situation: i have pistoliers, shrine to taal and x developments in my battlefield and temple of shallya in my kingdom.

1) use shrine to taal, to give pistoliers x additional hammers until the end of turn ("Forced: After your turn begins, choose one target unit in this zone. That unit gains 1 hammer for each of your developments in this zone until the end of turn.").

2) use temple of shallya to move the pistoliers to my kingdom ("Kingdom. At the beginning of your kingdom phase, you may move one of your units from its current zone to one of your other zones.").

3) gather 6+x resources (3 base + 2 temple + x+1 buffed pistoliers).

4) spend 1 resource to move the pistoliers to the quest zone ("Action: Spend 1 resource to move this unit from its current zone to another of your zones.").

5) draw x+2 cards.

6) spend 1 resource to move the pistoliers to my battlefield again.

this gives me x-1 extra resources and x+1 extra cards OR (if i leave the quest part out) x extra resources each turn, where x is the number of developments in my battlefield. the combo gets slightly stronger with johannes broheim, who can move for free, thus allowing me to keep 2 more resources each turn.

i am just not sure wether the card effects actually do resolve in this order ("Forced: After your turn begins" before "At the beginning of your kingdom phase" before resource gathering). do they?

hogilogic said:

Of course, you first play your Greatswords in that step 6, before moving the Pistoliers there (and if you have extra Res, could bounce the Pistoliers in and out of the zone a few times for more Power) . Other than that, it's the standard Empire combo. Though many prefer to place Shrine to Tall in their KZ to begin with.

thx.. okay... i prefer to combo not only with greatswords, but with ironbreakers of ankhor, troll slayers and surprise assault + twin-tailed comet, so i basically go for the developments in the battlefield, with the added benefit that if i don't get my pistoliers, i can still wreak havoc with any unit my battlefield has to offer.

and i used to think that will + judgement was the "standard combo" of the empire

hogilogic said:

Makes it easier for the Orcs to slap Grimgor to BZ and blow all of your Supports + Developments to kingdom come. I prefer to spread my eggs to multiple baskets, so to speak .

actually i think i am spreading a little bit more effectively here: i only put the shrine and the majority (not all) of my developments into the battlefield, while the rest of the supports go to kingdom and quest, thus grimgor can't kill all of my economy at once, he has to choose to either destroy the bz supports (the shrine) and devs, keeping my kingdom intact, or to go for my kingdom, which keeps not only my offensive intact, but allows me a relatively quick recovery. and i don't think the orc player would like to destroy all of those choppas, war paints, warp lightning cannons and rock lobbers that will be out when he can afford to play grimgor.

on the other side i try to deny him the resources to play such an expensive card anyway... i often get demolition or will of the electors and a v-bomb (verenas judgement) early enough to clear his kingdom, throwing his economy back about two turns, which is usually enough to get the resources and cards (via the buffed pistoliers) to get either a second v-bomb or a surprise attack + twin-tailed comet with x=5 or x=6.

I think destroying your kingdom makes the most sense, since you couldn't get resources from the shine either. If your offense rivals the ork, than he is already lost.

Judgement wont kill an experienced player, he only have to play developments... and maybe keep a barrel for Rip their heads of.

Also, you making your combo vulnerable to "Blood for the blood god" by starting in BF.

Shrine to Taal
"Forced: After your turn begins, choose one target unit in this zone. That unit gains 1 power for each of your developments in this zone until the end of turn."

In his example, he chose the Pistoliers to get the extra power provided by the Shrine. What happens if, in the same turn, I place another development in the battlefield during my Quest phase. Do the Pistoliers get another additional power from this development ?

nope, the effect has all ready happened, you would have to wait for the next turn to get the extra hammer

"At the start of your turn" effects trigger and resolve first, and then the "after your turn begins" effect initiate and resolve (as of the last conversation I had with Nate). You should plan your moves and boosts accordingly.

X is a variable which is determined at the moment of activation, not a constant check. So whatever the total number of developments you have in that zone at that time is what that number is set for at the period of activation.