I am a little confused about how the Happo Smoke grenades work differently from the other smoke grenades. How do they go away, Can you do gun fire in the smoke and any other clarifications as well. Thanks for any help.

Mizu's Happo is dropped when she is the target of an attack so that Mizu is covered in smoke even before the attack resolves. Her attacker may resolve the attack even if he is not adjacent to Mizu, but he rolls 2 less dice in his attack roll. After that, Happo works just like a normal Smoke grenade. Two smoke tokens are put on it, and all further attacks suffer the normal limitations (only adjacent targets, 2 less dice) until the smoke tokens are removed. The tokens are removed like all other smoke tokens.

Two points are unclear with Mizu's Happo: The rules don't state that it may be used like a normal Smoke grenade, that is: thrown as an action in Mizu's activation. The rules also don't say if Mizu has to use Happo if she is targeted by an attack, or if she may choose not to use Happo. I think Mizu may also throw Happo and use of Happo is optional, but the rules aren't clear on this. I sent both questions to FFG several weeks ago but never got an answer.

Thanks that helps! Post if they do get back to you, I would like to know that as well.

I think that Mizu´s happo only functions when she is attacked, and that she is not allowed to throw it. But, as it is not exactly in the rules, I cannot really prove it. The text says: "... functions like a smoke grenade, except ..." In my semantic understanding, "except" means that there is a restriction to the "older" rule. If Mizu´s happo could be thrown, there would be some hinting word like "additionally" or "furthermore" to implicate some additional effect. But, I have top admit that the rule is not really 100 % clear here, and ??! could be right. I do not know if ??! is from some english speaking country. If not, maybe a native speaker could help here and explain what "except" really means in this context, and if it´s semantic meaning underlines one of the two opinions here...

as an english speaker who has a degree in linguistics, i can say for my part that the use of 'except' is contextually ambiguous here... whether it means 'instead' or 'in addition' is definitely unclear from that perspective.

but taking into account FFG's verbiage in equipment rules, I lean strongly to the side of 'activates ONLY when targeted by an attack' and cannot be thrown as an action like the M15 smoke grenades. THIS is the exception it's talking about i think. also, i'm 99.9% sure they intend this to be optional based on precedence as well - i feel they wouldve said 'MUST' if it was a required effect the first time Mizu is targeted - it's hard for me to think of any one-time use equipment that is used without controlling players control.

That being said, it's not unheard of for FFG to omit important parts of rules (c.f Bouncing Betty in Revised Rules)...

Artemus Maximus said:

Nice! Good to have you here, that greatly helps in the interpretations of rules.

As English neither is my native language, I'll of course trust the native speaker and use Mizu's Happo from now on as follows: She may only use it if she is attacked but may then choose whether to use it or not. I still think the rule could be clearer - or FFG just could have answered my question.

@Katsuyori: In another thread here on this forum, we discovered some months ago that we are both from Germany, but you live in Munich while I live in Braunschweig.

Thanks everyone, I will also play it that you cannot throw them like smoke grenades and you can choose if you want to use them when attacked.

??! said:

Yes, right. I remember. I am sorry for my bad memory.