This post is going to get a bit meaty, but in truth these steps are rather simple. Don't panic, it looks harder than it is. The steps are also outlined on your race sheet for easy reference, and we will of course go over everything at game-time when needed. Easy peezy.
OVERVIEW
- If two players have ships in a system, they repeat combat rounds until either one player wipes out the other player, or a player retreats.
- Combat is decided by rolling 10-sided dice, and comparing your results to the COMBAT value of your attacking ships.
- Once space combat is over, the winning player may then land ground infantry on planets in an effort to take control of them. If there are enemy troops on those planets, ground combat ensues.
Tip: For reference, I suggest checking out a high rez race sheet I'd emailed you earlier, as it will show the units' combat attributes.
COMBAT
Continuing on from last week's progression through the steps of the Tactical Action, we have thus activated a system and moved units into it.
If another player's ships are in the system, you must now fight them for control of the system. In Twilight Imperium, two players cannot peacefully occupy the same system - you must fight!
Players resolve space combat by performing the following steps in order:
1). ANTI-FIGHTER BARRAGE: Each player’s units can use their “Anti-Fighter Barrage” abilities, if their units have it (it's a special ability of some ships).
2). ANNOUNCE RETREAT: Either player may choose to announce a retreat. A retreat will not happen immediately; the units will retreat at the end of the combat round.
If a player wishes to retreat with any of his ground forces that are on planets in the active system, he must move them from planets to the space area during this step.
3). MAKE COMBAT ROLLS: Each player rolls one die (10-sided) for each ship he has in the active system. If the result of a unit’s die roll is equal to or greater than that unit’s combat value shown on its faction sheet, that roll produces a hit.
The total number of hits a player produces will be used in the next step.
If a unit’s combat value contains two or more burst icons, the player rolls this number of dice instead, potentially producing one hit with each die rolled.
In the example shown here, this ship gets to roll two dice, and either die hits on a 5 or higher.
4). ASSIGN HITS: Each player must choose and destroy one of his ships for each hit his opponent produced. A player removes destroyed ships from the game board and places them in his reinforcements.
Since players assign hits to their own units, it is a good strategy to assign hits to units that are cheaper to replace.
Because of this, fighters are often used as fodder to protect the rest of a player’s ships.
SUSTAIN DAMAGE
Some units have an ability called "Sustain Damage". This basically means that it takes two hits to destroy it. For the first assigned hit, you turn the unit on its side to indicate that it's been hit once.
5). RETREAT: If a player announced a retreat during the first step of the combat round, he retreats. To retreat, the player takes all of his ships from the combat and places them in an adjacent system.
The chosen system cannot contain ships that belong to another player and must contain either
a planet he controls or at least one of his units; otherwise, the player cannot retreat.
If the chosen system does not contain one of that player’s command tokens, the player must place one token from his reinforcements in that system when he retreats.
End of Space Combat
If both players have units remaining in the system at the end of the “Retreat” step, they resolve another round of combat starting with the “Announce Retreat” step. After all units on one or both
sides of the combat have been destroyed or have retreated, play proceeds to the INVASION step.
INVASION
OK, you've just wiped out your enemy's ships. Time to take over the planets in the system.
Players resolve an invasion by performing the following steps in order:
1). BOMBARDMENT: If any planets in the active system contain another player’s ground forces, the active player may use the “Bombardment” abilities of any of his units in that system (it's a special ability of some units). This may allow the active player to destroy some of the defender’s units before landing ground forces.
2). COMMIT GROUND FORCES: The active player decides which ground forces he wishes to land on planets. To do so, he takes any of his ground forces that are with his ships in the space area of the active system and places each one on the planet he wishes to invade.
3). SPACE CANNON DEFENSE: If another player has a PDS on any of the planets the active player has committed ground forces to, he may be able to destroy some of those ground forces before they land.
4). GROUND COMBAT: If multiple players have ground forces on the same planet, those players resolve a ground combat. Ground combats on multiple planets are resolved in the order of the active player’s choice.
Players resolve ground combat over a number of rounds that each consist of two steps, following the same rules as the space combat steps of the same name:
1. Make Combat Rolls
2. Assign Hits
After assigning hits, if multiple players have units remaining on the planet, they resolve another round of ground combat starting with the “Make Combat Rolls” step. After all units on one or both sides of the combat have been destroyed, proceed to the next step.
5). ESTABLISH CONTROL: The active player gains control of each invaded planet that still contains at least one of his ground forces. When a player gains control of a planet, he gains its corresponding planet card and places it in his play area exhausted. Then, if the planet contains
structures that belong to another player, those structures are destroyed.
OK, that's enough to digest for today. We're almost done with the Tactical Action. Join us next week when we tackle the final step: PRODUCTION.
Until then!
No comments:
Post a Comment