Icon Removal/Assigning

By Ruluzz, in Rules Questions

Posted at

I just took a look at the recent FFG FAQ and saw this



(3.3) Challenge Icons A character is considered to have a challenge icon or to not have that icon. A single character that has and/or is gaining the same challenge icon from multiple sources functions as if it has one instance of that icon.


The way it reads makes it sound, to me, as though a card only ever has 1 (and only 1) "copy" of any icon regardless of how many times it is granted. This is concerning in cases where I remove your Mil icon but then you grant it back with, say, Syrio.


To be a bit more clear:


I have Balon and Syrio on the board. You have Nymeria Sand. I go first and choose to give Balon Stealth and a Mil icon. You take Balons Mil icon.


Prior to this rules update I would assume Balon still has 1 Mil icon. Under this update I might interpret this as Balon having 0 Mil icons.


Thoughts? Additional clarifications?


Posted at

Balon still has a military icon. Add up your icons, then if the result is a number greater than zero then the icon is present. If it is zero or less, the icon is not present. This is a clarification that being granted a military icon while already having one doesn't mean you have two military icons.

Posted at

Said another way, the new FAQ entry effectively says that you always round the result of an icon check to 0 or 1. It doesn't change the fact that you start from scratch each time you check for the icon, though.

So before the new FAQ, the sequence of events in your scenario were:

1. Mil icon check, Balon alone: 1 (printed) = 1 (he has the icon)

2. Mil icon check, Balon + Syrio: 1 (printed) + 1 (gain from Syrio) = 2 (he has the icon)

3. Mil icon check, Balon + Syrio + Nymeria: 1 (printed) + 1 (gained from Syrio) - 1 (lost to Nymeria) = 1 (he has the icon)

The thing to recognize is that #3 does not start from the result of #2 (i.e., "2 icons"), but rather it starts the whole calculation over again from scratch.

When you recognize that this is how checking for icons works, it is easy to see that all the new rule does is round the result of #2 down to 1 instead of counting the number of treating the number of Mil icons as 2.