Dune/docs/MORITANI_ENTRY_TIMING.md

Moritani entry timing: bounded primary-source review

Reviewed 2026-09-06. This supplements MORITANI_TERROR_RULES.md; it does not enable combined-faction play or certify an implementation order.

Paired World card entries — 17 October 2026

Original paired native World/cards now retains the same queue with or without Skills and original Tech/Advanced Strongholds. Real Basic no-Skills and Advanced all14 World programmes place original Ecaz/Robbery tokens, pay once for one Guild counter from native Junction and resolve both storm-order branches. Duke6 stays untrained; Robbery transfers2/3 after the separate one-spice shipment. One counter remains, both effects finish and movement resumes. This extends capability, not the provisional priority below. Current459/459 envelope and qualified proof.

Paired Skills and independent-card entries — 17 October 2026

The existing serialized native queue now admits paired Ecaz/Moritani/classic all14 Skills without Nexus, optionally independent cards and original Tech3+/Advanced Strongholds2+. Bare faction/card-only entries also retain it; selecting the printed independent variant does not require selecting Skills or suppress native reactions. This extends software capability, not the provisional storm-order policy below. Original in-flight control and effect-specific guards remain. Actual Basic Tech and Advanced combined-module entries also complete Duke6, Robbery and the original paid one-counter arrival/movement through this queue. Current471/471 envelope and runtime proof does not change its selected priority or certify other effect-specific combinations.

tests/paired-e3-skills-arrival.test.ts branches from genuine normal setup, uses actual native placements and one paid Guild arrival, then triggers untrained Duke6 and Robbery in the original queue. Basic encounters Terror first and Advanced Ambassador first; both settle each originally eligible effect once, retain one arrived counter and resume movement. Card-only Basic was reproduced rejecting before the guard repair and now follows that same physical continuation. After its one-spice shipment, Basic Guild4 transfers2 or Advanced Guild5 transfers3 to Moritani; payment never replays. Actors and printed effects are not inferred from the active player. Frozen29-file323/323, types/lint/build and runtime programmes pass; no saved/deployed/full-priority acceptance follows.

Finding

The examined primary sources do not establish a complete priority order for Terror, Intrusion, accompanying advisors, shipment income and arrival storm losses. No retrieved classic-game rule assigns these conflicts to storm order or to the moving player. This is a bounded research result, not a claim that no designer clarification exists anywhere.

Applicable evidence

• Terror is an optional reaction to another non-allied faction entering a token's stronghold by movement or shipment, including advisors. The No-Field FAQ distinguishes placement from later revelation; Face Dancer replacement is excluded. Enemy of My Enemy precedes the token's revelation. These define trigger boundaries, without ranking the other arrival effects. GF9 E3, pp. 5–6, 14
• The interruption answer on p. 15 specifically concerns Ambassadors, with an Ecaz/Guild example. Extending it to Terror would be an inference, not the printed ruling. GF9 E3, p. 15
• Intrusion must occur immediately when the other faction intrudes. The November 2020 FAQ also includes worm rides in that trigger. It predates Moritani and gives no paired priority rule. “Immediate” prevents postponing Intrusion until a later unrelated action; it does not independently establish that Intrusion outranks Terror. GF9 November 2020 FAQ, p. 4
• Spiritual advisors are a separate free shipment caused by another faction's off-planet shipment. Guild shipment payment replaces payment to the bank. The base rules specify those entitlements, without an ordered arrival-reaction procedure. Fremen reserves may enter storm with half losses; the updated FAQ prohibits ordinary movement or worm rides into storm. GF9 base rulebook, pp. 16, 18–19, November 2020 FAQ, p. 5

Consequently, the exact relationship between paying the shipment, transferring forces, opening Terror and completing other arrival reactions remains an implementation policy requiring an explicit qualification. It should not be described as a publisher-certified interrupt-before-arrival or a generic simultaneous-effects rule.

Selected bounded overlap order — 29 September 2026

No targeted publisher/designer clarification establishes which of Ecaz's Ambassador and Moritani's Terror acts first when both were eligible on one entry. Under the user's standing instruction to use the recommended option rather than reopen a missing ruling, this table chooses the current storm order g.order of those two owners in Basic/Advanced classic plus Ecaz/Moritani development games. This is a provisional implementation interpretation, not a GF9 simultaneous-effects ruling.

Both optional trigger opportunities belong to the same already committed entry. Snapshot the original entrant, token identities, physical arrival amount and turn; finish the first owner's choice and its allowable continuations before offering the second. Revalidate the second effect's physical requirements without replaying the original shipment payment, movement or force transfer. Owner-private Terror identity remains concealed until revealed. If the first reaction changes an alliance, the other owner keeps the trigger earned at the original entry; it does not gain a new trigger from a later action.

This bounded path originally excluded competing BG fighter Intrusion, Guild income/advisor and CHOAM prevention windows, Homeworlds, Nexus, Discoveries, Leader Skills and the still-unfinished Atomics effect. The competing BG fighter Intrusion, Guild income and BG advisor windows are now integrated as a deferred entry — see the 7 October 2026 section below. Fremen relocation or Guild free-shipment Ambassador effects can create nested arrivals before the second owner; they remain declineable but cannot be activated in this overlap until their child continuation is integrated. These guards are development boundaries, not physical-game prohibitions.

Paired native Nexus composition — 7 October 2026

The existing selected storm-order interpretation now also composes the exact original paired Ecaz/Moritani Nexus profiles, without Skills or with all14, optionally original Homeworlds/Discovery/Tech/Advanced Strongholds. This extends a software envelope, not publisher authority or the pending priority questions. Original competing live reactions, Atomics and unsupported child-effect guards remain.

An original six-seat Advanced Discovery/Nexus/Tech continuation reaches turn9 after its original Intrusion decline and Guild income are finished. BG's accompanying free counter joins two existing fighters, not an exempt advisor group, in Habbanya Ridge Sietch. Both native markers qualify. The old classic-only overlap predicate rejects the original advisor allowance. Both exact paired profiles now reuse the same serialized original entrant, amount, token identity and storm order. All four saved policies finish Ecaz decline then Moritani Terror reveal: fighters2→3, one reserve withdrawn, BG purse unchanged. No original paid shipment, force transfer, Intrusion or income replays.

The exact original seed20291514 capture finishes221/221 actions and five JSON after that original prefix; its source and input SHA remain recorded in the canonical qualified proof. This does not merge an advisor's separate arrival into the parent's reaction, make advisors eligible for Ambassadors, or claim a universal optional-module priority order.

Deferred arrival entry behind the arrival's own interactions — 7 October 2026

The engine no longer rejects a Terror arrival that coincides with the arrival's own pending interaction. openTerritoryEntry stores the already committed entry in the additive Game.pendingArrivalReaction record — original entrant, destination, sector, amount, elite, cause, resume kind and turn/phase — and settleAutomaticContinuations opens it as soon as no response, decision, Terror entry, Ambassador entry or Ecaz/Moritani overlap is pending. Payment, force transfer and the original movement are never replayed; the deferred record only reopens the entry.

Selected order (provisional implementation interpretation, not a publisher ruling): the arrival's own interaction settles first — the committed shipment's Guild income payment and BG advisor choice, the BG fighter Intrusion, or Fremen storm protection — and the Terror entry is offered afterwards. This reuses the bounded policy already recorded for an accompanying counter, whose own qualifying entry likewise follows earlier Intrusion and income, and it respects the November 2020 FAQ wording that Intrusion must occur immediately when the other faction intrudes. No source ranks the optional Terror reaction against those windows; this table selects one order rather than leaving the entry uncommitted.

Still guarded after this integration: controls.pendingTerror (a Terror entry already in flight), every Ambassador combination (Ambassadors combined with another arrival reaction), Atomics, unsupported child effects and the CHOAM prevention windows.

Atomics and later allies

The current official indexed p. 5 still says: “From this turn forward, your hand limit is reduced by 1 (as well as your ally’s)”. It does not specify how a later alliance change affects either former or new allies. Both a continuing current-ally modifier and a detonation-time recipient remain interpretations. No targeted clarification was found. GF9 E3, p. 5

Implementation recommendation: retain the detonation turn and ally at detonation separately from any chosen effective modifier. That preserves the facts needed for a later correction without pretending that historical custody resolves the rule.

Research boundary and excluded evidence

Read the existing Moritani audit and the relevant passages in /tmp/dune-rules/ecaz-audit.txt, including printed pp. 5–6 and 14–16. Compared the targeted passages with publisher-indexed results. The direct GF9 expansion PDF and its site root returned HTTP 403 in this pass; indexed wording therefore verifies these passages, not the complete latest binary or its publication date. Search-engine crawl/publication estimates were not treated as revision dates.

Searched GF9 and Future Pastimes for Terror/Intrusion/advisor timing, Atomics/alliance changes, simultaneous effects and shipment income. The designer's expansion page supplied no additional written timing clarification; its rule/FAQ shortlinks also returned 403 through the retrieval tool. Embedded video material was not transcribed, and no community discussion was elevated to designer authority.

One tempting search result establishes turn-order priority for Market cards in the separate 2021 Dune: Conquest & Diplomacy game. It is inapplicable to classic Dune. GF9 2021 rulebook, p. 10

Consequences for pending-entry architecture

These are software recommendations, not additional rules:

• Retain an explicit entry event and separate obligations so the selected order can be revised. Do not replay payment or force transfer when a saved continuation resumes.
• An accompanying advisor creates another entry by another faction; do not silently merge it into the original entrant's Terror decision.
• Destructive effects can invalidate saved force/elite casualty counts or intrusion eligibility. Reconcile custody before restoring such a continuation; retaining a response object alone is insufficient.
• Preserve shipment-payment obligations independently of surviving troops. Source review did not establish a Terror refund or cancellation of payment.
• Keep combined timing and Atomics alliance semantics marked unresolved until an authoritative clarification or explicitly provisional table interpretation is adopted.

Incidental correction escalated to integration owner

The same official November 2020 FAQ p. 5 explicitly permits Fremen to purchase additional revivals when Tleilaxu is present, up to the expanded five-force limit. This contradicts the recent unconditional free-only Fremen implementation under that combination. The integration owner was notified immediately; no runtime or revival-document changes were made in this bounded timing task. GF9 November 2020 FAQ, p. 5