy without even attacking them (the Dwarf's aid ability).

Attacking:

Attacking an enemy deals damage to an enemy based on successes rolled. Enemies that are available for you to attack can be limited by the type of attack. Melee attacks may only target enemies that are currently in the hero's engagement zone. Ranged attacks may target any enemies in any engagement zone or the shadow zone.

So following your example:

It's the dwarf's turn. We'll assume he has no enemies currently engaged with him. Meanwhile the elf has one enemy engaged with her. The dwarf decides to use his attack action which reads as follows:

Inexorable Advance

- You may engage up to 2 enemies

- ATTACK: 2. Before this action, you may target up to 2 enemies

So follow the steps from top to bottom. First part says that you may engage up to 2 enemies. Using this part, the dwarf chooses to engage the enemy that is currently engaged with the elf. Move that enemy from the elf's engagement zone to the dwarf's engagement zone. You are now done with the engagement part of your action.

Next, you will do the attack. As stated, before the attack you may target up to 2 enemies. Since you've got a melee attack and you're only currently engaged with one enemy you can only attack the one. Roll 2 white die for your attack and one black die for the engaged enemy. Calculate hero and enemy damage and now your action is concluded.

There's been a lot of confusion on forums about engaging and attacking. I think most of it comes from people conflating them as the same thing or happening at the same time. Just keep in mind that each action card is a list of separate steps. If you follow the steps as listed you should be able to figure out how the mechanics are working. Hope this helps.

The attack must be ranged, or you can't target an enemy engaged with another character or in the shadows.

However, all of the attack actions allow you to first engage an enemy (and the Ironbreaker can engage more), so yes this basically allows you to "pull" an enemy off of another character, then attack it with melee.

Thanks guys that was very helpful!

What was throwing me off is in other similar games when a monster is engaged it's stuck to that person. Knowing that engaging moves the monster even after it has left the shadows is great.

To continue this discussion consider the following example:

The Dwarf has 2 enemies in his engagement zone and the elf has one in hers. The Dwarf activates "Inexorable Advance". Can the dwarf pull the enemy in the elf's engagement zone over to his even though he already has two enemies in his engagement zone? There is some ambiguity here because a hero can have a maximum of three enemies in their engagement zone per the rule book while the card states you may engage up to two enemies. Is there a distinction between between engaging and the engagement zone? That is to say, just because an enemy is in a hero's engagement zone doesn't imply that the hero is engaged with the enemy? I hope I haven't royally confused the issue!

Thanks!

I would say that he can engage up to two enemies, irrespective of how many he already has in his engagement.

As by your argument, what happens when he already has 3 enemies in his engagement and then plays the card? As it says he may only engage up to 2 enemies but there are already 3 - would that mean one of them has to spontaneously combust so he has only 2 engaged with him?

Gazery

(Not meaning to sound like a d*ck here though, sorry because reading it through I do!)

When engaging enemies, you are limited by two things:

1. The action you're using, which states how many enemies you may engage with it.

2. The general rule about not being able to be engaged with more than three enemies at once.

So if the Ironbreaker is already engaged with two enemies, and plays Inexorable Advance, he can only engage one more because then he runs into limit #2. Or rather, in a dire situation he could engage two more enemies, but one would then deal wounds to him equal to its attack score and move to the Shadow zone. This would usually be a dumb move, but it can be useful in order to pull an enemy off another character into the Shadow zone.