Okay, so me and my friends started playing TI3 a couple weeks ago. After logging in so much time with Game of Thrones board game, it was nice to learn a new game. But man, did we choose a behemoth...

My question is this: I had a political card that was made into law which let me destroy up to four Ground Forces on Mecatol Rex. The wording of the card said, "the elected player may choose to (activate the ability) ... at any time."

We were in the political phase and a political card came up that lets someone "abolish" a law in place. In between voting, after I had had been Discredited, swinging the votes in favor of removing the law, I decided I was going to use the card before it was removed.

With the card's wording stating that it could be used/activated/played at any time, is that a legal move? Also, please give citation to the rules (page, section) for supporting your answer.

Grayzone I'd say. I believe that "at any time" effects do need to be played during your turn (but does not need a specific phase) but I won't swear on that.

I think in this case, I'd probably play that if the law is under vote like that, it is "frozen", and can't be used, otherwise it would be just a cheap rules loophole.

There was a similar question a long time ago about Space Docks, and whether you could scrap a space dock at the beginning of the Status Phase, before players claim objectives, to prevent a player from claiming the "blockade" objective. It was ruled that was not the intent, and that you can't scrap your docks until after objectives are scored.

Using the same philosophy and logic, I'd say the same with this card - if it's under threat of being lost involuntarily, it cannot be used until the vote is complete, and if the vote causes it to be discarded, it's gone, unused.

Of course, the rules don't explicitly say that, but it seems to be the less rules-weasel-y way to handle it, in my opinion.