Teleportation and Abduction

[gavindowning]

Alright, so last night, my friends and I were playing the Abduction scenario, in which the martians need to capture 4 of the six ally tokens. If the martians are on a square with an ally, they can pull the ally with them, including using any abilities like teleportation, martian marching, etc. There's a flying saucer two squares away from one of the saucers, with a pack of martians having just landed under it.

The martians play teleport, which lets this pack move D6 squares, ignoring walls or heroes. They roll a 4.

Can they move two squares onto the ally, then move two squares back with the brought along as the single teleportation move?

In other words, in the Abduction scenario, can a pack using teleport pick up an ally along their path, or do they need to stop in the square with the ally to start leading them along? (We played that they could, but no one was totally positive that was acceptable.)

And if not, does that mean a pack moving 2 or more squares because they have the Martian Leader or Martian Marching or what have you also needs to stop to pick up the ally?

Any opinions on this?

[zombie67]

Not sure on the official answer to this but I feel if you are using teleportation you can't break up the move, so you would have to move the two squares to the ally and stop. The Martians are not moving through every space, they are de-materialising in one space and then re-materialising in the other space, 4 squares away.

If you think about the crew of the Enterprise beaming to somewhere, each stop is a separate slide of the transporter controls and therefore a separate teleport!

In the case of Martian Marching they are actually moving through each space so I can't see a reason why they can't just pick up the ally on the way.

[Orguss]

If the wording on the card says move up to d6 I absolutely believe you can move, grab, and continue moving. Case in point, several of the items in LNoE attribute that, IE: Gasoline. However, does it say move to a space up to d6? I don't have the card in hand

[zombie67]

Have been looking at this again and I still feel you cannot "move, grab and continue"!

The card states (the bold bit is the important bit):

Quote:Play to move an entire Martian Pack D6 spaces this turn instead of their normal move. They may ignore Walls, Fires, and other models but must all move to the same space.

If you can ignore walls, move through fires without taking damage and move through other models using this card, you can't choose to pick up a ally on the way because you move through the space ignoring it!

It could be argued that there is the word "MAY" in the description but I believe this just means you are ALLOWED rather than you can pick and choose!

[gavindowning]

Well, here's the rub. Is the "may ignore" part something they can do on each step? "I'm going to ignore this fire and this wall these steps, but not ignore this model on this step"? Or is it more, "I'm going to ignore walls, fires, and models for this whole move"?

[mqstout]

Go with the thematics of it. They're teleporting! They aren't making a series of short teleports, they're leaving the starting space and appearing in the other space.

[jchill7]

(12-20-2010 07:38 PM)mqstout Wrote:  Go with the thematics of it. They're teleporting! They aren't making a series of short teleports, they're leaving the starting space and appearing in the other space.

That is correct. With Teleportation it is a single movement. Imagine that they disappear and then reappear in the end space. They cannot pick up the Ally along the way.

- Jason

[zombie67]

Thanks Jason for the official answer.

[gavindowning]

Thanks, Jason! That's what I thought, but I let the martian-player get away with it so we wouldn't get bogged down at the time, but it's good to have an official answer for next time.

Thanks again!

[Orguss]

I still think based off the wording it should be. Errated card be damned ;p