Leader

LEADERS

Each great race has 3 great personalities as Leaders at the start of the game. There are five different types of Leaders: Generals, Admirals, Diplomats, Agents, and Scientists. Leaders are unique, and once killed, cannot be resurrected.

USING LEADERS

LEADER PLACEMENT AND MOVEMENT

One Leader is placed in their player’s Home System before the game begins just like the normal starting units, on a Home System planet or a ship.

The Yinn start with all 3 Leaders in play. Other races gain another Leader (placed on any of friendly ship or planet) when any Racial Objective is scored and when any Secret Objective is scored.

Like Ground Forces and PDS, a Leader is always considered to be on a planet, or being transported by a ship. Unlike Ground Forces and PDS, however, any space ship (including Fighters) may transport one or more Leaders using the same rules as Carriers transporting Ground Force units. For movement purposes, Leaders are considered Ground Forces that takes no capacity. Thus Technologies or Action Cards that allow movement of Ground Forces may also move Leaders (e.g. Transit Diodes and Shuttle Logistics).

Leaders may be moved freely between the steps of a Tactical Action within the same system, as long as there are no enemy ships present. Example: Before a Space Battle, the Attacker may not move his Admiral from a Cruiser to a Dreadnought but after winning the Space Battle he may wait to see the result of any Invasion Combat before deciding to land his Diplomat.

A Leader is not allowed to invade a neutral or hostile planet unless accompanied by at least one Ground Force or Mechanized Unit. Leaders can never exist on neutral planets.

''Example: The Sol player moves a Carrier containing 3 Ground Force units and his Agent to a system with a Norr planet guarded by 1 Ground Force and a PDS unit. Sol may choose to land his Agent on the planet with the GF, but if his invasion is not successful the leader is automatically captured. If he leaves it on the ship, the Agent cannot use its special abilities during the invasion, but he may still move the leader on the planet after the Invasion Combat step of the Tactical Action has been completed.''

KILLING AND CAPTURING LEADERS

Leaders are powerful assets, and your opponents would like nothing better than to capture or eliminate these individuals. There are several occasions on which the fate of a leader will have to be determined. These are divided into two categories depending on whether the Leader is on a planet or a ship. On each occasion the Leader might be killed, captured or he might be able to escape. Sometimes the outcome is automatic, other times a die roll is needed. Consult the table below to determine a Leader’s fate:

The Leader is

* on a ship that is destroyed in a space battle: Roll 1die: 1=Killed. 2-7 Captured, 8-10 Escapes

* on a ship that is destroyed outside of space battle: Killed * on a planet that changes hands outside of combat: Escapes
 * on a planet losing a combat as the defender: Roll 1 die: 1=Killed. 2-7 Captured, 8-10 Escapes
 * on a planet failing an invasion as the attacker against an enemy: Captured
 * on a planet failing an invasion against neutral forces: Escapes

Killed Leaders are simply removed from play.

Escaped Leaders

If a Leader escapes, he may be immediately placed on a friendly planet in the same or adjacent system. If no such planet is in range, the Leader is captured instead.

Captured Leaders

Captured opponent Leaders are marked with a flag of the capturing race, and retain their position on a planet or in space. Such captives are transported exactly like the player’s own Leaders. The captor of a Leader may transfer them to another player during the Status Phase, but only to fleets or planets adjacent to the present location of the captured Leader.

RESCUING CAPTIVE LEADERS

If a planet that holds a captured Leader is successfully invaded, or the ship holding him/her is destroyed, a new fate roll is in order. On a result of 'captured' or 'escapes', the Leader changes hands. If the planet was invaded or ship destroyed by the original owner of the Leader, he may immediately place the Leader in play in the same system, on a friendly planet or ship. If the "rescuer" was not the original owner of the Leader, the Leader is still regarded as 'captured', only by a new player.

The abilities of a Leader depend on the Leader type. The 5 different Leader types and abilities are described in detail below. In terms of rules, all Leaders of a certain type are identical.

SCIENTIST

• Scientists add a +1 technology discount if present (on a planet or in space) with a Technology Specialty

◦ The discount is the same color as the Technology Specialty on the planet or the Artifact

◦ Scientist on a planet with both a Specialty and an Artifact may only add to one of those during purchasing Technology

◦ The bonus remains as long as the planet is refreshed (But Artifacts are never exhausted!). ''Example: A player purchases 3 red Technologies with the primary ability of the Technology Strategy. He has a Scientist on a planet with a red Specialty. He gets the bonus discount on all purchased Technologies for a net discount of 6.''

• A planet with a Scientist may build a new Space Dock at a cost of 2 rather than 4.

• PDS units on a planet with at least one Scientist receive +1 on all rolls.

• If a planet with at least 1 PDS unit and at least 1 Scientist is bombarded, the player may deduct 1 additional bombardment hit (see PDS unit’s Planetary Shield on p.57 and Bombardment on p.29).

Jol-Nar’s 2 Scientists

Only one Scientist may add to the Specialty a planet provides. Thus, the only benefit of having two Scientists on the same planet is that if the planet has an Artifact and a Specialty, one Scientist may be “assigned” to each of them.

DIPLOMAT

• Diplomatic Immunity: If a Diplomat is present on a planet about to be invaded by an enemy during the Planetary Invasion step, the Diplomat may cancel the entire Invasion Combat sequence. The attacking units are returned to the carrying ships, and no bombardment is conducted. This cancellation may be overturned by the invading player if he immediately spends 10 influence (in which case the Diplomat will immediately escape to a friendly planet). A planet protected by a Diplomat may not be protected again by a Diplomat for the remainder of the round, or for the next game round.

• Safe Passage: A player controlling a Diplomat may allow enemy ships to move through his ships in the system with the Diplomat.

• Diplomatic Convoy: A fleet travelling with a Diplomat may move through enemy fleets with the enemies’ permission.

• Negotiated Mercy: In a system where a Diplomat is present, if the attacker agrees, a defending fleet may retreat before the Space Battle step of the Tactical Action sequence. Although no Space Battle is initiated, this still counts as a won Space Battle for the purpose of fulfilling Objectives. This manoeuvre does not cancel Trade Agreements.

GENERAL

• Superior Tactics: A player may reroll 2 dice during each Invasion Combat round for each of his Generals present. The same die may not be rerolled more than once each combat round, however.

• Strong Leadership: Each Ground Force unit participating in Invasion Combat with at least one General receives +1 on all combat rolls.

• Advanced Organization: Bombarding units receive -4 to bombardment rolls against a planet that contains at least one General.

ADMIRAL

• The ship carrying the Admiral rolls one extra Combat die during Space Battles, excluding pre-combat (and bombardment!). Note that only one additional die is rolled, even if the Admiral is on a ship with more than 1 combat die.

• A Dreadnought carrying an Admiral receives +1 movement.

• When attacked by a fleet containing an Admiral, a defending fleet may not retreat unless the defending fleet also contains an Admiral. This does not apply to the Naalu retreat ability.

AGENT

• If an Agent is part of an Invasion Combat as an attacker (by landing on the enemy planet with one or more friendly ground units), enemy PDS may not fire at the invading Ground Forces.

• Capturing: If an Agent is part of a successful Invasion Combat as an attacker (by landing on the enemy planet with one or more friendly ground units), the active player may replace any enemy PDS and Space Dock on the planet with his own similar units (normally these units would be destroyed), if he has these units available in his reinforcements.

• Agents may cancel an Action Card effect that takes place in their present system. The Action Card is not considered played, but is still discarded. Doing so, an Agent may not cancel other cards this round or through the entire next round. In respect to this ability, all political oriented Action Cards (e.g Thugs,) are considered to take place on Mecatol Rex, and all cards targeting the race sheet (e.g Insubordination, Cultural Crisis) take place within your Home System.

• Enemy Leaders are automatically captured when defeated in a Space Battle or Invasion Combat with an Agent present (the Agent must be on the fleet winning the Space Battle, or part of the victorious invasion force).