Blue has established a colony on Red's planet and Green attacks Red's planet. Red then asks Blue to be a defensive ally and Blue agrees.

Blue commits 2 ships from the Red planet as defenders, cards are played, and Red winds the day. Blue can get his reward. Where do the 2 ships that Blue just used locate to? The rules say that defensive allies don't get to redeploy to the planet they just helped defend. Is this true even if they originated from there?

Of course Blue could have chosen ships from other colonies to aid Red but I wanted to check this point.

thanks

Chris

Winning defensive allies (or any allies that are sent home because of Force Field or an impending deal situation) can return to any colonies. In your example, if Blue still has a colony on the defended planet, he can put the ships back there. However, if Blue commits all the ships from that colony, the ships can't go back, and he's essentially dropped one foreign colony away from winning.

Usually, it's a good idea to commit all but one ship from a foreign colony (since you only need one ship to maintain the colony). The exception is when you don't want too many ships defending at home (against Anti-Matter or Loser) or have to keep your colonies reinforced (as Disease, against Shadow or Bully).

many thanks

Chris