Heavily Engaged

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, Lotus Edition, Training Grounds 2

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Battle: Even if you control no units at the current battlefield: Each player targets an unbowed Personality he controls there, if possible. Bow all targets.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor), Age of Enlightenment (Lotus)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Is legal in the current battle regardless of whether units are present, or whether they can be bowed. [ZF, web, 19 November 2005] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 20

Rules Q&A

• Q: Heavily Engaged Battle: Even if you control no units at the current battlefield: Each player targets an unbowed Personality he controls there, if possible. Bow all targets.
  Know No Fear Reaction: After another player's action targets your performing Samurai: Negate his bowing and movement from the action's effects.
  Player A plays Heavily Engaged. Player B picks his Samurai and then reacts with Know No Fear.
  Question: Can that bowing be negated by Know No Fear? Player A's action didn't target the Samurai, Player B did. Right?
  A: Know No Fear may be played in response to another player's Heavily Engaged, since Know No Fear only cares about whose action it is, not who did the targeting. Alex Jones, "Heavily Engaged and Know No Fear", 15 Apr 2012
• Q: I have a personality I have played consideration on (Akodo Bob) I declare an attack and assign Akodo Bob My opponent plays Heavily Engaged as his first action. What happens a The effects of Heavily Engaged on Akodo Bob are negated by Consideration b Akodo Bob bows as Heavily Engaged does not explicitly say target
  Many thanks
  Consideration Text Open: Choose your performing unbowed Tactician and another of your target Personalities: Give the Personality +3F. After the next time this turn another player's action targets him, negate its effects.
  Heavily Engaged Text Battle: Even if you control no units at the current battlefield: Each player targets an unbowed Personality he controls at the current battlefield, if possible. Bow all targets.
  A: Heavily Engaged actually DOES explicitly say "target".
  So, the answer is "a". Brook Cunningham, "Heavily Engaged vs Consideration", 6 Jan 2012
• Q: EE Rulebook wrote:Engage: The point in time when a battle begins.
  This is the only reference I can find in the book for the 'engage' (other than references to Heavily Engaged). Does this mean the engagement isn't anymore after each maneuvers segment (infantry and cavalry)?
  A: Engaging has always been the point when the Combat Segment begins for each battle. It has never been as you describe in your last sentence above. Brook Cunningham, "Engage", 3 Jan 2012
• Q: Regarding this ruling, both myself and the card are targeting.
  If I have an untargetable Kaiu Norio in an army with another personality, (Hino, to give a random name), and my opponent drops a Heavily Engaged. The card cannot target Norio and make him bow, however since I also target (by the card wording and above ruling) can I target Norio, but then he wouldn't bow by his own ability? I would think I could as I am able to make a choice that I know will fail. However I could also see it the other way where I couldn't, because that would be very rude of me.
  Thank you for your help.
  A: You are able to make a choice that you know won't do anything, but targeting is not one of them. Since Norio's reaction makes it so that other players cards may not target him, you are not allowed to choose him as a target for another players heavily engaged. If you have another personality at the battle who is a legal target, you must target a non-norio personality. Chris Fuchs, "Kaiu Norio in army with Heavily Engaged", 6 May 2006
• Q: I'm not sure I understand what, exactly, the disparition of the "smart cards" means.
  http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29611
  Jeff's post in the above topic seems to imply that Heavily Engaged is "smart enough" to know that it will not meet Relevance.
  http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31897
  Zen's reply in the above topic seems to say that the "smart cards" ruling was removed so that legality of actions would not depend on game state (provided targeting, etc. requirements are met, of course).
  Using Zen's logic, it seems to me that Heavily Engaged would meet relevance in an empty battlefield, just as much as In Search of the Future would (each player being required to target one of his personalities is an effect; that some, or all, players, will be unable to do this, is something that "smart" cards would know, but "dumb" cards would not, and so Heavily Engaged can only meet Relevance if it, in a sense, waives it like In Search does)
  A: This conversation got carried on after Jeff Alexander's departure. Heavily Engaged also entered the discussion, and is affected by the current ruling. It also meets the requirements for relevance, regardless of whether there are units there or not, whether those present can be bowed or not, because it has the qualifier, "if possible." Zen Faulkes, "Relevance and Smart Cards non-ruling", 19 Nov 2005