So as the title says, I have so far played a total of three 'proper' games (the first game we played we got a LOT of rules wrong) and I am looking for answers to a couple of questions, plus some basic advice.

The questions:

1. When a Warlord is at a planet and the opponent has nothing there, does the warlord 'win' the battle there and claim the battle effect? I'm not 100% clear on this from the rules.

2. When a warlord is at a planet at the end of the battle phase, does he/she automatically go back to HQ or remain there? If he/she remains, then does that player skip the dial the next round or not?

3. If a player is called upon to 'sacrifice' a unit by a card, do they get the 'removal' bonus (my opponent had Straken's Veterans or whatever they are called and I played a card that required him to sacrifice a unit - we couldn't decide 100% whether this meant that the usual 'place a guardsman token when this card is removed' kicked in - we played yes, but I would appreciate clarification.

4. Can a token placed as result of removal of a unit as above immediately participate in the battle?

I probably will have loads more but that'll do for starters. My friend bought the core for us to try out and we are both impressed so he is buying more stuff and I have the core and the Great Devourer on order and am looking at getting all the other card packs. But aside from a demo game of Netrunner (which I was bewildered by) I have never played a LCG before and I am struggling to get my head around tactics. My opponent and I, playing with the core set only, played three games last night. First he had DE and I took Guard and got stomped. Second I tried Orks and he had DE again and I got stomped. Third game I tried DE and he took Guard and I won, but I honestly don't know how as I seemed to be doing quite badly but then put a lot of hurt on his warlord and managed to kill him.

Are the DE really THAT powerful? I know from looking at vids of championships and such there is a lot of talk that the DE and Space Marines are the two most popular factions seen at the top level at tourneys (yet to try SM) or is it just that we are currently only playing the core set so fewer cards (35 for each faction deck) and less variety of cards is hurting the balance? It may just be that I am useless at the game (my opponent has at least played Netrunner, so in theory might be better suited to card games, though I understand that mechanically that works quite differently). Can anyone point me to some basic articles or whatever that can give a total n00b like me some help in understanding how to approach the game from a tactical point of view please?

Thanking you all in advance.

1) Yes.

2) The Warlord ALWAYS returns to HQ if it is at a planet at the end of a battle.

3) It depends. A sacrificed unit can't be used to pay a cost for another ability. It does leave play, but it is not 'destroyed' (see RRG p.14, "sacrifice"). Check the specific trigger on the effect you want to use.

4) Yes.

Just for the sake of clarity on the forum, there is a subforum for rules questions

DE are considered powerful, but in a single-core environment I'd say that's probably more down to luck/inexperience than anything - the powerful stuff really needs a lot more support than your card pool provides at present.

I myself am very new to Conquest, having shelved the game for almost a year when my group lost interest shortly after the game's release. It took me a good half-dozen games to get a feel for the rules, and now I'm trying to learn the strategy behind everything. Like L5R, this game can have a steep learning curve, so it may take you a good number of games to develop your playstyle.