Question:

The Imperial player has activated a system by moving an admiral into the system. He then wishes to use an action card with another leader from his leader pool. First, can he play two action cards in one round of combat? The first action card has the picture of the admiral (who activated the system) and the general (who just arrived from the leaders pool) on the same card. The second card only has the picture of the general. Both cards say "Play at the Start of Combat." Please advise.

Check out action cards in the rules rulebook, I think your opponent illegally added a leader to the combat. I believe you can use two action cards in the same combat, but it is difficult to pull off because:

"Action cards used during a mission or combat can only be used if one of the leaders shown on the card is already in the system in which the mission or combat is occurring. The only exceptions are action cards that specifically move the leader to the system." eg. playing the action card does not move the leader there, the leader needs to be there as a requirement to play the card.

You also can't move a general from the leader pool to the system if you already have a leader involved in the combat. Again from the rules rulebook under Combat:

"If a player does not have a leader with tactic values in the system, he may take one leader from his leader pool and place it in the system."

I don't know if this makes a difference. The first card was:

E05. Admiral Piett / General Veers - Keep them from Escaping - Start of Combat - "Rebel units cannot retreat."

The second card was:

E10. General Veers - Target the Generator - Start of Combat - "Destroy 1 structure of your choice in this system."

The Imperial player activated the system with Admiral Piett. He wants to also play General Veers. According to what you wrote, Jobu, that cannot be done. Is that correct? Anyone else care to add their thoughts?

This situation is complex enough that I dug out my villain action cards to check. There are three relevant cards here:

"Keep Them From Escaping" - Admiral Piett (@Leobarron, my card only has Admiral Piett here -- not Veers)

"Target the Generator" - General Veers

"Ready for Action" - Admiral Piett/General Veers (Start of Combat: Take this leader from your leader pool and place him in this system. This leader cannot retreat, and he returns to your leader pool at the end of the combat.)

@Leobarron, if you had access to all three of these cards then you would be able to perform the actions you describe: Piett activates the system and initiates the combat. The Imperial player then triggers Keep Them from Escaping from Piett, triggers Ready for Action to move General Veers, and then triggers Target the Generator from General Veers. The problem is that you can't really have access to these three cards at the same time, since you would have already recruited Veers and Piett with the first two so would never get the third.

So that means the situation you've described doesn't work. You can only do two of the actions -- if Piett activates the system, you can play Keep Them From Escaping and use Ready For Action to call Veers in, but that's it. If Veers activates the system, you can play Target the Generator and then use Ready for Action to call Admiral Piett in. But you can't use Keep Them From Escaping, Target the Generator, and Ready for Action all at once.

Essentially, the action cards do not allow you to move leaders from the leader pool to the relevant system to use them... they must already be there. Ready for Action's effect does let you move a hero to a system, but that's its whole effect.

Thanks. That seems pretty complex.

This situation is complex enough that I dug out my villain action cards to check. There are three relevant cards here:

"Keep Them From Escaping" - Admiral Piett (@Leobarron, my card only has Admiral Piett here -- not Veers)

"Target the Generator" - General Veers

"Ready for Action" - Admiral Piett/General Veers (Start of Combat: Take this leader from your leader pool and place him in this system. This leader cannot retreat, and he returns to your leader pool at the end of the combat.)

@Leobarron, if you had access to all three of these cards then you would be able to perform the actions you describe: Piett activates the system and initiates the combat. The Imperial player then triggers Keep Them from Escaping from Piett, triggers Ready for Action to move General Veers, and then triggers Target the Generator from General Veers. The problem is that you can't really have access to these three cards at the same time, since you would have already recruited Veers and Piett with the first two so would never get the third.

So that means the situation you've described doesn't work. You can only do two of the actions -- if Piett activates the system, you can play Keep Them From Escaping and use Ready For Action to call Veers in, but that's it. If Veers activates the system, you can play Target the Generator and then use Ready for Action to call Admiral Piett in. But you can't use Keep Them From Escaping, Target the Generator, and Ready for Action all at once.

Essentially, the action cards do not allow you to move leaders from the leader pool to the relevant system to use them... they must already be there. Ready for Action's effect does let you move a hero to a system, but that's its whole effect.

Actually, you could get the third card, you would opt to take the action card without recruiting the leader (because you already have that leader). It might not be the smartest tactic but it is "doable". Great discussion.