nova: I guess I must have been editing my response when you posted yours.

I do now know about the single Attack Step.

And to me, that is enough reason to justify UDE's clarification of the attack step outline.

Yeah, i was posting at the same time, sorry about that. I still see nothing that indicates a 'change' in the rules, simply clarification as you stated. :)

Funny thing is... this particular pre-attack window was always there for us when we played:

'Before you declare your attack, I play...'
'At the start of your attack, before you declare your attacker, I activate...'

Although most of the time, we would wait to see who the proposed attacker and proposed defender were.

So the 'change' seemed like no big deal to me... but I can see Chad's point.

I see Chad's point too. We did need this clarification. It had not caused any problems in gameplay, but it was a logic knot. Strategically, like erick said, it is almost always a moot point since waiting until the attack is announced or even until the character is later pumped is much more effective.

My arguement was that there was a seperation between 'at the start of your Attack Step' and 'at the start of the Combat Phase', which is where I saw the initial error.

The rest i understand, was a bit grey, even I didn't have it down 100%.

Simple question:

In number three, all attacking pumps are played then passed on, THEN defender decides to reinforce and passes, THEN attacker can play Blind Sided and more pumps, THEN I can Overload.

Yes?

Sure, until both players pass in succession in 3 players have the opportunity to add effects to the chain.

Thank you, sir.

Anybody yet count the number of "double-passes" it takes to get through a turn?

Let's try it, assuming one character for each player to attack with on their step:

Draw Phase: 1
Build Phase: 2
Resource Step for player one: 3
Resource Step for player two: 4
Recruit Step, player one: 5
Recruit Step, player two:6
Formation, one: 7
Formation, two: 8
Combat phase: 9
Attack step, one: 10
Attack step, two: 11
Recovery phase: 12

12 sets of "Pass", then "Pass"... each turn. I love the number twelve.

I see it like this

Draw Phase: 1
Build Phase: 2
Resource Step, player one: 3
Recruit Step, player one: 4
Formation, player one: 5
Resource Step, player two: 6
Recruit Step, player two:7
Formation, player two: 8
Combat phase: 9
Attack stepa, one: 10
Attack stepb, one: 11
Attack stepa, two: 12
Attack stepb, two: 13
Recovery phase: 14

Assuming each player declares 1 attacker, if they don;t then yours I believe is correct. (except your build phase steps being technically out of order) UDE has not said one way or another about a space being inbetwwen the last step and the end of the build/combat phase. If there is, that would ### 2 more sets of passing.

For each phase and each step aren't their two chain points? Start and End?

And if so, there is one conflict to this as Robert Smith's post has told us that once you enter the meat of the Recovery Phase, you don't have any opportunity to chain until the start of the Draw Phase. I don't agree with that because you should always have an end of turn window.

*brings out 12 wild sentinels on stubarnes, and searches and destroys all Flame Traps in his deck*

pass

:p

After both players pass on en empty chain in the Recovery Phase no one will recieve priority until both players have drawn their cards in the Draw Phase.

Thanks Mitchell.

That's what I though according to Robert Smith's email. So you have to play your End of Turn stuff at the start of the Recovery Phase since there is no End of Recovery or End of Turn window for chaining.

But, is there End of Phase or End of Step for the other ones?

There are no such things as chian points, technically speaking. I think what you are referring to are the times in which all players must pass in order for the game to continue.

It isn't really at the "beginng" nor is it really at the "end" Whenever the game needs to progress to the next step or phase, both players must pass on an empty chain. So if you are in the combat phase wanting to go into the Attack step, you have to both pass on an empty chain. Since you just entered the combat phase and there really isn't much to do in the combat phase, it just seems like it is at the beginning.

I hope that makes sense

As in a discrete step like MTG's "End of Turn"? No.

Once both players have had their turns, passing on an empty chain kicks you into the next step.