Okay, so a player initiates a military challenge against me with one character, I then remove it's military icon, I am guessing the challenge is over, but does the character kneel? and can the opponent declare another military challenge?

Thanks

I had this done to me a couple weeks ago with The Vaithe and never questioned it. So why would they be removed from the challenge? They have already been successfully chosen as an attacker. What is different between this and one of the Greatjon's jumping into an Intrigue challenge without an Intrigue icon?

connall said:

This very question is answered in the FAQ, pg.22.

No, the challenge is not over. Look at the framework diagram in the FAQ, and remember that actions/effects fully resolve before another can be inititated, unless a save or cancel effect is used. Once the attacker has been declared and knelt (which occurs at the same time), it is committed to the challenge unless it are removed from play, or another effect occurs which specifically states that the character is removed from the challenge, or the character changes control. Simply removing icons from a declared attacker or standing a character after they have been knelt for a challenge does nothing to affect that character's involvement in the challenge.

As far as declaring another challenge of the same type, barring card effects that allow such things, once a challenge is declared, it counts as the single challenge of that type you are allowed for that challenge phase.

What you could do is preemptively remove the MIL icon prior to the character being declared for the challenge. This would occur in the Player Action framework between the begining of the Challenge phase and the Active Player declaring their challenge.

From the FAQ, p. 22:

If my character loses a military icon in the middle of a military challenge, is that character removed from the challenge?
No. Once a character is in a challenge, it can only be removed from that challenge by an effect that specifically removes the character from a challenge, an effect that removes the character from play, or by an effect that changes control of that character. Gaining or losing icons mid-challenge does not affect the attacking or defending status of that character.

So removing a character's icon does not remove it from the challenge. This is because the only time the game actually looks at the icons is when the character is declared as an attacker or defender. It does not look at the icon during challenge resolution (rules say to total up the STR of the attacking/defending characters, not the attacking/defending characters with the appropriate icon) or anything else. So if you want to stop a character from attacking, you have to remove the icon before the challenge is declared, not after.

Also, you mention something about the character "still kneeling"? Characters are knelt when they are declared as an attacker or defender (unless some card text says otherwise) in this game. The attacker should have been knelt before the icon was removed.

Keep in mind that, if your opponent declares a challenge against you with one character, and you manage to remove that character from the challenge (not just his icon), then the challenge ends without resolution.