Hi everyone. I have just purchased this game and need some clarification around the Challenges Phase. If a player initiates a challenge whether it is military, intrigue or power, against another player, must the defending player declare at least one defending character? Or do they have the option of not defending against an attack even if they have characters in play? The core rules do say the defender has THE OPTION to kneel any number of his or her characters. If they can is this the same as an unopposed challenge and the attacker gains the bonus power.

Vermic said:

You are not required to name any defenders. The challenge will be unopposed (and the attacking player will claim a power for it in addition to claim, etc.) whenever your defending STR is 0, whether because you declared no defenders or because you did and their STR was reduced by some other effect.

Sorry so just to clarify this would mean that the attacking player receives the claim value from the plot card (whether that is military, intrigue or power) plus the bonus power if it is a unopposed challenge?

In an example if during a military challenge the attacking player uses 3 character cards with a combined total strength of 10 and the defending player has 2 character cards with a combined total strength of 9. There is a plot card in play with a claim value of 2. The defending player chooses not to defend and therefore it is a unopposed challenge. The attacking player therefore wins the military challenge and would kill 2 of defenders characters and receive the bonus power?

Also I noticed one of the cards 'Lord Stannis Baratheon' has the ability of while attacking, if the opposing player has no lord characters in play, the opposing player can not declare a defender. So this would be the same as a unopposed challenge?

Thanks.

The answers are yes, yes, and yes. A minor clarification is that the claim of a military challenge is settled by having the defending player choose X of his characters (where x= claim) to die, not having the "attacker kill them" - you're probably aware of this, but just to make sure my answer is complete I thought I'd cover this.

It's worth noting that there are other ways for a challenge to be unopposed than simply have no blockers - for instance, if the total defending strength is 0 (due to strength reducing effects, keywords like Intimidate, strength ignoring effects) and the attacker wins the challenge (eg strength 1 or greater), then the challenge is unopposed as well, with everything that entails.