Hi, got a few question regarding some rules that my friends and I were unsure about

1. Do all units count as 1 strength after a battle, even hexagon units, or does their health count as their strength.

2. When someone uses the victory card rule, if it was played on summer, on the following summer, do we play to the end of that season, or does the game end right when we draw the summer card.

3. When activating an area to start a battle, can I bring more than 8 units into that area for the battle, if so, after the battle (if won) do the excess units left retreat to an adjacent area that they are able to, or do they go back to their original areas from where they moved from.

4. When playing the Spread Dissent and Lost City tactics cards, when the neutral units retreat, can they retreat to an area controlled by you, and then become allied to you, or do they have to retreat to an uncontrolled area or an area with other neutral units.

As a note we are playing the revised rules.

Cheers

1. Each standing or routed hexagon unit is worth 1 strength, regardless of health or rank.

2. In your example, the game would end immediately BEFORE the summer season card is drawn but only if he has 6 or more dragon runes. If he does not, he takes his victory card back and the summer season card is drawn.

3. You can bring more than 8 units to an activated enemy or neutral area, as long as your intention is to fight. (You have no choice if you move into enemy territory, but you cannot attempt diplomacy if you move more than 8 units into neutral territory.) If you lose the battle, all of your units will retreat. If you win the battle, units in excess of 8 will retreat.

4. Unallied neutral units retreat to adjacent neutral or empty areas. If they cannot, they are destroyed. The player to your left chooses where to retreat them. Allied neutral units retreat along with your units.

I find the rules for retreating clear, but not always obvious, so I've summarized them below.

As a reminder, a controlled area contains at least one of a player's units or a stronghold, and may also contain neutral units (allies). A controlled area is friendly if it is controlled by you, and enemy if controlled by another player.

An uncontrolled area contains no player units. If it contains neutral units only, it is a neutral area. If it contains no units, it is empty. Heroes by themselves do not affect the alignment of an area. Heroes may be present in an uncontrolled area, whether neutral or empty, and it would still be considered neutral or empty and therefore uncontrolled. This includes commanders.

Player-controlled units, which includes allied neutral units, retreat for 3 reasons (in addition to card effects): A) You lose a battle - all surviving units retreat. B) You win a battle, but your survivors exceed 8 - the excess must retreat. C) You fail a diplomacy test against unallied neutral units, and you choose to retreat rather than fight - or you are forced to retreat, if you played the Mobilize order and you had already fought a battle.

1. Retreat to adjacent friendly areas (do not exceed 8 total units per area) until no such areas are left.
2. Then, retreat to adjacent empty areas (do not exceed 8 total units per area) until no such areas are left.
3. Then, destroy the rest.

If you lose a battle and all your survivors are allied neutral units, they still remain allied. You retreat them to adjacent friendly areas. If you cannot, you retreat them to adjacent empty areas and then they break their allegiance. (As an aside, if you WIN a battle but all your survivors are neutral, they immediately break their allegiance.)

Unallied neutral units retreat for 1 reason (in addition to card effects): the middle result is drawn on a diplomacy test. They follow this pattern.

1. Retreat to adjacent uncontrolled areas (neutral or empty). The player to to the LEFT of the active player decides the areas.
2. If no such areas exist, destroy the rest.

Cards which require retreats will follow the rules for player-controlled or unallied neutral units as appropriate.

Thanks very much for the reply, this will help with future games

You're welcome. Also, there are actually 2 reasons why unallied neutral units retreat, apart from card effects or abilities : A) a middle result of a diplomacy test as I mentioned, or B) they lose a battle to a player. I forgot to mention the second one!

With A), one thing to note is that the neutrals in this case will retreat even if they were routed from a previous retreat. So attempting diplomacy on routed neutrals and using the Grey result will not destroy them.

Good catch, Sigma!

hi, got the expansion banners fo War, been looking around for info on the leonx Riders special ability, found an answer on this forum but wasnt really confirmed, Can the Leonx Riders use their special abilty when the defeated playing is retreating?

Thanks for the replys

Also about the neutral units retreating, they can retreat no an area with other neutral units? so in theory, there could eventually be a hex on the board with 8 neutral units if they all had to retreat there?

Kable83 said:

Yes; that is the main way they will use their ability (though they could also use it in conjunction with the Sorceress power).

Kable83 said:

The rule about retreating to a friendly area only applies to the players, not unallied neutral units. Unallied neutrals are not really "friendly" to themselves. So when moving retreating neutrals, they can go to ANY uncontrolled area adjacent - they are not forced to go somewhere that other neutrals already exist.

but they can still retreat to an adjacent area with other neutral units occupying it?

Kable83 said:

Yes; the person who is choosing where to move them (usually the person to the active player's left) can choose any uncontrolled area - this can be an empty one, or one with neutrals already. If there are already neutrals there, and moving the new neutrals causes there to be more than 8, that player chooses which ones to destroy.

Artaterxes said:

Maybe I do not read this correctly, but I thought the rule was:

1. Retreat all units to 1 adjacent friendly area. If this means there are more than 8 units in that area, destroy the remainder

2. If there are no adjacent friendly areas, retreat all units to 1 adjacent empty area. If this means there are more than 8 units in that area, destroy the remainder

Was this changed in the revised rules? Which reminds me, I can download those as a pdf, which I'm going to do right now

Zabulus, you are correct; sorry I didn't clarify that point earlier.

When you retreat, you must retreat to a SINGLE area; you cannot split your forces when doing so. If there are any friendly areas adjacent, you must retreat there, even if doing so would cause you to have more than 8 units there. In fact, if the only friendly adjacent area already has 8 units, you must still retreat there. Then all units in excess of 8 would be destroyed (but you do get to choose; you could choose to keep some of the retreating units and destroy some of the units that were already there).

The only time you can retreat to an empty area is if there are NO friendly areas adjacent. In practice, this is somewhat uncommon, as usually your areas will be connected to other areas; you won't usually have isolated areas (though it isn't impossible).