S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game · Board game rules
How do Decoy, enemies, and anomalies interact in the game?
Quick answer
Decoy places your Attention token to bait nearby Enemies into activating, but the rulebook excerpts show no direct interaction between Decoy and Anomalies.
Details
The Decoy Basic Action lets you discard 1 token from your Pockets and place your Attention token on a space within Range 3 of your Stalker (only possible if your Attention isn't already on the Map). If any Enemies are on that chosen space or spaces adjacent to it, you draw an Enemy Activation card and resolve it, but only the Enemies on the chosen space and its neighbors actually Activate — everyone else is ignored for that resolution. Finally, if any of those activated Enemies has LoS to an Attention token, that token moves 1 space toward its owner [p.20 — Prepare/Actions].
Enemies react to Attention tokens during the normal Enemy Activation step as well, following the same logic of moving toward, attacking, or looking around based on the Enemy Activation card drawn (Low or High Attention) [p.30 — Enemy Activation]. Decoy essentially forces a localized, player-triggered version of this same activation process, limited only to Enemies near the decoy's destination.
Anomalies, on the other hand, are triggered independently: any Entity (Stalker or Enemy) that moves to, from, or through a space with Anomaly symbols causes an Anomaly Activation roll, regardless of Attention or Decoy effects [p.36-37 — Anomalies]. Nothing in the Decoy rules mentions Anomaly symbols, covering them, or interacting with Anomaly standees, so Decoy and Anomalies do not have a direct rules link — Decoy only manipulates Attention and Enemy Activation.
Watch out: If your Decoy causes an Enemy to Move (per the drawn Enemy Activation card) into or through an Anomaly space, that Enemy could trigger an Anomaly Activation as an indirect side effect of normal Movement resolution — but this is a consequence of the Movement/Anomaly rules in general, not a special Decoy interaction [p.36 — Anomaly Activation].