12. Liberation
Liberation is the soft-power contest. It is a campaign fought across turns, not a single decisive exchange: Liberation places counters that persist on the Map and accumulate until a target's Rank is met.
Liberation resolves during the Combat/Liberation sub-phase of the Action Phase. A player may resolve either Combat or Liberation in a turn, not both (§10.2).
Liberation reaches further than Combat. A liberator may declare a target in its own Band, in an adjacent Band, or one Band beyond an adjacent Band (§12.3a). Combat is a matter of physical reach; Liberation is the transfer of ideas, and ideas travel further than soldiers.
Liberation does not require co-location. Within that range, a liberator may target any legal permanent regardless of which permanent the liberator occupies.
12.1 Structural Distinction from Combat#
Combat is resolved under full information: both players see all relevant values, and an optimal defense is calculable. Liberation is resolved under sealed commitment: the liberating player assigns concealed, and the defending player allocates without knowing the distribution. There is no dominant defense in Liberation — only a better or worse read of the liberating player's intent.
12.2 Step 1 --- Activate Liberators#
The active player Activates any number of Characters and Ground Units they control. The Vox of each Activated card is added to that player's Resource Pool.
Activated cards are public. The liberating player's total Vox for this Liberation is therefore known to both players. Only its distribution is hidden.
A card deployed this turn may not be Activated as a liberator (§10.4).
12.3 Step 2 --- Declare Targets#
The active player publicly declares which permanents they are targeting. They declare which targets, not how much Vox each will receive.
Restrictions:
The number of declared targets may not exceed the number of liberators Activated in Step 1.
The number of declared targets may not exceed the liberating player's total Vox, since every declared target must receive at least 1 Vox (§12.5b).
A permanent with Indoctrinated may not be declared.
A Location hosting an opposing Fortified unit (§18.33) may not be declared.
A permanent outside the liberator's Liberation range may not be declared (§12.3a).
12.3a Liberation Range
A liberator may declare a target in its own Band, in an adjacent Band, or one Band beyond an adjacent Band. Empty Bands are skipped as provided in §14.2, and the Space Band is always counted and never skipped.
Where a liberating player Activates multiple liberators, each declared target must be within range of at least one Activated liberator.
Confluence. A liberating player with a Confluence ability declares it here, together with their targets, before the defending player Activates. Confluence may not be declared later, and once declared may not be withdrawn. See §18.48.
Fast Maneuvers may be played at this point, active player first.
12.4 Step 3 --- Activate Defenders#
The defending player may Activate any number of Characters and Ground Units they control, adding their Vox to the defending player's Resource Pool.
Defenders need not be deployed at or near a declared target. As with liberation, resistance to a campaign is not a matter of physical presence — information travels freely, and a faction may double down on its ethos remotely.
Activated defenders are public; the defending player's total Vox is therefore known to both players.
Defending Vox may be allocated only to declared targets. A player may not place defensive counters on a permanent that has not been declared.
12.5 Step 4 --- Commitment#
The liberating player commits first and in secret. The defending player then allocates in the open. Because the liberating player is fully committed before any defensive counter is placed, the defending player gains nothing by concealment and requires none.
12.5a Concealed Assignment
The liberating player assigns their Vox to each declared target concealed — the amount assigned to each target is hidden from the defending player until reveal (§12.6). The liberating player's total available Vox is public, since Activated cards are face up; only the distribution is hidden.
Assignments are made simultaneously for all declared targets and may not be altered once made.
Any component that records a concealed numeric value per target may be used.
Exception — Confluence. A player who declared Confluence (§12.3, §18.48) assigns their Vox publicly instead, revealing every value at the moment of assignment.
12.5b Allocation Limits
The liberating player must commit at least 1 Vox to every declared target. A player may not declare a target and then ignore it.
The liberating player may not commit more Vox in total than is in their Resource Pool.
The defending player has no minimum and may allocate all, some, or none of their Vox across the declared targets in any distribution.
Unspent Vox is lost at the end of the phase and confers no benefit.
12.5c Defensive Allocation
After the liberating player's assignments are complete and concealed, the defending player allocates their Vox openly, placing counters of their color directly onto the declared targets. The defending player may not place counters on any permanent that was not declared.
12.6 Step 5 --- Reveal and Cancellation#
All concealed assignments are revealed simultaneously. A player who declared Confluence has already revealed theirs; nothing further is revealed at this step.
Sum check. Because the liberating player's Activated cards are public, their total available Vox is known to both players. The revealed values must sum to no more than that total. Any set of revealed values failing this check is illegal and must be corrected before resolution.
On each declared target, counters cancel one for one. Defensive counters in excess of the liberating counters on that target are discarded and have no further effect — they do not persist, and they do not pre-shield the permanent against future Liberations.
Surviving liberating counters remain on the target as Liberation counters and persist across turns — except on Characters, where they are converted to CP loss at resolution and never persist (§12.8).
Fast Maneuvers may be played at this point, active player first.
12.7 Step 6 — Payment
The liberating player pays 1 Currency for each of their own Vox points that was cancelled. Points that landed are free; points that were stopped are paid for.
If the liberating player cannot pay the full amount, they pay as much as their Treasury allows and their Treasury is reduced to zero. Counters that landed still land — an unpayable cost does not void the Liberation. A player who begins their turn with an empty Treasury awards their opponent a Story Point (§10.1a).
The defending player pays nothing. Their cost was paid a turn earlier, in the tempo of holding cards ready rather than attacking or liberating with them.
12.8 Step 7 — Resolution
Resolution differs by target type.
Characters (Rank X). Each surviving Liberation counter on a Character removes 1 CP from that Character. The counters are then removed; they never persist on a Character. If the Character's CP reaches zero or less, it is destroyed under §7.3 — flipping to its Fallen face, or to the Depleted Pile if already Fallen.
CP removed by Liberation is not damage. Effects that prevent, reduce, or redirect combat damage do not apply to it, and triggers keyed to a card receiving damage do not fire. Combat and Liberation both spend a Character's CP, but they are separate channels and are mitigated separately.
All other permanents (numeric Rank). If the number of Liberation counters on the permanent is equal to or greater than its Rank, and is at least 1, that permanent is destroyed. Follow the destruction rules in §11.7. Otherwise the counters remain and the campaign continues on a later turn.
The "at least 1" clause is absolute: a permanent of Rank 0 is never destroyed by a Liberation that placed no counters on it.
When a card flips for any reason, all Liberation counters on it are removed (§19.4).