Comrades,

This came up today in an epic game, we could not find a clear answer, and the FAQ/Tournament Rules do not address this specific instance.

Situation:

GR-75 Transport in play, Millennium Falcon overlaps the transport during a move (placed perpendicular to the transport).

1) "Small/Large Ship Overlapping a Huge Ship", directs us to the pg. 17 of the Core Rulebook, in addition, "...the player controlling the overlapping ship rolls one attack die and suffers any damage and critical damage rolled."

2) Core Rulebook pg 17, the MF is moved backward along the template until it no longer overlaps the transport, and bases placed in contact. MF skips its "Perform Action Step".

3) Transport moves along a perpendicular path, but does not clear the MF, ending the movement phase in contact with the MF.

A. Since the transport moved and contacted the MF after its movement step, is this considered OVERLAPPING?

B. If it is not considered OVERLAPPING, does the transport have to follow the bases in contact rule, "Ships whose bases are touching cannot declare each other as a target during the Combat phase."

C. If it isn't OVERLAPPING, how would you get to part B above since the combat restriction is described after the steps taken when two ships overlap?

D. The FAQ pg 4 reads as follows for OVERLAPPING ships, "Sometimes a round will end with two ships touching each other, parallel, and facing the same direction. If both ships are the same base size and execute the same unobstructed straight maneuver during the next round, the ships do not overlap each other and are not considered touching, even though they remain physically adjacent."

E. Obviously these bases are not the same size, nor are they parallel or executing the same maneuver, thus the above rule was given as a basis for how it would be handled if those conditions were met.

What is the best course of action to determine the outcome of this situation? (Rules references to support answers if any can be determined, otherwise a simple answer of a 'roll-off' can be given)

Its a confusing question because the recent FAQ update removed wording that clarified the matter somewhat. There was another recent topic discussing it here

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/106320-more-transport-questions/

Touching and overlapping are not the same thing, and the rules do seem to infer, both explicitly and semantically, that you can be touching without overlapping. That means in the scenario described above, both ships would still be in contact, and thus unable to fire at each other.

Thanks Forgottenlore, exactly the same scenario, however after reading that entire thread, the answer is still elusive.

What makes this situation different than two shuttles moving 0 or any other move in the same parallel direction, is the fact that huge ships destroy small/large ships if they overlap, and the section about bases in contact is under the Overlapping Other Ships section of the Core Rulebook. I'm not advocating for the destruction of the small/large ship, but the three possible outcomes in this situation are:

1) The MF is destoryed from an overlapping huge ship.

Or

2) Following the huge ship movement, they are no longer considered touching, thus the MF may target the huge ship and vice versa.

Or

3) Following the huge ship movement, the overlapping rules are ignored, however the bases in contact still remains, thus cannot target each other.

A. Since the transport moved and contacted the MF after its movement step, is this considered OVERLAPPING?

B. If it is not considered OVERLAPPING, does the transport have to follow the bases in contact rule, "Ships whose bases are touching cannot declare each other as a target during the Combat phase."

A. The Transport moved, and ended up being physically adjacent to the Millenium Falcon. They are not overlapping.

B. The two ships are physically adjacent to each other, but not overlapping. The Millenium Falcon will be able to fire at Range 1 into the Transport.

Ships are in contact with each other after one has overlapped the other and both then remain stationary (not quite true for the Shuttle's 0 move, which is not relevant for this example). If the Transport ever overlaps a small/large ship, then that small/large ship will be removed from play.

I'm leaning on the 3 interpretation, based on this from the Core, "As soon as either of these ships moves away (so that the bases are no problem longer touching), this combat restriction no longer applies.

The only questionable ruling at this point is what is written in the FAQ about ships in contact moving, that even though they are in contact, they are considered not in contact (obviously with a lot of specific wickets being met for that to happen).

I'm leaning on the 3 interpretation, based on this from the Core, "As soon as either of these ships moves away (so that the bases are no problem longer touching), this combat restriction no longer applies.

(I struck out a word that is not in the text of the rules.)

I believe this interpretation is correct, and the key is contained in the phrase "so that their bases are no longer touching". In the situation posed by the OP, the transport did NOT move far enough to clear the base of the Falcon, therefore the "so that their bases are no longer touching" clause does NOT apply. In this case, the transport did NOT overlap the Falcon, so no immediate destruction, but bases are still "touching" (in physical contact) so the Falcon could NOT target the transport during combat.

The thread that Forgottenlore referenced touched on this subject. Wording was removed from the current FAQ that made this situation clear - but the removal of that wording to "clarify" the Shuttle 0 maneuver has made it more difficult to resolve the situation described by the OP.

Even the previous wording in the FAQ wouldn't have helped much here. It just said that ships weren't touching if neither of them had overlapped that round... but in this case there had been an overlap. Now that language no longer exists anywhere in the rules, opening up the possibility of remaining touching longer with the correct maneuvering (eg the shuttle's stop).

A. Since the transport moved and contacted the MF after its movement step, is this considered OVERLAPPING?

B. If it is not considered OVERLAPPING, does the transport have to follow the bases in contact rule, "Ships whose bases are touching cannot declare each other as a target during the Combat phase."

C. If it isn't OVERLAPPING, how would you get to part B above since the combat restriction is described after the steps taken when two ships overlap?

D. The FAQ pg 4 reads as follows for OVERLAPPING ships, "Sometimes a round will end with two ships touching each other, parallel, and facing the same direction. If both ships are the same base size and execute the same unobstructed straight maneuver during the next round, the ships do not overlap each other and are not considered touching, even though they remain physically adjacent."

E. Obviously these bases are not the same size, nor are they parallel or executing the same maneuver, thus the above rule was given as a basis for how it would be handled if those conditions were met.

What is the best course of action to determine the outcome of this situation? (Rules references to support answers if any can be determined, otherwise a simple answer of a 'roll-off' can be given)

A: No. When you move perpendicular to the MF you can't ever overlap. I am of cause assuming that the front of the MF is touching the side of the Transport. But you are still touching the studs on the MF base, so the ships are touching.

B: Since the Transport doesn't have weapons, it can't attack the MF, So this question should probably be asked the other way around. And NO the MF can't shoot the Transport, because they are touching.

D: This ruling only affects similar sized ships touching back to front or side by side (and a bit offset, so one fire arc covers the other ship). Effectively this means that if a TIE Fighter bumped into the rear of an X-Wing, and both execute, say 4 straight next turn, the TIE Fighter gets to shoot the X-Wing even though the bases are actually touching.