Hi all,

i need some help. On certain cards, it says "Action Phase", is this the same as the Execution Phase or is it when an Order Token is flipped over?

and i need help with a stragety against protoss in a certain situation. there is a corsair and an arbiter on an air-only area and everytime i attack them, the protoss player just uses stasis field and then he recharges it after use. is there anyway a zerg player can get around this? i know terran can EMP but what can another protoss or zerg player do in response?

and does the zerg have any dectector other than the queen's or defiler's abilities? or does anyone know of any way to get around players who abuse dark templars, lurkers, and cloaking fields?

Thanks a lot!

The Protos player can only use the recharge ability only once per turn. So you need to attack at least twice. If you want to get sure you have to attack three times, for which you also need to use all Mobilization orders. This is unfortuately very costly, but my only idea. I would ignore this enemy area if you have the choise. If it would be an area which allows also non-flying units, you could use Defiler's Plague.

So the situation with the protoss can be difficult. He potentially has 2 stasis field cards and with the recharge would potentially have 3 uses in a turn. This would take all 3 of your attack orders and not leave you with any more attacks. If you are not the only opponent against this player then you may be able to get others to lay attack orders to draw out his stasis fields. Other than that, I would concentrate on other areas of the board that could hurt him in other ways. If he really wants to save all the stasis fields for that area then there is not much you can do in the situation with it being air units only. If he had more than just the 2 units there then perhaps with the Air splash of the Devourer you might be able to target the non arbiter protected air unit and get rid of one of the others with the splash. Unfortunately the situation doesn't look good for you. You may be able to just wear out his stasis fields if you attack enough but then you won't be doing much else.

Now with regards to cloaking units. I can't think of any other units for the Zerg (except if you have the Kerigan Hero with her psi storm). An orbital defence module will also give cloaking in an area with a base.

The way to deal with cloaking units is because they are limited to only moving on the same planet that they would die on, then if you control the other areas of the planet then they have nowhere to go.

yeah, that's a classic protoss defense. I think the others said it all but here's my advice : Get there before him! I understand somtimes it's impossible, that's all right, but it takes a long time for a protoss player to get arbiters and stasis fields (that are relatively expensive). As for cloaks there's a couple of tricks here. You can splash them, spawn broodlings, make them flee and of course detect them. What's fun of the queen is that her detector ability is in your play area, and she takes the role of the science vessel : where she goes she sees. As they are cheap and early, having three of them on the board is no prob. Additionnaly, the assist module allows you an extra population slot. Splash them is a classic, lurker, guardian, kerrigan, etc... To make them flee is great when they cannot (you just need to exceed it's toughness normally); if cloaked units cannot retreat in another area of the planet, it dies. Or you might even force him to destroy one of his units in order to keep his cloaked unit.

What page does it say cloaked units can only retreat to a friendly or empty area on the same planet? I thought they could retreat to an adjacent planet just like any other unit?

On page 38 of the base rules where it describes the "Cloaking" keyword:

When a unit with the cloaking keyword is destroyed in a
skirmish, it is not actually removed from the game board (as
a unit typically is when destroyed). Instead, at the end of the
“Destroy Units and Discard Cards” step of skirmish resolution,
the unit withdraws. This means that the controlling
player may immediately remove the unit from the battle and
move it to a friendly or empty area on the active planet . If
no such area exists, or if he places the unit in an area such
that it exceeds the area’s unit limits, it is destroyed.

Bolding for emphasis is from me.

Its not a standard retreat. Technically they call it a withdraw. The cloaking stuff occurs near the end of the skirmish in which it is used. Not at the end of a battle. This is why it is useless vs splash damage that takes effect after all skirmishes have been resolved.

Thanks a lot for the help you guys. That situation came up when i was Kerrigan and i needed the conquest points for my special victory. Thanks again for the help and strategies.

Railarian said:

You are sure that splash works before cloak units withdraws?

Aba said:

I think what he is trying to get at is setting up situations in which the cloaking either wouldn't be triggered during a skirmish or in which you don't kill the cloaked unit, and then the unit is taken out with splash. Like if you are attacking a dragoon and a dark templar, you put the dragoon as the front line unit and take out the DT with splash from a lurker.