this may sound dumb but the card says at the start of a battle. so could i assign this damage to already routed units that wouldn't be fighting in the battle anyway or do i have to assign it as per the assigning damage rules in a battle i.e. to units that aren't routed and units that are already damaged?
thanks
You play cards that say "at the start of battle" after you have decided what units will be participating in the battle. You must apply the damage to units in the battle, and, furthermore, must apply the damage according to normal damage assignment rules, i.e. damaged, non-routed first.
broken said:
You play cards that say "at the start of battle" after you have decided what units will be participating in the battle. You must apply the damage to units in the battle, and, furthermore, must apply the damage according to normal damage assignment rules, i.e. damaged, non-routed first.
I don't necessarily agree with the premise of the first statement. Step 1 of the battle could be considered the "start of a battle", and that step happens before units are placed next to faction sheets. In fact, Rally Cry can be played on this step (by the defender) to bring routed units into the battle, since the participants haven't been solidified yet.
I would, however, agree with the part about damage being applied via normal damage assignment rules - IE, you have to apply them to standing units first. Thus, the only way you could assign the damage to your routed units is if that's all you have... and if that's all you have, you're likely gonna have them all killed off anyway, since they are routed and won't be able to retreat.
There is a difference between "at the start of a battle" and "during a battle", which is what the respective cards say.
Edit: and my reference was to:
3. Start of Battle Abilities: If the attacker has any Tactics cards
or other abilities that may be used at the “start of battle” or
during his turn, he must use them at this point if he is going
to do so. The defender then has the opportunity to use any
number of “start of battle” abilities and cards.
Ah, you are right, I should have looked at the battle sequence first. I stand corrected.
You are still thinking TI3 where the pre-combat effects are much more jumbled. They did a very good job of fixing that for Runewars.
broken said:
You are still thinking TI3 where the pre-combat effects are much more jumbled. They did a very good job of fixing that for Runewars.
I'm not sure if it was TI3 directly, though I'm sure it had an influence. It was more of "I didn't think to check that there was a specific step for that sort of thing"
