Here's a question that's very debatable and that was not clarified in the FAQ. To what extent should we apply the guard token's rule : "gains +2 health and no other health bonus may apply"

-Can heroes apply their extra health?

-Can cards like "if your front-line unit is a dark templar/ultralisk gain..." apply?

-Can Defense matrix apply?

-and how many other possibilities do I miss...

In the reference sheet of min/max numbers I noticed it included my second point where cards specify that for certain units they have different numbers. Could I assume that these bonus are always applicable as they are in the basic stats?

The rulebook stated that bunkers for example are not applicable, so ensnare and the protoss battery would not be applicable too, that's clear.

What do you think? To what extent should the guard token restriction apply?

tks

In my opinion you can count a health bonus from:

- hero leadership cards,

- combat cards ("If your front line ....").

On the other hand you can't count bonus from:

- reinforcements cards,

- event cards.

That's all I think.

I agree. Thanks alot!

Railarian said:

Yes, because these aren't bonuses but their regular health values!

Railarian said:

Well, it's no reinforcement card and no event card, but it is a bonus. You probably can't use it, but I am not sure about this.

Lusankya said:

I forgot about "Play area" cards - in our rules they can't be count with guard token.

I'd like to ask an other thing about guard tokens. If you already have a guard token in an area then you may execute there a defense order to place a second guard token to ensure your defense?

Carnate said:

Sure, yeah, unless I missed something - the only limitation as to where defend orders can be placed is that the area it's placed in must be friendly. You can also, if you're in a combat where you know you won't actually need the guard token, not discard it (the formulation is "the defender may discard the guard token") and keep it for later.

So I had sent some questions to the game designer and recieved the answers today. Here are the results (I'll pretty it up so the responce is right under the related question and in bold):

Pertaining to the Guard token and "...cannot be used in conjunction with other abilities that provide a health bonus."

It is clear for event cards and reinforcement cards, but some other situations could be clearer.

Given that the defender has discarded a guard token from the area to gain +2 health in each skirmish...

1. Is it evaluated whether the +2 health bonus applies on a skirmish by skirmish basis, or would (for example) a bunker card played in one skirmish cancel the guard token bonus in other skirmishes of the same battle?

1. You resolve this skirmish by skirmish.

2. In the case of text on a card with multiple front line units depicted that gives a health bonus to specified units (say a Wraith and a Battlecruiser with the text saying "if your FLU is a Battlecruiser gain +1 Health) and you have a FLU that is one that gets the specified Health bonus from that card. Is the health bonus described considered to be an ability that provieds a health bonus and thus not able to use the guard token +2 Health?

2. Generally you either gain +2 in the skirmish (from the token), or the other bonus.

3. Similar to number 2, but relating to Heroes and the health bonus some of them get to the relevant cards they use. Are they just naturally tougher units and they would still get the guard token bonus in addition to their hero Health bonus?

3. You either gain +2 in the skirmish (from the token), or the hero's bonus or Defensive matrix bonus.

4. The Science Vessel's Defensive Matrix (DM) Technology.
A. Does DM stack with a guard token bonus?
B. Does DM cause the guard token bonus to be ignored?
C. Would you get a choice of using either the DM or the guard token bonus?

4. The answer is C) use the guard order OR the DM.

5. If a Queen is using Ensnare to get the detector ability in a skirmish, do you have to use the +1 health from Ensnare or can you get the +2 from the guard token instead but still get the Detector ability of the Ensnare?

5. You still gain the detector from ensare, but may gain a total of +2 health.

6. In the case where there are multiple bonuses to Health, is the defending player able to decide which bonuses to use or MUST the ones other than the guard token be used and the +2 from the guard token is discarded (say the person has a +1 from some other card/power that they might not get a say in using - like the science vessels +1 Health) where it might be more beneficial to use the guard token's +2 rather than the +1 from elsewhere?

6. Quite simply, just use the highest health bonus (either from a card or the token). Other effects of cards may still be applied.

Some followup thoughts:

Its nice to know that if you have cards with a mix of a Health bonus and some other combination of abilities (like say from the Ensnare card, the detector ability plus not having support values of the enemy count), you are able to have the other abilities function and then have the choice of whether to count health bonus from cards or the health bonus from the Guard token apply.

Another interesting one that I wasn't expecting initially was the GAIN ability (P.39 of base rules) on cards.

When it relates to Health, it will cause you to choose whether to use the Guard token bonus or the Health bonus from Cards.

This is expecially important as I've noticed that most (if not all) hero health bonuses are also tied in with a GAIN keyword ability.

So remember to check just how much health bonus a hero is GAIN ing in total by checking the base attack card (and reinforcement card if there is one) for GAIN abilities, as well as the hero card for its GAIN to health.

Thanks so much for the responces Corey. Much appreciated.

As a result, the Guard token works best for weak units, which are not able to gain health from any combat/technology/leadership cards in this battle. Those stronger just don't require using good cards for defense when token is used.

But, many cards providing health must be bought or/and drawn at first, so having active Guard token during battle is always usefull.

Very nice and comprehensive, thanks EMELT for putting together the questions and Corey for the answers

I linked here from one of my strategy posts, the one about orders, it really clears up the use of the guard token

That post should be printed in golden letters in the FAQ!!! Thanks!

Yeah, that post is very helpful. It definitely makes the guard token much less powerful than I think we all assumed it was. It basically means anything beyond the printed health value on the cards is negated if you use the guard token bonus.