So, while we're waiting for the next preview, some thoughts about conflict cards.
We haven't seen many so far, but we already have a pretty good idea of the general power level, which seems to me to be notably less than fate cards in Old5R. Consider:
Admit Defeat is a Clan Specific card (generally more powerful than generic, one expects). It is a bow effect, which was very common in Old5R. But notice that it both has a fate cost and significant play restrictions: it can only be used while attacking AND only if there is a lone defender. The fate cost in particular is huge -- playing it costs you a full turn of a personality in play.
This tells us that there will be no generic card that reads Action: Bow a character at 0 fate cost. And a free bow card would have to have even more stringent restrictions than Admit Defeat.
Overall, it is not surprising that conflict cards are relatively weak, because card draw is potentially very abundant in New5R. If both players choose, they can draw 5 cards a turn. If there is free and easy bow or discard, there won't be any personalities left after both players play their hands.
Admit Defeat is in line with what we already know of the economy of the game: 1 fate can buy an extra turn in play for a personality, and each personality can participate in one conflict each turn. So a card that pays 1 fate to bow a personality, is (mostly) cancelling out the effect of that personality for the turn, which has a default value of 1 fate. This means that Admit Defeat does not give any overall economy advantage. What it does is gain tempo -- the opponent has paid for a character to be available for the turn, and you cancel that out with an equivalent payment.
Here's another interesting card to consider: Assassination
Although some of the text is obscured, it's pretty easy to fill out:
Action: During a conflict, lose 3 honor. Choose a character with printed cost 2 or lower -- discard that character (limit 1 per round).
What is harder to guess is its fate cost. I think 0, 1, or 2 are all plausible, although I think 0 is unlikely. The 3 honor loss is a much more significant cost in many respects than in Old5R, since honor can be traded for card draw in the new system. Losing 3 honor will cost a player 3 cards if they are constrained by the risk of hitting 0. Interestingly, this means that the high honor clans may be more capable of running honor loss cards if they are willing to forgo winning by honor, since they have more of a cushion before losing via dishonor. My guess would be that Assassination will cost 2, since it is a generic card and likely to be a little on the weak side -- playing it will actually create an economy disadvantage unless the target has fate or attachments, and even then the loss of honor is a substantial additional cost.
Finally, consider Way of the Lion. This is a free card that gives a lion character bonus military skill equal to their printed military skill. We've seen plenty of Lions already at 3 military skill, so that will probably be its usual effectiveness == a 3+ skill bonus in military conflicts. This suggests that a generic card that gives a skill bonus might give +2 -- sort of like Charge from Old5R. But there will also be permanent attachments that grant skill bonuses, and as we have seen 2 fate can give +3 skill and a strong ability (Jade Tetsubo) or +4 skill plus an unknown ability (X Fashion). I'd suspect a generic attachment might cost 1 fate for +2 to a skill.
Now, they just need to publish the next preview so we have a bit more to go on!
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