When playing solo, if there is an enemy in the staging area during the combat phase but nothing engaged with me, can I discard Westfold Outrider after the enemy attacks phase (where nothing happens) but before my own attack phase to bring the enemy into engagement? Will this mean the enemy doesn't attack me, since it missed its window, but I can attack it?

Looking at page 20 of the rules reference , I don't see an action window that you could use if there is nothing engaged with you. There is an action window right after the "deal shadow cards" step, so if you used Westfold Outrider's action to engage the enemy at that point, it would have the opportunity to attack you but would not have received any shadow cards, which could be quite useful in planning your defense since you'd know exactly how much attack was incoming. But the only other action windows present during the combat step are inside the Enemy Attack Resolution and Player Attack Resolution, neither of which will trigger if there is nothing engaged with you. So according to the text of the rules reference, I don't see any usable action window between the "Resolve Enemy Attacks" process (steps 6.3-6.6) and the "Player Attacks" process (steps 6.7-6.10).

Note that the turn sequence laid out in the rules reference is different from how it appears in the printed rulebook included in the game! That rulebook prints the enemy attack resolution & player attack resolution steps in green, which means "Any player can take actions generally, or between the game steps stated in the rules." But a green box in the online rules reference does not mean "action window here", it means "this step might be repeated." E.g. if there are multiple engaged enemies, you'll repeat the Enemy Attack Resolution sequence once per enemy. But if you have no engaged enemies, the Enemy Attacks and Player Attacks steps are skipped and there is no action window available to use Westfold Outrider's ability. And since the rules reference also says that if there's a conflict between it and the printed rulebook, the rules reference takes priority, that means that there's no action window between the enemy attacks phase and the player attack phase.

Now, I personally find this to be counterintuitive. I feel that there should be action windows not just inside the resolution of enemy attacks and/or player attacks, but between them as well. So I'd house-rule that what you want to do is allowable, and you can use a Westfold Outrider to, essentially, lure an enemy into a waiting ambush where they get no chance to attack. But just be aware that this is a house rule, and that according to the rules as written, your only attack window if nothing is engaged with you is right after shadow cards have been dealt.

There's a relevant discussion here:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/178758-no-enemies-combat-phase-steps/

In 2015, Caleb ruled that there is still an action window between the nonexistent enemy attacks and the player attacks, in response to a question about exhausting a Cave Torch between enemy attacks and player attacks with no one engaged, and Haldir as a hero to snipe an enemy that came out:

Hi Chris,

Clever solution. If there are no enemies in play, there is still a combat phase. As such, you could declare the “Resolving Enemy Attacks” portion complete after no enemies attack, and then use the Cave Torch during the “Attacking Enemies” portion of the phase.
Well done!
Cheers,
Caleb

Seems clear enough, and obviously is only possible if there is an action window *between* enemy and player attacks. Then in 2017 he ignores his earlier reasoning:

Dear Caleb,
thank you for your latest answer to my questions. After playing with tactic-Aragorn and some stuff which let me engage enemies during their attacks some questions came up i hope that you can help and answer them. First .. Combat Phase .. the enemies will attack first in their "Resolving Enemy Attacks"-Step. In the rule it is described that the players could do action after each of the four steps. Is their an action window before an enemy attack which is not the same action window after Determine Combat Damage? There are 3 threads in your forum which discuss about this "potenial" action window.

Quote

Hi Jan,
There is no mystery action window hidden in the combat phase. There is an action window after shadow cards are dealt, and then the first enemy attacks. Once the first enemy attacks, the only action windows are the ones that follow each step of resolving those attacks.
Cheers,
Caleb

---

Pretty straightforward -- but the lack of a "mystery" action window between the two complicates rather than simplifies things and causes things to be counterintuitive. It makes no sense to me that you CAN use Westfold Outrider's ability to engage an enemy after his chance to attack but before your chance to attack -- but ONLY if there's a way for another enemy around to do it. You can't even use Outrider after the combat is done, because the final action window was removed for some reason. If you are playing solo you can use Westfold Outrider after enemies had their chance to attack if you have an enemy Forest Snared -- but *only* if you actually declare an attack against your snared enemy first . This makes no sense!

Perhaps the conflicting rulings are a result of the rules reference being created. In the original turn sequence timing chart, in between the first action window and the last window the attack steps are shown in green, meaning that "Any player can take actions generally, or between the game steps stated in the rules". From that perspective, until an attack is declared the action window opened after shadow card distribution never actually closes. I wonder if the formalization process unintentionally reduced the window for actions, since the vast majority of Combat Action cards either work just fine in the initial action window or are only meaningful during actual attacks or defenses.

I think I'll put my blind eye to the telescope on this one.

On 7/6/2020 at 2:36 PM, dalestephenson said:

... Then in 2017 he ignores his earlier reasoning:

I'm becoming convinced that Caleb, and the other FFG designers, get so many rules questions that they don't have time to keep careful track of their previous rulings. Which means you get inconsistent rulings like this one, where he reverses a ruling from two years earlier without mentioning that it's a reversal; I believe that's because he'd forgotten about his 2015 ruling, doesn't have a "past rulings" database to easily look it up in, and therefore didn't know that he was reversing himself. Another example is Hands Upon the Bow, which was relevant in another thread I recently participated in: Caleb first ruled that Hands Upon the Bow could be used against enemies immune to player card effects, then a few months later in a different email exchange he ruled that it could not be used against enemies immune to player card effects. I think the latter ruling is the correct one, because it does not target a framework effect, but it's still a confusing reversal.

(Also, his ruling that the Hands Upon the Bow attack is not a Ranged attack, while correct according to RAW, is IMHO wrong from a game-design standpoint. For goodness' sake, the attack requires a character with Ranged! So I play HUtB as if it was errata'd to include the text "This attack is counted as a Ranged attack," i.e. like Great Yew Bow's effect. Sometimes that helps me, as in Rivendell Bow's +1 to ranged attacks, and sometimes it hurts me, as in Great Cave-troll's immunity to ranged damage. But it's how the card should have been designed.)

On 7/6/2020 at 2:36 PM, dalestephenson said:

Pretty straightforward -- but the lack of a "mystery" action window between the two complicates rather than simplifies things and causes things to be counterintuitive. It makes no sense to me that you CAN use Westfold Outrider's ability to engage an enemy after his chance to attack but before your chance to attack -- but ONLY if there's a way for another enemy around to do it. You can't even use Outrider after the combat is done, because the final action window was removed for some reason. If you are playing solo you can use Westfold Outrider after enemies had their chance to attack if you have an enemy Forest Snared -- but *only* if you actually declare an attack against your snared enemy first . This makes no sense!

Perhaps the conflicting rulings are a result of the rules reference being created. In the original turn sequence timing chart, in between the first action window and the last window the attack steps are shown in green, meaning that "Any player can take actions generally, or between the game steps stated in the rules". From that perspective, until an attack is declared the action window opened after shadow card distribution never actually closes. I wonder if the formalization process unintentionally reduced the window for actions, since the vast majority of Combat Action cards either work just fine in the initial action window or are only meaningful during actual attacks or defenses.

I think I'll put my blind eye to the telescope on this one.

Same. I'm going to treat the rules reference as if it has an action window between the enemy attacks step and the player attacks step -- the "mystery" window you're referring to, because you're quite right that that's the only way to resolve those weird inconsistencies. I'm also going to consider that there are action windows before and after each attack resolution, as well as inside the attack resolutions, in case another weird card interaction shows up.