Isolate

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
Effect Rules
  • Can Invaders be Added to an Isolated land with no Invaders?
    Generally, yes. Isolate only prevents Invaders from being Added due to Explore Actions (mandatory) and due to effects that check what Invaders are adjacent to (optional).
    Tags: Isolate
  • What does moving pieces towards or away from something mean? (e.g., Pushing pieces towards the nearest Ocean with "Sweep Into the Sea.") What if you move a piece Inland?
    Move the piece in a way that either decreases or increases (respectively) its Range from the key location. All game notions of "nearer" and "further" in effect text use Range – you never need a ruler, and a land that looks physically closer might not actually be at shorter Range!
    When you Push towards the Ocean with "Sweep Into the Sea," the land you Push to must be closer to the nearest Ocean than the land they're currently in. So, e.g., a land 2 away from its nearest Ocean could only Push to lands 1 away from that Ocean (Coastal to it). As with all ambiguous cases, if multiple Oceans are closest, you decide which one to consider "nearest".
    Similarly if you move a piece Inland, you move it further away from the Oceans collectively: each land it moves through must be further from the nearest Ocean than the land it came from. The piece can't move e.g., from a Coastal land on one board to a Coastal land on another board; even thought it's increasing its Range from the Ocean it was originally closest to (from Range 1 to Range 2), it's still just as close to an Ocean (Range 1).
    The routes most directly towards or away from something are an objective trait of the board layout and not affected by Isolate (just like how Isolate doesn't change which lands are Coastal), though the routes can be altered by something that changes the board topology for all purposes, like "Weave Together the Fabric of Place." Isolate can still stop Invader pieces from moving if they can't make progress on any of the shortest routes towards or away from something. Specific movement effects can overrule these restrictions, such as Isolate affecting which routes Thieves attempt to take to the coasts in the Despicable Theft scenario.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Range, Move, Isolate, Sweep into the Sea, 9 more...
  • Does Isolate apply if you're checking adjacency between an Invader piece and something else? (Another sort of piece, or a land type.)
    Yes.
    So, e.g., the Cultural Assimilation event tells you to replace a Dahan that's adjacent to a City. If either the land with the City or the land with the Dahan were Isolated, the players could nullify the adjacency. If every possible City - lone Dahan pair were separated this way, the players could thwart the Event on that board.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Isolate, Cultural Assimilation
  • Can Isolate apply to Dahan?
    Not unless you're checking adjacency between Dahan and an Invader piece.
    Thematically, the Dahan both know the island and how to get around on it much better (so many things which will block or stall Invaders aren't as big an obstacle), and have good relations with enough Spirits that they can get some help in circumventing even supernatural effects.
    Tags: Isolate
Event Cards
General Play
  • What's the timing of ongoing effects expiring?
    All "this turn" effects wear off at the same time. For now, assume all normal Time Passes activity (discard, lose elements, clear damage, ongoing effects expire) is simultaneous. Cards like "Gift of Constancy" (which modify discarding Powers) or "Unquenchable Flames" work because they explicitly specify a timing.
    Rules for non-standard things that happen during Time Passes (like Shroud of Silent Mist's "Slow and Silent Death") can be done before or after effects wearing off unless otherwise specified.
    If it ever becomes clear that there really ought to be some sort of internal ordering to Time Passes, we'll call out that ordering in whatever expansion / FAQ it becomes relevant.
    Tags: Time Passes, Timing, Defend, Action Modifiers, 38 more...
  • If you create a land with no adjacent lands, how do things like Blight cascades or Push work? Can you target it from lands Range 2+ away?
    • There are no adjacent lands to add Blight to, so cascades don't add Blight in an adjacent land. (Anything that replaces cascades, like Habsburg Mining Expedition's Level 1 "Avarice Rewarded" effect, still happen.)
    • You can't Push/Gather anything (unless you can Push to a land 2 away / Gather from a land 2 away – e.g., Many Minds Move as One – and there's a land 2 away, see below).
    • Whether you can target the land depends on whether you can measure Range from your Presence to it. If you made a disjoint land via the combination of "Cast Down into the Briny Deep" and "Absolute Stasis", yes, because the land is Range 2 from other lands. But if you completely wall off a land by Repeating "Absolute Stasis," then there's no way to measure Range to it, so the only way to target Powers there would be to either have Presence in the land or the ability to ignore range (e.g., Finder of Paths Unseen).
    Note that Isolate is NOT usually sufficient to generate any of these situations, since it only affects adjacency for Invader pieces (JE rules, p. 10).
    Tags: Island Boards, Push, Range, Targeting, 9 more...
Power Cards
Range and Targeting
  • Is a land adjacent to itself? Is it within Range 1 of itself? Can it be the nearest land to itself that meets a particular condition? Does Isolate change that?
    No, yes, yes, and no. In particular:
    • A land is never adjacent to itself, not even in particularly unusual cases.
    • A land is always at exactly Range 0 of itself, and therefore "within Range 1," "within Range 2," etc.
    • If a land meets a particular condition (e.g., "with Dahan"), it's its own "nearest land" meeting that condition.
    • Isolating a land doesn't change any of these answers, since none require checking which other lands are adjacent.
    For some practical examples:
    • It's impossible to Push a piece from a land to itself or Gather a piece from a land to itself, since those move to/from adjacent lands.
    • The threshold of "The Land Thrashes in Furious Pain" (Major Power) can't Repeat that Power on the original target land, since that land is not adjacent to itself.
    • The first threshold of "Explosive Eruption" (Volcano Looming High's left Innate Power) can deal damage in the target land (the land where the Power destroyed Presence). Also, the third and fourth thresholds of both deal damage in the target land.
    • During the Dahan Insurrection Scenario, if a City is destroyed in a land with Dahan, then "Military Response" adds a Town in that same land because there is no nearer land with Dahan.
    • "Exports Fuel Inward Growth" (The Kingdom of Scotland Level 6) adds Towns to a land with Towns/Cities even if there are no adjacent Towns/Cities (either "naturally" or due to Isolate).
      Tags: Isolate, Push, Gather, Range, 27 more...
Scenarios
  • How does Isolate interact with The Great River scenario?
    Ignore Isolate when determining which land are more or less Inland that each other – where a Town "wants" to go (usually to a set of more-Inland lands or off the eastern edge) is unaffected by Isolate.
    Isolate does still (optionally) block Towns' ability to move into those lands or off the island. The Towns divide themselves evenly among the destinations they have access to. If Isolate blocks them from reaching any of their desired destinations, the players choose for each Town whether to pay 1 Energy to stop the Town from moving at all or let the Town ignore Isolate when moving.
    For a concrete example, if Board A is the "northernmost" board, the lands adjacent to A1 are A2, A4, A5, and A6, with A2 being equally Inland and the other three being more Inland. If there are 5 Towns in A1, then:
    • If Isolate blocks the boundary between A1 and A5, the Towns can still move Inland to A4 and A6. They divide themselves evenly between those to lands, with the 5th Town ending up in A6 because A6 is further "north" than A4.
    • If Isolate blocks the boundaries between A1 and all of A4, A5, & A6 and the Spirits pay 3 Energy, then 3 Towns stay in A1 and the remaining 2 Towns ignore the Isolate effects to divide themselves evenly among the three destination lands, moving to A6 and A5. (The Towns left in A1 don't move to A2, despite not being able to move Inland, since there were further-Inland lands they could have moved to if Isolate effect hadn't blocked them.)
      Tags: Isolate, The Great River
  • With the Despicable Theft Scenario, can you use Isolate to stop or detour Thieves?
    Yes.
    If you use Isolate to make the shortest path to a board’s Ocean longer than usual without completely blocking a Thief in, it will attempt that longer journey, even if that puts it onto another board. (In that case, on future turns it’ll head towards that board’s Ocean.)
    Tags: Isolate, Despicable Theft
  • How does Isolate interact with the Military Response rule in the Dahan Insurrection Scenario?
    Oddly. The simplest way to play it is "Military Response ignores Isolate". If you want a more thematic but more complex game, use "The new Invader must be added to a non-Isolated land. Ignore Isolate effects when determining which lands are closest."
    Tags: Isolate, Dahan Insurrection
Spirits and Innate Powers