Lands of Evershade · Board game rules
How do Minions spawn from enemy activation cards?
Quick answer
New Enemies (including Minions) spawn in the spaces specified by the Activation card's effect; if all those spaces are occupied, they spawn in the closest empty, non-dangerous space instead.
Details
When an Enemy Activation card (or other game effect) instructs new Enemies to join the fight, you place them in the specific spaces listed by that instruction [p.21 — Spawning and Respawning Enemies]. If every space where an Enemy should spawn is already occupied, that Enemy is instead placed in the closest empty, non-dangerous space [p.21 — Spawning and Respawning Enemies].
The rulebook gives an example: if you're told to spawn Minions in the highest-numbered empty spaces marked with a certain icon, and there are 4 Characters in Combat with 8 such spaces but only 3 remain empty (numbers 8, 3, and 1), the first three Minions spawn there. Any leftover Minion that can't fit spawns in the closest empty, non-dangerous space, prioritizing the highest-numbered marked space that wasn't already used [p.21 — Spawning and Respawning Enemies].
Once spawned, Minions follow the normal Minion rules — multiple Minion models share one Enemy card and, when Activated, they act one by one in alphabetical order, resolving all Actions from their shared Activation card [p.21 — Enemies]. If a Minion type's card had been flipped (all previous models defeated) and new Minions of that type are spawned, the card refreshes and becomes active again in the Initiative order [p.36-37 — Combat Example].
Watch out: Only the specific spaces named by the spawning instruction should be checked first for placement — you only fall back to the "closest empty, non-dangerous space" rule when all of those named spaces are occupied [p.21 — Spawning and Respawning Enemies].