Hello,

Another set of questions for the forum about retreating and winning battles. Here are my scenarios and questions

Scenario 1: A round of combat occurs between two warlords and their units, and all the units and the warlords are ready for the second round. At this point, my friend, who has initiative, decides to retreat his units back to his HQ.

Here are my questions for this scenario:

1. Does the player with the units remaining at the planet declare victory and triggers the battle ability?

2. Does the player with the units remaining at the planet declare victory, triggers the battle ability, and take the planet if the battle occurs at battle 1?

Scenario 1A: A round of combat occurs between two warlords and their units, and all the units and the warlords are ready for the second round. While I have initiative, my friend decides to retreat his units back to his HQ.

My questions are the same as above.

Scenario 2: A round of combat occurs between two opposing sets of units without warlords at planet 1, and all units and the warlords are ready for the second round. At this point, my friend, who has initiative, decides to retreat his units back to his HQ.

Here are my questions for this scenario:

1. Does the player with the units remaining at the planet declare victory, triggers the battle ability, and take the planet if the battle occurs at battle 1?

Scenario 2A: A round of combat occurs between two opposing sets of units without warlords at planet 1, and all units and the warlords are ready for the second round. While I have initative, my friend decides to retreat his units back to his HQ.

My question is the same as above.

I apologize in advance because my answer may come across as condescending in a message board. That's not my intent, but tone is very hard to gauge in this format and some of what is needed to answer your questions is likely to come across as very blunt.

What you need to know and understand to answer all of these scenarios are the following rules:

1. A player wins combat when it is time for him to take a combat turn (i.e., attack with a ready unit), but there are no opposing units at the planet to attack.

2. When a player wins combat, he claims the planet (if it is planet #1) and has the option to trigger the planet's battle ability.

Those two rules answer all 4 of your scenarios above - which are effectively the same question asked 4 times (with minor variations). What the rules above tell you are that:

A. Players never "declare victory" just because an opponent has no units present at a planet during a battle. As #1 above tells us, the opponent having no units present is not enough to win on its own. It has to be your turn to attack and your opponent has to have no units present.

B. So, the differences in your 4 scenarios (i.e., who has initiative and whose warlord is or is not present) don't matter. Who wins the battle isn't actually determined until someone tries to attack again. If your opponent retreats all of his units (as he does in all 4 of your scenarios) and you have at least one remaining (as you do in all 4 of your scenarios), when the battle gets around to your next turn to attack, you will win. But you have to wait until the battle gets around to your next attack -- by which time, your opponent might have used a card effect to drop another unit into play at that planet (which would extend the battle).

C. Assuming that your opponent doesn't drop another unit and you win when there is no one to fight on your next attack, you process the win like any other (take the planet if it is #1 and trigger the battle ability, if you want) -- as stated in Rule #2 above. The fact that you don't have anyone to attack because your opponent retreated his last units, instead of because you killed his last units, doesn't change the fact that you win, or what winning means.

So, those are the rules and the basic walk-through. With that information, do you see how your 4 scenarios are all the same?

I do, and don't mind the directness of your answers at all. They've been extremely clear and helpful as I've been learning the game. Thanks again!

The battle ends and victory is declared during the first combat turn of a combat round(including ranged skirmish) where you have a ready unit and your opponent has no units at the planet. The end of the combat round(which is what you are describing in all of your scenarios) would still allow for an additional action window to occur prior to the start of the next combat turn prior to a winner being decided. Allowing for fresh Ambush troops to potentially arrive or events that might potentially eliminate your units prior to being able to meet the requirements of declaring victory, even though he retreated all his current units at the end of the previous combat round.

The battle ends and victory is declared during the first combat turn of a combat round (including ranged skirmish) where you have a ready unit and your opponent has no units at the planet.

This is a bit of an overstatement. The battle can end on any combat turn, not just the first one of a combat round.

The battle ends and victory is declared during the first combat turn of a combat round (including ranged skirmish) where you have a ready unit and your opponent has no units at the planet.

This is a bit of an overstatement. The battle can end on any combat turn, not just the first one of a combat round.

Not an overstatement in the slightest. Just have to read complete sentences instead of highlighting and reading half a sentence.