Ice Fisherman

If you are first player doesn't this present a problem? Your opponents have not yet counted income as they do not count their income until they are the active player. Does this mean as greyjoy you need to win initiative, let someone else be first player, and then hope that they don't use their first action to play a card for all their income? I feel like I'm missing something here but according to rules that's how income works.

Sorry, I understand now after reading a bit more. Even though the next player gets to take his actions, the first player still gets to respond first and can activate the fisherman. Makes a lot more sense and it seems like The Sparr would also apply this way which could be nasty.

You are correct Yoshi. If you are first player, then you can immediately take the first action after your opponent counts their gold. This means you get to kneel 1 fisherman to take a gold. Then they get an action. You take turns triggering/playing/taking actions so if you have more fishermen in play and they didn't use all their remaining gold on their first action you could take another gold.

This is why if you are playing against a choke deck I always try to take my player actions during their marshalling by kneeling my location reducers. This way I can try to optimize how much of my gold I will spend knowing they are taking the first one.

The Sparr is definately nasty if he is in play before your opponents count their gold.

--- I was too slow - slothgodfather answered as well. Heh.

What is easy to miss in the Marshaling phase is that the Player Actions Window (PAW) operates exactly like every other PAW in that each player alternates in turn for a player action, but only the Active Player can take actions that cost gold.

This is important because this means you can only kneel one Fisherman at a time in between whatever player actions the other player takes (with the understanding that the First Player [FP] always gets the first action regardless of who the Active Player is).

How does this play out? If your opponent is FP, they count gold and get to take an action before you can kneel a Fisherman. If they choose to marshal as their first action and they're able to use all of their gold on a single card, then there's nothing for you to steal. Once they've marshaled that one card, however, you now have an opportunity to take an action. It alternates between the two of you with the rule that only the Active Player can take actions that cost gold.

Hopefully that didn't make it more confusing.

EDIT: Also, one note The Sparr (APS) has a passive effect that doesn't depend at all on player order.

Wow Doulos, and I though my brick of text was big enough - though I think you did a better job of explaining it.

Also note that kneeling a location does count as a single player action, so even if they are first player and they kneel a reducer to lower the cost of their next card played, you can then take your player action to take a gold.

Excellent point - I'd forgotten about that detail. Hence your strategy of kneeling locations during their marshal. Great advice.

Okay, I am still lost. Assume that I go first in a round. I take my gold and I marshall as normal. Then, my opponent takes his/her turn. During his turn is when I activate the Fisherman, correct? So what is being said, is that if I am the first player, I cannot steal gold from my opponent and then use it, I can simply take the gold to slowly choke them out, correct?

That is correct. If you are second, your opponent may just spend all of their gold during their first player action. Then use location reducers to reduce other characters. But if they don't spend it all at once, yes you can siphon their gold 1 player action at a time to use during your marshalling. But as first player, you get more opportunities to choke your opponent.