Nemesis, draws and actions checking.

[Oshikureto]

The game premise is:

"the FIRST to capture their rival wins"

as stated in the rule book.



In this game, that happened at table https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=872912728, there was a Nemesis in the game.
During the last few moves of the game, I moved my Guard adjacent to my opponent's Leader, and only then moved my Leader adjacent to his, making me the FIRST to capture the rival's leader as stated in the rule book.



Yet, my opponent was allowed to move his Nemesis and I lost the game.

The website says:

Can my Leader be captured by a Character who has just been recruited?

Yes. The Capture and Encirclement of both Leaders are checked after each Action or Recruitment of a Character (NB: this rule point is missing from the first French print run).

"The Capture/Encirclement of both Leaders are checked AFTER EACH Action or Recruitment."

That being said, my move was ONE action so the Leader encirclement/capture should've been checked then. My opponent's nemesis's move was ANOTHER action, so we have TWO actions.

If the encirclement/capture is checked after EACH action, I should've won the game.

OR this situation should be a DRAW in the very least.

I'm posting this to the /bugs as well, because it clearly goes against the game rules, at least as they are stated right now.

[CastorT]

Thank you for your feedback.

This situation is an edge case exclusive to the Nemesis. It is described in her own FAQ.

WHY HAS IT BEEN LIKE THIS?
This edge case exists to reinforce the Nemesis identity of an unstoppable Leader's enemy. It gives her a rare but powerful defensive effect in case the enemy Leader wants to do a winning move. Beyond the thematic and strategic interest. It was also the occasion to support the reactive effect of this character : nothing would happen until the Nemesis would have reacted. When she moves, it is a reaction, during the enemy's turn. Technically not an action (only during your turn).

IS IT GOOD?
But time proved that all this was still confusing (your post is another proof of that). This edge case is doing more bad than good to the game. Since the game release, I'm gathering as much feedback as possible to see how we can improve it. One way to do it is by simplifying it. The less edge cases, the better... unless an edge case has such an upside that it is worth keeping (not the case for this Nemesis). So we know we want to change that.

WHAT NOW?
The past months, we've been discussing this situation with the Discord community to find a simple solution, and more broadly to clarify the end game conditions. We came up with a solution that will be crystal clear regarding when to make a capture and encirclement check (not always easy currently with future new characters). With this rule, there will be a check BEFORE the Nemesis reaction move. No need of an edge case to understand that.
We're are still figuring out when and how introducing this much needed updated rule, hand in hand with, among other things, an alternative version of the Nemesis, that would make her more competitive and less frustrating to play. This still require a bit of time, but it is on its way, to make the game better.