Hi,

We were playing yesterday a 2 player game. There were 4 enemies in the staging area, 2 of them were the same card with an engagement cost of 35, another card with 25 engagement cost and a fourth one with 20.

My threat was 35 and the other player had 33 threat. I was also the first player that turn.

In that case, do both enemies with 35 threat engage with me at the same time (meaning that I would end up engaged with 3 enemies)? Or is it done one by one, meaning I would engage first one of the enemies with 35 cost, then the second player would engage the one with 25 cost, then me again engaging a 35 cost enemy,and finally the other player engaging with the 20 cost enemy?

I can't find anything in the rules. They say (emphasis mine) "The enemy with the highest engagement cost that is equal to or lower than this player’s threat level engages this player". But nothing about ties.

7 hours ago, Yiyio said:

In that case, do both enemies with 35 threat engage with me at the same time (meaning that I would end up engaged with 3 enemies)? Or is it done one by one, meaning I would engage first one of the enemies with 35 cost, then the second player would engage the one with 25 cost, then me again engaging a 35 cost enemy,and finally the other player engaging with the 20 cost enemy?

One by one.

But, to both of you have 2 enemies engaged, both players can first optionally engage one 35's enemy and then these two left would engage during engagement checks.

41 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

One by one.

What's the reasoning for this? I can't tell that only from the manual to be honest, nor from the FAQ

"The enemy" is singular.

5 hours ago, Yiyio said:

What's the reasoning for this? I can't tell that only from the manual to be honest, nor from the FAQ

I don't think you are going to find a definitive answer without asking the devs.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/contact/rules/

I will quote from Page 16 of the rules, Phase 5: Encounter, Step 2: Engagement Checks

Quote

The players must make a series of engagement checks, to see if any of the enemies remaining in the staging area engage them. The first player compares ...

The enemy with the highest engagement cost that is equal to or lower than this player’s threat level engages this player, and moves from the staging area to the space in front of him. This is called making an engagement check. After the first player makes an engagement check, the player to his left makes his own engagement check. This player compares his threat level against the engagement cost of each of the remaining enemy cards in the staging area, and engages the enemy with the highest engagement cost that is equal to or lower than his own
threat level.
This process continues through all the players, proceeding clockwise around the table.

3

3

Okay, so this clearly says the first player makes a check, then the next player and so on. In your example, this part fo the process has you engaging a threat 35 enemy, and your teammate a threat 25 enemy (each being the highest threat less than or equal to that player's threat).

Note that when it says "engages the enemy with the ..", it uses a singular noun, as dalestephenson noted, so you engage with just one enemy in this step. Since there are two enemies with equal threat, you can choose which comes to you here.

Quote

Once all players have made an engagement check, the first player makes a second engagement check. Players continue making engagement checks in this manner until there are no enemies remaining in the staging area that can engage any of the players.

And here we make a second clockwise pass over all the players, giving them a second chance at engagements. This pass has you engaging the second threat 35 enemy, and your teammate engaging the threat 20 enemy (again each being the highest threat less than or equal to that player's threat).

And then, if necessary, we continue making an unlimited number of passes until all enemies are engaged or have a threat cost that is too high.

So, as you can see, engagements are happening one at a time.

16 minutes ago, RichardPlunkett said:

I will quote from Page 16 of the rules, Phase 5: Encounter, Step 2: Engagement Checks

Okay, so this clearly says the first player makes a check, then the next player and so on. In you example, this has you engaging a threat 35 enemy, and your teammate a threat 25 enemy. (each being the highest threat less than or equal to that player's threat).

And here we make a second clockwise pass over all the players, giving them a second chance at engagements. This pass has you engaging the second threat 35 enemy, and you teammate engaging the threat 20 enemy (again each being the highest threat less than or equal to that player's threat).

And then, if necessary, we continue making an unlimited number of passes until all enemies are engaged or have threat that is too high.

So, as you can see, engagements happen one at a time.

I think he is more concerned with how you are supposed to engage those enemies, though, when there are two enemies tied for the same threat. The rules are lacking in that respect. For all we know, when there is a tie, you engage one at random. Or you engage the one of your choice (the player making the engagement check), or the FIRST player (regardless of who is making the engagement check) decides since that is how ties are often resolved in this game. Perhaps when there is a tie, you are supposed to sing the Macarena or do eeny, meeny, miny, moe. The point is, the rules don't tell us how and it cannot be inferred from the rules as written.

How I've always played it, and how I've seen everyone play it, is that the player who is making the engagement check gets to decide which of the tied enemies he engages.

Edit: He also asked this question on the boardgamegeek forums. He may have posted that topic simultaneously with this one and this one was just delayed due to moderation delay, or he was dissatisfied with the answers provided there.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1737674/engaging-checks-when-several-enemies-have-same-eng

Quote

Yiyio: Hi, no offense but I can already see that in the manual. The question is, what happens then there are two enemies with identical engagement costs? in that case "the enemy" is actually two enemies, so how to decide?

hmm, my answer seemed a lot more useful before reading the quote from the other forum.

Okay, when choosing which to engage I guess I assumed it was the first player's choice - though I don't have a reference for it and in practice we always let the engaging player choose, but as you note there isn't clarity on it. However, I do think the text is fairly clear that you engage just one of them per pass.

3 minutes ago, RichardPlunkett said:

hmm, my answer seemed a lot more useful before reading the quote from the other forum.

Okay, when choosing which to engage I guess I assumed it was the first player's choice - though I don't have a reference for it and in practice we always let the engaging player choose, but as you note there isn't clarity on it. However, I do think the text is fairly clear that you engage just one of them per pass.

An alternate interpretation, I suppose, is that since it says you engage "the enemy" with the highest threat, and there are two, and there are no rules for how to decide, that you would get stuck and not be able to engage any enemy. Thus, you lose, because the game cannot move forward...but I don't really like that interpretation

The FAQ contains several rules/rulings of the form:

(1.03) Conflicting Effect Targeting
If an encounter or quest effect attempts to target a single player or card, and there are multiple eligible targets, the first player selects the target of the effect from among the eligible options.

So I think it's safe to say, in the absence of any better reference or an official position, that the first player gets to choose, since it's hard to see an official ruling coming in any other way.

6 minutes ago, RichardPlunkett said:

The FAQ contains several rules/rulings of the form:

(1.03) Conflicting Effect Targeting
If an encounter or quest effect attempts to target a single player or card, and there are multiple eligible targets, the first player selects the target of the effect from among the eligible options.

So I think it's safe to say, in the absence of any better reference or an official position, that the first player gets to choose, since it's hard to see an official ruling coming in any other way.

The one good thing about this interpretation is that it makes using Follow Me! even better if you want to grief your teammates

I do think it makes some sense to allow the player (making the engagement check) to decide, though. For example "each player must deal 1 damage to a hero he controls". Technically, they are all heroes and there is a "tie". The first player doesn't get to decide which hero to damage for player 2. And the rules on engagement checks say "...the player to his left makes an engagement check". So since it is specific to that player, I think he should be able to decide perhaps.