S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game · Board game rules
When do I draw Enemy activation cards?
Quick answer
You draw an Enemy Activation card during the Enemy Activation step of the Enemies & Zone Phase, and occasionally as part of specific Actions or token effects (like Decoy or Unknown Enemy tokens).
Details
The main, guaranteed trigger is the Enemy Activation step, the first step of the Enemies & Zone Phase each Round. If there is at least 1 High Attention token anywhere on the Map, you draw a High Attention Enemy Activation card; otherwise, you draw a Low Attention Enemy Activation card [p.30 — Enemies & Zone Phase]. This step resolves before Radiation Exposure, token discarding, Attention reduction, and End of Round effects [p.30 — Enemies & Zone Phase].
Beyond this regular Round step, certain Actions and token resolutions also cause you to draw an Enemy Activation card outside the normal Phase order:
- Decoy Action: After placing your Decoy token, if there are Enemies on the chosen space or adjacent spaces, you draw an Enemy Activation card and resolve it, but only Activate the Enemies on those spaces [p.20 — Actions].
- Unknown Enemy token resolution: If you flip an Unknown Enemy token and there aren't enough standees in the Enemy pool to place at least one, you draw an Enemy Activation card instead (High Attention type if at least one High Attention token is on the Map, otherwise Low Attention type), and resolve it — but only Activate the one Enemy of the matching color closest to the resolved token [p.17 — Unknown Enemy].
Watch out: When an Enemy Activation card is drawn outside the normal Enemy Activation step (e.g., from Decoy or an Unknown Enemy token), you only resolve its steps for the specific Enemy/Enemies specified by that effect — and you skip the bottom step, since that is only resolved during the actual Enemy Activation step of the Enemies & Zone Phase [p.17 — Unknown Enemy].