The Combat
The sequence of actions, order of activationEnd Of The Battle
Declaring the winner and getting the Spoils of Victory card
The battle ends when the defender's realm is razed or discarded or when the attacker's champion is defeated or discarded. The battle, however, may end differently depending on certain circumstances. Below is a list of all possible outcomes for a round of combat.
• If the defender defeats an attacking champion during a round of combat, the battle is over. The attacker may not put forward another champion to continue the attack. The defender earns spoils of victory if the attacking champion was discarded (not sent back to his pool).
• If the attacker wins a round by defeating the defending champion, the realm is razed. The victorious champion returns to the attacker's pool, and the player draws his spoils.
• If the defender ever declines to defend the realm, the realm is razed, and the battle is over. The attacker earns spoils of victory.
• If card play causes the attacked realm to be razed or discarded (such as a player using the Cataclysm event) during combat, the battle is over. The attacking player gets spoils of victory, and both attacker and defender return to their respective pools. Both champions must be selected before combat is considered to have started.
• If both champions are discarded in combat, the round of battle ends without a winner or loser, and no spoils are drawn. Other champions may be selected for another round of battle.
• If card play causes an attacking champion to be discarded during combat, the battle is over, and the defending player gets spoils of victory.
In some cases, your opponent is discarded after combat if you play certain cards. These cards have no effect on altering a successful attack or defense. Some cards can even discard a successful attacking champion, but these effects occur outside of the battle and do not affect the spoils of victory unless it is expressly stated on the card).
Round 2 of the Battle
In rare cases, there can be two or more rounds in the same battle. There are champions who need to be defeated two times before being discarded. The defender cannot be changed, which means if you defend with a samurai, this samurai stays in the battle till death. For the second round, the same samurai must defend the realm. All support cards are discarded before round 2.
Spoils of victory
If the realm being attacked is razed or discarded during combat, the attacker gets to draw one card from his draw pile. This spoils card can then be played immediately or held in hand. Playing spoils allows the player to play a magic item, artifact, champion, holding, rule card, or dungeon that generally can't be played. The only restriction with playing spoils of victory applies to playing an avatar into the pool. While the avatar can be played as spoils, the cost associated with bringing the card into play must also be met.
Spells, psionic power cards, blood abilities, thief skills, and unarmed combat cards drawn as spoils cannot be played immediately unless the card states "can be played at any time." If not, the spoils card is added to the player's hand.
If the attacker is defeated and discarded during combat, the defender gets to draw a spoils card from the top of his draw pile. Once again, this is true even if the defense itself did not cause the champion to be discarded, but some other card play.
