When a unit has "Counterstrike 2", as an example. I know counterstrike damage is dealt immediately before anything else. Is that damage also applied immediately?
What I mean to ask is, if that 2 damage kills an attacking unit, does that unit die right away before the rest of the damage is applied, therefore saving itself and letting the unit possibly live to also deal it's normal damage to another unit?
Baresark said:
When a unit has "Counterstrike 2", as an example. I know counterstrike damage is dealt immediately before anything else. Is that damage also applied immediately?
Deal damage includes assign and apply damage parts.
"Counterstrike
damage is always applied as soon as it is assigned,
before any other actions can be taken." (p. 16)
So yes, it can kill an attacker during the declare defenders step, thus removing that Units from combat.
Awesome, thanks for helping me out. I am just trying to come up with possible scenarios that we may run into.
The damage is applied immediately - so any unit that takes enough damage from counterstrike is killed immediately, so before it can do damage.
A good couple of points to remember though is that Counterstrike damage cannot be canceled (except when Bloodthirster is in play) and that it must all be delivered to a single unit, IOW it may not be divided up in any way, so if you have 1 unit with Counterstrike 2 declared as a defender and two attackers you may only hit one of them. If you have two Counterstrike units declared as a defender (what a huge mistake on the part of the attacker) you may two different units attacking to hit or have them hit the same unit, but even if one Counterstrike is 2 and the other a 1, you may only target one or two units, not divide the Counterstrike 2 to hit two separate units.
dormouse said:
A good couple of points to remember though is that Counterstrike damage cannot be canceled (except when Bloodthirster is in play) and that it must all be delivered to a single unit, IOW it may not be divided up in any way, so if you have 1 unit with Counterstrike 2 declared as a defender and two attackers you may only hit one of them. If you have two Counterstrike units declared as a defender (what a huge mistake on the part of the attacker) you may two different units attacking to hit or have them hit the same unit, but even if one Counterstrike is 2 and the other a 1, you may only target one or two units, not divide the Counterstrike 2 to hit two separate units.
Dormouse, I didn't understand the part about Bloodthirster above. How does that affect Counterstrike?
Bloodthirster prevents damaged from being canceled. In my haste to post I flipped this ability in my head to makes damage cancelable. I should really have a cup of coffee before I post.
So there's no action window between assignment and application of counterstrike damage? Thinking about the Empire's "blahblah Detachment" card than can warp back to your hand in a normal assign/apply window.
That is correct. No action window, no chance to respond, the damage cannot be canceled, pretty much Counterstrike is the holy grail of damage.