Q3 - When movement of a company turns out to be illegal

[Manuel]

What happens when a company declares a movement that is legal during the organization phase, but which turns out to be illegal during the movement/hazard phase (when it’s that company’s turn to move)?

Short answer:

The movement is considered ineffective and the entire company does not move


Explanation:

Example 1:

Player A is playing a Balrog deck and has two companies. Company 1 consists of The Balrog at Moria. Company 2 consists of Buthrakaur and Umagaur at Dead Marshes. Out He Sprang is in play and the total MP count for that player is 25 during the organization phase. Player A decides to move the Balrog’s company to Thranduil's Halls to pay a visit to a Hero company, and places the location card Thranduil’s Halls face down. Company 2 will move to Buhr Widu, and the site card for that is placed face down, too.

During the movement/hazard phase, Player A decides to move Company 2 first. They meet a chilled elf-lord along the way and Umagaur is killed. Now the total MP count for Player A is 22.

Now it’s the Balrog’s company’s turn. Thranduil’s Halls is revealed as the new site for the company. However, the number of regions between Redhorn Gap and Woodland Realm is four, and with only 22 MPs, Out He Sprang only allows the Balrog’s company to move 3 regions maximum. The movement was legal during the organization phase, but it’s no longer legal during the movement/hazard phase.

Example 2:

Player A has two companies (1 and 2) that declare movement to a new site during the organization Phase. The movementhazard phase begins and Player A decides to resolve Company 1 first, revealing the new site. Player B plays Muster Disperses, and Player A decides to play Await the Advent of Allies in response on one of the characters in Company 2 (which has declared movement, but is not currently moving). At the moment of playing Await the Advent of Allies, that character is not moving and is at a non-haven site, so it’s playable. Await the Advent of Allies resolves and makes that character not count for general influence, which makes Muster Disperses much less dangerous.

Now it is Company 2’s turn. The new site is revealed, but one of the characters in the company now has Await the Advent of Allies on it, and the card says “character cannot move”. Again, this is a situation where the declaration of moving was legal during the organization phase but it turned out to be illegal during the movement/hazard phase.

Whenever this happens, the movement is considered ineffective and the entire company does not move. It is as if the player had not declared movement at all. A movement/hazard phase is still played for that company just like any other company that wasn’t moving.

However, if any of these conditions that make the movement illegal change during the movement/hazard phase of the moving company -that is, after the new site has been revealed, cards have been drawn and the site path has been checked and confirmed to be legal -, the company continues his movement/hazard phase (i.e. they are not returned to their site of origin) In the example A) mentioned above, if the balrog's player total MP count goes below 25 MP during the movement/hazard phase of The Balrog's company, nothing happens.

Another example would be a company travelling with Eagle-Mounts to a non Shadow-hold, non Dark-hold. The new site is revealed (it's a Ruins and Lairs) and both players draw cards. Then the hazard player plays Choking Shadows and turns the Ruins and Lairs site into a Shadow-hold. In this case, the company continues his movement.