Siege

[Khamul the Easterling]

Card text reads ... "A company at this site must face an Orc attack of three strikes at 7 prowess at the beginning of its site phase."

I have two questions concerning this card (and my suggested answers):

• 1) Is that an automatic attach? (No)
  2) Has this attack to be faced even if the company does not enter the site? (Yes)

[Konrad Klar]

Both are correct.

[Khamul the Easterling]

Thanks!

Another question has just come to my mind concerning this card:

Is the Orc attack keyed to the site by site type and / or by name of the site?

[zarathustra]

It is not keyed to anything.

[Khamul the Easterling]

.... and another siege question

If I play Siege on my opponent's let's say Bree, and then move to my own copy of Bree, am I also affected by the card?
(In case yes, if my opponent then leaves Bree, but I'm still staying, does the card move to my copy of Bree or is it discarded?)

[Konrad Klar]

No (is discarded).

A permanent-event played on a site affects only the copy of the site it is played on, unless otherwise specified. A permanent-event not played on a site affects all versions of affected sites.

Hero events cannot target or affect minion sites, and vice versa. News of the Shire is an exception

[Khamul the Easterling]

Can Siege be played as an on-guard card?

[Konrad Klar]

Short answer: Siege cannot be revealed as on-guard in site phase (may be placed on-guard in M/H phase as any card).

An on-guard card may be revealed when the company plays a resource that
potentially taps the site. The card must affect the company or a character in the
company that site phase. Note that this clarification is looser than the rule printed on
p.61 of the Unlimited Rules book

Only declared or on-going cards and effects can be considered when determining the
validity of revealing an on-guard card. Potential effects that have not been triggered
cannot be considered.

Siege would affect the company, but not immediately, not sooner than in next organization phase of its controlling player.

[Taurelin]

And another Siege-question that came up in a match at the LURE:

Assume, I have a big company at a site under Siege. Is it possible to split up the company during the organization phase, make each new company travel to a different new site, and so have a better chance of being allowed to move - as the roll is performed by each company individually?

The answer of my opponent was "no!", the reason being that "it has always been played like that", which I didn't find too convincing.

Another explanation I heard included the point that the company stays together as a whole until the end of the organisation phase, based on the fact that only one location-card exists. That, however, is an argument that I can't find any rule for. The paragraph about the location card only applies to starter rules, as far as I know. And the Universal Rules Document says about the organization-phase:

D. Organization Phase
● You may organize your characters into companies.

Note the plural here.

So is there any kind of erratum that I am missing? Or was my opponent just referring to the German wording of the card, which says that the roll takes place at the beginning of the phase, instead of the end? In that case? It is just a wrong translation, right?

[Bandobras Took]

Another explanation I heard included the point that the company stays together as a whole until the end of the organisation phase, based on the fact that only one location-card exists. That, however, is an argument that I can't find any rule for. The paragraph about the location card only applies to starter rules, as far as I know. And the Universal Rules Document says about the organization-phase:

Playable on a Border-hold or Free-hold site. A company at this site must face an Orc attack of three strikes at 7 prowess at the beginning of its site phase. At the end of the organization phase, a company at a site with Siege on it must make a roll (or draw a #) and subtract one from the result for every non-scout character it contains. If this result is less than 5, the company may not move this turn. Discard when the site card is discarded or when the site card is returned to the location deck. Cannot be duplicated on a given site.

When in doubt, trust the English version. The roll is made at the end of the organization phase for each company at the site. What this means should the rolls fail is anybody's guess, since companies don't join until the start of the site phase . . .

[Taurelin]

The roll is made at the end of the organization phase for each company at the site.

So... again the question, just for clarification: Am I right that we are talking about multiple rolls? If I split up into 3 companies I get 3 rolls?

And each company that makes a successful roll is allowed to move?

[zirilan]

The roll is made at the end of the organization phase for each company at the site.

So... again the question, just for clarification: Am I right that we are talking about multiple rolls? If I split up into 3 companies I get 3 rolls?

And each company that makes a successful roll is allowed to mov?

What I do know is that a big company at a besieged site can split into multiple smaller companies. Each company has to make its own roll for the Siege Leaving Effect (thought you have to pick a different site for each new company to move to / just one of them may attempt to stay at the site / no more than one given company may travel to a given haven (you may pick different havens e.g. one to Rivendell, one to Lórien, not two to Rivendell).

[Taurelin]

That's exactly what I thought. Thanks! Also to Bandobras, of course.

[Konrad Klar]

[...] What this means should the rolls fail is anybody's guess, since companies don't join until the start of the site phase . . .

The same when one company sits at under-deeps site and other (at the same site) fails its movement roll.
Rules do not disallow to have multiple companies at the same non-haven site.
Mandatory joining at end of M/H phase (or at start of site phase) only makes such situation rare.