by chreotho
Erik,
Good questions, but I'll wrap in a spoiler tag to be safe (end of July spoilers):
[o]
How would the dispatcher and colonel inter operate?
More importantly, how does the Paramilitary Escort act if the dispatcher uses his special movement to move a pawn to the location of another pawn?
First question about the colonel:
I was confused about this as well, does the Colonel's "ability" to move across roadblocks still apply (thematically, the colonel's uniform gets him through?)
But a clarification in this thread, with confirmation from the designers:
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/21058828#21058828
"The Dispatcher uses only his own upgrades and scars when moving the other characters. “Upgrades” encompass “Abilities” as well. (We didn’t intend to introduce a weird exception here.)
Therefore, when the Dispatcher moves the Colonel, he would not ignore roadblocks (for example) since he only pays attention to his own upgrades and scars."
And just for completeness, from the rulebook, the card discarded due to the roadblock would come from the Dispatcher's hand, not the Colonel's.
Here's how I would interpret the second question (Dispatcher and Paramilitary Escort):
A: If the Paramilitary Escort upgrade is on the other character, then it does not apply, per the rules discussed above ("use the Dispatcher's scars and upgrades, not those belonging to the character he is moving")
B: If the Paramilitary Escort upgrade is on the Dispatcher and the Dispatcher does not also have the Veteran upgrade, then it does not apply (per the July Game End Upgrades card, "Only Military characters (with dog tag symbol) can use this upgrade.")
C: If the Dispatcher has both the Paramilitary Escort and Veteran upgrades, then he is considered a military character
August minor spoiler:
[o](and also still a medical character, for searching purposes)[/o]
and therefore the upgrade applies when moving another pawn as if it were his own, regardless of whether the character being moved is military or not.
(I have confirmation on A, B, and C from Matt and/or Rob via other threads or mail).
D: Slight wrinkle: Does Paramilitary Escort apply when using the Dispatcher special ability to bring 2 character pawns together in the same city, as opposed to the special ability to just move another pawn as if it were his own?
I was leaning towards yes, given the upgrade wording, "Whenever you leave a city with a Faded figure..."
When the Dispatcher uses that ability you are "leaving" the original city.
HOWEVER, looking at the rule book itself, the line about using the Dispatcher's scars and upgrades is underneath the line
When the Dispatcher moves a player's pawn as if it were his own
So this now makes me think no, it would not apply to that particular case.
Other threads have established that this Dispatcher "pawns to same city" ability is not affected by any city being rioting (Dispatcher's, original, or target), since it is not a direct/charter flight action.
Similarly, if the target city is Collapsing or Fallen, I think it has been confirmed that no cards need to be discarded for this action. (Since it is not a Drive/Ferry action).
A related question:
Would the Dispatcher's scars apply when using the "move pawns to same city" action? (Although hopefully, you never choose to apply one of these movement based scars to the Dispatcher)
"Discard a card every time you leave a city with 3 cubes of the same color"
"Discard a card (if you have one) when you enter a city with a research station."
"You may never enter a collapsing or fallen city"
It seems like Paramilitary Escort should be handled in the same way.
[/o]