Question about Sabotage and Rules Ref 2.6

By Daveservo, in Twilight Imperium

Hello and thanks for reading!

Here is the scenario:

Player A plays “Skilled Retreat”.

Player B plays “Sabotage”.

Is player A permitted to play another “Skilled Retreat” card?

2.6 of the Rules Ref: “Mutilple action cards with the same name cannot be played during a single timing window to affect the same units or game mechanic.”

2.8 of the Rules Ref: “If an action card is cancelled, that card has no effect and is discarded.”

Thanks for your input!

I will not say 100% of the correctness of my thoughts, but I would say that player A can play a second skilled retreat. Here timing is important. Read the rule of Timing 1.11. It follows from this that the player playing the first skilled retreat card hits the first time window, and when he plays the second card, the skilled retreat is already another time window. Rule 2.8 is important, for example, for Moral boost cards, because if you want to play 2 cards morale boost is simultaneous, then just get into one time window.

If an action card is cancelled, it's like it never happened. If it required an action, that action isn't used/lost. If you have another copy of that card, you can play it. (This was confirmed by Dane some time back, though I don't have a link.)

How about this angle. 2.7 from Rules Ref: “To play an action card, a player reads and resolves the cards ability text. Then, he discards the card, placing it in the action discard pile.”

So if you cannot resolve the card’s ability text you are, by definition, not playing an action card.

Is this a reasonable way to interpret the meaning?

I could see an argument being made where you cannot play 2 of the same card

Multiple action cards with the same name cannot be played
during a single timing window to affect the same units or
game mechanic.

However, if you cancel a card it does not affect the unit, but it is still the same timing window that would affect the same unit.

I guess it depends on how you read it.

1 hour ago, pklevine said:

If an action card is cancelled, it's like it never happened. If it required an action, that action isn't used/lost. If you have another copy of that card, you can play it. (This was confirmed by Dane some time back, though I don't have a link.)

If it was confirmed by Dane, then it does not make sense to find out something else :)