I do not have time to pull all the passages into one post and make a ruling. I have some fam stuff to take care of this weekend. If somebody would be kind enough I will read it all and make a ruling this weekend
A creature may spend a quick action to guard. Place a guard marker on the creature. A guard will try to protect its zone from enemy attacks.
Guarding has 2 benefits:
• Counterstrike: As long as the creature is guarding, all of its quick melee attacks gain the Counterstrike trait.
• Protect the Zone: If a creature is in a zone with one or more enemies with guard markers (except for guards
he can ignore; see sidebar), that creature cannot make a melee attack against any object without a guard marker.
Important: Spells and other ranged attacks always ignore guards! Also, a creature may always attack itself, or an object attached to itself, ignoring all guards.
Only melee attacks are affected. If a guard is not melee attacked, it may retain its guard marker until the start of its next Action Phase. Guard markers are always removed at the beginning of a creature’s Action Phase.
Note: Attacking a guard has no effect on the guard’s action marker. If an active creature is on guard, it will still be active after the attack. This may allow a creature to attack twice in the same round: once with the guard counterstrike, then later during its own Action Phase.