Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Spires may only attack once per turn, and since Raze happens during the Brawnen's turn it does not impact the spire's ability to attack during opponent's turns during the spires fire step.

No. The Drilling Outpost spire's Mining talent prevents the spire from being constructed at any time that isn't the build phase, which includes through the use of a spire reward.

Yes. Both limited build options and the Raze ability happen during the Start of Turn step of a player's turn, and because it is still during the start of turn when the spire is constructed, the talent is still in the correct timing window to be used.

Yes. Retaliation is not an attack so a Forsaken may retaliate as normal. Additionally, the Forsaken die only applies its effect during the Brawnen's turn, so the No Attack result would have no effect anyway.

Yes. It is your choice when to use it, but once rolled it is resolved immediately.

Both talents should say are the only faction minion type in play, as neutral revealed landmark minions do not prevent these talents from triggering.

Yes. The Siege Tower is still considered to have attacked the fortress gate even if the resulting damage is 0. Note that the fortress gate only retaliates when units attack it, so the fortress gate does not retaliate against Siege Tower spires using the Raze talent.

When the Brawnen purchase an advancement that says something like minions are permanently promoted, all minions of the promoted type in play and in the barracks are flipped to their promoted side. For the rest of the game the affected minions cannot be selected for deployment on their basic side, but if a game effect would put them back onto their basic side, like the Architect's Builder talent, the effect still resolves normally.

Units in the deployment stack are inactive, so all of their talents are ignored until they deploy. Units that roll dice before movement, like the Forsaken, will not roll their dice on the turn they are deployed because their talent is inactive at the point it would normally trigger. After a unit is deployed it will roll the die as normal.

No. You ignore the Siege Tower's shown starting upgrades, and maintain the same upgrades it had before the Builder talent was used. For example, a Dispatch Platform spire was constructed during the build phase, with its starting upgrades of 1 attack and 1 range. During the onslaught phase, the Brawnen use a limited build option to add a fortification upgrade to it. Later, the Brawnen use an Architect's Builder talent to promote the Dispatch Platform into a Siege Tower. The Architect can do so even if the Brawnen do not have the Smelter Level 1 advancement. The Dispatch Platform chip is flipped over. This spire no longer has Splash but now has Raze, and has an upgrade capacity of 4 instead of 3. Its upgrades do not change; it maintains its upgrades of 1 attack, 1 range, and 1 fortification.

No. While you cannot purchase either of these advancements if you do not have the Level 1 Forsaken Artillery advancement, you can use them if you already purchased them previous to using the artillery die.

No. As a general rule Source wells will not appear on path hexes, as that would make it possible for that hex to be the only valid path connecting to a fortress, and then for that path to be eliminated by a spire being built there. There are a couple of Source wells that sit on grassland hexes but could be mistaken for path due to the graphical treatment, such as those on isles 2 and 4. Those hexes are not path.

Those hexes are plains. The neoprene isles numbers 7 and 8 in the second printing of Cloudspire have some small graphical changes to help with clarity. These hexes were always meant to be plains hexes and the graphics were changed to make that distinction more clear.

Yes. The second printing of The Joining War has one printing error on page 157, which shows the setup for Solo Griege Scenario 3. In that image, isle 8 is incorrectly printed with the attack upgrade image on it. It is correct on the digital version of these scenarios.

Attack, range, and fortification upgrade chips are considered limited. Health chips, advancement pegs, and attack dice are all unlimited. In the rare case you run out, use a suitable replacement. If a component has a discard, like market chips, relics, or earthscapes, and you run out of these components, reshuffle the discard to create a new supply.

Yes. Although a unit cannot be displaced into an occupied hex, it can displace or be displaced into an invalid hex. If a unit finds itself on an invalid hex, it follows the rules for invalid hexes located on page 10 of the rules reference.

No. The Flying talent does not grant the ability to move on or through occupied hexes. Other units can displace a unit with Flying, but a unit with Flying cannot displace other units unless another game effect allows it to.

No. A hex group must be adjacent to your fortress gate, contain one of your spires, or be adjacent to a hex group containing one of your spires, in order for you to have influence over it.

Yes. In a free-for-all game of Cloudspire, when your fortress is pillaged you still take your turn as normal. Your minions, heroes, and spires are unaffected by the loss of your fortress and you still gain rewards for defeating opposing units and spires as normal. In a team game, if any fortress is defeated that team loses the game.

Yes. Just like heroes, minions gain the difference in health from their basic sides to their promoted sides if they promote while in play. If they are demoted, their health is not adjusted.

Yes. Unless very clearly stated by the talent, a talent will not affect or be affected by inactive units. For example, Swashbuckler will not gain +1 attack from adjacent inactive units and Rally will not promote inactive Heir minions.

You may take into account the units selected for deployment by players with a turn order before yourself. For example, if you are the second player in turn order, you are only permitted to get information about the first player's selected units, not the third or fourth. Deployment stacks themselves are created simultaneously and privately. You can use your hand to obstruct while making your deployment stack, so your opponents may know what units you have selected, but not the order in which you are deploying them or which units have been grouped. Only once all players have locked in their deployment stack is the stack revealed. The top unit is open information, and some information about grouping will be evident from looking at the stack, but you are not permitted to look through each other's stacks and see the order of your opponents' units.

Campfire mode triggers at the start of a player's turn during the onslaught phase when there are no opposing units in play. A unit is either a minion or a hero. Campfire mode is only intended to be triggered if one side has completely wiped out the forces of all of their opponents. This is not the same as the trigger for the end of the wave, which happens when there are no faction minions left in play on either side. The wave can end without campfire mode ever being triggered. An easy way to remember to check if campfire mode has triggered is when all of your opponents take a turn but do not have the option to move units because they have none left in play.

The current wording on minion deployment is a little contradictory and does not accurately convey the design intent. Minion deployment should work similar to minion movement. It should be reworded to the following: If a minion is on top of your deployment stack and you can make any amount of progress with it by deploying, it must deploy. If a minion is on top of your deployment stack and it can only reach a hex that is the same distance from its mark as its starting hex, it can optionally deploy to move to that hex. If a minion is on top of your deployment stack and it can only reach a hex that is a further distance from its mark than its starting hex, it cannot deploy. Note that this only applies to minions. Heroes are still required to always deploy at their earliest opportunity to do so, with the one exception being to a hex that does not lead to their mark.

You may group the minion under others. However, it will not keep the upgrades, since upgrades cannot be added to units in a group. This includes units that would form groups mid-wave, like the Grovetenders Taproots.

Any effects occurring at the same time, such as at the start of your turn, can be resolved in the order of the current player's choice. Note that after movement effects occur before spires fire, not at the same time as spires firing.

In general, you receive the reward shown on a unit or spire if your faction is directly responsible for its defeat. You can defeat a unit or spire using your units through attacks, retaliations, and or talents, using your spires through attacks and or talents, or using your fortress gate through retaliation. If a landmark or an AI unit or spire makes a defeat, no reward is gained by anyone, unless otherwise noted by a talent in play.

An occupied hex is a hex with something in it. A hex could be occupied by a unit, spire, or landmark.

Since the onslaught phase ends when there are no faction minions in play and no units yet to deploy, the phase will end once all units have been deployed from their deployment stacks. This means that the wave will end during the movement step of the last player in turn order, when that player finishes moving their last unit from their deployment stack.

When a minion is sent back to your barracks, perhaps by an enemy talent or relic, you will get to redeploy it on a future wave. Minions redeployed this way are treated as new units and cost their standard CP to deploy. If a converted landmark minion or merc minion is ever sent to your barracks, you will be able to redeploy it for free. Note that if you are playing as The Uprising, you will still need to spend CP equal to the Source cost to deploy a merc minion, though you would still be able to deploy landmark minions for free.