So with Eating a boats ability you can turn 1 hit into a crit.. With the HLC you turn all crits into a hit. Could this be a way to allow a HLC deal critical damage other than spending a TL to reroll a hit?

Yes, this works. There are others as well, IE Marksmanship, Mercenary Copilot.

I'd say so.

One the HLC has the word immediately on it, where as Etahn doesn't. So the HLC would convert a <crit> to a <hit> before you're allowed to do any other modifications.

Then in theory, the defender could make modifications if there are any.

Then Etahn allows you to turn one <hit> into a <crit>.

I was also pondering this earlier today. In fact, I almost started this same thread. In the end though, I decided that you could use Etahn to generate hits based on the following from the FAQ:

I was also pondering this earlier today. In fact, I almost started this same thread. In the end though, I decided that you could use Etahn to generate hits based on the following from the FAQ:

Q: If a player has multiple effects that resolve at the same

time, can he resolve them in any order?

A: Yes.

That plus the fact that other mechanisms (Target Lock rerolls, Marksmanship, ETC.) allow the HLC to led me to decide that it does work.

Except where the order is defined by the card. It has been FAQ'd that HLC happens first after rolling and doesn't affect any further modifications. Etahn is just a way of modifying the dice.

After an attack is performed using Heavy Laser Cannon

and all <crit> results are changed to <hit> results, the

attack dice can be modified as normal. Any attack dice

rerolled are not changed from <crit> results to

<hit> results.