Freedom in the Galaxy Rules Questions and Answers

A: Yes and yes. Captives are like "Companions".

Q: What if there is a group consisting of one character with a combat strength of zero, and that group is attacked? The rules say that an active group MUST consist of a character with a combat strength of at least one. Do we ignore all action cards involving combat, or just kill the character off?

A: This is a special case, isn't it? It is not reasonable to ignore combats or auto-kill such a character. Consider the character active, even though their combat rating is zero. Modify the character combat results so that the attacker can receive no wounds from the combat; this figure is a "Ghandi"-type who can only offer passive resistance or attempt to escape.

Q: While in the enemy reaction segment, can the enemy "group" a military unit with a character in the same environ before moving?

A: No, a character must already be in the same group with the military unit that reacts, in order to accompany them in the reaction move. This excludes characters who were busy going on missions the previous turn.

Q: When in the search phase, do you have the option not to search even if there are detected characters that you may search for?

A: Yes. But managing the empire is awfully tedious if you have to tell your troops to search over and over every turn. In practice, searches by military groups should be automatic, and the only searches that should be queried via a yes/no dialog are searches by character groups, where there is a risk of loss if the search is successful.

Q: Can Military Units attack Characters?
A: Only by "finding" them, which means during search phase, or due to the results of character mission actions.

Q: What does the Empire do when all her characters are dead?
A: Play using only military units, or resign and compose sad songs.

Q: When can players search for other players?
A: During search phase, if characters are in the same environ as detected enemy characters that are not stacked with enemy military units.

Q: Certain mission cards state that the player has been detected at the other player can search for them. Do we search immediately?
A: Yes, if you have unit(s) in that environ who can do the search. It may result in immediate character combat if the characters are "found". This is in addition to any results during subsequent search phases.

Q: Can creatures/irate locals attempt to capture characters, and if so what do they do with them?
A: No. Unlike in the wishful-thinking Empire Strikes Back film, if a creature gets the upper-hand in a combat, it eats the characters immediately, rather than keeping them alive in the pantry for later.