I'm having a hard time finding this in the rulebook, but it seems like after winning a battle your units would be exhausted. However, when I'm reading the rules, it looks like they would be straightened. Can someone please "straighten me out"?

Learn to Play P. 11 Winning a Battle: ".. When a player wins a battle at any other planet, his HQ, maintaining the state (ready or exhausted) it was in at the end of the battle . The planet remains in play, and other surviving units remain at that planet, also maintaining their state .

So if I look at rules for end of battle, I find:

Rules Reference Guide P. 26, Section 3.2.9: ".. Step 2, Ready each unit at the planet"

Section 3.2.10: "If a player controls at least one unit in a battle at the beginning of his combat turn ,...the player wins the battle."

So it seems like if you're in battle and finished killing off your opponent, you'd straighten everyone, see that no one is opposing, then win the battle. Then everyone is straightened.

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance!

You're confusing combat round and combat turn I think.

Here let me try and type an example. On my ipad so will do what I can.

Matt has two units

Nate has one unit

Matt strikes with unit 1 killing Nates one defender

It is now matts unit two turn to strike. At the start of this combat turn it is now a won battle for Matt. If it is the first planet then Units move to HQ where unit one would be exhausted and unit two would be ready at hq.

The general rule is as follows:

1) Units stay in whatever state they are in when the battle ends.

2) A battle ends when it is time for a unit to strike, but there is no unit on the opposite side to strike against.

So most of the time, ( Example #1 ) things will progress as Toqtamish has described: some units will be exhausted and some will be ready, but the battle will be over because it is time for one of the ready units to strike, but there is no enemy to strike against. The surviving units go back to the HQ in whatever state they happen to be in at the time.

The other possibility ( Example #2 ) is this, though (bear with me):

- Matt has 2 units.

- Nate has 1 BIG unit.

- Matt has initiative and strikes at Nate's unit, but doesn't kill it.

- Nate's unit strikes at Matt's exhausted unit and kills it.

- Matt's other ready unit strikes at Nate's unit. This time it dies.

Even though Nate has no more units, the battle isn't actually over.

- Combat round ends. All units at the planet (Matt's remaining, exhausted unit) ready.

- Matt's remaining unit goes to strike, but has no one to strike against, so Matt officially wins the battle.

Now the battle is over.

- Matt's remaining unit returns the the HQ ready because that is the state it was in when the battle actually ended.

So Example #2 is why you thought that everything would ready at the end of the battle, but Example #1 is a more common way to end a battle, I think.

You're confusing combat round and combat turn I think.

An easy to do, imho.

The general rule is as follows:

1) Units stay in whatever state they are in when the battle ends.

2) A battle ends when it is time for a unit to strike, but there is no unit on the opposite side to strike against.

So most of the time, ( Example #1 ) things will progress as Toqtamish has described: some units will be exhausted and some will be ready, but the battle will be over because it is time for one of the ready units to strike, but there is no enemy to strike against. The surviving units go back to the HQ in whatever state they happen to be in at the time.

The other possibility ( Example #2 ) is this, though (bear with me):

- Matt has 2 units.

- Nate has 1 BIG unit.

- Matt has initiative and strikes at Nate's unit, but doesn't kill it.

- Nate's unit strikes at Matt's exhausted unit and kills it.

- Matt's other ready unit strikes at Nate's unit. This time it dies.

Even though Nate has no more units, the battle isn't actually over.

- Combat round ends. All units at the planet (Matt's remaining, exhausted unit) ready.

- Matt's remaining unit goes to strike, but has no one to strike against, so Matt officially wins the battle.

Now the battle is over.

- Matt's remaining unit returns the the HQ ready because that is the state it was in when the battle actually ended.

So Example #2 is why you thought that everything would ready at the end of the battle, but Example #1 is a more common way to end a battle, I think.

You're confusing combat round and combat turn I think.

An easy to do, imho.

Ahh, I see now, that makes sense! Thank you for clarifying guys.

I call the parts... command struggle, combat round, planet resolution for clarity.

We tend to say that a unit "shoots" rather than "takes it's combat turn".

We tend to say that a unit "shoots" rather than "takes it's combat turn".

I used to do that. I played the Sabertooth Games Warhammer 40K TCG back in the day and started saying it then - because in that game "attacking" was "shooting" and "assaulting" was hand-to-hand combat and was a whole different action, you even turned the card different ways to shoot or assault.

But I have stopped saying that. I now say, "This unit attacks XXX target." Why? Because only units with "Ranged" should be considered shooting, in my opinion because it's the only attack done at long range. I think as I start to demo the game to new players if I start using "This guy shoots that guy" as short hand they'll get confused about why there is or isn't more than one ranged combat step etc. etc.

I know that might be paranoid, but I just decided I need to be a stickler on technical terms.