So me and one of my friends had a bit of a rules dispute over the secondary ability of the Warfare card (Patrols) and I was hoping on some experienced clarification as we are both new to the game. The dispute was over whether or not a ground force could move with a cruiser with the free move if you had the upgrade to allow dreadnoughts and cruisers to carry ground forces. I thought that they should be able to, but my friend was quite adamant about the fact that it says only a cruiser or destroyer can move and does not mention anything about ground forces. So the question is if you have upgraded your cruisers and dreadnoughts to carry ground forces, can the ground force also move with the cruiser when you activate the secondary ability of Warfare? Are there some cases where it wouldn't be possible (if it is even possible)?

Please leave any references as well.

Thanks in advance,

Oceanwolf

Q: Does the Stasis Capsules technology allow a player to load
or land a Ground Force as part of the Warfare Strategy’s secondary
ability?
A: No.

- Premptive FAQ pg. 7

The way I read this, ground forces already loaded onto a cruiser can move in this way but you can't use this action as a free move to take planets or shuffle forces not loaded into cruisers.

Just so you know, the top sticky is the the running FAQ in PDF form, so it's serchable. Takes three seconds.

Ya, we had the FAQ handy at the time but we missed that rule I guess

The Fist of Ferrum said:

So is that the general consensus on how the rule is interpreted you think? Or do other people play it differently?

- oceanwolf

I think it's definitely safe to say anything ALREADY ON the Dreadnought or Cruiser (or a Carrier or War Sun, for that matter) will go with them when they move. I'm not sure if it made it to the FAQ (I'd have to look), but it definitely WAS ruled that Carriers can take Fighters with them without counting against the 2-ship limit (because they aren't loaded/unloaded in the same way as GFs).

However, in practice, you will probably not often find GFs on-board a ship during the secondary; almost always, you will want to land GFs onto planets after you move, as that way if the ship dies, they are still OK.

sigmazero13 said:

The discrepancy actually came up when I wanted to move from a wormhole exit to a nebula. Neither had planets but I wanted to receive that bonus to being in a Nebula. Now that I know I can move with a GF in my cruiser, I will definitely have to start abusing that secondary ability a lot more.

Yes, in most cases you will want to take over planets, but I don't think it is a risk to have a troop embarked on the ship, you just have to make sure you are not in assault range!