I may have missed something here but how do you conquer a planet. Only the first planet can be conquered at any given time. But how does one do that? Do you win both the command and combat struggles? Or do you have to clear all opposing forces from the planet?

Win the combat to capture a planet.

So you win the combat, capture the planet. Does that now go into a scoring area or can that planet be taken back by the opponent and you have to keep the planet and 2 others to successfully win the game?

If the planet does go into the scoring area, what happens to the troops that are deployed there?

Victory pile we assume similar to CoC stories.

Troops go home.

hmmmm. FFG site has this game's length to be between 40-60 minutes. But it seems like a rather quick way to cycle through planets if you just need to win 1 battle challenge to win the planet. I feel like conquered planets would pile up quickly.

Keep in mind, you also do command struggles every turn, as well as up to three battles each turn, depending on where you deploy your warlords.

Because of the way the victory conditions are set up, we don't actually know how many planets you might need to win. It's possible the first 3 planets you conquer each share an icon. But you might need to conquer as many as 7 to get 3 with matching icons. To say nothing of the rounds in which your opponent takes a planet.

It also depends on how fragile units are and how destructive combat actually is. This is a card pool thing, so we don't really have enough info to speculate yet.

I'd say it's hard to judge how long a game will be with the info available.

From what I am reading though, I suspect that once players get accustomed to game play and their decks, I doubt many games will last more than 40 minutes. I envision a fairly quick and brutal game.

it's look like there is 10 planet cards in the box, so 10 rounds max.

There is so far no information that I know of concerning how the planets will be won. We re assuming that it is the winner of the combat but that could result in very fast turn around as a planets will be won 2-3 times a turn. The 1st Planet / and possibly 2 warlords.

If the planets are won simply by combat then there is the possibility that you could win the game on turn 1 if you won all three battles.

I would suspect there is either a condition to this win, like you have to win combat and have a warloard and win command or something like that.. or that the plants themselves are won over time.

The rules we have spoiled so far look like the combat will be constant, what with the continual rounds or retreat thing and resources seam to be able to be generated at speed, what with the 4 resources a turn garmented + card effects, command effects and battle effects. So I would expect the game to be like Star Wars in some ways as in you will have the freedom to play many units quickly and continually. The default 2 card draw and then card effects and command battle will lead to star wars like deck speeds as well.

It would be a shame to have this engine running in the game to facilitate the playing of many cards over many turns and have the planets won so quickly.

So yeah.. I expect there will be more to it than simply winning a combat struggle.

You seem to have missed quite a few things on your first read through.

"Each round, you or your opponent will clash at the first planet, and the victor will capture the first planet"

"Only the first planet in the row is eligible for capture each round,"

Ahh cool.. comprehension has never been my strong suit. Well this makes a lot more sense. So the game can go for a minimum of 3 rounds.Depending on how the planets rearrange this seams cool.,

Yeah, additional combats may result from sending a Warlord to take a command struggle at a planet other than the 1st, but that won't result in a capture. Although you can trigger the battle: ability with a combat victory, even without capturing the planet.

I'm curious to see if decks built to take advantage of the abilities of particular planets emerge. I can easily imagine some planets that you would want to pop the ability every turn, even if you can't capture.

I have to say though. My initial pondering aside, I am so super excited for this game to come out and I barely know anything about 40K (reading Horus Heresy now to dip my toe in). I love the potential strategy involved of predicting the rate of combat at the first planet while simultaneously vying for the best resource on another planet to deploy your war leader. Or is the best option to predict what your opponent will fight for with his leader and oppose him at the planet to deny him resources.

The potential is so high for this I am so **** excited. I just want more spoilers!!!