Mornng chaps

Very new to X-Wing so forgive me if this has been asked before. I had a quick question on Target lock especially concerning Imperial ships. For ships that dont have Target lock listed in their action bar, which I notice in my current Imperial fleet of Tie fihgters Tie Interceptor and recently the Phantom there is no TL listed, am I right in saying that they can obtain the target lock action by having an upgrade card such as the "Fire Control System" card?

Are there other cards that give ships without TL in their Action Bar a Target Lock option?

Thanks in advance

Yes, that's correct. FCS allows you to acquire a target lock which is different from performing a target lock action. Both will yield the same result, which is a TL on the opponent.

The Targeting Computer modification is the card that adds the TL action to your action bar, and allows you to perfrom the action during your Perform Action step. Fire Ctrl System only allows a TL after an attack, and then it's only on the guy you just shot at.

Splendid many thanks Rick much appreciated. Do you lose the TL as being spent(As per the rulebook) if you attack the same guy again in the next combat phase? Reading the card again I take it that I can use the FCS card throughout the game?

Yep, FCS will grant you a TL on the defender every time you attack, but you can only maintain one TL at a time. The one exception is if you put Weapons Engineer on a ship, you can acquire another TL on another ship, as long as you still put one on the defender, for a total of two.

With Targeting Computer, the "defender only" restriction isn't there, so you can lock onto anyone in range.

Using FCS, you only lose the TL when you spend it to reroll your attack. If you don't attack, it stays in play for the next turn and following turns, until you spend it for a reroll. It's not like focus and evade tokens that are removed at the end of the turn. The fact that you've acquired it from FSC makes it no different to a TL acquired by performing an action.

I tend to fly my Phantom with Adv Cloaking Device and with Fire Ctrl System. They both kick in after the attack, so I get to shoot, re-acquire my TL and cloak all at once. It's great!

Excellent many thanks Rick. In other words the Phantom is a real bad ass if I get the upgrades right!!! Will try that one this afternoon.

Played against Whisper in a tourney on Sunday, and the damned Phantom literally ran rings around me. The upgrades must work together, to make it work. Throw Veteran Instincts onto Whisper with FCS and Adv Cloaking Dev, and then find a suitable crewman like Gunner or Recon Spec, and she's NASTY!

Tie Fighters and Interceptors cannot get Fire Control Systems because their ships do not allow systems upgrades. The icon for systems upgrades look like a radar dish. Tie PHantoms has this icon and thus can get a systems upgrade.

But any ship can get a modification like Targeting Computer to receive the ability to make target locks.

Yes of course Clayjar quite right the ship needs to have the correct upgrade available to allow a certain upgrade card. I should have made that clear in my original post, I was just making a general observation of my imperial fleet compared to the Alliance ships where TL is more widespread.

Thanks for all the input chaps very clear now. All the card variations can make ones head spin a bit at this stage in my X Wing adventure....LOL!!!!

Since fire control system is being discussed here I'd like to add a question about it. Can a ship with a stress token acquire a target lock through fire control system?

Yes. You can't perform the Target Lock action while stressed, but with FCS you're not actually performing a target lock action; you're just acquiring a target lock.

The same thing applies with other tokens. If Whisper attacks and hits, she'll get her Focus token even if she's stressed because the ability doesn't make her perform a Focus action, it just assigns her a token.