What happens when attacking with lower Might than a stunned defender, and how does target | Runesight
Jul 15, 2026
What happens when attacking with lower Might than a stunned defender, and how does target selection work with multiple defenders when one is stunned?
Answered under Unleashed Rules FAQ and Clarifications
A stunned unit does not contribute its Might to the sums used to determine how much damage each side assigns in the Combat Damage Step, but it still requires damage equal to its full (printed/current) Might to be killed. When assigning combat damage, the assigning player chooses how to distribute their total damage among the opponent's units subject to the usual ordering and “assign lethal first” rules; stunned status only affects contribution to the summed Might, not whether the unit can be assigned damage or how much is required to kill it.
Final Ruling
Stunned defenders count as 0 Might when you total the Defenders' Might for the Combat Damage Step, but they still must be assigned damage equal to their full Might to be killed. When assigning damage among multiple defenders, you follow the normal assignment rules (you assign an amount equal to your summed Might among the opponent's units, you must assign lethal damage to a unit in full before assigning to a different unit when possible, and you must obey any ordering requirements). Stun therefore can reduce the defenders' summed Might (changing how much damage the defenders assign), but it does not lower the lethal amount needed to kill the stunned unit itself.
Citing
01
Determine which units remain at the battlefield for combat and note stunned status.
02Sum the Might of attacking units (stunned or not) to get the Attacker's total Might .
03Sum the Might of defending units; stunned units contribute 0 to this sum even though they remain units on the board .
04Starting with the Attacker, assign damage equal to your summed Might among the opponent's units. Stunned units are legal recipients of assigned damage and still require damage equal to their full Might to be killed .
05When assigning, you must assign lethal damage to a unit in full before assigning to another unit when it is possible to do so, and you must obey any ordering requirements such as Tank or 'assign last' effects .
06You may assign non-lethal amounts to a unit only when you cannot assign lethal to any additional unit or when assignment rules permit remaining partial assignment under .
07After assignment, deal the assigned damage to each unit simultaneously .
If all defending units are stunned, the defenders' summed Might is 0 for the purpose of how much damage they assign back, but the attacker still assigns their full summed Might among the stunned units. The stunned units still need their full Might in damage to die .
If the attacker’s total damage is less than the full Might of any single defender and there exists another defender that could be assigned lethal damage, the attacker must assign lethal to that other defender first (you cannot split damage first among units such that no unit receives lethal if at least one could receive lethal) .
If the attacker has damage but there is only one defending unit (even if stunned) then the attacker assigns all their damage to that unit (they may assign less than lethal because there is no other unit to satisfy the 'assign lethal first' rule) .
Assumptions
No other game effects (Tank, special assignment-ordering abilities, prevention of damage, or replacement effects) are in play beyond standard stunned status and the normal Combat Damage Step rules.
This ruling is about Showdown/combat damage assignment only (i.e., the Combat Damage Step).
Stunned status changes only how a unit contributes to the Combat Damage Step sums, not how it is assigned damage or how much damage is required to kill it. Concretely, a Stunned Unit does not contribute its Might to damage in the combat damage step , so when you compute the defending side's summed Might that value treats stunned units as contributing 0. However, a stunned unit still must be assigned damage equal to its full Might to be killed . During the Combat Damage Step you first total Attackers' and Defenders' Might , then starting with the Attacker each player assigns damage equal to their summed Might among the other's units . When you assign that damage you must follow the assignment constraints: you must assign lethal damage to a unit in full before assigning damage to a different unit when that is possible , you cannot assign more than the minimum lethal amount to a unit unless no further units remain to receive assigned damage , and you must obey any specific ordering requirements such as Tank or 'assign last' if they exist . After assignment, the assigned amounts are dealt as damage simultaneously . Example: Attacker has 2 Might, Defenders are a stunned 3-M unit and a non-stunned 1-M unit. The defender-sum for their assignment is (0 for stunned) + 1 = 1, so defenders would assign 1 damage back. The attacker has 2 damage to assign; because a lethal assignment (1 damage) to the 1-M defender is possible, the attacker must assign lethal to that 1-M unit before assigning any damage to the 3-M stunned unit. So the attacker assigns 1 to the 1-M unit and the remaining 1 to the stunned 3-M unit. The stunned unit takes 1 and survives, since it still requires 3 to be killed .