by MunchWolf
For question two, from the rules:Influence priority: At the end of the Combat Phase, if several
Allies are in a hex where an Influence Disc can be placed,
the player who entered the hex first has the first priority to
place the disc; if he doesn't want to, the player who entered
next may place the disc, and so on.
My interpretation, I would stress "At the end of the Combat Phase, if several Allies are in a hex where an Influence Disc can be placed" ... in the case of one player losing all his ships, then he is not in a hex at the end of Combat Phase, therefore he cannot influence.