10 minutes ago, Togashi Gao Shan said:

Yeah, I'm rather nervous about Dragon's stated strategy being 'load up a few characters with attachments'. We've already seen plenty of ways to bow and even discard characters regardless of the amount of attachments or even fate on them.

Yeah, I was thinking that Dragon in particular could be susceptible to problems with this design. On the other hand, if the attachments themselves do things to protect the characters from being bowed or discarded, that could make them viable.

6 minutes ago, Caldera said:

One thing I am not clear on - and do please correct me if I've missed something - is whether cards/abilities that say 'Discard from play' do so regardless of the number of Fate tokens remaining on that character? I'm guessing that they do otherwise there'll be little need for that Crab 'reprieve' card.

I think it is regardless of fate... nothing has been specifically said regarding fate on characters 'protecting' the character during conflict etc, just keeps them around at end of turn. So discarding characters will probably be pretty powerful.

Fate protects from the water ring effect. My guess is that we're gonna see some effects that only target characters with no fate, and things like Fallen in battle or Admit defeat, being very powerful and conditional. Man, FFG really likes that "if you win by X or more strength" thing.

52 minutes ago, Barbacuo said:

Man, FFG really likes that "if you win by X or more strength" thing.

Well, it was kind of a central idea in the CCG too, if we're being fair. ?

6 hours ago, Suzume Tomonori said:

I wonder if they are leaving open the possibility of "unbreaking" provinces in the future.

I wouldn't think so. Broken provinces seem to be a balance between getting penalized for losing a conflict and avoiding a snowball effect. Anything that would basically remove the penalty and set your opponent back considerably would be a very powerful effect, and would have to be rather expensive and/or difficult to achieve. If it didn't get balanced properly, the effect could potentially be broken itself.

4 hours ago, Caldera said:

I really like how this is shaping up so far: So much decision-making and things you'll need to weigh up during each turn, which reminds me a little of the Command Struggle in Conquest. I like how certain clans in particular interact with claimed rings (or non-claimed rings, depending how you look at it), and I'm guessing there'll be more cards coming which interact with possession of the Imperial Favour.

One thing I am not clear on - and do please correct me if I've missed something - is whether cards/abilities that say 'Discard from play' do so regardless of the number of Fate tokens remaining on that character? I'm guessing that they do otherwise there'll be little need for that Crab 'reprieve' card.

Didn't one of the cards say something like, "Discard a character with no Fate. Or, discard one Fate from a character"? I would expect that if an effect just says "Discard a character", that it would ignore things such as Fate.

Concerning "Reprieve", the wording seems to suggest that it would even work if a character is about to be discarded due to having no Fate at the end of the turn (though, one would have to be careful with using multiple copies at a time, as they would likely all trigger, and be discarded at once!)

8 minutes ago, JJ48 said:

Concerning "Reprieve", the wording seems to suggest that it would even work if a character is about to be discarded due to having no Fate at the end of the turn (though, one would have to be careful with using multiple copies at a time, as they would likely all trigger, and be discarded at once!)

It's not a Forced Interrupt, so Reprieve is optional to use. Which means you could stack it, if you felt like doing so, and only use one at a time.

4 minutes ago, Gaffa said:

It's not a Forced Interrupt, so Reprieve is optional to use. Which means you could stack it, if you felt like doing so, and only use one at a time.

Excellent point.

18 hours ago, Mandalore525 said:

I have no idea if this will be a clan-wide theme, but I love how flavorful these two cards are by emphasizing patience. Normally you'd want to go first in the conflict phase, but if you go first and use Togashi Initiate's ability then you could potentially have just handed your opponent a free fate token. By being patient and declaring the last conflict of the phase, you're denying them that opportunity--and, when the next turn comes, that unclaimed ring will have two fate tokens on it, which are yours for the taking!

Or your opponent could manage to go first again, and you've just handed them two fate tokens instead of one. ...I must meditate on this...

Or you defend with the Initiate and later attack to get the Fate back.

Edited: Dismiss it all, as it says attacking.

6 hours ago, Vlad3theImpaler said:

One thing I didn't see anybody comment on yet is that this article confirmed that when a character is discarded due to having 0 fate, their attachments are discarded as well. Attachments are typically a pretty weak card type in most games to begin with because they need to already have another card to interact with. Combined with the fate system, I feel like in order for attachments to not suck in this game, they're going to have to either be really cheap, or have pretty powerful effects for the limited time they're in play.

One of the big benefits of attachments in this format over others (Old5R, Magic, etc) is that they can come out of your hand mid-combat, providing both a bonus that lasts as long as the character it's on and an element of surprise. That right there makes them a little stronger here than in other games.

On the attachments, another way to look at them is that they are events that cost money and stick around longer than immediate. It may be that attachments ARE the force pumps that we sort of expect to see. Look at jade tetsubo, +3F for 2 Fate, with a solid action. The Fashion card one is 2 Fate for +4 Poltical force (at least). I don't think we will see the heavy cost attachments like I think a lot of people are expecting from Kensai back in old L5R. I think they are more of a "Surprise! Enough force to take your province!" than anything. If you think about this, the above is equivalent to buying a medium personality, who is typically 2-3F (from what we've seen), but without the extra fate requirement, and now it is just tied to another personality.

Not sure if this was a mistake in the preview article or actual mechanics, but did anyone else notice that the combat example between Lion and Unicorn didn't add the Lion's glory to the total for the defenders?

We need to figure out new abbreviations. I used +3F without realizing it. Should it now be +3M and +4P?

5 minutes ago, Mirith said:

We need to figure out new abbreviations. I used +3F without realizing it. Should it now be +3M and +4P?

We need to figure out how to get the most MPG (Military/Political/Glory) out of our decks!

2 minutes ago, twinstarbmc said:

We need to figure out how to get the most MPG (Military/Political/Glory) out of our decks!

That was so bad you are now dishonored and your clan loses 3 honor.

4 minutes ago, twinstarbmc said:

We need to figure out how to get the most MPG (Military/Political/Glory) out of our decks!

I approve.

1 minute ago, clanmccracken said:

That was so bad you are now dishonored and your clan loses 3 honor.

I just heard the price is right fail trombone in my head when I read it.

twinstarbmc should rotate his avatar 180 degrees so all can see his shame.

I wonder if you win as attacker whether you can use the ring before seeing if you broke the province as both fire and water could push you over the 4. Probably not though...

4 minutes ago, Matrim said:

I wonder if you win as attacker whether you can use the ring before seeing if you broke the province as both fire and water could push you over the 4. Probably not though...

Edit: I see your point now, but no probably not.

It depends on when the total skills are set in. If it's after using the ring's benefit, then yes, if it's before (as in AGoT), then no.

1 hour ago, Matrim said:

I wonder if you win as attacker whether you can use the ring before seeing if you broke the province as both fire and water could push you over the 4. Probably not though...

No, you don't benefit from rings until you win the conflict

Nevermind, re-read the description and by order of operations you do get the effect:

"If the defending player wins, they claim the ring of the conflict; if the attacking player wins, they claim the ring, use its effect, and if their skill exceeds the defender’s by the conflict’s province strength, they break the province."

30 minutes ago, Matrim said:

I wonder if you win as attacker whether you can use the ring before seeing if you broke the province as both fire and water could push you over the 4. Probably not though...

Well, the order of operations says that you use the ring's benefit before you check province-breaking, so with the information we have at this time, I would have to say yes, it works.

1 hour ago, twinstarbmc said:

We need to figure out how to get the most MPG (Military/Political/Glory) out of our decks!

This is most appropriate for any puns coming from the Unicorn players.

Does anyone have the same impression, that this is going to be quite a tough game to master?

Without reading the rules or even more, without playing a few games, I cannot say if the gameplay is going to be simple or complex yet (and I value simplicity in regards of "how to play"). But what we have seen thus far makes me think that this game is going to be a very complicated game to master (which I also value, even when that brings me often to a disadvantage versus great players).

There are many things to consider in order to gain advantage in any match: card bid, choose province, choose ring, choose conflict. Concentrate on certain provinces/rings, avoid your rival´s, gain fate on rings, leave rings unclaimed and consider how you will begin next turn after your samurai fade... and these are only some of the choices you have to do, every turn. Add to this the text of cards in play and the tricks in both hands, and we could have quite a challenging game, in which details will bring small advantages that can make the difference.

If this is confirmed (games need to be played), it is good news for me.

My impression so far is that the game will not be very static - in the sense that one individual strategy won't always be the best way to go. It seems to me that the game is designed to reward flexible play styles and reading your opponent well. There are so many decisions each turn that interact with each player that I think the game state will change very quickly and will reward flexible players. In that sense I think it will be a difficult game to master, but relatively easy to pick up. And I think that's awesome!