Taifa – FAQs.
The rules and texts of the cards should be interpreted in the most literal sense, what seem omissions you will see that almost always is a deliberate design:
Point 3.1. Preparing the game… “In Coimbra, Navarra and Granada white (independent) castles are located on side 2” That means that you always start by putting those three, and then players start with their deployment, so those three areas will never belong to any player at the beginning of a game, right?
Yes, that’s right, that’s exactly how it works.
Point 5.4. Incursions. The random card discarded by the target player must be a troop card? I understand that troop cards are the only ones that are affected. And what if I decide to make a raid and the other has no troop cards in his hand? Did I lose my action?
The card lost by the target player is literally a card from his hand of any kind, the one that comes out at random, can be any kind of card.
Making troop cards the only target of a successful incursion makes sense too, but probably it won’t work, it would create several problems, like the one you describe, besides the other players would see how many troop cards you have left in your hand.
5.5 Events…” There are event cards, for example “Independent Campaign”, that can make one of my areas become independent if they throw it against me… in that case… would I lose a victory point and a card bonus?
Yes, whenever a player loses or wins an area, he loses or wins 1 victory and 1 card bonus points.
as it is an attack roll (although not an attack action) can I use response cards?
Effectively, you can use response cards to defend yourself, but it depends on the response card; for example, the “Militia” card can be used perfectly, adding 2 extra dice to the defense of the castle, however the “Surprise Sortie” card does not serve you, because it eliminates a troop card from the attackers, and the “Independent Campaign” although it works as an attack, it’s an event card, it is not a troop card.
and in general against an event card, can response or event cards be played to counteract them?
The only cards that can be played to counter attacks or event cards played against you by other players are response cards. Most of these response cards specifically say in which circumstances can be used, the ones that can lead to confusion are the Champion, Leader and El Cid cards that add points to any die roll, but what they do is literally that, they can be used in combination with any game action or type of card that involves rolling dice, both in attack and in defense; in the defense of a castle, in an incursion, in an attack accompanying troop cards (an army general), with a “Independent Campaign” or a “Uprising” (a military advisor), with the “Judgement of God” event card…
In addition response cards can be played even in combats between other players, or attacks by other players to independent castles, this is done infrequently, but it’s also possible.
FAQ4: Cards. When a card makes no explicit reference to one of the Christian or Muslim decks, does that mean it can be any deck? For example, the Mercenaries card on the Muslim side says, “Choose a RESPONSE card from those already played and add it to your hand.” Does that mean you can take one from the Christian side, play it, and then shuffle it back to the Christian deck at the end of the turn? The same would apply to the Jewish Community card, “Draw a card from each deck and keep one of them”, here here seems clearer.
Yes, that’s right, that’s how it works.