Some more questions from a newbie

Hi everybody,

so last wednesday I finally got my copy of the game and yesterday I managed to play it twice. First one on my own to get familiariced with the game and the other one with another three friends. Very happy with my purchase, but as usual with games that rely so heavily on cards instructions, I got a few questions on effects and such that I'm not sure how to answer.

I've searched a little bit on the forum and I downloaded the faqs from Spiff and I resolved some (for example, now I now that yes, The Wriith basic power stated in her card is cumulative if she keeps using it and it´s not hurt between turns) but not all of my questions. So I was hoping you guys could help with some of those. I'm pretty sure all of then will have been asnwered by now but I can't find the answers, and some of the answers make my head hurts ^^U

Ok, there we go:

What constitutes exactly a round?

Example: three heroes: Legacy, Ra and Haka. 

Is this three rounds, one by each hero, or only once Legacy, Ra and Haka have finished their turns then the round is over?

Megalopolis

Impeding Casualty: At the end of the enviroment turn, 1 player may discard 1 card to destroy this card.

So, if understand correctly this card may be destroyed in the same turn that it gets into play. 

And the player may discard the card from their hand or from the table, is that correct?

Police Backup: Whenever a villain card would make a player discard a card, destroy a card.

Does the player discard the card and the Police Backup or only the Police Backup instead of their card? 

Baron Blade

Backlash Field: The first time the Baron Blade is dealt damage by a target each turn, Baron Blade deals that target 3 lightning damage.

So, if Baron Blade is dealt damage due to Electrical Storm does Tempest get hit with 3 damage? The damage didn't come from power or a one-shot.

Elemental redistributor: Whenever Baron Blade would be dealt fire, cold, or lightning damage, redirect that damage to the hero target with the lowest HP.

This card has a HP value of 10. So, if I attack this card and hit it with fire, cold or lightning damage would that activate the effect of the card? I mean, my target was the card, not Baron Blade. Is it correct?

Tempest

Shielding Winds: Whenever a hero target would be dealt 5 or more damage form a single source reduce that damage by 2.

Can this card be activated more than one time per turn if the conditions stated in the card take place? 

The Wraith

Throat Jab: The Wraith deals one target 2 melee damage. The target dealt damage this way cannot deal damage until the start of your next turn.

Ok, so the thing is The Wraith plays this card and hits Baron Blade. On the Villain turn, Baron Blade plays Backlash Field. If someone attacks Baron Blade before The Wraith turn, does he get hit by Backlash Field? 

And, if Baron Blade plays any card that would deal damage to a heroe, then what? the card doesn't take effect? This one is quite confusing to me.

Also,

Combat Stance: The first time The Wraith is dealt damage by a target each turn, The Wraith deals that target 2 melee damage.

So once again, Backslash Field. Is that considered damage dealt by Baron Blade? Is Baron Blade dealt 2 melee damage?

Micro Targeting Computer: Increase projectile damage dealt by The Wraith by 2.

If I can use more than power in one turn and I use two powers that deal projectile damage, every damage is increased by 2, is that correct?

And I think that´s all so far. Thank you so much in advance for your answers. I realize the answers some of them might seem obvious to you, but I'm not a native speaker and that can make all the difference on the world. So once again, thank you for your kindness and your help.

By the way, as I said: Great, great game. And the first one I'm gonna try playing solo for a second time, and that's a lot :D 

That's a lot of questions *Rolls up sleeves*

A round is villain turn, each hero's turn and environment turn.

Impending Casualty: It can be destroyed in the same turn it's played. "Discard" refers to from hand (or soemtiems deck). "Destroy" is the keyword for removing cards from the play area.

Police Backup: Both. If it had said "destroy this card INSTEAD" it weoudl mean you'd prevent the discard action

Backlash field: Yes. Each card says "X deals y type of damage" X has therefore hit Baron Blade and gets clobbered by the field. To answer another common question, if you have two backlash fields up, you'd get hit by both. Which really, really hurts.

Elemental Redistributor: It only applies whern you hit Barron Balde himself. aslong as you're burning, freezing or electrocuting his minions, base or equipment the redistributor doesn't go off.

Shielding Winds: It's an always on effect. Whenever a hero target takes 5 or more damage, this reduces it. PAy attention to card ordering for how it intereacts with things like Fortitude, Undaunted and so on

Throat Jab: You are correct. Until the start of Wraith's turn, every instance of damage Baron Blade does becomes 0 after all modifications.

 His minions still deal normal damage. So Hasten Doom would not deal any toxic damage, but he'd still play the top card of the villain deck.

Combat Stance: Yes. It also applies to heroes so if Haka goes on a rampage, Wraith might instinctively clock him one.

Micro Tragetting Computer: Yes, it applies to every instance of projectile damage Wraith does. Note, if you have Imbued Fire in play, the Wraith doesn't do projectile damage so this boost wouldn't appy.

Hope those help.

Thank you so much for your anwers, pwatson

Just a couple of things that needs clarification:

Throat Jab: The Wraith deals one target 2 melee damage. The target dealt damage this way cannot deal damage until the start of your next turn.

 

Ok, so the thing is The Wraith plays this card and hits Baron Blade. On the Villain turn, Baron Blade plays Backlash Field. If someone attacks Baron Blade before The Wraith turn, does he get hit by Backlash Field? 

And this one. If I understand your meaning, if, for example, Legacy is dealt 5 damage and Shielding Winds is in play, then he is only dealt 3 damage, but if Fortitude is in play, then the damage is reduced to 4 and Shielding Winds does not have effect, correct?

Once again, thank you

What constitutes a round:

I believe it starts with the villain turn, because thats where the game starts, then goes through hero turns, then the environment turn,, and then with the start of the next villain turn you have a new round.

Impending Casualty:

My group has always played it that a player could discard a card when impending casualty comes out, but it wouln't surprise me if we've been doing it wrong.  Also with discarding, you discard from your hand, if anything makes you remove a card from the table the word is "destroy"

Police Backup:

I think its intended that you destroy police backup only.

Backlash Field:

If electrical storm says tempest deals the damage, he would be damaged by backlash field, if electrical storm doesnt say "tempest deals damage" or something to that effect I guess he'd be safe.

Elemental Distributor:

You're right.

Shielding Winds:

I think thats right

Throat Jab:

Before Wraiths turn Blade cant deal damage, any cards he would draw that say he deals damage don't take effect, but a blade batallion would still deal damage.  If the backlash field says Blade would deal damage then no damage would happed from blade after throat jab, if the field itself does the damage then backlash field would deal damage to heroes striking blade.

Combat Stance:

Yes Baron Blade would take damage because he dealt damage

Micro targeting computer:

Thats right, all projectile damage is increased

I think thats everything, and I hope you enjoy playing the best game ever.

On the subject of Throat Jabbing Baron Blade. Anyone can attack Baron Blade without Backlash Field lashing out on them as Baron Blade is unable to deal damage. Also any card Baron Blade would play on his turn where the source of the damage is from Baron Blade would not deal damage, such as Slash and Burn. Though Blade Battalion would still be able to deal damage as the source is from that rather than Blade.

The thing about Fortitude and Shielding Winds depends on the order of play it was in. If Fortitude was played before Shielding Winds then Fortitude would activate first, thus reducing a 5 damage by 1 making it 4 and shielding winds couldn't do anything. While if Shielding Winds came into play then Fortitude, that 5 damage would first be reduced by 2 per Shiedling Winds then another point by Fortitude. Order of play allow for much different results, and sometimes its best to hold onto a card until another card is played first.

I'm not sure about this one. What pwatson said makes sense. The card doesn't say "instead".

Thanks! I believe I will 

This. How do I know which card was played first? I mean, it would be easy if both cards belonged to the same hero as you can position them in a row on front of you to remember the order, but they belong to different heroes. After a few rounds it might be hard to remember and keep track of cards 

He's probably right, I think the language is murky.

Mainly just a remember the best you can type deal. It's not like 5 damage is a very common occurance the likely hood of you finding yourself in that situation isn't going to be that common. Just rule if you can't remember the order of play then you could rule that the heroes own card would act first, so Legacy would gain Fortitude prior to it. Also something that happens quite often is ongoing destruction (depending on where you're at and going against) so that'll lower the chances of having them both being out at the sametime aswell!

It's a rare circumstance that it matters. If in doubt, wing it and do as best you can. Or use a marker like a HP marker which could handle up to 4 cards in order on the cards.

RE: Police Backup:

Only Police Backup is destroyed. I'm completely certain of this, because I've been bitten by this exact same wording on other cards. Any time you see the word "would" in SotM you should read in an implied "instead." Jack Handle and Apostate's flip conditions lack the "instead" as well, but they still make you do their thing and not the original thing.

Yeah, you see, that's the thing. The card doesn't say "instead" but for me is so heavily implied that I checked trought the clarifications cause I thought it might be an errata and that the word "instead" was missing.

That's what I've been doing. Somehow it's what it makes more sense to me.

Thanks again, everybody

It's just a quirk of the way they word their cards. I think it would be much more clear with the "instead," but the good news is that it's consistent.

Fascinating. Your argument seems sound, and yet I've never played Police Backup that way.

I've also read Police Backup that way - it says if you would lose a card you destroy the Police Backup. That is, I would destroy the police and discard if it said "When a villain makes you discard a card, destroy this card". But instead it says (can't remember the exact wording) "When a villain would make you discard a card, destroy this card". So while you normally would discard a card from the villain's action, instead you destroy the police card.

I wouldn't have guessed that was the intended usage of Police Backup, even If I had played this game for a hundred years. For me, it was not implied at all. I don't have Rook City or Infernal Relics yet, so I am going to try to find more examples of this wording in the core set. I think you are right (at least your arguments seem sound), but It would be nice to have an official clarificacion here. And I think the word "instead" would have made this much, much clearer. 

Looking at other villain cards examples, I think that, if they wanted that both effect took place (i.e the card discard, and the "police backup"destruction), they would have written this:

"When a villain card makes a player discard a card, destroy this card [Police Backup]"

Which is not the case.

Well, the positive thing is that my English is going to improve by playing this game. Not that I needed an excuse anyways… 

So, I guess I'm gonna have to houserule Police Backup till we get official confirmation :)

Today we had a new session with two new players, so I decided to repeat with Baron Blade. We won again but this time was way more difficult than the first time, which is a good thing. We played with different heroes other than Haka and we changed the enviroment so the fight took place in Insula Primalis. Just a couple of questions this round . Maybe one of you can help me :)

One of them is a general question. I'm not at home so I can have a look at the card but the situation is this: Mobile Defense Platform is in play so Baron Blade is inmune to damage. Ra uses a card thad deals 2 damage to 2 targets. 

He deals 2 damage to the platform and destroys it as it had only 1 hp left. Can he deal the other 2 damage to Baron Blade as the platform has been destroyed? Or is the damage dealt simultaneously and because the platform was still in place then Baron Blade doesn't receive damage as he was inmune to damage at that time?

The other question is referring to a couple of cards from the enviroment Insula Primalis. River of Lava forces you to destroy one of your equipment cards or receive H fire damage. What happens if I don't have any equipment card in play? Do I receive the H fire damage? 

And what about Primordial Plant Life? The card deals any heroe that destroy one of their ongoing cards 2 toxic damage and if they don't destroy the card 4 toxic damage. If I don't have any ongoing card in play do I suffer 2 or 4 toxic damage?

Ra could deal Baron Blade 2 points of damage as the defense platform is no longer in play.

If you don't have the appropiate card that needs to be destroyed then you will take whatever damage follows for not destroying one. So the Plant Life would cause you to suffer the 4 points of damage.

So the damage is not dealt simultaneously. The player decides the order. Nice.

I thought so, but I wanted to confirm it. Thanks!

Precedents for Police Backup include Apostate, who -- when he would be killed -- flips, with a silent instead, Shielding Winds, Superhuman durability, Jack Handle, and a couple other cards have the same silent "instead," whereas some have a "when X happens," which does not cancel the trigger out.

Any time you can hit multiple targets at once, you can choose the order. So for example, if you're playing against Voss and he has a couple of minions in play (granting him +1 or +2 soak each, depending on which side he's on), and you use a nuke that hits all of those targets (and deals enough damage to kill the minions), take out the minions first - then Voss has no soak so your nuke will hit him for maximum damage. This also comes into play if you use something like End of Days (Fanatic) which destroys everything except Relics and character cards. Suppose you were fighting Voss and he had Forced Deployment out and a big pile of minions in his trash. You play End of Days. This destroys Forced Deployment, which brings all the minions into play. But End of Days is still acting, so all the minions get destroyed as well :).

I'll add my voice to the Police Backup conversation.  Like Arenson, I can see the logic behind pwatson's and Cosmonaut's rulings, but I have never thought to play it that way.  I'm not sure if I will or not, but it certainly would make things more consistent.

For those who play it this way, when it comes up, does it only prevent the first discard that would happen, or does it prevent all of the discards that would happen?  

I play that each police backup only prevents one card from being discarded.

Same as dypaca, it only prevents one card. If it were worded as "discard cards" instead of "discard a card" I would prevent all of the discards for the first hero to do so.

Yeah, the same as when you get a bonus to "the next damage you would deal" and then use something that hits multiple targets (eg Haka using Haka of Battle before going on a Rampage), the bonus only applies to the first hit, not all hits.

I've never actually had Police Backup's discard clause come into effect. So few villain cards actually make players discard that they've just never happened while the Backups were out there. <shrug>

Technically it came up in a game about a week ago, when I think we were against Akash'Bhuta, or possibly Spite. Anyway, whomever it was attempted to force a discard and we had a Police card out...but I totally forgot about the "destroy the Police instead" bit (as it had never come up before) so we just discarded as per the villain's card. I think the Police later got destroyed anyway when Rooftop Combat came out.

Hi guys,

new session, new questions ^_^u

So, I played a new solo game yesterday: Haka, Bunker and Absolute Zero (plus Fanatic incapacitated from the start) versus Omnitron in the ruins of Atlantis. Man, that was an embarrassing defeat if I ever saw one. I only got to deal 49 damage to Omnitron before two of those pesky Krakens killed my last two heroes in play. 

Anyways, let's not dwell on that xD

My question are:

Toxic Seaweed: At the end of the enviroment turn one player may discard their hand to destroy this card. 

So, if a player has no cards on their hand, can they decide to discard their zero cards hand and destroy the card? I assume so, but I'd like confirmation.

And the other question. One of the powers of Fanatic when incapacitated reads: 

Select a heroes. Increase the next damage dealt by that hero by 2.

So I have Bunker, and he plays External Combustion: Bunker deals himself 2 fire damage and deals each non-hero target 3 fire damage.

My question is:

Does he deals himself 4 fire damage and each non-hero target 5 fire damage?

Does he deals himself 4 fire damage and each non-hero targets 3 fire damage?

Can he deal himself 2 fire damage, one of the non-hero targets 5 fire damage, and 3 fire damge to the rest of non-hero targets?

Thanlks in advance, guys. This game rules but it gives me a bit of a headache on occasions :P

Yes, as toxic seaweed is discard a hand rather than number of cards, you an dsicard an empty 'hand' to get rid of it.

And the second interpretation is correct. It literally means the next damage dealt. It is like Haka of Battle and Taiha, or Rampage. Only the first hit gets the boost.

Thanks a lot, pwatson :D

The middle one. he deals himself 4 fire damage and each non-hero target 3. the "next damage" in the ability refers to the next damage dealt. this is the same idf bunker played a card that dealt damaged thehn used a power that dealt more damage