Hi ALL!

The rule says:"If a player lands units on a planet that is controlled by an opponent, but does not contain any enemy Ground Forces, the planet falls without resistance."

So when my planet (with PDS but without Ground Force) is invaded, my PDS is useless, right?

Yep. Unfortuneately if the planet has no ground forces, the invasion combat (including PDS fire) is skipped altogether.

TheDarkGeneral said:

Is there an official source on the PDS fire being skipped? The rule the OP mentioned says "if he lands on a planet." PDS fire during invasion happens before anything has landed, I would think it still goes off.

I agree the PDS is useless once the enemy has boots on the ground. The PDS would be destroyed (or possibly captured if the enemy has a Shock Trooper) without any rolls.

TheDarkGeneral said:

Unfortunately, that is not correct. I'm not sure if it's ever been put in an official FAQ, but it HAS been ruled that PDS shots ARE still fired.

The "falls without resistance" bit is made only in terms of "there will be no invasion combat rounds", which means certain game effects (like the Yin ability) do not take place.

Ok thanks! Yeh I never took a look at the faq, and in the rules it says that without enemy ground forces, the invasion combat is skipped. Thanks for the update!

Indeed they may fire since PDS act before the Invasion. And it is that if in the Invasion phase there are no defending GF, then the invasion is done automatically.

The PDS personell is trying their best to stop the invasion from happening and will shoot, unfortunatelly soon afterwards they will be overrun by the enemy ground forces - treat this as a last stand

sigmazero13 said:

Thanks! But I still want to know where the rule is in the rulebook. I want to explain it to my friend~~

kaitei said:

Page 17. Specifically, look at the section entitled "Before Combat" and "PDS Fire" in the Invasion Combat description.

"BEFORE COMBAT
Before the actual Invasion Combat begins, players
must resolve pre-combat actions such as planetary
bombardments and defensive PDS fire."

This passage refers to defensive PDS fire as a "pre-combat action." It even says explicitly "before the actual invasion combat begins."

"PDS Fire
After the attacking player has finished his bombardment,
the defending player may fire a single shot with
each PDS unit on the contested planet. The defending
player rolls a die for every PDS unit present, and for
every result equal to or greater than the combat value
of the PDS unit, an invading Ground Force is
destroyed. Attacking Ground Force units destroyed by
defending PDS do not receive return fire and will not
participate in the upcoming Invasion Combat."

The pertinent part of this passage is the last sentence. Attacking GFs killed by PDS fire do not get to participate in the invasion. Thus PDS fire must be resolved before Invasion Combat begins.

If there are no enemy GFs on the planet, the invasion combat will be automatically won by the attacker, however, defensive PDS fire happens before invasion combat begins.

Thank you very much! Now I consider that: when a planet without GF is invaded, the attacker will win automatically. Just skip the "roll dice step". The "Invasion Combat" step doesn't disapper, so abilities before the combat should not be skipped.

With makes an interesting result though... if there are two PDS on a planet and no GF... and the invader brings two GF to attack, then the two PDS nail the two invading GF, then the invasion never actually occurs and the defender gets to keep their planet. So, always invade with one more GF then is on the planet... if it is empty, or might be after bombardment.

My group has been skipping PDS in invasions on empty planets... I'll have to correct them.