The Rules Committee discussed this, so this is more than just my opinion. (But it's also not blue text, so it's not official. We will probably make it official if and when we start hearing reports of this question actually arising in games.)
Takket is mostly correct, although there are slight differences based on whether
Villagers is face-up or face-down (or not yet downloaded) at the time the attempt starts, and (as he noted) based on whether you have other responses to the start of the attempt that you try to run first.
Bottom line: Villagers will generally kill the Away Team, the download, and the attempt.
There MAY BE weird cases where a player can screw up, own himself, and miss his chance to Villagers-wipe a team. (Plus, you can avoid these weird cases simply by not getting cute. When opponent attempts a mission with fewer than three personnel, just Villagers it immediately and don't try to do other stuff first. This will always work.)
***
IF VILLAGERS IS FACE-DOWN (OR NOT YET ON THE TABLE):
You initiate the attempt by announcing it.
I get first response. I have Villagers, and should choose to use it immediately to avoid timing weirdness and self-ownage.
I flip Villagers (suspending play with
Q the Referee to download it if necessary).
As a
, the effect of Villagers is retroactive to the start of the action to which it is responding. All personnel are killed, and the mission attempt is not just cancelled, but fully undone.
Attempt is over before Prepare Landing Parties triggers.
***
IF VILLAGERS IS ALREADY FACE-UP:
You initiate the attempt by announcing it.
I get first response. Villagers is a required response, and I should choose to resolve it first in order to avoid timing weirdness and self-ownage. (Also, under current required response rules, you are
required to resolve it first.)
Villagers kills everyone in the Away Team. The mission attempt is not cancelled at this point (because this use of Villagers is not retroactive), so responses actually continue.
You get second response. You can now invoke Prepare Landing Party... but it will fail, because PLP requires you to target the "Away Team" that is participating in this mission attempt, and your Away Team no longer exists. PLP will fail for lack of target. So don't use it!
***
VILLAGERS IS FACE-UP BUT I TRY AND GET CUTE:
Same thing happens. I'm
required to do the Villagers response (and required to do it first), so I
can't get cute in an elaborate attempt to get more people killed by a dilemma (as in Takket's scenario), and I can't do anything else, either.
***
VILLAGERS IS FACE-DOWN BUT I TRY AND GET CUTE:
This one's fun, and we'd really rather everyone avoided it. It looks like this is what happens:
You initiate the attempt by announcing it.
I get first response. I have Villagers, and should choose to use it immediately to avoid timing weirdness and self-ownage. But I don't! I have some devious plan like the one Takket had in mind.
You get second response and trigger Prepare Landing Parties, downloading a new personnel to the Away Team.
I get third response. NOW I decide to flip Villagers (suspending play with
Q the Referee to download it if necessary).
As a
, the effect of Villagers is retroactive to the start of the action to which it is responding. The original two personnel are killed, and the mission attempt is not just cancelled, but fully undone. That means the Prepare Landing Party download is also undone. The downloaded personnel returns to the download source, which is shuffled.
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