Living Rules Reference · v2.0
31
Destroyed
Various game effects can cause a unit to be destroyed. When a player’s unit is destroyed, it is removed from the game board and returned to their reinforcements.
When a player assigns hits that were produced against their units, that player chooses a number of their units to be destroyed equal to the number of hits produced against those units.
If a player’s unit is removed from the board by a game effect, it is not treated as being destroyed; effects that trigger when a unit is destroyed are not triggered.
Source: Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition — Living Rules Reference v2.0 (September 22, 2020), page 16. Rules text reproduced verbatim; the rulebook’s diagrams are omitted.