Unit, Shock Troop

SHOCK TROOPS 

Units available: Unlimited

Cost: 3 (with either Gen Synthesis or Neural Motivator)

Combat value: 5

Ground Unit

Occupying Force

Commando Ability

Hit 1st in an invasion

Shock Troops are elite, experienced troopers.

They are treated as Ground Forces for all cards and abilities, except as noted below.

ACQUIRING SHOCK TROOPS
• Shock Troops may be built at a Space Dock at the cost of 3 resources per unit, with either Gen Synthesis or Neural Motivator.

• When a player wins an Invasion Combat as the attacker, and he has at least one Ground Force unit surviving on the planet, he may replace one of those Ground Force units with a Shock Troop. This happens during the Production Step of the Tactical Action. There must be actual combat for the “promotion” to occur, a simple invasion of an empty planet (or invading a planet containing only planetary installations) is not enough. With Gen Synthesis Technology, two surviving Ground Forces are promoted.

• Shock Troops may also be acquired via Hope's End's refresh ability or certain Action or Political Cards.

USING SHOCK TROOPS
• Since Shock Troops do not have their own plastic figure, if a Shock Troop is on a planet without any other units or Leaders, place the race’s Control Marker on it to indicate ownership of the unit.

• When participating in Invasion Combat, Shock Troops have a Combat Value of 5 (a significant increase over the 8 of standard Ground Forces).

• If any attacking Shock Troops survive the Invasion Combat, the invader may capture all PDS units and Space Dock on the planet.

• Instead of using Shock Troops in combat, the active player may assign any number of invading Shock Troops as Commandos. Commandos do not roll dice in the Invasion Combat and cannot be taken as casualties. After a successful invasion, each Commando may capture 1 planetary installation. If the invasion fails all Commandos are immediately destroyed. If the attacker has reached his maximum in PDS units (9) or Space Docks (4) on the board, any capture of those units fails (the units are just destroyed instead). A captured Space Dock is exhausted.

• Shock Troops that participate in Invasion Combat (i.e. that are not assigned as Commandos) must always be taken as casualties before any other Ground Forces or Mechanized Units. This excludes any other time that a Ground Force would be taken as casualty (bombardment and PDS Fire, for example).

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES FOR SHOCK TROOPS
Gen Synthesis

Neural Motivator

Magen Defence Grid

Dacxive Animators (Shock Troops are resurrected as Ground Forces)

Transit Diodes

Stasis Capsules