Turns, Cards & Health

Action economy, hand management, Hostile timing and wounds.

Turn sequence

Step	Resolve
Soldier turn begins	Flip every back to and roll for Environment.
Soldier Actions and activities	Act in any Soldier order; pay costs and respect printed timing. End when desired or when finished.
Reinforcements	Draw one Hostile card for each occupied Location and each Always Reinforce Location, unless Reinforce is None.
Hostiles attack	Each eligible Hostile attacks its targeted Soldier if in range, using its active-reticle chart column.
Hostiles close range	Unsuppressed Hostile cards out of range move one Location toward a valid firing range; read obstruction and special behavior.
Recover suppression	Remove one from each Hostile card.
Advance timer	Move the down one space. Moving past 1 ends the mission in failure.

Hostile movement occurs after attacks, so moving into range does not normally produce an additional attack in that same turn. Printed keywords can override the default sequence.

Paid Actions

An ordinary Action costs one Action counter: remove one Suppress, move, attack, reload, or discard and draw. Engaging in hand-to-hand can require more than one Action. A Weapon/Equipment/card may also specify its own paid action.

Only Player Soldiers and Non-Player Soldiers can Reload, and only Player Soldiers can Discard and Draw (Squad Soldiers never run out of Ammo).

Player Soldiers normally have two Actions. Non-Player and Squad Soldiers use their printed table, which may change with current Health. No Soldier can donate its Action counters to another.

If a Soldier has any Suppress counters, paid Actions must remove them before that Soldier performs other paid Actions. It may still play Action cards that require no Action. One Action removes one Suppress; clearing one of several does not unlock other paid Actions.

Free activities and printed costs

Playing Action cards, placing a Location, activating the Objective, passing Gear, Lightening the Load and paying Retain costs are activities with no default Action cost. Follow the specific card’s costs: “free activity” does not waive printed Actions, XP or discards.

Only Player Soldiers hold and play Action cards. Cards generally work during the Soldier turn, except reactions explicitly permitted at another time. During the Hostile turn you may only play cards, or use Weapons and Equipment, that say they work then.

Hand size and refilling

A Player Soldier’s normal Hand Size equals current Health. Spend an Action to discard any number of cards, then draw until that size. Drawing through other effects can take a hand above its size; excess cards need not be discarded merely for being excess. Taking Wounds likewise does not automatically discard existing cards.

Whenever you draw a Location Marker from the Action deck, immediately discard it and draw a Location card from the separate Location deck into that same hand. This applies to the initial draw as well as later draws.

Experience and upgunning

The Soldier inflicting the final EKIA on a Hostile card earns its printed XP value as counters (each star is 1 XP). Partial kills give no partial award. Resolving Events earns no XP.

Paying 1 XP to Upgun an Action or Skill uses the improved text in all brackets on that card. Any Soldier can contribute XP. A card referring to “you [any Soldier]” gains the wider recipient only when upgunned; it is not permission to share every unupgraded card effect.

Support and Retain

The Player Soldier playing a Support card pays its printed card-discard cost from its own hand. Other Player Soldiers cannot pay those discards. Once in play, follow its effect; Support does not inherit Soldier Skills or attack-enhancing Action cards unless expressly allowed.

At the end of the Soldier turn, either discard a Retain card or pay its printed XP Retain cost. Any Soldier can contribute XP. Retaining keeps the existing card in play without paying the original play discards again. Cards without Retain cannot simply be kept for another use.

Reinforcements and targets

For each eligible Location, compare the one drawn card’s printed value with its Reinforce values. Matching card: add it and resolve placement/targeting. Nonmatching card: discard it; do not keep drawing until something matches. Reinforce None means no draw.

A Hostile generally keeps its assigned targeted Soldier until the Hostile or Soldier is eliminated. Multiple Hostiles can target one Soldier. When a Soldier is Downed, remove that Soldier’s targeting counters and redraw targets for affected Hostiles. Return a destroyed Hostile’s targeting counter to the cup.

Some Hostiles generate additional reinforcements through their own keyword. Resolve that card separately from occupied-Location checks. A new reinforcing Hostile created by another Hostile’s Reinforce ability does not itself draw a reinforcement on the same turn it entered. A non-attacking support Hostile, such as the Universal’s Large Truck example, must be in range of its targeted Soldier to apply its ranged effect; otherwise it closes range. Full suppression normally disables these active effects unless the keyword says it persists.

Wounds and healing

Each point of Wounds reduces Health by one. Keep each wound received as its own counter; two wounds from different attacks are separate treatment opportunities.

Before a mid-mission heal, declare one untreated wound counter. Apply the Equipment/card’s roll and healing amount. Full healing removes the counter. Partial healing replaces it with a Treated Wound counter of the remaining value. That remainder cannot be treated, reduced or removed again during this mission; unused healing does not spill into another wound.

An explicit Restore effect in the current Keyword Reference is a separate exception: it can affect treated Wounds and Soldiers at or below zero Health as specified. Ordinary healing cannot be treated as Restore merely because more healing points are available.

Downed and removed Soldiers

At Health 0 or below, a Soldier is Downed and cannot resume the mission through ordinary healing. Remove its map counter and discard its hand. Its Weapons, Equipment and Ammo remain in the Location for legal recovery by other Soldiers.

During the Soldier turn you may voluntarily Remove a Soldier at Health 1 or 2, except where a mission forbids it. Recalculate team Resource value whenever a Soldier is Downed or Removed. Follow campaign instructions for the Soldier’s later fate; that fate roll has no tactical effect on a completed standalone mission.

Sources

Universal Rulebook, pp. 28–33, 36, 41, 45–49; Modern New Recruit Manual, pp. 14–23.