I'm new to AGoT, and I want to make sure I understand the timing structure (specifically with regards to unopposed challenges) correctly before I teach this game to my group.

Regarding challenges and being unopposed to score a bonus power token, what happens in the following example?

Baratheon declares 1 character to the military challenge.

Lannister declares 1 blocker.

Step A) Baratheon wins the military challenge.

Step B) Lannister must kill one character as a result of losing the military challenge. He only has 1 character in play and so must kill the blocker.

Step C) Is Baratheon now unopposed at the story, or has Lannister blocked because he had a character present (with STR) in Step A where the winner is determined?

According to the FAQ section 3.31 "Participated" and Removal From Challenge :

A character is only considered to have participated if they remain in the challenge through its resolution. If they are removed from a challenge, there is no memory of that character having participated in that challenge.

My question is whether a character killed by the military challenge - and who was also the sole blocker - is removed before the resolution of the challenge is completed? If so, would section 3.31 of the FAQ apply?

Thanks for all of your help!

Yipe said:

The best way to explain this situation is to say that the technical definition of an "unopposed" challenge is one in which the defender counts 0 total defending STR. Since you have already counted your total defending STR when you kill that character, it is too late for the count to be 0 - meaning that the challenge will be considered "opposed."

We can also get into the more complicated "moribund" rules, by which a character that is removed from play stays physically on the table until the entire action window closes, which would have the defending character still sitting on the table (despite being dead) when "unopposed" is determined.

Anyway, explanations aside, killing your only defender for claim does not make the challenge "unopposed."

Excellent answer. Thank you for the clarification on "unopposed" and counting 0 STR at the point of determining the winner.

I'm reading through the Moribund rules now. As a long-time Call of Cthulhu LCG player I'm used to complicated timing structures and card interactions, but AGoT is definitely taking it to a new level.