My friends and i have been playing for about 3 months now. And we are trying to pay more attention to the timing flow charts to make sure we are playing correctly. Since looking at the timing charts closer we are thinking that most if not all events and other effects are played during the player action window. Is there ever a time when you can play a event outside of the player action window. The reason i ask is Ahead of the Tide got me thinking that i could mess with my friends who are playing with the Take Them by Surprise plot by playing Ahead of the Tide to win initiative and make them discard there hand. But im wondering when i play it do i play it during the first player action in the plot phase and make it so they know i will win initiative so they just choose a different plot? Or do i play it in the second player action window which makes no sense because initiative has already been counted and won in the framework actions. Or is it really a response i can play out of a player action during the framework after initiative is counted hence making me the winner and making them discard there hand if they played take them by surprise? I know the card says response so thats why i was leaning towards the third option but wanted to make sure.

Thanks

You need to distinguish between abilities that are triggered as player actions (any ability that begins with "Any Phase:" or the name of a phase) and responses (any ability that begins with the word "Response" or "Limited Response"). Responses are either standard responses or save/cancel responses (any response with the word "save" or "cancel" in them).

A response is never played as a standard Player Action; it is played as a response to an action (either a player action or a framework action). Normal responses are played in step 5 of the corresponding action window, whereas save and cancel responses are played in step 2 of the action window. Have another look at the FAQ for a timing breakdown of the action windows.

You will see that the ability on Ahead of the Tide begins with the word "Response." Furthermore, you will notice the word "cancel" in the ability's text. This tells you that this is a cancel response, and should be played in step 2 of the action window in response to whatever it is trying to cancel. In this case it cancels a framework action, so it is played in response to the framework action "determine high-initiative player", interrupts it and changes the outcome of that framework action.

Some events can be played in the Framework Action Window. Basically, any effect that cancels a framework event, such as Ahead of the Tide, interrupts and/or replaces that event. In this case, you can cancel the initiative count and replace it with the "you win initiative" statement, thus winning initiative withouthaving the highest total initiative. This lets you mess with your opponents' Take Them By Surprise and, ironically, take them by surprise and make them discard their hands.

EDIT: **** you speedy-Saturnine

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys. Cant wait to make my friends discard their hands since almost all of them play Take them by Surprise.

Mortem_Angelis said:

Yeah, it's a fun move. Be prepared to get lots of hate for the rest of the game, though