This card may seem obvious to most, but it sparked huge discussion in our game yesterday. The situation:

Units committed on battle dial:

Me: 3
Opponent: 5

Strategy cards:

Me: Hylar III Pulsar Cannon
Opponent: Bio weapon & Magen Shield

Turn order:

Me first ( important later )

Leader strength doesn't matter because obviously they are both destroyed. On top of that the Pulsar Cannon and Magen shield clash to destroy everything else in the area. Now this is where it gets tricky. Most people state that both strength is 0 and turn order prevails, however, in the rules it nowhere states that the committed strength on the battle dial can go down during battle. The battle dials are only moved during step 2 of combat.

At step 7 it states: " Destroyed leaders are immediately moved to the casualty pool and do not contribute their strength when determining the winner of the battle " - nothing is stated about committed units.

Determining the winner in step 8 states: " Each player adds his leader’s strength to the number selected on his battle dial to determine his combat strength " - leader strength is 0 because both are destroyed. That leaves the battle dials which are still on numbers 3 and 5 whether the units are alive to back up that claim made on the battle dials at an earlier stage.

In the above example my opponent would win with a 3 < 5 battle strength. However others would say I would win because of turn order.

So, should battle dials be 'adjusted' due to casualties from strategy cards before comparing final combat strength? Common sense would say yes, rules don't say and that would mean battle dials stay put and still count.

I've made an account just for replying to this question because I have the same issue.

After reading some other responses it seems that the majority thinks that after the event of the explosion, the battledial doesn't play any role in step 8 anymore, but this answer to me is somewhat dogmatic and unsatisfactory. It points to an intrinsic rule that, as of yet, has not been stated but who's outcome can be seen in the resolution of this card.

It would be very nice if this rule where to be clarified

There are a couple of potential rules which I can think up that would resolve in the most commonly suggested outcome.:

General rule: If at any point the number on the battledial a player selected exceeds the number of units present from that player in the space where combat is resolved, the number should be adjusted down to the number of units present.

Card rule: In the event of the explosion, the number on the battledial is no longer used in the resolution of combat.

An answer along those lines would be great

Well, in Dune there was a section of rules about what to do during the resolution step if someone cheats (unintentionally, of course) on the things they commit to a battle. In the case of the battle dial, the rule was that if the number dialed was found to be greater than the number of units present, then the dial was reduced TO the number of units present and resolution continued. In effect, the explosion forced anyone who dialed more than zero to be in a "cheat" state when resolution rolled around and the dials were nulled.

In Rex, they seem to have omitted the rules about what happens if someone unintentionally commits something to battle that he cannot commit, and in so doing have left this rules gap as a technicality. I would be inclined to infer the cheating rules from Dune since they make sense and keep things moving, but you can always ask FFG for an official answer if you like.

Just in case anyone else comes upon this thread and wonders at the answer, the FAQ says that both sides lose everything and nobody "wins" the battle.