Play Options

Playing without Events - when Commanding Beasts, can you bounce back and forth between lands?
Formally: no, you have to command all Beasts in a single land before moving on to the next. (Everything done by Beasts in a single land is a single Event Action.)

Practically, this only matters in unusual cases (like vs. Russia), so if it aids ease of play it's usually OK to let each player handle their board simultaneously, or resolve 1 Beasts at a time.
Tags: Playing Without Events, Actions

When playing without Events, what type of Action is Commanding Beasts? Can you use your special rules to modify what the Beasts do?
It is a separate Event Action for each land with Beasts (JE p. 20). A Spirit's special rules generally don't apply, since they usually only affect their Powers in particular or their Spirit Actions in general.

For example, Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves can move their Presence with the commanded Beasts, since their "Ally of the Beasts" special rule apply when Beasts move for any reason. On the other hand, Many Minds Move as One can't Push Beasts to lands 2 away, since their "Fly Fast as Thought" special rule only applies when they move the Beasts with Spirit Actions, not when Events move Beasts.
Tags: Actions, Playing Without Events, Beasts, Sharp Fangs behind the Leaves, 13 more...

When combining Adversaries, how do you handle Escalation on Stage 3 Invader Cards when the Escalation cares about terrain? (France, Sweden)
Choose one of the two land types randomly. (JE p. 19) Don't use "top terrain" or "bottom terrain"; they not equally distributed. If there's no other convenient way, spin the card and use the terrain that's closest to pointing at the Adversary panel.

If you just apply the Escalation to both Explored terrains, Sweden's Escalation becomes much nastier and France's becomes much more lenient.
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Combining Adversaries, Stage II escalation, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Sweden, 0 more...

Is it possible for "Untapped Salt Deposits" (Habsburg Mining Expedition Level 4) to combine with "Seize Opportunity" (The Kingdom of Scotland Level 2), since they both alter what happens to the “Coastal Lands” card?
Yes, just set up the “Coastal Lands” card according to "Seize Opportunity" (as the third Stage II card).

Both Adversary effects remove the "Coastal Lands” card before randomizing the Stage II Invader Cards – "Untapped Salt Deposits" just doesn’t do anything special with it afterwards, while "Seize Opportunity" puts it back in a specific spot.

The resulting deck order will be 11-2S-1-C2-33333, regardless of which Adversary is leading.
Tags: Combining Adversaries, Kingdom of Scotland, Coastal Lands invader card, Habsburg Mining Expedition, 0 more...

When combining the two Habsburg Adversaries, when does Migratory Herders (Livestock Colony Level 1) Gather check which lands match the Salt Deposits card (Mining Expedition Level 4)?
Migratory Herders checks which lands match (i.e., non-Mining lands) after the Build Step is over. Builds in the non-Mining Lands might turn them into Mining Lands before Towns are Gathered, reducing the number of lands where Migratory Herders does anything. The list of lands that will be Gathered into is fixed at this point, before any Gathers happen.

However, which lands can be gathered from, the lands that don't match (i.e., Mining lands) is checked when actually Gathering the Town, so it's possible to Gather a Town into a non-Mining land to turn that land into a Mining land, and then Gather that Town into the next non-Mining land.

When playing without Events, can you use the Stage II "Command Beasts" card during Invader Stage III?
Yes, you can use the Stage II Commanding Beasts any time after it is first unlocked.

Likewise, for an Invader that switches back and forth between Stage II and Stage III (e.g., the Tsardom of Russia at Level 4+), you can use the Stage III "Command Beasts" card anytime after you first reach Stage III.
Tags: Playing Without Events, Beasts, Kingdom of Scotland, Tsardom of Russia, 0 more...

When playing on an Archipelago, can Many Minds Move as one Gather/Push Beasts from a coastal land on one board to a "Range 2 away" coastal land on another board?
Yes.
Tags: Range, Archipelago, Fly Fast As Thought (Many Minds Move as One)