Hi everybody,

Recently played my first game with the Earth Elemental and was very impressed. A couple of rules questions came up, though:

1) When the EE rolls lore and a tremor is activated, the card and creature compendium both stipulate that all surrounding units retreat 1 hex. For goblins, is this still 1 hex, or is it their normal 2? Either way, do they check for panic losses?

2) Related question: A posse of units surrounds the EE to try to take it down. The first attack fails to score a critical hit, and on its battleback the EE rolls lore and activates a tremor. All the units surrounding the EE must then retreat, but some of them still end up adjacent to the EE. Can they then battle the EE, or (as with a normal retreat), must they forego their battles for that turn?

It all comes down to whether or not the EE tremor is treated as a normal retreat or not.

Any insight would be most welcome!

the hoog said:

This one I can handle The Goblin units would retreat as the card describes, 1 hex per lore rolled. They would take a 1d panic check per hex retreated, whether that retreat is caused by a lore effect or flags rolled (or both, or any other effect ).

"2) Related question: A posse of units surrounds the EE to try to take it down. The first attack fails to score a critical hit, and on its battleback the EE rolls lore and activates a tremor. All the units surrounding the EE must then retreat, but some of them still end up adjacent to the EE. Can they then battle the EE, or (as with a normal retreat), must they forego their battles for that turn?"

I can't believe this one hasn't come up in a FAQ or thread before (or, at least ones that I can remember ). I am not sure on this. I don't think it is strictly analogous to the situation of First Strike causing a retreat on an attacking player, but maybe it does have the same effect on units which haven't attacked yet. I don't believe it does, as I suspect it would be explicit as it is on the First Strike/Ambush card - still something I would like to see addressed in a FAQ or get some answer from Richard Borg. Richard?

[An aside, I rarely play the Earth Elemental, but choose to do so for variety's sake the other day. Summoned it on the first attempt, woo hoo , but then only managed one attack and two battle backs before taking a critical hit. 0 hits and 0 retreats caused on 9d. A bit disappointing ... can't wait to take it again ]

The rule for retreat taking away your attack is for battling back. I don't see this any different than attacker A intending to hit target B, which retreats from attacker C, so attacker A decides to attack target D instead.

Put simply, an attacker chooses what eligible target to attack when its turn comes up to attack. The fact that it retreated 1 hex prior is only relevant if it no longer has a target. Retreating does not remove your ability to attack, only to battle back.

Unless someone can find a rule that says otherwise, of course!

Dale

Dale Hurtt said:

Dale if you look at some of the cards, some of them say if you retreat, you lose the ability to attack. And since it is a creature special attack (or in this case a battleback special attack), it could fall under that "grey issue".

Cab