Tales of Battle

Legend of the Five Rings card from The Truest Test

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Reaction: After battle resolution destroys one or more Personalities, bow two of your performing Courtiers: Each player gains 1 Honor for each of his honorably dead Personalities and loses 2 Honor for each of his dishonorably dead Personalities.

Focus Value

1

Legality

Age of Enlightenment (Lotus), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Tales of Battle Text Reaction : After battle resolution destroys one or more Personalities, bow two of your target Courtiers: Each player gains 1 Honor for each of his honorably dead Personalities and loses 2 Honor for each of his dishonorably dead Personalities.
  Hi,
  I assign 2 Courtiers in a battle. They win the battle and they destroy the opposing army. Can I use the 2 Courtiers that I assigned to pay for the cost of the Tales of Battle?
  Thanks!
  A: Nothing in the text of Tales of Battle restricts where your Courtiers have to be in order to pay its cost, nor do any rules prevent cards at a battlefield from paying a cost; as long as they're unbowed when Resolution destroys Personalities in the enemy army, they can bow to pay it.
  Now, maybe the question arises because you've got particularly fiesty Courtiers who ran over and attacked your opponent, and thus will be imminently bowed for having done so. In this case, we look here:
  http://rules.l5r.com/Battles#Resolution_Segment
  The trigger for Tales of Battle, Personality's(') destruction as part of an army, occurs in Step B of Battle Resolution. This is well before attacking Personalities (your Courtiers, perhaps) are bowed, which occurs after (even though it is due to) Resolution. So, again, they should be able to pay the cost. Brook Cunningham, "Tales of Battle", 2 Apr 2008
• Q: Tales of Battle: There are 2 honorable dead personalities in my dicard pile and this is played. Are there 2 gains of 1 or 1 gain of 2(?)
  A: Comprehensive Rules, Glossary, For Each: "Proportional effects using the term 'for each,' such as 'Gain 1 Honor for each Samurai you control,' should be interpreted as a single effect rather than numerous separate effects. In this instance, a player controlling 3 Samurai would gain 3 Honor at once, not 1 Honor three separate times." (Emphasis added.)
  One gain. Zen Faulkes, "Tales of battle", 9 Jun 2007