A question regarding Colonel Starck from A Dark Time. This came up during a game.

Colonel Starck's effect reads:

This unit gains [unit Damage][unit Damage][blast Damage][blast Damage] while it is attacking a damaged objective.

Now, my question is, since this is not an activated ability, do the bonus icons appear and disappear as the situation changes?

Example:

I attack a damaged Hoth objective with Starck. The objective has 1 damage, so his bonus icons are present. During the edge Battle, Battle of Hoth is revealed, and the objective loses its damage. At this point, would the bonus icons then disappear before he focuses to strike?

Other scenario:

Starck and one other unit attack an undamaged objective, and wins the edge battle. Unit X strikes first, and does one Blast damage. Since Starck has not struck yet, and the objective is now damaged, will his bonus icons appear for when he strikes?

The uncertainty is whether or not these scenarios are what would happen, or if the bonus icons stay in effect once he declares his attack on a damaged objective.

Any help is appreciated.

His ability is indeed a constant ability. any time he is attacking and the engaged objective is damaged he'll have the extra icons and any time that is not true he doesn't have them. So in your first example, Battle of Hoth would indeed "turn off" his icons and in the second example the other unit stricking will turn them on.

To answer the potential follow up:

If you use Heavy Fire to give Starck a blast damage when he's striking an undamaged objective you can get the bonus unit damage but not the bonus blast damage. You get to choose what order to resolve icon type, so you resolve blast damage (the objective is now damaged and he has all of his extra icons, but it's too late to resolve the bonus blast damage), then you resolve unit damage.

His ability is indeed a constant ability. any time he is attacking and the engaged objective is damaged he'll have the extra icons and any time that is not true he doesn't have them. So in your first example, Battle of Hoth would indeed "turn off" his icons and in the second example the other unit stricking will turn them on.

To answer the potential follow up:

If you use Heavy Fire to give Starck a blast damage when he's striking an undamaged objective you can get the bonus unit damage but not the bonus blast damage. You get to choose what order to resolve icon type, so you resolve blast damage (the objective is now damaged and he has all of his extra icons, but it's too late to resolve the bonus blast damage), then you resolve unit damage.

Awesome. Thanks so much for the clarification