CE Timing

Timing

Limited, Open, and Battle actions each have a time they are taken in the sequence of play for the Action Phase or Combat Segment. See “Abilities and actions”.

Triggers

Reactions and triggered traits have an occurrence in the game they respond to, known as a trigger. Triggers are usually written as happening “before” or “after” something else.

Some triggers refer to a time point in the game by what normally happens then, using the indefinite plural. These timings do not require that anything happens at that time point.
Example: “After Focus Effects resolve in a duel” does not require that any Focus Effects actually resolved.

Triggers worded using more definite language, which trigger to the actual occurrence rather than the general time point, do require that the appropriate occurrence actually happen.
Example: “After a Focus Effect resolves in a duel:” requires that a Focus Effect resolved.

A trigger of "after" one step in a sequence ends will happen prior to the trigger of "before" the next step begins. Both triggers happen between the two steps.
Example: A triggered trait with the trigger "after your Dynasty Phase ends" comes before a triggered trait with the trigger "before your End Phase begins,” and happens in neither phase.

A phrase such as "before X would happen" is equivalent to "before X happens." The conditional mood indicated by "would" is irrelevant to the function of the "before" timing point.

“When” triggers

Timing "when" a trigger occurs comes later than "before" but earlier than "after" the trigger. "When" timing usually only appears in specific cases:

1. Effects that produce Gold and are triggered by a Gold payment are triggered explicitly or implicitly by “when” the payment occurs.

2. Effects that alter a player’s choice, such as targeting or assignment, are written as “when (the player) would.” The timing of such a "when... would" effect occurs later than the player indicates his or her initial choice, but earlier than the point at which the targeting (or other outcome of the choice) actually happens.

Example: “When another player would assign a unit to attack one of your provinces: You may assign it to a different province.” Your choice to assign the unit comes after the player indicates his or her choice of assignment, and your choice then goes on to determine actual assignment.

3. When a condition becomes true, any continuous traits and ongoing effects that depend on the condition begin "when" the occurrence happens that made the condition true. When a condition becomes false, any continuous traits and ongoing effects that depend on the condition likewise end at the "when" point. See Duration of Effects.

Example: "This card has +2F while bowed." The Force bonus is gained "when" the card bows and lost "when" the card straightens.

4. Delayed or indefinite conditional effects that are triggered by an occurrence with no indication of "before" or "after" happen "when" the occurrence does.

Example: "The next time he straightens, dishonor him" happens "when" the card straightens.

Priority

Once a triggered action or trait starts, apply all its costs, targeting, and effects in sequence before proceeding, even if another action or triggered trait is under way.

EXCEPTION: Delayed effects – including additional action opportunities -- are applied at a later time in the game than they resolve.

Resolving timing conflicts

Two Reactions, triggered traits, or other triggered occurrences (e.g., Honor loss after a dishonorable Personality dies; delayed effects) will never begin at the same time.

Timing conflicts can be caused by multiple triggers that either respond to the same occurrence, or to simultaneous occurrences (e.g., more than one Personality being destroyed simultaneously in battle resolution; delayed effects generated by multiple copies of the same card).

Multi-step procedures, such as bringing cards into play, follow special rules when they happen simultaneously. See Order of effects.

Timing sequence

If two or more reactions, triggered traits, or rules procedures are triggered at the same point in time, follow this sequence from A through C to decide their order.

Also use this sequence to determine the order of multiple choices created by a single piece of text that must logically be done in sequence, such as targeting made by different players when game text does not specify an order. In most cases, these choices will happen at step B and so the active player will decide the order in which choices and/or targeting take place. [ADDED 3 Jan 2010]

EXCEPTION: Gold production from multiple sources to pay a single cost occurs in an order chosen by the player paying the cost, even if this would violate the relative order of steps B and C below (such as by using a gold-producing Reaction before the rulebook-granted Stronghold gold production). In particular, a Gold producing Reaction that is interfered with at step C can alternatively be satisfied by a choice to use production that would normally happen at step B.

A. Apply any ongoing, continuous, or triggered effects that negate, prevent, or substitute the occurrence that defines the trigger, making the occurrence not happen in the first place. If more than one of these effects conflict, the active player decides the order in which they happen. (Note that failure is not always an effect; i.e., trying to put a card into a state it is already in. Failure of this kind takes precedence over effects that negate, prevent, etc.)

Example: An ongoing prevention effect says “Units will not move home.” This prevention happens at the earliest step, so that no other triggered effects, traits or actions can respond to the unit's movement. If, at the same time, an ongoing substitution effect says “Units that move home are destroyed instead,” the active player decides whether to apply the substitution first, destroying the unit that is going to move home, or the prevention first, so that nothing happens to the unit because it is not moving in the first place.

B. Anything that is triggered at this point but is not a Reaction happens now. This includes triggered traits, delayed effects, indefinite conditional effects, triggered rulebook effects (such as losing Honor after a dishonourable Personality is destroyed). If more than one of these things conflict, the active player decides the order in which they happen.

C. Reactions may now be taken following an action round procedure. Starting with the active player, each player in turn order has the option to take a Reaction to one of the triggering occurrences or pass. When all players pass consecutively, no more Reactions to any of the triggering occurrences may be taken.

The order of resolution means that triggered effects that come first, due to the above order, the order of Reactions, or the active player’s decision, can negate or otherwise make impossible triggered effects and Reactions that come later. When this happens, Reactions to the now nonexistent trigger may not be taken, and other effects are not triggered by it. [Clarified & expanded 5 Mar 2011]

In steps A and B, the active player determines the order of conflicting triggered occurrences as they are happening, not beforehand. The active player must do so in such a way that each of those occurrences happens exactly once.
Example: Two personalities destroyed simultaneously in battle resolution, A and B, each have a Reaction or trait that trigger before they are destroyed. The active player decides whether Reactions and traits triggered by A’s destruction happen before or after Reactions and traits triggered by B’s destruction.

If it is before the first turn or between turns, the player who will take the next turn is considered the active player for resolving timing conflicts.

The reduction of a change to a number to zero (for example, reducing a loss, gain, bonus or penalty) by a non-Reaction effect timed “before” the loss or gain has a special interaction with these timing rules. Such a reduction is not a negation or prevention, so it is not applied at step A. It is instead applied at step B. During step B, even if the reduction has taken the change to zero, other effects may be triggered by the loss or gain. Once step B is over, if the change is zero, it is not treated as a change of that type for triggering reactions in step C, or for triggers at later timing points.
Example: Player X, who is not the active player, is about to gain 1 Honor. “Before any player gains Honor: Reduce the gain by 2” is in effect, as is the player’s own triggered effect “Before the next time you gain Honor: Increase the gain by 1.” Both of these are timed to step B, but their order does not matter, because both of them would be in effect when the last change was applied due to the rules on modifiers to stat changes. The Honor gain of 1 is increased by 1 and then reduced by 2, to zero. Because there is no gain any more, no player can take a Reaction timed “before gaining Honor”, and no effects “after gaining Honor” are triggered.

A player may not use the same copy of a Reaction or triggered trait more than once to a single trigger.

Responses to a trigger must be taken as soon as the trigger occurs; the player may not choose to delay them without support from card text.

Responses happening before a period of time starts (such as a turn or battle), or after a period of time ends, do not happen within that period of time.

"Next/first time" triggers

Some triggers may occur at the first occurrence of some future event, such as "the next time a Personality bows" or "the first time this turn an attack is declared."

A trigger to the “next time” something happens refers by default to the next time this turn. If a longer or shorter duration of a “next time” effect is intended, it will be stated explicitly.
Example: “Next time this game” can trigger if something happens on a subsequent turn.

If such a trigger refers to two events in this way, and joins them with "or," the trigger occurs when either of those events first happens, and does not occur if the other event subsequently happens.
Example: A Personality is subject to a trigger "after the next time this turn he assigns to attack or moves to an attacking army." If he assigns to attack, the trigger occurs after that, and does not occur if later in the turn he moves into an attacking army.

Triggers and leaving play

In triggers that involve a card leaving play, references to an in-play state of the card, such as its unit or location, refer to the state of the card before it left play.

Example: "After this card is destroyed, if it was attached to a Shadowlands Personality: He gains +2F." The "if it was attached to a Shadowlands Personality" checks the state of the personality just before the card is destroyed.

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