Stone's Unyielding Defiance

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
  • Which Blight is counted by "Irreparable Damage," The Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony) loss condition?
    All Blight added by the individual Ravage Action that deals 6+ overkill to the land, including:
    • The 1 Blight normally added by dealing 2+ Damage to the land in Ravage;
    • Blight added by cascades, including both cascades caused by an unusual condition, like the "Fragile Sands" effect of the Varied Terrains scenario, and "chain" cascades caused by cascading into a land that already has Blight;
    • Blight added by the Ravage due to the Invader Damage meeting a particular condition (e.g., The Kingdom of Sweden's "Heavy Mining" check).
    However, it excludes:
    • Blight added by a separate action "After" the Ravage Action, like from The Kingdom of Scotland's Level 5 "Runoff and Bilgewater" effect;
    • Blight added from box instead of the the Blight Card, like via the "Self-Sacrifice Buys Time" Event or Stone's Unyielding Defiance using "Hold the Island Fast with a Bulwark of Will."
      Tags: Combining Adversaries, Ravage, Blight, Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony), 6 more...
Effect Rules
Elements and Elemental Thresholds
  • Can the different thresholds of an innate power be used separately?
    No, the thresholds are all part of a single power. All effects must be used on the same target land (or same target Spirit), and you use the effects of every threshold you meet{1}, in the order they're printed{2}.
    For example, Lightning's Swift Strike's innate power of Thundering Destruction used with 5 Fire, 4 Air, and 1 Water can destroy two buildings in the same land, but it cannot destroy two buildings in different lands. Even the final threshold on Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island's Serpent Rouses in Anger targets a single land, although it affects all lands on the board in addition to the one that it targets.
    One sort-of-exception: innate powers that say "Repeat this Power," like A Spread of Rampant Green's innate Creepers Tear into Mortar. When a power is Repeated, you use the power from the beginning, which means you can target a new land.
    {1} = You are allowed to pretend you have fewer Elements than you really do — e.g., to activate only the lower level of an innate — but that decision is made for the entire Power, not each threshold individually. Once you've chosen, you must activate every threshold those elements qualify for. Particularly, for Shadows Flicker Like Flames' innate power Darkness Swallows the Unwary, there is no set of elements which can activate the second threshold without also activating the first threshold. If you destroy 2 Explorers to earn fear, you must first gather an explorer (if able).
    {2} = Effects which modify Speed, Range, or targeting obviously apply when you check Speed / Range / targeting.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Elements, Lightning's Swift Strike, A Spread of Rampant Green, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, 15 more...
General Play
  • Do powers have to be resolved in order, or can you choose to do the effects in the order that's most convenient for you?
    Powers must be resolved in order from top to bottom. If a Power has thresholds, resolve all thresholds you hit, in the order they are listed (skipping over the ones you don't hit).
    There are a small number of exceptions:
    If a Power changes its own Speed, Range, or Targeting, those changes (and corresponding thresholds / costs) are checked when relevant during targeting, not during normal Power resolution. Examples:
    • "You may pay 1 Energy to make this Power Fast." ("Dry Wood Explodes in Smoldering Splinters")
    • "Increase this Power's Range to Range 1." ("Sap the Strength of Multitudes")
    • "This Power can target lands with Blight." ("Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands") – but note that the rest of this threshold effect still resolves at the end, like normal.
    (By the time you're resolving the rest of the Power text, it'd be too late for these modifiers to do anything!)
    If a threshold modifies how an earlier part of the Power resolves, that modifier applies at the sensible time. Examples:
    • "Do not destroy any Dahan." ("The Jungle Hungers")
    • "Damage from this Power may be dealt into adjacent lands." ("Vengeance of the Dead")
    Technically, every use of "Instead..." in an innate power works this way; it's pretty simple for human minds to understand the intent, but the formal specification is messier. Note that a "+" in a threshold effect (like "+2 Damage" in "Walls of Rock and Thorn") is not a modifier, but rather a new Damage instruction – this is occasionally relevant for timing purposes.
    If a Power specifies that something happens later, do it at that time (remembering that these ongoing effects expire when Time Passes unless specified otherwise). Examples:
    • "Once this turn, target Spirit may ..." ("Powerstorm")
    • "After the next time Invaders are destroying in target land: ..." ("Blood Draws Predators")
    • "At end of turn, ..." ("Gift of Constancy")
    "Repeat this Power" as a threshold also falls into this category, since it's short for "After resolving this Power and all Actions triggered by it, Repeat it."
    If a Power explicitly specifies to resolve part of a threshold earlier in power resolution, follow that order. Examples:
    • "+3 Fear, before the Terror Level check." ("Twisted Flowers Murmur Ultimatums")
    • "Before Pushing, Explorers and Towns/Cities do Damage to each other." ("Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship")
    • "First, Gather up to 3 Dahan." ("Wrap in Winds of Sunlight")
    Also related: A Power that is 100% internal modifiers doesn't do anything, so can't be targeted/used for things like "Scream Disease Into the Wind."
    Tags: Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Speed (Fast/Slow), Targeting, 59 more...
  • Is Blight component-limited?
    No.
    Tags: Still Healthy Island, Blight, Stone's Unyielding Defiance
  • What happens if a piece winds up in a place or state it's not allowed to be?
    If the place still exists, then:
    • Pieces representing humans (Dahan / Invaders) are cleaned up to the closest legal land — this is not considered a move, is not an action, and does not trigger anything, it is simply a correction of the game state. This happens only once you are not in the middle of an action, and there are no pending triggered actions (i.e., after each action tree), just before checking for victory/defeat.
    • All other pieces remain where they are, but are considered out of play unless/until they're no longer in an illegal state.
    On the other hand, if the place was destroyed and pieces within it somehow survived the destruction, they all get cleaned up.
    This sort of thing can happen if pieces survive the sinking of a board (like Dahan via Infinite Vitality with threshold or Explorers via the Tsardom of Russia's A Sense for Impending Disaster), if an Ocean stops being a land (by Ocean's Hungry Grasp losing its Presence there) while other Spirits' Presence is there, or if Invaders/Dahan are left in the Ocean after an action but manage not to Drown in some way.
    If the nearest legal land is unclear, use your best judgment, based on physical distance if necessary. If there is literally no legal land to put the pieces in, return them to the supply; this is still considered cleaning up (not an action, not a move/remove/destroy, does not trigger anything).
    Tags: Pieces, Illegally placed pieces, Victory and Defeat, Action tree, 13 more...
  • Is there an ordering or priority for action modifications? It seems weird that you can get a benefit from something being destroyed even if you save it from destruction.
    Yes:
    The practical upshot of this is mostly "you can't both prevent something from happening and do extra stuff because it's happening" – e.g., if Volcano Looming High's Presence would be destroyed, but it's saved somehow, you don't get to deal damage.
    If a modifier cancels just part of something, modifiers to that part don't apply. Eg: "Entrap the Forces of Corruption" doesn't stop Blight from being added, but it does stop it from cascading, so another modifier which changed how cascades worked wouldn't apply.
    As before, if you have multiple modifiers with no clear order, you get to pick which happens first. For instance: you play "Infestation of Venomous Spiders" with threshold on a land with Dahan about to Ravage. A Fear Card says "Invaders do not Ravage in lands with Dahan". When that Ravage would happen, there are two different "skip this Ravage" modifiers. You get to decide which one to do first, so can choose it to be the Venomous Spiders. This wouldn't be true if the entire Ravage Card got skipped, or if it were changed to match different lands – those happen before you ever reach the individual Ravage Action – but as of Jagged Earth, the only Fear cards that work this way are "Explorers Are Reluctant" and "Immigration Slows", levels 2 and 3.
    This is an addition to published rules – the intent is that it will be included in the rulebook of a future expansion.
    Tags: Action Modifiers, Skipping Actions, Pour Time Sideways (Fractured Days Split the Sky), Entrap the Forces of Corruption, 26 more...
  • 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...
Power Cards
Setup
Spirit Phase
Spirits and Innate Powers