I've just got a few question that popped up during the last game we played. We introduced mechanized units and mercenaries lately and a few questions have so far been unanswered.

1. Domain Counters. The Ground Force is already landed by the time the Domain Counter is revealed, right? If the carrier is destroyed by a revealed fighter, the GFs still make it and I still retain control of the planet, correct?

2. Automated Defense Systems. The faq says "Mechanized Units are treated as Ground Forces in regards to invading and controlling planets only , this includes cards and effects which would revert a planet to neutral if no Ground Forces are present. They participate in invasion combat but are immune to all abilities that refer to Ground Forces, such as Action Cards, technologies, Domain Counters, bombardments, PDS fire, and Leaders." This means I'm correct in assuming that Mechanized Units are immune to the fire from Automated Defense Systems, since it specifically says "landing Ground Force." We were landing a single mechanized unit to take over a planet that had them on it. I wasn't entirely sure this was right because of them counting as Ground Forces in regards to invading.

3. Same situation but with mercenaries. Since they are switched to ground when during the invasion step, are mercenaries also immune to fire from an automated defense system?

4. Say I send two GFs and a PDS down during the invasion step and all the GFs are killed. What happens to the PDS?

Thank you for the help!

Repentinus said:

I'm inclined to say yes, personally. I seem to recall this question sparking a certain amount of debate the last time it was asked, though.

Repentinus said:

I believe that is correct per RAW. Apparently, deorbiting MUs are covered in enough armor plating that they can basically ignore these sorts of defensive weapons, at least over the relatively short distances they need to cover before they land. The fact that they can also ignore PDS fire supports this ruling (the ADS is not technically a PDS, but MUs can ignore both, according to the FAQ answer you quoted.)

Repentinus said:

I don't know Shards well enough to say for sure, but generally speaking cardboard tokens aren't considered units unless the rules explicitly say so. Are Mercenaries explicitly called units? Leaders are not units, for example.

Repentinus said:

Same thing that happens when an enemy player successfully invades one of your planets that has a PDS on it - it gets destroyed at the end of invasion combat without friendly troops to protect it.

The real question is "if the enemy I was invading had Shock Troops on the planet and one of them survived, can he conquer my PDS as if he had invaded me?" I'm going to guess no, btw, though I'm too lazy to figure it out with rules support.

1: if the fighter domain counter destroys the carrier then any ground force and/or mechanized units are destroyed.

Yes you are correct that the ground forces have already landed, the diffrence is that you can only land on the fighter domain counter if you have successfully beat it in space combat, and if you failed at that the GF'S and MU's have no way to go

2: I belive you are right on all counts but one, i don't think they're immune to regular pds fire, better read up on that.

3. they are, but any accompanying ground forces are not.

4.They are destroyed, i belive shock troops would not be able to capture it

Repentinus said:

1. Yes, you are correct. You control the planet, but the airspace is still contested. I also think this goes to whether or not you "control the system" since that usually entails controlling the airspace of a system. In this case, you would not technically "control the system", despite the fact that you control the (or a) planet in that system.

4. The PDS is destroyed as well.

1. Say there are two planets in the system, both with domain counter on them. you choose the order in which you reveal them / invade the planets. one has fighter, the other is "free". If you get the free one first, you keep it, then reveal the fighters. if you loose to the fighters you loose the second planet (it says so in the game manual). If you reveal the fighters first and you loose, you loose all ground forces and thereby the choice of invading the second planet (and thereby you wouldnt even know that it was "free")

2. and 3. well it clearly states "Ground Forces" in the manual, so i would say mercs and MU's wouldnt get hit by them according to the rules… however i will continue to house-rule it differently. (if they can damage spaceships in adjacent systems it seems unrealistic that they cant shoot a hole in a tank on the same planet.. honestly )

4. it would get destroyed unless the opponent has shocktroops or and agent; then he would claim it (unless he allready had 2 pds units on the planet… then they would get destroyed)

Double posted, sorry

Repentinus said:

• FIGHTER AMBUSH
  After landing, a Space Battle immediately starts in the system against the indicated number of local Fighters (allow another player to roll their combat dice). Players may not use Anti-Fighter Barrage in this Space Battle. If the Space Battle fails, then the planet remains uncontrolled, all landing Ground Forces are discarded, and the fighters return to full indicated strength. Discard this counter after a successful Space Battle.

Your landing Ground Forces are dead if you fail the Fighter Ambush Domain Counter. We play it though that if you land a mechanized unit you still get the planet since it does not mention "all landing forces" or such.