I've been playing Sentinels for a few months now and loving it! My gaming group doesn't get together very frequently so I mostly play solo and don't have anyone to bounce rules queries off very often.
With Bunker's turret mode. Does the prohibition against playing/drawing cards only apply to his play/draw phases? What if he uses Initialise in his power phase or another hero let's him play/draw a card out of his usual turn? Does turret mode override all these or do these override turret mode?
The other one I've pondered is DW Mr Fixer's bitter strike. The two sentences on the power are separate and one doesn't seem to key off of the other. What happens if the power is used and there are no ongoing/equipment cards in play? The way it's written you resolve the damage first and the destroy second, so don't check if there is anything there to destroy before he punches, but that seems to go against the flavour of the power.
Thanks and sorry if these have been answered before - there a lot of post history here!
Bunker's Mode restrictions on doing stuff apply to everything, not just the phases - if something is restricting you from doing something only in a certain phase, it will say so - for example, Unity's bots specify that they "cannot be played during your Play phase", meaning that if it's someone else's Play phase (or any other phase), you're absolutely allowed to put out a bot. The only way Bunker can perform an action which gets around a Mode card is via Ammo Drop, which explicitly says that you can ignore the "cannot draw cards" part of your Modes when it goes off. One phrase which came up a while back on the forum somewhere (spoken Christopher himself, I believe), is that "Cannot trumps can".
Note that Bunker can get around his Mode restrictions via something like Omni-10's Timeshift, as this has you reveal a card, and then put it into play (or into the trash), which isn't the same as playing a card.
For the case of Darkwatch Fixer, you're right about them being separate - if he needed to destroy something in order to hit something, the power would be phrased along the lines of "Destroy one hero ongoing/equipment card. If you do, deal one target 3 melée damage". As it is, first you hit something, then you check to see if there are any hero ongoing/equipment cards in play, and if so, you must destroy one of them. If there are none, then yay, you got to hit something for free :)/ This power combos well with Bloody Knuckles since you can hit something for +2 damage and then immediately destroy Bloody Knuckles (and avoid getting hit for +2 damage in any subsequent turns).
Having two separate, unconnected parts of a power can also be seen with examples like the Wraith's Stun Bolts (you can nerf a target's damage even if it has soak preventing you from actually hurting it with the Stun Bolt) and Nightmist's base power, Investigate (you can draw two cards even if unable to hurt yourself for whatever reason).
Cannot overrides can. So for Bunker the playing/drawing prohibition is in force unless there is a specific phrase allowing it as an exception. The main exception being the text of the Ammo Drop card. There is also text on cards that say "reveal and put into play" (such as Omnitron-X's default power) that I believe would allow Bunker to get another card into play while Turret Mode is in operation.
For Fixer it has been previously discussed that equipment does not *have* to be present in order for Bitter Strike to be used.
Turret Mode means Bunker can't draw cards, even out of turn. He could use Initialise, but it wouldn't allow him to draw a card. Ammo Drop is an exception since you can draw from its effect even if a Mode says you can't draw.
Stuff like this is carefully worded - contrast with Unity's Bots which say they cannot be played during Unity's play phase. This means they CAN be played at any other time, if someone lets Unity play out of turn for example. If Modes were meant to prevent only playing/drawing/power use during that part of Bunker's turn they'd be worded in the same way - such as "Bunker may not draw cards during his draw phase".
Similarly, an effect that says heroes can't use powers, means heroes can't use powers period.
Oh and welcome! If you have a microphone and a G+ account you're most welcome to join in the regular games some of us play over there, if you're tired of solo play!
Thanks guys, looks like I owe the Chairman a rematch then, Bunker didn't legally help me beat him yesterday! Bloody Knuckles worked nicely tho. DW Fixer is certainly a heavy hitter than his regular counterpart.
The G+ stuff sounds interesting! I wish to know more!