This noob would like some clarification.
Expert handling begins with
Action: perform a free barrel roll action.
Is this a free action altogether and I can still use, target lock for example, or is the free barrel roll part of the greater whole of the action?
The barrel roll part of resolving EH is a free action, but activating EH requires you to spend an action. So unless you have some way of getting more than one action per turn EH is your one action and you will not be able to perform any others.
Thank you!
Exactly anytime you see the word ACTION in bold means your substituting one of your free actions in order to do the action stated on the card. Imagine the card being placed in your action bar if that helps, you can only do one of them. So if you have a target lock and a focus in your action bar imagine there being your card in amongst them. Also as was stated if you have the card push the limit it allows you to perform 2 actions however you can't do 2 of the same action. So you could perform the action that's on your card AND another action. Hope that's not too confusing.
Also, the reason they use "free" for the barrel roll part is so you can perform it even if the chosen ship normally wouldn't be able to, such as an X-Wing or Y-Wing.
Also, the reason they use "free" for the barrel roll part is so you can perform it even if the chosen ship normally wouldn't be able to, such as an X-Wing or Y-Wing.
No, that has nothing to do with it. It's a free action because it doesn't use up your one action per turn. If a rule says "perform a barrel roll action" it doesn't matter if you have it on your action bar or not.
Also, the reason they use "free" for the barrel roll part is so you can perform it even if the chosen ship normally wouldn't be able to, such as an X-Wing or Y-Wing.
No, that has nothing to do with it. It's a free action because it doesn't use up your one action per turn. If a rule says "perform a barrel roll action" it doesn't matter if you have it on your action bar or not.
This one has puzzled people in my group too. Why, then, does it say 'free action'?
Because if it wasnt a free action, then only darth vader would be able to use it since he is the only pilot who can do 2 actions per turn.
someone somewhere somehow someplace had a good article explaining why the term "free action" is ambiguous and ill-conducive to good rule keeping.
but for clarification purposes, what the others said is pretty good.
No, that has nothing to do with it. It's a free action because it doesn't use up your one action per turn. If a rule says "perform a barrel roll action" it doesn't matter if you have it on your action bar or not.Also, the reason they use "free" for the barrel roll part is so you can perform it even if the chosen ship normally wouldn't be able to, such as an X-Wing or Y-Wing.
This one has puzzled people in my group too. Why, then, does it say 'free action'?
As far as I'm aware, free action simply means that it's not the regular action you receive during the activation phase. Perhaps FFG felt people would be confused if they didn't use some word to differentiate between your regular action and additional ones that can occur during other phases.
Edited by WonderWAAAGHIs it simply because the card says 'Action:[...]' and laying it out as 'Action: perform a barrel roll action' could be confusing with the use of two actions on the card?
A tiny bit off topic but staring at the wording of EH and PTL. Because of the "perform a free barrel action." of EH and the "after you perform an action..." of PTL. Has me reading that the stress of EH would proc after PTL's action and stress. (double stressed). Anyone else reading it the same way? Although I'm not sure of any situation where the double stress and points of both can be beneficial.
A tiny bit off topic but staring at the wording of EH and PTL. Because of the "perform a free barrel action." of EH and the "after you perform an action..." of PTL. Has me reading that the stress of EH would proc after PTL's action and stress. (double stressed). Anyone else reading it the same way? Although I'm not sure of any situation where the double stress and points of both can be beneficial.
Actually, Push the Limit says you may perform an action "shown in your action bar". Since Expert Handling and Daredevil (the other stress action) are upgrades, and not on your action bar, you can't use them after triggering PtL. You would have to do one of them first, and then trigger PtL to do a regular action. But normally, you'd take a stress from EH or Daredevil and then be unable to perform further actions. Seems the designers thought this through and wanted to prevent it for whatever reason.
Side note: You can't use Push the Limit to flip a Console Fire or similar crit face down, either. You can do it first, though.
Edit: In case you meant triggering Push the Limit off the barrel roll during an Expert Handeling action, receiving the stress token seems to be part of executing the barrel roll.
Edited by RithrinIs it simply because the card says 'Action:[...]' and laying it out as 'Action: perform a barrel roll action' could be confusing with the use of two actions on the card?
There are more then a few cases where you mechanically speaking perform an action, such as Dutch's ability, without technically speaking performing an action. Thus you can do it while stressed and it doesn't count against the once per turn rule.
Expert Handling originally just said perform a Barrel Roll. Because it did not call it an action the argument was you could, with Vader, Barrel Roll as your action then with your second Expert Handling "barrel roll". By calling it a Barrel Roll free action they closed that loophole.
A tiny bit off topic but staring at the wording of EH and PTL. Because of the "perform a free barrel action." of EH and the "after you perform an action..." of PTL. Has me reading that the stress of EH would proc after PTL's action and stress. (double stressed). Anyone else reading it the same way? Although I'm not sure of any situation where the double stress and points of both can be beneficial.
This is wrong. PTL gives you a free action after completing an action, EH gives you an stress token as part of completing the EH action. If you use EH on a ship that does not already have the barrel roll action you will recieve a stress token before activating PTL, and will be unable to perform the free action because you are already stressed (unless you're Tycho, in which case you don't care about any of this).
Is it simply because the card says 'Action:[...]' and laying it out as 'Action: perform a barrel roll action' could be confusing with the use of two actions on the card?
There are more then a few cases where you mechanically speaking perform an action, such as Dutch's ability, without technically speaking performing an action. Thus you can do it while stressed and it doesn't count against the once per turn rule.
Expert Handling originally just said perform a Barrel Roll. Because it did not call it an action the argument was you could, with Vader, Barrel Roll as your action then with your second Expert Handling "barrel roll". By calling it a Barrel Roll free action they closed that loophole.
Yes! thats what I was trying to get at albeit in a very bad way, the way it's stated does count as an actual action as well as meaning there is no confusion over being and action after being told the card uses an action.
Basicly what you said makes a lot more sense than what I was badly rambling on about 
A tiny bit off topic but staring at the wording of EH and PTL. Because of the "perform a free barrel action." of EH and the "after you perform an action..." of PTL. Has me reading that the stress of EH would proc after PTL's action and stress. (double stressed). Anyone else reading it the same way? Although I'm not sure of any situation where the double stress and points of both can be beneficial.
This is wrong. PTL gives you a free action after completing an action, EH gives you an stress token as part of completing the EH action. If you use EH on a ship that does not already have the barrel roll action you will recieve a stress token before activating PTL, and will be unable to perform the free action because you are already stressed (unless you're Tycho, in which case you don't care about any of this).
Figured it would be.
But was wondering if anyone else read it similar.
Because the "Action within an Action" plus the "Full Stop." contained in the wording of EH has me reading that PTL would come into effect before the conclusion of EH (the stress and TL evasion portions).
Expert Handling: "Action: Perform a free barrel roll action. If you do not have the Barrel Roll action icon, receive 1 stress token.
You may then remove 1 enemy target lock from your ship."
Anyways is there a version of the EH card with the updated Text anywhere? If so I cannot seem to find it.. 
Is it simply because the card says 'Action:[...]' and laying it out as 'Action: perform a barrel roll action' could be confusing with the use of two actions on the card?
There are more then a few cases where you mechanically speaking perform an action, such as Dutch's ability, without technically speaking performing an action. Thus you can do it while stressed and it doesn't count against the once per turn rule.
Expert Handling originally just said perform a Barrel Roll. Because it did not call it an action the argument was you could, with Vader, Barrel Roll as your action then with your second Expert Handling "barrel roll". By calling it a Barrel Roll free action they closed that loophole.
Yes! thats what I was trying to get at albeit in a very bad way, the way it's stated does count as an actual action as well as meaning there is no confusion over being and action after being told the card uses an action.
Basicly what you said makes a lot more sense than what I was badly rambling on about
Although, the FAQ does clarify that there is a difference between "acquire a target lock" and the acquire a target lock action:
"Acquiring A Target lock
When an ability instructs you to acquire a target lock, this is different than
performing an ‘acquire a target lock’ action. It is possible to acquire a target lock
while stressed, and a ship can acquire a target lock multiple times during the
same round. A ship can only perform one ‘acquire a target lock’ action per round."
Presumably, this is why they didn't need to specify "free" in Dutch's text, but do need to for all the other actions.
A tiny bit off topic but staring at the wording of EH and PTL. Because of the "perform a free barrel action." of EH and the "after you perform an action..." of PTL. Has me reading that the stress of EH would proc after PTL's action and stress. (double stressed). Anyone else reading it the same way? Although I'm not sure of any situation where the double stress and points of both can be beneficial.
This is wrong. PTL gives you a free action after completing an action, EH gives you an stress token as part of completing the EH action. If you use EH on a ship that does not already have the barrel roll action you will recieve a stress token before activating PTL, and will be unable to perform the free action because you are already stressed (unless you're Tycho, in which case you don't care about any of this).
Figured it would be.
But was wondering if anyone else read it similar.
Because the "Action within an Action" plus the "Full Stop." contained in the wording of EH has me reading that PTL would come into effect before the conclusion of EH (the stress and TL evasion portions).
Expert Handling: "Action: Perform a free barrel roll action. If you do not have the Barrel Roll action icon, receive 1 stress token.
You may then remove 1 enemy target lock from your ship."
Anyways is there a version of the EH card with the updated Text anywhere? If so I cannot seem to find it..
You can find the whole card image in the X-Wing FAQ something like 5 pages in:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/faq/X-Wing-FAQ.pdf
It is quite simple:
"Acquiring" is different from "Performing"; a stressed ship is allowed to receive or rather "Acquire" a TL from Dutch or simply be assigned a Focus from Garven or Kyle but will be unable to "Perform (free) Actions" from Lando or Squad Leader (unless it's Tycho)
And besides: currently no ship is able to have 2 EPT so the examples that includes the combined/chained use of PtL and EH isn't possible (until the new A-Wing upgrades comes out with Rebel Aces
Also, the reason they use "free" for the barrel roll part is so you can perform it even if the chosen ship normally wouldn't be able to, such as an X-Wing or Y-Wing.
No, that has nothing to do with it. It's a free action because it doesn't use up your one action per turn. If a rule says "perform a barrel roll action" it doesn't matter if you have it on your action bar or not.
OK on reflection, that wasn't quite what I was aiming for, but in this instance you're wrong. The inclusion of "free" on the Expert Handling card 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.