Ground Combat

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:

STEP 1: 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
• If a unit’s combat value contains two or more burst icons, the player rolls one die for each burst icon instead

STEP 2: 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

• When a unit is destroyed, the player who controls that unit removes it from the board and places it in their reinforcements
• 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
• Ground combat ends when only one player (or neither player) has ground forces on the planet
• During the first round of a combat, “start of combat” and “start of combat round” effects occur during the same timing window
• During the last round of a combat, “end of combat” and “end of combat round” effects occur during the same timing window
• 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
• If neither player has a ground force remaining, there is no winner; the combat ends in a draw. In this case, the owner retains control of the planet.