We played a 5 hour 4 player melee game last night via OCTGN and had a bunch of questions come up. I have been able to get answers for many, but we had a few I wanted to make sure I understand correctly. Appreciate the help as always.

1. Parting blow - "Response: After a character you control leaves play, choose and kneel 1 character controlled by an opponent. Then, draw 1 card."

Can multiple Parting blow cards be played by one player after one of their characters they control leaves play?

2. High Claim Military Challenges - To make sure I understand the rules on this (page 22), if a defender loses a military challenge with only one character w/ one or more saves available (duplicate, bodyguard, etc.) and the attacking player has a claim of 2 or higher would the losing defender only have to use one save to satisfy the claim and then that character would survive?

Thanks!

Madduxx said:

Sure. Any particular reasoning you guys came up with saying otherwise?

Madduxx said:

Look at it this way: how many times can a single effect choose a character as a target. Say you had an event that said "Choose up to 2 characters. The chosen characters get +2 STR." If I only have 1 character, can I choose that character 2 times and have it gain +4 STR? Of course not, because a single effect, even one that chooses multiple targets, can only choose an individual character 1 time. So you choose the 1 character 1 time and it gets +2 STR one time.

Military claim is the same thing. It is essentially an effect that says "Choose up to X characters. Kill the chosen characters. X is your opponent's claim value." The single effect can only choose any individual character 1 time, which means that the chosen character is only killed 1 time. Since it is only killed one time, you only need 1 save to keep it.

ktom said:

Luckily we played it that way. So we had it right. Our reason to question was we thought it may work that once one was played the response had happened. Thus playing the response again may have been past since you already responded. If that makes any sense. It's a case where we over thought it for sure, but it was more of a verification we got it right more then anything.

ktom said:

Gotcha. For whatever reason up till now we were playing >1 claims as if they happened individually. Meaning if you had to satisfy a claim of 2 you satisfied one and then you satisfied the second. Understanding better now this will make >1 military claims less powerful I think and perhaps allow us to be less fearful of having fewer characters in play.

Thanks!

Madduxx said:

Just to take that further, if this reasoning were correct, the "you already responded" reasoning would start to apply to every response, regardless of the name. So there could only be once response for any action. That is obviously not the case since the rules state that all Response opportunities stay open in an action window until all players have triggered as many applicable responses as they would like.

People often get confused, thinking that if two cards with Response effects also have the same name, you can only use one of them. The important thing to remember is that each individual card represents a completely separate, individual effect. There is no connection between two separate copies of an event like Parting Blow just because the two separate copies have the same name. (The exception, of course, would be if that event card specified a Limit.)

Madduxx said:

You may want to revisit the section in the rule book:

" High-claim Military Challenges
If, during a military challenge, the defending
player loses a challenge, and the attacking player
has a claim of 2 or higher, the defending player
must kill the required number of different characters,
all at once. Thus, the defender may not
choose to kill the same character multiple times,
even if that character could be saved."

(Once people get into the game and start pouring over the FAQ for advanced timing and rules things, they often forget to check the core rules document for guidance. .)

ktom said:

Yeah I referenced that specific page in my original post. Even though we understand it correctly now, we still played it as indicated (obviously wrong) up till recently. I believe the key word we left out of our initial understanding was "different" characters.

Madduxx said:

Hmm, so you're saying this will make higher claim military challenges less powerful because if you only have one character out and you lose a military challenge you only have to save the character once and you're done? I guess that's true. SometimesI am thankful that high claim challenges have to kill two separate characters because it's the only way I have at that point in the game to punch through a self-saver (Davos and Wendamyr (and occasionally Salt Wife), I'm looking at you). (If I'm winning a high claim military challenge when my opponent only has one character left, I'm usually in pretty good shape : ) ).

Also, just a thought, but perhaps what you were getting confused about regarding Parting Blow and other responses is the fact that each "Response:" effect can only be triggered once per trigger (section 2.4 of the FAQ). As ktom explained though, each card has its own triggered effect so you can play both of them even though they have the same name.