FranklinKenter wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 10:30 pm
So... how does Subjugate Planet's download work?
It works by implication.
That is, if there is no
possible way for gametext to have any effect if the general rule is followed, then the gametext implicitly (and necessarily) overrides that rule.
This isn't me trying to wriggle out of a corner. It's what Decipher said as of October 1999's Glossary 1.6:
Downloading Facilities: When a card allows you to download a facility
to a location, you must meet all normal requirements for building
(playing) the facility, unless specifically overridden by the card text.
These requirements include a non-homeworld, matching affiliation
mission for outposts, no other facility controlled by you at the location
and any play requirements in the facility’s game text (such as an
appropriate ENGINEER for building an outpost). Examples:
• You may not download Primary Supply Depot with Establish
Dominion Foothold, because that outpost may only be seeded, not
built. You may download Remote Supply Depot only to a nonhomeworld, mission where you have no other facility and
where you have a Dominion ENGINEER.
• Subjugate Planet specifically states that you may download
Remote Supply Depot to the non-homeworld, non-[Dom] planet
mission targeted by the objective. This overrides the matching
affiliation requirement, but not the requirement for a Dominion
ENGINEER.
(The current rule is pretty obviously based on this passage, although the text has morphed over time. Decipher originally published this ruling in the July 1999 CRD.)
"Implied override" does not strike me as an ideal way of doing business -- I prefer my overrides explicit -- but it is what it is. I suspect that the
real reason Subjugate Planet is worded that way is the reason Armus suggests: When it published The Dominion, Decipher itself hadn't made up its mind about how downloading facilities ought to work, and then had to make a decision that would support both cards.
Nevertheless, they
did make a decision, addressing both these cards
specifically, within six months of their release, and that decision has stood ever since.
That said, I'm open to arguments (and research) in support of changing it.
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