Action Card: The hand that takes

Effect: Destroy any 1 unit in A Mercenary' system.

Play: After a player fails to pay a Trade Good for the mercenary.

What happened is the following: Player A did not pay for his merc on purpose. Then he play this Action Card in order to destroy a units in another player's system containing a Mercenary. Then half the group say it's legal while the other half is arguing.

My thoughts on this: The unit you destroy has to be in the same system of the mercenary who isn't paid. You did not pay him so he screw you up.

The other half claim this move legal because it says '' in 'A' Mercenary's system'' and it's not clear enough.

Can someone help me on this and make them understand the purpose of this AC?

Sincèrement vôtre,
Sa1KoRo

What are you saying that he played the card after not paying his own merc? He can't do that, it's if you don't pay a mercenary and lose it, and another player then plays this card it's you who lose the unit from those in the same system he's in. It would seem a bit of a cheat to not pay your own merc then blow up somebody else's unit. In any event, you can't, as if you move into someone else's system and they have units there, you would be in a space battle unless those units are only on the ground. But no way do the rules intend you to get somebody else bitten by your miserly ways. The card is designed for somebody to punish a player who didn't pay (or couldn't pay) his mercenaries. As far as I am aware (and please step in and correct me here if I'm wrong) if you have the trade goods you must pay the mercenaries you can pay or you lose them.

jboweruk is correct, your opponent misplayed the card. The key word here is the definite article "the", as it refers to THE mercenary that was not paid the trade good. So when a mercenary is not paid, a unit is destroyed in the mercenary's system. End of story.

I couldn't read the card text as I was typing my post, so I had the locations of the "a" and "the" backwards, but the result is the same. Bottom line: it's referring to the same mercenary in both the "Play" text and the "Effect" text.