When races are defeated, do the tokens all go back to the tray for redraw (if power allows)?

Question

As an example, take the Pygmies. "Each time you lose a Pygmy token, roll a reinforcement die and receive as many new Pygmies from storage tray as you rolled pips on the die (up to the number of Pygmies left)."

So if you lose a Pygmy, it goes back to the storage tray and then if you roll a 1 or more you can get it back?

Does this work that way for all races/powers? they always go back to the storage tray (unless another rule says otherwise) and are available for any power/gift that brings them back?

Answer 1

Yes. From the rules on conquering regions in the base game, on what to do if you have been conquered:

Permanently discard one Race token back into the Storage tray

And from the rules for Sorcerers, for example"

with one of your own taken from the storage tray.

Answer 2

When a territory containing a player's active race is conquered, one of the tokens goes back to the tray and that player gets back the rest of them.

That does mean that they could potentially come back via special powers. Of course, it doesn't really matter which of your tokens the special power gives you, and so if the race has plenty of extra tokens (like the Skeletons or Sorcerers), in practice it'll often be a moot point. It matters more for races like the Mudmen, which can easily run out of tokens.

For completeness, from the base game rules on conquering:

If Race tokens of another player occupied the Region prior to its conquest, that player must immediately take all of these Race tokens back in hand and:

• Permanently discard one Race token back into the Storage tray;
• Keep the other Race tokens in hand, and redeploy them in any other Region(s) still occupied by his race (if any) as the final action of the current player's turn.