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Hey guys, a couple of questions about the Lord of Deceit Warlord Trait in the SM codex. “After both players have deployed their armies” you get to pick 3 Phobos units and either redeploy them or you get the option of putting them into strategic reserves. And if you opt for reserves, then “any of those units may be placed into Strategic Reserves without having to spend any additional CPs, regardless of how many units are already in Strategic Reserves.”

My question is a little complicated I think, but might have a very simple answer.

According to the Chapter Approved setup instructions on pages 5-6, step 10 is “Declare Reserves and Transports”. In that step it specifies those two clauses that A) no more than 50% of the number of units can be in reserves, and also B) no more than 50% of points can be spent on units in reserves.

I’ve read previous discussions about things like Drop Pods, which seem to be exempt from the first clause but not the second, so you’re still bound by the second clause. I guess what might be different about Lord of Deceit is that it doesn’t happen during step 10, but either during or possibly after step 11 “Deploy Armies”. So, technically you followed all the limitations for step 10 when you declared reserves and even step 11 when you deployed, and then Lord of Deceit is more like putting units back into Strategic Reserves. So would this allow you to work around the 50% points limit?

A few extra thoughts:
The GSC strat “They Came From Below” allows you to get above 50%, confirmed in an FAQ which even gives the rationale that the limitation only applies during deployment. The tricky bit here is that TCFB is after the game has actually started, whereas LoD is still pre-game and probably still technically in step 11, but on the other hand it does clearly say that it happens after both players have deployed so I think there’s a genuine case that it also happens “after deployment” and would bypass the rule which is specifically for deployment / declaring reserves..?

The LoD trait itself does touch on an exemption, but I’m not sure whether the line “regardless of how many units are in strategic reserves” is in reference to allowing you to exceed the 50% ‘number of units’ rule, or if it’s still referring to the fact you don’t have to pay CPs even if you’ve already got a bunch already in SR. The latter would be odd though, since you don’t pay points based on number of units, but how many points are in reserves. So either way, the rule itself is worded a little oddly.

Thanks heaps guys, keen to hear people’s unpacking of it all.

Your ability activates after step 10, so the restrictions listed under step 10 are irrelevant.