Scorched Earth(The Battle of Ruby Ford Chapter Pack F83) text: Non-Army characters do not count their STR during the first challenge initiated each round.

So if my opponent is first player and has no standing Army character, can they initiate a challenge? Can a 0-STR character be declared as an attacker? Are these 2 questions even related?

The two questions aren´t related. All a charachter needs to participate in a challenge is a corresponding icon for the announced challenge. Also note that the charachters strength will only be reduced to zero if they are actually participating in the challenge.

In order to win the challenge your opponent needs however to have some helper cards, something like an event that gives the charachter an army trait. I think there are three options in LCG to gain an army trait in a challenge phase:

• Old Nan
• Prosperity and plenty and a Rhagears harp in the discard pile (as well as 1 gold to pay for teh event)
• Lion´s gate (+winter + power on one of the attacking charachters)

Old Ben said:

Careful here. The non-Army characters STR is not actually reduced to 0. It just doesn't count when adding up challenge STR. There's a big, big difference, especially when you throw a card like Flame Kissed into the mix.

But yes, a character does not need to have a positive STR to be declared as an attacker or defender. The player only needs to have a positive challenge STR (and a participating character) in order to win or oppose a challenge. It is also worth noting that in this scenario, the character's STR is never actually 0 for any effect (other than determining the challenge winner) that looks at character STR.

Great and clear answers guys, thanks!

Follow up question: Can I use my Carrion Bird's stealth during a military challenge if its STR is 0(character abilities in general)?

Egg said:

Yes. Whether the character's STR will contribute to winning/losing the challenge, if it can participate there may be an advantage to that because of its card effects/abilities (like Stealth, Renown, the Carrion Bird's Response, etc.)

This sort of thing happens a lot in Greyjoy with Intimidate. You declare a big character with Intimidate and a couple of small characters with Stealth as attackers. Intimidate works on your little guys, too, so they don't count their STR, but their Stealth still works against - handy if the opponent has some bigger characters that cannot be "Intimidated" and you still want that unopposed challenge.