Unit

#### DEFINITION OF A GROUND UNIT

Ground Units may generally not move unless transported by a ship. This includes Ground Forces, Shock Troops, Mechanised Units and PDSs.

#### DEFINITION OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Space Docks and Facilities are *infrastructure*.  They are specific to a planet, and may not move once built (Saar Space Docks aside).

A planet can have at most one Space Dock and/or one Facility.

#### DEFINITION OF OCCUPYING FORCE

It is necessary to successfully land at least one occupying force, and to eliminate all hostile occupying forces, for an invasion to be successful.  Occupying forces are also ground units. Includes Ground Forces, Shock Troops and Mechanised Units.

Shock Troops operating as Commandos during an invasion do not count as an occupying force.

#### DEFINITION OF COMMANDO ABILITY

A unit with commando ability (i.e. a Shock Troop) has the option of joining an invasion not as an occupying force, but as a Commando.

Commandos take no part in the invasion itself and die if the invasion fails, but should the invasion succeed each Commando will be able to capture one planetary installation that would otherwise be destroyed.

With both Gen Synthesis and Neural Motivators, each Commando can capture up to two planetary installations that would otherwise be destroyed.

#### SHIPS WITH TRANSPORTING CAPABILITIES

All ships that are able to transport other units follow the same rules regarding picking up, transporting and dropping off units.

These units are Carriers, War Suns and Flagships. They may carry all types of ground units and fighters.

\* Cruisers and Dreadnoughts of a race that has the Stasis Capsules Technology Advance. They may normally only carry Ground Forces and Shock Troops.

Transporting units is subject to the following rules:

\* Each such ship has a capacity that cannot be exceeded. You may think of capacity as open “slots,” for which each slot may hold a Ground Force, PDS, a Mechanised Unit, Shock Troop or Fighter unit. Note that Stasis Capsules only makes it possible to carry Ground Forces and Shock Troops.

\* Although it does not move, a Space Dock can support up to 3 fighters.

\* If the transporting ship is destroyed, all ground units on board are immediately destroyed. Fighters are only destroyed if there is not enough fighter capacity in the system. If the transporting ship was destroyed in a Space Battle, fighter capacity is checked for only after the battle.

\* Transported ground units do not participate in combats and have no combat rolls.

\* Leaders can be transported by any ship capable of transporting Ground Forces, but they take up 0 capacity.

• Units may be picked up at any time during movement from planets or other ships. They may only be “dropped” during the Planetary Landings step of an action.

• Units may be picked up in a system that contains enemy spaceships. In other words, a ship may move into a system containing enemy spaceships, pick up units, and then fight a Space Battle.

• Units may not be picked up from a system that has been previously activated by the same player.

#### DEFINITION OF SUSTAIN DAMAGE

Mechanised Units, Dreadnoughts, Flagships and War Suns have the Sustain Damage special ability.

When a unit with this ability takes its first hit, it is damaged rather than destroyed. Place the unit on its side to indicate its damaged status.

War Suns may take two hits before being destroyed. Place a Hit Marker inside the War Sun in order to show that it has taken two hits.

Any ship that is in a damaged state loses 1 combat die per hit taken, down to a minimum of one. Example: A War Sun has taken 2 hits. It is on its side, with a Hit Marker inside it. It rolls only 1 die in Space Battles and for bombardment.

Any dice lost due to damage taken are restored when the unit is repaired. All damaged units are automatically repaired in the status phase.

#### BOMBARDMENT

During the Invasion Combat step of a Tactical Action, the active player may bombard planets before any Invasion Combats take place. They may bombard even if no Invasion Combat is about to happen. If there is more than one planet in the system, the active must decide how to divide bombardments – each ship may only bombard one planet.

Units that may bombard include:  Dreadnoughts, War Suns, Flagships.  Cruisers with Advanced Cruisers + Graviton Negator may also bombard.

Simply roll one combat die for every eligible ship.  War Suns with the Graviton Negator (and War Sun) technology may roll 3 bombardment dice, reduced by the amount of damage taken.
Remove one enemy occupying force on the contested planet for every result equal to or higher than the combat value of the bombarding unit.
If there are any Mechanised Units on the planet, they are removed before Ground Forces, and may not use the Sustain Damage ability against bombardment.  This does not apply if the defender has a PDS present, and the defender has both Magen Defense Grid and Duranium Armor.

Each PDS Unit (max. 2) on the planet cancels one bombardment hit.   (If the attacker has Graviton Negator, they may ignore 1 PDS.)

If there is a Scientist on the planet with a PDS, one additional hit is cancelled.

Occupying forces destroyed by bombardment are removed immediately, do not receive return fire, and will not participate in the upcoming Invasion Combat.

If a planet takes more hits from bombardment than it has occupying forces, if the active player so wishes, the planet immediately reverts to neutral status. If a planet reverts to neutrality, all planetary installations are removed.

NB:  Shock Troops may only be built at a Space Dock, if a race has Gen Synthesis or Neural Motivator.   They may always be acquired by promoting one attacking Ground Force after a successful invasion.