We had a situation in our game yesterday where I used the Encounter part of the W1-LE crew to perform a market action during the Encounter phase. Upon purchasing an item, the next card revealed moved the nearest patrol to my space. As I had negative reputation with them I should have then been forced to Encounter the patrol for a fight, however as you are only permitted to have 1 Encounter (which I had substituted for a crew ability) I argued the case that I would not have to fight them as they were moved as part of another Encounter.

We checked at length for any suggestions of out-of-phase patrol movement, and there was no exception or clarification for this situation. To avoid an afternoon of argument I had a fight with the patrol and killed it anyway, but my understanding is that the fight should not have happened. There is currently no FAQ to clarify this specific situation, so I thought I should ask here in case anyone has spotted something in the manual that I missed.

Thanks

Hi,

I don't recall reading anything in the rules regarding this.

I would have played it as you suggested and not battle the patrol as it wasn't already in your space at the beginning of the encounter phase. That is the first step in the encounter phase which prevents you from doing anything else if you have minus rep with a patrol in your space, however you were already passed that step when you used your crew ability.

Glad you won the resultant combat anyway though 😁

I think when you are in the same space as a patrol with negative rep, you encounter them at the start of the encounter phase.

So I think you wouldn’t encounter them in your situation until your ‘next’ encounter phase if your both still there.

I don't have the game in front of me at the moment, what's the exact wording on W1-LE?

Without seeing the wording if W1-LE gives you a different option for an Encounter I would say that is your Encounter. If W1-LE says something along the lines of you can take a market action at the start of the encounter step I would be inclined to think that it doesn't count as your Encounter and you still have to have one.

Yes, it's W1-LE is your encounter. The patrol moved after you had your encounter for the turn, so you shouldn't need to fight them. 'Thematically' it might not make that much sense, but mechanically I'd say that's absolutely the way it should be played.

Id tou had already started WilE 's enciunter and then the patrol moves then you'd have to wait til you next turn. And you could move away if they were still in the same position