Hello,

I was wondering if someone could provide me with a primer on the exhaust rules. At this point, I understand that

1. At the end of a battle, warlords return to their HQs in the state they were in.

1.A. If a warlord wins a battle at the first planet, they return to their current state with their units in their current state. Other units remain at the planet in their current state.

2. If warlords and/or units retreat from battle during the combat phase, they leave in an exhausted state.

3. When a player deploys a warlord with units from their HQs during the command phase, the units arrive exhausted. The warlord arrives in the condition from their last battle.

Here are my questions: how do these conditions interact with the rule that players ready exhausted cards in the headquarters phase? Have I missed anything in the rules above?

Thanks,

Cris

Hi Cris,

You got most of it here, however keep in mind the following:

3.2.9 Combat round ends

To resolve the end of a combat round, follow these steps,

in order at the planet where the battle is being fought:

1. Combat round ends.

2. Ready each unit at the planet. (Note that this step does

not ready exhausted attachments on the units.)

And from the F.A.Q

(2.3) Warlords at the End of the Combat Phase

As the last step before the combat phase ends, if the warlord is still at a planet for any reason, return the warlord to your HQ, maintaining its state.

This means that if you relocate Aun'Shi to a planet back up the line you still need to retreat him even though no combat is initiated.

Just to be sure:

1. At the end of a battle, the warlord always returns to HQ in its current state (ready or exhausted).

1A. At the end of a battle at the first planet, all units return to the HQ in their current states (ready or exhausted). At the end of a battle at a planet other than the first planet, all units (except the warlord, see #1) stay at the planet in their current states (ready or exhausted).

2. Any unit that retreats from a battle (warlord or other) arrives in the HQ exhausted.

3. When a player commits his warlord to a planet during the Command Phase, all the units in the HQ follow it. Those units arrive at the planet exhausted. The warlord arrives in whatever state it was in when it left HQ (which is not necessarily the same condition it ended the last battle in).

The interaction with the rule to ready all cards in the HQ phase is fairly straightforward: Whatever state a warlord or other unit is in when you get to the HQ Phase, no matter where it is, you ready it. So, any units that were exhausted in battle but left at a (non-first) planet will ready. Any units, including the warlord, that are in the HQ will ready. Essentially, barring a card effect that saying otherwise, every card starts the Deploy phase in the ready position, no matter where it is.

This is why saying the warlord arrives "in whatever state it was in when it left HQ" when it is committed in your #3 is different from saying it arrives "in the condition from their last battle." There will always be an HQ Phase between the warlord's last battle and committing it, so it will be ready at the beginning of the Command Phase (unless it was exhausted as part of an additional card ability).