Ground Combat

Rules Reference

During the Ground Combat step of an invasion, if the active player has ground forces on a planet that contains another player’s ground forces, those players resolve a ground combat on that planet. To resolve a ground combat, players perform the following steps:

  1. Step 1 – Roll Dice: Each player rolls one die for each ground force they have on the planet; this is a combat roll. If a unit’s combat roll produces a result that is equal to or greater than that unit’s combat value, that roll produces a hit.
    1. If a unit’s combat value contains two or more burst icons, the player rolls one die for each burst icon instead.
  2. Step 2 – Assign Hits: Each player in the combat must choose one of their own ground forces on the planet to be destroyed for each hit result their opponent produced.
    1. When a unit is destroyed, the player who controls that unit removes it from the board and places it in their reinforcements.
  3. After assigning hits, if both players still have ground forces on the planet, players resolve a new combat round starting with the Roll Dice step.
  4. Ground combat ends when only one player (or neither player) has ground forces on the planet.
    1. During the first round of a combat, “start of combat” and “start of combat round” effects occur during the same timing window.
    2. During the last round of a combat, “end of combat” and “end of combat round” effects occur during the same timing window.
    3. After a combat ends, the player with one or more ground forces remaining on the planet is the winner of the combat; the other player is the loser of the combat.
    4. If neither player has a ground force remaining, there is no winner; the combat ends in a draw.

Notes

  1. The “start of combat” and “start of combat round” occurs before the Roll Dice step.
  2. The “end of combat” and “end of combat round” occurs after the Assign Hits step.
  3. If ground combat is to happen on multiple planets during a single invasion step, they will be resolved planet by planet, after the Space Cannon Defense step has resolved been resolved on all planets and before the Establish Control step is resolved on any planet. The active player chooses the order combats are fought in.
  4. A player may score up to one secret objective per ground combat. If there is combat on multiple planets, a player may score a secret objective in each.
  5. A player may use the Sustain Damage ability of a unit involved in a combat, usually a mech, to cancel a hit produced by their opponent.
  6. No player may retreat from a ground combat.
  7. The “0” side of the d10 represents a result of 10.

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