We played our first game of Starcraft last night, and a question came up about controlling areas.

During the Regrouping Phase, at the lose resource cards/gain resource cards steps, does a player lose resource cards for areas where he doesn't have a unit present? For example, if I start out in an area and move all of my units out during the execution phase, and no other players move units into this area, do I lose the resource card for this area during the Regrouping Phase? Does gaining conquest points work the same way (i.e only get the point if there's a friendly unit in the area)?

So Conquest points and Resources are not handled the same way.

I will start by addressing the conquest points aspect. You will only accumulate conquest points (CPs) for those areas that have conquest points if you have a unit and / or a base in that area. Having a base somewhere on the planet is not required to collect conquest points, but a base will qualify to collect CPs if it is built in the CP area. But you can also have only unit(s) in the CP area, with no base on the planet, and still earn CPs.

Now for the resources. To have resource cards in the first place, you need a base somewhere on that planet. If you lose the base then in that regrouping phase you will lose all the resource cards you had for that planet. So as a requirement, you will allways need to have a base on the planet to have any of the resource cards for that planet. That being said, you do not need to 'occupy' an area, with a unit and/or base, to maintain control of the resource card once you own it. Assuming you have an undestroyed base on the planet, you will only lose a resource card when during the regrouping phase at the appropriate step, an opponent has unit(s) and/or a base in the area with a resource card you have had access to. If the opponent does not have a base on the planet, then you are simply denied the resource card, place it aside. If the opponent has a base somewhere on the planet, and a unit and/or the base in the area with the resource card in question, then they will get the card and be able to harvest from it during following turns (unless someone takes it away from them later).

2 Really important questions were asked in the FAQ ( http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/StarCraft/scbw_faq.pdf ) that are probably relating to what you wish to know. There is a difference between having access to resource cards, and the term "control" of an area.

"[From the FAQ]...

Q: What defines control of an area?
A: A player controls an area if he has at least one unit or base in the area, and there are no enemy units or bases in the area.
Q: If there is only one player with a base on a planet, does he automatically receive all conquest points on the planet during the regrouping phase?
A: Not necessarily. A player can only acquire conquest points from an area that he controls."

Essentially, you can maintain access to resource cards whether you have unit(s) and/or a base in that area or not.

To have "control" of an area, you must have unit(s) and/or a base in that area to have "control" of it.

"Control" of an area with conquest points is a requirement to earn the Conquest points from that area.

"Control" of an area with a resource is not a requirement to being able to use the resource. Think of it as a more relaxed requirement to be able to use the resource versus having "control" of the area with the resource.

Hopefully, this is what you are looking for.

Yeah, that answers my question. Thanks for your thorough answer. I'm sure I'll have some more questions come up, whne we play again.