Okay, I am completely baffled by this. Is EH a free action? Can I roll with EH and then boost?

Expert Handling is an action (it has the "Action:" text) that lets you take a free barrel roll action. The Expert Handling action is your action for the round, so you couldn't also Boost.

A free action is an action you can perform in addition to the normal one. Squad leader, Lando, Cracken, PTL and other abilities give you a free action.

Expert handling starts with the header "Action:"

To perform it, you must spend an action. When you do that, EH allows you to do three things: Perform a free barrel roll action, receive stress and remove a TL.

If you are performing the expert handling action during your perform action step, then that is your action, you do the things the card says and you are done.

If, however, you have some way to take additional actions, like one of the examples dvor mentioned, then you could expert handle for one action and boost for your second action. But in order to do that you have to be getting an extra action from somewhere.

Also worth noting, you perform the expert handling action, which requires you to perform a barrel roll ACTION. If you do that and then for some reason are allowed to perform an additional action you cannot barrel roll again, because you can only perform a given action once a turn and you already performed a barrel roll action as part of the expert handling action.

Also note, that if you EH first, you will be stressed and so can't be passed another action by Lando etc. You can be given a Focus or TL by the likes of Garven or Dutch as you are not performing an action in those cases.

Oops. My bad I don't often use EH and didn't realize it caused a stress. Yeah, that pretty much prevents you from taking free cations after using it.

EH only gives stress if the ship using it doesn't have barrel roll in it's action bar. So a B-wing f.ex. could EH and still get to do free actions.

Ah, there's my confusion. The few times I use it, it is always on a BR capable ship.

Ah, there's my confusion. The few times I use it, it is always on a BR capable ship.

It's substantially more valuable to give a ship a stressful Barrel-Roll action, then to simply break a target lock.

Try it out on a Firespray or a Falcon at some point. Or even on Luke + R2-D2.

Expert Handling is an action (it has the "Action:" text) that lets you take a free barrel roll action. The Expert Handling action is your action for the round, so you couldn't also Boost.

The FAQ says its a FREE action, so you may boost during normal action time, then barrel roll using the card, if you have the barrel roll action/no stress taken, if you dont have barrel roll/take a stress, remove a target lock for both. If you cant take a barrel roll(obstacles or boxed in) you may take another action instead( also in FAQ)

EH is NOT a free action. The barrel roll it grants you is a free action, but you never even get to that part of it if you are not able to perform the EH action in the first place. So no, you can not do an other action as your standard action and then EH without being granted a free action from an other source.

Old Adept,

Please look at the card (as it is presented in the FAQ),

It clearly states: Action:

If you cant take a barrel roll(obstacles or boxed in) you may take another action instead( also in FAQ)

Expert handling is not going to let you take a different action if the BR is blocked. The FAQ for barrel rolls us explaining that if you can't make the roll you can choose to do something else that you are normally allowed to do at that time, when you are in the middle of executing the expert handling action, the only thing you are allowed to do at that time us the free BR granted by the card. If you can't do that you don't get a different action.

Someone else will have to pipe in on whether or not you still get the stress and remove the lock, I don't have the card handy to check whether the roll is part of a cost or part if the effect of the card.

Based on this post someone reading this would have no clue what the rule is. I think it is time for some better clarification from fantasy flight with an updated rulebook.

If you cant take a barrel roll(obstacles or boxed in) you may take another action instead( also in FAQ)

Expert handling is not going to let you take a different action if the BR is blocked. The FAQ for barrel rolls us explaining that if you can't make the roll you can choose to do something else that you are normally allowed to do at that time, when you are in the middle of executing the expert handling action, the only thing you are allowed to do at that time us the free BR granted by the card. If you can't do that you don't get a different action.

Someone else will have to pipe in on whether or not you still get the stress and remove the lock, I don't have the card handy to check whether the roll is part of a cost or part if the effect of the card.

Old Adept is referencing the FAQ entry for EH, which states that "If a ship attempts to perform an Expert Handling action, but cannot perform a barrel roll, the ship may perform a different action instead."

Ok, I see where the confusion us coming from.

I took his statement as "if you can't perform the BR, you may perform a different action as part of the expert handling action", so perform a focus action, possibly gain stress then shed a target lock. That's what I thought he was saying.

What the FAQ is actually saying is, and I assume is what he meant, if you can't perform the barrel roll EH requires, you stop the whole EH action and do something else instead.

My bad.

Hi. Still relatively new here. Also confused with this.

Let's say I have this on a B-wing who has the barrel roll icon.

The card says "free barrel roll." So I can use expert handling to barrel roll and then Target Lock or Focus?

I understand the ACTION: part being the action for the round, but why does it say "free barrel roll" if you have to spend your action to do it? It doesn't seem so free then.

Also, what would be the point of this if your ship can do a barrel roll already? Just to clear the Target Lock?

The card says "free barrel roll." So I can use expert handling to barrel roll and then Target Lock or Focus?

No, because the action your taking is Expert Handling. Part of the effect of that action is preforming a free Barrel Roll action, the other part of it is you can remove any enemy TL token someone has put on your ship.

On a B-Wing the only reason you'd use the EH action is if you wanted to remove the TL. It's also useful on ships that can't barrel roll already, like a X-Wing.

but why does it say "free barrel roll" if you have to spend your action to do it? It doesn't seem so free then.

Again you spent your action to take the Expert Handling action. When it first came out it said preform a barrel roll, which meant it wasn't an action. So a ship could in theory barrel roll twice, once as an action and once because of EH.

The card says "free barrel roll." So I can use expert handling to barrel roll and then Target Lock or Focus?

No, Expert Handling is your chosen action for the round. Unless you have another way of getting an action, all you do is what the EH card states.

I understand the ACTION: part being the action for the round, but why does it say "free barrel roll" if you have to spend your action to do it? It doesn't seem so free then.

Yeah, the "free" part often trips up newer players. If you get a "free action" from somewhere, it just means it is in addition to the "perform action" step after you do your maneuver. Except in this case, your regular action is used on the EH card itself. I understand your confusion.

Basically it works like this, you get to do a barrel roll action, and remove a target lock from your ship. If you don't have the barrel roll action in your action bar, you also get a stress.

Also, what would be the point of this if your ship can do a barrel roll already? Just to clear the Target Lock?
Yes. As noted previously, you might consider it putting it on a ship that can't barrel roll natively, to get a little more value out of it.

Also of note, the text on this card was errata'ed in the FAQ to specify that you're performing a barrel roll action, meaning that if you get another action from somewhere else, this action cannot also be a barrel roll, since you are not allowed to perform the same action twice in a round.

I had this same question some time ago and asked the FFG rules gurus for their interpretation. Here's what they said.

In response to your question:
Rule Question:
Expert Handling: Does use of the Expert Handling card give you an additional action (the free barrel roll) on top of your Perform Action step action, or is it considered your sole action for your Perform Action step?

Using a card with the "Action:” header requires an action, such as the action you have during the Perform Action step. For example, if you had Luke Skywalker equipped with Expert Handling, during his Perform Action step he can either use the Expert Handling action (which results with him performing a barrel roll), perform a focus action, or perform an acquire a target lock action.

The errata to include the word “free” was because rules as written, Expert Handling would require you to somehow have 2 actions; 1 to perform the Expert Handling action and 1 to perform a barrel roll. By including the words “free action” allowed a ship to use the card as intended.

Hope that helped and thanks for playing,

Frank Brooks
Associate Creative Content Developer
Fantasy Flight Games

The use of the word free also helps to apply it to a ship that can't normally barrel roll, as in Frank's example.