Blitz

Frequently Asked Questions

General Play

• If you skip using the text effects of a Power *(p. 17 core rules)*, are you still considered to have targeted / used that Power? (For, eg, Shroud of Silent Mist.)
  No, if you target a Power you must actually attempt to perform its text effects. (It need not actually have any game effect.)

  The core rules would be better phrased as "you may forego using a Power".
  Tags: Targeting, Shroud of Silent Mist, Scream Disease Into the Wind, Blitz, 1 more...

Range and Targeting

• Can you target a power on a land where you know it won't do anything? For instance, target a land without Explorers with a "Push 1 Explorer" Power?
  Yes. You can target a power on any land, as long as it satisfies the targeting and range restrictions. ("Do as much as you can" only refers to resolving a Power, not how you use it in the first place.)

  Obvious reasons you might want to do this include Gathering Presence (if you're Shroud of Silent Mist) or placing Disease (if Scream Disease Into the Wind has been played on you). There are other less-likely cases too.
  Tags: Targeting, Scream Disease Into the Wind, Mists Shift and Flow (Shroud of Silent Mist), Shroud of Silent Mist, 1 more...

Scenarios

• What does "When exploring" mean? (e.g., the Blitz scenario) Can I add the extra Explorer anywhere I want?
  On each board, in one of the lands the Invaders successfully Explored, add an extra Explorer.

  If the Invaders are entirely prevented from Exploring on a board, then they don't add any extra Explorer. If there are multiple Explore Cards during a single turn, the effect happens for each of them. The event "Promising Farmland" from Branch & Claw works the same way.

  For Blitz, this does affect the initial Explore during Setup.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Explore, Blitz, Promising Farmland (Event)
• When does Blitz reduce the cost of a Fast Power and when does Blitz refund Energy for a Power being Fast?
  When you play Power Cards by paying their costs {1}, total up the Energy cost of all of the Powers you’re playing and reduce it by 1 per Fast Power to determine how much you need to pay. If that number is negative, gain that much Energy as a refund.

  When using a Fast Innate Power that has the potential to do something for the first time each turn, gain 1 Energy as a refund.

  When you make a Slow Power Fast (via Swiftness of Lightning or similar) gain a 1 Energy rebate.

  If a Fast Power Card (or a Power Card made Fast) costs 1 or more Energy, also reduce its printed cost by 1 (e.g., for Repeating it with Gift of Strength or checking when it's played by Rhythmic Power Builds to a Cataclysmic Crescendo).

  {1} = This usually as part of the “Play and Pay For Power Cards” action in Spirit Phase, but sometimes a Power like Call on Midnight’s Dream tells you to do so.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Energy, Playing Power Cards, Blitz, Gift of Strength (Vital Strength of the Earth), 11 more...
• When playing with an extra board, do any Scenarios need adjusting?
  Yes, a number of previously-printed Scenarios need to change "per player" to "per board":

  • Powers Long Forgotten: Make the "per player" setup instructions "per board" instead. (So you have enough tokens for all the boards, if playing on balanced. )
  • Blitz - Setup - "an additional Blight per player" should be "per board". Rule Changes - "1 less Blight per player" should be "per board".
  • Second Wave - After the First Game - the "per player" measurements should be "per board" (though the tokens saved do not need to be exactly 1 per board - eg, in a 2p, 3-board game, you could save 3 Beasts across the whole island, not limited to precisely 1 per board). Second Game Setup - "2 Blight per player" should be "2 Blight per board".
  • The Great River - Additional Loss Conditions - the per-player measurement should be per-board (but you can't just substitute "per board" because that implies it matters which board they escape from, so something like "If more than (3 x # of boards) Towns escape...")
  • Ward the Shores - Setup Changes - "4 Markers per player" should be "4 Markers per board"

  Note: an extra board may synergize very painfully with some Scenarios - most notably those which involve controlling / affecting territory, like The Great River, Despicable Theft, Ward the Shores and perhaps Powers Long Forgotten. If you want to avoid the extra Difficulty boost caused by this, you can opt to have some or all of the Scenario effects skip one board. (eg: The Great River could skip just Population Spills Across the River on one board, or all Rule Changes.) This will, of course, dilute the feel of the Scenario a bit.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Extra Island Board, Powers Long Forgotten, Blitz, Second Wave, 3 more...
• If an effect specifically happens in the Slow Phase, but isn't a Slow Power, how does it work in the Blitz Scenario?
  Exactly as written. Blitz still has a Slow Phase, even if nothing usually happens in it because all Slow Powers are Fast.
  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Blitz, Absolute Stasis (Fractured Days Split the Sky), The Great River, 3 more...
• When the Invaders do an extra set of actions during Setup in the Blitz Scenario, does that include any Adversary effects that happen during or trigger after the Build/Explore Step?
  No, while the Invaders are resolving a Build Card and two Explore Cards, they are doing so during Setup, not during the Build Step or Explore Step (which are part of the Invader Phase).

  In particular, the following effects don't apply during Blitz setup because they reference specific steps of the Invader Phase or explicitly exclude setup.

  • "Frontier Explorers" (The Kingdom of France Plantation Colony Level 1) and "Trading Port" (The Kingdom of Scotland Level 1) don't change which pieces are added during or after Exploring – not even from the second Explore Card – because they don't apply during setup.
  • "Migratory Herders" (The Habsburg Monarchy Livestock Colony Level 1) doesn't gather Towns.
  • "More Rural Than Urban" (The Habsburg Monarchy Livestock Colony Level 2) doesn't build 2 Towns in place of building an Inland City, since play hasn't started yet.
  • "Ceaseless Mining" (Habsburg Mining Expedition Level 1) doesn't cause Ravage Actions in Mining lands.
  • "Mining Boom" (Habsburg Mining Expedition Levels 3 & 5) doesn't upgrade or build anything.

  ... but these effects do happen during setup:

  • "Slave Labor" (The Kingdom of France Plantation Colony Level 2) does upgrade Explorers after Building in lands with 2+ Explorers.
  • "Persistent Explorers" (The Kingdom of France Plantation Colony Level 6) does add an Explorer after each of the two Explore Cards.
  • "The Empire Ascendant" (Habsburg Mining Expedition Level 6) does add extra Explorers (and stack with the extra Explorer from Blitz!), since it explicitly applies during Setup.

  ... and these effects can happen during setup, but are unlikely to do so:

  • "Triangle Trade" (The Kingdom of France Plantation Colony Level 4) does add a Town as part of Building a Coastal City, though this only happens if the first Explore Card matches a land with a Coastal Town.
  • "Indentured Servants Earn Land" (The Kingdom of England Level 1) and "Chart the Coastline" (The Kingdom of Scotland Level 3) both allow building in lands without Invaders, albeit in a way that's unlikely to matter unless the first Invader Card matches a land that has a Wilds in it during Setup.

  Tags: Island setup, Matches, Thematic map, Blitz, 5 more...
• With the "Blitz" scenario, can you use the Energy gained from playing an already-Fast 0-cost Power Card to help pay for another Power Card?
  Yes. The intent is that already-Fast 0-cost cards effectively cost "negative 1 energy".
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Energy, Playing Power Cards, Blitz

Spirits and Innate Powers

• If all you can do with an innate power is change its Speed or Range (eg: either of Thunderspeaker's innates with 4 Air only), is that enough to target and use the Power?
  No, a power needs to have the potential to do something (not just modify its own attributes) in order to be targeted or used.

  This is usually irrelevant, but can occasionally be important (for, e.g., Scream Disease Into the Wind, or other "after using a power on a land..." effects.)

  It does not need to actually do something, as long as it has an instruction that could in theory modify the game state. Setting up a triggered action for the current Power only (eg: Lure's first innate) doesn't count, either; it's effectively an internal modifier as well, despite using a trigger for timing.
  Tags: Targeting, Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Range, 4 more...
• When is Swiftness of Lightning used to make Powers Fast?
  During the Fast phase.

  This is rarely relevant, but can matter for the Blitz Scenario: you can't "make a Power Fast" during the Spirit Phase to lower its cost by 1, only "make a Power Fast" during the Fast Phase to gain a 1-Energy rebate.
  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Swiftness of Lightning (Lightning's Swift Strike), Blitz