If a ship has been destroyed (I.e. dealt sufficient damage cards) but has not yet been removed due to the Simultaneous Attack Rule, is it still a valid target to be attacked by other ships with the same pilot skill if they have a special ability triggered by making an attack (e.g. assault missile blast effect or Turr Phenir's free boost/barrel roll action).

I'd say yes it would be.

The ship is still there until after it has a chance to attack. Once it does that it's removed immediately.

But nothing says when it has to attack.

So lets say you have 4 PS4 ships, 2 Imp 2 Rebs and a Reb ship is destroyed, it's not removed until after it attacks, but both Imp ships would shoot before the Reb ships do, assuming they have Init. Then it's up to the Rebel player to decide which of his 2 PS4 ships get to shoot first.

So that destroyed ship could be there until after the other 2 ships have had a chance to shoot.

Vanor has it. So long as a ship is in play, it is a valid target. Generally, it won't be the best idea to keep hammering it - there won't be much advantage to doing so, compared to attacking a different ship. The most likely use will be pouring fire into a destroyed ship in hopes of scoring a crit which will inhibit its final attack.

Possibly also if it is the most likely ship against which you could score a hit with assault missiles

Vanor has it. So long as a ship is in play, it is a valid target. Generally, it won't be the best idea to keep hammering it - there won't be much advantage to doing so, compared to attacking a different ship. The most likely use will be pouring fire into a destroyed ship in hopes of scoring a crit which will inhibit its final attack.

Yep Buhalin has it here. The main reason you would do this - and I have seen it happen personally - is in hopes of landing a crit that prevents them from being able to simultaneous fire back before being removed, or even forced to fire back less effectively than they might otherwise.

The other possibility is that it's the only shot one of your ships has, and you figure you might as well take it, because why not. Although if the ship in question doesn't HAVE a shot at you, it might be considered more sporting to pass on it.

As a mental exercise, situations I can see that would potentially make the attack worthwhile:

- If the target has an ability that requires stress to use (e.g. Opportunist) anything that might give them stress (R3-A2, Kath, etc)

- Crits: Blinded Pilot, Injured Pilot (for those with offensive abilities, or a lingering support like Biggs or Howlrunner), Munitions Failure, Weapon Malfunction, Minor Hull Breach (in the same stress-related situations as above)

- Janson stripping tokens for a variety of reasons (focus/TL before attack, stripping a lock that would help Vessery)

- Assault Missiles

That's all I've got at the moment, although I'm probably missing some. Not a lot... and CW is right - if there's no benefit to it, rolling the dice just to pile damage on for the giggles is bad form.

Lets not forget Biggs. Not as common due to the number of PS5 Imps, but If Biggs is still hanging due to the Simultaneous attack rule, he's still considered a valid target and his ability is still in effect.

I find this funny because in the old Xwing & Tie fighter computer games the Corvette would do a slow death roll before exploding, all while still shooting at you. Where as fighters couldn't shoot, but you could still get hurt by their wreckage if it flew in your direction. :-)

Turr Phennir springs to mind getting the free boost or barrel roll after the attack.