When you are involved in a challenge you are either the attacker or the defender. What happens with this is you don't declare a defender? My query is this, Spear Phalanx says response: After you loose a challenge as a defender kneel spear phalanx and kneel 3 influence to choose and discard 1 attacking character from play.

I am a defender if I don't declare a character to defend with? or does the SP have to be the defender?

Wheelz said:

YOU are the defender in the challenge as soon as it is initiated, regardless of how many defending characters (if any) you declare. Once the challenge is lost/won, you may initiate any abilities appropriate to that. Character participation is not required unless the ability specifies that it is.

I thought that was correct, but one of my gaming group wouldn't have it, so thanks for the response

Wheelz said:

(Taken in that context, it's pretty clear that the attacker saying "I'm coming after you" makes you the defending opponent/player, not the act of having a participating character in the challenge.)

please let me get it straight: I can refuse a challenge as a defender ? (I mean, can I refuse to declare caracter defenders, even if I have them in play ????)...for exemple, if someone challenges me (intrigue), and my only caracter with "intrigue" icon, I want to use it in another later challenge, I just simple say I don't want to defend myself ? or I must declare my only caracter (with intrigue) if I am challenged ....thank you

Silverzeus said:

Of course you can decide yourself if you want to declare characters as defenders, and how many of them. What gave you the idea that you couldn't?

sorry, i think i was missunderstood: I have one caracter (with intrigue) and I DON'T WANT TO USE IT if my opponent decides to attack me (with intrigue)....my question is: can I do that ? (...just to refuse to declare caracters as defenders, even if I have them in play ????)

Silverzeus said:

Yes. You do not need to declare defenders, unless some card effect is forcing you to.

ok, thank you very much

Silverzeus said:

No, I was misunderstood. I answered the question above.

To be perfectly clear: No, you don't have to declare that one character as a defender if you don't want to. You can let the challenge go undefended, and can use your standing character to attack subsequently.

When you are attacked, you can choose to not defend, even if you have standing characters with the appropriate icon. Clear?

And I don't quite get why you're so surprised about this. What made you think otherwise?

Silverzeus said:

> If an opponent attacks you, you do NOT have to declare any characters as defenders if you do not want to. Even if you have characters that are eligible to defend, you can choose not to defend yourself.

> But don't think of this as "refusing a challenge as a defender." If you do not declare defenders in the challenge, whether you have eligible characters or not, you will lose the challenge. You will have to settle claim, and your opponent will collect the 1 power for winning the challenge unopposed. So you cannot "refuse" a challenge.

> Of course, your character is still standing, giving you more options later, but the price of that is losing the challenge.

Rat: this is actually a pretty common misconception for new players because people read where it says "Your opponent must declare at least 1 defending character in order to be considered defending against a challenge" to mean that if they can defend, they must defend - even though two sentences before it says "the opponent you are challenging now has the option to kneel any number of his or her characters ... to defend against your challenge."

ktom said:

Also, at least for me, when I was new to the game, it took a while for the notion to sink in that sometimes it was in my best interest not to defend. The dawning of that knowledge is kind of like a mini coming-of-age for AGoT players.