Question on Charge

By Toscadero, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I've got a question on how Charge works. Our Overlord played Charge in an encounter with one of his lieutenants. "Play when you activate a monster. Double the monster's speed for this activation". Our Overlord claimed that he could use this like fatigue or extra movement points. His lieutenant had a speed of five, so he moved him five spaces due to the card and then wanted to Battle. We claimed that the card simply doubled his movement, but did not give him the option of using the five movement points and then going into Battle. How should this be played?

This reminds me of the GLoAQ question about lieutenants and Rage:

If the Overlord plays RAGE on a Lieutenant during a battle action, how many attacks does he receive - 3 or 4?
Two, actually. "Rage" reads: "Play when you activate a monster. That monster may attack twice during this activation (four times if it has Quick Shot)."
A lieutenant who has declared a Battle action may attack twice during his activation. "Rage" has no further effect - it is essentially granting the lieutenant an ability it already has. A much stronger play is to declare a Run action and then play "Rage," which would allow the lieutenant to move twice his speed and attack twice.

However, the Charge card has a different concept - it doesn't give a set number of movement points; it simply doubles the monster's speed. If the lieutenant wants to Battle, he receives 0 MP, regardless of his speed.

Let's look at Sir Alric Farrow.

Normally:
Run - 8 MP, 0 Attacks
Advance - 4 MP, 1 Attack
Battle - 0 MP, 2 Attacks

With Charge :
Run - 16 MP, 0 Attacks
Advance - 8 MP, 1 Attack
Battle - 0 MP, 2 Attacks

With Rage :
Run - 8 MP, 2 Attacks
Advance - 4 MP, 2 Attacks
Battle - 0 MP, 2 Attacks

With Enraged :
Run - 16 MP, 2 Attacks
Advance - 8 MP, 2 Attacks
Battle - 0 MP, 2 Attacks

The card doubles the "speed", it does not grant extra movement points or anything like fatigue.

Your OL is wrong.

Thanks for the help. That was our thinking. He backed down on using the card last night as he intended. Unfortunately he was wrong on little else and ran us off the table. It wasn't pretty.

Well, if he had known the rules correctly, he would simply have chosen a Rage card and then have done a Run action with that, to even more effect. So there would have even been a benefit for the heros if you' d let it slip. Unless he chose the Charge card intentionally to let his Lt. move four times his base speed with a Run action...