Obfuscate vs Rebuttal

Can I check I’ve got this right? In a DoW we’ve got an Obfuscate scripted against a Rebuttal.

[ul]
[li]If the Obfuscate successes tie with the defensive Rebuttal successes, the Rebuttal is cancelled and its attacking dice don’t do anything.
[/li][li]If the Obfuscate successes exceed the defensive Rebuttal successes, then as above but the Rebutter also has +1Ob next volley.
[/li][li]If the defensive successes on the Rebuttal exceed the Obfuscate successes, then the attacking Rebuttal successes subtract unopposed from the Obfuscater’s Body of Argument and the Rebutter has +1D next volley.
[/li][li]
[/li][/ul]

Basically, the attacking Rebuttal dice only get to come into play if the defensive rebuttal successes beat the Obfuscate?

I think it’s the other way around. Obfuscate is like Block for Duel of Wits, so you’d be testing it against the attacking Rebuttal dice.

Because Obfuscate is not an attack, it’s the defensive Rebuttal dice that are irrelevant.

I don’t think that’s right in this case - from the description of Rebuttal on BWG p397:

“To fully defend against an Obfuscate action, you must get more defence successes than your opponent’s Obfuscate successes.”

I was confused by the next line: “Each success on the attacking portion of a Rebuttal reduces your opponent’s body of argument.” I was wondering if attack successes applied against the Obfuscater’s body of argument regardless, but that would be crazy, wouldn’t it? Because rebuttal is one action with two halves, and a successful Obfuscate cancels the action it’s opposing.

I think the rules are pretty clear, Chris. You’re right that it’s Obfuscate successes vs Rebuttal defensive successes. The next line is just referring to the general effect of the attacking portion, not to the case of obfuscate specifically. To be clear:

If Obfuscate has more, the Rebutter loses their action (doesn’t get to roll the offensive portion) and gets a penalty to the next roll.
If they are equal, same as above but without the penalty.
If the Rebuttal defense has more, the Rebutter gets to attack this volley and gets a bonus on the next volley.

Just to give you guys some insight on this: Because it is the Rebuttal defensive successes that are compared against the Obfuscate successes, the player using the Rebuttal has the incentive to put dice into the defensive portion of his pool. If you compare the offense successes against the Obfuscate successes, the incentive is to put all your dice (minus the one you’re required to put into the defense pool) into offense. It would be the optimal choice.

Cheers, all!

Yeah, in the cold light of day it all makes sense.

But in the white heat of a Duel of Wits sometimes I panic.