Back to the Front

Legend of the Five Rings card from Emperor Edition, The Imperial Gift 2, Ivory Edition, A Matter of Honor, Promotional–Ivory, Emperor Edition Demo Decks, Honor and Treachery, The Currency of War

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Absent Battle: Target your Personality at any location who assigned to this battlefield (this turn). Move him there and straighten his unit as he moves. (You may take Absent actions without presence.)

Focus Value

3

Legality

A Brother's Destiny (Ivory Edition), A Brother's Destiny (Twenty Festivals), Age of Conquest (Emperor), Destroyer War (Celestial)

MRP

This is now performed

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Rules Junta, Thank you for your previous clarifications. Here's another one:
  We're hip-deep in Battle Segment bloodshed, and a player destroys a personality with a Ranged Attack.
  His opponent then plays Escalating Violence [...Interrupt: If the action is another player's and Battle, after the first time it destroys one of your cards, target an enemy Personality. Your Personalities have +1F/+1C while opposing the target (this turn).]
  Can the opponent then play Feign Death [Interrupt: Target your Personality. After the action resolves, if it destroyed him, bring him into play in your home, ignoring costs and Honor Requirement, then bow him, dishonor him, and lose 2 Honor.] and keep the +1F/+1C bonus for personalities still present at the battle?
  Pushing it even further, could he then play Back to the Front to bring the "destroyed" personality back to the battle, also retaining the +1F/+1C bonus?
  "I'm not dead yet. I think I'd like to go for a walk."
  A: First point to note is that both Escalating Violence and Feign Death, being Interrupts, are played before the action they interrupt resolves - that is, before the Personality is destroyed. However, given that, as of Twenty Festivals, targets are chosen before Interrupts are taken, it makes no difference in the case you describe.
  So. If you Interrupt, with Escalating Violence and Feign Death, your opponent's Ranged Attack action targeting your Personality, Escalating Violence's delayed effect is triggered first, by your Personality's destruction: you target an enemy Personality, and the bonuses to your Personalities start to apply. Later, after the action resolves, Feign Death's delayed effects are triggered, and your Personality re-enters play, etc: this has no impact, however, on the bonuses granted by Escalating Violence.
  Regarding the second question, the bonus granted by Escalating Violence has a while condition, which means that it is applied whenever the condition is true. That is, for the rest of the turn, whenever your Personalities are facing the target they get the bonus, and when they're not, they don't - and they regain the bonus when they are facing the target again. Your Personality whose destruction triggered Escalating Violence will gain the bonus when he moves to the battlefield with Back to the Front. Alex Jones, "Interupt timing: Escalating Violence and Feign Death", 1 Sep 2015
• Q: If I create multiple attack phases by either using Retibution after my opponent uses Retibution or by using 2 Reprisals (either being down 2 provinces, or just down one and failing to take from the first Reprisal) would attacking into the same province count as the same Battlefield for the sake of Back to the Front?
  Relevant text: Absent Battle: Target your personality at any location that assigned to this battlefield (this turn) move him there and straighten his unit as he moves.
  The wording of Back to the Front seems to suggest that it would be considered the same battlefield by specifying (this turn).
  A: Nope. A new battlefield is created every time an attack phase starts (or in certain other situation), and the battlefields go away when the phase ends.
  From the CR - "Even though a subsequent attack or effect may create a battlefield associated with the same Province as a previously existing battlefield, the new battlefield is a different area from the old battlefield." Jon Palmer, "Do multiple Attack phases create different battlefields?", 24 Apr 2014
• Q: I assing a scout to a province without the recon of hidden falls. Then I assign him again to a recon battlefield using the stronghold. Then if I use Back to the Front can I move to the first battlefield (the one without recon)?
  A: The situation you propose cannot happen, as you can only assign Units in your home, and as soon as you assign them, they are now at that battlefield and cannot be "re-assigned" during the additional Scout only Infantry Manuevers segment Hidden Falls Dojo creates. Ben Higgins, "Back to the Front+ Hidden Falls Dojo", 21 May 2012
• Q: EE, Back to the Front. Can the performin personality be home? it doesn't state so explicitly, but otherwise it'd be useless, I think in other words: can a battle action be performed by a personality not in the current battlefield?
  A: So, the text on Oracle of the Void is admittedly not all fully updated, but in this case, you could find your answers specifically about BttF there.
  That said, yes, you can. Under EE Rules, an action that moves a Personality to the current battlefield is an exception to the Rules of both Presence and Location, unlike in Ivory+ where those exceptions would be explicit.
  EDIT: Hrm. I do see now that the Oracle text is a MRP rather than an update, but the principle is largely the same. 🙂 Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 9 May 2025
• Q: Another question: The personality that I target with Back to the Front should have previously being assigned to the battlefield or not?
  A: Yes. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 19 Feb 2024